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anilEhilated posted:Speaking of The Deep - could someone spoil me on its story? I am very much a pet person so it's not something I am ever going to read but I'm also a huge sucker for everything marine horror. I recommended this book because I like it but a large part of why I like it is how ridiculous it is. There's a fast-acting, seemingly incurable Alzheimer's making large swaths of the country unable to care for themselves. The main character's estranged genius brother is a scientist working in a deep sea station, and sends for the main character to join him, despite not having seen him since they were kids. The military sends him there in a submarine because this deep sea station is the only place that might have a treatment for this plague. As he gets down to the station, he finds that most of the crew are dead, one person is a raving lunatic, and his brother is stranger than ever. There's a dog running around the station. The main character's genius brother shows him this super-strong miracle goo organism he found on the ocean floor, that's impossibly thin and strong and almost invisible and able to masquerade as human tissue and at this point we the audience can see how absolutely turbofucked everyone down there is, but they seemingly don't recognize the implications here, having none of them ever seen John Carpenter's The Thing. The submarine to the surface is immediately sabotaged. The main character and his brother were traumatized earlier when they were children, and also the main character's young son suddenly disappeared while they were both playing at a local park a few years before the story began. Things deteriorate, the genius brother makes mice evil with the evil goo. The main character has dreams that the evil goo is evil and is showing him things. Can this be true? Obviously not. We find out that genius brother murdered their abusive mom when they were younger, to save the main character. Is the dog a goo monster in disguise? Genius brother pulls an underwater Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption with the evil goo, which is strong enough to replace the underwater station's hull. We find out that the main character's son was snatched years ago by a horrible burrowing tunnel from the bottom of the ocean where the goo lives, long before he even entered the story. We find out that the evil goo was responsible for both brothers' abusive parents, and had been making their meaningless lives miserable all along. Oh no, will they bring the evil goo to the surface? Does it cure the forgetting plague? It doesn't matter, really, because it was always there, and also everywhere, everybody is hosed, and actually always was, goodbye.
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Nov 27, 2017 20:11
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Oh, wow. That's... some escalation. Thanks. I think.
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Nov 27, 2017 23:20
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that sounds like poo poo
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Nov 27, 2017 23:26
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It's better than I give it credit for. The plot elements are ridiculous but each of them is really well-written inside the context of the story.
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Nov 28, 2017 00:03
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well, everyone might not be entirely hosed. the villains did refer to being crippled and stuck due to some higher force that found them to be twisted horrible creatures. i actually liked the tumble down that rabbit-hole. usually some parts of what happens in these kinds of stories are dreams or hallucinations or whatever... in this everything horrible has been happening, everything ugly has been plotted out since the beginning of this character's life, it's all just a macabre game for the most malevolent and petty of cosmic entities.
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Nov 28, 2017 02:11
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anilEhilated posted:Speaking of The Deep - could someone spoil me on its story? I am very much a pet person so it's not something I am ever going to read but I'm also a huge sucker for everything marine horror. I picked up The Deep for a reread because of this thread to see if it was as disturbing as I remember it being. Jesus Christ it’s nightmare fuel on basically every page. Maybe it helps/hurts that I’ve served on subs, but the whole loving book gives me the jim-jams in the worst way. Hell, you could cut out the “supernatural” crap and just have it be “everybody loses their loving poo poo 8 miles below the ocean surface” and it would be just as scary if not more. Honestly, read the book. It’s horror, so of course it’s going to upset you and there’s animal cruelty and child abuse and whatnot, but if you read horror for the shivers, it’ll get ya.
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Nov 28, 2017 02:27
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chernobyl kinsman posted:that sounds like poo poo I thought it was when I read it. There are some interesting ideas in it, but it felt derivative and contrived
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Nov 28, 2017 02:41
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The Deep audiobook is fantastic. Corey Brill’s voice sounds so desperate and it works perfectly. He’s narrated almost all of Nick Cutter’s stuff.
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Nov 28, 2017 04:09
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You guys should give Peter Watts's Rifters trilogy a shot if you're looking for seriously weird, creepy deep sea horror books. It's a bit rough in places since it was his first series , but he does underwater horror waaaaaay better.
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Nov 28, 2017 09:02
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johnsonrod posted:You guys should give Peter Watts's Rifters trilogy a shot if you're looking for seriously weird, creepy deep sea horror books. It's a bit rough in places since it was his first series , but he does underwater horror waaaaaay better. I'm sold, even if it's rough. Blindsight is practically a horror novel in its own right, so I 100% believe Watts can do good deep sea horror. Also I'm pretty sure he was a marine biologist or something before he became a writer, so yay for that too.
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Nov 28, 2017 17:09
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Did he recover from that flesh eating bacteria or whatever it was that was loving him up?
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Nov 28, 2017 17:19
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MockingQuantum posted:I'm sold, even if it's rough. Blindsight is practically a horror novel in its own right, so I 100% believe Watts can do good deep sea horror. Also I'm pretty sure he was a marine biologist or something before he became a writer, so yay for that too. I LOVED Blindsight and Echopraxia so I'm gonna check out Rifters ASAP.
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Nov 28, 2017 17:52
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Neurosis posted:well, everyone might not be entirely hosed. the villains did refer to being crippled and stuck due to some higher force that found them to be twisted horrible creatures. i actually liked the tumble down that rabbit-hole. usually some parts of what happens in these kinds of stories are dreams or hallucinations or whatever... in this everything horrible has been happening, everything ugly has been plotted out since the beginning of this character's life, it's all just a macabre game for the most malevolent and petty of cosmic entities. Ah true, but I took being crippled and stuck due to some higher force that found them to be twisted horrible creatures as not at all keeping them from doing what they did to the main character over his entire life to basically anyone else. johnsonrod posted:You guys should give Peter Watts's Rifters trilogy a shot if you're looking for seriously weird, creepy deep sea horror books. It's a bit rough in places since it was his first series , but he does underwater horror waaaaaay better. Anyway, if you aren't a smoothbrained non-reader, Rifters is free from the author! And you can read it online here.
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Nov 28, 2017 18:02
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So John Hornor Jacobs is working on a new story in the Southern Gods universe, so I figured I’d plug Southern Gods while I’m thinking about it. Redneck Mafia enforcer tooling around post WW2 Deep-South trying to track down a Nylarthotep-possessed bluesman whose music makes people go batshit. It is great.
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Dec 1, 2017 02:21
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navyjack posted:So John Hornor Jacobs is working on a new story in the Southern Gods universe, so I figured I’d plug Southern Gods while I’m thinking about it. Redneck Mafia enforcer tooling around post WW2 Deep-South trying to track down a Nylarthotep-possessed bluesman whose music makes people go batshit. It is great. The first sentence of the back covers synopsis, intrigued me: quote:Recent World War II veteran Bull Ingram is working as muscle when a Memphis DJ hires him to find Ramblin' John Hastur. But these snippets from 1 star reviews sealed the deal: quote:I had a gut feeling, after a couple of chapters (because of the gratuitous violence) that I should stop reading it quote:...the story is cruel.
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Dec 1, 2017 02:32
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GrandpaPants posted:Did he recover from that flesh eating bacteria or whatever it was that was loving him up? that was a while back, I'm pretty sure he's bounced back from it. and yeah, I'll also recommend Watts' stuff. sci fi horror is one way to describe it. bleak as hell.
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Dec 1, 2017 02:32
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Southern Gods is great. Jacobs doesn't quite stick the landing at the end, but the journey is incredible.
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Dec 1, 2017 02:38
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Ornamented Death posted:Southern Gods is great. Jacobs doesn't quite stick the landing at the end, but the journey is incredible. The end is the weak part, too, I think, but not enough to stop me enthusiastically recommending it. He’s gotten better as a writer in his stuff since then, so I have high hopes for this new thing. (Which is a novella and not a sequel, according to his twitter)
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Dec 1, 2017 02:42
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uber_stoat posted:that was a while back, I'm pretty sure he's bounced back from it. For anyone who liked Blindsight and Echopraxia, Watt's did a fake lecture on how they recreated the vampires from the books. It's in the form of a powerpoint presentation from the pharma company that stumbled across the discovery and how they capitalised on it. It's pretty old but I figure some people may not have seen it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WdCvGDpM9k
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Dec 1, 2017 02:56
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How's Cutter's "The Troop"? The biggest complain I seem to be seeing is that it's horrifically gruesome but I'm a gore-hound so it sounds right up my alley.
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Dec 1, 2017 15:44
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I've heard people recommend World of Hurt by Brian Hodge as a real gut punch. That's not always indicative of good, though. Worth reading? I have it up for a possible next read I read Marc Laidlaw's The 37th Mandala: quote:The mandalas have always been among us, unseen and uncalled. Those few occult masters who have encountered them have known to leave them alone, for to these unholy forces we are mere playthings, insignificant tools to be used, fed upon—and eventually discarded. Sounds extremely like my poo poo.
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Dec 1, 2017 18:30
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Rough Lobster posted:I've heard people recommend World of Hurt by Brian Hodge as a real gut punch. That's not always indicative of good, though. Worth reading? Brian Hodge is always worth reading.
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Dec 1, 2017 18:54
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Drunken Baker posted:How's Cutter's "The Troop"? The biggest complain I seem to be seeing is that it's horrifically gruesome but I'm a gore-hound so it sounds right up my alley. I’m halfway through and enjoying how the story flashes between the ongoing narrative and after-the-fact explanations of what caused it. It’s also an amazing appetite suppressant.
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Dec 1, 2017 19:50
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Muninn posted:I’m halfway through and enjoying how the story flashes between the ongoing narrative and after-the-fact explanations of what caused it. It’s also an amazing appetite suppressant. I think that must be true of most of Cutter's stuff. I usually read during my lunch break and that is not an advisable time to crack open The Deep either.
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Dec 1, 2017 19:53
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Thanks whoever was talking about Skullcrack City, that was a really fun read.
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Dec 1, 2017 23:55
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Rough Lobster posted:I've heard people recommend World of Hurt by Brian Hodge as a real gut punch. That's not always indicative of good, though. Worth reading? No
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Dec 2, 2017 01:52
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I guess my main problem with Worlds Of Hurt is that the whole thing turns on the biblical god being evil, but the thing is, the heaven they describe isn't all that scary to me. Very crappy? Yes. Scary, no. Kinda ruins the effect overall.
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Dec 2, 2017 04:41
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TOOT BOOT posted:I guess my main problem with Worlds Of Hurt is that the whole thing turns on the biblical god being evil, but the thing is, the heaven they describe isn't all that scary to me. Very crappy? Yes. Scary, no. Kinda ruins the effect overall. It's been a bit since I read it, but if i remember they don't ever actually describe what's really happening there? The main character talks about realizing that the whole "light at the end of the tunnel, pearly gates, heaven as paradise" thing is a put on because he noticed that every being there is acting more like its been tortured and abused and forced to put on this show for new souls rather than it being a genuinely nice place, and that there was an overwhelming sense of greed and poo poo like that, but in my memory at no point is it ever shown what actually goes on there. There's a strong implication that the being impersonating God is eating souls, so who knows what that could mean, but other than that it's more or less entirely left to the reader's imagination, informed by the brutal, evil, petty nature that the "God" thing is laid out as having in some of the other stories as well.
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Dec 2, 2017 04:57
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Ornamented Death posted:Brian Hodge is always worth reading. agreed. some of his earlier stuff is not quite as gripping, but even the worst of his i've read has been worthwhwhile, and his more recent stuff is consistently great. interested that he will be publishing a dark fantasy horror book in that new rpg setting, the lost citadel. sure, it's licensed fiction, but licensed fiction by good authors is still by a good author, and i think dark fantasy horror is underdone. edit: oh, great, the guy behind this setting has been accused of sexual harassment and the publisher is cutting ties with him. who knows where that leaves the book. TOOT BOOT posted:I guess my main problem with Worlds Of Hurt is that the whole thing turns on the biblical god being evil, but the thing is, the heaven they describe isn't all that scary to me. Very crappy? Yes. Scary, no. Kinda ruins the effect overall. while the book appears to indicate a biblical god, it's not really explicitly that that is what's up. i didn't think we saw enough of the other side to form an opinion on how scary it was. but the way having been to that side affects those who have been temporarily dead i found plenty unsettling. MockingQuantum posted:I think that must be true of most of Cutter's stuff. I usually read during my lunch break and that is not an advisable time to crack open The Deep either. the acolyte manages to feel somehow unclean even though it is far lighter on gore than the deep or the troop. pretty quick and enjoyable. Neurosis fucked around with this message at 07:10 on Dec 2, 2017 |
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Dec 2, 2017 07:01
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hopterque posted:It's been a bit since I read it, but if i remember they don't ever actually describe what's really happening there? Your summary is right on the money, I think. Also I thought The Troop was Cutter's weakest but still worth a read.
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Dec 2, 2017 07:59
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They explained the afterlife in Worlds of Hurt - you’re locked on a shelf in a cosmic bank vault for all eternity by a covetous higher power, and the heavenly choir are people pleading to get out. It’s pretty nasty, especially if you know what prolonged confinement does to someone’s mind.
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Dec 2, 2017 12:05
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I'm halfway through The Deep and it's such a good concept and so completely Goosebumps in execution.
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Dec 2, 2017 20:28
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General Battuta posted:I'm halfway through The Deep and it's such a good concept and so completely Goosebumps in execution. I feel the same. I get why people were saying earlier that it's contrived or not a great book, and it's not, if you're looking for something very literary or unique. But to me it feels like really good slasher movies---you don't really expect the story to be intricately crafted, so much as deliver some scares and really unsettling scenes.
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Dec 2, 2017 22:30
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MockingQuantum posted:I feel the same. I get why people were saying earlier that it's contrived or not a great book, and it's not, if you're looking for something very literary or unique. But to me it feels like really good slasher movies---you don't really expect the story to be intricately crafted, so much as deliver some scares and really unsettling scenes. Yeah. Even early on, you realize that even if someone makes it out alive, ain’t nobody gonna make it out “ok.”
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Dec 2, 2017 22:55
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GrandpaPants posted:Did he recover from that flesh eating bacteria or whatever it was that was loving him up? Flesh eating bacteria was a while ago and there haven't been any further episodes I'm aware of of that freaky maybe-neurological whatsit. also I wish I lived closer to Toronto so I'd been able to make it to the Inexplicable Peter Watts Conference 
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Dec 2, 2017 23:04
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hopterque posted:It's been a bit since I read it, but if i remember they don't ever actually describe what's really happening there? The main character talks about realizing that the whole "light at the end of the tunnel, pearly gates, heaven as paradise" thing is a put on because he noticed that every being there is acting more like its been tortured and abused and forced to put on this show for new souls rather than it being a genuinely nice place, and that there was an overwhelming sense of greed and poo poo like that, but in my memory at no point is it ever shown what actually goes on there. There's a strong implication that the being impersonating God is eating souls, so who knows what that could mean, but other than that it's more or less entirely left to the reader's imagination, informed by the brutal, evil, petty nature that the "God" thing is laid out as having in some of the other stories as well. Still Worlds of Hurt: I got the impression that it's not necessarily a show for new souls, it's just that the Demiurge likes to be praised by pretty hymns and so if you cater to it forever eternity might suck less.
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Dec 2, 2017 23:07
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General Battuta posted:I'm halfway through The Deep and it's such a good concept and so completely Goosebumps in execution. Hahahah. That's a perfect way of explaining it. Plus if you see anyone other than Jeffrey Combs doing his best Herbert West when envisioning the mad doctor then you need your head checking out.
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Dec 4, 2017 12:26
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I saw hardbound collections of Lovecraft's work at Costco of all places today.
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Dec 4, 2017 23:18
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Helical Nightmares posted:I saw hardbound collections of Lovecraft's work at Costco of all places today. Oh yeah. The one by me has had that for at least a year. Definitely a double take as I was loading up on Kirkland Vodka.
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Dec 5, 2017 00:19
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Finished The Deep. It is by no means high literature but it's fun in a way that 80s gorefest horror movies were fun (a previous poster's reference to Re-Animator is very apt). Also the spoilered synopsis earlier is both accurate and doesn't quite cover how bizarre and tense the book is at moments. I know this is damning praise for some horror fans, but it falls firmly into the category of "a fun read" for me.
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Dec 5, 2017 00:35
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