|
I'm not sure it qualifies as weird fiction, but Nick Cave's "And The rear end Saw The Angel" is a pretty atmospheric and Biblical-tinged southern gothic novel. The narrator is an inbred mute who is suffering seizures and twisted angelic hallucinations, and who is under constant abuse from his tiny southern religious community. Well worth a read, although it's more of a religious kind of horror than cosmic. A lot of it is written in the main character's inner monologue, so you'll need some tolerance for reading southern drawl. If you're a fan of Cave, it is absolutely obligatory reading.
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2015 19:19
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 15, 2024 06:05 |
|
|
CuddleChunks posted:Play the game "Alan Wake", it's a lot of fun and is appropriately Lynchian weirdness. As you progress through the game you'll pick up pages of the main character's manuscript. There's a creepy novel they wrote for background to the game. I actually have played it, and it's definitely in that vein. There were six(?) promotional videos that they released before the game came out that were probably the most Twin Peaks things I've encountered. Very creepy in a fantastic way.
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2015 19:30
|
|
|
If you want Twin Peaks: the game, go for Deadly Premonition. It's kinda better to watch it somewhere though, since the game is pretty bad. The atmosphere and presentation of the story are fantastic, however.
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2015 20:24
|
|
|
anilEhilated posted:If you want Twin Peaks: the game, go for Deadly Premonition. It's kinda better to watch it somewhere though, since the game is pretty bad. The atmosphere and presentation of the story are fantastic, however. Deadly Premonition's story and atmosphere are spectacular and in some ways creepier than and superior to Twin Peaks. The actual GAMEPLAY, on the other hand...
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2015 09:33
|
|
|
Fortunately, SuperGreatFriend's LP of it was significantly awesome. http://lparchive.org/Deadly-Premonition/ Well worth a watch.
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2015 14:13
|
|
|
Neurosis posted:Deadly Premonition's story and atmosphere are spectacular and in some ways creepier than and superior to Twin Peaks. The actual GAMEPLAY, on the other hand... Agent York is a fascinating take on the character of Dale Cooper, but examining why he's so interesting would get into spoilers.
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2015 14:44
|
|
|
Just adding to the mention of the Subterranean Press Humble Bundle on the previous page. The Agonizing Resurrection of Victor Frankenstein, by Thomas Ligotti, has been added in at the beat the average tier. I don't know if it's just because of where I live or not, but he only has 4 ebooks available on Amazon, so I hope a few more of his books appear in bundles like this. https://www.humblebundle.com/books dihaploidy fucked around with this message at 00:00 on Feb 26, 2015 |
|
#
?
Feb 25, 2015 23:56
|
|
|
dihaploidy posted:I don't know if it's just because of where I live or not, but he only has 4 ebooks available on Amazon, so I hope a few more of his books appear in bundles like this. I counted eight available for US Kindle.
|
|
#
?
Feb 27, 2015 06:02
|
|
|
Ornamented Death posted:I counted eight available for US Kindle. drat, that mades me sad. I've only got access to The Conspiracy against the Human Race, Teatro Grottesco, My Work Is Not Yet Done and Death Poems. Hopefully that changes in the future.
|
|
#
?
Feb 28, 2015 05:03
|
|
|
Looks like you don't have access to the books published by Subterranean Press. You...may want to look in to how to change the location for your Kindle so you can purchase from the US store.
|
|
#
?
Feb 28, 2015 05:12
|
|
|
Ornamented Death posted:Looks like you don't have access to the books published by Subterranean Press. You...may want to look in to how to change the location for your Kindle so you can purchase from the US store. Yeah I know about that setting and I've used it in the past. I'm not so sure want to do it with kindle purchases though. I have heard stories of people getting caught out by Amazon for using an Australian address/IP/card, and then having those ebooks revoked without refunds. On a more positive and thread relevant note, I have noticed that the upcoming combined Ligotti release of Grimscribe and Songs of a Dead Dreamer do appear to be available for pre-order for me, so if his other books get that treatment, (or the ebook bundle treatment), I will be happy. Of course, as someone upthread mentioned, they may be the altered reprints, which would be disappointing, but even that would be a step up from not having access to them at all.
|
|
#
?
Feb 28, 2015 06:16
|
|
|
ElectricWizard posted:I'm not sure it qualifies as weird fiction, but Nick Cave's "And The rear end Saw The Angel" is a pretty atmospheric and Biblical-tinged southern gothic novel. The narrator is an inbred mute who is suffering seizures and twisted angelic hallucinations, and who is under constant abuse from his tiny southern religious community. Well worth a read, although it's more of a religious kind of horror than cosmic. A lot of it is written in the main character's inner monologue, so you'll need some tolerance for reading southern drawl. If you're a fan of Cave, it is absolutely obligatory reading. Yeah, it's a weird book that makes you feel dirty in your soul, but probably not quite the same thing. On a shameless-self-promotion note, my band put out a heavily Lovecraft-influenced record a few years back: Weird Tales & Gonzo Sleaze . Some people might find itinteresting or enjoyable.
|
|
#
?
Mar 2, 2015 18:38
|
|
|
El Miguel posted:Yeah, it's a weird book that makes you feel dirty in your soul, but probably not quite the same thing. On a shameless-self-promotion note, my band put out a heavily Lovecraft-influenced record a few years back: Weird Tales & Gonzo Sleaze . Some people might find itinteresting or enjoyable. I'm not sure about the shameless self-promotion, but this reminded me of a book I've always wanted to read: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10796760-the-damned-highway Anyone read it? Also recall a Kerouac Lovecraft fusion that was quite decent, as I remember it.
|
|
#
?
Mar 2, 2015 22:36
|
|
|
dihaploidy posted:drat, that mades me sad. The Spectral Link isn't worth the price he was asking when it first came out.
|
|
#
?
Mar 3, 2015 00:33
|
|
|
Bolverkur posted:I'm not sure about the shameless self-promotion, but this reminded me of a book I've always wanted to read: The Lovecraft/Kerouac pastiche is called Move Under Ground, and the author Nick Mamatas also has a collection of all his short stories in a similar vein: http://www.innsmouthfreepress.com/blog/tb-books/the-nickronomicon/ I actually haven't gotten to The Damned Highway yet, but everything else of his I've read has been fun and rather clever. He really knows his way around an unusual narrator.
|
|
#
?
Mar 3, 2015 04:51
|
|
|
I just found that they released the Borderlands short story series on Kindle recently. Edited by Thomas F. Monteleone and Elizabeth Monteleone. I read them all in the 90's on paperback, I think they were actually published by White Wolf (of the Vampire RPG fame) at the time or something, but I think many of them fit in the weird horror genre. Some are typical 90's grimdark, but others are really good. I wanted to find them again because I remember "The Pounding Room" by Bentley Little having a big impact on me, and it still did strike me as hilarious and scary at the same time rereading it 20-some years later. I'd say give the first one a try and if you like at least some of the stories in it you might like the other 4 volumes. One thing I've noticed is that it suffers a bit from scanning, there's a lot of typos that are obvious OCR failures. But they're easy to read around.
|
|
#
?
Mar 19, 2015 05:13
|
|
|
Section 9 posted:I just found that they released the Borderlands short story series on Kindle recently. Edited by Thomas F. Monteleone and Elizabeth Monteleone. I read them all in the 90's on paperback, I think they were actually published by White Wolf (of the Vampire RPG fame) at the time or something, but I think many of them fit in the weird horror genre. Some are typical 90's grimdark, but others are really good. I wanted to find them again because I remember "The Pounding Room" by Bentley Little having a big impact on me, and it still did strike me as hilarious and scary at the same time rereading it 20-some years later. I'd say give the first one a try and if you like at least some of the stories in it you might like the other 4 volumes. One thing I've noticed is that it suffers a bit from scanning, there's a lot of typos that are obvious OCR failures. But they're easy to read around. Back in the 90's WW had a publishing arm that did some random short story anthology stuff. I've got a collection of Elric pastiches, "Tales of the White Wolf", that they published.
|
|
#
?
Mar 19, 2015 05:21
|
|
|
Section 9 posted:I just found that they released the Borderlands short story series on Kindle recently. Edited by Thomas F. Monteleone and Elizabeth Monteleone. I read them all in the 90's on paperback, I think they were actually published by White Wolf (of the Vampire RPG fame) at the time or something, but I think many of them fit in the weird horror genre. Some are typical 90's grimdark, but others are really good. I wanted to find them again because I remember "The Pounding Room" by Bentley Little having a big impact on me, and it still did strike me as hilarious and scary at the same time rereading it 20-some years later. I'd say give the first one a try and if you like at least some of the stories in it you might like the other 4 volumes. One thing I've noticed is that it suffers a bit from scanning, there's a lot of typos that are obvious OCR failures. But they're easy to read around. Those are some great anthos. I only own a couple of them in paperback.
|
|
#
?
Mar 19, 2015 05:39
|
|
|
ravenkult posted:Those are some great anthos. I only own a couple of them in paperback. I used to have all 5 in paperback, but borrowed them away to people I don't know anymore. There are quite a few stories I'm looking forward to reading again to see if they hold up. I remember two others that stuck with me. One about someone that was basically just a living torso, and one about a child who was just the most horrible thing on the face of the earth. I just finished reading the one about "Little brother"...still gave me chills. "Eat me."
|
|
#
?
Mar 19, 2015 05:57
|
|
|
Yeah, I think the stories weren't always accessible, but they are far more interesting than what is coming out today (even those Best Of anthos). I should re-read these.
|
|
#
?
Mar 19, 2015 06:34
|
|
|
White Wolf also put out a F. Marion Crawford anthology in that line, which was a pleasant surprise (though one of the stories was mistakenly cut off before the end, giving you a very real cliffhanger). I only wish they had stuck around, because they seemed dedicated to going into the lesser knowns rather than just publishing an endless sea of pastiches or what have you.
|
|
#
?
Mar 19, 2015 06:37
|
|
|
I remember a couple of novels from the same publisher and time period that I thought I got into from the Borderlands series, but looking through the indexes maybe not? William Browning Spencer. I remember Return of the Count Electric being weird and disturbing as hell. I thought I found him through Borderlands, but maybe it was just similar cover art in the horror section of Border's. I think the Borderlands series got me started into weird horror outside of classic stuff like Lovecraft. These days I would say I think Ligotti and Cisco are much better, but reading these shorts again, they're not bad. (Edit) Also looking over the indexes, most of my favorite stories from these are apparently from Bentley Little. Anyone read Little over the past couple years to confirm if I should buy all the books? Section 9 fucked around with this message at 07:14 on Mar 19, 2015 |
|
#
?
Mar 19, 2015 07:11
|
|
|
Section 9 posted:I remember a couple of novels from the same publisher and time period that I thought I got into from the Borderlands series, but looking through the indexes maybe not? William Browning Spencer. I remember Return of the Count Electric being weird and disturbing as hell. I thought I found him through Borderlands, but maybe it was just similar cover art in the horror section of Border's. The put out The Riverrun Trilogy by S.P. Somtow too. They also had a Vampire: Dark Ages anthology that was fairly decent, mostly because it didn't really reference the game that much.
|
|
#
?
Mar 19, 2015 07:41
|
|
|
I just finished The Imago Sequence by Laird Barron. I liked two of the novellas, the title one and also "Procession of the Black Sloth", but I thought pretty much everything else was kind of crap. He has some neat ideas, but most of the stories were so focused on the abstract/weird poo poo that they failed to tell any sort of story other than "guy encounters unknowable horror, goes crazy then dies". Has he written anything else worth reading?
|
|
#
?
Mar 19, 2015 15:02
|
|
|
Daveski posted:I just finished The Imago Sequence by Laird Barron. I liked two of the novellas, the title one and also "Procession of the Black Sloth", but I thought pretty much everything else was kind of crap. He has some neat ideas, but most of the stories were so focused on the abstract/weird poo poo that they failed to tell any sort of story other than "guy encounters unknowable horror, goes crazy then dies". Has he written anything else worth reading? Nope, read Brian Evenson. Windeye is a great place to start.
|
|
#
?
Mar 19, 2015 21:21
|
|
|
fez_machine posted:Nope, read Brian Evenson. Windeye is a great place to start. Thanks, that looks really interesting, I'll check it out.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2015 14:44
|
|
|
I've tried really hard to like Bairron but the weird Hemingway-esque hypermasculinity is just totally a insurmountable obstacle for me
chernobyl kinsman fucked around with this message at 22:32 on Mar 20, 2015 |
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2015 19:19
|
|
|
Section 9 posted:(Edit) Also looking over the indexes, most of my favorite stories from these are apparently from Bentley Little. Anyone read Little over the past couple years to confirm if I should buy all the books? Buy Dispatch if you can find it, all his books are more or less that same style. Generally speaking the cosmic horror ends up being beaten though, so if that isn't your thing don't bother. He's not hyper violent (unlike Laymon or Keene) and I really enjoy his stuff.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2015 23:33
|
|
|
End Of Worlds posted:I've tried really hard to like Bairron but the weird Hemingway-esque hypermasculinity is just totally a insurmountable obstacle for me The Croning's protagonist wasn't as far along the hypermasculinity spectrum as a lot of Barron's other protagonists, although I actually like the hypermasculinity so I might have blinders on.
|
|
#
?
Mar 21, 2015 08:56
|
|
|
I dug that one lumber camp story, up to the point where the elder things were revealed and they were kinda lame.
|
|
#
?
Mar 21, 2015 09:33
|
|
|
Section 9 posted:I just found that they released the Borderlands short story series on Kindle recently. Edited by Thomas F. Monteleone and Elizabeth Monteleone. I read them all in the 90's on paperback, I think they were actually published by White Wolf (of the Vampire RPG fame) at the time or something, but I think many of them fit in the weird horror genre. Some are typical 90's grimdark, but others are really good. I wanted to find them again because I remember "The Pounding Room" by Bentley Little having a big impact on me, and it still did strike me as hilarious and scary at the same time rereading it 20-some years later. I'd say give the first one a try and if you like at least some of the stories in it you might like the other 4 volumes. One thing I've noticed is that it suffers a bit from scanning, there's a lot of typos that are obvious OCR failures. But they're easy to read around. I loved these books as a high school student. Haven't found them since. Good to see.
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2015 00:58
|
|
|
Thomas F Monteleone wrote Night Train, which is a really bad book. Not the worst I've ever read, but it's everything you ever recall about 1980's sub-King horror wrapped up in a package with an awful cover.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2015 00:52
|
|
|
What's the general consensus on T.E.D. Klein's The Ceremonies? I've had it sitting around for a while but I keep putting off reading it. I loved "The Events at Poroth Farm", but none of his other short story stuff does anything for me.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2015 02:20
|
|
|
Vastarien posted:What's the general consensus on T.E.D. Klein's The Ceremonies? I've had it sitting around for a while but I keep putting off reading it. I loved "The Events at Poroth Farm", but none of his other short story stuff does anything for me. It's...basically an expanded version of "The Events at Poroth Farm." Not exactly the same, but the structure is very similar. I would guess that if you liked the short story, you'll like the novel. In other news, Brett Talley has written a sequel to That Which Should Not Be, titled He Who Walks in Shadow and due out in May.
|
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2015 03:49
|
|
|
So I'm sure they've come up in the past in this thread, but what's everybody's opinion on the Southern Reach trilogy? I just finished the first book and enjoyed it, though I wasn't blown away by it. I've heard that the second and third books depart somewhat from the style of the original, can anybody confirm this? Is the rest of the trilogy worth a read?
|
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2015 05:22
|
|
|
It was definitely weird fiction, but it never once gave me the creeping horror feeling that Lovecraft or Barron. If you have nothing else to read, I guess it's not bad. But I won't be re-reading it.
|
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2015 13:44
|
|
|
MockingQuantum posted:So I'm sure they've come up in the past in this thread, but what's everybody's opinion on the Southern Reach trilogy? I just finished the first book and enjoyed it, though I wasn't blown away by it. I've heard that the second and third books depart somewhat from the style of the original, can anybody confirm this? Is the rest of the trilogy worth a read? Yes, the books are all very different in terms of POV and tone. Sort of three different perspectives on the meaning of Area X. It's worth reading, but I did find that I liked the first book the best after having finished the trilogy. Still I'm glad I read the second and third, so maybe you should temper your expectations and give them a chance anyway. They are relatively quick reads, to their credit.
|
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2015 16:02
|
|
|
MockingQuantum posted:So I'm sure they've come up in the past in this thread, but what's everybody's opinion on the Southern Reach trilogy? I just finished the first book and enjoyed it, though I wasn't blown away by it. I've heard that the second and third books depart somewhat from the style of the original, can anybody confirm this? Is the rest of the trilogy worth a read? Authority is the best of the bunch. The third one is good but a fails to live up to it's predecessor. edit: Authority is much more in the 'creeping horror' category. Danger fucked around with this message at 18:09 on Mar 30, 2015 |
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2015 17:53
|
|
|
The Rat posted:It was definitely weird fiction, but it never once gave me the creeping horror feeling that Lovecraft or Barron. Same here, thus my hesitation. I don't always buy what Lovecraft and Barron do either, but the occasional story of theirs will still raise the hairs on the back of my neck. I think there was only one moment (or image, I guess) in Annihilation that really gave me the creeps in a fun way. Though the concept of Area X was intriguing, at least.
|
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2015 18:02
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 15, 2024 06:05 |
|
|
MockingQuantum posted:I think there was only one moment (or image, I guess) in Annihilation that really gave me the creeps in a fun way. Was it the bit where she sees the letters being written? That's the one that sticks out most to me, some months after finishing it.
|
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2015 20:08
|
|