Richard Christian Matheson Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Short Story Collections

Publication Order of Anthologies

Richard Christian Matheson

Many sons (and daughters) have successfully stepped out from the long shadow their accomplished fathers can cast; Kim Stafford, son of Consultant in Poetry for the Library of Congress William Stafford, Michael Douglas, son of Oscar winning actor and centenarian Kirk Douglas, and sixth US President, John Quincy Adams, son of John Adams, founding father and second president of the United States. Some shadows cast are longer than others.

Richard Christian Matheson has managed to do what can be a difficult path for a son of a famous person. His father, Richard Burton Matheson, was a well-known and highly respected author of many award winning horror screenplays, novels, and short stories, with a huge collection of writings.

Richard, born in 1953 in Santa Monica, California, is a writer of screenplays and horror fiction. His novel, Created By, was a nominee for the Bram Stoker First Novel award. Created By is a thriller story set in the ferocious world of prime-time TV. Alan White, a young TV writer, comes up with a huge hit. The violent series he creates, “The Mercenary”, becomes frighteningly real when the plots he writes become real.

Sex and violence is taken to a new high with this show. It appears Alan, producer/writer, has created and unleashed a monster when his fictional character, a remorseless mercenary named A. E. Barek, is an inspired copycat killer who is creating murderous imitations from the show.

Alan’s enemies are ruthlessly murdered one at a time with methods he created for fiction. Now Alan realizes it’s necessary to find and stop his ersatz creation. Although Alan is nearly as distasteful as his TV creation, he knows his responsibility for this fatal fiasco is partially his.

Matheson has an impressively long list of writing credits: a very large number of TV series scripts including Tales from the Crypt, Magnum PI, and Quincy and many movie screenplays. He has written over 100 short stories based on magic realism and psychological horror which can be found in over 150 various published anthologies.

Matheson’s first book, Scars and Other Distinguishing Marks (1987), is a set of 27 fantasy and horror stories, includes writings by his father, Richard Matheson, collected together in the book. This book has been praised by the likes of Stephen King calling the younger Mr. Matheson’s writing “remarkable”.

Dystopia (1997) is another set of short stories by Mr. Matheson. Described as stories of dread and bizarre, there are sixty stories of characters who defy ordinary description.

An alcoholic Santa Claus, movie theaters that have been repurposed as execution chambers, and Siamese twins with a country western act are unusual entries. The bizarre entries are stories of beds that have their own sex lives, orgasm caused death, and savages in modern-day Hawaii. The stories are a hypnotic psychological confession.

The collection of stories in Dystopia has rapturous introductions by such vaulted authors as Ray Bradbury, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, and Dean Koontz. Over twenty well know authors have written introductions with admiration about the stories and even included anecdotes about Mr. Matheson himself.

Mr. Matheson’s novella, The Ritual of Illusion (2013), focuses on the story of Oscar-winning actress, the sexy and alluring Sephanie Vamoe. Her fame has been meteoric but it’s not as it appears. There have been fifty witnesses to her rocket ride to fame and include producers, directors, screenwriters, and agents; lovers, stars, and the glitterati of Hollywood, they all have their personal version of her ascent to the heaven of fame. The Rashomon-style of each character creates a lurid story, hypnotic with its widescreen-style of releasing information. With each character giving a different account of Sephanie’s rise to fame, it becomes impossible to know what is the actual truth. Mr. Matheson invites the reader to listen to each one of the characters and compare the disparate points of view and work out what they say has happened.

In Mediums Rare, Mr. Matheson delivers us another fine collection of short stories. This time he uses his interest in ESP, telepathy, and parapsychology for stories that tell us about episodes of the paranormal in Greek antiquity through the more recent of the psychic Edgar Cayce.

The mid-19th century was the heyday for performers, mediums, and seers of the psychic world. Parapsychology was endorsed by famous people like Harry Houdini, Mary Todd Lincoln, the wife of President Abraham Lincoln, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the legendary Sherlock Holmes series. Mr. Matheson taps into this colorful period in history and other eras to give us fictionalized accounts with the excitement, the wonder, and the mystery of the unknown around us.

Zoopraxis, a recent collection of short stories by Mr. Matheson. This collection of stories, loaded with menace, leaves you with feelings of dread. With seventeen original illustrations for this book by the esteemed artist, Harry O. Morris, you are further drawn into the surreal world of Mr. Matheson.

Chockfull of tales with an amazing range of ideas that will capture your interest. There’s a man who can’t stop talking, ice swallowing a murderer, an embalming machine that shows its sense of soul on the job, and a special story about a mind-reading dog.

The titles of the stories capture your attention. The collection launches with an ironic How to Edit. Making Cabinets, Bulimia, and The Embalming Machine show a range of interesting themes that hooks you.