Chilling Stories from Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone : Thrilling tales from the supernatural especially written for young people

by Walter B. Gibson (Adapter), Rod Serling

OPEN THE BOOK
read the pages and enter The Twilight Zone IF YOU DARE!

For here and a half world, reality is suspended and what has happened, what will happen, what might happen or mangled, blended, and become more real than the facts of history or science. Your own imagination tells you that the occult and the inexplicable do exist. Logic says that bizarre and drastic events such as these could not happen – but they might!

Such is the gift of Rod sterling, creator of The Twilight Zone, that he has stimulated imaginations of millions of television viewers went since become eager participants in his explorations into the unknown.

Now The Twilight Zone is explored again, and a collection of stories as new and fresh as tomorrow, as ancient as the great maps. The facts of history, of science, of human behavior present themselves, but with a twist, the startling and suspenseful conclusion that makes you wonder whether there just might be a reason my man is cherished and ghost stories to the pages.

So come, enter The Twilight Zone and see for yourself that such things couldn't happen – but they might!

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Science Fiction, Anthologies, Fiction, Thriller, Mystery

190 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

Walter Brown Gibson (September 12, 1897-December 6, 1985) was an American author and professional magician best known for his work on the pulp fiction character The Shadow. Gibson, under the pen-name Maxwell Grant, wrote "more than 300 novel-length" Shadow stories, writing up to "10,000 words a day" to satisfy public demand during the character's golden age in the 1930s and 1940s.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of ten ghost stories adapted by Walter Gibson (who was one of the best-selling authors in history under his Maxwell Grant pseudonym) from plots by Rod Serling. The title is a tad misleading, I think, because they're all ghost stories, not the full thematic range of Twilight Zone episodes. They're written for younger readers, and I believe they've held up quite well over the last sixty years. Dee-doo-doo-doo, dee-doo-doo-doo...

[Steve Wiggins · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book that I had as a tween. I know I read the first three stories because as I sat down to read the whole book I remembered parts of them. There are ten stories in the collection, and although the ideas are those of Rod Serling the writing seems more like that of the cited “adapter,” Walter B. Gibson (of The Shadow fame). I discarded this book sometime during my childhood to make room for other reading material. I got nostalgic for it back in the early aughts and found a copy online. I only now got around to reading it. The first story was the only one that really stayed with me, but I’m glad now to have read the entire book.

The Twilight Zone had a large impact on me as a child. This was the original series, of course. You could tell, in the episodes written by Serling, that he was a facile author. This collection, however, seems to lack his stylings. The ten tales are all ghost stories, set in different eras. Some are run-of-the-mill ghost tales and others have more of a moral to them. A couple are a little hard to follow, with elements thrown in that make the story confusing. I note in my blog post on the book (Sects and Violence in the Ancient World) that it’s listed as being for young readers. It’s not YA, however, except in the sense of lacking swearing and sex; the vocabulary is typical of adult stories otherwise. Some of the plotting is a bit slow.

Reading a book from your childhood is a reminder that you can never go back. I rebought this book because of the first story. When I reread it now I could see the defects in a way I couldn’t as a youngster. I could also tell that the stories weren’t from Serling’s own hand. I’m no literary critic, but you do learn what a master writer produced and what s/he didn’t. Still, if you’re indoors because of a pandemic, it’s not a bad choice of reading material. It would have been better if it had been penned by Serling himself, instead of having been, ahem, ghost-written.

[Dev Taylor]

Glad to start the year with something quick and pulpy - it was a good palate-cleanser. I'm looking forward to digging into some of the books I got for Christmas, all of which look excellent!

[Kendra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this so much as a kid! Can't wait to read it again as an adult

[Brad Reiter · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like how author's name, Walter B. Gibson, is not on the cover, but Rod Serling's is...because which name will sell more copies...

One of the stories I recognized from the [Twilight Zone] show, "Return From Oblivion", which on the show this story was called "King Nine Will Not Return". All the other stories were new to me. None were spectacular, but many had momentum that kept me interested. The endings to all these stories felt flat to me as I was expecting more twists. However, most of the time you could peg how the story was going to end by halfway through.

I have one more of these Twilight Zone books on hand, and Rod Serling's the acutal author, so I have higher hopes for that one.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

The only stories I remember are The Ghost of Ticonderoga based on the legend of Duncan Campbell and The Curse of Seven Towers where visitors to a castle hang towels in all the windows to search for a hidden room.

[Justin Talaga · Rating 2 out of 5]

A toothless version of spooky Twilight Zone stories. It even says for “young adults” on the cover, so I should’ve known better. One story is about two guys who are searching for buried treasure and FIND IT without any peril. It’s over in ten short pages, and those are the final pages of the book. Really? That’s how we’re gonna wrap it up? I finished reading this out of duty and vengeance, which would probably make a fitting story right alongside these other lame ass ones. 1.5 stars because I enjoyed 7 or 8 pages out of the 190.

[Adam Boudreau · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I found the stories to be entertaining creepy and macabre. The tales where short and easy to read. The only problem I had with this book was the title was a little misleading. The tales where more ghost stories with the exception of two so it really didn't feel like stories that would fit in the Twilight Zone. Oddly enough the stories that where not ghost stories would have fit nicely as episodes of the show. All in all its a good quick read.

[Stephanie Ricker · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very mixed bag that varied so significantly in quality that I assumed they must have been written by different authors. It's unclear to me if Rod Serling had any part in writing these or if they were all Gibson or some combination of the two. Most of the stories feel dated, but in that slightly comforting, Twilight Zone feel, so I didn't mind that too much. Fun to read once especially if you're a Twilight Zone fan, but I passed the book on when I was done.

[Wayne · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with all books of short stories, you get some good and some bad. This being no different. The stand outs for me were "The Ghost Of Ticonderoga" "Judgement Night" and which would probably be my favorite was " The Curse Of Seven Towers." The first half of tales are good, but it seems like the second half was thrown together to just pad the book out. Not much substance to it at all. A couple of the stories in here did make it to the T.V. series.

[Cassandra Glissadevil · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.6 stars!
First book I bought. I was in the 3rd grade. The stories horrified me and sparked my love affair with horror. Several stories appeared on the Twilight Zone. Most did not.
Two outstanding haunted house/castle stories and a terrifying vampire tale.

Welcome addition to any horror short story collection.

[Michael Hanscom · Rating 3 out of 5]

These were probably more chilling when they were originally written, and to readers in the target age (the cover does note that these stories were "especially written for young people"). That said, it is an entertaining little collection of Twilight Zone-style ghost stories.

[Keitra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Half of the stories, I enjoyed. That had the strange essence I was seeking from a Twilight Zone book. The other half, however, just didn't hold my interest. Mainly the ones with the war settings. It seemed that there was too much focus on the war than on strange happenings.

[Jaynie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very dated. Don't recommend it.

[Richard Pett · Rating 3 out of 5]

...not much evidence of Rod Serling’s writing here.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

fun read, especially as a fan of the show

[Sebastian · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boooooo!