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Post by Dr Terror on Oct 25, 2007 15:01:04 GMT
Paul Mudie The Black Book of Horror - Charles Black (editor) Mortbury Press 2007
CROWS - Frank Nicholas REGINA vs. ZOSKIA - Mark Samuels THE OLDER MAN - Gary Fry POWER - Steve Goodwin CORDS - Roger B. Pile THE SOUND OF MUZAK - Sean Parker SHAPED LIKE A SNAKE - D. F. Lewis ONLY IN YOUR DREAMS - David A. Sutton THE WOLF AT JESSIE’S DOOR - Paul Finch SIZE MATTERS - John L. Probert SPARE RIB: A ROMANCE - John Kenneth Dunham FAMILY FISHING - Gary McMahon SUBTLE INVASION - David Conyers A PIE WITH THICK GRAVY - D. F. Lewis LOCK-IN - David A. Riley LAST CHRISTMAS (I GAVE YOU MY LIFE) - Franklin Marsh "SHALT THOU KNOW MY NAME?" - Daniel McGachey TO SUMMON A FLESH EATING DEMON - Charles Black
Cover by Paul Mudie
ISBN 978-0-9556061-0-6
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Post by Dr Terror on Oct 25, 2007 15:04:57 GMT
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Post by Calenture on Nov 1, 2007 20:49:01 GMT
It's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it.
Crows by Frank Nicholas: Ronson’s parents have been killed in a car crash and now that his uncle and aunt are also dead, Corbiewood Lodge is his. It’s a grim old pile in the heart of the country, hidden away behind trees and massive, chained iron gates. The atmosphere builds impressively as he approaches the house, surrounded by corroding statues in the mist.
There are also questions to intrigue us, such as what happened to the driver who walked away unscathed from the crash which killed Ronson’s parents? Who is the mysterious Mr Saville and how does he fix Ronson’s problems? And why does the house show no signs of vandalism by children or occupation by derelicts?
As Ronson explores the house, he remembers childhood nightmares about the birds which flock in the trees around the Lodge and in its deserted upper rooms. His aunt had told him once that she and his uncle had sworn to protect the birds. The crows had lined the trees like mourners on the day of his grandmother’s funeral, when he’d seen black feathers sticking in the earth of the freshly-dug grave.
After reading this story, I started looking around on the net for information about Frank Nicholas. This story is accomplished and sustains its eerie mood well, right up to a nasty – and very imaginative – end. It seemed there had to be more information about him out there. I couldn’t find anything. Charles Black tells me that “I think Frank N's only previous published writing credit was about Scottish literature in a guidebook.”
I’d certainly like to see more of this writer’s work, and if it’s his first published story, then Charles is to be congratulated at finding an exciting new talent.
Franklin Marsh wrote: Crows is an excellent mood piece. Our main character visits his aunt's house, which he has been bequeathed. Wandering around the spooky interior, frightening childhood memories push their unwelcome attentions on him, as he nears the source of the horror. A disgusting Pan ending.
Coral King wrote: The collection opens with Crows, a marvellously well crafted haunted house tale by Frank Nicholas. Atmospheric and suspenseful, the tension heightening by such seamless increments as to leave the reader positively breathless. A fantastic beginning.
Regina vs. Zoskia by Mark Samuels: I’ve only read three of Mark Samuels’ stories so far, more’s the pity, but I’ve already begun to appreciate the careful way that he sets up familiar and believable, even prosaic settings and characters, before nudging the picture he’s created maddeningly askew. So in Vrolyk a couple sit talking in a late night coffee bar and seem to have nothing to do with the insane and brilliant graffiti scrawled on the walls of the surrounding city streets. Then the picture is tilted and the streets become those of some early German surrealist film. But who is Caligari and who Cesare?
In Regina vs. Zoskia, Dunn is a young solicitor who is instructed by his boss Jackson to take on a case which promises to run interminably, and which Jackson expects to “finish him off”.
He drives Dunn out of the city to a place formerly used as an insane asylum. Its Director is the enigmatic Dr Zoskia. Jackson explains how the firm had become involved.
“When the inmates decided they no longer wished to be classed as insane. They’ve been challenging the legal basis on which the definition rests for the last forty-odd years.”
The description of the former asylum and its occupants, filthy, the place littered with broken medical equipment, is disturbing and fascinating. At one point, the suggestion that Dunn might have either heard or imagined a peculiarly off-key remark adds to the air of disquiet. But I really don’t want to give too much away here.
Franklin Marsh wrote:Regina vs Zoskia - Ever thought the legal profession mad? Here's proof! A jobbing would-be solicitor is given the chance to take on his firm's most important and lucrative case - but at a very heavy price. The description of the Zoskia establishment is brilliant - and the Doctor's introduction wonderfully bizarre. A sudden transition early on threw me, but the denouement prolongs the agony...
Craig Herbertson wrote:[As a favourite] I might go for "Regina vs. Zoskia" which seems Ballardian in its style but more menacing.
More to come...
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Post by Calenture on Nov 5, 2007 23:12:22 GMT
The Older Man by Gary Fry: Jack Preen is the vocalist of a small band called Fatal Inversion, but as a regular job he works with a group of painters and decorators. Their latest job takes them to house in the suburbs where an old lady has died or is dying and her daughter and son-in-law are moving in. Jack's a bit of a lady's man and the daughter, he sees, is quite a catch. While up a ladder, painting a bathroom window on the top floor, he thinks he sees her inside, through the distorting glass. Later he glances in through a bedroom window.
“The largest window of the third flight revealed a poky bedroom bearing a single mattress on a threadbare base. Sheets lay a-tangle upon a mucky slipcover; they appeared to be enfolding debris, like a tissue over the carcass of a consumed chicken.”
Last year Gary Fry’s story School of Fought in When Graveyards Yawn was probably closest to the kind of fiction August Derleth would have published, in that anthology tribute to him. This story is another winner, with nicely rounded characters in a grotesquely sleazy story of sex and horror.
Mark Samuels wrote: “My favourite tale from the anthology has to be Gary Fry’s creepy zombie-love tale The Older Man. It’s perverse and thought-provoking at the same time and is worth the cover price alone.”
David A Riley wrote: “That is a damned good story. It made my eyeballs feel dirty just reading it.”
Craig Herbertson wrote: “Gary Fry's creepy zombie-love tale The Older Man still gives me the shivers...”
Coral King wrote: “Then for those who enjoy a laugh with their fright, The Older Man, by Gary Fry, provides humorous spookiness in the form of a ghostly bedroom farce, relayed with aplomb in Mr Fry's uniquely stylish modern prose.”
Power by Steve Goodwin: The tourist who relates this story first sets eyes on the disturbing Marek in a neglected Jewish cemetery in Poland which, for some reason I can't entirely place, reminds me of that old Barbara Steele spaghetti-horror film, Mask of Satan. It has that sort of feel, but shot in technicolor, with a feeling of things stirring, damp and wet and green. Spaghetti-Horror meeting skinhead culture, which gives it a great energy. The cemetery is “a tragic place. Obscene almost in the extent of its neglect, unchecked decay and deliberate desecration and vandalism.” But the narrator finds comfort there. Goodwin’s characters usually have a world-weariness about them, perhaps there’s a sense that they no longer feel at home with the living; but there’s also sense that any cynicism is a shield for their vulnerability. The tourist is fascinated by Marek, sensing that his outlaw nature could lead to something beyond the usual run-of-the mill experiences. He’s afraid. And more afraid because Marek challenges him to face his fear.
Our moderator wrote: “Marek certainly has Power all right and there's a worrying ring of authenticity about him. He could have walked out of the pages of Lords Of Chaos: The Bloody Rise Of The Satanic Metal Underground (see Wheatley/ Black Magic section), what with there being a bizarre crossover between the Black Metalers, Skinheads and Nazi bands, and grave-desecration becoming a popular past-time with so many of the Vikernes-inspired Christian haters.”
The story got a lot of attention at the original workshop and Steve made a lengthy comment in reply. This is part of it:
“When I came to post the story here, I really didn't know at what point I was going to stop. As it turns out, I'm very grateful to Charles for picking up on my original intentions.
“Maybe I did something right after all.
“Truth be told, it had become a bit of a worry. The downside to posting a story in instalments is that (if you're lucky) it generates a certain amount of anticipation, raises expectations. The pressure is then on to deliver. To not disappoint. But this particular story was always supposed to be about setting up tensions which couldn't, shouldn't, be easily resolved. That may seem like a cop out, but my honest feeling here is that there should ultimately be no sense of relief after the build up. The protagonist, and with him the reader, are to be left hanging (in fact, at one point, I did consider exactly that fate for "our hero". But maybe that's another story...).”
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Post by weirdmonger on Nov 9, 2007 15:44:42 GMT
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Post by Calenture on Nov 9, 2007 16:57:16 GMT
Jim Steel, I suppose? It's nice to see that someone else has put up a review.
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Post by Dr Terror on Nov 10, 2007 13:51:22 GMT
Mario Guslandi, Rog.
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Post by Calenture on Nov 10, 2007 21:11:17 GMT
You’re right of course, Charles. The review linked above is by Mario Guslandi. Obviously I need bifocals. Anyway, on with this write up of The Black Book. The Sound of Muzak by Sean Parker: Ian is a composer of electronic muzak living in a rented cottage outside the village and his work is disturbed one day when he sees a flash outside and something lands on the lawn. The only evidence that anything’s happened is a scorched area of grass. But after Ian leaves the scene, we are introduced to a strange alien something. This part of the story reads a little like one of A E Van Vogt’s tales as the being tries to make itself at home in the bodies of various small creatures occupying the garden – with lethal results. Soon after this, Ian is disturbed again when the computer he’s working at begins to malfunction. The alien has found a new home. And now Ian has begun to hallucinate, sometimes horrifyingly. When he visits the village, the people, even the buildings, take on strange and horrifying qualities. And the music he’s recorded on his computer has been recorded to disk and been sent to the pressing plant, for distribution nationwide. Before long a nationwide reign of horror has begun as the music - which now embodies the abstract alien form - invades the minds of unwitting shoppers in the supermarkets. And it goes home with them, too: “’What the fucking hell was that?’ comes the shouted enquiry from the kitchen. ‘Something crawling behind the telly. I nearly got it, but...’
Pause. Then, ‘Oh shit,’ in a much quieter voice.
The sound of someone approaching from the kitchen.
‘You idiot! We’re still paying for that!’
Silence.
‘Hey, are you okay?’
More silence. Then a scream of complete terror followed by the sound of someone staggering to the front door which is opened and then slammed shut. Then footsteps and more screams, fading quickly into the distance.
Indoors, the sound of a woman sobbing. This doesn’t last long. She now has more immediate concerns. It appears to her that the meal she was preparing is trying to crawl out of oven pans and grill towards her. The patterned wallpaper looks on and chuckles.”I thought this an intelligent and well-written piece of SF-horror, with some gritty and nasty moments. It works best when the author focuses the narrative on small groups or individuals – the kids frightened out of their wits in the back of a speeding car as their parents undergo a horrifying metamorphosis or Kelly the shop girl who gets savaged when she tries to help a companion, in a supermarket which is transformed into a scene from David Cronenberg’s Crazies.
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Post by sean on Nov 13, 2007 10:51:49 GMT
Wow, thanks for that Calenture!
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Nov 13, 2007 11:29:40 GMT
Yes, it was goodie, enjoyed it very much
Craig
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Nov 13, 2007 12:22:09 GMT
Yes, "The Sound of Muzak" was one of my favourites out of an excellent collection. Just the relentlessly escalating sense of doom, really worked for me.
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Post by Calenture on Nov 13, 2007 20:19:39 GMT
Shaped Like a Snake by D F Lewis: This story was my introduction to the marvellously perverse and enigmatic tales of Des Lewis. I have said before that it was a long time before I really ‘got’ what the story was about. Or what I believe it was about... Although, in fact, all the clues are there for the reader to put together his own explanation of the story; and that’s what adds to its entertainment value for me. The reader needs to play an active part in interpretation. The story begins with the musings of an ancient entity. And perhaps the most ancient enemy of all? Consider: “I was, am, will be one of Pan’s creatures who outlives Pan, outlives even the memory of Pan having ever existed in or out of make believe...” Possibly this creature is not large: “I live at the corner of sight or am the very mote in the eye...” But likely this is less a comment on its size than its obscurity. There is an important line about a "moveable feast". We move on to Dr Tom Magri who is taking a working holiday at a boarding house at the edge of a golf course. The other guests annoy him, mistaking him for a doctor of medicine. At the moment he’s more annoyed by the writing on a scrap of paper given him by Myrtle, the lady who deals with many of the domestic chores; though at least she understands that he’s “not a proper doctor”. He can make no sense of the writing. Presumably this writing is the ‘voice’ of the ancient thing which opens the story. Talking with Myrtle, he learns that a previous visitor at the boarding house had shared his habit of walking on the golf links at night. That other visitor had disappeared – and perhaps he’d left this piece of paper. Myrtle also has a peculiar idea about the golf course; about what lived there before it became a golf course. By the time we reach this part of the story, every clue seems to open a door into a room with two more doors. If you thought that I’d attempt to explain it here, set your mind at ease. The title seems to give a clue to the nature of the ancient being. But by my reckoning, we’re now left with at least three other troubling questions. Not least of these is the nature of the “thin slivers of shaped meat, with mauve filaments” that supplemented the bacon at breakfast, and whether Dr Magri should really have eaten them. --------- By the way, the latest Vault member's site to clutter up the internet - and which incidentally advertises The Black Book of Horror - can be found here: God knows what idiot put it together.
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Post by dem bones on Nov 14, 2007 22:09:02 GMT
Still have five to read: I'm not doing these in order of preference, just some are easier for me to tackle in my limited way than others ..... David Riley - Lock-In: The Potters Wheel, Edgebottom, on the outskirts of Manchester. Sam Sowerby the landlord has recently let a room to 'Albert Durer' who, unknown to Sam, is a Black Magician specialising in conjuring forth Cthulthoid monstrosities. His latest ritual sees the pub plunged into a void surrounded on all sides by an impenetrable blackness. Regular Tom Atkins takes a step outside to see what's going on, has his face torn off for his trouble. The teacher, Harold Sillitoe, is next to try his luck - he bleeds to death after his arm is picked clean as if by acid. Now Sam and his four elderly friends affectionately known as 'The Grudgers' after the area they hail from, are left with a desperate choice: either stay here and die of starvation or find some way of getting through the black shroud .... John L. Probert - Size Matters: "His penis looked like the huge maroon salami sausage that he had seen on Nigella Lawson's cookery programme last week, right down to the runny brown gravy she had poured over the end ...." Funded by the unexpected fortune left him by his late mother, Harry Walker decides to splash out on an extension in the hope it will improve his luck with women. As we can see from the passage quoted above, the operation conducted, by the dubious plastic surgeon Dr. Lockhampton, doesn't go as well as it might and the resultant gangrene sees poor Harry bitterly regretful that he tampered with his healthy six inches. A chance meeting with a crone along the abandoned railway line restores what he's lost - with way too much interest. Killer last line. As far as I'm aware, there are no plans to adapt this one as a graphic novel any time soon. Franklin Marsh - Last Christmas (I Gave You My Life): December 24th and Kate makes a break for it, clearing off with the kids, away from that wretched husband of hers, never - NEVER - to see him again. Tragically, she opts to spend the night at the Bide-A-Wee' Guest House, pride and joy of creepy Mr. Pottinger and his mute slab of wife, but - how can that be? The place burnt down years ago! Still, let's not fret over technicalities - the Pottinger's sure know how to throw a party! Sergeant Doobie explains to WPC Stacy Dawes how the place obtained it's justified reputation as a popular suicide spot and the mystery surrounding the identities of those who perished in the original fire. She thinks he's a "silly sod" but wisely keeps her opinions to herself. "Reads like a condensed version of the Amicus Tales From The Crypt" is the biggest compliment I can pay this one. D. F. Lewis - A Pie With Thick Gravy: George settles down to eat his dinner. The pastry erupts. George's dinner settles down to eat him. I wonder why the lurker in the gravy put me in mind so of the fanged ghoulie on the cover of Pan Horror #3 ? Mark Samuels - Regina vs. Zoskia: Henry Dunn is to take over the interminable but lucrative case which has proved so extremely profitable to his firm since 1964. As Jackson drives him over to the Zoskia Institution, he fills the younger lawyer in on some background detail: " ... the inmates decided they no longer wished to be classified insane. They've been challenging the legal basis on which the definition rests for the past forty-odd years. Dr. Zoskia contends that the hospital is for the sane and that it is the outside world which is occupied by the mentally disturbed." Jackson also lets on that the inmates have trained themselves to go without sleep. Some have have managed to remain awake for years which, as you'd expect, has wreaked havoc on their already fragile minds and physically they're a trip - pale, emaciated zombies. Check out those bulbous eyes! Dr. Zoskia decides that Jackson has served their cause as best he was capable so now he can 'voluntarily' commit himself to the Institute while Dunn takes sole control of their case. The last Dunn sees of his colleague, he's being manhandled into a box. The late night sequence wherein Dunn, appalled yet fascinated, watches from his window as a group of these maniacs gleefully bury Jackson in St. Olaf's churchyard is an early Black Book highlight for me. Daniel McGachey - "Shalt Thou Know My Name?": "In the courtroom they told of a great wind that gathered up in the courtyard and which stirred the leaves and branches that littered the ground. And these appeared to gather up in the air and take on a form, like that of a scarecrow but growing thicker and more solid and more like a living thing .... " Delightful M. R. James tribute pitched somewhere between (I think!) The Ash-Tree and a nastier Casting The Runes. Seachester Museum. Dower is consulting the Hesketh papers when who should stroll in but Edgar Bright, still as loud as ever and eager to examine the self same documents. Marvellous, curses Dower who detests him. Back in their college days, Bright got Dower royally drunk and copied down his thesis, presenting it as his own. Bright's was accepted while Dower was accused of plagiarism! A scene is narrowly averted as Bright agrees to leave his rival to his studies. The fact that this fraud is following in the same line of research as he gives Dower an idea. When he fortuitously (or so he then thinks) chances on a file relating to a rather eventful witch trial, he has a means of finally avenging himself by way of a little 'joke' .... David A. Sutton - Only In Your Dreams: Donald is overburdened with his work for the North Atlantic Whaling Research Group ( they're lobbying for the hunting ban to be lifted) and he's been snappy and intolerant toward his family: wife Margaret, ten year old William and little Sophie, six. When Sophie asks if she can stay up because she's terrified of "the jellyman" he completely loses it and it's left to Margaret - as usual - to calm her fears. Apparently, the jellyman is to visit each of them in turn tonight which is why she's so upset. Margaret, unable to sleep, wakes up in the early hours and is horrified to discover that Donald hasn't even bothered to lock up. What if the Animal Rights nutters have tracked them to their new home? She couldn't go through all that again. But it's not a bunch of "Woolly headed, criminal terrorists" she should be concerning herself with just now .... Gary McMahon - Family Fishing: "I'm locking you in here with her. By the time I come back for you, you'll be a man. Don't disappoint me, boy" Fell, North Yorks. Narrator confides an incident from his pre-teen years when he was sent off to spend a weekend at his grandfather's gloomy, cluttered old house a mile or so from the nearest village. Grand-pop has laid on some 'entertainment' - tomorrow morning they're going fishing. After a hearty breakfast - the boy will need all his strength - they set off in the truck. Presently they approach a filthy shanty town in the woods, populated by barely human creatures and the boy gets his first inkling that "fishing" is something of a euphemism for what he's about to get up to. The Moreau family have always had a keen interest in genetics and the old timer is proud to have followed in his infamous ancestor's footsteps. More To Follow What I've enjoyed most about the book so far is this. For all the variety in styles, nobody has lost sight of the fact that they're writing for a book with 'Horror' in the title. Special nod to Lurker. Your animated skeleton with creepy-crawly accessories (p. 272-3) will be with me for the rest of my days and, most likely, beyond.
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Post by Dr Terror on Nov 14, 2007 23:44:31 GMT
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Post by dem bones on Nov 16, 2007 19:28:11 GMT
More. Profound apologies to those whose work I've yet to mention. Epic Commiserations to those I have. David Conyers - Subtle Invasion: The world awakens to discover that it's been invaded overnight by grey, spiky demon plants from outer space which multiply at an alarming rate and obliterate anything in their path ( "It hadn't eaten her, it had replaced the space that she had once occupied"). Truly, the Triffids were just uppity stinging nettles compared to these unrelenting bastards. In Melbourne, Sutherland, wife Kitty, little Nikki and Norbert the teddy bear are among the first to find one of these monstrosities lurking in their back yard. If they report it to the authorities it's a sure thing they'll be evacuated, so maybe it's best they leave it until tomorrow .... SF-horror crossovers don't always do it for me but I love this. It reads like a glorious 'fifties b-movie played completely straight. Norbert is adorable (I confess, I was really worried for him) and a brief cameo from a nasty biker gang is an unexpected bonus. Roger Pile - Cords: Jenny and the narrator chance upon the Contemporary Warfare: It's Glories And Terrors exhibition at the defunct Cathedral. Whoever designed the sets is on top of their game - it even feels like a jungle - and that waxwork of the crucified girl is in very poor taste. Slowly they realise that they're caught up in the fantasy world of a mad genius where audience participation is taken as given and pushed to horrific extremes ... Gary Fry - The Older Man: Meet Jack Preen, house painter, front-man of ropey covers band Fatal Inversion, self-styled stud, approaching forty and hating it. Recently his thoughts have turned to the ravages time will play on his body and this job at the posh couple's place isn't helping any. He's an author, scruffy git, writes books debunking the supernatural: she's a lawyer, gorgeous, and should be well out of hubby's league. And there's a decrepit old girl living with them too, the wife's mother, though he's sure his mate said something about her having died a few weeks back ..... Any story that features hot corpse-on-corpse action is OK in my book. I found it vaguely reminiscent of Ramsey Campbell's super-creepy Again but with additional enormous belly-laugh. Charles Black - How To Summon A Flesh Eating Demon: "Do you really think I'm going to plunge my knife into this young girl's heaving bosom?" Greydin snorted. Now who's being all Hammer House Of Horror ? " Prof. Julius Greydin has located a copy of the semi-mythical Book Of Setopholes and argues that it's an authentic grimoire. His sceptical friend, Dr. Ernest Mellman is adamant that it's at best a compendium of the usual mumbo jumbo, at worst an elaborate hoax. Their pupil, Tony Zaniger, wonders how they stand each other's company - they're always trying to out-do each other. There's only one way to settle the dispute - perform one of the rituals. The trial run is a failure but Greydin isn't ready yet to concede. For the second attempt some nights later he pulls out all the stops. Skulls, human and animal, are borrowed from the laboratory. He even provides a naked virgin, Michelle Chalmers - albeit it a totally drugged, oblivious one. Tony's can't believe it: he's been trying to pull her for ages! This time, they'll do everything to the letter. But Greydin has made one fatal miscalculation and his world is about to turn all Taste The Blood Of Dracula ... The book goes out kicking and screaming on a note of Grand Guignol. yet more to follow ....
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