The General Horror Book Thread: Between Two Fires fucking RULED! Hell yeah!!!! - The Something Awful Forums

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The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > The General Horror Book Thread: Between Two Fires fucking RULED! Hell yeah!!!!

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

https://twitter.com/bitterkarella/status/1030658703093952518

https://twitter.com/bitterkarella/status/1030659491715473409

The whole thread is gold, really.

# ¿ Aug 19, 2018 16:31

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# ¿ May 9, 2024 14:29

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Franchescanado posted:

NPR finally got off their asses and posted the results for the 100 Best Horror Stories, as voted by readers and "a panel of experts"

I'm not impressed.

:psyduck:

Interview with the Vampire isn't horror! It's vampire fiction, but that doesn't make it horror - --- - LA BANKS? On a HORROR list?

# ¿ Aug 20, 2018 21:16

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

A human heart posted:

What if it was called house of jeeves and was an epic post modern reinterpretation of the pg wodehouse mythos and lore

You joke but that would be an incredible thing to read.

# ¿ Aug 22, 2018 10:57

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

andelazo posted:

Moore�s �What Ho!, Gods of the Abyss,� is out there, should it help quench that thirst.

Tho� upon rereading it seems like Moore doesn�t like Wodehouse nor his characters.

Yeah, it's a little too sour for me to recommend to my Wodehouse-loving friend. That's Alan Moore, though, I'm hardly surprised.

# ¿ Aug 22, 2018 12:46

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Gertrude Perkins posted:

gently caress me, finding a print copy of The Cipher seems to be basically impossible. drat.

"what that seems wrong" ---- :stare:

:stare:

why is this horror novel 49$+ for a used paperback, and upwards of a 100$ for anything better?

# ¿ Oct 24, 2018 23:44

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Okay, Paperbacks From Hell is a great book, but I'm getting annoyed at how every other book I look up from it is like 40-50$ if I want to own a paperback copy. Would some publisher please get on reprinting these things!

# ¿ Nov 9, 2018 17:49

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

SilentChaz posted:

Grady Hendrix, who wrote Paperbacks From Hell is working with Valancourt Books to reissue some of the titles.

Excellent. Now I can only hope that these reprints include the ones I want to read. :pray:

:pray:

# ¿ Nov 9, 2018 22:59

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Horror report: as I swivel from reading a lot of fantasy to wading into horror and true crime, I've got Nancy A Collins' Sunglasses at Night and its opening delivers, with one of those faith healer cinematic TV show things, but gone wrong - the sick are escorted to the stage to be healed, and the healer does something awful to them and the crowd reacts as if she's healed them. Pulpy and a little unnerving, I like it.

I also went ahead and in a fit of curiosity ordered Necroscope, which is bound to be... either really bad, or really entertaining. Or both.

# ¿ Nov 10, 2018 02:58

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

scary ghost dog posted:

i discovered that the author of bird box is the singer for a band i used to hang out with as a kid (the high strung,) and when i was a kid he gave me a manuscript for something and it was the most poorly written thing i had ever read. every line ended with twenty ellipses and it was literally all dialogue. so if any of u want to criticize josh malermans prose keep in mind he is an amateur rock star turned horror novelist and he has no formal training whatsoever and is in fact bad at writing

I mean what authors actually get formal training?

I didn't care for the Bird Box but I respect a dude who can learn how to go from twenty ellipsis to readable stuff.

# ¿ Jan 9, 2019 15:09

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Fallom posted:

What's your opinion on those books? I'd like to try some out.

Seconding this, especially Transmission. The summary looks good but my library doesn't have it so I'd have to commit to owning it.

# ¿ Jan 27, 2019 22:29

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

julietthecat posted:

I'd be super interesting in this kind of thing too...maybe more Prometheus than Alien.

If you haven't checked them out, Ship of Fools by Richard Paul Russo (sometimes titled Unto Leviathan) and Hull Zero Three by Greg Bear have some good stuff along these lines. Both involve exploring alien space stations--in the former, a truly alien, and potentially malevolent, vessel, in the latter a generation ship where things have gone seriously awry and it's not clear why. The former is a slower burn and has some Lovecraftian elements, the latter had a lot of body horror if I remember rightly. I wouldn't call either great, but neither was a waste of time.

Blindsight by Peter Wats is also along these lines. A ship of humans and demihumans encounters an alien vessel and makes first contact with an alien race. Much of the book is about trying to figure out the aliens' language and what they're up to. It's excellent, and horrific. It gets into some of the same territory as Ligotti's philosophy.

Finally, Into the Void by Brett Talley and My Sweet Satan by Peter Cawdron are also about humans in space encountering mysterious vessels and, perhaps, aliens who may not have humans' best interests in mind. Both are pretty bad. Into the Void is reminiscent of Event Horizon, and is by far the better of the two if you do check one out.

Ooh, I've been on a Greg Bear binge - I've read Heads, Queen of Angels and I'm in the middle of the War Dogs omnibus. As I really love his writing, definitely sliding Hull Zero Three up there, thanks!

# ¿ Feb 3, 2019 23:32

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

chernobyl kinsman posted:

i taught a couple of robert aickman stories in class this week and one of my students said it was "the weirdest poo poo ive ever read in college and i didnt understand it at all"

you're welcome, son, and neither do i

The only Robert Aickman stuff I can find in my local library is the Wine-Dark Sea, is that a good place to start?

# ¿ Mar 2, 2019 13:01

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Anyone in here read Caitlin R Kiernan? Because I finished the Drowning Girl yesterday and it's not horror, but it doesn't really fit into any other thread here. It's haunting me. The imagery and mood of it was just devastating and I keep thinking about it.

Also I don't know if I've ever seen an author insert not one but two full short stories into a work before and they're seamless.

# ¿ Nov 18, 2019 03:08

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

I have the Red Tree and almost every other novel she's written, and I've got a few short story collections arriving in the mail soon. Kiernan's writing really, really impressed me and I want to devour all of it.

# ¿ Nov 18, 2019 19:32

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

MockingQuantum posted:

I loved Agents of Dreamland, and I liked Black Helicopters, but I wish they hadn't tried to make them into a pseudo-series after the fact (they, in this case, probably being the publishers rather than Kiernan). If I hadn't gone into Black Helicopters expecting what I got from Agents of Dreamland I think I would have liked it better.

Oh in that case I'll read it instead of waiting for Agents of Dreamland to arrive. Thanks!

Also y'all should be aware that she has a new novella up for preorder at this small horror press.

# ¿ Nov 18, 2019 19:36

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

MockingQuantum posted:

I mean, I think it now does explicitly reference some things from Agents of Dreamland (someone who's read it more recently would have to double-check me on this). If I understand it correctly, Black Helicopters was written well before Agents of Dreamland, but either didn't get picked up or got picked up for a limited run, then after Agents of Dreamland was released and was pretty well received, Black Helicopters was slightly re-written (there's at least one chapter that Kiernan said was written shortly before the release) to fit in the same world/storyline.

Looking through my copy of Black Helicopters in the back Kiernan explains that she wrote it in 2012, then added scenes, then added one more scene that only occurred to her after Agents of Dreamland. How much of this was publisher mandate I have no idea and I doubt we'll ever find out.

# ¿ Nov 18, 2019 19:52

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Finished Black Helicopters. I need to read that again. I loved it. That is everything I love in a strange story. I cannot tell you how refreshing it is to read a story where the supernatural elements in it are real, so to speak, and there are sci-fi elements and it's so hosed up in the right ways. I hope Agents of Dreamland is as good, because drat.

# ¿ Nov 22, 2019 04:42

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Finished Agents of Dreamland, loved it loved it. I think I love Black Helicopters more because there's more to chase around in my head there, but god what a perfect duology, they're X-Files episodes but if X-Files was actually deadly serious about the horror and conspiracy instead of more interested in short stories about 90s weird things. Which is cool, don't get me wrong I like X-Files, but I have always wanted more and these two books are IT.

Also I looked up the author's twitter, which directs you to her livejournal of all things, and I found this:

quote:

"I began work on The Tindalos Asset on June 13th, 2017, almost two years ago. I have no idea why this one took me so long. It will be published by Tor.com, the third book in the trilogy that began with Black Helicopters and Agents of Dreamland. It is a very loose sequel to both. I'm guessing it will be out sometime in 2020. There's still a lot of editing to be done.

The "final" word count on the ms. is 41,928, and that will easily go to 42k or even 43k after editing. Unless I cut something big. It's a considerably longer novella than either of its predecessors. For comparison, Agents of Dreamland came in at only 23,186 words and the expanded "final cut" of Black Helicopters that Tor published came to 37,891 words. So, yeah. It's longer."

So I am thrilled, mostly because I know it will answer nothing and I will devour it eagerly.

# ¿ Nov 24, 2019 04:52

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

unpacked robinhood posted:

Are you supposed to be able to piece together wtf happens in Black Helicopters because I sure did miss a lot of things.
Why do we get a chapter on someone attacking a Mars colony with a biological weapon ? Do I care about Whitsby and her weird experiment reuniting a twin into a single body, did this even happen ? What's with the stream of consciousness guy shooting snuff in a hotel ?

Yes and no. You've given just enough information to make a semi-coherent picture and it's great. I need to reread it to pick up all the bits I missed beforehand.

As to your questions:

- Because that someone is the White Queen, and she is once again being pursued by the Egyptian, it's meant to show that the cycle has not stopped. Also that biological weapon is a sample of what happened in Maine, so she's basically trying to restart that.
- Yes, of course you care, this is how the White Beast becomes the White Queen. It's the culmination of both Ivoire and Bete, and a fascinating consequence of everything in Maine. Did it even happen? gently caress if I know.
- Snuff TV man meets the White Queen, but honestly these were the most confusing parts of the novel so I can't answer this completely until I reread it a few more times.

e: Oh and as for what the White Beast/Queen actually IS, uh, aside from a powerful psychic/font of chaotic power, I'm not sure. Important, yes.

# ¿ Nov 24, 2019 15:26

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

"They are afraid of us. They were already old when those rocks were mud and slime, and they are terrible, but they are as afraid of us as we are of dying."

Threshold doesn't have the zing of Drowning Girl or the tor novellas but it's real good anyways and I'm getting close to the end and getting real worried for every character in this thing

# ¿ Nov 29, 2019 00:00

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

I haven't read the Red Tree yet but it cannot be slower than Threshold, that book only had things happen in the second half.

Which isn't to say I don't love it to pieces but Kiernan really likes to establish character and get that atmosphere in long before she does anything with it.

# ¿ Dec 10, 2019 02:42

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

I love everything about the weird limited edition signed book scene except for the prices. Good lord, Centipede. Good lord, Subterranean. Good lord, Dark Regions.

# ¿ Dec 15, 2019 17:08

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Ornamented Death posted:

I have such sights to show you...

(Payment plan available:
Four payments of $875*)

... no! No! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

# ¿ Dec 15, 2019 17:17

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

As someone who buys books to read them, and just needs them intact with the words inside: :psyduck:

:psyduck:

# ¿ Dec 15, 2019 17:22

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

COOL CORN posted:

Lol if you actually read all the books you collect

haha no don't worry, if I buy books for 2-3$ a pop I can hoard several hundred of them and obviously never read them! i mean i can try to read them, but there are so many...

# ¿ Dec 15, 2019 18:46

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Chas McGill posted:

Just read Agents of Dreamland and I thought it was pretty intriguing without being satisfying. The content and ambience is just right in places, but some quirks of the writing irritated me, like the Signalman lighting a cig and pouring a J&B every paragraph in his chapters. I'd probably forgive it in a novel.

Overall I was less interested in the incident with Drew Standish and more interested in the agents themselves. The little details and hints about their organisations made me want to read more.

On that note, what are the good novels in the sort of subgenre of paranormal operatives? I read a couple of the Charles Stross Laundry books a long time ago and I did enjoy them, although the tone was more towards comedy and pastiche than horror.

Read Black Helicopters next, and there'll be a third novella in the series coming out next year hopefully. I won't say that Black Helicopters will fix any of your problems with the writing - and in fact it has its own problems - but I loved it a lot and the world it evokes.

e: Oh and as for your question, read Seal Team 666 and tell me if it's worth it or not :v:

:v:

(i haven't read it yet.... soon, stupid book. soon.)

# ¿ Dec 16, 2019 03:20

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

fauna posted:

dammit i believe in the power of love

dad has always gifted me books so i just want to return the favour whenever my brother and i went to his house for summer holidays, he would give me a "christmas" present of a retired library book from the library where he worked, and would encourage me to read it as quickly as possible so he could take it back and then give it as a "christmas" present to my brother. that's how i developed my incredible speed-reading skills, trying to read while dad hovered around the door going "are you done yet? are you done yet? are you done yet??" taught me to churn through a medium-length novel in like an hour

Skyscraper posted:

A horrifying short story, right in this very thread!

yeah uh, that doesn't sound like a gift to me, that sounds like hell

# ¿ Dec 16, 2019 23:52

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

chernobyl kinsman posted:

agents of dreamland blows. depressingly warmed-over lovecraftian schlock, and the prose in the Signalman's chapters are unbearable.

Then I recommend you don't read the rest of Kiernan's stuff as it's similar. Which sucks because if you loved it like I did I could've recced the rest of her stuff.

# ¿ Dec 31, 2019 23:32

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Ornamented Death posted:

In more interesting news, The Cipher is finally getting a paperback rerelease in September.

Who's doing it? I want to prowl their website.

# ¿ Jan 7, 2020 17:27

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

COOL CORN posted:

https://www.meerkatpress.com/books/the-cipher/

Cover looks pretty dope, imo

edit- September 2020 release

"2020 ugh that's a long time" and then I go wait

anyways thank you!! looking forward to spending less than 200$ on it so I can finally read it

# ¿ Jan 7, 2020 17:55

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

MockingQuantum posted:

TBB has a lot of anti-ebook curmudgeons. I say that with love. In any case, I'm in favor of the book becoming more available period, so it's a win all around. Koja also has a collection due out in April of this year so I'm guessing The Cipher getting reprinted is probably following on the coattails of that, since it's the same publisher.

Oh my gosh this is the first time I've ever been called a curmudgeon! Thank you!

Also yes yep I know ebook readers are comfy and awesome now, but do they smell like books, or have the feeling of turning pages? No they do not.

# ¿ Jan 7, 2020 19:18

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Black Griffon posted:

Yo what's good space horror?

More sci-fi horror with lovecraftian themes: Dry Salvages, Black Helicopters, Agents in Dreamland by Kiernan. All three novellas are real good.

Peter Watts' Starfish is incredible, but it uses the deep ocean instead of space.

Finally, borderline recs: Queen of Angels by Greg Bear has some horror elements and is set in the future. Luminous Dead is about caving horror in a sci-fi setting.

Sorry I don't have anything exact for you.

e: I haven't read it yet but Greg Bear's Hull Zero Three.
e2: Again, haven't read it yet: Salvation Day by Kali Wallace. If it's good post about it so I pick it up sooner.

StrixNebulosa fucked around with this message at 17:53 on Jan 13, 2020

# ¿ Jan 13, 2020 17:49

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Threshold by Caitlin R Kiernan has a slow start but once it starts burning there's some real overt supernatural horror that's pretty messed up.

# ¿ Jan 16, 2020 01:34

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

COOL CORN posted:

...good point. It'll be the 20th century for the rest of my life, in my mind.

I hope I live long enough to see the 22nd century:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyGAc-OLAiQ

# ¿ Jan 16, 2020 17:06

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

chernobyl kinsman posted:

i like that a guy turned into a tree

you should read the Genesys trilogy by Brian Stableford

# ¿ Feb 2, 2020 19:56

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

I'm picturing you sitting out in the sun with your quails reading Ligotti and occasionally reading choice passages aloud to them

# ¿ Feb 12, 2020 16:44

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

escape artist posted:

viddy well

is it horror?

Yes and no. It's southern gothic as a deep south community has a river monster join in after a bad flood.

# ¿ Feb 16, 2020 12:41

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

I am a huge fan of Caitlin R Kiernan's work and highly recommend her Drowning Girl. Give her a shot!

# ¿ Feb 19, 2020 20:01

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

chernobyl kinsman posted:

kiernan sucks bad im sorry. just bog standard lovecraft fanfic with some truly repellant prose

e: actually read kiernan and langan because i think theyll make you mad and ill enjoy reading your posts about them

I obviously disagree re: kiernan's quality, but agreed: I wanna see Mel comment on (imho) her best work, Drowning Girl. Even if Mel winds up hating it I wanna know why.

# ¿ Feb 20, 2020 23:51

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# ¿ May 9, 2024 14:29

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

A brief review of La Belle Fleur Sauvage: Plague of the Womb by Caitlin R Kiernan: fancily named novella with a cool cover from Dark Regions Press; of course I had to have it. It's very similar to Kiernan's other works for better or for worse -

- as a novella, similar to her other novellas you can tell it is desperate to be a novel. These are scenes that have been cut from a larger work and presented and they would work better if they had more space but they do not. While I forgive this in Agents of Dreamland and Black Helicopters (and not so much in Dry Salvages), I don't here because there's this sense of too much being left out, too many unaddressed plot threads. She built a living breathing dying world and made it feel like it has a lot of stories to tell, and then it's over.

- the trend of writing about writing returns. realistic perhaps as her characters start a journal with "i'm writing this because" and then meander, but I would appreciate if these bits were edited out.

- best scenes: the parade, the glimpses of the apocalypse in motion, the museum

- the chapter about how prostitution works in the dying world where people with wombs have to be "cut" and have to be scarred to prove it was hosed up. believable but hosed up.

- surprisingly gore filled for kiernan's works (not to say there isn't gore in the rest of her stuff) but also - interestingly - very little of the gore was due to the supernatural horror thing. it's mostly from humans being awful to themselves and each other.

Ultimately I enjoyed it but it's very much a novella for Kiernan fans only, as it has a lot of the hallmarks of her writing style.

# ¿ Feb 26, 2020 05:20

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The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > The General Horror Book Thread: Between Two Fires fucking RULED! Hell yeah!!!!

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