Truegho
Devils Coach Horse
Posts: 135
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Post by Truegho on Jun 5, 2014 0:05:25 GMT
We all know that in the wake of the phenomenal success of James Herbert's Rat books, there flooded on to the market a huge avalanche of similar "animals-on-the-rampage" books. However, in my opinion - with perhaps the exception of Guy N. Smith's Crab books - none of them could quite come up to the magic of The Rats.
Do you agree?
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Truegho
Devils Coach Horse
Posts: 135
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Post by Truegho on Jun 5, 2014 0:08:09 GMT
I think that the superfluous flood of animals-on-the-rampage books back in the seventies/eighties totally ruined the horror genre, making it seem samey. Consequently, the horror fiction reader became jaded. I know I did.
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Post by Dr Strange on Jun 5, 2014 7:56:36 GMT
I managed to stay relatively unjaded, by not reading any of them.
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Post by erebus on Jun 7, 2014 17:41:58 GMT
Sorry folks, but I lapped them up. Of course the true and greatest example is of course The Rats. But I just loved bugs on the rampage novels. I'm sure a few more members do too. It did get a little silly and outrageous when some of the more bizarre creatures got involved ( Rabbits etc ) but I treasure my Halkins and Lewis books.
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Post by thecoffinflies on Jun 9, 2014 15:54:37 GMT
Not just bugs..
There was The Dogs, The Cats, Scorpion!, and Croc, amongst others. I had all of these but gave them away when I was about 18, and had decided they were basically shit.
Sorta wish I'd kept them now. Scorpion in particular was creepier than it deserved to be. I think they've probably got their own pages somewhere on this forum, and will go check...
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Post by thecoffinflies on Jun 9, 2014 16:05:26 GMT
Sure enough, the animals attack section! I love Vault...
Though no cover scan for The Dogs? Again, I wish I'd kept it.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Jun 9, 2014 16:27:25 GMT
I think there's one in the latest finds thread
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Post by ramseycampbell on Jun 11, 2014 11:06:37 GMT
Does anyone have a copy of The Hamster Horror?
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Post by erebus on Jun 13, 2014 11:33:18 GMT
Its funny, but I bet if the phase had continued you could bet someone would have thrown one out. I still can't believe nobody did Centipedes. Surely more menacing and grisly than moths, caterpillars and flies.
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Post by kooshmeister on Jun 14, 2014 2:25:36 GMT
I confess I've never read The Rats, but I'm with Erebus; I love killer bug stories! As far as some of the more bizarre creatures-on-the-rampage tales go, I'm still trying to get my hands on the extremely elusive Rodent Mutation. Bigass beavers!
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linbro
New Face In Hell
Posts: 6
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Post by linbro on Sept 22, 2016 10:43:13 GMT
Recently re-read the Rats trilogy, and absolutely loved it - but I was never really tempted by any of the emulators. Apart from one, though I'm not sure that I'd consider the author an 'emulator' - Gregory Douglas''The Nest'. Really enjoyed this one. Lincoln.
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Post by ripper on Oct 7, 2016 13:13:46 GMT
Herbert's 'The Rats' provided the template which many of his imitators followed, and I must admit that I did usually have a good time reading them. A good cover and back page blurb was often all it took to sell the book to me, and the more sex and gore was contained inside the better.
I heard an interview that Shaun Hutson gave many years ago and he said that he had read one of these "animals attack" books and decided there and then that he could do just as well, so I don't know if that was how he got to begin writing 'Slugs'.
As far as Herbert's trilogy is concerned, I like very much the first two, but 'Domain' I gave up on. I thought it was just too long, not uncommon for JH at the time. He lost the power and rawness of his earlier books, but that is something not limited to JH alone.
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Post by andydecker on Oct 9, 2016 14:01:40 GMT
As far as Herbert's trilogy is concerned, I like very much the first two, but 'Domain' I gave up on. I thought it was just too long, not uncommon for JH at the time. He lost the power and rawness of his earlier books, but that is something not limited to JH alone. Same impression here. The curse of the too long novel. I appreciate that JH tried to always do something new, but novels like Portent or '48 just didn't work for me. Also never finished The Secret of Crickley Hall. I just thought it dull, and I like Hounted House stories.
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Post by ripper on Oct 10, 2016 11:53:28 GMT
As far as Herbert's trilogy is concerned, I like very much the first two, but 'Domain' I gave up on. I thought it was just too long, not uncommon for JH at the time. He lost the power and rawness of his earlier books, but that is something not limited to JH alone. Same impression here. The curse of the too long novel. I appreciate that JH tried to always do something new, but novels like Portent or '48 just didn't work for me. Also never finished The Secret of Crickley Hall. I just thought it dull, and I like Hounted House stories. I managed to finish Crickley Hall, but it was a struggle. I loaned it as an unabridged audio book from the library, which allowed me to just sit back and listen, but even then I was glad when I came to the last CD, and I suspect it had been cut down from an even longer draft as there were a couple of times JH seemed to be setting up plot threads that just didn't progress.
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Post by andydecker on Oct 10, 2016 14:13:43 GMT
After not finishing the novel the movie came along and I gave it a try. I didn't expect a neo-gothic like The Woman in Black, but still was disappointed. This was very much by the numbers. I have seen Poirots which captured the haunted house atmosphere much better.
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