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Post by doug on Apr 21, 2010 5:08:56 GMT
"Darkness, Mist and Shadow" the collected Macabre Tales of Basil Copper....
Volume One contains the following stories:
The Spider
Camera Obscura
The Janissaries of Emillion
The Cave
The Grey House
Old Mrs. Cartwright
Charon
The Great Vore
The Academy of Pain
Doctor Porthos
Archives of the Dead
Amber Print
Out of the Fog
The House by the Tarn
The Knocker at the Portico
The Second Passenger
The Recompensing of Albano Pizar
The Gossips
A Very Pleasant Fellow
A Message from the Stars
Cry Wolf
The Trodes
Dust to Dust
The Flabby Men
The Way the World Died
The Treasure of Our Lady
Justice at the Crossroads
Mrs. Van Donk
The Stranger
The Madonna of the Four-Ale Bar
Shaft Number 247
Volume Two " contains the following stories:
The Candle in the Skull
Wish You Were Here
Better Dead
Beyond the Reef
Death of a Demi-God
Reader, I Buried Him!
Bright Blades Gleaming
When Greek Meets Greek
Line Engaged
One for the Pot
In a Darkling Wood
The Grass
Riding the Chariot
Final Destination
The Obelisk
Out There
The Summerhouse
As the Crow Flies
Poetic Justice
Ill Met by Daylight
Charing Cross—Dover—Charing Cross
There Lies the Danger
Queen Bee
Death of a Nobody
Reflections
The White Train
Hunted by Wolves
Storm over Stromjolly
The Silver Salamander
Voices in the Water
It blew my book budget for the next 2 months, but my copies are on the way and they're autographed (during the horror con)!!
Happy Happy joy joy!
Take care.
Doug
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Post by blackabyss on Apr 21, 2010 18:02:15 GMT
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Post by doug on Apr 21, 2010 18:17:30 GMT
That was an excellent review. I mostly know Mr. Coppers stories from the two AH anthologies. They contain several of the most satisfying stories I've ever had the pleasure to read. I've read "The hour of the Wolf", "Necropolis" and "The Great White Way" and din't find any of them as entertaining as his shorter works. "The Gossips" and "The Gray House" are two of my all time favorites. I'm really fired up about these two volumes.
I loved night Gallery as a kid back in the early 70s, but I can't seem to remeber "Camera Obscura".
take care.
Doug
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Post by doug on May 3, 2010 7:02:48 GMT
Hey All!
My copies arrived last week and so far I’ve read vol.1 up to the middle of „The Great Vore“.
Up to this point Vol.1 mostly stories I know from the AH anthologies, so I’m really looking forward to Vol.2.
My only complaint ist that underneath the dust jackets the covers are laminated reproductions of the dust jacket Illustrations . And even though this a a double helping of Stephen Fabian, they still come across as a little bit cheap (IMHO).
My major complaint is that Vol.1 has the most typos I’ve ever seen in a book. This tends to be very distracting at times and considering the price of these volumes I had expected a little bit more attention to detail.
To be honest though, just knowing that I now have Mr. Coppers complete horror stories makes it all worthwhile. These are wonderful stories.
Take care.
Doug
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Post by Johnlprobert on May 3, 2010 8:34:33 GMT
Interesting you mention the typos, Doug. I bought the PS anthology Black Wings edited by ST Joshi at World Horror, and apart from being a mix of the quite good and the really awful in terms of story content, there were an awful lot of typos in that too.
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Post by David A. Riley on May 3, 2010 9:13:41 GMT
PS does seem to be plagued by this fault. I recently read The Cannibal Kings of Horror in Mark Samuels' PS collection, Glyphotech and was surprised at just how many typos were in that too.
They might be regarded by many as Britain's premier small press company, but, going off these examples, proof reading doesn't seem to be one of their strong points.
A great shame as otherwise their books do tend to look impressive.
David
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Post by marksamuels on May 3, 2010 12:13:43 GMT
PS does seem to be plagued by this fault. I recently read The Cannibal Kings of Horror in Mark Samuels' PS collection, Glyphotech and was surprised at just how many typos were in that too. They might be regarded by many as Britain's premier small press company, but, going off these examples, proof reading doesn't seem to be one of their strong points. A great shame as otherwise their books do tend to look impressive. David Really? That's interesting. I made a note of three typos in that tale that I'd need to correct were it ever reprinted. If you've spotted more than that number, David, I'd be grateful for a list! Mark S. |
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Post by PeterC on May 3, 2010 21:26:56 GMT
I can't comment on typos but PS Books do seem to be cheaply glued and bound. They are in a similar price range to Tartarus but nowhere near the same quality.
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Post by David A. Riley on May 4, 2010 6:02:24 GMT
Most of the typos are the use of capital letters for the first word after someone has spoken when it should have been a small letter. When I have the chance I'll go through my copy and list the times this happens - which I am sure were much more than three. I'll do this when I have a spare moment between working on the nebxt issue of Prism.
These things just leapt out at me as wrong while I was reading it, although they did nothing to dampen my enjoyment of the story.
David
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Post by dem bones on May 4, 2010 9:02:21 GMT
PS does seem to be plagued by this fault. I recently read The Cannibal Kings of Horror in Mark Samuels' PS collection, Glyphotech and was surprised at just how many typos were in that too .... These things just leapt out at me as wrong while I was reading it, although they did nothing to dampen my enjoyment of the story. David i've not read as much of Mark's work as i should have, but Cannibal Kings Of Horror blew me away, although i gather some critics were less than favourable in their reviews. Keeping Your Mouth Shut from Sixth Black Book Of Horror which, on first reading, struck me as a particularly horrible exercise in self-loathing, is very much the kind of story i'd expect from the pen of the late Edmund F. " Mr. Agony Has Returned" Bertrand. to set the thread almost back on track, i currently have my fangs locked into Lord Probert's aptly titled Wicked Delights (no big surprise that this is the first Atomic Fez title i've clapped eyes upon), and have been much impressed by the whole package. i'm no proof reader but even i've been known to spot a glaring typo and everything seems to be as it should be. It compares favourably to any PS i've seen in a similar price range (UK £22.99) |
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Post by marksamuels on May 4, 2010 17:49:15 GMT
Most of the typos are the use of capital letters for the first word after someone has spoken when it should have been a small letter. Noooooooooooooooooo!  I've been doing that all my writing career! I'm not surprised it crops up everywhere. I'll bet there are dozens in my Tartarus book, too. For example, I'd customarily write "No-one will know of our existence." She said. Rather than "No-one will know of our existence." she said. That's my credibility down the pan. AGAIN  Mark S. |
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Post by robertmammone on Oct 2, 2010 12:11:46 GMT
I've seen reference to other collections of Coopers writing around the traps - does anyone know anything about them? The titles appear to be Whispers in the Night and The House of the Wolf.
A real pity the PS volumes are at such a high price point because I can't ever justify buying them at that cost - esp. now with the large number of typos people have commented on.
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Post by dem bones on Oct 2, 2010 13:12:42 GMT
hi robert. after the mild kicking PS Publications took on here yesterday, you would have to revive this thread !  personally, much as i like Basil Copper and his horror stories, i never felt the least inclined to go for the collected stories no matter that PS have made them so "affordable" at £100. i like them in the original collections where the nine or ten stories are given room to shine. Not After Nightfall, From Evil's Pillow, Here Be Daemons and When Footsteps Echo are four i can think of that are well worth tracking down. i was in the local library earlier and noticed that at least some of Basil Copper's crime fiction has been reissued as large print titles in the Linford Mystery series. maybe they'll eventually get around to the horrors? |
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Post by David A. Riley on Oct 2, 2010 13:28:09 GMT
I looked at those two volumes of Basil Copper's stories at FantasyCon, but the price did deter me, lovely though they looked, especially when I already have his best stories elsewhere.
On the All hallows boards I today put this about overpriced beautiful books (just for a bit of controversy):
"I have no objection at all to beautiful books, even ones that sometimes seem
extravagantly expensive, and I have a number in my collection I would never part
with. What I find incomprehensible is when a publisher, as has happened
recenctly, publishes a leather bound version of someone's book when the writing
is awful - or, at best, pedestrian, uninteresting and downright awkward.
Especially when this is a slim book, padded out with extraneous material that
needn't be there. It really makes me wonder what goes through the heads of
publishers like this that they would go to such lengths for material that would
be lucky to get into even a 4luv publication with a discerning editor. I just
pity those who spend hundreds of dollars for something that never merited
anything better than a POD paperback at best. Of which there is one also
available - and which I now begrudge having bought."
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Post by robertmammone on Oct 2, 2010 21:15:38 GMT
hi robert. after the mild kicking PS Publications took on here yesterday, you would have to revive this thread ! personally, much as i like Basil Copper and his horror stories, i never felt the least inclined to go for the collected stories no matter that PS have made them so "affordable" at £100. i like them in the original collections where the nine or ten stories are given room to shine. Not After Nightfall, From Evil's Pillow, Here Be Daemons and When Footsteps Echo are four i can think of that are well worth tracking down. i was in the local library earlier and noticed that at least some of Basil Copper's crime fiction has been reissued as large print titles in the Linford Mystery series. maybe they'll eventually get around to the horrors? Thanks for the recommendations. I'll have a hunt around and see what I can find. |
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