Books like Triage

Let the feather ruffling...commence!I tend to avoid reading reviews on here before I get a book. I like to compare opinions later when it's all done. With TRIAGE, I'm going to go against the consensus and ask...WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?TRIAGE is a collection of three novellas (although, I argue that point straight off the bat) by the masters of splatter: Richard Laymon, Ed Lee and Jack Ketchum, which share the initial starting point of a person entering a place of work and shooting the place up. As a huge fan of all three, I was greatly looking forward to this, expecting a blood-soaked three way of a trio of fantastic writers trying to up the ante on each other. Was this the case? Let's take a look at the three pieces individually...First up, Laymon's TRIAGE. Sharon has a dull office job for a legal firm and out of the blue receives a threatening phonecall. Seconds later, the caller is living up to his promise and enters the office with a shot gun. What follows is a cat and mouse tale (not tail, despite the animal analogy) as the stalker hunts Sharon through the largely quiet building.I love Richard's work. Love it love it love it. He was the writer that made me a writer, and I expected a great and nasty story, especially with the assumed competition between each author here.Yes, for the average reader, we have a despicable story. But for the seasoned Laymon reader, he doesn't push himself. The story never gets out of third gear, and we've seen all this before. The characters are as 2D as American Idol contestants and instantly forgettable.There's also a few eye rolling moments:"There's a madman after me with a shotgun! Let's call the police and get out of here!""No need. I have a gun!""Great stuff. Even though he killed everyone and I'm in my underwear, let's go get him!"Hmm. This was far from a perfect short novella, but in its favour the story has a blistering pace (I finished it in one sitting) and is tight as my Friday night pulling pants. I didn't dislike the piece, but being an avid Laymon reader, it failed to meet his standards. Even though Richard is my favourite of the three writers, this was the weakest, most uninspired story. It read like a watered down version of the beginning of ENDLESS NIGHT.Edward Lee is perhaps the lesser known when compared to his companions here. I've only started reading his books this year, with SLITHER and THE GOLEM under my belt. Damn good reads, damn fine writer. I expected him to be the young upstart here, struggling to compete with the wider read competition.His story, IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD: 2202, starts of almost exactly like Richard's...even the character names. The scene - aboard a spacecraft in our distant future - fades in throughout the first few scenes. It made this reader groan. Sci Fi Star Trek bullshit. I hate it. Truly. Passionately. Is this it? Lee had to compete and this was his spin? TRIAGE IN SPACE?2202 takes up about 70% of the book, and dare I say it, this is the stand out. This is the novella you are going to buy this book for. Lee sets his story in space and not for novelty value. It needs the spacecraft, the crew, the isolation. Lee has crafted here a neat little story that challenges on political and religious grounds within a twisting, breakneck thriller. I quickly shrugged off my I H8 SF hat and let the story take me. If I can love this, I don't see what problem the other readers had with it. Some couldn't even finish it? WTF? Was there too many twists and turns and gripping scenes or something? Jeez.Oh, and without spoiling it, check out the brief cameo by one of horrors biggest names.Finally, Jack Ketchum brings us to a close with SHEEP MEADOW STORY.Let's get some preconceptions out of the way. This is not a novella (more a short story), nor is this horror. Plus, Jack cheats his way out of the initial starting point scene, but thankfully makes this imperative to the story's climax.Stroup is an arsehole (basically) that works for a literary agency (ah, so that's why he's an arsehole... Great way to impress the representation there, Dan). He drinks. He smokes. He fucks a lot (A LOT!). He's having what one would call, a bad day. Driven to the edge, Stroup is forced into an extreme situation, but every cloud has a silver lining...This is not horror and might leave a few questions as to why the man who wrote Off Season might get away with such a non-visceral piece. Who knows, but this doesn't mean that this isn't good. I thoroughly enjoyed it.The piece was written with pitch-black humour and the character of Stroup is very, very entertaining (readers should remember the scene with baseball on TV in a bar. If like me, you would LOVE to do something like that!). So, this isn't horror/thriller, but I didn't care. It made a nice change and was good to see a different side to Jack, who even has a self-referencing dig in this story.Three kings of splatter, yet being very reserved, trying new things and surprising this reader. Fast as a rattler and bloody good fun, I read this over a couple of days. Hat off to the my winner Mr Edward Lee for the best of the three. It's rekindled my interest in the author. Now, to peruse Book Depository for my next Lee fix...