No Sharks in the Med and Other Stories

By: Brian Lumley

Narrated by: Joshua Saxon

Length: 12 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

Prior to the first American publication of Brian Lumley's ground-breaking, dead waking, best-selling Necroscope in 1988 - the first novel in a long-lived, much-loved series - this British author had for 20 years been earning an envious reputation writing short stories, novellas, and a series of novels set against H. P. Lovecraft's cosmic Cthulhu Mythos backdrop. In addition, and for a further 20 years, Lumley's non-Mythos fantasy, SF, and horror stories have been appearing on a regular basis in some of the world's most famous publications; for example The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and Weird Tales, along with anthologies such as Karl Edward Wagner's Year's Best Horror Stories, Charles L. Grant's Final Shadows, and Kirby McCauley's Frights, among others.
 

With his multiple-award-winning literary career now spanning over four decades, Lumley continues to write his superior fictions, examples of which from each of those decades can be found in this current collection, where weird tales itself is represented by no less than five stories!
 

And so, to complete a trilogy of volumes begun with the Lovecraft-inspired The Taint and Other Novellas, and followed by Haggopian and Other Stories, Subterranean Press is now proud to offer No Sharks in the Med and Other Stories, a handpicked collection of Brian Lumley s best macabre tales.

©2012 Brian Lumley (P)2019 David N. Wilson

another outstanding collection & great narrator

i am so, so, so thankful to the narrator, Joshua Saxton, for the copy of this audio book . If it had not been for him, i doubt i would have ever gave Brian Lumley another chance and that would have been one of the worst mistakes i could make.
This is another great collection of Lumley's short stories. He continues to impress me with his superb writing and imagination. My favorite was the one about the waiting places. sorry, i tried to go back to find the name of it but i got aggravated before i discovered it.
Joshua Saxton narrates this and he is quickly becoming one of my top 5 favorite readers. He does a wide range of accents and each one is flawless. I enjoying listening to him very much.

* i requested this audio book and have left this review voluntarily.*

Diverse Group of Well Written and Narrated Stories

There is a wide variety of good writing here. Mostly some class of scary stuff, but all well written and entertaining.
This isn't his Vampire or Lovecraft stuff although there is a reference to Lovecraft in one of the stories. Give it a shot if you like well written scary stuff.
I particularly liked the narration by Joshua Saxon. He handled a variety of accents well and narrated with style and in a non distracting way. I'll be looking for more books that he's narrated.
I was given this free audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

No Sharks in the Med

This was a really good collection of short stories. My favorite tales were "No Sharks in the Med", "The Sun, the Sea, and the Silent Scream", and The Man Who Killed Kew Gardens". The latter being my favorite. There were so many varieties here, so much good stuff. I love horror, but somehow I have never really read anything from Brian Lumley until lately. I always meant to, but never pulled the trigger. This collection and "A Coven of Vampires" have won me over and I plan on indulging quite a bit more. The narration of the tales was spot on as well. Joshua Saxon did great bringing the right emotion to each situation. Great job.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review

No Sharks in the Med and Other Stories

This is a collection of captivating stories from on of the best story tellers around. Brian Lumley brings so many different worlds to life in these short stories. Each one is an interesting look into a world full of fascinating characters and actions. This book gives listeners stories from Science fiction to horror. Each one pulled me in and had me enthralled to the end. Narrator Joshua Saxon does a wonderful job with all of the different characters and keeps the narrative flowing. I was quickly lost in each story and felt the characters come to life as I listened. He does a great job with the different voices and accents and has quickly become a favorite narrator for this listener.
I received this audiobook at my request and I voluntarily wrote a review.

Eerie, creepy, great narration

Most of these stories have a very classic horror atmosphere, much like the writing of Ambrose Bierce or Nathaniel Hawthorne. Lumley has a very strong writing style and his wording is almost poetic. This is a collection of well thought out horror stories, usually with an eerie , creepy atmosphere.. Several have a humorous tinge, and a couple are closer to science fiction than horror. Joshua Saxon was a perfect choice for narrator, making you share the horror, helplessness, and confusion of the central character of each story. This collection is very entertaining and very well read.

No sharks

This is an excellent collection of creepy stories!Some keep you thinking long after you finish listening to it. Joshua Saxon was a fine narrator.I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.'

Interesting and not a little disturbing

Here is a collection of the macabre that runs the gamut of horror, from supernatural to psychological to Sci-fi to dark fantasy.

The two things they all have in common is brilliant characterization and a high creep-out factor.

Joshua Saxon offers brilliant audio narration that sets the tone of each story wonderfully. As with his previous work, his one weakness is that the female voices are left somewhat wanting, though to be fair that is a fairly common problem.

Elsewise, his voices are varied and distinct and brilliantly crafted. His accents are damned impressive. So much so that, in the one story where he drops the British accent in favor of the American, I almost wondered if it had switched to a different narrator!

His vocal inflections are excellent and his tempo shifts, while subtle, are very effective.

As is my wont, I'll forgo a discussion of what each story is about. I'm sure you can find other reviews that do this.

First, as was the standard at the time these were written, most of these stories start off rather slowly while providing a lot of excellent characterization to help get to know the characters.

There are a couple of exceptions, but most of the stories are told in first person POV, which I'm not normally fond of. But here it works exceptionally well with the subject matter.

Each character throughout the stories has a unique personality and view of the world that makes their voice compelling and interesting to read.

Similarly, each of the stories deals with its macabre subject in a different way that keeps them fun and engaging.

Although most occur in a world that feels much like the real world, there are a couple of exceptions, such as in "My Thing Friday" which takes place on an alien world.

The world building in these instances is every bit as intricate as the character building and I couldn't help but be fascinated by them.

Apart from things you have to expect in stories that were written in decades past, my only real complaint is there are one or two stories that were a touch predictable.

Most of the stories end in a twist, or at least a shock. And in the main, those shocks and twists are pulled off very well.

If you enjoy Lumley's style, or are simply a fan of short horror fiction in general, you can't go wrong with this collection.

Chilling and creative with a funny twist

Out of the collections of Lumley's short stories this is my second favorite next to his Cthulhu Mythos stories. There's a really wide variety of stories in this one. It comes to a conclusion with a really surprising and funny short story that I honestly wasn't expecting from the author, but just as he does horror Lumley delivers it to perfection. As always Joshua Saxon gets all the gold stars. I have yet to be disappointed by one of his performances. His voice and inflection adapt to every scenario. I was given this book in exchange for an honest review.

Good Listen

Several interesting stories with really good narration.

“I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.”

Really entertaining weird tales!

This is the second short story collection I have listened to recently from Brian Lumley, the other being A Coven of Vampires. This collection was throughly enjoyable, each and every one of the stories was good with some being brilliant. I especially liked the stories "The Picnicers" and "The Pit Yakker" the feeling of tension and dread was great. I love the way Lumley writes, you can feel that some of these stories were written in the 70's and they contain that UK vibe of the post-WWII generation to them.

The book is narrated by Joshua Saxon, he also narrated Lumley's previous collection. He is absolutely brilliant. I thought he was good previously, but here he really showed his quality showcasing a wide range of voices which fit brilliantly and actually made the stories better, including several American characters in which I couldn't be sure whether or not he was actually born there!

I can't recomment this book and it's narrator highly enough.

This audiobook was provided to me for free at my request in exchange for an honest review.

Very poor narrator spoils the stories

The stories themselves are all right, but it’s hard to really enjoy them because of the narrator’s awful attempts at regional accents and frequent mispronunciations of common words. The supposed Scottish accent is actually offensive.

Great

Fantastic and Entertaining collection of stories to keep you guessing and freak you out. Excellent to listen to again and again

Strong Collection of Brian Lumley Horror Stories

While I don't think this collection is quite as strong as the previous two volumes (The Taint & Haggopian), it still features some high quality gems from Horror Grand Master Brian Lumley.
My personal standouts were The Whisperer, The Place of Waiting and My Thing Friday, but I found something to enjoy in all of the stories.

Joshua Saxon once again provides a riveting and atmospheric narration. He has quickly become one of my favourite audiobook narrators thanks to his outstanding work on the aforementioned collections. His performance on My Thing Friday in this book is absolutely outstanding.

You can't really go wrong with Brian Lumley. I recommend this to any of his fans and anyone interested in atmospheric horror.

Great collection

This is a collection of non necroscope, non mythos stories (except 'The Picknickers' possibly) so be aware if your only previous experience of Lumley is in one of those categories. This collection is of fine, traditional horror stories. I have previously read half of these stories, listened to a couple more in other collections, but some were new to me, and all were good

The best story in this collection has to be 'The Luststone' (in my opinion) and 'The Picknickers' is one of my favourites from many years ago.

If you enjoy horror shorts then this is the one for you.