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Post by bluetomb on May 12, 2017 17:20:29 GMT
I'm glad it's shaping up well, might give it a go myself although I usually have a great aversion to things that have been censored, even when censored is the only format in which they are available.
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Post by franklinmarsh on May 12, 2017 21:15:23 GMT
Mine's a Pan 1999 reprint. As mentioned before it's 3 novels in 1 as it includes The Abduction and The Visitation. The cover appears to be that of Come The Night i.e the mad, staring eyes. Each novel has the copyright page as it was and is individually page numbered as if it were three novels glued together. Come The Night has....173 pages! Woo-hoo!
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droogie
Devils Coach Horse
Posts: 100
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Post by droogie on May 13, 2017 0:31:50 GMT
So let me try to get this straight: Based on the interview with Shaun, his lost "uncut manuscript" is longer than the original publication (Chainsaw Terror by Nick Blake), or is it the same?
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Post by franklinmarsh on May 13, 2017 6:36:10 GMT
We'll have to wait for the experts on that one, Droogs. The whole thing is very reminiscent of the Bamboo Guerrillas controversy. Guy N Smith is commissioned to write a OTT book. He delivers but the publishers are now concerned it's too OTT. At least Guy told 'em that was their problem and it went out as written, although, like Chainsaw Terror, it was (I think) to have been part of a series that didn't materialise.
This is making the book more fascinating. There's a classic Hutson wind-up (or so I thought) involving Ed working at a house with a couple of kids, who almost push him to turning his jigsaw on them. I think I've seen Hutson mentioning not only that killing children in a book could get you into trouble at the time (see James Herbert on the baby's death in The Rats and more controversy surrounding Hutson's own Deadhead) but also that Compulsion was toned down, and, as mentioned in my comments on that, there's a scene in that book that has an amazing build up and then goes nowhere that I thought was him taking the piss a bit.
Also interesting (to me at least) is the fact that I have a tiny bit of sympathy for Edward.He's a victim of his circumstances and the events concerning his parents' death have formed him; turning him into a kind of human shark, relentlessly moving forward, compelled to kill if given the opportunity. Only a tiny bit mind, he's still a reprehensible psychopath - but you have to compare him with Danny Foster, Vicki's pimp. She returns from Dave's last night, to get a beating from Danny and be threatened with a flick knife. If I had a nail gun and could take care of one of these fellows, last night I'd have gone for Danny.
Dave has treated an ex-copper pal to a pint and a game of darts, and discovered that Ed reported his sister missing, but there's been no news on the two missing girls.
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Post by franklinmarsh on May 13, 2017 21:38:32 GMT
One final push and we're there! Dave faces down Foster and wins the bloody knuckle-up for Vicki's hand, and the rest of her as they repair to the journalists hotel and get jiggy after she's tended his wounds. After a post-coital kip, Dave produces a tracking device and outlines his plan for entrapping Ed and gaining a news story to rival his vice expose - whilst having Vic's best interests at heart, plus if his tracking goes wrong he now has Edward's address. Vicki somewhat reluctantly agrees and patrols Soho, while Edward enjoys a live show and then nearly runs Vicki over. Recognising him, she agrees to accompany him back to his home for an all-night session. Inevitably the tracking goes haywire, and Vicki finds herself in the soundproofed Briggs home, meeting the rotting sister bonce, and trying to avoid a hatchet-toting Ed as Dave desperately speeds toward the house... Not the greatest novel ever written, and probably not Hutson's finest work, and, if uncut, not even living up to it's reputation, but it's still a decent slice (sorry again) of fast and furious pulp, a fun, far-fetched occasionally bloodthirsty romp.
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Post by dem bones on Oct 15, 2017 19:54:38 GMT
Mine's a Pan 1999 reprint. As mentioned before it's 3 novels in 1 as it includes The Abduction and The Visitation. The cover appears to be that of Come The Night i.e the mad, staring eyes. Each novel has the copyright page as it was and is individually page numbered as if it were three novels glued together. Come The Night has....173 pages! Woo-hoo! Shaun Hutson - The Abduction/ The Visitation/ Come The Night (Pan, 1999) Melvyn Grant 'Frank Taylor' - The Uninvited 3: The Abduction (Star, 1985) 'Frank Taylor' - The Uninvited 2: The Visitation (Star, 1984) 'Nick Blake' - Come The Night (Star, 1985) Blurb: The Abduction The thought of kidnap is horrifying. The thought of kidnap by something alien to this planet is beyond comprehension. And yet it happened. To an ordinary man. A policeman. Tormented by visions and nightmares he fears he is losing his sanity. The truth, when it is finally revealed, is enough to threaten his sanity for ever. He has been chosen by forces beyond his understanding to become part of an experiment. The only problem being, he is the subject. A terrifying true story of the ordeal undergone by a man who found himself confronted by the unimaginable . . .
The Visitation When they first saw it, they thought it was no more than a strange light in the sky. But a light that seemed to be following their car. Was it a star? An aeroplane? Or something more sinister? For a Derbyshire family it is a nightmare about to begin. An encounter with something beyond their understanding. Something beyond reason. This ordinary family has been singled out for visitation by beings from another planet and the visitation was to prove anything but friendly. The most incredible part of the story is that it is true . . .
Come The Night Edward Briggs seems like a normal man. Not very friendly perhaps but then anyone would be withdrawn after witnessing such a bloody family tragedy. Edward still lives in the house where it all happened. He finds it hard to mix with people, especially women. He distrusts them all except his sister. Perhaps that’s a little strange. So is his love for his sister. A little too intense. Edward doesn’t like her mixing with other men. He'd rather she stayed with him. For ever. He doesn’t want her to leave the cold, soundproofed house with the cellar workshop with the bloodstained work bench. And the tools . .A copy turned up at this morning's market - landed a spare of James' Australian Ghosts, too, plus random Sci-fi bits and pieces. Have no recollection of doing so, but I read Clive Harold's The Uninvited, seem to have got along with it Ok, though not too sure I'll attempt SH's sequels. Come The Night by far the more enticing proposition....
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Oct 15, 2017 20:03:35 GMT
The thought of kidnap is horrifying. Yes, some research reveals that apparently "kidnap" can be a noun. It is just that I cannot remember ever having seen it used that way before in my life.
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Post by dem bones on Oct 17, 2017 22:51:59 GMT
I like how Leisure books introduced him to the US audience. Yipes. Picked up a copy of Come The Night (a triple with those two dodgy sci-fi things) from the hospital on Saturday (with a pile of Graham Mastertons). Started last night. Crackpot gory opening with husband offing wife principally by hacking her up with a piece of shattered mirror before slicing open his own throat. Five years on and the son is living with the daughter. He's a bit odd, to say the least. Did 55 pages of Come The Night in the early hours, and happily it is as horrible and disgusting as hoped/ dreaded from FM's commentary. Five years on from their parents' gory demise, the siblings are making a go of their lives. Edward, following in father's tradition, is a self-employed carpenter, Maureen an office temp. All is as well as it's ever likely to be until Maureen announces she's moving in with her secret lover, Michael Ramsey. As feared, this goes down like a bowl of cold sputum with Edward. Realising there's nowt he can say will make her reconsider, Edward gets busy with a cleaver. Dragging the various chunks of his sister down to the cellar, Edward "notices he has a strong erection" so sets Mo's head aside in his bedroom for .... recreational purposes. SH sure knows his audience. Have never watched The Toolbox Murders but should imagine it is in a similar vein to this novel (though very much doubt it is set in Kilburn).
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Post by franklinmarsh on Oct 18, 2017 20:19:57 GMT
Yee-ha! Go, Dem! Hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Did try The Abduction but didn't get very far.
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Post by dem bones on Oct 18, 2017 21:10:50 GMT
Yee-ha! Go, Dem! Hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Did try The Abduction but didn't get very far. "Enjoy" maybe not quite the word, but it's a difficult one to put down. For some reason it's not grossed me out as much as Erebus did, but still 70 pages for that to change. When Maureen fails to show for work, Michael Ramsey turns up on Edward's doorstep demanding to see her. Edward obliges. As Ramsey gawps in horrified disbelief at her severed head, Edward grabs a claw hammer and launches at the creep who stole his sister. Unfortunately for Ramsey, the initial attack merely maims him: he's still alive while Ed fillets him in the workshop. Ed puts the mop around, pays a visit to Maureen's slimy skull and gloating, tells her what he's done. All this hard work has given him a throbbing erection, so next stop Soho to mutter "whore!" under his breath at any woman who dresses the part. Ed's not yet au fait with this kerb crawling lark and, when a pair of tarts sit on his car, he introduces himself giving his real name before paying Penny Dawson £50 up front to accompany him back to his place. Amy, Penny's companion, reminds her that they don't do home visits for obvious reasons, but Ed's bulging wad wins the day. Back at the house, Penny commits the cardinal sin of laughing when her punter can't get it up, but that's OK. He only brought her home as company for his sister. Amazing how quickly life can change. Two days ago Ed was a fucked up, joyless introvert, no purpose to his life whatsoever. Now he's Jack the Ripper with a chainsaw and a sturdy workbench. Investigative hack Dave Todd of The Herald, who is set on making an honest woman of the late Penny's colleague, Vicki Powell, is about to have a headline story drop into his lap. Dear God, Gerald Suster's The Handyman is a model of restraint in comparison.
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Post by andydecker on Oct 19, 2017 17:55:43 GMT
Yee-ha! Go, Dem! Hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Did try The Abduction but didn't get very far. The Abduction is one of the few Hutsons I never bought. After The X-Files the topic lost all interest for me, and after the mostly disappointing output of the master in the new millenium I had not enough hope that this was interesting.
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Post by dem bones on Oct 20, 2017 8:04:22 GMT
Yee-ha! Go, Dem! Hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Did try The Abduction but didn't get very far. The Abduction is one of the few Hutsons I never bought. After The X-Files the topic lost all interest for me, and after the mostly disappointing output of the master in the new millenium I had not enough hope that this was interesting. How many people who bought this do you reckon skipped the UFO stories and cut straight to Come The Night? Everyone or just 100%? Shaun Hutson is another James Herbert figure to me. I admire them so much for developing their craft, but feel little inclination to read their mature work, so Come The Night suits me fine. It's essentially Psycho (the movie) minus the psycho-babble, the sex and violence cranked up to ludicrous extremes. And yet .... for all the gore, throbbing erections, and regular updates on the worsening condition of Maureen's head, this novel is storytelling at it's most conservative. Everyman hero rescues girl, bad guys (Maltese Danny, Ed) eventually receive their just desserts, "good" ultimately triumphs over evil, etc. I don't even consider that a spoiler as you know what's going to happen from the opening pages. A trash pulp classic in other words. Reckon FM is spot on in regard to where the self-censorship kicks in. SH would be the last author I'd expect to pull a reticent over so minor an inconvenience as an eyeball-penetration by power-drill.
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Post by andydecker on Oct 22, 2017 17:27:07 GMT
It is weird with our old writers. I always buy Hutson's novels, even pre-ordered his next one Chase, which from the description seems to be a rather uninteresting road movie novel. Still havn't read his last one, though.
You are 100% right. His work is simple. But I have come to admire his tenacity and his sparse style. In the age of gore and torture porn movies it is hard to imagine that even if he revisited his old stuff like Spawn it would be any good. It would be just another slice of nostalgia. So maybe he his right with his urban thrillers. I can't imagine he is still a strong seller. His new publisher Caffeine Nights seem to be rather niche. At least it is better then self-publishing, the abode of unpaid writers.
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Post by dem bones on Oct 23, 2017 18:31:18 GMT
You are 100% right. His work is simple. But I have come to admire his tenacity and his sparse style. In the age of gore and torture porn movies it is hard to imagine that even if he revisited his old stuff like Spawn it would be any good. It would be just another slice of nostalgia. Am sure Hutson diehards would approve, though! I think the early books were written to the very best of his capabilities at the time. The more SH worked at it, the more he improved, so a Spawn of Spawn or Slugs III: Gastropod Armageddon at this late stage would require a whole lot of faking on his part, bit like a veteran punk muso trying to sound like he first picked up his instrument three weeks ago. Some skills you just can't unlearn. Am guessing Chainsaw Terror/ Come The Night was conceived as the ultimate nasty, but read it now and it's almost quaint. Come to think of it, the early Michael Slade novels had already taken gore, violence and rotting heads to whole new extremes.
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Post by andydecker on Feb 9, 2024 8:45:05 GMT
Shaun Hutson (as Nick Blake) - Chainsaw Terror (W. H. Allen; Star Book, 1984, 173 pages) The original, which was missing in this thread. It has a nice dedication: For MB who unlocked the toolbox.
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