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Sredni Vashtar by Saki Casting the Runes by M.R. James How Nuth Would have Practised His Art Upon the Gnoles by Lord Dunsany The Man in the Bottle by Gustav Meyrink The Dissection by Georg Heym Now this is more like it. I got a bunch of short stories from today's reading, and I like all of them for different reasons. If I had to pick a favorite, it'd be either the Heym, which is beautiful in how gruesome it is, or the Saki, which makes a nice balance between the child being sympathetic and being creepy. Meyrink's has a nice sense of atmosphere, but I've seen performance art going a step too far before, and it's not my favorite idea anymore. Dunsany's style is immediately distinct, like a bedtime story told by someone who wants to keep their kid from sleeping that night (like that character from James's story). I thought it was kinda funny that the master's reaction to his apprentice being spirited away forever by vague fey things is basically "lol whoopsie." The James is more of a thriller or caper story than a straight horror, and I liked the variety, though I think it peaked early, when it looked like it was going the horror route.
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Apr 18, 2018 00:49
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Relevant Tangent posted:S P O I L E R S F O R A N O L D A S S B O O K i was prompted to read jdate by this conversation cropping up, having seen (and liked) the film. SPOILERS FOR A TEN YEAR OLD BOOK i dunno if i'd call dave sociopathic or whatever as i have seen him called prior to his replacement. prior to him being replaced he still told john to let the thing that had possessed dan wexler possess dave and then for john to blow his brains out. and while he talked about getting a thrill out of imminent violence earlier on, he also empathises with other people (i think his weird lack of ill-feeling for blowing possessed frank chu into smithereens is the only questionable part). maybe not quite as obviously heroic as afterwards but he was by and large not an awful guy. his treatment of john after vegas is probably the only thing that made me think 'rear end in a top hat' and he got past that pretty fast. Neurosis fucked around with this message at 05:20 on Apr 22, 2018 |
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Apr 22, 2018 04:48
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Should probably spoiler-tag that whole post. Edit: I suppose it doesn't really help the issue if I quote the post. And it's fine if you want to piss and moan about being asked to spoiler tag a ten year old book, but the reason it's being discussed now is in part because I just finished it for the first time about a month ago. If I'd accidentally read that post before finishing the book, I would have been pretty drat disappointed. MockingQuantum fucked around with this message at 05:52 on Apr 22, 2018 |
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Apr 22, 2018 05:18
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I'd rather people not spoil anything, no matter how old it is, unless it's something that's really ingrained in pop culture like "rosebud was a sled" or "vader is luke's father". Just because it's old doesn't mean people don't want to experience it for the first time
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Apr 23, 2018 15:50
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you guys are doing an excellent job of convincing me to not spoiler anything in the future
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Apr 24, 2018 14:29
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Neurosis posted:you guys are doing an excellent job of convincing me to not spoiler anything in the future ha ha, anytime someone asks me not to drop spoilers, it just makes me want to do it more!! -the dang joker
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Apr 24, 2018 17:55
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It's always courteous to use spoiler tags but if someone forgets to tag something you think should be tagged, either PM me or use the "report" function and I'll be happy to edit the tags in for folks.
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Apr 24, 2018 18:02
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:It's always courteous to use spoiler tags but if someone forgets to tag something you think should be tagged, either PM me or use the "report" function and I'll be happy to edit the tags in for folks. <3
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Apr 24, 2018 18:08
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I finished Brian Keene’s The Rising. Didn’t care for it too much, especially the vague ending that defeated the whole point of our investment in Jim’s journey to find his son. I’m thinking of starting The Cellar by Richard Laymon next. Never read Laymon before so I have no expectations. Worth reading?
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Apr 24, 2018 19:49
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Gary the Llama posted:I’m thinking of starting The Cellar by Richard Laymon next. Never read Laymon before so I have no expectations. Worth reading? Not really.
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Apr 24, 2018 20:43
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Solitair posted:
Casting the Runes is quite an unusal M R James story. The typical protagonist in his works is a lonely or isolated academic figure who (usually accidentally) delves into forbidden things and only gradually becomes aware of the horror that's creeping up on them and without being able to do much about it. In Runes, by contrast, a genteel little Scooby Doo team gets formed and, with a bit of cloak and dagger work, they manage to turn the tables on the baddie. I liked it  Gary the Llama posted:
Laymon is controversial for a reason... If you read one of his books, you'll have a pretty good idea what they're all like.
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Apr 25, 2018 21:15
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I'm thinking about starting The Weird myself, so I'm interested to read your impressions of stuff as I finish it, Solitair. Anybody read A God in the Shed? It looks interesting, and popped up on a lot of "Best Horror of 2017" lists, but I know very little about it.
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Apr 25, 2018 21:24
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brian hodge's immaculate void is out. i would be immediately reading it if i weren't locked into my triennial retread of gene wolfe's solar cycle.
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Apr 26, 2018 13:53
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MockingQuantum posted:I'm thinking about starting The Weird myself, so I'm interested to read your impressions of stuff as I finish it, Solitair. Just picked it up. Will post soon about it, probably.
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Apr 26, 2018 15:56
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Neurosis posted:brian hodge's immaculate void is out. i would be immediately reading it if i weren't locked into my triennial retread of gene wolfe's solar cycle. Only digitally, though; physical copies are due next month. For those like me that hate trees.
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Apr 26, 2018 16:24
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Ornamented Death posted:Only digitally, though; physical copies are due next month. For those like me that hate trees. I am spiralling into my middle aged "nesting" phase hard and HAVE to fill every empty wall in my house with bookshelves. Really looking forward to it. It'd also be real nice if his other work got a paper release one day too.
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Apr 27, 2018 09:12
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Is World of Hurt ever returning to Kindle?
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Apr 27, 2018 11:31
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Drunken Baker posted:Really looking forward to it. It'd also be real nice if his other work got a paper release one day too. Most, if not all, of his work has seen a physical release. You just have to use the secondary market to get the vast majority of it. GrandpaPants posted:Is World of Hurt ever returning to Kindle? He has the rights back, so most likely. That said, he's lost both of his parents in the past month, so probably not in the near future.
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Apr 27, 2018 13:25
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Oh dang I missed The Night Land discussion. John C. Wright's Awake in the Night collection is an absolute gem, even if the final part of the final story is a little janky, everything up to that point is solid gold. I actually stumbled across the stories as a teenager, partially posted on some kind of Night Land fan website (which, amazingly, is still around). Unfortunately almost all of the other writers who have tried to work in The Night Land setting are uh ... not good. With the notable exception of Andy Robertson, who was the man behind the publishing of the only two collections of Night Land stories. His trilogy of shorts is pretty good. I also happen to a copy of the only Night Land homage novel ever published, Anima by Brett Davidson, though it's the only thing he's written and I've not read it yet and there's zero reviews anywhere online. So it's probably going to be bad.
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Apr 27, 2018 20:59
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the final part only makes sense if you've read house on the borderland, i think. the storyline takes a lot from that. so does the tone with the weirder cosmic parts. still probably my least favourite of the four stories.
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Apr 28, 2018 02:09
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Neurosis posted:the final part only makes sense if you've read house on the borderland, i think. the storyline takes a lot from that. so does the tone with the weirder cosmic parts. still probably my least favourite of the four stories. When taken as a whole it certainly is the weakest of the four, but I can't help but love everything up to the point everyone else vanishes because they're all aspects of the main character. The tone and atmosphere of the opening parts hit me like a train when I was a teenage reader, and somehow haven't lost any of their power on a reread. I read a review of it once which compared it with Lovecraft's The Shadow Out of Time, specifically with the idea of minds pulled from every part of human history. Shame Wright's kinda awful otherwise.
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Apr 28, 2018 09:29
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Has anyone listened to the Lovecraft audiobooks narrated by Wayne June? I'm looking for some audiobooks to pass the time during my commute, and Wayne June narrating cosmic horror stories sounds right up my alley. Are they good?
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Apr 29, 2018 04:00
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Hungry posted:When taken as a whole it certainly is the weakest of the four, but I can't help but love everything up to the point everyone else vanishes because they're all aspects of the main character. The tone and atmosphere of the opening parts hit me like a train when I was a teenage reader, and somehow haven't lost any of their power on a reread. politically and personally yeah he ranges from eccentric to distasteful, but his sci fi books are worth reading - the golden age is fantastic and count to a trillion is very good. actually i'd say the golden age is the rare bit of utopian fiction (libertarian in this case) that gives a fair accounting of the arguments against the vision presented, even if it clearly comes down on one side.
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Apr 29, 2018 04:12
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Pollyanna posted:Has anyone listened to the Lovecraft audiobooks narrated by Wayne June? I'm looking for some audiobooks to pass the time during my commute, and Wayne June narrating cosmic horror stories sounds right up my alley. Are they good? Yeah I've listened to them. He's spooky and Wayne Juney sounding and I'm assuming that's what you want. I remember wondering why some stories were selected (like Red Hook) but overall I remember liking it. The way he says things like "the lurking fear" is hilariously great. Andrew Leman is my favorite Lovecraft reader though.
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Apr 30, 2018 14:11
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So I read Cutter's The Deep a few months ago and actually really enjoyed it, despite general horror goofiness and it underutilizing how terrifying the ocean is. How are Cutter's other books? I'm thinking of picking up The Troop or Little Heaven. For that matter, how's his stuff under his actual name (Craig Davidson), if anybody's read any? Not horror, but I figured there's an off chance somebody in here has read some.
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Apr 30, 2018 18:21
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MockingQuantum posted:So I read Cutter's The Deep a few months ago and actually really enjoyed it, despite general horror goofiness and it underutilizing how terrifying the ocean is. How are Cutter's other books? I'm thinking of picking up The Troop or Little Heaven. The Troop is really good, and Little Heaven stinks.
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May 1, 2018 00:10
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The Troop is my next read after "20 days of Turin" I've heard it's astonishingly hosed up and gruesome. Which sounds great!
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May 1, 2018 08:43
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Greggy posted:The Troop is really good, and Little Heaven stinks. I thought exactly the opposite. I also liked The Acolyte quite a bit more than either. Edit: I didn't read Last Days, maybe it was a better Little Heaven? I didn't like The Troop because it felt like another Cabin Fever.
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May 1, 2018 16:54
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Pollyanna posted:Has anyone listened to the Lovecraft audiobooks narrated by Wayne June? I'm looking for some audiobooks to pass the time during my commute, and Wayne June narrating cosmic horror stories sounds right up my alley. Are they good? Helical Nightmares posted:Inspired by someone else who mentioned it, I went searching for what else the Darkest Dungeon narrator Wayne June has done.
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May 1, 2018 21:37
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I read and enjoyed the rewrite of Night Land. I liked the world, monsters, and feeling of utter desolation - what should I read next? I like the idea of the protagonist exploring an utterly hostile environment.
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May 6, 2018 01:58
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Chas McGill posted:I like the idea of the protagonist exploring an utterly hostile environment. Ship of Fools by Richard Paul Russo fits the bill. It's sci-fi horror, and is titled Unto Leviathan if you're in the UK. Hell House by Richard Matheson is also technically a story about the protagonists exploring an utterly hostile environment, this time a haunted house. But, well, a haunted house story is a far cry from The Night Land so it may not be what you're looking for. And really any haunted house story would probably fit if you squinted enough, but this one is fairly extreme. Dead Sea by Tm Curran Brian Keene's The Lost Level books, though they're more....dark adventure than horror. The Red Tree by Caitlin Kiernan - this is a VERY slow and VERY subtle horror story and is not to everyone's liking Infinity House by Shane McKenzie - extreme horror, but it fits the bill Thrall by Mary SanGiovanni Letters from Hades by Jeffrey Thomas The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff Vandermeer, though moreso the first book, Annihilation Just some stuff from my own library that I enjoyed and deals with people exploring utterly hostile environments. If I had to pick one, it'd be a tossup between Ship of Fools and Dead Sea.
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May 6, 2018 02:32
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What makes a book "extreme" horror? I don't think I've ever read anything that's been labeled as such, it makes me think everybody is grinding some mad rails while chugging surge and listening to nu-metal while running from a guy in a mask. Also I can't recommend Hell House without reservation any more. I love it, but I think I love it for a lot of the same reasons that I love terrible B- and C-list horror movies. It's kind of a beautiful mess of a horror story, and at least in my experience opinions on how "good" the book actually is vary pretty wildly. Though I guess the same could be said of most "classic" horror novels released since about 1970. Like I said, I loved it, but I've recommended it to a few people who were looking for pretty much exactly what the book is (creepy, gruesome haunted house novel) and more than a couple of people thought it was a pretty bad book.
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May 6, 2018 04:18
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MockingQuantum posted:What makes a book "extreme" horror? all of the bizarre and tasteless sex and violence. it's a bad book chernobyl kinsman fucked around with this message at 04:58 on May 6, 2018 |
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May 6, 2018 04:56
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MockingQuantum posted:I'm thinking about starting The Weird myself, so I'm interested to read your impressions of stuff as I finish it, Solitair. Thanks. My life's been rough lately and I'm trying to take more control of it, so I've fallen behind, but I did read The Spider by Hannz Heinz Ewers It's fine. Well-executed but predictable, with the feeling that I've read at least two stories that play out mostly like this does. The idea behind what happens is kind of interesting, I guess. I dunno. I also read the one after it, but I was so out of it that I can barely be sure of what happened in it, so I'm doing it again.
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May 6, 2018 05:01
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chernobyl kinsman posted:all of the bizarre and tasteless sex and violence. it's a bad book I'm not gonna lie, I'm tempted to see if I can get it through interlibrary loan or something, because I'm curious to see what makes extreme horror warrant its own genre, in sort of the same way that I'm curious to see what people mean when they're talking about bizarro horror. Though I've read JDATE which seems to be the gateway drug/poster child of the latter and it was less revolutionary than I was led to think. I can see how it would have been when it was first released though. On a different note, I'm maybe a third of the way through A God in the Shed and it's weird. I'm having trouble really deciding how I feel about it. The plot is so far walking a line that really works for me, a kind of mix of mythology and personal drama, with a large scale mystery that I'm hoping the author manages to spin out effectively for the rest of the book. But it's right on the edge of too much mythology and secrets and whatever, in the way that reminds me of how a lot of web fiction stuff sometimes builds too much of a mythology around itself and never really manages to pay it off. So far I'm enjoying it, though, and I'm hoping it stays that way. Overall the plot reminds me of Hex in little ways (small town with a supernatural secret, old traditions that exist to protect people, etc) The weird thing that makes me feel conflicted about the book is that it's oddly amateurish in terms of actual writing. It varies how much I notice it, but the book seems very under-edited at times. The prose itself isn't terrible (though this is by no means Literature here), but there's odd things like clumsy extraneous adverbs, confusion about who is speaking, etc. And there's some large scale structural... quirks, I guess you'd say. Sometimes it's hard to parse out how much time elapses between chapters, and some chapters feel entirely out of time, like they could be lifted out of where they are and moved a chapter earlier or later. It's really hard to explain, and I'm curious if the other goon who said they were going to read it feels the same way. It's nothing that makes the book totally unreadable, depending on your own personal standard for writing quality in the ghetto-est of genres, but it does make the book feel like it was written with wavering attention to detail.
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May 6, 2018 09:07
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Chas McGill posted:I read and enjoyed the rewrite of Night Land. I liked the world, monsters, and feeling of utter desolation - what should I read next? I like the idea of the protagonist exploring an utterly hostile environment. The Other Side of Side of the Mountain by Michel Bernanos might work. It's anthologized in The Weird with a new(ish) translation.
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May 6, 2018 15:03
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MockingQuantum posted:I'm not gonna lie, I'm tempted to see if I can get it through interlibrary loan or something, because I'm curious to see what makes extreme horror warrant its own genre, i don't think the other poster saying it's "Extreme Horror," or that that constitutes a genre, and neither am i. just that the sexual content of it is pretty extreme. it's an adjective, not a category.
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May 6, 2018 15:11
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chernobyl kinsman posted:i don't think the other poster saying it's "Extreme Horror," or that that constitutes a genre, and neither am i. just that the sexual content of it is pretty extreme. it's an adjective, not a category. Nah I was using it as a category. Writers like McKenzie, Wrath James White, Edward Lee, Monica O'Rourke, and some others are usually described as extreme horror writers. Basically most anything published by Deadite Press and, to a lesser extent, Necro Publications. Your description is spot on, though: it takes sexual content and violence to absurd extremes.
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May 6, 2018 15:50
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Ornamented Death posted:Ship of Fools by Richard Paul Russo fits the bill. It's sci-fi horror, and is titled Unto Leviathan if you're in the UK. Drunkboxer posted:The Other Side of Side of the Mountain by Michel Bernanos might work. It's anthologized in The Weird with a new(ish) translation.
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May 6, 2018 16:01
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Hey spookybook thread, I'm thinking about doing one of two things, and I want to hear what people in this thread think. This thread is kind of dead-ish (how appropriate, I'm getting chills) so I want to either: 1) Petition for a name change to something along the lines of General Horror, since that's basically what the thread has become or 2) Start a brand-new thread that's a general horror thread, yeah, breathe in that new thread smell Second option is appealing since I think a lot of people look at the first handful of pages of this thread and assume it's just Lovecraft & Friends discussion and don't bother to post. But it'd probably be the nail in the coffin for this thread, which would drift off into the deeper pages of TBB and likely disappear forever, along with some good discussion and recommendations. Also with a new thread I think I'd be more likely to write up an actual, useful OP of some variety. Thoughts?
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May 10, 2018 15:47
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