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This is such a fun book. Robert was clearly trying to cram a lot of writing in here. Not boring at all, though perhaps not amazingly crafted.

Bored of this

Surprisingly good for such an epic endeavour. I am more intrigued with this than with many a crime mystery novel and more excited than with any fantasy/action work I recently read.

This is even more boring than the first book, so I think I am giving up here.

It's kinda simultaneously boring and unbelievable?

*Fangs of Vengeance* has some more originality, and is an enjoyable, though ultimately predictable, story.

*The Druidic Doom* is your basic "arrogant outsider moves in to haunted mansion and disturbs things that he ought not to" story, but it does not even hold a tremulous candle to /The Rats In The Walls/

*String of Pearls* is a (perhaps not so subtly) hinted story of a mysterious lady, two ruffians, and entrapment. It ends with an outrageous pun!

*Founding Fathers* is a delightful story about some small time crooks and the american revolution.

*All on a Golden Afternoon* is a whimsical story about a psychiatrist and his star patient. Choice quote:

"Dr. Saul Prager tried not to betray his impatience, but his right foot pressed down on the accelerator and a surrogate of exhaust did his fuming for him."

*Terror in the night* is a story about an escaped sanatorium patient.

*Dead-End Doctor* is about a Kongrosian-like figure, who however in the end finds his purpose in life.

*A Good Imagination* is a Poe-like story of jealousy and murder.

*You got to have brains* is another enjoyable noir / sf melange with macabre overtones.

*I like blondes* is a whimsical tale, lightly poking fun at Ambroce Bierce.

*Where the Buffalo Roam* is a post-apocalyptic wild west utopia of racial harmony that is suddenly threatened by the past.

*The past master* starts off as an ordinary story, but then becomes science fiction.

*The goddess of wisdom* is a heavily hinted science fiction story.

*The pin* is a story with a rather easy to guess topic once you start reading it...

*Constant Reader* is a very short story about extra terrestrial life (reminiscent of <spoiler>Fbynevf</spoiler>) that ends in a tragically whimsical note.

*The thinking cap* is one of the most original stories in the collection. The titular object is used by a struggling writer. The characters are crisply defined and the tightly written story (containing multiple capsule stories) is very enjoyable.

Choice quote:

"Corpses don't have six months of solid booking with psychoanalysts"

*Lucy comes to stay* is a grim tale about alcoholism and mental illness

*The Man who Collected Poe* is a classic, artfully done, Poe tale about a Poe collector.

*The Shadow from the Steeple* is a self-referential Lovecraftian tale.

*The Head Man* is a tale of madness in Nazi Germany

*Tell your Fortune* is one of the best stories in this volume so far. Bloch masterfully blends everyday criminality with hints of the supernatural.

*The Unspeakable Betrothal* is a classic Lovecraftian tale with dreamland elements.

*The Tunnel of Love* is another story which could be either interpreted as narrator paranoia, or as a classic haunting.