Horror Step

Immerse yourself in Classic Weird Tales of Horror, Fantasy, and the Supernatural, Vol. 4, featuring three of H. P. Lovecraft's most chilling masterpieces: The Thing on the Door-Step, The Rats in the Walls, and The Colour out of Space. This haunting collection blends cosmic horror, psychological...

Listeners beware: In this startling world, desperate wishes have an unexpected cost, beautiful trinkets reveal appalling powers, and harmless pranks can go awry in ghastly ways.

Bloomsbury presents Scare B’n’B: Ghouls Just Wanna Have Fun by Catherine Doyle, read by Angus King 'Tis the season for SPOOKING as winter hits the haunted Tartarus Hotel in the hilarious follow-up to Catherine Doyle’s middle-grade romp Scare B’n’B. 'Scare B'n'B is Doyle at her funniest...

Сколько попаданцев кругом. И все, конечно, невольные. Никто не мечтал провалиться в черную нору и огрести приключений. Всех закинули без спроса. Хоть один из них оглянулся на оставленных родных?

"Jekzorcist. Shag vtoroj. Igra nachinaetsja" - fantasticheskaja povest' Pavla Korneva, zhanr geroicheskaja fantastika, boevoe fjentezi. Besy iz veka v vek rvutsja v dushi ljudej iz seroj bezdny, v kotoroj nikogda nichego ne proishodilo i nikogda nichego proishodit' ne budet...Jekzorcisty i jekzekutory molitvami i ognem spasajut dushi besnovatyh i izgonjajut nechistyh obratno v porodivshuju ih pustotu...Tak bylo s samogo sotvorenija mira i tak dolzhno bylo byt' do konca ego dnej.

The author of the first short story - "The Haunted Dolls' House" - is Montague Rhodes James, "master of terror and monstrous visions". "Cool Air" and "Azathoth" by Howard Phillips Lovecraft complete the collection. The atmosphere of horror and mystery is underlined by excellent performances by all actors and music.

R. E. Howard created Conan the Barbarian, Red Sonja, and Solomon Kane. Together with H. P. Lovecraft and others, R. E. Howard was one of the most prominent purveyors of the Cthulhu Mythos (the best-known contemporary author of this fictional mythology is Stephen King). "The Horror from the Mound" and "The Fearsome Touch of Death" are excellent even by today’s standards - and the stories are further highlighted by incredible vocal performances, stunning music, and superb graphics on the cover.

"The Music of Erich Zann" by H. P. Lovecraft: the author himself considered the story to be one of his masterpieces, and it is often deservedly included in various horror-story collections. The second short story was written by Bram Stoker. Indeed, THAT Stoker who wrote the epistolary novel "Dracula" - the very first novel that dealt with a vampire legend. "The Judge's House" (written in 1914) completes the collection, and its strongest point is building the atmosphere of fear, which is underlined by excellent voices and music.

The first short story - "The Tomb of Sara" - was written by English navy officer, and writer, Frederick George Loring. It was one of the very first stories from the last century featuring a lady vampire. The feminine element represents the connection with "Luella Miller" by Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman. The inhabitant of a haunted house sucks life out of everyone who gets interested in her - and the atmosphere gets denser throughout the story.

"Dracula's Guest" is one of the stories published only after Stoker's death, and even though Dracula is in the title, he will not make it into the story. Interestingly enough, Jonathan Harker, the actual guest - also does not appear. This short story is actually an original introduction to Dracula. It is a slightly altered version of a chapter of the novel that was discarded during preparations for print. The final story is "The Room in the Tower", by Edward Frederic Benson. Strange, unsettling atmosphere is present right from the beginning, and it intensifies via recurrent nightmares - right up to the shocking climax of the final scene.

"Beyond the Wall of Sleep" is a short story from 1919 based on the innovative (at that time) idea of using psychology for explaining real-life issues. Incidentally, a near namesake song ("Behind the Wall of Sleep") appeared on the debut album of Black Sabbath. The second story, "From Beyond" (written in 1920, published in 1934), hovers around the theme of a mad scientist willing to peek beyond reality. It inspired a few films, songs by death-metal bands, and it even features in the PC game, "Half-Life". The last story of the trio is "The Transition of Juan Romero", from 1919. The feature "character" is a mysterious evil encountered in an ancient ritual to the Mexican deity, Huitzilopochtli.

This audiobook features "The Tenant of the Cedars" by Mary Elizabeth Penn - a story about the vengeance of the dead. Little is known of the author other than the fact that she was published in magazines in the late Victorian era. On the other hand, Bram Stoker (author of the famed novel "Dracula") is a legend in the horror world. This collection features Stoker's short story, "A Dream of Red Hands". The theme is crime and punishment, seasoned with a hint of redemption.

Ghost stories by M. R. James are pretty varied, and based on the genre of Gothic novels. The plot of "Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad" is unveiled when Professor Parkins finds a whistle engraved with a Latin inscription... and blows it. "The School Story", builds a mystic and fearsome atmosphere around a mysterious Byzantine coin. Once again, well-chosen voices, superb music, and original cover-graphics serve to enhance the feel of the stories.

"The Outsider" is one of most often published short stories by H. P. Lovecraft, and it has proven to be very popular with both readers and listeners. Lovecraft himself thought that he came near to Poe's style in this story (the first paragraphs are an echo of "Berenice" by E. A. Poe, and the inspiration of "The Masque of Red Death" is also pretty clear). This short story is probably the most elaborate story by Lovecraft, with echoes of his gurus and multifaceted references. The atmosphere is emphasized by actors' performances, music, and the graphics on the cover.