The Box

by Richard Matheson

Overview

What if you were told that you could make a fortune just by pushing a button on a box? But pressing this button will simultaneously cause the death of another human being somewhere in the world . . . someone you don't know. Would you still push the button?

"Button, Button," Richard Matheson's chilling tale of greed and temptation, is now the basis of The Box, the new film from the director of Donnie Darko. In addition, this outstanding collection also contains many other unforgettable stories by Matheson, the award-winning author of I Am Legend and What Dreams May Come.

"The inventive plots and spare but convincing portraits of ordinary men and women caught up in forces beyond their control demonstrate why Stephen King has called Matheson his most significant influence."
—Publishers Weekly

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780765321718
Publisher:	Tor Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/15/2009
Edition description:	Movie Tie-In
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	722,518
Product dimensions:	5.52(w) x 8.26(h) x 0.56(d)

About the Author

Richard Matheson (1926-2013) was The New York Times bestselling author of I Am Legend, Hell House, Somewhere in Time, The Incredible Shrinking Man, Now You See It…, and What Dreams May Come, among others. He was named a Grand Master of Horror by the World Horror Convention, and received the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement. He has also won the Edgar, the Spur, and the Writer's Guild awards. In 2010, he was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. In addition to his novels Matheson wrote several screenplays for movies and TV, including several Twilight Zone episodes.

Table of Contents

1. Button, Button
2. Girl of My Dreams
3. Dying Room Only
4. A Flourish of Strumpets
5. No Such Thing as a Vampire
6. Pattern for Survival
7. Mute
8. The Creeping Terror
9. Shock Wave
10. Clothes Make the Man
11. The Jazz Machine
12. 'Tis the Season to Be Jelly

Editorial Reviews

His stories not only entertain, but touch the mind and heart.” —Dean Koontz

“Perhaps no other author living is as responsible for chilling a generation with tantalizing nightmare visions.” —The New York Times

“Richard Matheson is one of the great names in American terror fiction.” —The Philadelphia Inquirer

“Matheson is the master of paranoia—pitting a single man against unknown horrors and examining his every slow twist in the wind.” —San Jose Mercury News

From the Publisher

Both longtime fans and readers who have never encountered horror and suspense author Matheson (I Am Legend), winner of Stoker and World Fantasy lifetime achievement awards among many others, should enjoy this collection of a dozen stories originally published in the 1950s and 1960s. In the standout title story, later adapted as a Twilight Zoneepisode, a discontented husband and wife are presented with a device and told they will get $50,000 every time they press its button. The catch is that every push will cause someone else's death. Many of the other tales pack a similar punch. The collection also includes "The Creeping Terror," a vicious parody of the author's home state of California. The inventive plots and spare but convincing portraits of the ordinary men and women caught up by forces beyond their control demonstrate why Stephen King has called Matheson his most significant influence. (Apr.)

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Publishers Weekly

These dozen short stories, previously published from 1950 to 1970, demonstrate the range of one of the most admired writers in horror fiction, best known for I Am Legend. The title story (once adapted into a Twilight Zoneepisode) asks, If you could press a button and receive $50,000, but someone you don't know dies, would you? "Girl of My Dreams" features a despicable protagonist who uses his girlfriend's psychic talent for personal gain. "Mute" is aching and lyrical, exploring the loss of innocence from a fresh angle. "A Flourish of Strumpets" reads like Thurber gone a touch off-color. "'Tis the Season To Be Jelly" is just plain odd. Demand may be driven by the recent I Am Legendfilm, but these stories deserve to be read in spite of the movie's popularity. Highly recommended for popular fiction collections.
—Karl G. Siewert Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

School Library Journal

The stories in this brief collection—fantasy, science fiction, mystery, and horror of the "Twilight Zone" type—are somewhat dated and uneven, but entertaining; the title story was recently made into a film. Grover Gardner's reading is precise and fluent; he never gives the wrong emphasis or mispronounces, and his pacing is effortlessly fine. He subtly varies his voice to indicate different characters, always smoothly, yet clearly; one hardly notices him doing it. His style is too precise and polished to be a comfortable match for the two dialects called for—one urban black, one countrified—but he does well enough. Overall, his subtle and skillful performance enhances the entertainment value of these stories. W.M. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

FEBRUARY 2010 - AudioFile