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

[megladon8]

Really enjoyed "The Hoard" by Alan Ryker, and I will definitely be seeking out more of his stuff. He has a great voice and seems to be a natural storyteller.

Very creepy. Will certainly scare you away from hoarding.

I just wish that this edition had been proofread better. Some painfully bad typos, the worst one of which actually gets a character's name wrong (a prominent character is named Rebecca, and at one point in the middle of a tense scene she is called Rachel).

I suppose it's the bane of the low-budget indie press, but still, it was a bit bothersome.

I'm very seriously considering reading "House of Leaves" next. It's been eyeing me on my shelf for weeks.

[D_Davis]

I'm very seriously considering reading "House of Leaves" next. It's been eyeing me on my shelf for weeks.

I'll be reading that this year as part of my Long and Hard series.

[megladon8]

I'll be reading that this year as part of my Long and Hard series.

Are you going to make a thread about it and try to come up with another clever use of "Long and Hard" for every post?

[D_Davis]

Nope. That will be the only time I mention something being Long and Hard.

[megladon8]

Started reading Ligotti's "My Work is Not Yet Done" today.

[Sven]

Neglected to update: The Scar is one of the best adventure books I've ever read. It's practically perfect, and Mieville's knack for spinning mini-stories and ideas through a grand tapestry of conceptual bizarreness is unparalleled. Well into Iron Council and it is definitely paler by comparison, but it's the easiest to consume, which I'm doing ravenously.

[megladon8]

Loving "My Work is Not Yet Done". On page 107 (of 192). May finish it tonight.

[megladon8]

I really enjoyed the main story of "My Work is Not Yet Done", but didn't get anything out of the final two shorts.

Still, though, that main tale was wonderfully written. And while the "twist" was something I predicted from the get-go, Ligotti's prose imbued it with power and dread all the same.

He's a magnificent writer.

[D_Davis]

Edward Erdelac sent me this.



A novel this time. Looking forward to the conclusion.

[D_Davis]

I really enjoyed the main story of "My Work is Not Yet Done", but didn't get anything out of the final two shorts.

Still, though, that main tale was wonderfully written. And while the "twist" was something I predicted from the get-go, Ligotti's prose imbued it with power and dread all the same.

He's a magnificent writer.

It's so light and breezy compared to his other stuff - almost a dark comedy.

[megladon8]

Read Rio Youers' novella "Mama Fish" today. A neat premise and very well suited to the novella format. He feels like a writer still developing his craft, occasionally relying on cliché similes and metaphors. But he tells the story well, and the dramatic pacing is great.

I enjoyed it, and I would recommend it for a good 60-80 minute read.

[megladon8]

There are few things more frustrating to me as a reader than a book filed with great ideas crumbling under the weight of the author's poor voice.

I'm about 40 pages or so into "Dead Sea" by Tim Curran and am in love with the subject matter and setting, but I am finding his writing to be mediocre at best.

The story is about a ship of workmen on its way to Guiana, when it is suddenly enveloped by an eerie, fowl smelling fog which may house some sort of creature.

But it's filled with moments in which Curran seems unable to allow the reader to take in any of his descriptions without spelling everything out for them.

The best example (which is indicative of many descriptions in the book) involves Curran describing the unsettling calm that sets over the boat before the rolls in. He spends a few sentences describing how even the sounds of the ship seem to fall silent, and the water calms itself to the point where the boat looks to be floating on a mirror.

Then he has a character's inner monologue say "My god...it's like the calm before the storm!"

Well thank you for spelling that out for me, I wouldn't have gotten the effect of the scene without that.

[D_Davis]

Then he has a character's inner monologue say "My god...it's like the calm before the storm!"

Well thank you for spelling that out for me, I wouldn't have gotten the effect of the scene without that.

LOL! Amateur hour.

There is nothing in fiction that I dislike more than on-the-nose dialog like that. Yuk!

Totally reminds me of that Del Toro book, The Strain. Oh man...that thing was full of crap like that.

[megladon8]

LOL! Amateur hour.

There is nothing in fiction that I dislike more than on-the-nose dialog like that. Yuk!

Totally reminds me of that Del Toro book, The Strain. Oh man...that thing was full of crap like that.

What makes it all the more frustrating is how much I like the ideas behind the shoddy writing :frustrated:

[megladon8]

D we should team to write the most cliche ridden novel of all time.

Opening sentence:

"Daniel Davis was dressed to the nines and out for a night on the town when something in the air chilled him to the bone."

[D_Davis]

And then Daniel said, "It sure is weird to feel this chilly air in the summer; it must be a premonition of something bad about to happen."

Then suddenly, Daniel died! The cops found his body, frozen solid, like a cold frozen popsicle.

The End

[megladon8]

You should've put in a "calm before the storm" line somewhere.

[megladon8]

I'm giving up on "Dead Sea". The writing is just awful, and making it a completely unenjoyable experience.

[Dead & Messed Up]

"Horns" was really great stuff. Love Hill's voice - I want to say that he has inherited his father's storytelling ability, but I feel that would unintentionally say that he sounds like his father. Which is not true. He has is own, unique voice and way of telling a story, and it's great.

Great concept and even better execution, with clever dialogue and great pacing.

I can't wait to check out "NOS4A2" in April.

I just read this one and quite liked it. I don't think Ig Parrish is as convincingly and compellingly portrayed as the sociopathic Lee Tourneau, but Hill really manages to build the story around those two personalities and snap the story with the climax. I don't think it's a great book, but it's a pretty damn good one. One that Hill can be proud of. The implication at the end, that

[

Show Spoiler

Ig has pulled Merrin into Hell with him as a Persephone to his Hades

]

was impressive in how successfully it saddened and unnerved me.

This comment really has more to do with me than Hill's goals with the book, but I was a little worn out by the end, so continually is sin exposed and revealed. It's all yin and no yang (excluding Merrin's somewhat shallow characterization as a glowing woman without stain that both "heroes" revere), and I wish there was some sense of genuinely good people that exist in the book's world. Instead, it seems like everyone is terrible.

I will say this: I love that this is being made into a film by Alexandre Aja, starring Danny Radcliffe and Max Minghella (and Juno Temple and Joe Anderson, who was so needlessly good in The Crazies). This story, with those people involved, has me very, very intrigued.

[megladon8]

Glad you enjoyed it too, DaMU. Can't say the film version interests me too much, though. I have yet to see a decent film from Aja, and Radcliffe is a really odd choice for Imp (IMO).


After giving up on "Dead Sea" it took me a bit to decide what to read next, but I started Michael Cisco's "The Tyrant" and am already completely transfixed.

This guy is just...something else. I can't decide what is more impressive - his imagination, or his incredible skill as a wordsmith.

[D_Davis]

After giving up on "Dead Sea" it took me a bit to decide what to read next, but I started Michael Cisco's "The Tyrant" and am already completely transfixed.

This guy is just...something else. I can't decide what is more impressive - his imagination, or his incredible skill as a wordsmith.

This is probably his most straightforward and action-packed novel. Quite different from everything else. Even with action, something I rarely enjoy in books, Cisco is a master; he is the most vivid writer I know of.

[megladon8]

The running-on-rooftops scene in "The Divinity Student" was some amazingly well written action.

[D_Davis]

The running-on-rooftops scene in "The Divinity Student" was some amazingly well written action.

Yeah, totally; one of the most memorable things for me in all of fiction. I like that kind of action, what I meant in my earlier statement is action as in conflict - fighting, war, that kind of thing. There is a long battle sequence in The Tyrant that is awesome, and usually I can't stand that kind of action in books.

[D_Davis]

One of my favorite passages from Celebrant, read by Cisco.

[megladon8]

I dunno...his prose are impressive and all, but they don't quite compare to "Dead Sea".

A character is described as "a tough looking mother with a ZZ Top beard and a 'don't fuck with me' attitude".

And when an explosion occurs, a character says it "lit up like the fourth of July and sent a chill down my spine."

Now that is the type of no-nonsense writing I want to read.