Madness & Mayhem: 23 Tales of Horror and Humor

by James Aquilone

Science Fiction | Fantasy | Horror
This collection has everything! Sassy robots, bloodthirsty spirits, a guy who's forced to watch TV and eat nachos, superheroes who are lame, a story about a zombie who searches for meaning in a world plagued by humans. If you like to pee your pants, there's a hysterical story about a redneck telepath who tortures a poor schlub for no reason.
And if that's not enough, you get the first Dead Jack short story and a sneak peek at the novel "Dead Jack and the Pandemonium Device."
The perfect book for people with split personalities!
The collection contains the following stories:

MADNESS
6 Attempts at Winning Jennifer's Heart
Head to Head
Simon Clash: The Galaxy's Greatest Hero
Bad Poets Society
Princess or Poison
No Place for a Hero
The League of Lame Superheroes
Inner Dragon
My So-Called Life in Reruns
Do Stand-Up Bots Dream of Electric Hecklers?
So You've Metamorphosed Into a Giant Insect. Now What?

MAYHEM
Hart House
The Zombie Who Had a Name
Google News Alerts for the End of the World
Teatime With Mrs. Monster
The Baseball Gods
A Day to End All Days
Circle of Power
Insectivoracious
The Great Work
She Will Be Home for Christmas
The Grimlorn Under the Mountain

DEAD JACK
The Case of the Amorous Ogre
Dead Jack and the Pandemonium Device (First Chapter)

Genres: Horror

206 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2017

About the author

James Aquilone was raised on Saturday morning cartoons, comic books, sitcoms, and Cap'n Crunch. Amid the Cold War, he dreamed of being a jet fighter pilot but decided against the military life after realizing it would require him to wake up early. He had further illusions of being a stand-up comedian, until a traumatic experience on stage forced him to seek a college education. Brief stints as an alternative rock singer/guitarist and child model also proved unsuccessful. Today he battles a severe Tetris addiction while trying to write in the speculative fiction game. Demons, robots, dragons, superheroes...that sort of thing. His short fiction has been published in such places as Nature's Futures, The Best of Galaxy’s Edge 2013-2014, Unidentified Funny Objects 4, and Weird Tales Magazine. His first novel should be out soon. Suffice it to say, things are going much better than his modeling career.

He lives in Staten Island, New York, but don't hold that against him.

Reviews

[Wingswept · Rating 3 out of 5]

I gave this a three star rating, not because the writing was bad, but because some of the stories were a bit hit or miss with me. As said, the writing was not bad. I enjoy James's works usually but some of the stories fell a bit flat for me simply because they felt too short and therefore felt a bit anti-climatic or they just didn't get the proper buildup because of the length.

The stories I enjoyed the most were Head to Head, Hart House, The Great Work, and The Grimlorn Under the Mountain. They were well written and managed to feel complete at the end of each story. Each was entertaining in it's own way.

The story I enjoyed the least was Google News Alerts for the End of the World. I understand what he was trying to do with it, it just fell flat for me.

As a bonus there is a Dead Jack Story, which is a very well written and fun story, but something that I had already read before (and own in ebook form).

[Maralina DG · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoy some of James Aquilone's writing, however, this book was just okay. Some of the short stories were not very interesting or they were too short to provide much of a plot. A couple of the stories were okay, in particular, Dead Jack of course (probably the best book ever written) so while the book as a whole was just okay, some of the stories were pretty good.

[Sailco26 · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of shorts from the author of "Dead Jack". Some are good, some twisted, some are just kinda "WTF...?". But a good introduction to the mind of Aquilone and includes a Dead Jack short as well as the first chapter of Pandemonium Device. Entertaining, but I definitely prefer the Dead Jack stories.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hard to classify this book but definitely easy to read and good for a chuckle or two.

I received this book as part of a good reads giveaway but the opinions expressed are solely my own.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

short stories that are quirky and with a macabe sense of humor. Very fun to read

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection contains all the short stories I've published so far, and dates back to 2012. As the stories either fell into the humor or horror categories, I decided to call it Madness (for the humorous stories) and Mayhem (for the horror). I hope you enjoy the book.

By the way, I don't normally review and rate my own books, but I somehow accidentally gave myself a 1-star review. When I tried to clear, it didn't go away. I tried giving myself a 5-star review, but that, so far, hasn't been calculated in my overall rating. In fact, Goodreads says the book has only two 1-star ratings, even though it has two 5-star ratings. Oh well.

[Tanya Smart · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some of the shorts were good, but many just fell flat and were not extremely interesting to me. A few hit the "humor" mark. Though, only two came even close to what I'd call horror.