Just finished The Fireman by Joe Hill which I enjoyed overall but I could predict some of the ending way too early for my liking. I just started The Deep by Nick Cutter and it pulled me in immediately.
Just finished The Fireman by Joe Hill which I enjoyed overall but I could predict some of the ending way too early for my liking. I just started The Deep by Nick Cutter and it pulled me in immediately.
Good observation. I liked its tautness, its fast pace, that it was pared down to the bone, but I agree that some important scenes could have been fleshed out a bit to delay the resolution.Originally Posted by ur2ndbiggestfan
Your comments make me wonder whether Cari Mora started life as a screenplay; I think Harris has written those in the past? He did the one for Hannibal Rising, at least.
HBJ
“If you don't know what you want," the doorman said, "you end up with a lot you don't.”
― Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club
Looking for SubPress Lettered::
Angel's Game and Prisoner of Heaven (Zafon)
Ilium (Simmons)
This book sounds fascinating but it's not available on Hoopla, so I'll need to pick up a copy soon it seems!
Just finished The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley. It's like Starship Troopers, The Forever War, and All You Need Is Kill all rolled into one book. Pretty cool.
I recently finished Centipede Press' Library of Weird Fiction volume of Arthur Machen (which I mentioned a bit here: http://www.thedarktower.org/palaver/...=1#post1167839, and CP's listing for which appears here: http://www.centipedepress.com/masters/machenlwf.html).
After that, from Oxford University Press' Machen collection, The Great God Pan And Other Horror Stories, I read those entries not covered by the CP volume, the OUP product page for which is here: https://global.oup.com/academic/prod...lang=en&cc=us#.
While Machen is weird fiction, and his name is often mentioned with Lovecraft's, they are pretty different; I'd say that anyone with an interest in old horror that thought Lovecraft was too much or too "out there" might enjoy Machen, whose writing is more restrained. Virtually everything here touches on the fairy world (and the various things that includes), but that doesn't mean each story involves a frolic through the tall grass; he mixes it in judiciously, in different ways for different stories.
Machen's writing also reminded me of Arthur Conan Doyle's Gothic Tales collection (discussed here: http://www.thedarktower.org/palaver/...=1#post1126211), with some page-turner plotting, but the significant difference that Machen was much freer in letting the story off the leash (appropriate, given the subject matter).
It's all pretty good, but my favorites were The Terror, The White People, and The Three Imposters. FYI, The Three Impostors has subsections that can stand alone, and Machen collections often use only a segment or two from this, so I encourage anyone looking into picking up some Machen to be sure to get a collection that has the entire work (both collections mentioned here have the entire thing, a credit to both editorial staffs).
Machen wrote a series of "prose poems" (I think of them as story fragments) collectively referred to as Ornaments In Jade; the Centipede volume has them all, but the Oxford is missing a few, and other collections bypass it altogether. I suppose these could make for a frustrating reading experience, but if you know what you're in for going in, you might enjoy them as I did, and I'm glad I had them all.
Some enjoyable quotes:
“Mr. Dyson, walking leisurely along Oxford Street…enjoyed in all its rare flavours the sensation that he was really very hard at work.”
“Your scruples entertain me…Perhaps you have not gone very deeply into these questions of ethics.”
“‘You will, I am sure, excuse preliminaries,’ he began; ‘what I have to tell is best told quickly. I will say, then, that I was born in a remote part of the west of England…’”
“The bowl was carved in the likeness of a female figure, showing the head and torso…at last he bought it. He was pleased to show it to the younger men in the office for a while, but…he gave it away just before his marriage, as from the nature of the carving it would have been impossible to use it in his wife’s presence.”
“Then there’s James, a sporting man. You wouldn’t care for him. I always think he smells of the stable.”
“Mary’s story was suddenly interrupted. For ten minutes Darnell had been writhing in his chair, suffering tortures in his anxiety to avoid wounding his wife’s feelings, but the episode of the dandelion was too much for him, and he burst into a long, wild shriek of laughter, aggravated by suppression into the semblance of a Red Indian’s war-whoop.”
“He was asked whether he knew something. And his reply really amounted to ‘No, I don’t.’ But I have never heard it better put.”
“Miss Pilliner’s long and ceremonious approach was lulling him into a mild stupor; he wondered faintly when she would come to the point, and what the point would be like when she came to it, and, chiefly, what on earth this rather dull family history could have to do with him...There was a pause. Last was resigned. The point of the long story seemed to recede into some far distance, into vanishing prospective.”
Finally, to compare the two collections:
- Centipede wins out on contents, as it has 7 stories the Oxford lacks plus 3 parts of the Ornaments In Jade series the Oxford lacked.
- Centipede also wins out on design, with the usual black cloth and red ribbon page marker, more pleasant font and lighter page color, as well as more legible type (Oxford's pages were smaller but contained about a third more words).
- Oxford wins out on editorial content; I learned much more from Oxford's frontispiece than from CP's entire introduction, not to mention from Oxford's 22-page introduction itself and 39-page "explanatory notes" section. If context is important to you when delving into an author's bibliography, this may be significant for you. (It's worth noting that Oxford tends to produce great editorial content - they will always teach you something, if you let them).
- Oxford also wins on cost, as it can be had for ~$20, and the CP edition was ~$45 (although it is now sold out), although I doubt this would be a concern for many of you. Still, anyone looking (as I am) to assemble a collection of early horror from many sources might have kept that in mind, and the Oxford volume is still a fine collection for anyone who missed out on the CP volume.
- In the end, I prefer the CP volume, but I really had to have both.
It seems I'm miles above the surface of the Earth
I can see across the whole of London and beyond
Interested to hear your thoughts on The Deep.
So far I've read The Deep, The Troop, and Little Heaven - Cutter is absolutely unrelenting with his horror. Shocking, grotesque, disturbing and terrifying passages seem to go on and on, with a total disregard for how uncomfortable it can be for the reader. It's like being smothered or drowned, you simply don't get to come up for air.
It's an odd stylistic choice, and makes for some bizarre pacing sometimes, but it's also intriguing because I find it different from the horror I typically read. If you end up enjoying The Deep, I suspect you'll like his other works as well.
Just found a BCE "Bachman Books" and have started in on "Rage" for the first time ever.
There are no coincidences. Only Ka.
~I don't like rep points! ~
Please use only the 'I disapprove' option for me. (If it do ya fine.)
Enjoy it! I personally think The Long Walk and Roadwork are stronger books though.
The Long Walk is my favourite Bachman.
I'm reading The Supernova Era by Cixin Liu.
The Long Walk is amazing. One of my all time favorites. It's also probably one of the books I've re-read the most.
Only the gentle are ever really strong.
I'm just finishing up The Haunting of Ashburn House by Darcy Coates. I'm thoughouly enjoying it, and have Craven Manor ready to go next.
Only the gentle are ever really strong.
Finished Seed by Anita Ahlborn. Was really good. Brother is still my favorite by her but Seed was a quick spooky read.
Wish List:
Any of the following flatsigned or inscribed-
It, Shining, Salem’s Lot, Mr. Mercedes, The Stand
Brother ARC, Seed ARC
Just started (and almost finished) Beyond Belief by Brad Steiger, a very short (151 pages) and easily digestible compilation of things that are, basically, beyond belief: everything from the Loch Ness monster to ghost ships to dinosaurs living within the last 1,500 years. It's an entertaining bit of fluff that has me scratching my head, not bad.
It seems I'm miles above the surface of the Earth
I can see across the whole of London and beyond
Just finished The Deep and I was enjoying it much more than The Troop until the end. I found a bit of the ending disappointing but still enjoyed it more than The Troop. I agree that his horror comes across more as unrelenting disturbing and borderline over the top grotesque than scary. I also find certain parts of his writings about animals to be the most disturbing things he writes. That's probably my own bias of animals being more or less innocent and human beings usually deserving of any horror inflicted upon them. I look forward to picking up the other two novels.Interested to hear your thoughts on The Deep.
So far I've read The Deep, The Troop, and Little Heaven - Cutter is absolutely unrelenting with his horror. Shocking, grotesque, disturbing and terrifying passages seem to go on and on, with a total disregard for how uncomfortable it can be for the reader. It's like being smothered or drowned, you simply don't get to come up for air.
It's an odd stylistic choice, and makes for some bizarre pacing sometimes, but it's also intriguing because I find it different from the horror I typically read. If you end up enjoying The Deep, I suspect you'll like his other works as well.
I am starting Dark Tides - A Charity Horror Anthology that arrived yesterday.
Frankenstein Unbound by Brian W. Aldiss. Made it four pages in, and nooope, this is just not good. It's Ungood. Aldiss Ungood.
I'll check out the movie though.
I'm moving back to Crime and Punishment after finishing The Kite Runner.
The Kite Runner was a very well-written book, but it made some missteps in the final third, notably when it came to giving so many things introduced earlier on a payoff...it made a lot of the main characters return home after so many years feel so choreographed, almost too perfectly set up to feel organic. And then the events of the second last chapter was just one heaping helping of misery too much. It felt unnecessary and took me out of the story at the worst possible time, right before the ending. I did like the characters a lot and the first half of the book about the narrator growing up in Afghanistan before the Saur Revolution was simply fantastic. I still liked the book quite a bit on the whole, I just think a few missteps for my personal taste held it back from being a truly great book.
4/5
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I read CRIME AND PUNISHMENT a long time ago, when I was way too young to understand it.
Currently reading PAST MASTER by R. A. Lafferty, which I don't like very much. I can still say I have never read anything by Lafferty I liked, whew!
I'm sure if there is intelligent life somewhere out there in the universe, they are wise enough to stay away from us.
And the people bowed and prayed, to the cell phone god they made...
Started Gwendy's Magic Feather today, will let you know
Wish List:
Any of the following flatsigned or inscribed-
It, Shining, Salem’s Lot, Mr. Mercedes, The Stand
Brother ARC, Seed ARC
I am thinking of reading my gift edtion of Rosemay Baby.. is it a good book all?
HELP ME FIND
Insomnia #459
ANY S/L #459
I thought so, finished it in two days.
I'm sure if there is intelligent life somewhere out there in the universe, they are wise enough to stay away from us.
And the people bowed and prayed, to the cell phone god they made...
It's an awesome read, Kris!
You don't know my kind.....You don't my mind.....Dark necessities are part of my design.....
PKD - Time Out of Joint. Pretty good stuff, not as "out there" as his later works.
"Mountain Rampage" by Scott Graham (book 2 in the National Park Mystery series).
it's been a while since I read a PKD book, I have a hankering. I've always wanted to read Valis but idk if I'm in the mood for sci-fi that heavy righ tnow.
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