|
Post by dem bones on Aug 27, 2008 11:30:17 GMT
Kirby McCauley (ed.) - Dark Forces: New Stories Of Suspense & Supernatural Horror (MacDonald, 1980: Viking, 1980: Futura 1981, 1984, 1986: Signet, 1989, etc.) Introduction - Kirby McCauley
Dennis Etchison - The Late Shift Isaac Bashevis Singer - The Enemy Edward Bryant - Dark Angel Davis Grubb - The Crest Of Thirty-Six Robert Aickman - Mark Ingestre: The Customer's Tale Karl Edward Wagner - Where The Summer Ends Joyce Carol Oates - The Bingo Master T. E. D. Klein - Children of the Kingdom Gene Wolfe - The Detective of Dreams Theodore Sturgeon - Vengeance Is Ramsey Campbell - The Brood Clifford D. Simak - The Whistling Well Russell Kirk - The Peculiar Demesne Lisa Tuttle - Where the Stones Grow Robert Bloch - The Night Before Christmas Edward Gorey - The Stupid Joke Ray Bradbury - A Touch of Petulance Joe W. Haldeman - Lindsay and the Red City Blues Charles L. Grant - A Garden of Blackred Roses Manly Wade Wellman - Owls Hoot in the Daytime Richard & Richard Christian Matheson - Where There's a Will Gahan Wilson - The Trap Stephen King - The MistBlurb: 23 new stories of suspense, fantasy, horror and the supernatural by the world's masters of the macabre - including The Mist, a terrifying short novel by Stephen King.I'll be awfully naughty and claim this for Britain on the flimsiest premise: although Kirby McCauley is a New Yorker and Dark Forces was first published by Viking, the idea for the collection was reputedly Anthony Cheetham's. Testimony as to how well regarded this British Fantasy award winner is comes in the form of a 25th Anniversary Edition, like it was Sergeant fucken Pepper or something. It's another on the to re-read pile, but skimming through the titles has brought several nightmare flashbacks. Etchison reveals the disturbing truth about how 7-11 recruit their staff: Theodore Sturgeon (if memory serves) anticipates the AIDS virus: RC in terrific form confronts the old bag-lady and her horrendous pets: Aickman wonders aloud at what really happened when Mark Ingestre fell into Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett's clutches and comes up with "sex!" .... anyone care to talk us through this one?
|
|
|
Post by benedictjjones on Sept 1, 2008 11:36:45 GMT
been looking for this for a while and picked it up on saturday for £2.50 under waterloo bridge.
|
|
|
Post by mattofthespurs on Sept 17, 2008 15:22:29 GMT
One of the most read anthologies I have. I must have read that sucker 10-15 times. Of course the highlight, imo, is "The Mist". That story is an absolute corker.
|
|
|
Post by Red Hook on Sept 18, 2008 1:19:06 GMT
T.E.D. Klein's novella is a gripper too! And I agree, the Mist was the highlight of this volume!
What is Kirby McCauley up to these days? Google reveals not a trace.
|
|
|
Post by benedictjjones on Sept 21, 2008 21:04:16 GMT
^finished reading it while away on holiday and have to agree with redhook that the TED Klein novella was excellent. i'd love to see it as a film and has made me want to hunt out more of his stuff. i also liked the wagner story. that and two stories of 'male pregnancy'
|
|
|
Post by benedictjjones on Sept 21, 2008 22:46:24 GMT
just found out that -TED Klein didn't put that much out and i've read two (in dark forces 'children of the kingdom' and 'black man with a horn' in a cthuhu collection) of the four out of his first collection, the second being a limited edition (limited to six bloody hundred!)
-karl edward wagner i discovered did leave a large body of work but he died..
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Sept 22, 2008 9:03:42 GMT
T. E. D. Klien - Dark Gods (Pan, 1980: 1983) Cover illustration by David O'Connor Children Of The Kingdom Petey Black Man With A Horn Nadelman's GodBack cover blurb: T. E. D. Klein's highly acclaimed first novel The Ceremonies – which Stephen King called "the most exciting novel in my field to come along since Straub's Ghost Story" – established him in the top rank of horror writers. Now, with the four novellas gathered here, Klein proves himself to be a master of this classic shorter form.
The collection opens with Children of the Kingdom, a beautifully crafted chiller that gradually reveals the horrors that lurk behind the shadows of the city. In Petey, George and Phyllis and the die-hards at their housewarming think their new rural retreat is quite a steal – unaware that foreclosure, in a particularly monstrous form, is heading their way. In the insidiously terrifying Black Man with a Horn, a homage to Lovecraft, a chance encounter with a missionary priest over the Atlantic lures a traveller into a web of ancient mystery and fiendish retribution. And in Nadelman's God, the protagonist discovers, degree by shocking degree, that the demons of our imagination are not always imaginary.I read - and enjoyed - these stories before i'd started taking notes on the stories, so that back cover blurb comes in very handy. As you liked Children Of The Kingdom, I can't see you being disappointed with the rest. Here's a thread for Karl E. Wagner's superb collection Why Not You and I?.
|
|
|
Post by benedictjjones on Sept 22, 2008 13:52:28 GMT
are 'petey' and 'nadelmans god' worth picking this up for?
|
|
|
Post by benedictjjones on Oct 3, 2008 13:18:31 GMT
well 'petey' is on its way thatnks to peterc and i have located 'nadelmans god' (in 'the mammoth book of short horror novels'), i am a happy bunny! (who is yet to be dissappointed by mr Klein!!)
|
|
|
Post by benedictjjones on Nov 14, 2008 17:05:59 GMT
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Oct 22, 2017 20:29:03 GMT
Robert Aickman - Mark Ingestre: The Customer's Tale: Aickman does Sweeney Todd. Why? Have no idea, but am glad he did. So ... the Demon Barber pulls the switch, the chair revolves. Mark falls through to the cellar and the clutches of Mrs Lovat and daughter with whom he enjoys his first sexual encounter on a bed of human hair. Post-coupling, Mark makes a dash for freedom as the pie-making fiend comes at him with knife.
Edward Bryant - Dark Angel: Twenty years after he abandoned her in pregnancy, Angie Black catches up with good old Jerry. She is a professional witch, he still callous as ever. Angie suggests they make a night of it for old times sake. This time it's Jerry who finds himself with child. It's gonna be one painful birth.
Edward Gorey - The Stupid Joke: Illustrated verse. Friedrich's wizard wheeze backfires.
Gahan Wilson - The Trap: Lester Bailey of Rose Bros. Exterminators finds Miss Dinwittie's rodent infestation a challenge beyond his professional capabilities.
Joe W. Haldeman - Lindsay and the Red City Blues: Lindsay, a particularly stupid American holidaying in Marakesh, ignores the guide book and pays a teenage urchin to show him the sites. The inevitable mugging is the least of his misfortunes. Voodoo, venereal disease and the agonies of childbirth, etc.
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Oct 24, 2017 9:39:36 GMT
A pair of quality folk horrors. The first fondly remembered from initial read of Dark Forces, the second a blank. T. E. D. Klein - Children Of The Kingdom: A lost prehistoric race of Costa Rican origin inexplicably resurface in the New York sewer system, their point of access, the laundry room of an old people's home on Upper West Side. According to street philosopher Father Pistachio, who has spent a lifetime researching the origins of man, the "tapeworm people" are Xo Tl' mi-go, the thrice cursed of God who regarded them as too evil to procreate. Blind, pale, and dickless, their women sterile, somehow these bestial beings have developed a means of impregnating human women. During the summer of 77, the malevolent race take advantage of the city-wide power cut to rape several women, including the narrator's wife who has the resultant pregnancy terminated. The hideous foetus hurriedly destroyed. They're still out there, somewhere, awaiting their time.
This is totally brilliant. Deceptively leisurely style, narrator's diary casually, almost accidentally charting scenes of everyday urban violence, crippling poverty, racial tension and spiritual malaise in one of the richest cities on earth. Xo Tl' mi-go with their hooked mouths, rubbery skin and webbed hands suggest a nightmare hybrid of Machen's little people and Lovecraft's Innsmouth inbreeds (story also bears similarities to The Call Of Cthulhu).
Lisa Tuttle - Where The Stones Grow: Just as, on a holiday in Devon, the standing stones came for his father, now their San Antonio chapter do the same for city boy Paul Staunton. There's a good reason why nobody ever reports a rock creeping up on them.
|
|
|
Post by cauldronbrewer on Oct 26, 2017 17:53:43 GMT
T. E. D. Klein - Children Of The Kingdom: A lost prehistoric race of Costa Rican origin inexplicably resurface in the New York sewer system, their point of access, the laundry room of an old people's home on Upper West Side. According to street philosopher Father Pistachio, who has spent a lifetime researching the origins of man, the "tapeworm people" are Xo Tl' mi-go, the thrice cursed of God who regarded them as too evil to procreate. Blind, pale, and dickless, their women sterile, somehow these bestial beings have developed a means of impregnating human women. During the summer of 77, the malevolent race take advantage of the city-wide power cut to rape several women, including the narrator's wife who has the resultant pregnancy terminated. The hideous foetus hurriedly destroyed. They're still out there, somewhere, awaiting their time. This is totally brilliant. Deceptively leisurely style, narrator's diary casually, almost accidentally charting scenes of everyday urban violence, crippling poverty, racial tension and spiritual malaise in one of the richest cities on earth. Xo Tl' mi-go with their hooked mouths, rubbery skin and webbed hands suggest a nightmare hybrid of Machen's little people and Lovecraft's Innsmouth inbreeds (story also bears similarities to The Call Of Cthulhu). I wish Klein had written (would write?) more novellas along the lines of "Children of the Kingdom," "The Events at Poroth Farm," and "Black Man with a Horn." He's one of the true masters of the form.
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Oct 26, 2017 18:51:50 GMT
I wish Klein had written (would write?) more novellas along the lines of "Children of the Kingdom," "The Events at Poroth Farm," and "Black Man with a Horn." He's one of the true masters of the form. It's The Mist tends to get all the fuss but, for me, Children Of The Kingdom steals the volume, which is saying plenty because Kirby McCauley had everyone writing on full cylinders and there is so much good-to-great stuff in Dark Forces. After Children ... I cut straight to TEDK's equally impressive Nadelman's God in Dark Gods. Satanic rock poseurs, a very creepy "I'm your #1 fan," the horrors of pretentious poetry, and an evil deity fashioned from garbage and filth.
|
|
|
Post by andydecker on Oct 26, 2017 19:44:12 GMT
I wish Klein had written (would write?) more novellas along the lines of "Children of the Kingdom," "The Events at Poroth Farm," and "Black Man with a Horn." He's one of the true masters of the form. It's The Mist tends to get all the fuss but, for me, Children Of The Kingdom steals the volume, which is saying plenty because Kirby McCauley had everyone writing on full cylinders and there is so much good-to-great stuff in Dark Forces. After Children ... I cut straight to TEDK's equally impressive Nadelman's God in Dark Gods. Satanic rock poseurs, a very creepy "I'm your #1 fan," the horrors of pretentious poetry, and an evil deity fashioned from garbage and filth. I never understood the fuss about The Mist. Always thought it much too long for the plot.
Also I don't understand why Klein's work is out of print. If someone deserved a nice reprint...
|
|