Update on second read 2020: I'm much more forgiving of "the creeping terror," especially the footnote device, and "manage" was a fine length. "The distributor," about a man who intentionally sows discord in a neighborhood, seemed so much darker this read-through than it ever has before.

2012 review: almost half of these i've read before (children of noah, long distance call, the holiday man, dance of the dead, death ship, the distributor) -- out of the ones i hadn't read, a few of them were rather goofy, such as the splendid source and the creeping terror, the latter about how los angeles is slowly, literally taking over the rest of the country. i giggled at these, but they just didn't seem that effective, and i found myself just waiting for them both to end. i was also entranced by mantage, but thought it too was a little long. out of the"new" crop, the lemmings was my favorite, short and chilling, in the way that matheson does best -- demonstrating how the most terrifying things come from humankind's nature. ( )