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They aren't great but at least they're all just a couple paragraphs, none of them take up a full page even. It's a good collection overall though, lots of variety in the stories (and yes the few non-european ones were a nice touch). No real standouts but no giant stinkers either, solid B overall.
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Jun 15, 2022 05:47
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Just finished Necroscope. It wasn't terrible, almost enjoyable with the weird Mary Sue protag in Harry and OTT villain with Dragosani. Is II good, or is it all painfully downhill from here?
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Jun 16, 2022 19:04
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Disclaimer: I last read them 20+ years ago, but I felt each of the books brought something new and interesting to the table, and if you can cope with his writing style, I think it would be well worth a go. I thought the (directly connected) Vampire World books were much stronger. E: Thinking about it, that might be because there's less Harry in them though. tight aspirations fucked around with this message at 19:25 on Jun 16, 2022 |
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Jun 16, 2022 19:23
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Thibor is my dude. I liked Necroscope 1-4 a lot. I'm still too distracted by Splatter Westerns to finish five. Vlad the Impaler is stealing vampire valor. UwUnabomber fucked around with this message at 22:09 on Jun 16, 2022 |
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Jun 16, 2022 22:06
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Shitstorm Trooper posted:Thibor is my dude. Are those the ones from a few pages ago? Are they only from that one website or can I find physical copies out in the world? I should probably check to see if that website was actually the publisher and not a third party like I'm guessing in this post... Next on the list until necroscope sequels show up is bullet train and the glassy burning floor of hell
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Jun 16, 2022 23:12
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sephiRoth IRA posted:Are those the ones from a few pages ago? Are they only from that one website or can I find physical copies out in the world? I'm reading epubs but there's physical copies of most of them I think. I dunno if you'll find them out in the world though.
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Jun 17, 2022 00:18
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Apsyrtes posted:Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy is amazing. Maybe I'm pushing it a bit on recommending that as horror though. LOL, well I absolutely think the Comanche attack, a lot of the stuff the scalp hunters do, and the Judge are horror
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Jun 17, 2022 00:35
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I'm glad you folks are digging the splatter western stuff. I need to read more of them!
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Jun 17, 2022 00:59
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sephiRoth IRA posted:Just finished Necroscope. It wasn't terrible, almost enjoyable with the weird Mary Sue protag in Harry and OTT villain with Dragosani. Dragosani isn't even close to being the most OTT villain in the Necroscope series. It's also a series that escalates pretty drat quick on every level, and is extremely horny. I'd treat it like Dune - read in publication order and stop when you think "that's poo poo" because it won't really get better. For me that was the first E-Branch novel, which is book 11 in the series, but I skipped 9 and 10. There's seven more past that point.
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Jun 17, 2022 01:09
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Jedit posted:Dragosani isn't even close to being the most OTT villain in the Necroscope series. It's also a series that escalates pretty drat quick on every level, and is extremely horny. I'd treat it like Dune - read in publication order and stop when you think "that's poo poo" because it won't really get better. For me that was the first E-Branch novel, which is book 11 in the series, but I skipped 9 and 10. There's seven more past that point. It is SUPER horny. I was talking to my wife about it last night. Graphic descriptions in books like this one never ever serve the plot. I'm not a prude, but at the same time I don't need to read what gets lumley off 
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Jun 17, 2022 01:14
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Count Thrashula posted:I'm glad you folks are digging the splatter western stuff. I need to read more of them! What have been your favorites? I was gonna pick up an epub or two.
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Jun 17, 2022 01:15
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Red Station was really fun if you've ever read a western in your life.
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Jun 17, 2022 01:33
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Honestly, Red Station is the only one I read but I loved it.
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Jun 17, 2022 01:58
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Picked up Reincarnage and I'm about 1/4 of the way through. I was expecting something a lot more gruesome because of poo poo like the drill abortion in Harding's other books. I like it a lot so far even if it's pretty far off from how I imagined it. Lots of humor throughout and an interesting setting- a walled off group of cities with military checkpoints in case anyone breaks in and I like that in-universe we've got examples of Agent Orange being his own kinda pop culture figure with movies and video games and poo poo. Might order the Agent Orange pack from the site before the preorders for the sequel end.
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Jun 20, 2022 21:43
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So I have fallen on some difficult times and am looking to sell some books. Mom had a stroke and dad is on his deathbed with terminal cancer.  I have a John Langan Mr. Gaunt I'd like to get a decent price for. I have a few Stephen King hardcover first editions. Some random ones like Negative Space – Yeagar, B.R.; The Boatman’s Daughter – Davidson, Andy' The Hobgoblin of Little Minds – Matthews, Mark; Garden of Fiends – Matthews, Mark; My Heart is a Chainsaw - Stephen Graham Jones; Gordon B. White - As Summer's Mask Slips; The Only Good Indians - SGJ. I'll do an inventory tonight and post it tomorrow.
escape artist fucked around with this message at 00:01 on Jun 21, 2022 |
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Jun 20, 2022 23:55
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i watched the filn of the ritual and thought it was great so i read the book, enjoyed it, also read his last days and enjoyed that too (except for the goofy ending) so i decided to read the reddening next and... boy that sure was one of the worst books i've ever read! women written so poorly i thought they were supposed to be attracted to each other for half the book, nonsensical backstory, classism, this book has it all. and to top it off i'm pretty sure the ending implies that the horrifying dark secret the cannibal cult was covering up with murders was an underground weed farm!!!!!!! the only decent scene in the whole book that didn't pussyfoot around the good stuff was a graphic cannibal murder in like, the first third, and the rest of it was obnoxious british people milling around doing nothing of import after reading these books i can make a firm statement that adam nevill is extremely scared of 1. cannibalism and 2. old people
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Jun 21, 2022 04:43
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Oh thank god someone else didn't like that book either. I got to the part where the main woman protagonist was kidnapped and they tossed her off a boat. I had to quit, I just didn't care any more. I don't know why that was the last straw. The thing that irritated me was how many different people kept dying, constantly. . I know horror plots need people to die in order to set up the Bad Guys or Monsters that are the murderous horror part that the eventual protagonists will encounter. That's fine. It's fine. But god, we get introduced to a couple new people, they die. We get introduced to more people, they die too! Which ones will last more than a chapter? Who the gently caress knows, it's like throwing gerbils into a huge metal fan. I don't know, I wish I liked it. Maybe I don't like large casts in books. Edit Forgot to add, yes. Nevill is terrified of old people. Have you read House of Small Shadows yet? Absolutely fantastic, far better than even Last Days imo. But it's some odd horror genre phobia of disabled people and their disabled bodies which is an entire discussion on its own. I extremely loved the house which was haunted by strange people to the point of palpable decay. Kinda gave me some 80s italian horror at times. value-brand cereal fucked around with this message at 05:50 on Jun 21, 2022 |
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Jun 21, 2022 05:43
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that sounds interesting but frankly i'm not sure i want to read another nevill! but yeah the constant deaths got almost comical for me, like there's a clown car cannibal pantry underneath the british countryside
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Jun 21, 2022 05:49
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Oh yeah that's understandable. He's quite long winded at times. After dropping The Reddening I started on reading my endless pile of non fiction books lol You gotta cleanse the palette, once in a while, reset the brain folds.
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Jun 21, 2022 05:57
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I’ve been slowly grinding through his Cunning Folk since December and just can’t get gripped. I like a lot of the imagery and it has a good mystery, but for some reason it doesn’t grab me despite usually loving a slow burn. It’s possible that I’m just not reading it under great circumstances these days (it’s mostly hospital reading), but I just can’t seem to get excited when I sit down to read it so it keeps being in little nibbles.
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Jun 21, 2022 06:45
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Anything good in the folk horror vein come out in the last year or so? I love folk horror when it's done well but it's oddly hard to find good examples, I'm having trouble even thinking of many good ones that I've read in the last few years. I liked the Andrew Michael Hurley books I've read, but they're about the most slow-burn, understated books I've come across. Edit: I guess since it was just mentioned on this page, The Ritual does technically count as folk horror? I feel like maybe it doesn't hit the vibe I'm looking for though. MockingQuantum fucked around with this message at 15:55 on Jun 21, 2022 |
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Jun 21, 2022 15:53
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MockingQuantum posted:Anything good in the folk horror vein come out in the last year or so? I love folk horror when it's done well but it's oddly hard to find good examples, I'm having trouble even thinking of many good ones that I've read in the last few years. I liked the Andrew Michael Hurley books I've read, but they're about the most slow-burn, understated books I've come across. Can you elaborate? I would think the ritual would hit this note but maybe I'm not understanding your use of "folk" Do you mean like folklore inspired?
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Jun 21, 2022 15:57
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sephiRoth IRA posted:Can you elaborate? I would think the ritual would hit this note but maybe I'm not understanding your use of "folk" I'd say the first half of The Ritual is absolutely the kind of folk horror I'm looking for, I more meant that I could do without the weird back half with the metalheads. I guess it's less that I think The Ritual isn't folk horror and more that I think it's bad folk horror that kind of shits the bed halfway through, lol. Edit: thinking about it more, I think stuff like Little Sister Death, The Ceremonies, The Boss in the Wall that someone mentioned a few days ago, and to a point Wylding Hall are all better examples of what I'm looking for--horror that's sort of built around collective beliefs or old fears, usually with a strong sense of an older world or some piece of nature that's actively antagonistic to human beings. It's kind of a weird subgenre to pin down, imo, because it's got the same problem that horror at large does, namely that it's more about the feeling it evokes than the specific plots or themes, but maybe that's just me overthinking it. The Loney and Devil's Day by Hurley are both really good examples of this but like I said they're slow as molasses so I have a hard time recommending them. There's also a few stories in Richard Gavin's At Fear's Altar that really capture the folk horror vibe in an effective way. MockingQuantum fucked around with this message at 16:20 on Jun 21, 2022 |
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Jun 21, 2022 16:14
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Hellbender kind of. I hear good things about You Won't Be Alone and Cursed and they both seem to fit e:whoops, wrong medium Opopanax fucked around with this message at 17:25 on Jun 21, 2022 |
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Jun 21, 2022 16:53
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Opopanax posted:Hellbender kind of. I hear good things about You Won't Be Alone and Cursed and they both seem to fit This is the horror novel thread actually, but I'll add these to my movies-to-watch list anyway!
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Jun 21, 2022 16:59
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Disclaimer! I have not read all of these. These I collected over the years that I've thought or was mentioned to be folk horror in the product descriptions at the time. But hopefully something here will click as something interestingly folk horror enough to read. No summaries because it might be too drat long. 'Hekla's Children' and 'Bone Harvest' by James Brogden These books are completely unrelated btw. Hekla's Children is more... soft scifi / semi historical / thriller? It definitely features supernatural but I'm not sure if it's fully counts as folk horror. Definitely pagan horror, maybe? Still mentioning it because I loved it enough to keep an eye out for future books from this author. It's been a while since I read it but the summary for Bone Harvest is a lil misleading. There's fair bit of lead up TO the whole 'old nosey woman gets concerned about the mysterious strangers who moved into the neighborhood' section. It dragged a bit for my tastes but not as badly as a Adam Nevill book. I still enjoyed it and would read future books by Brogden. The Book Of Witness Thirteen Peculiar Tales from Canyon County by Erick Mertz Anthology of short stories by a single author. Paranormal / location horror. Ceremonies by T. E. D. Klein location horror / cosmic horror? / cult horror?? Devil’s Day by Andrew Michael Hurley gothic / religious [catholic] horror? Definitely more suspense and can be a bit dry. The Fiends in the Furrows edited by David Neal & Christine Scott Anthology of various authors. I might've posted about this before? I liked S.T. Gibson's and Romey Petite's stories the most. 'Back Along The Tracks' was racist as all hell thought. Whoa there lovecraft jr! Folk Horror by Adam Scovell Non-Fiction, if that scratches an itch. Halloween Fiend by C. V. Hunt holiday horror [lol] / location horror I read this last year and it was pretty fun. Ok. So folk horror tends to be about obscure, largely unknown cults. Just humor me for this short story, and pretend Halloween is actually the modern word for some 'anciente aynd wycked' term for an evil monster. Kinda hits well known tropes but hey, sometimes you don't want a oscar grammy etc nominated film, you want a cheesy b movie you see on daytime tv. Harvest Home by Thomas Tryon location horror The Lighthouse Witches by C. J. Cooke changeling horror / supernatural Little Sister Death by William Gay folk horror / historical? not sure / supernatural I still need to finish this... I distinctly remember enjoying it enough to check it out of the library twice in hopes of actually finishing it. It wasn't bad, just not what my brain wanted at that moment. The Queen of the High Fields by Rhiannon A Grist religious or cult horror / location horror. I haven't read this but the summary seems in the same genre or flavor as The Ritual. The Smoke Child by Soren Narnia of Knifepoint Horror location horror OK so it's a short story only(?) available on a podcast. But if you have the time and ears, it's drat good. A God in the Shed and the sequel Song of the Sandman by J F Dubeau cult horror / suspense I read only the first book and enjoyed it, though it's more of a copaganda mystery thriller featuring an on screen cult monster. The sequel, I think, features more of the cult. I have yet to finish reading it myself. Those Across the River by Christopher Buehlman supernatural I hesitate to read this because the author is white and I don't know if I want to read about slave(?) ghost horror set on a plantation. One day I'll crack it open. I hear it's good, I hear it's decent supernatural horror. Anyone read this? Is it cheesy slave ghosts haunting white people? Man, I thought they'd have better things to do, if so. Water Shall Refuse Them by Lucie Mcknight Hardy I only half remember this, as it's been a long time since I finished it. I liked the toxic family relationship premise. Not incest or anything, just chronic neglect of each other due to grief. I thought that was a neat concept instead of the usual 'cheek independent heroine seeks out fun and encounters danger, oh no!'. It sort of feels like the supernatural adjacent to the book The Other by Thomas Tryon? I can't remember specifics but the summaries feel like in the same venn diagram circles. If any of these aren't actually folk horror, big sorry, and I would love the correction for my calibre tagging system  Obligatory mention for fitting the theme, though they've been mentioned many times already. The Fisherman by John Langan Experimental Film by Gemma Files Night Film by Marisha Pessl Last Days Adam Nevill A Lush and Seething Hell: Two Tales of Cosmic Horror by John Hornor Jacobs Revelator by Daryl Gregory Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand
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Jun 21, 2022 19:03
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Excellent! Thank you for the list, I've read a few of those but there's a bunch I haven't heard of so I'll check them out. Since I mentioned it and it was in your list, I will say that The Ceremonies by TED Klein is an interesting book and perfectly solid, but it's (I believe) an expansion of his short story The Events at Poroth Farm and... I'm gonna be honest, I think the short story is much better. The Ceremonies is great if you want a certain kind of 1970's folk/cult horror that's mostly interested in taking its time and feeling "real" (think early Stephen King, "wow he mentioned Coke by name" kind of popular fiction phenomena in the 70s). But The Events at Poroth Farm is kind of great in how well it distills the general ideas of the book into a tight, well-written package. Also for a long time The Ceremonies was kind of a pain to find because it was out of print for decades, but I think there's a new printing (with an ugly cover), or was last time I checked.
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Jun 21, 2022 19:27
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value-brand cereal posted:
Not really, it's a (central horror element spoilers) werewolf story. The topic of slavery is addressed but IIRC it isn't too egregious.
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Jun 21, 2022 19:35
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anilEhilated posted:Not really, it's a (central horror element spoilers) werewolf story. The topic of slavery is addressed but IIRC it isn't too egregious. I mean the main antagonists are slaves turned into werewolves by their evil werewolf slaveowner. That doesn't really get revealed to the end but "slave ghosts" isn't too far off. But it's also set in the 1920s and the slave stuff is kind of a twist you find out about at the end. It's a good book though, mostly about a WWI veteran slowly going mad because of a combination of PTSD and the hosed up secret horrors going on in the town.
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Jun 21, 2022 19:50
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Oh yeah, there's also the Mammoth Book of Folk Horror from last year. I haven't gotten to it yet but Mammoth stuff is usually good. Howls from The Dark Ages has several that would count, too
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Jun 21, 2022 20:24
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I thought The Watchers by A.M. Shine was a really good folk horror novel.
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Jun 21, 2022 22:21
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I finished Little Eve by Catriona Ward recently which I think probably falls into folk horror? Though I don't quite know what that term encompasses. I really enjoyed it, it's about a small and extremely odd 'family' who live on an island in remote Scotland that is only connected to the mainland at low tide. The family/cult has some pretty bizarre beliefs and practices that culminate in some terrible poo poo happening and lead to the protagonist trying to escape which is made more challenging by the fact that she's heavily indoctrinated into the family's beliefs. As with Catriona Ward's other books which I've also enjoyed, it's pretty dark and includes some pretty believable child abuse dressed up as being part of the family's traditions and practices for ensuring loyalty. I also recently got around to reading I'm Thinking of Ending Things which I liked a lot. I totally get the criticisms about the ending, and did feel like it was a bit disappointing (not to mention that the transition into the (ending spoiler) revelation that the main character didn't really exist happened rather abruptly and in a way that felt fairly clunky. Reading it, it did feel like one of those books that just couldn't possibly deliver on everything it had built up so I wasn't that let down by it, and some of the stuff in the lead-up - particularly the scenes at the family home - was amazing and some of the creepiest and most unsettling stuff I've read. I'd really enjoy any other recommendations for this kind of creepy, unsettling 'something-is-clearly-terribly-wrong-but-we're-not-sure-what' sort of horror. I then read Six Stories based on the recommendation earlier in the thread and enjoyed that too. I dunno if it quite falls into the horror category, but it feels close enough. While not being groundbreaking it was a solidly written story that kept me engaged throughout so I can definitely see it as a good recommendation for anyone who enjoys that sort of 'horror-through-documentary' style of book. Lastly, I tried to read The Shaft by David Schow and persevered longer than I could, but eventually gave up at about 40%. Schow is clearly a competent writer, but the level of horny in this book combined with the fact that all the characters are just horrible made it too much of a slog for me. I'm assuming the horror picks up later in the book - and there were a few fun and creepy scenes in the first half, but the vast majority of the first part of the book seems to be sex scenes (in one instance just from a character's memory since that character is not getting laid but I guess we have to shoe-horn some sex scenes in there anyway), location descriptions (which again, are at least well-written), and lovely characters being derogatory and dismissive of women for no apparent reason. I genuinely can't tell if the author wants us to hate all the characters, or since this was published in the early 90s just actually thinks this way himself but either way, ugh. Edit: Oh yeah, just remembered that the one scene with a retired older woman who only appears in the novel to have something bad happen to her to establish the horror also for some reason spends her time thinking in detail about sex despite just pottering about in her apartment at the time.
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Jun 21, 2022 23:00
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MockingQuantum posted:Excellent! Thank you for the list, I've read a few of those but there's a bunch I haven't heard of so I'll check them out. You're welcome! I didn't know The Ceremonies was a extended version! I'll have to see about tracking down the first version. That sounds a little more interesting, and I can appreciate the tighter editing. Also, alas, I must withdraw the suggestion of Water Shall Refuse Them by Lucie Mcknight Hardy for folk horror. According to a friend who read it, it's not really folk horror. There's some weird religion stuff but it's more literary with a hint of horror. Welp. I'll still read it, eventually. anilEhilated posted:Not really, it's a (central horror element spoilers) werewolf story. The topic of slavery is addressed but IIRC it isn't too egregious. zoux posted:I mean the main antagonists are slaves turned into werewolves by their evil werewolf slaveowner. That doesn't really get revealed to the end but "slave ghosts" isn't too far off. But it's also set in the 1920s and the slave stuff is kind of a twist you find out about at the end. It's a good book though, mostly about a WWI veteran slowly going mad because of a combination of PTSD and the hosed up secret horrors going on in the town. Hm. I see. I'll give it a go then. If the prose hooks me, so be it. I do love people slowly going insane! That is why I stuck through Nevill's House of Small Shadows and Evenson's Last Days. BTW for those who have read The Fisherman by John Langan, the short story Blodsuger by John Langan from Screams from the Dark anthology by Ellen Datlow is sort of.... Not in the same canon or universe, per se, but it has similar tones. It's about a man whose 10 yo son is interested in fishing and at a party they meet a fellow fisherwoman. The son mentions he wants to go ice fishing some day, to which the fisherwoman has a tactful but fearful response to that, which she explains privately in a story to the father. It's not as in depth [ha!] as the Fisherman novel, but I really enjoyed it. Just a lil heads up for those who finished it and want desserts. A hosed up fishy dessert. The aspic kind, except it's in a bundt cake shape and it's decorated like an eel's mouth. Honestly the whole anthology is pretty great, and I only hated Cassandra Khaw's story and maybe Margo Lanagan's. Khaw's story just felt like a fullmetal alchemist fanfic but in a bad way. Like oh, you wrote this story after reading cliff notes for that other media, huh?
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Jun 22, 2022 05:57
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MockingQuantum posted:Anything good in the folk horror vein come out in the last year or so? I love folk horror when it's done well but it's oddly hard to find good examples, I'm having trouble even thinking of many good ones that I've read in the last few years. I liked the Andrew Michael Hurley books I've read, but they're about the most slow-burn, understated books I've come across. From some listicle I wrote years ago, and the comments I got at the time: 'We Will All Go Down Together' by Gemma Files Devize, Glouwer, Rusk, Druir, Roke - these are the clans who make up the notorious Five-Family Coven. Four hundred years ago, this alliance of witches, changelings, and sorcerers sought to ruin and recreate the Earth in their own image, thwarted only by treachery that sent half of them to be burned alive. 'The Loney' by Andrew Michael Hurley "If it had another name, I never knew, but the locals called it the Loney - that strange nowhere between the Wyre and the Lune where Hanny and I went every Easter time with Mummer, Farther, Mr and Mrs Belderboss and Father Wilfred, the parish priest. It was impossible to truly know the place. It changed with each influx and retreat, and the neap tides would reveal the skeletons of those who thought they could escape its insidious currents. No one ever went near the water. No one apart from us, that is. I suppose I always knew that what happened there wouldn't stay hidden for ever, no matter how much I wanted it to. No matter how hard I tried to forget...." Matthew M. Bartlett's GATEWAYS TO ABOMINATION Harvest Home by Thomas Tryon
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Jun 22, 2022 17:19
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value-brand cereal posted:
Most of Langan's stuff is actually in some weird semi-canon of Upstate New York gribbly ookily-spookily stuff. Like he obviously gives precisely zero shits about making it consistent, but there are overlaps between stories, allusions between them, and they all (pretty much) have the same rough setting of the Mid-Hudson Valley with the serial numbers filed off. Like there are references to the events of Fisherman scattered around in other stories and the house from House of Windows still exists in I haven't gone full creepy red-string-corkboard about it cause why would I, but if you keep that stuff in the back of your head it's pretty consistent. Like he's incredibly faithful to local geography, to the point where I know where stuff is down to specific streets.
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Jun 22, 2022 18:36
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Xiahou Dun posted:Most of Langan's stuff is actually in some weird semi-canon of Upstate New York gribbly ookily-spookily stuff. Like he obviously gives precisely zero shits about making it consistent, but there are overlaps between stories, allusions between them, and they all (pretty much) have the same rough setting of the Mid-Hudson Valley with the serial numbers filed off. Like there are references to the events of Fisherman scattered around in other stories and the house from House of Windows still exists in IS IT?! I had no idea. I'll keep that in mind when I finally tackle Wide Carnivorous Sky, thank you. I think that's really cool of Langan to be able to keep it that consistent. I like the idea of a bermuda triangle esque localization of hosed up things brought over by, or caused by, colonization. Speaking of? I just remembered that The End of the Sentence by Maria Dahvana Headley & Kat Howard might qualify for a bit of folk horror. It's more folklore horror, I'd say. But it was a good read and it didn't feel like another lousy fairy tale retreading. I wish they went more into the 'we brought these folk lore horrors with us to the new land' concept. The idea that you cannot escape your history and have created more horrors in your new paradise is pretty fun to me. Doomed from the start!
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Jun 22, 2022 20:51
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It's literally almost all set in the same river valley. Like a solid 95% of his stories are either in "Huguenot", "Wyltwick" or the surrounding area : the former is actually New Paltz, a little hippy college town where he used to teach and the latter is Kingston which used to be the state capital back in the 18th century ; they're about 20 miles North-South of each other with the house I grew up in smack in between lol. The Fisherman takes place mostly up by the Shokan Resevoir up in the foothills North of Kingston/Wyltwick, and Wide Carnivorous Sky (the eponymous story) is a bit North of that in the Catskills proper. Hell, in one of the short stories in Wide Carnivorous Sky (the one with the werewolf), he actually does a literal lay of the land geography survey of "Huguenot" where he's shouting out where the college and the local student bars and the loving Indian Restaurant is with an aside to the reader about how he moved the police station because it's in a lovely, non-dramatic spot in real life. I got so addicted to him cause it's really fun noticing specific landmarks, like down to individual streets and stuff ; my dad gave me The Fisherman so we've been keeping track for funnsies and we even went to the stream/hiking trail up there.
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Jun 22, 2022 21:27
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Xiahou Dun posted:It's literally almost all set in the same river valley. Like a solid 95% of his stories are either in "Huguenot", "Wyltwick" or the surrounding area : the former is actually New Paltz, a little hippy college town where he used to teach and the latter is Kingston which used to be the state capital back in the 18th century ; they're about 20 miles North-South of each other with the house I grew up in smack in between lol. The Fisherman takes place mostly up by the Shokan Resevoir up in the foothills North of Kingston/Wyltwick, and Wide Carnivorous Sky (the eponymous story) is a bit North of that in the Catskills proper. Hell, in one of the short stories in Wide Carnivorous Sky (the one with the werewolf), he actually does a literal lay of the land geography survey of "Huguenot" where he's shouting out where the college and the local student bars and the loving Indian Restaurant is with an aside to the reader about how he moved the police station because it's in a lovely, non-dramatic spot in real life. Laird Barron does this with Washington State and often very specifically the Olympic peninsula as well, which is where I grew up and so a lot of his stories 'connect' with me a lot because I know exactly the places he's talking about and have been there personally etc. I really enjoy that kind of stuff a lot, and it helps make the stories feel more grounded I feel.
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Jun 23, 2022 14:01
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Can recommend Evensons The Glassy Burning Floor of Hell There were one or two misses, and I think he (or the editor) leaned too heavy on the stories that basically sum as "humans poo poo, kill them all" but overall some really solid dread was built. Some of my favorite stories I would almost not even call horror, just weird explorations of what it means to be human.
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Jun 26, 2022 18:32
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I started reading one of the Splatter Westerns and I says Book 3. Am I right in thinking that they're standalone and that's just the third one the publisher put out, or am I supposed to be reading in order
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Jun 28, 2022 05:50
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