Predators

by Lawrence Watt-Evans (Contributor), J.N. Williamson (Contributor), Dean Koontz (Contributor)

Fear feeds on itself, growing in the darkness, squeezing your chest in a vise of breathless terror. Because a predator lies in wait. This compelling new collection from the editors of the bestselling Stalkers tells of worlds where evil waits and watches...and kills. Each story will send chills up your spine, keep you burning the lights all night, and have you looking over your shoulder—just in case the Predator is there. So lock your doors, check your windows, and get ready to savor fiction that touches the primeval places…where all your screams are born.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Anthologies, Short Stories, Suspense, Fantasy

384 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 1, 1993

About the author

Also publishes as Nathan Archer

Reviews

[Alison Sumprer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good anthology. As with most, there were hits and misses. Mind Slash Matter by Edward Ellen (more a novella than a short story) was utterly fantastic.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable collection of horror tales. I loved the opening story by Koontz, "Hardshell." There are other good ones by F. Paul Wilson, Billie Sue Mosiman, John Betancourt, and more.

[Sarah Ramsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Only liked a few of the stories.

[Jim · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found the stories here barely average overall, and often straining to fall under the category of a story of "Predators". Which is fine, but perhaps another title then.

I bought the book for one story, being a Rex Miller completist. His co-authored story was one of the better ones, which is to say it was just average itself.

Oh well.

[Janus Andersen]

Den her er så intenst 90er-agtig , at den næsten skulle have heddet Predatorz. Det er ikke et kompliment.

[Lisa Greer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow; this one is very good so far apart from a novella right in the middle. :) It is moving much faster for me than the Stephen King I am reading right now for almost a month. Sigh. These were all really good and the length is great. Not too long, just a few pages. These are some of the good ones so far:

"Rubber Smile"
"Slasher"
"Slit"
"Ecology of Reptiles"

And at least half the stories are truly good. I recommend this...

[Brinlee · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was super excited to read this book but after a few stories I had to throw my book away. Perhaps I’m not a horror fan is all but I found parts of this book to be very disturbing yet not scary. I was really thinking for some good thrillers but instead all I got was shock value. Besides being disturbing and somewhat of a trigger for me given I am a sexual assault survivor, some of the stories were terribly boring. This is probably one of the worst collection of short stories o have ever read.

[Amanda Rogers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Taken as a whole the book is pretty good. The stories range from the familiar (rapists and murderers) to the outre (vampires and aliens). That said, there is probably at least one story in here for every reader. Some thrilled me, some bored me, one or two genuinely made me shiver.

[Pete · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this as a tenth grader and found it pretty entertaining.

[Thom Provini · Rating 5 out of 5]

great collection

[Joseph Hirsch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Predators and predation is the theme (in case you can’t tell from the title.) Interpretations of said-theme are wide and varied within this collection. Some are hits for me, some near-misses, some puzzling in how far they strayed from the assignment.
It starts with Dean Koontz—isn’t there a law or something that says King opens all these anthologies? The story is “Hardshell,” about a detective tracking a superhuman beast. Koontz is not as good as King, nowhere near Barker, but he’s better than John Saul and this one didn’t hurt too bad.
There’s a surprisingly unoriginal offering from the very good and usually very original John Shirley. It deals with a premise that was a hoary cliché even when this thing came out about three decades ago. If I want a story about haunted horror movies, I’ll watch John Carpenter’s “Cigarette Burns,” again; if I want the cursed rubber masks, I’ll order one from the Silver Shamrock corporation, thank you very much.
The best story in the collection was probably John Betancourt’s “The Man Who Collected Knives.” It deals with a knife dealer and collector whose obsession leads him to hallucinate a small animal made of blades—I imagined it as arachnoid. The thing speaks to him, and as you can guess, it doesn’t spend most of its time advising him to help old ladies with their groceries. This one has economy and, more importantly, symmetry, which makes me think it would make a good entry in an anthology series. Sadly, the “Masters of Horror” is no more, and none of the streaming series I’ve seen seem quite up to snuff. How do you outdo Meatloaf skinning himself alive with a butcher knife, or George Wendt having a Norman Bates-esque oedipal breakdown with his skeleton family?
Also quality was Billy Sue Mosiman’s “Life Near the Bone.” It takes a quote from the great transcendentalist / naturalist Henry David Thoreau and sees what happens when a grad student takes it too seriously. After all, if one is to forego possessions, might not a bit of knifework be required to sever one from the things of the world?
Rounding out my triumvirate of top picks is “Mind Slash Matter” by Edward Wellen. It deals with the travails of an ageing screenwriter whose mind and body are failing him. If that wasn’t enough, there’s someone (or multiple someones) trying to kill him. Thankfully he’s guided by a friendlier version of HAL, a computer that helps him navigate the otherwise unnavigable world. And it’s a good thing this story works, since it’s by far the longest entry in the book. It’s easily novella length and probably shading toward novel-length. Don’t ask me for an exact wordcount, though, because as obsessive-compulsive as I am, I’m not crazy enough to count word by word.
Do I recommend the book? I don’t know. How bored are you?

[Vincent · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bunch of stories worth reading, but nothing exceedingly outstanding.