This lengthy history of supernatural fiction is an incredible combination of good and bad. First, Joshi is the most opinionated critic I have ever read. Even when I tend to agree with him--such as about the worthiness of bestsellers--his incredible vitriol is just way over the top. Consider, "DuMaurier's work is not, on the whole, notably distinguished for its supernatural imaginativeness, and her general lack of skill in portrayal of character, for all her valiant attempts, renders her tales only slightly above the usual crop of bestselling writers; but now and again she is capable of vivid horrific effects, and her work is not to be entirely despised."

This is kind, however, compared to his feelings about Dean Koonce: "...indeed, the only genuine virtue to Koontz's existence is to prove that an even worse writer than Stephen King can become popular."

Ray Garton, who, at best, is excellent, receives this: "Garton has returned to vampires in a few of his dreary plethora of novels, but neither they nor any other of his works, short or long, are worth a moment's attention."

I won't bother you with more. At least I can say this, Joshi's book is not written in academic gibberish. He states things very clearly, and thus, even when you disagree with him and are deciding he would not be a pleasant drinking companion, you may still learn something.

He is also inconsistent, sometimes damning an author for not explaining something and other times praising an author for the same thing. And he can never stop talking about "the determinism paradox" which means that if you see something in the future, you can't change it, because then what you saw wasn't the future! Mr. Joshi has come up with altogether too many rules to define what qualifies as supernatural fiction, but whether a book qualifies or not, if he has taken the time to read it, he is going to tell you about it.

So who does he like? Ramsay Campbell, mainly. Not something many horror readers would want to argue with. He also loves Thomas Tryon's "The Other" and "Harvest Home". Even though, as I recall, they were both bestsellers. And, of course, he adores H.P. Lovecraft, whom he has written several books about. To his credit, he also finds Lovecraft disciple August Derleth's work pretty worthless.

I'm sure no editor asked Joshi to actually reconcile or justify any of the inconsistencies in this book. They probably figured it wasn't worth the trouble. Sometimes you just have to take things as they are.

I bought this as a pretty cheap ebook after seeing author Stephen Gresham mention it on his blog as an interesting work, though not one he agreed with all the time. This was putting it mildly, as I have found out. If you're interested, I suggest you also pick up the cheap ebook version. 800 or so pages of this isn't something you would want taking up space around your house. ( )