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Post by dem bones on Jul 30, 2010 9:19:01 GMT
Call it a blind spot if you wish but, like novelisations of films and TV, I hate shared world stories that someone else has "created". David Weirdly enough shared world things are something I've never really encountered before! This was I suppose a little like a TV series - Steve created the overall arc and episode plotlines and then as writers we had to get from A to B, or P to Q. My brief was (surprise) to do a story detailing the medical course of someone being bitten and succumbing to the zombie plague. I'd never written a zombie story before & the idea of zombies had never really inspired me (there's only so much you can do with the dead walking around), but I used that to basically have a zombie plague going completely mental in an NHS hospital and I had loads of fun writing something very action packed. It stands on its own (and it's bound to turn up in a future collection) but I'll very interested to see how it integrates into the book as a whole Me neither. But the contributors were chosen to deal with certain areas in which they had knowledge and then weave a tale within the overall zombie story arc that Steve had put together. I think it worked really well; and I was genuinely impressed by the result. Lord P's medical section is fantastic. Mark S. Not 100% sure but I've a feeling Stephen Jones attempted something similar with The Mammoth Book Of Dracula? Judging by the longevity of the series, Charles L. Grant made a commercial success of his Greystone Bay anthologies while the Horror Writers of America also experimented with the idea, results patchy if you want my honest opinion. Robert McCammon edited Under The Fang, seventeen stories inspired by his epic vampire novel They Thirst. This one had its moments but I never really got along with the next book, the F. Paul Wilson edited Freak Show. I wasn't even aware of Ramsey Campbell's contribution, Deathport, until Andreas mentioned it. Anyway, congratulations Mark and John (if I'm correct, your first appearance in a Stephen Jones collection, Lord P.?), and we'll surely be giving Zombie Apocalypse a thread to itself when it's published. Made a start on Mammoth Book Of Zombies last night. Several of the stories have been commented upon elsewhere on Vault so, rather than recycle the same old drivel, a few notes and then will try and concentrate on those original to the book. It does look a juicy collection, though I don't know if I'd classify M. Valdemar as a zombie. Lemming, I know what you mean about M. Valdemar. As zombies go he's severely lacking in get-up-and-go, but he's still one of the living dead and, for this reader, the squelchy ending finds Poe at his most frightening, melodramatic and ghoulishly hilarious all at the same time. H. P. L.'s Herbert West - Re-animator is usually dismissed as an "immature work" or some-such by proper commentators, but it's a big favourite of mine. Les Daniels scores with grisly sex comedy They're Coming for You from the first Hot Blood erotic horror anthology, but The Ghouls finds R. Chetwynd-Hayes in 'wacky' mode, which should pre-warn all but his most devout fans that you may find the going tough. Karl E. Wagner's splendid Sticks at least partly inspired The Blair Witch Project while Joe R. Lansdales zombie western is arguably the highlight of Skipp & Spector's terrific splatterpunk-heavy Night Of The Living Dead anthology Book Of The Dead. So before we even get down to business proper, it's clear that Zombie Apocalypse will have it's work cut out topping Mammoth Zombies!
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Post by dem bones on Jul 30, 2010 16:25:47 GMT
To build some impetus, four of the shorter pieces, all of them winners! Christopher Fowler - Night After Night of The Living Dead: Since The Night Of The Living Dead became a reality when he was eleven, Kevin Grady, now of Upper 4B, has meticulously recorded sightings of the zombies in his notebook. So when it comes to composing his mid-term essay, Kevin sticks with what he knows inside and out. We learn that, far from the fearsome brain-eaters of legend, the droolers (© Richard Laymon) are morose, harmless and irredeemably stupid though some can do "rudimentary root-memory things like read The Sun or hum songs from Cats" Also female zombies have a bizarre fondness for congregating at supermarket Trolley Collection Points. A final twist rounds off yet another of Mr. Roofworld's macabre comedies just so. Ramsey Campbell - Rising Generation: A school outing to the castle. Legend suggests the Baron hid a zombie workforce in a subterranean cave, the entrance to which was sealed after his murder. Schoolteacher Heather Fry prevails upon a taciturn tour guide not to recite any of this tosh to her 28-strong party of kids. He doesn't need to ... Michael Marshall Smith - Later: "Later, and for a long time, my man ..." The narrator is onto a promise with his beloved Rachel once they've done with tonight's party. Tragically, they don't even arrive. As Rachel skips happily in the road a yellow van takes her out, making an awful mess of the back of her head. Love and bereavement can do dreadful things to a person and, following the wake, he gives it until nightfall before setting out for the cemetery with a shovel .... Kim Newman - Patricia's Profession: It's Jay Dearborn's birthday so, by way of a hilarious joke, Philip Wrappe, his colleague at Skintone, arranges for a visit from an alternative Kiss-o-gram. My, how the guests fall about at the ensuing hi-jinks! With its many references to the DHSS, "the Dope Dole, "Depression chic and poverty porn", Patricia's Profession is one of several 80's-90's horror stories (and rock songs: President Gas, Follow The Leader and, shortly, Ghost Town, etc.) which have taken on renewed relevance since the General Election.
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Post by dem bones on Aug 6, 2010 12:38:53 GMT
Peter Tremayne - Marbh Bheo: West Cork. The narrator, researching folklore for Irish State Television, is particularly interested in factual accounts of zombies. A strange old woman directs him to Father Nessan Doheny, a worryingly ancient looking relic, who proves to be a walking encyclopedia on the subject. Doheny tells him of a particularly nasty episode during the potato famine when an arrogant, heartless young Lord summoned the English army to butcher the peasants who'd encamped on his land. Among the few to survive the massacre was a locally shunned wise woman, Brid Cappeen, who revived the corpse of a young priest to act as avenging angel. The sneering aristocrat was but the first of several down the century to be torn limb from limb ....
Have found the few Tremayne horror novels I've read hit and miss, but his shorter pieces never fail to do it for me. Aisling is some collection, I'll wager.
Manly Wade Wellman - The Song of The Slaves: With a British Navy ship on his tail, Gender, a brutal slave-trader, drowns forty-nine black prisoners in their chains to dispose of the evidence and avoid prosecution. The corpses are not about to forgive and forget his despicable behaviour in a hurry. They rise from the sea and visit his isolated plantation after nightfall, still groaning their nasty curse song ...
M.R. James - A Warning To The Curious: Admittedly, not the first name that springs to mind when i think 'zombie fiction' and what the Provost would have made of Warning .... 's reappearance in a book that includes Joe Lansdale's typically industrial language fuelled contribution doesn't bear thinking about. It's been so long since i read this that it was like a brand new story, and a marvellous one at that. Set in 'Seaburgh' during 19--. Paxton locates one of the three sacred crowns of the Kingdom of East Anglia and immediately wishes he hadn't due to the constant pursuit of a figure he barely glimpses. The narrator and his travelling companion help the young antiquarian return the treasure, but even this is not enough to placate it's terrifying undead guardian. Paxton duly meets a violent end in the mist. After Lost Hearts this may be the nearest MRJ ever came to writing a full on nasty.
Clive Barker - Sex, Death and Starshine: Another macabre comedy (the book has several). The Elysium Theatre, Redditch, is on its last legs, but former trustee Lichfield and his equally dead actress-wife Constantia are determined to give the old place a decent send-off. Trouble is, rehearsals for Terrence Calloway's production of Twelfth Night are not looking the least promising due to the miscasting of talentless soap-star Miss Diana Duvall as Viola. After whittling down the bulk of cast and management in gory fashion, the living dead intervene to salvage opening night.
Graham Masterton - The Taking of Mr.Bill: "According to the DNA report, the man wasn't actually alive." Kensington Gardens, London. Marjorie is beaten and raped on the Bayswater Road by a tramp-like individual who makes off with her little boy, William. The boy is later found drowned in a public fountain, just the latest of the tramp's several infant victims. The distraught Marjorie catches up with the killer, only to learn a terrible truth contained in Sir James Barrie's Peter Pan? Reads like a typically nasty Masterton's take on The Monkey's Paw.
David Sutton - Clinically Dead: Postal worker Russell Bray's mother lies in a hospital bed, legs gangrenous, dying by inches. The medical staff aren't ones to let the patient's go without a fight even if it means merely prolonging their agony. A cocktail of powerful drugs and constant exploratory surgery prove too much for the living dead who, in a genuinely nightmarish climax, take out their tormentors with their own surgical instruments. This is excellent, though for those with elderly loved ones enduring similar, it may prove too painful to read.
Brian Lumley - The Disapproval of Jeremy Cleave: There's a touch of the Harry E. Turner's to Lumley's black comedy. "He'd lost his eye to a N'haqui dart .... and his leg to a croc in the Amazon" so no surprise Mr. Cleave isn't one to take murder lying down. Arthur, the killer and our narrator, pushed the invalid over a cliff so Cleave's randy wife Angela could get her hands on his fortune, but neither reckoned with Jeremy's mastery of JuJu.
Lisa Tuttle - Treading The Maze: Phil and Amy on a walking tour of the South West. From the window of their Glastonbury bed and breakfast they witness seven shadowy figures dancing through a turf maze. The following morning Phil mimics their antics. He survives the holiday by mere weeks before succumbing to illness. Two years later Amy returns to the B&B. Her dead lover lures her into the maze. Another winner, more subtle than most in the book, for some reason it reminded me of Joyce Marsh's The Woman In The Green Dress.
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Post by dem bones on Aug 7, 2010 13:04:03 GMT
Robert Bloch - The Dead Don't Die: At just shy of sixty pages, the longest of the books novellas, and full credit to Stephen Jones for reviving it.
"I have perfected a means of methodology, a therapy if you like, which defeats what men call death. Defeats death? It goes beyond that, far beyond. For those whom I revive also possess the boon of eternal life!"
Our narrator, Bob, a horror author, takes a temporary job as a prison warden at the state pen to fund him while he writes his novel. There he befriends Cono Colluri, a sideshow strongman convicted of murdering his girlfriend. Bob believes Cono to be innocent but he's in a minority of one on that score. Colluri goes to the chair but not before he tells the pulpster where he can lay his hands on $8, 000, part of which he is expected to spend on clearing the strongman's name, the rest he keeps. As it turns out, the real murderer confesses after Colluri's execution, so now all Bob has to do is locate the Carney's banker, The Great Ahmed and the money is his. That's when he notices he's being trailed by Vera LaVele, an impossibly beautiful woman in a diamond-studded choker. That's when his problems really begin, for Colluri has led him into a web of intrigue at the centre of which lurks the brilliant Russian scientist, alchemist and master of black sorcery, Nicolo Varek!
For centuries, Varek has travelled the globe, perfecting his Frankenstein routine and inciting uprising wherever he touches down. Now, utilising his extraordinary powers of hypnotism combined with his peerless surgical abilities and a dash of robotics, he can - and does - control a world-wide zombie army, and (for some bizarre reason!) he wants to recruit Bob as the human face of the operation!
In an incredibly busy plot we learn the true origins of Haiti's zombie legend, why belief in vampires continues to flourish in Easter Europe, the facts behind The Facts In The Case Of M. Valdemar and just who really masterminded the French Revolution. All very convoluted - even Rasputin gets a look in - pulp for sure (if you don't guess the ending, you're not reading enough of this stuff), but Bloch approaches it deadpan making for a far more satisfying HORROR story than the pun-laden monstrosities which make up so much of his work in the field.
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Post by dem bones on Aug 8, 2010 11:09:47 GMT
i've said it before, but i almost invariably have a better time with Stephen Jones's theme anthologies over his Years Best Horrors. The coming together of contemporary extreme macabre terror and vintage pulp strangeness gives them a higher entertainment factor, or so it seems to me.
David A. Riley - Out of Corruption: Set in 1934, very Lovecraftian in feel but - mercifully - minus any Cthulhu Mythos overkill. Our narrator, Raymond Gregory pays a visit to his friend John Poole who has recently moved to the grim and depressing Elm Tree House in Fenley Wood. Poole, an occult dabbler, gives Gregory the guided tour and the more his guest sees of the place, the less he likes it. The house gives off terrible vibes, most notably the pentagram of slime in the cellar. Neither is he over-keen on the tramp-like fellow who has taken to prowling nightly in the garden.
Gregory learns from local librarian Desmond Foster that Elm Tree House was built on the site of a 13th Century Abbey torn down when the locals discovered the Holy Fathers were worshippers of Satan. The Monks were the lucky ones - they were only slaughtered on the spot. The Abbot was half-hung, disembowelled and quartered alive. His last sneered utterance - "The dead rise and come to me" - suggests he didn't mind such treatment in the slightest. His gibbeted remains mysteriously disappeared that same night.
With Poole reduced to a gibbering imbecile, it's obvious to Foster and Gregory that their friend's foolish meddling in the dark arts has revived the Abbot and his rotting accomplices. The worst news is, the Abbot firmly believes in taking his revenge in kind ...
Out of Corruption is due to be revived in Lurkers In The Abyss, Mr. Riley's long awaited 15-story collection for Midnight House (last update suggested 'Autumn 2010' as publication date)
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Post by matthew on Jan 3, 2011 16:54:42 GMT
Just gotten around to reading it. I enjoyed it despite me not really being a Zombie fan in terms of post-apoc subjects.
I agree about the comic ending being a bit of a let down but then again its refreshing to read something that does not have a 'happy' ending.
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Post by franklinmarsh on Apr 28, 2013 12:50:16 GMT
Just...er...lucked onto a twentieth anniversary edition of this at a local bargain bookshop. The fusion of old and new writers was too good to miss. The only difference apart from the cover (and I haven't access to a scanner at present) is the addition of a pome by Jo Fletcher at the end, entitled Homo Coprophagus Somnambulis. Have read the intro (superb) and the Clive Barker and Ramsay Campbell tales. I'd forgotten just how good CB could be when on form. I recently watched Pete Walker's The Flesh And Blood Show for the first time, and this fusion of horror and the theatre was equally thrilling.There's something about haunted theatres, and Barker takes things further.
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Post by David A. Riley on Apr 28, 2013 15:54:31 GMT
Having checked my copy, it also looks as if Steve Jones has updated the contributors' details. Mine have been anyway, with just one mistake, which he probably wasn't aware of at the time this went to print.
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Post by franklinmarsh on Apr 29, 2013 7:39:30 GMT
Manly Wade Wellman's Song Of The Slaves - what a cracker! I really really enjoyed this. Excellent condemnation of brutality with that ever popular rising from the depths payoff. A joy from start to finish.
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Post by franklinmarsh on May 6, 2013 16:39:48 GMT
The Ghouls finds R. Chetwynd-Hayes in 'wacky' mode, which should pre-warn all but his most devout fans that you may find the going tough. I'm not familiar enough with R C-H's output to confirm whether this wacky or not, but it's kind of entertaining, mainly re the pre-Thatcherite trade union comments (it's dated 1975 in my copy). The description of the Ghouls/Zombies lair is tremendous - pure horror.
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