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In Space No One Can Hear You Scream
Trade Paperback Halloween-themed science fiction anthology. Featuring a mix of classic science fiction reprints where the scary stuff happens in space.THE UNIVERSE MAY NOT BE A NICE NEIGHBORHOOD . . .“The oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown,” the grand master of horror, H.P. Lovecraft, once wrote. And the greatest unknown is the vast universe, shrouded in eternal cosmic night. What things might be on other planets—or in the dark gulfs between the stars?Giving very unsettling answers to that question are such writers as Arthur C. Clarke, George R. R. Martin, Theodore Sturgeon, Tony Daniel, Robert Sheckley, James. H. Schmitz, Clark Ashton Smith, Neal Asher, Sarah A. Hoyt, and more, all equally masters of science fiction and of terror.One might hope that in the void beyond the earth will be found friendly aliens, benevolent and possibly wiser than humanity, but don’t be surprised if other worlds have unpleasant surprises in store for future visitors. And in vacuum, no one will be able to hear your screams—as if it would do any good if they could . . .At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).
367 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 16, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
August 27, 2024
Ridley Scott’s 1979 film “Alien” was a brilliant mash-up of science fiction and horror, but while his film helped jumpstart a sub-genre of “scary space” films that littered video stores throughout the ‘80s, Scott wasn’t the first person to experiment with the genre mash-up.
Science fiction writers have been extrapolating about the future of space travel and populating other planets as early as 1752, when Voltaire published arguably the first science fiction novel ever, “Micromega”. I say “arguably” because humans have probably been telling stories about people from beyond the stars as long as there have been people telling stories.
The potential horrors lurking in the vast universe aren’t always palatable to hard sf fans. Certainly there are always dangers of space travel—-rogue planets, runaway asteroids, supernovae, warring alien civilizations—-but much of science fiction tends to deal with “clean” threats.
Scott’s “Alien”, John Carpenter’s “The Thing”, H.P. Lovecraft’s “Color Out Of Space”: these are messy and frightening science-fictional problems, anything but clean.
Editor Hank Davis has compiled a mixed bag of stories from various eras of sf that highlight how science fiction writers have tackled “cosmic horror”—-in its much wider definition of the term—-in his compilation “In Space No One Can Hear You Scream” (a direct nod to the movie tagline to Scott’s “Alien”).
The stories range from silly to downright creepy, but they are all fun in a hair-raising, goosebump-inducing way.
Some of my favorites:
****“A Walk in the Dark” by Arthur C. Clarke: First published in 1950, this early Clarke story is a straight-up horror story about a man whose space rover stalls on the way back to his habitat, and he is forced to hoof it back to base. At night. On a supposedly lifeless planet…
****“Mongoose” by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette: This 2009 story is a fun little actioner about an interplanetary pest-control agent and his weird pet that can detect a certain alien species that nibbles holes in time-space, which can attract other nasty creatures from other dimensions.
****“Nothing Happens On The Moon” by Paul Ernst: This story, from 1939, is a humorous tale of a bored watchman on the loneliest outpost in the universe, who must singlehandedly stop an alien threat from making its way to Earth…
****“Sandkings” by George R.R. Martin: “Game of Thrones” author Martin published a lot of sci-fi/ horror back in the day, and this is one from 1979. It’s about a guy who loves to collect alien pets, the more terrifying the better. His latest addition to his collection, though, may be his last…
I have to say, while some were definitely better than others, I thoroughly enjoyed them all. This may be a fun book to usher in the Halloween reading season.
Science fiction writers have been extrapolating about the future of space travel and populating other planets as early as 1752, when Voltaire published arguably the first science fiction novel ever, “Micromega”. I say “arguably” because humans have probably been telling stories about people from beyond the stars as long as there have been people telling stories.
The potential horrors lurking in the vast universe aren’t always palatable to hard sf fans. Certainly there are always dangers of space travel—-rogue planets, runaway asteroids, supernovae, warring alien civilizations—-but much of science fiction tends to deal with “clean” threats.
Scott’s “Alien”, John Carpenter’s “The Thing”, H.P. Lovecraft’s “Color Out Of Space”: these are messy and frightening science-fictional problems, anything but clean.
Editor Hank Davis has compiled a mixed bag of stories from various eras of sf that highlight how science fiction writers have tackled “cosmic horror”—-in its much wider definition of the term—-in his compilation “In Space No One Can Hear You Scream” (a direct nod to the movie tagline to Scott’s “Alien”).
The stories range from silly to downright creepy, but they are all fun in a hair-raising, goosebump-inducing way.
Some of my favorites:
****“A Walk in the Dark” by Arthur C. Clarke: First published in 1950, this early Clarke story is a straight-up horror story about a man whose space rover stalls on the way back to his habitat, and he is forced to hoof it back to base. At night. On a supposedly lifeless planet…
****“Mongoose” by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette: This 2009 story is a fun little actioner about an interplanetary pest-control agent and his weird pet that can detect a certain alien species that nibbles holes in time-space, which can attract other nasty creatures from other dimensions.
****“Nothing Happens On The Moon” by Paul Ernst: This story, from 1939, is a humorous tale of a bored watchman on the loneliest outpost in the universe, who must singlehandedly stop an alien threat from making its way to Earth…
****“Sandkings” by George R.R. Martin: “Game of Thrones” author Martin published a lot of sci-fi/ horror back in the day, and this is one from 1979. It’s about a guy who loves to collect alien pets, the more terrifying the better. His latest addition to his collection, though, may be his last…
I have to say, while some were definitely better than others, I thoroughly enjoyed them all. This may be a fun book to usher in the Halloween reading season.
May 5, 2014
A quite diverse collection of SF "horror" ranging from the pulps to fairly recent. A couple of gems, particularly G.R.R. Martin's "Sandkings", which used to be the work that always showed up in his about the author blurbs before "Game of Thrones". No real losers, all the stories here are worth the time to read them, if not always particularly horrific. A bit surprised "Who Goes There" didn't make the collection, but then, that's been reprinted a million times and it's nice to see some less well known stories. Not sure I agree with the horror tag on some of these, but they all come close enough.
August 15, 2024
Would have liked this more if the stories were actually scary
October 12, 2013
This book is not a novel but a collection of short stories edited by Hank Davis. It is a quite enjoyable book to read. The stories are rather varying, some of them are quite old, some are quite good and some are not so good. Some of them are good because they are good, others are good, or at least enjoyable to read, because of their age and the quaint way the future and space travel are described. One story describes faster than light travel as “standing still while the rotating universe travels around you” for instance.
As you might deduce from the title and the book blurb these are all horror stories. Some of them are perhaps not so much what we would call horror stories today but most of them are I would say. The foreword is almost a story in itself and quite nice reading. It is perhaps not the best book I have read but I found it quite enjoyable. It reminded me a bit about the old Hitchcock Presents or Twilight Zone episodes.
As you might deduce from the title and the book blurb these are all horror stories. Some of them are perhaps not so much what we would call horror stories today but most of them are I would say. The foreword is almost a story in itself and quite nice reading. It is perhaps not the best book I have read but I found it quite enjoyable. It reminded me a bit about the old Hitchcock Presents or Twilight Zone episodes.
October 4, 2016
Disclaimer: Mainly got this to read GRRM's Sandkings.
I think I liked this? I dunno if I did. Like, honestly, what the fuck, GRRM?
I've come to the conclusion that he's a creepy failed psychopath. He writes some seriously disturbing shit.
Basically about a dude who gets exotic pets to have them fight each other to death for entertainment. He escalates to having his pets kill people. But then in the end he dies? I think?
There's one part in particular where I said out loud, "Wow. What the fuck, Jar Jar Martin?"
And seriously, what the fuck?
I think I liked this? I dunno if I did. Like, honestly, what the fuck, GRRM?
I've come to the conclusion that he's a creepy failed psychopath. He writes some seriously disturbing shit.
Basically about a dude who gets exotic pets to have them fight each other to death for entertainment. He escalates to having his pets kill people. But then in the end he dies? I think?
There's one part in particular where I said out loud, "Wow. What the fuck, Jar Jar Martin?"
And seriously, what the fuck?
October 31, 2024
“A Walk in the Dark” by Arthur C. Clarke was quite creepy.
“Dragons” by Sarah A. Hoyt
“The Last Weapon” by Robert Sheckley
“Mongoose” by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette is a great story of a boy and his alien pet hunting snarks in a Boojum universe. Top notch.
“Medusa” by Theodore Sturgeon
“The Searcher” by James H. Schmitz
“The Rhine’s World Incident” by Neal Asher
“Nothing Happens on the Moon” by Paul Ernst
“Visiting Shadow” by Hank Davis
“Sandkings” by George R. R. Martin is a terrific tale.
November 14, 2018
I overall liked this, since even the stories that started out a little slow ended with me wanting more of the world they were in. The editor's note was entertaining, but played up the horror aspect a bit. They aren't necessarily all that scary. Some weren't horror so much as thriller. That's fine, though. They were still good. I especially liked A Walk In The Dark by Arthur C. Clarke, Mongoose by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette, and Visiting Shadow by the editor, Hank Davis. I only had any real issues with two:
An off-putting thing kept happening in the second story, Frog Water by Tony Daniel. Brand names kept getting thrown in with slight alterations, followed by "or something/whatever," seemingly unnecessarily. For Example:
It doesn't seem like much, but in a short story, when it pops up that frequently it's distracting. I thought maybe it was to avoid copyright, but then Play-Doh and Sponge Bob are straight up mentioned, so then I thought maybe it had to do with what a kid that age would remember since the narrorator is 11 and has been away from home for a year. Whatever the reason, it put me off and out of the story but even then, the setting was interesting and the ending was still enjoyable.
The only one I'm not really fond of at all was the last one, Sandkings by GRRM, because not only did it not really fit with the other stories to me, (he has a hover car and it's not set on earth but it's otherwise very mundane..?) the main character was fairly flat. He's just egotistical and cold blooded without anything added that makes him interesting. He doesn't feel or think about anything he does, really, and not in a "wow, look how cold and calculating this person is" sort of way, either. (This spoiler is not detailed as to exactly how things happen, but mentions the outcome.) Despite liking the little details of the end, he was just. so. boring. (This spoiler tag mentions other characters involved, but not anything about them.) It felt like it was more like it was added because of the author's name than anything.
An off-putting thing kept happening in the second story, Frog Water by Tony Daniel. Brand names kept getting thrown in with slight alterations, followed by "or something/whatever," seemingly unnecessarily. For Example:
"...some old mouthwash she found under the bathroom cabinet, Tangerine or Listerane or something, I can’t remember."
"We always got Something Springs Water, something like that."
"...in Pet Mart or whatever that place was called."
It doesn't seem like much, but in a short story, when it pops up that frequently it's distracting. I thought maybe it was to avoid copyright, but then Play-Doh and Sponge Bob are straight up mentioned, so then I thought maybe it had to do with what a kid that age would remember since the narrorator is 11 and has been away from home for a year. Whatever the reason, it put me off and out of the story but even then, the setting was interesting and the ending was still enjoyable.
The only one I'm not really fond of at all was the last one, Sandkings by GRRM, because not only did it not really fit with the other stories to me, (he has a hover car and it's not set on earth but it's otherwise very mundane..?) the main character was fairly flat. He's just egotistical and cold blooded without anything added that makes him interesting. He doesn't feel or think about anything he does, really, and not in a "wow, look how cold and calculating this person is" sort of way, either. (This spoiler is not detailed as to exactly how things happen, but mentions the outcome.) Despite liking the little details of the end, he was just. so. boring. (This spoiler tag mentions other characters involved, but not anything about them.) It felt like it was more like it was added because of the author's name than anything.
October 2, 2016
A fun collection of horror-slanted science fiction stories, some of them old familiar favourites and some of them new to me.
Not sure why the Goodreads description says Hallowe'en-themed as it's not nor is the H-word mentioned anywhere on or in the book. We'll chalk that up to somebody hired to write bookseller copy (the same description is in Amazon) with no genre-knowledge qualificiations whatsoever.
Not sure why the Goodreads description says Hallowe'en-themed as it's not nor is the H-word mentioned anywhere on or in the book. We'll chalk that up to somebody hired to write bookseller copy (the same description is in Amazon) with no genre-knowledge qualificiations whatsoever.
October 25, 2017
These veered a little more towards science fiction than I was expecting, leading me to be a bit discombobulated on most of the stories. Also most of them had a monster element which isn't usually what I gravitate towards when it comes to horror. "The Last Weapon" by Robert Sheckley stands out as my favorite.
October 15, 2015
I would say this book contained stories of various quality, but they were all good. It's just that the last story, "Sandkings" was really good. Not all of them are really horror stories but the first and last definitely fit the bill. A fun read.
December 30, 2013
Good collection of stories for those looking for a quick page turner in cosmic horror, but not wanting to go the Lovecraft route...
September 24, 2014
A solid collection of scifi/horror short stories. The George RR Martin one at the end was especially good.
September 15, 2015
A mediocre book of 'scary' scifi short stories.
May 11, 2016
Lots of fun, spooky stories!
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews