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Post by dem bones on Mar 21, 2008 0:20:29 GMT
Ramsey Campbell (ed.) - Fine Frights: Stories That Scared Me (Tor, 1988) Introduction - Ramsey Campbell
Villey Sorensen - Childs Play Karl Edward Wagner - More Sinned Against Peter Phillips - Lost Memory Shamus Frazer - The Fifth Mask Joseph Payne Brennan - The Horror At Chilton Castle John Brunner - The Clerks Of Domesday Perceval Landon - Thurnley Abbey Bob Shaw - Cutting Down Arthur Gray - The Necromancer Thomas Ligotti - The Greater Festival Of Masks David Case - The War Is Over Philip K. Dick - Upon The Dull EarthNot sure if there was a British edition of this one, so perhaps one of our RC aficionados can set me straight? Eclectic selection. I'll need to re-read much of this before I can do it justice. Not exactly sure that too much of this book scared me, but I certainly enjoyed it, and I find it fascinating to know what gets to the people who write this stuff. Always was a sucker for demon nun fun, so Landon's story rates highly (and there is a frightening episode in this one). Karl E. Wagner's dissection of a disastrous relationship moving relentlessly toward tragedy and carnage is a flinch-fest, while the Frazer and Brennan efforts are fine examples of trad horror for all their wonderful gothic props . I'll get back to this as I know I was mightily taken with the Philip K. Dick (his psychic vampire outing, The Cookie Lady, is ace too) and Bob Shaw stories and - typically - can't remember a bloody thing about them now. Likewise, I feel suitably ashamed that all I can tell you about the David Case story is that I'm pretty sure he leaves werewolves out of it for once (see also the comic Neighbours in Pan Horror 19) One moan. What's with cursory one-page intro, Mr. Campbell?
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Post by troo on Mar 21, 2008 13:06:45 GMT
And as a side-note: Bloody fantastic cover! I love it
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Post by sean on Mar 21, 2008 13:29:37 GMT
Not sure if there was a British edition of this one I don't think there was.
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Post by dem bones on Apr 9, 2008 13:09:45 GMT
So far, so excellent.
Villy Sorenson - Child's Play: The two inquisitive brothers want to know why uncle's got an artificial limb, so mother tells them about blood poisoning and bactilla, "strange animals [that] crawled in a red stripe up uncles leg". Suitably impressed, they know just what to do when they chance upon little Peter, who's just stubbed his toe. Once they've taken him home and secured him to the table, the elder boy fetches his fretsaw and things take a turn for the Charles Birkin ...
Karl Edward Wagner - More Sinned Against: Aspiring actress Candace Thornton makes desperate sacrifices to finance her ruthless, abusive boyfriend Rick Justin as he embarks on his Hollywood career - she prostitutes herself, unwittingly cultivates a smack habit, appears in hard-core porn movies, bestiality flicks and even a near-snuff abomination - so it's a kick in the teeth when he finally gets his break in Colt Savage, Soldier Of Fortune and very publicly humiliates her. But the ruin that was Candace is still together enough to avenge herself and a Colt Savage doll provides her with the means.
David Case - The War Is Over: Atrocities were perpetuated by both sides during the bitter conflict but now is the time to set all thought of retribution aside and give peace a chance. So says Rudolf, and if he can do it, so can everyone else. His wife and child were raped and butchered in one such atrocity, but still he's found it within him to call on the widow Maria Schell to inform her that her husband died in his arms and was brave to the last. Despite her hatred of the enemy, she can't help but like handsome, kind Rudolf. He's very good with little Katyn, too. In fact, he's just taken her to the zoo. Maybe, in time, she will marry again. Katyn needs a father ...
John, one of Rudolf's army buddies, calls at the door and Maria invites him in to await the return of their mutual friend. John is very surprised that Rudolf is getting on so well with the wife of an enemy soldier. He's been worried about him lately. Rudolf's been acting very strangely. Perhaps if he lets Maria in on a few secrets about her new boyfriend and how he swore to avenge his beloved wife and daughter ....
Shamus Frazer - The Fifth Mask: Even after all these years, November 5th is still a time of dread for Fred Tucker due to a dark and horrific episode in his childhood when he and friend Robin Truby encountered a weird woman in the fog on Failing town fields and requested "a penny for the guy". Having first got them to lift their horror masks she then removes her own. And the one beneath that. And the one beneath that and ....
A "little Lord Fauntleroy" joins them and persuades the crone to remove her fifth and final mask and with it the pennies from her eyes. What he sees - Fred and Robin having fled before she's finished - causes his little heart to give out.
Joseph Payne Brennan - The Horror At Chilton Castle: Wexford village, North of England. Brennan, on a working holiday in England, has a chance meeting with William Cowarth, factor of the castle, who informs him that tonight’s the night when Frederick, the 13th Earl, must learn the sinister secret of the locked room. Brennan’s arrival is providential as another of the blood is required to accompany him, and Frederick’s father has recently died. Within, fettered to the wall, awaits Lady Glanville who made a pact with the Devil in the 15th Century. How has she survived that long?
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Apr 6, 2012 11:28:09 GMT
This one's heavy on the bleakness, isn't it? All of the stories are highly effective, though some of them depressed me more than they frightened me (the Sorenson, Wagner, and Case stories in particular).
The Brennan story is one of my favorites of his, which is saying a lot.
For me, the Frazer story was the revelation in the book--I hadn't run across it before, and it did frighten me.
Brunner's oddball tale of mysterious people surveying the great historical sites of Europe was interesting. Still, I prefer his trippy "Traveler in Black" stories--I've never read anything else like them (maybe more science fantasy than horror, though some of them certainly include horrific elements).
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Post by dem bones on Apr 7, 2012 11:09:33 GMT
oh, i am a big fan of bleak. bleak is very good indeed! It's a very strong collection. i've yet to read another Villy Sorenson story, but if he's written any as dark or darker than Child's Play, then i badly need to know where to find them! The Shamus Frazer story is excellent, as is his creepy Christmas story Florinda. i treat myself to a re-read of Thurnley Abbey every few years - it's still horrible, delightfully so, as opposed to Karl Wagner's dispassionate dissection of Candice Thornton's train-crash of an acting "career" which is just plain horrible. Six or seven pages in and it's already obvious that Candice will be subjected to degradation upon degradation, so now would be the time to walk away, read something else, but the voyeur inside us all won't stand for it. One story i didn't go a bundle on first time around is Arthur Gray's The Necromancer. He's among the Jamesian authors who are perhaps a little too self-consciously Jamesian for me, though his writing is lovely. David Case was not long into his welcome comeback and i think his masterpiece - Pelican Kay - was yet to come. Still not treated myself to that rematch with Upon The Dull Earth ....
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Apr 7, 2012 11:57:52 GMT
oh, i am a big fan of bleak is very good indeed! It's a very strong collection. i've yet to read another Villy Sorenson story, but if he's written any as dark or darker than Child's Play, then i badly need to know where to find them! The Shamus Frazer story is excellent, as is his creepy Christmas story Florinda. i treat myself to a re-read of Thurnley Abbey every few years - it's still horrible, delightfully so, as opposed to Karl Wagner's dispassionate dissection of Candice Thornton's train-crash of an acting "career" which is just plain horrible. Six or seven pages in and it's already obvious that Candice will be subjected to degradation upon degradation, so now would be the time to walk away, read something else, but the voyeur inside us all won't stand for it. One story i didn't go a bundle on first time around is Arthur Gray's The Necromancer. He's among the Jamesian authors who are perhaps a little too self-consciously Jamesian for me, though his writing is lovely. David Case was not long into his welcome comeback and i think his masterpiece - Pelican Kay - was yet to come. Still not treated myself to that rematch with Upon The Dull Earth .... I have a unread copy of Dalby's Chillers for Christmas on my shelf, so I should get around to reading "Florinda" soon--especially after liking "The Fifth Mask" so much. I've read Dick's "Upon the Dull Earth" a couple of times. It really messes with my head, as the man's work can do. Though it kept me reading, the KEW story was too much degradation for me--the brief payoff wasn't worth wading through all of the misanthropy. I think that Case is just brilliant, particularly in building a sense of dread. In another writer I might find his extreme pessimism off-putting, but for him it works perfectly. In my mind, "The War is Over" didn't quite match his earlier works: "The Cell," "Fengriffen," "Among the Wolves," "The Hunter," and, most of all, "The Dead End." Not coincidentally, perhaps, all of those stories are longer and give him more time to develop the dread layer by layer instead of all at once. I haven't read "Pelican Cay" yet--I guess I should rectify that!
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Post by noose on Apr 7, 2012 12:27:06 GMT
Pelican Cay is Case's greatest work.
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Post by andydecker on Apr 7, 2012 13:31:33 GMT
Where is Pelican Bay included? I am a big Case fan. Don´t know how often I read Fengriffen or other tales.
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Post by noose on Apr 7, 2012 13:45:00 GMT
Dark Terrors 5 - ed by Stephen Jones - or his collection from PS: Pelican Cay and other Disquieting Tales
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Post by andydecker on Apr 17, 2012 6:10:57 GMT
A belatedly thanks for the pointer, Johnny. I had ordered a copy of Dark Terrors 5 and read Pelican Bay.
Wonderful written story. Kind of timeless and ahead of its time. I really have to hunt down Case´s other work.
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Post by monker on Apr 19, 2012 14:31:28 GMT
I just read the PKD story on-line and it's another to add to the sub-genre of horror classics by SF writers, especially from about 1940-'54. I should start a thread about it.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Apr 19, 2012 16:53:19 GMT
I just read the PKD story on-line and it's another to add to the sub-genre of horror classics by SF writers, especially from about 1940-'54. I should start a thread about it. Have got a link for that monker?
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Post by Shrink Proof on Apr 24, 2012 18:47:30 GMT
OK, you've convinced me.
Ordered.
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Post by Nightmare on Feb 2, 2015 19:37:43 GMT
Thanks for the story summaries as always, demonik. I love the cover! I am very interested in The Fifth Mask. It reminds me of the start of the Twilight Zone movie with the guys in the car asking ''Want to see something really scary?'' On a scale from 1-10, how scary is The Fifth Mask ending? Without spoiling anything, is the woman's final face (I'm also guessing skull face) described? I might purchase this book, but I'm not sure yet. My Pan book collection took up a lot of shelf space!
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