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Post by cromagnonman on Jun 28, 2019 12:52:55 GMT
I'm reading the second story title as "Watchtowers Cum"--I am afraid my powers of holographic decipherment are failing me, alas. Steve Takes some deciphering I agree, but the story titles are "Crab Apple Crisis" by George MacBeth and Ballard's "The Watch-Towers". That's just a scrawled 'Chris' at the bottom.
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Post by dem bones on Jul 1, 2019 22:17:38 GMT
Latest book rescues (mostly Brick Lane, Spitalfields Crypt, etc). Robert Player - Let's Talk of Graves, of Worms, of Epitaphs (Penguin, 1977: originally Gollancz, 1975) Photograph: Paul WakefieldBlurb: Given a Victorian clergyman of such overpowering ambition that he decides to become Pope — in spite of being Anglican, having a rich wife, two legitimate children, one bastard and an ever-present mistress — anything can happen. Anything includes one poisoning at a croquet party for clerical climbers, another during Christmas at the vicarage, and a sensational murder trial‘ — Sunday TelegraphAnonymous (Meyrick Johnston) - Lustful Liasons (Headline, 1992) Photograph: Peter Pugh-CookBlurb: Paris 1912 - a city alive with the pursuit of pleasure, from the promenade of the Folies Bergere to the high-class brothels of the Left Bank. Everywhere business is booming in the oldest trade of all - the trade of love!
But now there is a new and flourishing activity to absorb the efforts of go-ahead men-about-town: the business of manufacturing motor cars. Men like Robert and Bertrand Laforge are pioneers in this field but their new automobile has a design defect that can only be rectified by some cunning industrial espionage. Which is where the new trade marries with the old, for the most reliable way of discovering information is to enlist the help of a lovely and compliant woman. A woman, for example, like voluptuous Nellie Leberigot whose soft creamy flesh and generous nature are guaranteed to uncover a man's most closely guarded secrets ...Richard Gordon - Doctor In Clover (Penguin, 1966. Originally Michael Joseph, 1960) Blurb Memo to Dr. Grimsdyke Patient needs tonic, a change of scene (perhaps Mediterranean?), fun and games with some beautiful girls, a lot of laughter.
Memo from Dr. Grimsdyke Excellent. Doctor in Clover provides precisely those ingredients. Start treatment at once. If patient responds, suggest continue with Doctor in the House, Doctor At Sea, Doctor At Large, Doctor in Love. All in Penguins.Dr. Melvyn Willin - Ghosts Caught on Film: Photographs Of The Paranormal (David & Charles, 2007) Blurb Did Abraham Lincoln return to appear in a portrait with his widow? Can a human soul be seen leaving the body? Was a poltergeist caught swinging chandeliers? Does a skeletal robed figure walk the grounds of Hampton Court?
This fascinating collection of pictures, drawn from the archives of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) and other collections, takes you on a quest to find answers to these questions.
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Post by jamesdoig on Jul 14, 2019 6:07:07 GMT
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Post by dem bones on Jul 14, 2019 15:25:14 GMT
Mixed bag. Two from Spitalfields Crypt Charity shop (Watney Market Chapter), two from Sclater Street Sunday market. The Koontz is fun, particularly when the cloned versions of district attorney. Bucky and Janet Guitreau strip nude, turn killing machine and butcher their neighbours. Picked up the Tanya Huff on the strength of it's werewolf cover art. Had I only left home with my glasses, I'd have been warned off by the blurb. Read The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith when I was about eighteen. The Quiet Fear has a shovel on the cover so you can't really go wrong. Dean Koontz - Frankenstein: Dead And Alive (HarperCollins, 2009) Blurb: From the celebrated imagination of Dean Koontz comes a powerful reworking of one of the classic stories of all time. If you think you know the legend, you know only half the truth. Here is the mystery, the myth, the terror, and the magic of .... DEAN KOONTZ'S FRANKENSTEIN: DEAD AND A LIVE.
A devastating hurricane approaches New Orleans and Victor Helios, once known as Frankenstein, has unleashed his benighted creatures onto the streets. As New Orleans descends into chaos, his engineered killers spin out of control, and the only hope rests with Victor's first and failed attempt to build lhe perfect human, whose damned path has led him to the ultimate confrontation with his pitiless creator. But first, Deucalion must destroy a monstrosity not even Victor's malignant mind could have imagined - an indestructible entity that| steps out of humankind's collective nightmare with one purpose: to replace us.Thomas Keneally - The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (Fontana 1978: originally Angus & Robertson, 1972) Blurb: ‘An unforgettable story . . .riveting to read.’ DAILY TELEGRAPH Jimmie Blacksmith is a young half-blood Aborigine who leaves his tribe to find acceptance in the white man's world. He fails through no fault of his own and explodes in a bloody, fateful ‘declaration of war‘ — the white man's licence for revenge and violence. . . ‘A lean, spare, menacing novel.’ NEW YORK TIMESTanya Huff - Blood Trail (Daw, Feb 1992) Blurb: For centuries, they had peacefully coexisted with ordinary humans in Canada. But now death had invaded the peaceful retreat of their London, Ontario farm. For someone had learned their most closely guarded secret. Someone knew they werewolves and whoever it was was determined to destroy them. The only one they could turn to for help was Henry Fitzroy, a Toronto-based vampire and writer of bodice rippers. But, forced to hide from the light of day, Henry couldn’t hunt down the killer alone, so he called upon Vicki Nelson, ex-policewoman and now a private investigator. Vicki and Henry had successfully worked together before, and once she met the wers, he knew she'd have to take the case. Yet as silver bullets continued to take their ghastly toll, Henry and Vicki began to fear that even their combined talents might not prove enough to trace the blood trail of destruction to its source before it was too late ....Michael Halliday [John Creasey] - The Quiet Fear (Hodder & Stoughton, 1966: originally 1963) Blurb Cleo spoke quickly, almost sharply. "Why didn't he tell the police that he knew this girl? I've seen her in at least two of his mannequin parades. It's the same girl, and Dad must have known it last night, even if you didn't." Cleo's eyes widened with a dawning terror. "Dad didn't kill her, did he? Please tell me that he didn't kill her. Please.
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Post by helrunar on Jul 14, 2019 21:17:23 GMT
That does seem like a mixed bag. The Jimmie Blacksmith book looks like the most interesting.
I saw the first episode of a TV series several years ago that was adapted from the Huff Henry Fitzroy books. I'd forgotten all about it. It wasn't all that memorable. The vampire slept inside of a meat locker, the kind often seen in the back of a convenience store in a rural area, as I recall. The vampire actor was attractive but that couldn't make up for the rather lifeless screenplay--no pun intended.
H.
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Post by andydecker on Jul 15, 2019 22:02:50 GMT
Haven't read any of these but I assume they're pretty dire ($3 each): the McNeill is actually quite good. It is Action:Lovecraft, that is correct, but at least the first novel of three is well done. A period piece which pulls a lot of different HPL-material together for a fast paced tale. I was pleasantly surprised.
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Post by andydecker on Jul 15, 2019 22:11:14 GMT
That does seem like a mixed bag. The Jimmie Blacksmith book looks like the most interesting. I saw the first episode of a TV series several years ago that was adapted from the Huff Henry Fitzroy books. I'd forgotten all about it. It wasn't all that memorable. The vampire slept inside of a meat locker, the kind often seen in the back of a convenience store in a rural area, as I recall. The vampire actor was attractive but that couldn't make up for the rather lifeless screenplay--no pun intended. H. Yes, this was a limp adaption. Pretty disappointing series. Couldn't hold a candle to other canadian productions like Forever Knight. But I like the novels and Huff. Not very edgy vampire horror, they owe a lot to Gothics in terms of atmosphere. A mixture of hard-boiled woman PI and vampire horror. But you could read worse on the train. The plots were not uninteresting. On par with Barbara Hambly, but not so deathly dull as Laurel Hamilton after her first few novels.
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Post by helrunar on Jul 15, 2019 22:47:01 GMT
Interesting, Andreas. Thanks for that note. I loved Forever Knight and still have the discs in my personal collection, though I do not revisit very often.
If I stumble over one of the Huff novels for cheap someday, I'll give it a swing!
Best, Steve
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Post by andydecker on Jul 16, 2019 8:01:58 GMT
Interesting, Andreas. Thanks for that note. I loved Forever Knight and still have the discs in my personal collection, though I do not revisit very often. If I stumble over one of the Huff novels for cheap someday, I'll give it a swing! Best, Steve Me too. I watched a few eps recently, and while it is very tame compared to todays vampire tv like True Blood, it still is fun. Nigel Bennett still works for me as the evil vampire master, he really steals the show, and the writing was often inspired. Like a lot of canadian genre series. I can still watch Highlander or crime-tv like Motive or Murdoch Mysteries.
Back then I even bought the Forever Knight novelisations, which were mostly truly dire. If I remember correctly, one was a historical of our vampires and Shakespeare. 280 pages of the smallest print I ever saw in a mass market paperback.
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Post by kooshmeister on Jul 18, 2019 11:07:57 GMT
Okay, so I got the Dover reprints of Nine Horrors and a Dream and The Shapes of Midnight. That's right! Joseph Payne Brennan and his awesome stories have seen paperback for the first time in the New Millennium! Annoyingly, though, Dover's version of The Shapes of Midnight not only omits the 1980 edition's Stephen King introduction, but also Canavan's Back Yard and Slime! Fortunately, these two stories are in Dover's Nine Horrors and a Dream, and it's possible that Dover felt that having two short story collections share two stories was a little redundant, but, still, Shapes of Midnight feels a little weird without those two... especially since in the original 1980 version, Slime closed the collection out, and, now, without it, Shapes ends on a whimper with what is probably my least favorite Brennan story ever (and I even like the completely un-scary but weirdly endearing House of Memory!), The House on Hazel Street! Boo! What's especially bizarre is that despite not including the King intro, they quote it on the back cover... which is hilarious considering it omits the two stories King's introduction singled out as the highlights of the collection! So Dover is actually misrepresenting what King wrote to some extent by not including Canavan's Back Yard and Slime, the two tales Uncle Stevie praises at great length in the introduction they omitted but cherrypicked quotes from. Oh well. It still has classics like Diary of a Werewolf (the joys of ripping the throats out of little girls and elderly women!), The Corpse of Charlie Rull (the irony of a serial killer ending up as the victim!), The Pavilion (Niles' descent into madness as he hunts for Kurt's corpse is delicious), Who Was He? (even if it has kind of disappointing ending), The Horror at Chilton Castle (a great story of almost quasi-Lovecraftian horror) and Disappearance (which feels like it could be the basis for a great episode of Criminal Minds; Dan was there the whole time! The whole time! Something tells me Sheriff Kellington isn't getting re-elected), and, as noted, Slime and Canavan's Back Yard are safely included in the Nine Horrors and a Dream reprint. So, definitely get these. But if you want the Stephen King introduction/the complete version of The Shapes of Midnight with all twelve stories and already have the 1980 paperback, hang onto it. Dover dropped the ball on it. But their Nine Horrors reprint is gold! I also got The Monster Book of Monsters (which coincidentally also has Slime, which appears to be the world's most popular blob monster story) for The Plant-Thing by R.G. Macready and was... pretty disappointed. Sorry, Mr. Macready but it was short and kinda dull. The House on Stillcroft Street by Joseph Payne Brennan is a much better killer plant yarn, making me hope Dover does The Borders Just Beyond next - for that, the creepy Long Hollow Swamp (even if it is just a retread of Canavan's Back Yard but with giant slugs, but slugs make everything better!) and the deliciously ironic Hobbies and the weirdly heartwarming Lottman's End, two stories which make me think Brennan was a real animal lover. Basically, I'm a total Brennan fanboy now. Also: Beast by Peter Benchley. And the novelization of The Dark by Max Franklin, which retains the killer's origins as a zombie occultist and not a laser-spewing space alien. And the one of Event Horizon by Steven E. McDonald. And the one for Godzilla: King of the Monsters by Greg Keyes (both novelization and movie read on the same day and quite enjoyed, I'm happy to report). Anything with Charles Dance Charles Dancing it up is good stuff.
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Post by andydecker on Jul 25, 2019 11:06:06 GMT
Found it on ebay. The Hutchinson hardcover from 1973, not in the best condition, just acceptable. I have the Arrow paperback for years, which I never read. But I really liked this cover.
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Post by andydecker on Jul 26, 2019 9:56:00 GMT
Here is another one from Ebay. Finally I could complete this James/Bulmer series, and for a really good price too. I was quite surprised that this is a rare (?) misprint too. It is pages 113-144, 84-112, 1-80. Considering how popular violent viking tv series have become, it is a bit sad that in '76 it only managed 4 novels. Historicals, even violent historicals, were not very successful.
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Post by dem bones on Jul 26, 2019 11:33:24 GMT
Found it on ebay. The Hutchinson hardcover from 1973, not in the best condition, just acceptable. I have the Arrow paperback for years, which I never read. But I really liked this cover. The paperback artwork ain't bad either. Dennis Wheatley - The Irish Witch (Arrow 1975: second impression. Originally Hutchinson, 1973)
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Post by jamesdoig on Jul 26, 2019 21:08:25 GMT
Found it on ebay. The Hutchinson hardcover from 1973, not in the best condition, just acceptable. I have the Arrow paperback for years, which I never read. But I really liked this cover.
It is a nice one - there are some good witchly covers out there, like this one (and I'm sure there's a thread on this somewhere around here):
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Post by cromagnonman on Jul 26, 2019 23:00:55 GMT
Found it on ebay. The Hutchinson hardcover from 1973, not in the best condition, just acceptable. I have the Arrow paperback for years, which I never read. But I really liked this cover. I read this years ago and can remember feeling distinctly short-changed at the time that the actual story of the Irish Witch, excellent though it is, comprises about 90 pages or so out of the 450 page total. The rest of it is made up of Brook dashing hither and thither across the continent for no very memorable reason. That said there is one quite remarkable sequence where Brook suddenly morphs into Solomon Kane. During one of these interminable cross continent dashes he gets his horse shot from beneath him. While he's lying pinned under the beast's carcass they set the hounds on him. At which point he kills one by ramming his dagger down its throat. Terrific episode, but then its back to the snoozefest until the action finally relocates to that Irish castle and the appearance of..........nah, that would be telling.
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