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	• The Barrens and Others F. Paul Wilson Forge Books, 2000 - 384 pages average customer review:based on 9 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Wilson at his best

I have read a bunch of novels by F. Paul Wilson and have always been reasonably satisfied with the results. Good novelists, however, are not always good short story writers, so when I picked up Wilson's collection The Barrens and Others, I was somewhat optimistic that I would enjoy it, but also ready for disappointment. Happily, this book exceeded my hopes.

The Barrens and Others is a collection of a dozen stories and a pair of short screenplays, along with some commentary by Wilson. Although some of these stories fit into his Repairman Jack/Adversary universe, they are all standalone. I won't describe all the stories, but among the standouts are Feelings (in which an ambulance chasing lawyer gets a rather unusual curse), A Day in the Life (which features Repairman Jack battling a group of extortionists), Slasher (dealing with a man's obsession with his daughter's killer), The Barrens (a Lovecraftian tale of people seeking too much knowledge) and Topsy (which has a massively overweight man poorly dealing with his condition).

The best in the bunch, however, is Definitive Therapy, all the better because it was one of the stories I had the least hope for. A tale of the Joker (from the Batman comics), I figured this would be just a minor work that would be part of a minor anthology of Joker stories. Instead, this is easily the most creepy of the stories in this collection. Definitive Therapy focuses on a psychiatrist trying to analyze the maniacal criminal. Such an effort is doomed, leading to a truly chilling conclusion.

Generally, Wilson is a consistent four-star writer, never exceptional but never disappointing either. This collection is an exception and gets the highest rating. Even if you've never read Wilson before, if you're any sort of horror fan, this is a must-read.

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Vintage F. Paul Wilson

This provided typically good F. Paul Wilson work. The stories flowed nicely and the differentiation kept me guessing the whole time. I particularly enjoyed the Repairman Jack story which definitely showed a darker side. Definitely a must read if you're a Wilson fan.

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Comic Book Fans Don't Miss This

These are all good short stories. Of special distinction to me in this book is the story Definitive Therapy. Comic book fans, this one is not to be missed. This is without question one of the best Joker stories EVER told.

Fair to middling

Good, as are all his books, however, it is difficult to bring the excitement to these stories that I normally have with Repairmam Jack novels.

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Wilson is always worth reading

The Barrens picks up where Wilson's first collection, SOFT, left off, presenting much of his short story output from the eighties and nineties. If SOFT, as Wilson says in one of his forwards, is "Watch Wilson Learn How To Write", then THE BARRENS is the payoff for his efforts. Highlights from this book include gruesome supplements to Wilson's legendary Adversary cycle, the Lovecraftian title story "The Barrens," and two previously unpublished screenplays, a stripped down version of "Pelts," and "Glim Glim", originally written for George A. Romero's Monsters. Repairman Jack fans will enjoy "A Day in the Life," which made its first appearance in STALKERS.

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reviews: page 1, 2

The Barrens and Others is the first new collection of fiction in years by bestselling author F. Paul Wilson. From The Keep, nearly twenty years ago, to this year's Legacies, Wilson has been one of the most dependable names for fine storytelling in whatever genre he chooses.In The Barren and Others, Wilson lets his fertile imagination run wild, traveling from the Old West of Doc Holliday to the Pine Barrens of present-day New jersey and encountering many strange, suspect, and supernatural happenings along the way. From urban mercenary Repairman Jack, hero of Wilson's recent novel, Legacies, to the obese and food-obsessed Topsy, Wilson's wild array of characters get caught up in adventures both fascinating and horrifying.A first -rate collection of first-rate tales, ranging from Lovecraftian to Western supernatural, with many mysterious combination in between, The Barrens and Others will be a treasure for Wilson's established fans and to those discovering Wilson for the first time.

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