Horror, Fantasy, and other non-sci-fi genres...

[D_Davis]

What if there were an auction for the greatest collection of esoteric and occult literature ever compiled by human hands? What if this collection was curated by a secret cult? What if you were to stumble upon the catalog for such an auction, a detailed list of all the manuscripts, with essays written about each, detailing the craftsmanship, condition, and contents of each volume?

Wonder no more.

http://www.teemingbrain.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/The_Starry_Wisdom_Library_Titl e_Page.jpg

http://d1w7fb2mkkr3kw.cloudfront.net/assets/images/book/large/9781/8486/9781848637917.jpg

The book contains essays and details for an auction that includes tomes like The Necronomicon, The King in Yellow, John Dee's The Book of Thoth, The Book of Azathoth, and a host of other illicit, strange, and dark ancient texts, examining and adding to the mythology of each of these fictional works of esoterica. Each of the essays is written by a different author, including Joseph Pulver, Ramsey Campbell, who adopt fictional titles of prestige such as “Prof.” Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. Poetry Chair, English Department, Miskatonic University.

It's an amazing book, beautifully put together with dozens of footnotes, illustrations, and detailed information about each volume including its publication history, number of pages, condition, and comments on the rarity and authenticity of each.

[D_Davis]

New Michael Cisco book - Animal Money. His biggest, and supposedly most complex work to date. Can Cisco maintain his creative drive for nearly 800 pages? We'll see. It also has an amazing and highly erotic cover. Reminds me of Bloodborne's Nightmare Frontier.


A living form of money results in the unraveling of the world.

“The bank is there to save and lend.”
“Workers work and customers spend.”



https://lazyfascist.files.wordpress.co m/2015/11/animalmoneyfinal.jpg?w=490

[megladon8]

I see nothing sexual there.

[D_Davis]

Animal Money seems to be an economic fantasy. Ciscos last book explored game theory, and this is exploring economic theory.

[D_Davis]

So I guess Jeff VanderMeer kind of likes Animal Money:


I don't know how Cisco is doing this, but so far it's an accomplishment that has me thinking Bolano's 2666 and Pynchon's V and Gravity's Rainbow.


I'm more and more convinced that Michael Cisco's Animal Money might be the uncanny Infinite Jest, and the greatest weird novel of the modern era.

[D_Davis]

Animal Money is something else. Rogue economists, all suffering from head injuries, developing a new kind of money, money that is a verb, not a noun, an economy more akin to the exchanging of ideas and words, getting possessed by the spirit of communist aliens, speaking in economic tongues, weird dream logic, farcical car trips, a secret zoo-within-a-zoo in which animals take turns raping their handlers in exchange for bits of plastic, lions selling trade secrets for lion money....and all in the first 90 pages.

It is by far Cisco's most straight forward narrative - there are no gimmicks, no puzzles, no purposeful obfuscation.

It's wild, and I'm loving it.

[megladon8]

I love that with Cisco, the first paragraph you wrote can be followed by "it's by far his most straight forward narrative."

[D_Davis]

I love that with Cisco, the first paragraph you wrote can be followed by "it's by far his most straight forward narrative."

I was hoping you'd get that joke. :)

[megladon8]

I honestly didn't think it was a joke. With Cisco, a description like that could very well be a more straightforward work by him!

[D_Davis]

I didn't mean joke as in "haha, not true!" but as in it being funny that I could type what I did, and then say what I did about it. ;)

[D_Davis]

There's a part in Animal Money in which two economists with opposing policies have a duel to see who's policy will be implemented. The duel is a jumping contest, to see which economist can jump the highest over the longest period of time.

This is pretty much exactly how I view the political and economic worlds IRL.

Absolute absurdity satirized with absolute absurdity.

I never imagined that Cisco would get political, but I'm glad he has. This is the only book of his that feels of the time - it's a very NOW book. All of his other work seems to exist outside of space and time. But Animal Money does not.

[D_Davis]

My Lansdale shelf is almost full.

https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xft1/v/t1.0-9/12669452_1745314819025919_4036 611776150472808_n.jpg?oh=7e481 657d9181083b79c093039f44427&oe=573D2F12

[kuehnepips]

I need D_D here.

[D_Davis]

Wow. This thread is dead. :(

[D_Davis]

Anyone read anything from Nick Cutter? The Troop? The Deep?

[D_Davis]

So I started reading Nick Cutter's The Troop last night. Pretty good so far. It's about a Boy Scout troop out on a weekend adventure on a small island off the coast of Canada. On the island they come across a super skinny man with some weird disease that causes him to eat and eat, and eat, and eat. There's also something crawling around under his skin.

I'm a super picky eater, and food stuff makes me gag easy. This thing is right up my alley for a good scare.

[D_Davis]

Really looking forward to Grady Henrix' Paperbacks from Hell.

https://www.amazon.com/Paperbacks-Hell-Twisted-History-Fiction/dp/1594749817/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1502307185&sr=1-4&keywords=grady+hendrix

http://www.pulpcurry.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Paperbacks-from-Hell.jpeg

[megladon8]

I have not read any Cutter but have been very interested in both The Troop and The Deep. Moreso the latter.

[D_Davis]

The Troop is great, so far. Really digging it. It totally does feel like a throwback, but without being just a pastiche. Kind of like The Ruins, but better, of course.

[D_Davis]

The Troop was pretty good. Perfect airport / super market book. Total throwback to the 80s and 90s, mass market genre offering. I saw the physical book at the book store this weekend, and was really disappointed to find that a) it was a trade size, and b) it has a more artsy cover than it deserves. A book like this should embrace is genre-ghetto, rather than try to big itself up by pretending to be more literary horror.

[megladon8]

Wrote down a few titles I want to check out when I was at the book store yesterday:

A Shadow on the Wall by Jonathan Aycliffe

The Truants by Lee Markham

Lovecraft Squad: All Hallows' Horror by John Llewelyn Probert

And I'm still dying to check out The Fisherman by John Langan.

[D_Davis]

I got The Fisherman last year. Haven't read it yet.

[D_Davis]

How did this book escape my childhood?

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/5139RwDhQDL._SX331_BO1,204,203 ,200_.jpg

An animal fable combining Christian allegory with an epic fantasy. Part Watership Down, part Animal Farm, part Narnia, and part Lord of the Rings. All things that I love.

And yet it was only a few months ago that I actually discovered it. And, it might actually be better written than all of those aforementioned titles.

Also, the dog's name in the novel is Mundo Cani Dog. That's the best character name I've ever heard.

[D_Davis]

Just got my copy of Paperbacks from Hell. It is incredible. Large format, trade paperback absolutely overflowing with amazing cover art from all those glorious trashy horror novels from the 80s and 70s, along with info on the artists, the plots, and the authors.

This book absolutely must belong in every horror lover's library.

[D_Davis]

Walter Wangerin Jr.'s The Book of the Dun Cow is extraordinary. It is now my favorite beast epic / animal fable. I like it more than Animal Farm, Watership Down, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH and Charlotte's Web. As far as Christian themed literature goes, it is also extraordinary. More nuanced than the Narnia books and Pilgrim's Progress, and not just a simple allegory. It's not really an allegory at all, but instead the book assumes that the Christian God is the god of the Animals upon the Earth, and the animals know this. But in this book, God turns his back on the animals, and leaves their fate up to them. God is NOT in control here, and this very much reflects my own view of the divine and our roles on Earth. It is one of the most subversive and harsh YA novels I've ever read. I can't imagine something like this being written for this audience today. Very real, very harsh, and very meaningful adult ideas, relationships, and desires are addressed in a bold and unflinching manner. The personification of evil, named Cockatrice, rapes every hen in his kingdom to produce an army of basilisks to send to war. It is dark, and bleak, full of sadness and sorrow, tragedy and hardship. But it is also brimming with humor and triumph. The animals - especially the ants - can be downright hilarious, and Wangerin breathes life into each of the species giving them natural mannerisms that enhance their biological differences. This is highly recommended. One of the very best fantasies I've read in years. Right up there with Lord Dunsany and George MacDonald.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Finished Revival this past week. Rallies in the final stretch, but I'd be lying if I said the preceding two thirds of the story didn't underwhelm me. So often the hero feels story-adjacent. At any given point, there's something interesting happening with the minister, but we're denied that for what feels like a too-traditional memoir of sex and drugs and rock and roll. Obviously this is the point, as King refers to the minister as the "fifth business" of this story, and in that regard, despite the single-focus horror elements that recall the relative purity of his early works (telekinesis in Carrie, vampirism in 'salem's Lot, a riff on Frankenstein in this one), this has little of the ferocity of those books. It's an odd book, one of his lesser ones of recent years (I prefer Full Dark No Stars, Under the Dome, and 11/22/63, in that order), but that final leg of the journey builds up momentum and pays off the stalling and digressions (if only just) with a memorable and surprisingly nihilistic climax.

[D_Davis]

Finished Revival this past week. Rallies in the final stretch, but I'd be lying if I said the preceding two thirds of the story didn't underwhelm me. So often the hero feels story-adjacent. At any given point, there's something interesting happening with the minister, but we're denied that for what feels like a too-traditional memoir of sex and drugs and rock and roll. Obviously this is the point, as King refers to the minister as the "fifth business" of this story, and in that regard, despite the single-focus horror elements that recall the relative purity of his early works (telekinesis in Carrie, vampirism in 'salem's Lot, a riff on Frankenstein in this one), this has little of the ferocity of those books. It's an odd book, one of his lesser ones of recent years (I prefer Full Dark No Stars, Under the Dome, and 11/22/63, in that order), but that final leg of the journey builds up momentum and pays off the stalling and digressions (if only just) with a memorable and surprisingly nihilistic climax.

Overall, it's not a very interesting novel. It's well written with some good characters, but it's also rather dull. But the ending is incredible. It really stuck with me. Of his recent stuff, it's my least favorite.

1. Under the Dome
2. Full Dark, No Stars
3. Dr. Sleep
4. 11/22/63
5. Revival

[Dead & Messed Up]

Under the Dome really is just too much damn fun.

[D_Davis]

Under the Dome really is just too much damn fun.


Sometimes I pick it up just to re-read that first 250 or so pages. Probably the best stuff King has ever written.

[Peng]

When I was 75% into reading The Ruins, I had gone from wondering what the budget for the film version's gore was gonna be, to wondering if they would have the time for all these gore scenes. As for the book, pretty good writing that is used for too many repetitive, padded sections. The gripping detail-by-detail style works best in the first half, immersing us into these characters and places, and giving realistic weight to the out-there premise by leaning into it slowly. That makes the early horror really resonate, and the villain quite sinister (the stuff around the Greek and the mine shaft is so rivetingly gruesome). However, somewhere after the "laughter" reveal, the momentum starts to halt. As admirable as the ambition to map things out psychologically and physiologically is, there are just not enough story elements at work here to support that style of in-depth storytelling; the overall arc is not deep enough. What should feel horrifically inevitable instead becomes gruesomely plodding, long before the end arrives. Then again, I have to give the writing some credit because I still read it quickly to the last page. 3/5

[D_Davis]

The Ruins was OK. I actually liked the movie better.

If you like this kind of horror fiction, I highly recommend the work of Nick Cutter. Total throwback to the golden days of 70s and 80s mass market horror. But slightly better written.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Yeah, I think I preferred the movie too, although both stories stop engaging me once they switch from external terrors to body horror. Call it a testament to the premise that my stomach can't (and doesn't want to) handle that.

[D_Davis]

Some of the gore in the book is INTENSE! Made me very uneasy.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Mister B. Gone - Only through the first disc of my audio book, but loving it so far. A huge part is that Doug Bradley of Pinhead fame narrates, and he brings the characters to life with some remarkable vocal work.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Mister B. Gone - Only through the first disc of my audio book, but loving it so far. A huge part is that Doug Bradley of Pinhead fame narrates, and he brings the characters to life with some remarkable vocal work.

Went from loving to liking; when Barker's writing of his own creations, he can generate lovely and horrifying prose, but when he's remixing Christian demonology (like he did with his diverting play The History of the Devil), he can't help but present it in a more joking, camp manner. Which would be fine on its own terms, but the pacing flags once you realize this is all a dark-fantasy gag (it doesn't help that the book advertises itself as a return to his classic horror days, although that may be an intentional part of the whole goof). Diverting as a washed-out Screwtape Letters riff but not much more.

[megladon8]

Caitlin R. Kiernan’s “Agents of Dreamland” is great stuff.

Fans of Lovecraft and the mythos in particular should take note.

[D_Davis]

I'll have to check that out.

[D_Davis]

I've always avoided her as an author, because a lot of her books look like those Paranormal Romance / vampire romance novels.

This is some Laurell K. Hamilton shit right here.

https://images.penguinrandomhouse.com/cover/9780451461643

[megladon8]

Yeah I saw that when I looked up more titles from her. I definitely got her mixed up with Catherine M. Valente.

[D_Davis]

Agents of Dreamland is fantastic!

Goddamn can she write!

She's got a really punchy, hard-edged style. Kind of makes me want to look past her terrible covers and give the rest of her books a chance.

[megladon8]

Agents of Dreamland is fantastic!

Goddamn can she write!

She's got a really punchy, hard-edged style. Kind of makes me want to look past her terrible covers and give the rest of her books a chance.

I wouldn’t. You are absolutely right that she’s usually writing Hamilton type stuff.

However there is a sequel to Agents coming out in May, and I’ll be all over that.

[D_Davis]

With her chops, she has to have some other hidden gems.

Her style reminds me of Lansdale and Huston.

[megladon8]

From what I’ve read (about her) she has done some really great short horror fiction. Lots of stuff for those “best horror of the year” collection type books.

[D_Davis]

Yeah - I've heard her short stories are great as well.

Seeing as how there is NO money is short fiction these days, I bet she writes her Para-Romance novels to pay the bills, and exercises her chops in her short fiction. I'll have to come through all my anthologies to see if I have anything from her.

[D_Davis]

Legend of the Condor Heroes is FINALLY being translated into English. This is one of the most epic, most insanely influential works of genre fiction ever written. It has spawns dozens, and dozens, and dozens of movies, television series, and comic books, but has never been translated into English. I've seen so many things (mostly wuxia films) based on this series.




Can't wait to finally read it.




https://www.amazon.com/Hero-Born-Condor-Heroes/dp/0857053000/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1519409823&sr=1-1&keywords=Legends+of+the+Condor +Heroes

[Dead & Messed Up]

It took almost a year, but I read Coldheart Canyon by Clive Barker.

It's funny, the guy lapses into camp whenever he tries to tackle Christian demonology (e.g. Mr. B. Gone, The History of the Devil), maybe intentionally, and there's some incredibly goofy shit here, like when a peacock-man-ghost comes up on a woman with a raging erection, or when the son of Lilith comes upon the same woman with a raging erection, enough of all of this to the point where you wonder if the cover promise of a "Hollywood Ghost Story" was even worth the lie given how Barker ends up slaking his regular indulgences of the sexual and the grotesque.

All that said, this is the first time I've read a Clive Barker long-form where the lead character captured my interest. No, not the supposed lead character, Hollywood vanity child-adult Todd Picket (Tom Cruise but dumber). Nope, the lead here is (spoilers if you ever intend on reading)...

Tammy, the head of Todd's fan club, who starts out giving off serious "number one fan" vibes, stalking Todd all the way to his new Hollywood home, then slowly emerges as someone who's suffered enough over the years from a life of shame, marital strife, and ugliness that she proves resilient against the Forces of Darkness. There's something weirdly plausible in watching the book find itself as it re-centers around her.

Broadly, I think Barker is better as a short story author than as a novel writer, as I've read The Damnation Game, Abarat, The Thief of Always, and couldn't tell you a thing that happens in any of them. This is the first one I'm remembering with clarity and real fondness instead of a vague "There was interesting stuff in there, I think."

[Peng]

Just finished Lev Grossman's very entertaining The Magicians. My misgivings out the way first: even accounting for unlikable character tropes, some instances still feel a bit much, like overgoosing on being a different kind of fantasy, and the casually leering description at the outset gets a tad uncomfortable in an extra-textual way. That asides, the way a normal YA fantasy arc gets undercut throughout by darker real-world problems and subversive psychological pinnings, especially on the effect of childhood's fantasy informing adults' outlook, is pretty nifty and well-executed. And even that surface arc is able to stand alone as engaging fantasy on its own too. 4/5

[Peng]

Finally got around to King's The Shining. Engaging and personal, but also blunt in a way that I'm not sure if it's colored by me having watched the film. I even feel the book is more rewarding as a story than the film (pending a rewatch soon though, since it's been over a decade), but I think I prefer the atmospheric, almost elusively mysterious horror of Kubrick's version more than King's detail-by-detail psychological torment, even if the latter conjures up some memorably freaky imagery in its own right. 4/5