Rating: 
Summary: generally dreadful
Review: The premise of this anthology was terrific-- round up a bunch of first rate (mostly "literary") writers and have them do stories that are unpretentious, unaffected, rip roaring good reads. Just look at the cover illustration and you know what I mean. But the more the literary the writers here, the more it's plain that most of them saw the project as a kind of fun-slumming and as a result, their work wreaks of condescension and self-parody. The only good stories here are written by the likes of Neil Gaiman, Michael Moorcock and Kelly Link. Genre writers all, but nevertheless heads and tails better than the likes of Rick Moody, Dave Eggers, Jim Shepard, Chabon, etcetera. If you want to read a knockout anthology that wonderfully achieves everything this antho doesn't, check out "CONJUNCTIONS:39-- The New Wave Fabulists" The contrast between the two collections is profound.
Rating: 
Summary: Fast Fun Fiction
Review: This anthology of "Thrilling Tales" provides excellent reading. Being short stories, each piece can be read in one sitting, which is always convenient, but most are so good that you want to jump immediately into the next one. This is easy to do, despite the diversity of the stories and styles, because the themes are all rather similar and have a dark undertone to them. It is great to see how some of the biggest names in contemporary fiction--Stephen King, Michael Crichton, Nick Hornby, etc.--handle the short story format, especially for authors like Hornby who are writing stories unlike those which they usually produce. There were some weak stories included in the book, but they are quick and painless, so it certainly doesn't diminish much from the quality of the book as a whole....
Rating: 
Summary: The Baby and the Bathwater
Review: This book is really disappointing. I was so looking forward to this book because I am so tired of the openended/depressing/atmospheric short story found in the New Yorker and considered "literary". I thought (hoped) Chabon was going to put together something different for once. But it's not different. It's the same depressing, "Literature" that the academic community loves cuz they consider it "deep" and that I hate because it's easy and cheap to look "deep" when you act depressed (as pointed out by one of the characters in the story by Nick Hornby), but it's truly art to create an entertaining story that sticks with the reader and makes them pause and think even while they're laughing. However, the depressing "literary" short story has become so pervasive that this form has even invaded genre short stories. I want a good story that compells me to read it from start to finish that has a satisfactory ending and characters I care about. If I can get it in a novel, I should be able to get it in a short story. There are plenty of other good anthologies out there, such as: Catfantastic series, Dragonfantastic series, Sword and Sorceress series, various mystery series, various mystery Christmas series, sci-fi, horror, romance, you name it. There's even a Maeve Binchy Christmas story anthology out there! Unless you actually enjoy those openended/atmospheric/depressing/"literary" stories, stay away from this book. If you do choose to read it, I recommend sticking with the stories by Neil Gaiman, Nick Hornby, Harlan Ellison, and Stephen King.
Rating:
Summary: Really disappointing! Makes me cranky....
Review: This book is really disappointing. I was so looking forward to this book because I am so tired of the openended/depressing/atmospheric short story found in the New Yorker and considered "literary". I thought (hoped) Chabon was going to put together something different for once. But it's not different. It's the same depressing, "Literature" that the academic community loves cuz they consider it "deep" and that I hate because it's easy and cheap to look "deep" when you act depressed (as pointed out by one of the characters in the story by Nick Hornby), but it's truly art to create an entertaining story that sticks with the reader and makes them pause and think even while they're laughing. However, the depressing "literary" short story has become so pervasive that this form has even invaded genre short stories. I want a good story that compells me to read it from start to finish that has a satisfactory ending and characters I care about. If I can get it in a novel, I should be able to get it in a short story. There are plenty of other good anthologies out there, such as: Catfantastic series, Dragonfantastic series, Sword and Sorceress series, various mystery series, various mystery Christmas series, sci-fi, horror, romance, you name it. There's even a Maeve Binchy Christmas story anthology out there! Unless you actually enjoy those openended/atmospheric/depressing/"literary" stories, stay away from this book. If you do choose to read it, I recommend sticking with the stories by Neil Gaiman, Nick Hornby, Harlan Ellison, and Stephen King.
Rating:
Summary: "I Had a Vision By the Night Stand and Other Bedroom Tales"
Review: This installment of McSweeney's Quarterly Concern boasts the work of such acclaimed authors as Stephen King, Michael Crichton, Harlon Ellison and Elmore Leonard. It also includes writers previous assocated with McSweeney's endeavors: Rick Moody, Dave Eggers, Michael Chabon, Dan Chaon and Nick Hornby. With their 10th offering, McSwys sheds some of its indie skin and brings some major leaguers down to their quirky minor league. Or is it the other way around? In either case, it is a decided departure from previous Concerns. Past issues have boasted unusual packaging, hardcover editions and pictures of birds. This collection of tales has none of these things. What it does have is Michael Chabon for a guest editor; he has put together a collection of experiments in a disappearing form: the short story with plot and action. Chabon claims we are up to our knees in "the contemporary, quotidian, plotless, moment-of-truth revelatory story." These stories flirt with what some would call "artless," or "pure entertainment." In the end, many of these stories are both artful and entertaining, which is not a bad combination. The collection makes for interesting reading. Stand outs include the stories by Glen David Gold, Elmore Leonard, Nick Hornby, Dave Eggers, Michael Moorcock and Michael Chabon. A diverse collection, to be sure, these stories are all colorful and robust. Chabon urges short story writers to take heed. Genres considered pulp (detective/spy stories, sci-fi, and ghost stories) aren't necessarily formulaic and cheap. Even if they are, they are usually more interesting than a short story that doesn't leave the house.
Rating:
Summary: Fun riffs that reinvigorate the short story format
Review: This is an excellent collection of genre pieces. As with any collection, there are clunkers that are not short enough but this group of writers are having fun which translates to the page. I especially enjoyed the Nick Hornby's offering which may have a formulaic plot but the tone and words are pitch perfect. It was just like a teenager. Neil Gaiman's offering was too short. I wanted more. And don't forget Squonk.
Rating:
Summary: Gallant effort.
Review: This, I'm afraid to say, was a major disappointment. Mixing pulp stories and the occasional story in the maximalist vein, Eggers sets himself up - much as Barthelme et al. did during the 60s -70s - against the realist, Chekhovian tradition of story telling (which the occasional reviewers still call, with breathtaking ignorance, 'the new yorker story').
One reviewer cites this as some sort of contemporary problem. It is neither. It's a tested mode of writing and one that stretches as far back as the 1890s. Not 'new' at all, and certainly no 'problem'. It's been followed by such luminaries as James Joyce, John Cheever, Raymond Carver and Alice Munro.
Rick Moody's is the best story in the collection. Nick Hornby's, as ever, is appalling. Buy the Granta Book of the American Short Story instead. It is a far more rewarding investment.
Rating:
Summary: A few cheap thrills.
Review: While it offers plenty of pulp, Chabon's experiment in pulp fiction struggles to meet its goal of showing readers "how much fun reading a short story can be" (p. 8). The twenty tales collected here deliver a few cheap thrills along the way, but only for thrill-seeking readers with mammoth amounts of patience. For me, after skipping ahead to the contributions of Elmore Leonard, Nick Hornby, Stephen King, Michael Crichton, Chris Offutt, Dave Eggers, Sherman Alexie, and Michael Chabon, I returned to the other stories, always hopeful of encountering something more than just another slick imitation of the kind of tale first mastered by Twain, Poe, Cheever, Hammett, and Chandler. Is Chabon's anthology of pulp fiction still worth reading? Well, yes. But with the caveat that it doesn't always live up to the promise of its title.
G. Merritt
Rating:
Summary: Hey you! read this rather tongue in cheek review.
Review: You love literature. I mean look at you, you've got the entire Interweb at your disposal and you're here, browsing Amazon's bookstore. It's easy to see, you love literature, you love books, periodicals, you've got a library card that's gotten a lot of abuse, i'm guessing. so now you're looking at McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales that Amazon attributes authorship to Michael Chabon. Obviously it's a book of short stories so actually they are attibuting editorship to Michael Chabon. They've got some serious authors in here too, Elmore Leonard, Neil Gaiman, Dave Eggers, Nick Hornby and a few others you might have heard of. Honestly though, this is just alright. Not necessarily mediocrity, but not their best work either. But you're missing a pretty good size piece of the puzzle. Here's that missing piece, this is not just a compendium of good authors and their short stories, but rather issue 10 of a brillant literary quarterly by a brillant fairly new publishing house, McSweeney's. Which will soon be the Hannibal of the publishing industry, except without the whole Roman armies destroying them and their elephants in the end. They've started with the McSweeney's quarterly, then published a number of new work by great authors, and now have started a new periodical called The Believer. There is some great Postmodern literature coming from this new source. This book is just one bleep on your radar, but get ready cuz it's gonna get buck wild. So i digress, you love literature, you've probably knew all this already, i'm preaching to the choir. ok, i'll sit down now, could you pass me my soapbox before you call me a dork?
Rating:
Summary: Hey you! read this rather tongue in cheek review.
Review: You love literature. I mean look at you, you've got the entire Interweb at your disposal and you're here, browsing Amazon's bookstore. It's easy to see, you love literature, you love books, periodicals, you've got a library card that's gotten a lot of abuse, i'm guessing. so now you're looking at McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales that Amazon attributes authorship to Michael Chabon. Obviously it's a book of short stories so actually they are attibuting editorship to Michael Chabon. They've got some serious authors in here too, Elmore Leonard, Neil Gaiman, Dave Eggers, Nick Hornby and a few others you might have heard of. Honestly though, this is just alright. Not necessarily mediocrity, but not their best work either. But you're missing a pretty good size piece of the puzzle. Here's that missing piece, this is not just a compendium of good authors and their short stories, but rather issue 10 of a brillant literary quarterly by a brillant fairly new publishing house, McSweeney's. Which will soon be the Hannibal of the publishing industry, except without the whole Roman armies destroying them and their elephants in the end. They've started with the McSweeney's quarterly, then published a number of new work by great authors, and now have started a new periodical called The Believer. There is some great Postmodern literature coming from this new source. This book is just one bleep on your radar, but get ready cuz it's gonna get buck wild. So i digress, you love literature, you've probably knew all this already, i'm preaching to the choir. ok, i'll sit down now, could you pass me my soapbox before you call me a dork?
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