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

[Kurosawa Fan]

You read this more recently, too, right?

I remember really, really disliking the second half. It's like once the movie-part ended, it went down hill really fast.

Yes, either last year or the year prior, I can't remember which. And I'm not sure I disliked it as much as you did, but there was definitely a large drop in quality. I know when I posted my feelings on it, at least one person said they preferred the second half. I'm sure a quick search would bring up our conversation. I'll check for it.

[D_Davis]

I read genre fiction, but only a handful per year. I'm not nearly as devoted to it as you. I tend to read your posts in these threads, and copy down the books that sound interesting to me, but I love a wide variety of styles and genres, so it'll take me decades to get to some of your recommendations.

I totally understand. I was just surprised as I scrolled up the page to find that I'm the only one who has posted about reading anything in this thread for a long time!

And hey, I just saw that you read a Martin book, but you talk about it in the regular lit section! Travesty! That's fantasy, man!

[Kurosawa Fan]

Here's the link:

http://www.match-cut.org/showthread....ing#post157247

Monolith responds a few posts down, saying he found the second half superior.

As for my Martin post, I know you don't care for him, or at least never read the series, so I posted it in the main thread so that more users would see it. Guess that proves your theory that this really is a Davis thread. :P

[D_Davis]

Here's the link:

http://www.match-cut.org/showthread....ing#post157247

Monolith responds a few posts down, saying he found the second half superior.

As for my Martin post, I know you don't care for him, or at least never read the series, so I posted it in the main thread so that more users would see it. Guess that proves your theory that this really is a Davis thread. :P

Huh...interesting. The lion in the desert was awesome. Maybe I'll read the second half again later this year. But for now, I feel like I want to read something different - some Dame Muriel Spark.

[D_Davis]

Anyone looking to get into weird fiction, the most mega ultimate anthology of all time is out now. Covers everything from MR James to Kafka, from King to Merritt, from Lovecraft to Cisco, for Bierce to Barker, and on and on, from 1908 through the present, with over 1,000 pages and 140 stories.

Table of Contents
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Show Spoiler

Story order is chronological except for a couple of exceptions transposed for thematic reasons. Stories translated into English are largely positioned by date of first publication in their original language. Authors are North American or from the United Kingdom unless otherwise indicated.



Alfred Kubin, “The Other Side” (excerpt), 1908 (translation, Austria)
F. Marion Crawford, “The Screaming Skull,” 1908
Algernon Blackwood, “The Willows,” 1907
Saki, “Sredni Vashtar,” 1910
M.R. James, “Casting the Runes,” 1911
Lord Dunsany, “How Nuth Would Have Practiced his Art,” 1912
Gustav Meyrink, “The Man in the Bottle,” 1912 (translation, Austria)
Georg Heym, “The Dissection,” 1913 (new translation by Gio Clairval, Germany)
Hanns Heinz Ewers, “The Spider,” 1915 (translation, Germany)
Rabindranath Tagore, “The Hungry Stones,” 1916 (India)
Luigi Ugolini, “The Vegetable Man,” 1917 (new translation by Anna and Brendan Connell, Italy; first-ever translation into English)
A. Merritt, “The People of the Pit,” 1918
Ryunosuke Akutagawa, “The Hell Screen,” 1918 (new translation, Japan)
Francis Stevens (Gertrude Barrows Bennett), “Unseen—Unfeared,” 1919
Franz Kafka, “In the Penal Colony,” 1919 (translation, German/Czech)
Stefan Grabinski, “The White Weyrak,” 1921 (translation, Poland)
H.F. Arnold, “The Night Wire,” 1926
H.P. Lovecraft, “The Dunwich Horror,” 1929
Margaret Irwin, “The Book,” 1930
Jean Ray, “The Mainz Psalter,” 1930 (translation, Belgium)
Jean Ray, “The Shadowy Street,” 1931 (translation, Belgium)
Clark Ashton Smith, “Genius Loci,” 1933
Hagiwara Sakutoro, “The Town of Cats,” 1935 (translation, Japan)
Hugh Walpole, “The Tarn,” 1936
Bruno Schulz, “Sanatorium at the Sign of the Hourglass,” 1937 (translation, Poland)
Robert Barbour Johnson, “Far Below,” 1939
Fritz Leiber, “Smoke Ghost,” 1941
Leonora Carrington, “White Rabbits,” 1941
Donald Wollheim, “Mimic,” 1942
Ray Bradbury, “The Crowd,” 1943
William Sansom, “The Long Sheet,” 1944
Jorge Luis Borges, “The Aleph,” 1945 (translation, Argentina)
Olympe Bhely-Quenum, “A Child in the Bush of Ghosts,” 1949 (Benin)
Shirley Jackson, “The Summer People,” 1950
Margaret St. Clair, “The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles,” 1951
Robert Bloch, “The Hungry House,” 1951
Augusto Monterroso, “Mister Taylor,” 1952 (new translation by Larry Nolen, Guatemala)
Amos Tutuola, “The Complete Gentleman,” 1952 (Nigeria)
Jerome Bixby, “It’s a Good Life,” 1953
Julio Cortazar, “Axolotl,” 1956 (new translation by Gio Clairval, Argentina)
William Sansom, “A Woman Seldom Found,” 1956
Charles Beaumont, “The Howling Man,” 1959
Mervyn Peake, “Same Time, Same Place,” 1963
Dino Buzzati, “The Colomber,” 1966 (new translation by Gio Clairval, Italy)
Michel Bernanos, “The Other Side of the Mountain,” 1967 (new translation by Gio Clairval, France)
Merce Rodoreda, “The Salamander,” 1967 (translation, Catalan)
Claude Seignolle, “The Ghoulbird,” 1967 (new translation by Gio Clairval, France)
Gahan Wilson, “The Sea Was Wet As Wet Could Be,” 1967
Daphne Du Maurier, “Don’t Look Now,” 1971
Robert Aickman, “The Hospice,” 1975
Dennis Etchison, “It Only Comes Out at Night,” 1976
James Tiptree Jr. (Alice Sheldon), “The Psychologist Who Wouldn’t Do Terrible Things to Rats,” 1976
Eric Basso, “The Beak Doctor,” 1977
Jamaica Kincaid, “Mother,” 1978 (Antigua and Barbuda/US)
George R.R. Martin, “Sandkings,” 1979
Bob Leman, “Window,” 1980
Ramsey Campbell, “The Brood,” 1980
Michael Shea, “The Autopsy,” 1980
William Gibson/John Shirley, “The Belonging Kind,” 1981
M. John Harrison, “Egnaro,” 1981
Joanna Russ, “The Little Dirty Girl,” 1982
M. John Harrison, “The New Rays,” 1982
Premendra Mitra, “The Discovery of Telenapota,” 1984 (translation, India)
F. Paul Wilson, “Soft,” 1984
Octavia Butler, “Bloodchild,” 1984
Clive Barker, “In the Hills, the Cities,” 1984
Leena Krohn, “Tainaron,” 1985 (translation, Finland)
Garry Kilworth, “Hogfoot Right and Bird-hands,” 1987
Lucius Shepard, “Shades,” 1987
Harlan Ellison, “The Function of Dream Sleep,” 1988
Ben Okri, “Worlds That Flourish,” 1988 (Nigeria)
Elizabeth Hand, “The Boy in the Tree,” 1989
Joyce Carol Oates, “Family,” 1989
Poppy Z Brite, “His Mouth Will Taste of Wormwood,” 1990
Michal Ajvaz, “The End of the Garden,” 1991 (translation, Czech)
Karen Joy Fowler, “The Dark,” 1991
Kathe Koja, “Angels in Love,” 1991
Haruki Murakami, “The Ice Man,” 1991 (translation, Japan)
Lisa Tuttle, “Replacements,” 1992
Marc Laidlaw, “The Diane Arbus Suicide Portfolio,” 1993
Steven Utley, “The Country Doctor,” 1993
William Browning Spenser, “The Ocean and All Its Devices,” 1994
Jeffrey Ford, “The Delicate,” 1994
Martin Simpson, “Last Rites and Resurrections,” 1994
Stephen King, “The Man in the Black Suit,” 1994
Angela Carter, “The Snow Pavilion,” 1995
Craig Padawer, “The Meat Garden,” 1996
Stepan Chapman, “The Stiff and the Stile,” 1997
Tanith Lee, “Yellow and Red,” 1998
Kelly Link, “The Specialist’s Hat,” 1998
Caitlin R. Kiernan, “A Redress for Andromeda,” 2000
Michael Chabon, “The God of Dark Laughter,” 2001
China Mieville, “Details,” 2002
Michael Cisco, “The Genius of Assassins,” 2002
Neil Gaiman, “Feeders and Eaters,” 2002
Jeff VanderMeer, “The Cage,” 2002
Jeffrey Ford, “The Beautiful Gelreesh,” 2003
Thomas Ligotti, “The Town Manager,” 2003
Brian Evenson, “The Brotherhood of Mutilation,” 2003
Mark Samuels, “The White Hands,” 2003
Daniel Abraham, “Flat Diana,” 2004
Margo Lanagan, “Singing My Sister Down,” 2005 (Australia)
T.M. Wright, “The People on the Island,” 2005
Laird Barron, “The Forest,” 2007
Liz Williams, “The Hide,” 2007
Reza Negarestani, “The Dust Enforcer,” 2008 (Iran)
Micaela Morrissette, “The Familiars,” 2009
Steve Duffy, “In the Lion’s Den,” 2009
Stephen Graham Jones, “Little Lambs,” 2009
K.J. Bishop, “Saving the Gleeful Horse,” 2010 (Australia)

]

[kuehnepips]

Let's visit Davis' thread again ... :lol:

amazon kept recommending The Lies of Locke Lamora (Lynch) to me so I finally gave in and: I was entertained!

I'll read the next books in the series.

[D_Davis]

Let's visit Davis' thread again ... :lol:

amazon kept recommending The Lies of Locke Lamora (Lynch) to me so I finally gave in and: I was entertained!

I'll read the next books in the series.

I hear that's a lot of fun. I keep meaning to check it out. I get a kind of fantasy-themed Stainless Steel Rat vibe from what I've heard.

[D_Davis]

What a tome.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Finished John Dies at the End. Very fun. I was surprised by how well "David Wong" fused Lovecraftian horror and scatological humour, something I would never have expected. Delightful. The revelation of what Korrok really is? Smart. The twist at the end? Smarter. There were times when the constant monster invention grew a little wearying instead of impressive (slow down and tell the damn story, the reader whined), but in retrospect, I'd rather have too much of a good thing than not enough.

Seriously, Korrok was an awesome reveal.

Now, onto Dunsany's The Gods of Pegana.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Davis, give me a list of ten books between Cisco, Lansdale, and Ligotti that you think are the best. No need to distribute them evenly, just your ten favorite books from these three authors (these are your three favorite "horror" novelists outside of King, correct?).

[Kurosawa Fan]

I should have added a "please" or an "if you find time" to that post. I could probably search back through this thread, but I'm just hoping you can post 10 of your favorite horror novels from those authors. They are guys I've wanted to read for awhile, and I want to start with what you consider their best work.

[Kurosawa Fan]

What a tome.

Also, my wife is ordering this for me from my kids for Father's Day.

[D_Davis]

Also, my wife is ordering this for me from my kids for Father's Day.

Nice! It's a huge book. I think it's going to live on my desk and/or coffee table for some time, as I read my way through it.

Can't wait to read the new Cisco tale.

[D_Davis]

Davis, give me a list of ten books between Cisco, Lansdale, and Ligotti that you think are the best. No need to distribute them evenly, just your ten favorite books from these three authors (these are your three favorite "horror" novelists outside of King, correct?).

Cisco has only written a handful of books (including his newest, Celebrant, which came out this week), and I think they are all worth reading, and there are only a few Ligotti books currently in print. As far as Lansdale goes, very few of his novels are actually horror, most are crime/thriller. Many of his short stories are horror, though.


1. The Great Lover - Cisco (although I wouldn't read it without having first read The Divinity Student, The Narrator, and The Tyrant)
2. The Divinity Student - Cisco
3. The Narrator - Cisco
4. My Work is Not Yet Done - Ligotti
5. Teatro Grotesco - Ligotti (short stories)
6. Songs of a Dead Dreamer - Ligotti (short stories)
7. Bumper Crop - Lansdale (short stories)
8. High Cotton - Lansdale (short stories)
9. The Bottoms - Lansdale
10. A Fine Dark Line - Lansdale

[Kurosawa Fan]

Nice. Thank you very much. Any other strictly horror novels or writers you would suggest? I want something that will give me nightmares. Horror is a genre I tend to neglect despite the fact that I get immense satisfaction while reading it.

[D_Davis]

I should clarify that Cisco isn't strictly "horror." He is more weird. He's the modern Kafka, but with more fantasy; so if you are expecting to be scared, you might be disappointed with Cisco, as he tends to be more surreal, unsettling, and bizarre. I tend to gravitate more towards the weird side of horror. Ligotti can be straight up terrifying. Probably the only author to ever give me nightmares.

Novels/novellas/short story collections:

Dark Gods, by T.E.D. Klein (probably the best Lovecraft pastiche ever written)
Dark Harvest, by Norman Partridge (more B-movie pulp, but just amazing)
October Country, by Ray Bradbury
The Exorcist/Legion, by William Peter Blatty

A couple of other anthologies to get:

To Sleep Perchance to Dream...Nightmare
Prime Evil
Dark Descent

Other authors I love (all of which are in The Weird):

Algernon Blackwood
MR James
Lord Dunsany
A. Merritt ("The People of the Pit," in The Weird. I think this is one of the finest weird tales ever)
Clark Ashton Smith
Clive Barker (although i don't know if you'd dig Barker)

And still more authors:

Arthur Machen ("The Great God Pan")
Sheridan Le Fanu ("The Drunkard's Dream")
Robert W. Chambers (The King in Yellow)

[D_Davis]

I'm about 1/2 through J.M. McDermott's Disintegration Visions, his first short story collection. With each passing page I read from McDermott, it becomes more and more clear that he is, in fact, my favorite living author. And as much as I love his novels - mainly The Last Dragon, my single favorite fantasy novel - it is in the short form that he truly excels. The stories in this collection range from urban fantasy to horror, and from science fiction to modern fable, and McDermott handles each with the skill of a seasoned master. His voice is confident and bold, his prose is exquisite, and his stories are moving in all of the right ways.

It's a shame that his books don't sell well, but I guess it makes sense. He's far out of step with modern trends, not concerned with geek-cred, and his style is, perhaps, a bit more literary than some are used to. I think that given time fans of Gene Wolfe will come around to and discover McDermott (I know the few I've introduced to him have). If you're looking for something new, mature, bold and interesting in the realms of fantasy and genre fiction, check out J.M. McDermott.

[D_Davis]

KF, another Lansdale you might want to check out is The Complete Drive-In. It's probably the closest thing to a straight up horror novel that he's written. It's very B-movie in style, and incredible twisted and violent - almost splatter-punk.

The first few paragraphs of part 2 contain some of the best writing I've ever read in a genre novel. Lansdale can turn a phrase like no one's business.

[Kurosawa Fan]

KF, another Lansdale you might want to check out is The Complete Drive-In. It's probably the closest thing to a straight up horror novel that he's written. It's very B-movie in style, and incredible twisted and violent - almost splatter-punk.

The first few paragraphs of part 2 contain some of the best writing I've ever read in a genre novel. Lansdale can turn a phrase like no one's business.

Cool, I'll add it to the list. I've just started scratching the surface of The Weird. Read Bradbury's "The Crowd," which was pretty great. Have you read anything worth recommending?

[D_Davis]

Have you read anything worth recommending?

In that collection? Haven't even started it yet.

New Michael Cisco book arrives today, so that should keep me occupied for awhile. I don't think it's going to be an easy read, and it is his longest work yet.

[D_Davis]

It is in hand.

[D_Davis]

The Celebrant sounds awesome.

Phantasmagorist Cisco (The Tyrant) explores the concept of reincarnation in a chimerical story about a homeless man named deKlend—who may actually be institutionalized in a sanitarium—and his attempt to make a pilgrimage to the imaginary country of Votu, a fantastical realm where time runs backward, the inhabitants worship five “natural” robots that formed spontaneously, and gangs of theriomorphic waifs (rabbit girls and pigeon girls) struggle to survive as urban scavengers. As deKlend’s quest progresses, he meets Phryne, a lead addict who self-medicates her lead poisoning by absorbing the energies from other people’s incestuous encounters, and Goose Goes Back, a soul inhabiting a bizarre fusion of machine and cadaver until it can be reincarnated. An extensive expansion of topics only touched upon in “The Thing in the Jar,” Cisco’s contribution to The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities, this fusion of surrealist travelogue and journey of self-discovery is an impressive work of weird fiction, and its images and ideas will resonate with readers long after the novel ends.

http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-907681-15-8

[D_Davis]

Disintegration Visions, by J.M. McDermott

J.M. McDermott's first collection of short fiction is a bona fide masterpiece. These stories examine some of the important life experiences of the various characters, and how they react to situations dealing with life and death, God and aliens, the magical and the mundane. I really got the sense that these characters live outside the confines of the book's pages, and McDermott has, rather (deceptively) simply and brilliantly, opened up a window for his readers to peer through, and it is our privileged to share in the experiences of these characters.

The two standout stories are "The Lovesong of Jack McNally," and "Man in the Mountain." I don't think that the two stories could be any more different, but even though they are back-to-back in the collection the change in tone and theme is not jarring. Instead it points to the simple fact that McDermott's voice and style is bold and confident enough to tackle anything he throws it at. Whether he is being perverse and whimsical, deep and melancholy, serious and dramatic, or weird and haunting, McDermott's voice never falters, and never skips a beat.

In some ways, I get the sense that I know McDermott a little better now after having read these stories. They feel more personal and heart felt than his novels and novellas do. One thing I new before reading this collection is that McDermott is a thoughtful dude, and Disintegration Visions only serves to further bolster this feeling. It is a collection that will command your attention, deserves your respect, and needs to be more widely read.

[D_Davis]

32 pages into Celebrant, and I have no idea what's going on. One part, on page 9, reads:

...sick clammy white page which one who's reading me gleatinous sickly cold black ink - the lon gragged sniff like tearing paper, the waiter looking odwn at him - flares like gutters like a canalde then flares up again gutters flares guuterres flares sof ic andtyjt ek ci tn the darkjnd disgusting sight of the food half smeared in the palte I mean the clioth the water in the glass vile water...

The main character, deKlend, is an insane homeless man who discovers a book in which people have written about a fantastic city called Votu. The passage above is, I think, describing a mental episode of deKlend before he, somehow, finds himself in Votu - or at least he thinks he's in Votu, he might just be an asylum.

But whatever or where ever he is, I know that Cisco will keep my confused, guessing, and wondering. That's the thing about later-period Cisco: every single page of his later books are like puzzles. Simply trying to figure out what he is describing is what I love most about his writing.

[D_Davis]

Celebrant is the most dense and confounding book I've ever read.