Zoopraxis

Book excerpt: In the addictive new collection, critically-acclaimed, #1 bestselling author Richard Christian Matheson gathers stories of dread, menace and the surreal. The tales range from prisoners executed with a high-tech twist, to the ravages of empathy, to an uncooperative parrot, to a shapeshifter’s carnal memoirs, to a man who can’t stop talking, to a murderer devoured by ice, to a baby photographer who ruins lives, to a dog that reads minds. As in his previous collections, SCARS And Other Distinguishing Marks and DYSTOPIA, Matheson’s distilled style is fierce and hypnotic. There are seventeen illustrations to accompany many of the short stories, all of them originals created by Harry O. Morris specifically for this collection. The collection includes introductions from John Shirley and Chet Williamson, as well as afterwords from Harry O. Morris and R.C. Matheson. SHORT STORIES IN THE COLLECTION: How to Edit 133 Transfiguration Infomercial! Making Cabinets Listen Dead to Me New Tricks Bulimia Venturi Demise Sea of Atlas Kriss Kross Applesauce The Embalming Machine Pronoia Slaves of Nowhere Last Words Ground Zero Evil Twins, Temporary Blindness, Bikers and Amnesia Bedtime Story Interrogation The Talking Man