A Stir of Echoes

Last updated
A Stir of Echoes
STRFCHSZBF1958.jpg
First edition
Author Richard Matheson
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genre Horror
Publisher J. B. Lippincott & Co.
Publication date
1958
Media typePrint
Pages224

A Stir of Echoes is a supernatural novel by American writer Richard Matheson, published in 1958. It served as the inspiration for the 1999 film Stir of Echoes . [1]

Contents

Plot synopsis

Tom Wallace lived an ordinary life, until a chance event awakened psychic abilities he never knew he possessed. Now he's hearing the private thoughts of the people around him and learning shocking secrets he never wanted to know. But as Tom's existence becomes a waking nightmare, even greater jolts are in store as he becomes the unwilling recipient of a message from beyond the grave.

Reception

Galaxy reviewer Floyd C. Gale praised the novel, saying "Matheson expertly builds a mood of horror and terror that only on one occasion exceeds credulity." [2] Damon Knight, however, dismissed it as "a thin and banal ghost story with psi trimmings, written in a Chippendale Chinese style." [3]

Related Research Articles

Richard Matheson American fiction writer

Richard Burton Matheson was an American author and screenwriter, primarily in the fantasy, horror, and science fiction genres.

<i>A Fighting Man of Mars</i>

A Fighting Man of Mars is a science fantasy novel by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs, the seventh of his Barsoom series. Burroughs began writing it on February 28, 1929, and the finished story was first published in The Blue Book Magazine as a six-part serial in the issues for April to September 1930. It was later published as a complete novel by Metropolitan in May 1931.

<i>Earthlight</i>

Earthlight is a science fiction novel by British writer Arthur C. Clarke, published in 1955. It is an expansion to novel length of a novella of the same name that he had published four years earlier.

<i>Dandelion Wine</i>

Dandelion Wine is a 1957 novel by Ray Bradbury set in the summer of 1928 in the fictional town of Green Town, Illinois, based upon Bradbury's childhood home of Waukegan, Illinois. The novel developed from the short story "Dandelion Wine", which appeared in the June 1953 issue of Gourmet magazine.

<i>The Other Side of the Sky</i>

For the Memoir by Farah Ahmedi, See The Other Side of the Sky: A Memoir

<i>Stir of Echoes</i> 1999 film by David Koepp

Stir of Echoes is a 1999 American supernatural horror film written and directed by David Koepp and based on the 1958 novel of the same name by Richard Matheson. The film stars Kevin Bacon, Kathryn Erbe, Illeana Douglas and Kevin Dunn.

<i>The Green Odyssey</i>

The Green Odyssey is an American science fiction novel written by Philip José Farmer. It was Farmer's first book-length publication, originally released by Ballantine in 1957. Unlike Farmer's most prolific earlier short story work, this book contains no sexual themes, though his next book Flesh returned to these motifs. The novel also appeared in the back ground of the first episode of The Twilight Zone.

<i>Man of Earth</i>

Man of Earth is a science fiction novel by American writer Algis Budrys, first published in 1958 by Ballantine Books. "The Man from Earth", a "greatly different" earlier version of the story, was published in the debut issue of Satellite Science Fiction in 1956.

<i>The Tower of Zanid</i>

The Tower of Zanid is a science fiction novel by American writer L. Sprague de Camp, the sixth book of his Viagens Interplanetarias series and the fourth of its subseries of stories set on the fictional planet Krishna. Chronologically it is the seventh Krishna novel. It was first published in the magazine Science Fiction Stories for May 1958. It was first published in book form in hardcover by Avalon Books, also in 1958, and in paperback by Airmont Books in 1963. It has been reissued a number of times since by various publishers. For the later standard edition of Krishna novels it was published together with The Virgin of Zesh in the paperback collection The Virgin of Zesh & The Tower of Zanid by Ace Books in 1983. An E-book edition was published by Gollancz's SF Gateway imprint on September 29, 2011 as part of a general release of de Camp's works in electronic form. The novel has also been translated into Italian and German.

<i>The Domes of Pico</i>

The Domes of Pico is a juvenile science fiction novel, the second in Hugh Walters' Chris Godfrey of U.N.E.X.A. series. It was published in the UK by Faber in 1958, in the US by Criterion Books in 1959 under the title Menace from the Moon and in the Netherlands by Prisma Juniores as 'De Maan Valt Aan' in 1960.

<i>The Time Traders</i>

The Time Traders is a science fiction novel by American writer Andre Norton, the first in The Time Traders series. It was first published in 1958, and has been printed in several editions. It was updated by Norton in 2000 to account for real world changes. It is part of Norton's Forerunner universe.

<i>Stadium Beyond the Stars</i>

Stadium Beyond the Stars is a juvenile science fiction novel by Milton Lesser published in 1960 by Holt, Rinehart & Winston with cover illustration by Mel Hunter. The story follows the adventures of Steve Frazer, a champion spacesuit racer on Earth's Olympic team, as the ship taking him and the rest of the team to the center of the galaxy for the Interstellar Olympic Games intercepts a mysterious derelict spaceship. Stadium Beyond the Stars is a part of the Winston Science Fiction set, a series of juvenile novels which have become famous for their influence on young science fiction readers and their exceptional cover illustrations by award winning artists.

<i>Earthmans Burden</i>

Earthman's Burden is a collection of science fiction stories by American writers Poul Anderson and Gordon R. Dickson. It was first published by Gnome Press in 1957. The story "Don Jones" was original to this collection. The other stories originally appeared in the magazines Other Worlds, Universe and Fantasy and Science Fiction.

<i>The Survivors</i> (Godwin novel) Book by Tom Godwin

The Survivors is a science fiction novel by American writer Tom Godwin. It was published in 1958 by Gnome Press in an edition of 5,000 copies, of which 1,084 were never bound. The novel was published in paperback by Pyramid Books in 1960 under the title Space Prison. The novel is an expansion of Godwin's story "Too Soon to Die" which first appeared in the magazine Venture.

<i>The Bird of Time</i>

The Bird of Time is a science fiction novel by American writer Wallace West. It was published in 1959 by Gnome Press in an edition of 5,000 copies, of which 2,102 were never bound. The novel is a fix-up of four of West's short stories that had originally appeared in the magazines Astounding and Thrilling Wonder Stories.

<i>A Fine and Private Place</i>

A Fine and Private Place is a fantasy novel by American writer Peter S. Beagle, the first of his major fantasies. It was first published in hardcover by Viking Press on May 23, 1960, followed by a trade paperback from Delta the same year. Frederick Muller Ltd. published the first United Kingdom hardcover in 1960, and a regular paperback followed from Corgi in 1963. The first U.S. mass market paperback publication was by Ballantine Books in 1969. The Ballantine edition was reprinted numerous times through 1988. More recently it has appeared in trade paperback editions from Souvenir Press (1997), Roc (1999), and Tachyon Publications (2007). The work has also appeared with other works by Beagle in the omnibus collections The Fantasy Worlds of Peter S. Beagle (1978) and The Last Unicorn / A Fine and Private Place (1991). It has also been translated into Japanese, German, Russian, Czech, Hungarian, Portuguese, Korean, Spanish, Italian, and Romanian.

<i>Undersea Trilogy</i> Three science fiction novels by Frederik Pohl and Jack Wiliamson

The Undersea Trilogy is a series of three science fiction novels by American writers Frederik Pohl and Jack Williamson. The novels were first published by Gnome Press beginning in 1954. The novels were collected in a single omnibus volume published by Baen Books in 1992. The story takes place in and around the underwater dome city called Marinia. The hero of the stories is cadet Jim Eden of the Sub-Sea Academy.

<i>Out of This World</i> (Leinster book)

Out of This World is a collection of three related science fiction stories by Murray Leinster, published by Avalon Books in 1958. The stories, all featuring "hillbilly polymath" Bud Gregory, originally appeared in Thrilling Wonder Stories over a four-month span in 1947, and are sometimes characterized as a novel. A fourth story in the Gregory sequence, "The Seven Temporary Moons", was published in TWS in 1948, but has never been collected. All the stories originally carried the "William Fitzgerald" byline.

<i>The Mind Cage</i> Book by A.E. van Vogt

The Mind Cage is a 1957 science fiction novel by Canadian-American writer A. E. Van Vogt, adapted from the short story "The Great Judge" (1948).

<i>Galactic Derelict</i>

Galactic Derelict is a science fiction novel by American writer Andre Norton, the second in her Time Traders series. It was first published in 1959, and as of 2012, had been reprinted in eight editions. It is part of Norton's Forerunner universe.

References

  1. Grey, Ian (September 1999). "Stir of Echoes: A Chicago Ghost Story". Fangoria . Vol. 186. pp. 20–24, 82. ISSN   0164-2111.
  2. Gale, Floyd C. (August 1958). "Galaxy's 5 Star Shelf". Galaxy Science Fiction . p. 127.
  3. "In the Balance". If. December 1958, pp.110