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Post by allthingshorror on Sept 25, 2008 14:16:29 GMT
What a brilliant review. You can tell said reviewer I´ll pyut away my nipple shearers now....
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Sept 25, 2008 15:51:06 GMT
You better get off that computer Johnnie or someone else might get the nipple shearers out
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Post by evileye on Nov 10, 2008 23:42:16 GMT
blue-book-shop.com/Genres/Horror-Books/Charles Black - 3rd Black Book Of Horror Charles Pitch-black (ed.) - 3rd Black Book Of Horror (Mortbury Steam, June 2008) Cover: Paul Mudie Rog Agglomeration - The Scavenger Gary McMahon - Takashi’s Hindmost Symphony David A. Riley - A Pick up Of Movement Joel Lane - In Night Paul Newman - Widows Weeds Christine Mortimer - Out Of Her Perceptiveness Steve Lockley & Paul Lewis - Kinsfolk Ties Sean Parker - Eradication-Con 1 Mike Chinn - Like A Bird John Mains - The Spoon Franklin Quagmire - The Lake Craig Herbertson - Synchronicity Paul Finch - In The Brake John Llewellyn Probert - John And Jenny And The Brook: A Cautionary Tale Frank Nicholas - In An Old Overcoat Julia Lufford - The Looker Gary Fry - What We Cannot Disavow Ha! I see we have your attention! Nearby now, the latest volume in Charles’ BFS accord nominated Black Books. Several of the contributors resolve be familiar to you from Vault (although not willy-nilly under names their mothers would recognise them by). Charles is a tremendous anthology fan with a particular fondness for Herbert Van Thal’s Pan List Of Horror series and the Black Books are an attempt at fascinating up where Bertie left off. All complex are playing a blinder, not least account for artist Paul Mudie. “Top your occupation for #2!” they demanded. Paul indebted. Hope to be getting my copy in two shakes of a lamb's tail, so you’ll probably get a review in involving three years if my recent conduct is anything to go by. Don’t wait! See also Vault’s 3rd Menacing Book of Horror thread.
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Post by dem bones on Feb 1, 2014 10:57:00 GMT
personally, I preferred your second, and, sadly, parting post (under that name, at least) before you rather hastily deleted your account .... Anyway, it was reading a pair of recent collections reminded me that i never did get around to finishing this volume - we can't be having that! So ... The Third Black Book Of Horror - revisited. Rog Pile - The Scavenger: A very strong opener, reminiscent of Casting The Runes, albeit not the least Jamesian in the telling. With his congregation diminished to zero, Rev. William Ventnam of Edgecome parish utilises Black Magic versus the Godless. His principle target is local author and professional Tarot reader, Austin Chambers ( Earthly Powers, Malignant Beings,etc. The lunatic Holy man unleashes a stone devil dog to tear Chambers apart. Can his intended victim reverse the spell? Gary McMahon - Takashi's Last Symphony: Jake drops in on his friend and upstairs neighbour, Takashi, a disturbed Japanese artist whose installations have recently taken a turn for the morbid. Jake needs the company: he's furious with himself that he was asleep when Sandra, his ex, paid a visit earlier in the day. Takashi is delighted to see him. He's just put the finishing touches to his most extraordinary work, a 'tribute' to his late, stark raving crazy, abusive mother. Even Jake can't help but be impressed.... until he realises the suspended figure with toy piano's in place of hands and feet looks awful familiar ... No surprise that the author's dedication reads '"for John Llewellyn Probert." Craig Herbertson - Synchronicity; As recently revived in The Heaven Maker & Other Gruesome Tales. The Bellport High class reunion dinner was never going to pass without incident. David A. Riley - A Sense Of Movement: As recently revived in The Lurkers In The Abyss & Other Tales Of Terror. A luckless holiday maker is lured into the diabolical clutches of notorious Black Magician, Oscar Cunningham. TBC
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Post by dem bones on Feb 1, 2014 20:30:14 GMT
If its mad vicars and Crowley clones, cannibal pig-men, deranged sculptors, skewered eyeballs, and fantasy convention massacres you're after, you've come to the right place.
Gary Fry - What We Cannot Recall: World War II. Colin is evacuated from Coventry to live with his grandparents. He finds Widden Wye little more than a ghost village - perhaps the few remaining elderly residents are afflicted with the same illness that confines his grandfather to his room? Bored beyond endurance, Colin defies the Luftwaffe to explore his new surroundings. Not even his fondness for Ghost Stories Of An Antiquary could prepare him (or the reader) for the neighbourhood ghouls. Turns out the area has been used for testing chemical weapons; the effects on humankind are devastating.
Julia Clifford - The Looker: The summer of love, and Johnny Vallance, handsome shag monster, can have his pick of the go-go dollies, except he's only interested in ruining virgins, does his ego no end of good. Last night's conquest, Carol from the boutique, is understandably upset to be promised his heart one minute, discarded like a filthy dish-rag with a callous "I never want to see you again" the next. The most Pan horror of the stories to date - am still very fond of it.
Sean Parker - Death Con-1: Robert Neville re-enacts Nick Cave's O'Malley's Bar all over a fantasy convention, his spree culminating in a kamikaze attack on that holy of holies, the dealer's room. There was quite a bit of ill feeling on/ toward certain aspects of the 'scene' just then ....
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Post by dem bones on Feb 2, 2014 16:01:14 GMT
Steve Lockley & Paul Lewis - Family Ties: The zombie apocalypse reaches the tiny hamlet of Mumbles off Swansea Bay. While Peter is out foraging for food and medical supplies, Helen, heavily pregnant, frets inside the cottage. He really should be back by now! Her thoughts turn to the rifle. They've discussed it often enough, but would she be capable of shooting Peter's brains out if anything went wrong?
Helen drags herself down to the beach. Peter's boat has washed up ashore, the provisions abandoned in the water, but no sign of her husband. A shambling figure approaches across the sand....
Frank Nicholas - In An Old Overcoat: Career pick-pocket Raymond gets far more than he bargained for when he lifts a wallet from the coat pocket of a decrepit old geezer asleep on the train. Sometimes-girlfriend Sam is so revolted by the sudden appearance of a leathery growth on his shoulder that she decides against their ritual Tuesday night romp, and Raymond is almost glad. He just doesn't feel right at all. Fevered, ageing rapidly and plagued by nightmares of a skeletal, cobwebbed old man with hideous yellow eyes, he loses all sense of self and takes to sleeping in the park. A kindly woman in a charity shop gifts him a musty old overcoat to keep out the cold.
John Llewellyn Probert - John & Jenny And The Lump: A Cautionary Tale: ... and if you're good little children, uncle Johnny will read you a bedtime story!
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Post by dem bones on Feb 3, 2014 17:09:40 GMT
I finally got around to reading this a few weeks back, but what with one thing and another I haven't had the chance to drop by and post a few comments before now. Overall, a very strong anthology - there's only really a couple of the 'short-shorts' that didn't really work for me. 'The Scavenger' was a great opener (any chance of a collection from Rog Pile? I'd certainly like to see one ...), liked 'A Sense of Movement' and 'Widow's Weeds' too, though 'Family Ties' was a bit of a let down - Lockley and Lewis have produced better. My favourites were Mike Chinn's 'Like a Bird', Craig Herbertson's 'Synchronicity' - really great characterisation in this one, and a perfect closing sentence - Paul Finch's 'In the Thicket' and Franck Nicholas' 'In an Old Overcoat'. I'm not entirely certain I know what was going on in the Nicholas, but the ambiguity - whether actually there in the story or just something I brought to the experience as a reader - really worked. In a word, unnerving. But I like unnerving. Franklin Marsh - The Lake: Tom's adulterous fling with fiery and vindictive nympho Audrey ends in tragedy. The Rev Gordon 'Scourge of Satan' Bluett and his grumpy housekeeper may have strayed from the pages of a Gregory Pendennis novel, but this is among the master of the macabre's bleakest tales. Mike Chinn - Like A Bird: Two years after the tragic death of his wife, photographer Connor's business excursion to Sao Miguel finds him unusually popular with the ladies. First he beds Maria, the gorgeous hotel barmaid, then, quite inexplicably (to him), the head waitress Dian, who he has already unkindly nicknamed 'Miss Danvers' on account of a perceived severity of disposition. Little can he know that he's fallen foul of ancient Atlanteans, risen again to reclaim their land (!) Apparently inspired by a Nelly Furtado song, I found the plot a little difficult to follow, but vivid imagery - the "scarecrow", the constant cawing of the shearwaters; "A harsh, Mr. Punch-like sound. A Mr. Punch so drunk he could hardly talk" - saves the day. Joel Lane - Last Night: Depressingly, can't seem to improve on my initial comments, vague as they are, re this three pager. I learn from Lord Probert's site that Gray Friar Press have at least three anthologies in the offing, one of which, Horror Uncut: Tales of Austerity, is co-edited by the late Mr. Lane and Tom Johnstone. Any news on when its is due?
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Post by dem bones on Feb 4, 2014 17:02:58 GMT
Can only agree with Alan that, along with Synchronicity and The Scavenger, these are two of the finest of a strong collection. Would also strongly recommend you read Gary McMahon's Takashi's Last Symphony, ... and ... everything, really.
Paul Newman - Widow’s Weeds: In 1906, Nicholas de Vries is acting Govenor in Bali when a dispute over salvage turns violent. The Dutch East Indies are demanding the haul from a sunken ship be returned them, but the people of Badung refuse. The military intervene. Rather than surrender, the vastly outnumbered villagers perform Puputan, a local version of mass assisted suicide, first butchering their King, then one another before the incredulous eyes of the horrified soldiers. Of the very few survivors, an old widow clutching an infant to her breast. De Vries catches her eye, and seals his own doom. The hex is upon him.
Tonight, back home in England, de Vries confides his story in best friend, Dan Tarling. Tarling is incredulous that such an intelligent fellow could seriously consider such native tommy-rot! But Nicholas is adamant: 'Ranga', the demon hag of the forest, has trailed him cross-continent, intent on destroying his wife and little daughters. He's left with only one dreadful alternative.
Paul Finch - In the Thicket: S. Warwickshire, 1909. The Rev. Winston Littlefellow accepts an invitation from his oldest friend and fellow antiquarian to spend the weekend at St. Tidforth's rectory, Bulfratton village, where they have a saxon ruin to examine. Unfortunately, a family illness calls the Rev. Carmichael away before his guest arrives, but he sets aside two relevant volumes which he strongly advises Littlefellow study before entering the supposedly "haunted" woods. But Littlefellow's mind is elsewhere: He's reluctantly taken over the guardianship of his fourteen year old nephew, Fred, a bad lot recently expelled from Harrow (persistent misconduct, culminating in the molestation of a maid). Admittedly, thus far the miscreant's behaviour has been little short of saintly, but it is early days.
All is well until Littlefellow and Fred drop in at The Ditch-Diggers Inn to seek directions to the ruin. Fred, who has swiped some cash from uncle's wallet, fancies a pint. On the pretext of returning to the rectory to retrieve a camera, the youth hits the pub, downs four pints and gets barred for referring to the barmaid as "melons in lace." He sets out to join the old fool at the ruin.
Rev. Littlefellow, meanwhile, has passed through the eerie thicket to arrive at a tiny forest cemetery ringed by crude crucifix markers, and he's having a terrible job finding his way out. Finally free, he heads back to St. Tidforth's to see what has become of his nephew. The surly house-keeper reminds him that he's yet to consult the books she went to such great lengths to retrieve from the library. The more he reads, the more terrified he becomes for Fred's safety ....
If the spectre of MRJ tips you the occasional sly wink from the wings during the Rog Pile and Gary Fry stories, here it's more a full-frontal flash. And the concluding paragraphs are so lonely, it makes for an appropriate chiller for us to end on.
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