|
Post by lemming13 on Jun 22, 2011 8:43:52 GMT
Well, having just read this thanks to nosferatu, I'd be hard put to it to nominate a favourite - I enjoyed every single one hugely. If I really had to pick, though, then I'd probably go for Black Man With a Horn (partly because I can't help thinking of a certain Simpsons episode featuring Lisa and a black jazzman, which could have been vastly improved with a few tips from Klein ). All superbly crafted, though, and I'm really looking forward to The Ceremonies.
|
|
|
Post by cw67q on Jun 23, 2011 8:22:55 GMT
Well, having just read this thanks to nosferatu, I'd be hard put to it to nominate a favourite - I enjoyed every single one hugely. If I really had to pick, though, then I'd probably go for Black Man With a Horn (partly because I can't help thinking of a certain Simpsons episode featuring Lisa and a black jazzman, which could have been vastly improved with a few tips from Klein ). All superbly crafted, though, and I'm really looking forward to The Ceremonies. This collection cannot be recommended too often or too highly, wonderful stuff throughout, and I'm glad to see someone agree that with my choice of favourite . I'd love to see this reprinted incorporating the Events at Porworth Farm, which seems to belong both thematically and in terms of quality in Dark Gods. I don't think any of Kleins other shorter stories hold up against these tales, but to have written these is surely enough for any author to be held in high esteem. The Ceremonies is also a very fine read, I think up until the ending I prefer it to Events at PF, the novella on which it is based, but that may be because I actually read the novel first, but I enjoyed the extra scope for incident and character development that the novel offered (and which TED K used fully) and loved the way that the Machenesque themes were expanded upon and made more explicit in the Ceremonies. That said both are excellent and whilst I've only read the novel once I've read the novella on 2 or 3 occasions - Chris
|
|
|
Post by markus1986 on Jun 24, 2011 15:42:51 GMT
I remember reading Dark Gods for the first time in the 1980's and thinking it the best collection I had read, and ever likely to have read! All four tales are fantastic but I think Nadelman's God is the stand-out tale. Extremely frightening, although personally, Black Man With a Horn runs it close for sheer terror.
|
|
|
Post by timothymayer on Jun 25, 2011 4:14:23 GMT
I've read "Black Man with a Horn" twice and I still haven't figured out what was going on. Perhaps we're not to know.
|
|
|
Post by sammyterry on Jul 17, 2011 1:34:00 GMT
Big Klein fan from my childhood and I consider his short stories in Dark Gods to be models of the form. It's difficult to choose one standout story, but I will go with "Black Man with a Horn".
What ever happened to this guy anyway?
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 17, 2011 19:30:21 GMT
Big Klein fan from my childhood and I consider his short stories in Dark Gods to be models of the form. It's difficult to choose one standout story, but I will go with "Black Man with a Horn". What ever happened to this guy anyway? Crippling writer's block, by all accounts. Hell, what I'd give for some new work from him.
|
|
|
Post by markus1986 on Jul 18, 2011 8:31:20 GMT
What ever happened to this guy anyway? His collection Reassuring Tales was published in 2006 by Subterranean Press. It was in a limited edition of 600 numbered copies and 26 lettered copies. He is still working on his long unpublished novel Nighttown.
|
|
|
Post by Johnlprobert on Jul 18, 2011 12:41:41 GMT
What ever happened to this guy anyway? His collection Reassuring Tales was published in 2006 by Subterranean Press. It was in a limited edition of 600 numbered copies and 26 lettered copies. He is still working on his long unpublished novel Nighttown. Sadly Reassuring Tales doesn't seem to be obtainable for less than £120, although the cover and the title suggest the stories might not be especially disturbing!
|
|
|
Post by sammyterry on Jul 18, 2011 15:52:58 GMT
What ever happened to this guy anyway? His collection Reassuring Tales was published in 2006 by Subterranean Press. It was in a limited edition of 600 numbered copies and 26 lettered copies. He is still working on his long unpublished novel Nighttown. I was made aware of this collection only recently. If my memory is correct, it is a slender volume with little "new" material. The phenomenon of the one book writer is an interesting one. Perhaps we will see Nighttown one day; Henry Roth published a series of new novels more than forty years after he wrote his renowned novel Call It Sleep. The standard theory is that writers who experience a massive success with their first novel are often cowed by the prospect of writing a followup. Perhaps Klein is a member of that exclusive and unusual club.
|
|
|
Post by markus1986 on Jul 18, 2011 19:12:36 GMT
I was made aware of this collection only recently. If my memory is correct, it is a slender volume with little "new" material. The phenomenon of the one book writer is an interesting one. Perhaps we will see Nighttown one day; Henry Roth published a series of new novels more than forty years after he wrote his renowned novel Call It Sleep. The standard theory is that writers who experience a massive success with their first novel are often cowed by the prospect of writing a followup. Perhaps Klein is a member of that exclusive and unusual club. Yes, it is a slim volume with older stories by Klein. He also wrote an introduction (against his wishes) to it. While anything published by Ted is a godsend and welcomed, it is not the best collection, certainly compared to Dark Gods. Klein apparently loses the enthusiasm to write, which is a shame as he is a wonderful craftsman. Raising Goosebumps for Fun and Profit is a great work by him as well (another limited edition)
|
|
|
Post by sammyterry on Jul 19, 2011 0:23:40 GMT
Klein apparently loses the enthusiasm to write, which is a shame as he is a wonderful craftsman. I agree that his prose is precise and there's little wasted motion. I've wondered if writing is a painful process for him and involves a mountain of revisions.
|
|
|
Post by jamesdoig on Jul 21, 2011 9:45:54 GMT
Raising Goosebumps for Fun and Profit is a great work by him as well (another limited edition) That's just about the best book about horror fiction I've read, and based in large part on his "Handy Guide to Ghost Stories" series in Twilight Zone Magazine in 1981.
|
|
Will E.
Crab On The Rampage
Posts: 24
|
Post by Will E. on Apr 16, 2012 20:44:44 GMT
I liked all the stories in DARK GODS - perhaps "Petey" or "Children of the Kingdom" would be faves. Recently I read "The Events at Poroth Farm" and preferred it to the overlong novel version THE CEREMONIES.
|
|
|
Post by humgoo on Oct 20, 2021 4:03:41 GMT
Along with Ron Weighell's novel "King Satyr", this is the best news of current book season. And don't forget that PS Publishing is going to publish a trade paperback edition of Dark Gods!
|
|
enoch
Devils Coach Horse
Posts: 117
|
Post by enoch on Nov 13, 2021 17:50:58 GMT
I've been lurking on this site for years, and figured this is as good a place to jump in as any. "Petey" is my favorite simply because it actually scared me* -- had me looking over my shoulder more than once as I read it. Even to this day when I drive lonely country roads at night, I get a chill if that story crosses my mind. "Black Man With a Horn" is the best-written, I think, and really it's a toss-up between this one and "Petey." All four of these novellas are gems, though, and the least of them is a classic and would be a standout in any anthology. Like all of you, I mourn Klein's absence from the scene. He may not have written much, but what he has written secures his place as one of the greatest horror authors in the English language.
*[Speaking of which, I'd like to start a thread on stories that actually scared you -- not necessarily the best, mind. In my case, these stories range over more than one century and the authors are of more than one nationality, so where would be a good place to start such a thread?]
|
|