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For those that care, Brett Talley's He Who Walks in Shadow was released a couple of weeks ago. It's a direct sequel to That Which Should Not Be. I'm about halfway through now and so far it's a lot of fun.
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Jun 3, 2015 02:31
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The Shadow Out of Time could have been scary if the main character was transposed with the Yithian at the end and experienced the flying polyp extinction event first hand, combining that sense of loss of identity (from temporal theft, even) with whatever horrors incurred by the polyps, with the main character realizing that he's going to die alone in a strange land/time, and nobody will ever realize it. But maybe existential horror is why I tend to dig Ligotti a bit more. Speaking of, has it been confirmed whether his latest reprint of Songs and Grimscribe will be the original texts or his edited ones?
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Jun 3, 2015 02:49
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GrandpaPants posted:But maybe existential horror is why I tend to dig Ligotti a bit more. Speaking of, has it been confirmed whether his latest reprint of Songs and Grimscribe will be the original texts or his edited ones? On this note, could someone give me a quick precis on what the differences are between the originals and the edited versions? I only have The Nightmare Factory, so I haven't seen what changes occur.
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Jun 5, 2015 02:25
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Pththya-lyi posted:The main problem with that story is that body-hopping, time-and-space-bending librarians are not so much scary as they are totally awesome. (See also: Deep Ones. :iamafag:)
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Jun 5, 2015 13:05
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anilEhilated posted:I honestly think that's Lovecraft in a nutshell. The only story of his I'd consider scary is The Colour Out Of Space, the rest is more about awe inspiration and -someness. I disagree- I think he does creepy well, and the chase scene in The Shadow Over Innsmouth is just harrowing.
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Jun 5, 2015 13:45
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Humanity ending because an alien race can teleport their minds across time and space to take over other beings is absolutely terrifying. I always liked that mankind only was spared because of some fluke, making the Great Race prefer some antpeople in the distant future or whatever, underlining how powerless and insignificant mankind is. We could have done nothing to prevent this horrible, pod-people invasion and everyone taken over would have been sent to an alien body in another time to be torn apart by horrible, alien things. To a modern reader then Lovecraft is perhaps not exactly scary at most times - but his stories are unnerving. Cosmic horror isn't scary like traditional horror. It gives you the sense that your perception of reality and your life is just a thin veil, waiting to be lifted. It's something that pokes at an underlying sense of the wrongness of reality deep in your mind and brings it to the surface. That is way worse than something that will want you to keep the light on for one night (although that makes for a very fun reading experience as well).
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Jun 6, 2015 01:54
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I've always enjoyed Picman's Model and Color Out of Space. Outside of that I've enjoyed where other people have taken the broad brush strokes of his concepts. Lingotti's just too oppressive (or depressive) to be enjoyable. Simmons is too dry. Curran, too repeatative. I've always enjoyed Stross, but more so for his short stories rather than the novels. Does anybody have any suggestions for just open ended weird not related to mythos and not Lingotti? Maybe along the lines of Liminal States? Hell, maybe I'll just read that again.
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Jun 6, 2015 11:39
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oops. Dp.
Dr. Benway fucked around with this message at 11:41 on Jun 6, 2015 |
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Jun 6, 2015 11:39
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Not really horror but I love the Viriconium stories by M. John Harrison for that - it's fantasy with more than a good deal of underlying bizarreness. If you go for it, I'd suggest getting a complete edition just to see how it progresses - he likes to tackle similar themes with different representations and angles. edit: And don't try to tell me Storm of Wings isn't cosmic weird.
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Jun 6, 2015 15:23
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Dr. Benway posted:Ages and ages ago there was a thread in GBS , I think, of goons reading Lovecraft. There weren't many entries, but some of them were pretty well done. Does anyone happen to have these? I'm sure the links are long dead (or perhaps just eternally sleeping). Here's my entries from that thread: http://tindeck.com/album/ivzvl
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Jun 6, 2015 18:44
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Dr. Benway posted:Does anybody have any suggestions for just open ended weird not related to mythos and not Lingotti? Maybe along the lines of Liminal States? Jeffrey Ford The Drowned Life and Crackpot Palace specifically.
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Jun 6, 2015 20:08
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Is there any really hard SF cosmic horror like Watts out there but without the kind of aspie snark that comes with his style? Like I love the indifferent sense of dread that pervades Blindsight and the Rifters series (and that they both make you think long and hard about how being a living thing, much less being self-aware is pretty terrifying and weird) but the Dawkins-like sneering tone he has is annoying and gets in the way a lot.
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Jun 6, 2015 21:35
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Reynolds? Not so focused on the horror but it's there.
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Jun 6, 2015 21:45
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echopraxia posted:Is there any really hard SF cosmic horror like Watts out there but without the kind of aspie snark that comes with his style? Like I love the indifferent sense of dread that pervades Blindsight and the Rifters series (and that they both make you think long and hard about how being a living thing, much less being self-aware is pretty terrifying and weird) but the Dawkins-like sneering tone he has is annoying and gets in the way a lot. Did you come by this opinion before or after the name choice Ship of Fools/Unto Leviathan (Russo) and The Void (Talley) are the go-to recommendations for SF horror. I thought the first Expanse novel was really good horror, too, but they dropped that in the sequels.
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Jun 6, 2015 21:46
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anilEhilated posted:Reynolds? Not so focused on the horror but it's there. Thank you for reminding me he existed and that I love him when he's dealing with aliens. PINING 4 PORKINS posted:Did you come by this opinion before or after the name choice Eh, his style bothered me when I first read Blindsight but not enough so that it got in the way of enjoying the story. I think he did much better with Echopraxia in that respect, but in turn it suffered from an incoherent narrative that was all over the place. It's like he can't have a good balance going and I only recently realized it. I will definitely look those over thanks man.
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Jun 6, 2015 22:05
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dp
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Jun 6, 2015 22:05
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I read the Void just a couple of weeks ago. Found it rather disappointing, actually -- flat characters, and a plot that could be characterized, if slightly unfairly, as "Event Horizon meets, uh, Event Horizon". Sure, there's a pinch of Lovecraftian gribbliness in place of the overt Infernalism of EH, and the dreams manage some nice atmosphere in places, but it's not enough to carry a novel for me.
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Jun 6, 2015 22:16
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echopraxia posted:Is there any really hard SF cosmic horror like Watts out there but without the kind of aspie snark that comes with his style? Like I love the indifferent sense of dread that pervades Blindsight and the Rifters series (and that they both make you think long and hard about how being a living thing, much less being self-aware is pretty terrifying and weird) but the Dawkins-like sneering tone he has is annoying and gets in the way a lot. Are there any writers like Phillip K Dick, but uncontaminated by being a subhuman schizophrenic?
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Jun 7, 2015 03:23
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The Vosgian Beast posted:Are there any writers like Phillip K Dick, but uncontaminated by being a subhuman schizophrenic? That's a very strange comparison to make.
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Jun 7, 2015 15:17
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CuddleChunks posted:Here's my entries from that thread: http://tindeck.com/album/ivzvl Awesome. Thanks, buddy.
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Jun 7, 2015 20:27
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Annihilation won the Nebula for Best Novel.
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Jun 8, 2015 02:07
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Ghostwoods posted:I read the Void just a couple of weeks ago. Found it rather disappointing, actually -- flat characters, and a plot that could be characterized, if slightly unfairly, as "Event Horizon meets, uh, Event Horizon". Sure, there's a pinch of Lovecraftian gribbliness in place of the overt Infernalism of EH, and the dreams manage some nice atmosphere in places, but it's not enough to carry a novel for me. Yeah, it felt really amateurishly written. Not sure why it gets so much buzz.
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Jun 8, 2015 03:36
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Effectronica posted:That's a very strange comparison to make. I used to like Borges, but him becoming blind really taints his life's work with his icky inability to see.
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Jun 8, 2015 09:13
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The Vosgian Beast posted:Are there any writers like Phillip K Dick, but uncontaminated by being a subhuman schizophrenic? Are you doing a thing here?
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Jun 8, 2015 17:52
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I'm guessing "aspie" is the part that he's taking issue to but honestly "snark" was the operative word in echopraxia's post.
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Jun 8, 2015 18:03
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Fire Safety Doug posted:I'm guessing "aspie" is the part that he's taking issue to but honestly "snark" was the operative word in echopraxia's post. Oh, yeah, I didn't even read echopraxia as hatin' on disabilities, so I thought Vosigan was serious. Now that you point it out, though, aspie is a weird tag to hang on snark.
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Jun 8, 2015 19:03
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Darth Walrus posted:Yeah, it felt really amateurishly written. Not sure why it gets so much buzz. I guess it's mainly an indicator that there's very little cosmic space horror, so what stuff there is gets talked up for novelty value?
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Jun 8, 2015 22:11
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Ghostwoods posted:I guess it's mainly an indicator that there's very little cosmic space horror, so what stuff there is gets talked up for novelty value? That's certainly a part of it. But, and I'm speaking only for myself here, I don't come into cosmic horror (of any flavor) with very high expectations, so I'm willing to forgive a lot if the author has ideas that intrigue me. There are certainly authors putting out cosmic horror that is of very high quality all around (Ligotti, Hodge, Kiernan), but there's also a lot of really bad stuff out there. In the grand scheme of things, I think The Void falls just on the good side of the middle point between those two extremes.
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Jun 9, 2015 03:42
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I'm honestly not sure what the buzz about Talley in general is about. I read That Which Should Not Be and it felt kind of bland. Like, all the ingredients are there but none of the awe or horror, it was more of a fun ride through a Lovecraftian world than anything else.
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Jun 9, 2015 09:03
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The Void always struck me as, someone wanted to write a sequel or something in the same universe and unintentionally wrote the same thing. I've read That Which Should Not Be , but honestly couldn't tell you a thing about it. Whether the eldritch gods have blocked from my memory or it was just unimpressive who's to say. I wish that they had kept a little of the existential creep factor with the Expanse series. Pray to God they do it justice on syfy, because the first three books were pretty darn good.
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Jun 9, 2015 11:11
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anilEhilated posted:I'm honestly not sure what the buzz about Talley in general is about. I read That Which Should Not Be and it felt kind of bland. Like, all the ingredients are there but none of the awe or horror, it was more of a fun ride through a Lovecraftian world than anything else. I thought it was supremely unimpressive and by-the-numbers.
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Jun 9, 2015 12:48
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What do people think of Andersen Prunty? Does he belong in a thread about weird fiction?
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Jun 14, 2015 14:53
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The Vosgian Beast posted:I used to like Borges, but him becoming blind really taints his life's work with his icky inability to see. Have you considered being less passive-aggressive, and instead just calling people motherfuckers if they use the colloquial definition of "aspie" or "sperg"?
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Jun 14, 2015 19:11
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Effectronica posted:Have you considered being less passive-aggressive, and instead just calling people motherfuckers if they use the colloquial definition of "aspie" or "sperg"? Man, don't be such a Eosinophiliac about this.
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Jun 14, 2015 20:33
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Not cosmic horror, but weird tales - Stephen Graham Jones' After The People Lights Have Gone Off is a little hit-or-miss but has some genuinely creepy work and decent writing. There's an excellent werewolf story, a disturbing and unconventional vampire story (which features as its protagonist a dude who practices his tattoo art on corpses in a morgue), a story with a light sci-fi varnish about a group of besuited strangers who keep popping up at funerals, and a magic fruit box with magic geometry that does magic. He does fall back on my least favorite modern horror device, though, in that he'll present a fairly coherent narrative that absolutely disintegrates on the very last page into some ambiguous, vaguely spooky, wide-open-to-interpretation anticlimax. Has anyone read Strantzas' Burnt Black Suns? Is it any good? The Vosgian Beast posted:Man, don't be such a Eosinophiliac about this. stop posting chernobyl kinsman fucked around with this message at 21:31 on Jun 14, 2015 |
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Jun 14, 2015 21:25
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End Of Worlds posted:which features as its protagonist a dude who practices his tattoo art on corpses in a morgue. That didn't really sound all that creepy until I read the story about the guy tattooing pigs for handbags.
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Jun 14, 2015 21:58
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End Of Worlds posted:Has anyone read Strantzas' Burnt Black Suns? Is it any good? I found it a bit hit and miss - some pretty good stories, others were a slog to read and had little payoff.
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Jun 14, 2015 21:58
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End Of Worlds posted:Has anyone read Strantzas' Burnt Black Suns? Is it any good? I have. I generally agree with Fire Safety Doug, though I felt there were more hits than misses. I also think that's part of Simon's style - sometimes he wants to write a story that's largely just atmosphere with little or no payoff in the end. I just finished Brett Talley's latest, He Who Walks in Shadow. It's better than his two previous books, though if you didn't like those, you probably also won't like this one. One thing I will say, Talley doesn't waste a lot of words on superfluous detail, so when it's time to get to the action, the action is gotten to. On the flip side, this makes the book read a lot like a recap of someone's Call of Cthulhu game.
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Jun 14, 2015 23:05
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Bolverkur posted:Humanity ending because an alien race can teleport their minds across time and space to take over other beings is absolutely terrifying. I always liked that mankind only was spared because of some fluke, making the Great Race prefer some antpeople in the distant future or whatever, underlining how powerless and insignificant mankind is. We could have done nothing to prevent this horrible, pod-people invasion and everyone taken over would have been sent to an alien body in another time to be torn apart by horrible, alien things. The Yith are cuddly, though. Other than that little escape from the polyps fluke, they were very kind and pleasant to their switcherees and even put them back when done. 
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Jun 18, 2015 05:25
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Wow Robert Aickman's short The Swords disturbed me more than any story I've read in a long, long time Just, like augh
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Jun 18, 2015 07:04
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