Rating: 
Summary: What Happened to the Thrilling?
Review: I was really looking forward to this collection of short stories. I used to love reading short stories when I was in school, but outside of magazines there really aren't that many short stories written anymore. In fact, that was the supposed reason for bringing together this collection of stories. Some of the stories are rather good, but most are mediocre, and a few are just plain stinkers. The stories I enjoyed the most were:"The Tears of Squonk, and What Happened Thereafter" by Glen David Gold. This story tells the tale of a murderous elephant and how she was finally captured and hung. This is my personal favorite story in the treasury. "How Carlos Webster Changed His Name to Carl and Became a Famous Oklahoma Lawman" by Elmore Leonard A young boy has his ice cream stolen by a famous gangster and moments later watches the criminal murder a lawmen. That one event (the stealing of the ice cream or the killing?) changes the life of Carlos Webster forever. "Up the Mountain Coming Down Slowly" by Dave Eggers I'll give him credit, Eggers is a more talented writer than I imagined him to be as this story illustrates. It's the tale of a woman's quest to hike up Kilaminjaro. Great storytelling. "The Martian Agent, A Planetary Romance" by Michael Chabon This story is a "what if" piece of historical fiction. The last bit of a rebellion on the British controlled North American continent is crushed. The two sons of the rebellion leader are saved and rescued by their famous uncle, an inventor of air ships. Overall THRILLING TALES was a bit of a disappointment. Several of the tales were promising, but did not deliver in the end, such as Nick Hornby's "Otherwise Pandemonium" a story about a VCR that can veiw the future. Others were duds. However, the few outstanding stories make this collection worth reading, though not necessarily worth buying.
Rating:
Summary: Literate pulp for literate bibliophiles
Review: Ignore the confused blanderings of those ignoramuses here who couldn't penetrate the dense pack of gems here (and what the hell are you folks doing picking up a McSweeney's omnibus when there's a new Harry Potter tale out there to lip-read your way through, or better yet an unauthorized Brad Pitt bio!??!?! Sheesh...). McSweeney's latest opus is its best to date, a rich and delightful smorgasbord of chunky tales paying homage to the best (and most overtly sensational) elements of the grand era of the pulps. "Tedford and the Megalodon," "The Tears of Squonk," "Otherwise Pandemonium" and most of the others are gorgeous offerings from some of the finest literary minds functioning today. The only thing missing is a new Ray Bradbury story (and Stephen King really should've presented something altogether new instead of slicing off a dollop of WOLVES OF THE CALLA to drive us impatient fans even further insane!) -- otherwise, this is a treat. Love great literature? Pick it up. Think J.K. Rowling invented popular fiction? Motor on, o lunkheaded one... ;)
Rating:
Summary: Literate pulp for literate bibliophiles
Review: Ignore the confused blanderings of those ignoramuses who couldn't penetrate the dense pack of gems here (and what the hell are you folks doing picking up a McSweeney's omnibus when there's a new Harry Potter tale out there to lip-read your way through, or better yet an unauthorized Brad Pitt bio!??!?! Sheesh...). McSweeney's latest opus is its best to date, a rich and delightful smorgasbord of chunky tales paying homage to the best (and most overtly sensational) elements of the grand era of the pulps. "Tedford and the Megalodon," "The Tears of Squonk," "Otherwise Pandemonium" and most of the others are gorgeous offerings from some of the finest literary minds functioning today. The only thing missing is a new Ray Bradbury story (and Stephen King really should've presented something altogether new instead of slicing off a dollop of WOLVES OF THE CALLA to drive us impatient fans even further insane!) -- otherwise, this is a treat. Love great literature? Pick it up. Think J.K. Rowling invented popular fiction? Motor on, o lunkheaded one... ;)
Rating: 
Summary: a most excellent collection!
Review: McSweeney's doesn't usually publish books of superstar authors like this, so I made sure to get my hands on one as soon as I could befor e they started flying off the shelves. I had high expectations for this collection, and I wasn't disappointed. Every book of short stories seems to have one or two that just aren't interesting, but this book is the exception that proves the rule: every single story is wonderful. While they are all truly great, I particularly enjoyed Glen David Gold's "The Tears of Squonk and What Happened Thereafter," Neil Gaiman's "Closing Time," and Nick Horby's "Otherwise Pandemonium." Stephen King fans will be pleased to note that his contribution, "The Tale of Gray Dick," is actually an excerpt from the upcoming Wolves of the Calla, the fifth book in the Dark Tower series.
Rating: 
Summary: Haphazardly entertaining
Review: McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales was a book I really wanted to like. After all, it featured short stories from some really great writers, and the emphasis was going to be on adventure. I really wanted to like it, and found it disappointing that the book was only entertaining in spots. The goal of the book, as Chabon states in the introduction, is to have an anthology of short stories in a more "classic" vein: the sort of stories that were published in decades past, filled with fun and mystery as opposed to the more literary, plotless, "moment-of-truth" stories of today. Unfortunately, this book did not make me long for yesteryear, but instead made me think that the passing of short genre fiction was not necessarily a bad thing. The biggest flaw in the book is that the authors - almost all excellent at long fiction, seem to be unable to write a truly good short story. A couple stories, such as "The General" and "The Albertine Notes" are borderline unreadable. Most of the others are just so-so. Even Stephen King - who has shown over the years that he is adept in short fiction as well as novels - has contributed an only mildly okay story which is probably only best enjoyed by his Dark Tower fans. And Harlan Ellison - a master of the short story and an author who I really enjoy - is also a disappointment here, with a story which comes more as a Harlan Ellison parody than the real thing. There are one or two gems in the bunch (but not much more). Nick Hornby and Elmore Leonard have written a couple good stories, but that's around it. Ironically, some of the stories seem to consist of the very material that Chabon is trying to avoid: for example, one story is nothing more than a character study of a woman climbing a mountain; there is no adventure or real conflict in the tale; it may be good writing, but it does not fit with the themes of the anthology. Most people will buy this book because they enjoy one or more of the authors featured within. My recommendation is to read the authors you like and approach the others at your own risk.
Rating:
Summary: The Gems Outweigh The Duds!
Review: Nick Hornsby, Elmore Leonard, Dave Eggers, Laurie King and Michael Moorcock alone contrbute stories which would make any collection outstanding! "The Albertine Notes" shows a lot of narrative spunk and extroidinary sense of nostalgia, but lost narrative focus for me in the last few pages. I agree with others that Stephen King and Harlan Ellison let us down here. My guess is Nick Hornsby could turn out to be the best of this group. I doubt that any multi-author short story collection issued in a given year for the last century and a half had any higher percentage of good stories. Go buy this sucker!!!
Rating:
Summary: The Gems Outweigh The Duds!
Review: Nick Hornsby, Elmore Leonard, Dave Eggers, Laurie King and Michael Moorcock alone contrbute stories which would make any collection outstanding! "The Albertine Notes" shows a lot of narrative spunk and extroidinary sense of nostalgia, but lost narrative focus for me in the last few pages. I agree with others that Stephen King and Harlan Ellison let us down here. My guess is Nick Hornsby could turn out to be the best of this group. I doubt that any multi-author short story collection issued in a given year for the last century and a half had any higher percentage of good stories. Go buy this sucker!!!
Rating:
Summary: A noble effort
Review: Probably the best piece of writing in the book is Chabon's introduction in which he bemoan's the "quotidian epiphantic" short story as the ONLY type of short story to be given serious consideration. What about plot-driven stories? Despite what many critics would have us believe, it is the plot-driven story that sticks in our mind. The spirit of the book is to gather some of today's best authors and have them give the old plot-driven story a go. The results are hit and miss. I greatly enjoyed "Megalodon" and "Tears of Squonk" as well as the offerings of Nick Hornby and Elmore Leonard. Surprisingly, the masters of the plot driven stories - Stephen King and Harlan Ellison - offer lesser efforts (in Ellison's case, he merely reprints an old story instead of writing a new one).
Rating:
Summary: A varied collection of well done short stories.
Review: The classic cover and title flavor of this collection of Thrilling Tales might lead one to think this a homogenous collection of pulp style fiction. Nothing could be further from the truth though. A talented and varied group of writers combine here to deliver short stories of excellent quality. While the styles and choices of the writers may not be altogether consistent with the likes of the reader they all do a commendable job of telling an entertaining story. As with most readers I found some stories more compelling than others, but I enjoyed the collection as a whole enough that the low points were outweighed by the highs. For many readers the strength of the short story can also be its weakness. The brevity of such a composition in some ways limits a writer, but the format also frees them to tell a story in a way that would not be possible in a novel format. For a reader this can easily lead to disappointment as story construction can vary widely from one to another. Expectations also vary from one author to another, especially with names as well known as some of those collected herein. Some of the best stories in this collection come from authors that have little name recognition. It behooves the reader to enjoy each of these tales as a separate entity and apart from the confines of the author's previous work. Overall, this is a fun exercise in storytelling enabling the reader to experience some well known and some not so well known authors in a format that is always entertaining.
Rating:
Summary: A varied collection of well done short stories.
Review: The classic cover and title flavor of this collection of Thrilling Tales might lead one to think this a homogenous collection of pulp style fiction. Nothing could be further from the truth though. A talented and varied group of writers combine here to deliver short stories of excellent quality. While the styles and choices of the writers may not be altogether consistent with the likes of the reader they all do a commendable job of telling an entertaining story. As with most readers I found some stories more compelling than others, but I enjoyed the collection as a whole enough that the low points were outweighed by the highs. For many readers the strength of the short story can also be its weakness. The brevity of such a composition in some ways limits a writer, but the format also frees them to tell a story in a way that would not be possible in a novel format. For a reader this can easily lead to disappointment as story construction can vary widely from one to another. Expectations also vary from one author to another, especially with names as well known as some of those collected herein. Some of the best stories in this collection come from authors that have little name recognition. It behooves the reader to enjoy each of these tales as a separate entity and apart from the confines of the author's previous work. Overall, this is a fun exercise in storytelling enabling the reader to experience some well known and some not so well known authors in a format that is always entertaining.
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