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Post by Johnlprobert on Apr 23, 2008 17:23:29 GMT
Far from being universally appreciated on this board I know, but old RCH is nevertheless best known for his short story collections. Some of them are brilliant and some fall quite a bit below that.
Anyone have any opinions on his novels? I've mentioned WORLD OF THE IMPOSSIBLE on another thread, but I honestly don't think he wrote a good one.
His earlier novels are passable eg
THE BRATS
THE PARTAKER
THE KING'S GHOST
THE HAUNTED GRANGE
but his later ones are almost completely barmy eg:
THE CURSE OF THE SNAKE GOD
KEPPLE
HELL IS WHAT YOU MAKE IT
Anyone care to comment?
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Post by dem bones on Apr 23, 2008 20:24:49 GMT
I've read his so-so novelisation of Dominique which doesn't really count, but the only legit one I've got is the Tor edition of The King's Ghost which was renamed The Grange for the occasion. It's on the 'to re-read' pile, but I remember liking it though it certainly helps if you enjoy his Clavering Grange mythos. Kamtellar at 100+ pages, probably qualifies as a short novel but I can't see me attempting a rematch with that one just yet or, indeed, ever as, when RCH is annoying he is really annoying.
Here's the excellent horror anthologist Hugh Lamb's review of The Haunted Grange (Kimber, 1989), from The Ghost Story Society Newsletter # 3, June 1989. Hope you like it!
R. Chetwynd-Hayes - The Haunted Grange (Kimber, 1989)
Readers of Chetwynd-Hayes' latest novel are required to know a little bit about some of his other books, particularly those which mention Clavering Grange, the subject of this one. Which is a bit of a cheek, considering one of the books mentioned The Dark Man must be about 25 years old by now. However, you can read the book without following up the references, which I was obliged to do.
Clavering Grange is a spook-ridden old pile, inhabited by spook-ridden old heaps, who alternatively snarl at each other and the hero, or get him between the sheets, as does the lady of the house. He resembles, it seems, the dead daughter of the couple who own the Grange, and to confuse matters further, the dead daughter turns up and falls in love with the hero.
This is weird stuff, and like a lot of Chetwynd-Hayes, ambles along without getting very far. He does rescue himself from complete tedium just when you least expect it, and right at the end he brings in two lovely ghosts, the Wanderer and the Banshee. The Wanderer is the Grange's spirit of death, here in the guise of a soldier in full battledress (I was oddly reminded of the film Rosemary's Killer) and the Banshee is a real charmer who, should you look at her, makes you scream yourself to death, dislocated jaw and all. If only they'd been in the book from the beginning ... but if you like Chetwynd-Hayes' little touches - the vulgar servants with splendid bon-mots ("It's all explosions and buggered all the time"), the well-turned phrases in the dialogue, and the final few pages of well-done terror - then you'll enjoy it. I can only say thank heaven the old pile has been pulled down at last. They should have had Francis St. Clare in this one.
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Post by Johnlprobert on Apr 23, 2008 21:12:31 GMT
Thanks for that Kev - I think I'd echo Mr lamb's comments on that one. I thought Kamtellar was OK, but it might have been the inclusion of a Fred & Francis story that saved that book - plus the funny cover. But if you think 'The Haunted Grange' doesn't make much sense don't go near the other later novels I've listed here!
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Post by dem bones on May 24, 2012 19:28:04 GMT
Continuing the TOR overkill. RCH fans Karl E. Wagner and Charles L. Grant had been including his work in their Years Best Horror Stories and Shadows anthologies respectively, so time for somebody to try sell his novels to a US audience. I'm not sure how they fared, but it may be significant that my copies of this and The Other Side came from a bargain-bin in a Plaistow newsagents. R. Chetwynd-Hayes - The Grange (Tor, April 1988)  David MannBlurb Clavering Grange is ghost-ridden: a red-haired boy wanders he halls, plaintively asking to go home; an old soldiers stalks the corridors, sword drawn, eyes gleaming with unholy glee. Where they walk, death and disaster follow.
The Grange's evil twists the souls of all who reside there: the master of the house is given to murderous rages and mysterious disappearances. His sister must be locked into her room each night – to keep the horrors of the Grange out, or to keep a demonically possessed woman in?
Miles Harrington, newly employed as estate manager, must plumb the depths of Clavering Grange's evil and face its ghosts. But that evil is more ancient than the keep's crumbling stone walls, and far stronger Can one man stand against it? |
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Aug 30, 2013 17:00:11 GMT
the only legit one I've got is the Tor edition of The King's Ghost which was renamed The Grange for the occasion. It's on the 'to re-read' pile, but I remember liking it though it certainly helps if you enjoy his Clavering Grange mythos. Somewhere along the way in reading The Grange, I realized that I'd been tricked by some ghostly trappings into reading a contrived historical romance, complete with a walk-on appearance by a queen. At the risk of spoiling probably nothing, Chetwynd-Hayes even includes a dark-haired "bad girl" who saves the hero and then conveniently dies to clear a path for the fair-haired "good (but not too good) girl." In any event, the book went by quickly and painlessly. Tor chose a dull choice for renaming a book, though the original title may give away too much of the story. Then again, probably no big worry there. |
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Post by dem bones on Mar 6, 2014 20:16:07 GMT
Somewhere along the way in reading The Grange, I realized that I'd been tricked by some ghostly trappings into reading a contrived historical romance, complete with a walk-on appearance by a queen. At the risk of spoiling probably nothing, Chetwynd-Hayes even includes a dark-haired "bad girl" who saves the hero and then conveniently dies to clear a path for the fair-haired "good (but not too good) girl." In any event, the book went by quickly and painlessly. Tor chose a dull choice for renaming a book, though the original title may give away too much of the story. Then again, probably no big worry there. (William Kimber, 1985)  IonicusBlurb: Clavering Grange, that brooding almost sinister country mansion which according to tradition was built on tainted ground, has had many ghosts that have walked its corridors and who have been glimpsed looking down from the musicians' gallery upon the generations of the Sinclair family. But the most famous haunting of all took place in the latter part of the sixteenth century. When Miles Harrington, a penniless adventurer of noble birth, rescues the beautiful Anne Sinclair and in reward becomes agent to her brother, he discovers that there are other less tangible occupants of Clavering Grange – notably a boy of fifteen summers with short red hair.
In this novel of adventure and the supernatural R. Chetwynd-Hayes tells the story of the secret of Clavering Grange, a secret that involved the highest in the land, Gloriana herself, Elizabeth I of Merrie England.It's nothing like as essential as The Cradle Demon, but was dead pleased nonetheless when a nice clean copy of this showed up at Spitalfields Market today for £1. |
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Post by sadako on Oct 9, 2023 11:20:59 GMT
The cover for The Grange makes it look like 1980s' full-strength horror. Having read it under the original title, The King's Ghost, I feel it would have been better served, and less misleading, to give it a "gothic romance" cover, like a woman running away from The Grange on a stormy night. The historical love triangle, with a smattering of ghostly sightings, is a better fit for that genre. That the supernatural themes are background and not central to the story have put me off seeking out the rest of the Clavering Grange stories.
Hayes' prose, research and period detail made The King's Ghost a very enjoyable read. But I was expecting much spookier stuff, having only read The Monster Club and The Elemental.
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Post by dem bones on Oct 9, 2023 19:34:50 GMT
The cover for The Grange makes it look like 1980s' full-strength horror. Having read it under the original title, The King's Ghost, I feel it would have been better served, and less misleading, to give it a "gothic romance" cover, like a woman running away from The Grange on a stormy night. The historical love triangle, with a smattering of ghostly sightings, is a better fit for that genre. That the supernatural themes are background and not central to the story have put me off seeking out the rest of the Clavering Grange stories. Hayes' prose, research and period detail made The King's Ghost a very enjoyable read. But I was expecting much spookier stuff, having only read The Monster Club and The Elemental. I like the ionicus cover painting for the UK edition. Tor were attempting to break RCH in America - it didn't work - which maybe explains their choice of cover art. I think you might prefer [Tales From The] The Other Side, comprising four Clavering Grange supernatural novellas including a retelling of one of his finest horror stories, The Jumpity-Jim. |
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