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Post by timothymayer on Feb 27, 2012 1:21:35 GMT
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Post by doug on Feb 27, 2012 8:33:32 GMT
Hi!
Excellent review!
I linked your blog in mine.
take care.
Doug
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Feb 27, 2012 12:09:21 GMT
I'm pleased to learn about the new Bruin Books edition--I was never going to be able to afford a first edition or the Centipede reprint. |
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Jul 8, 2012 1:16:28 GMT
Paul Bailey's Deliver Me From Eva lives up to Forrest Ackerman's oddball recommendation in Horror: 100 Best Books. I've read many books about mad scientists, but this is the first I've read about a mad chiropractor. After a whirlwind romance with the enigmatic Eva, lawyer Mark Allard visits his new bride's family in their mansion, named "The Cradle of Light." Cranial manipulations, decapitations, incinerations, and explosions ensue in what Allard describes, in the book's characteristically over-the-top style, as "a devil's symphony of baroque horror." The closest comparison I can draw is to J. U. Nicolson's Fingers of Fear, though Baily goes for the jugular harder.
I bought the paperback Bruin edition, which is relatively inexpensive and rather attractive. There's also a hardcover Centipede edition, which sells for quite a bit more.
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Post by dem bones on Jul 8, 2012 13:29:26 GMT
I note that in Horror: 100 Best Books, Ackerman compares Deliver Me From Eva to a shudder pulp and from your review it sure sounds that way to me. Wish we could convince Wordsworth that there was a market for this lurid material. A couple of years back, in response to their request for suggestions, i tried to get them interested in reprinting Fingers Of Fear but that one fell on deaf ears. Can't believe Greg Cox slated Nicolson's masterpiece as a 'bad' book in The Transylvanian Library. Even E. F. Bleiler grudgingly accepted its genius. A less frenetic, but no less barking vampire novel of the previous decade is Sydney Horler's The Curse Of Doone notable for the most incredible I'-can't-believe-i-just-read-that denouement. Even the most implausible Wheatley kiss off pales in comparison.
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Jul 8, 2012 17:55:59 GMT
I note that in Horror: 100 Best Books, Ackerman compares Deliver Me From Eva to a shudder pulp and from your review it sure sounds that way to me. Agreed--I got a strong shudder pulp vibe from it. There's purple prose, explicit violence, implicit sex, and a non-supernatural menace. Wish we could convince Wordsworth that there was a market for this lurid material. A couple of years back, in response to their request for suggestions, i tried to get them interested in reprinting Fingers Of Fear but that one fell on deaf ears. That would be excellent if it happened. Fingers is long overdue for a paperback reprint. I bought the Paperback Library edition (great cover!), and it wasn't cheap. Midnight House did a hardcover reprint a few years back; that one's even more expensive. Can't believe Greg Cox slated Nicolson's masterpiece as a 'bad' book in The Transylvanian Library. Is The Transylvanian Library worth purchasing, even if Cox doesn't like Nicolson or Robert Lory? A less frenetic, but no less barking vampire novel of the previous decade is Sydney Horler's The Curse Of Doone notable for the most incredible I'-can't-believe-i-just-read-that denouement. I've thought about tracking down The Curse of Doone (I like the Paperback Library cover for that one, too), but Horler sounds like something of an ogre . . . |
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Post by dem bones on Jul 9, 2012 22:13:29 GMT
Is The Transylvanian Library worth purchasing, even if Cox doesn't like Nicolson or Robert Lory? If you prefer your bibliographies annotated as opposed to attempts at comprehensive listings then The Transylvanian Library is for you! Greg Cox's commentaries are opinionated, consistently entertaining, and his fondness for the genre shines through. I like it plenty but can't help but think he began the project three or four years too early. As Mr. Cox notes in the appendix, by the close of the eighties a Goth-fueled vampire epidemic was upon us and the novels were coming so thick and fast it was nigh on impossible to keep up. Fanzines like Jule Ghoul's Vampire Archives and Margaret L. Carter's The Vampyre's Crypt gave it their best shot, the latter notable for Catherine B Krusberg's Vampires In Print column which amounts to an annotated biblio in itself! |
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Mar 5, 2014 15:56:21 GMT
Is The Transylvanian Library worth purchasing, even if Cox doesn't like Nicolson or Robert Lory? If you prefer your bibliographies annotated as opposed to attempts at comprehensive listings then The Transylvanian Library is for you! Greg Cox's commentaries are opinionated, consistently entertaining, and his fondness for the genre shines through. I finally got around to reading The Transylvanian Library. It's a great resource, and it's already prompted me to buy a copy of Margaret Carter's The Curse of the Undead so I can read Evelyn E. Smith's "Softly, While You're Sleeping" (which earned a three-bat rating from Cox). I don't always agree with Cox's opinions, but I still enjoy reading them. |
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Post by dem bones on Mar 5, 2014 20:10:14 GMT
I finally got around to reading The Transylvanian Library. It's a great resource, and it's already prompted me to buy a copy of Margaret Carter's The Curse of the Undead so I can read Evelyn E. Smith's "Softly, While You're Sleeping" (which earned a three-bat rating from Cox). I don't always agree with Cox's opinions, but I still enjoy reading them. is great fun, isn't it? I'm not the least bit worried about whether or not I agree with what the author has to say, just glad that he clearly gets a thrill from the subject matter. It's been aeons since I read Curse Of The Undead, but the Evelyn Smith story is possibly the only thing to recommend it as the bulk is given over to extracts from longer pieces, and the cover (vampire feasting on a bloated Jim Morrison) is awful! |
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Mar 11, 2014 16:05:25 GMT
It's been aeons since I read Curse Of The Undead, but the Evelyn Smith story is possibly the only thing to recommend it as the bulk is given over to extracts from longer pieces, and the cover (vampire feasting on a bloated Jim Morrison) is awful! I have my copy now. I haven't read it yet, but I actually like the so-1970-it-hurts cover. A Vampire Queen turns the Lizard King--what's not to like? Also, I'm not so sure that Morrison was much skinnier than that by 1970. |
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