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Post by dem bones on Mar 4, 2008 19:23:40 GMT
Gerald W. Page (ed.) - Years Best Horror Stories VI (DAW, 1978) cover illo: Michael Whelan Gerald W. Page - Introduction
David Campton - At the Bottom of the Garden Janet Fox - Screaming to Get Out Karl Edward Wagner - Undertow Dennis Etchison - I Can Hear the Dark Manly Wade Wellman - Ever the Faith Endures Lisa Tuttle - The Horse Lord Tanith Lee - Winter White William Scott Home - A Cobweb of Pulsing Veins David Drake - Best of Luck Stephen King - Children of the Corn Charles L. Grant - If Damon Comes Ramsey Campbell - Drawing In Michael Bishop - Within the Walls of Tyre Russell Kirk - There’s a Long, Long Trail A-Windingincludes: David Campton - At the Bottom of the Garden: A truly horrible tale of a little girl who befriends a ... something which attempts to cure her headaches and fix her wonky eye. Unfortunately, her parents disturb the strange surgeon when she's reached the tricky stage of the operation. Ramsey Campbell - Drawing-In: Thorpe rents the house of an arachnologist while the latter travels abroad, hunting down further specimens for his collection of "bloodsuckers". From the outset, Thorpe is uneasy as what appear to be huge cracks appear across wall and ceiling - even the windows. Then he disturbs a box labeled Carps; trans; C. D. ....
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Post by Johnlprobert on Apr 13, 2011 10:11:14 GMT
David Campton - At the Bottom of the Garden. No idea who David Campton is but, as Dem has testified to above, this story is bloody excellent - nasty, chilling and with a quite horrible monster that takes apart little children. Fantastic opener
Janet Fox - Screaming to Get Out. I think I was so bowled over by Campton's story that I read this in a daze & can't remember much of it!
Karl Edward Wagner - Undertow. Hooray - another Kane story! This time he's an utter villain imprisoning the girl he fancies in his tower with spells. Despite her best attempts to escape, in the end it turns out she really shouldn't have tried so hard.
Dennis Etchison - I Can Hear the Dark. There's been a death at a Hollywood party - what's to be done? And should the hostess' little boy really be allowed to prowl around and listen in under the circumstances?
Manly Wade Wellman - Ever the Faith Endures. Visitor to the UK goes in search of his roots and learns that Matthew Hopkins was not a big fan. And finds out why. Lisa Tuttle - The Horse Lord. With a title like that and a female author I might have been a bit wary but I've read some very good Lisa Tuttle stories and this one's a belter. The owner of six beautiful horses is one day inexplicably torn to death by them and now the children of the family who have moved to the ranch where the deed was done are behaving oddly...excellent!
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Post by dem bones on Apr 14, 2011 8:32:18 GMT
Glad to find you getting stuck into these, yer worship! Vol 6 was the first of the US ones I ever nabbed and it's still a favourite from the series though, as was almost invariably the case, could have cheerfully lived without one or two of the selections. Russell Kirk's There's A Long, Long Trail A Winding has since obtained 'classic' status, but other than the Campton story, one that made a big impression on me was A Cobweb of Pulsing Veins. Actually, I need to re-read this collection pretty soon!
Will try write a short appreciation of Mr. Campton's work once I've caught up with some of my pms/ emails and some other threads (it's been a difficult few weeks so thank you in advance for your patience). He was something of a fixture in Richard Davis anthologies and contributed excellent horrors to David Sutton's New Writings .... Try Firstborn in Fontana Horror #17 if you've a copy!
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Post by Johnlprobert on Apr 18, 2011 13:36:56 GMT
Tanith Lee - Winter White. Another sword 'n' sorcery 'n' horror piece - these volumes of YBH seem to like these & I have to say they aren't half bad. Fighting womanising chieftain Cromak spends the night with his men in a deserted house on the way back to his village where he discovers a whistle. When you blow this one you get a marble white ghostly lady following you, but unlike an MR James protagonist Cromak responds to being haunted by raping her senseless. Thinking he's rid of her it is of course only 9 months before something small and horrible starts following him. Can't see any parallels with real life with this one myself William Scott Home - A Cobweb of Pulsing Veins. Gloomy goth graveyard-robbing stuff that didn't grab me the way it grabbed Dem, but that might be because the intro describes Mr Home as 'the most controversial horror writer today'. I suspect the Vault has identified others more deserving of the title David Drake - Best of Luck. Werewolves in Vietnam! A great concept but sadly this isn't the story to explore it to its full exploitation potential.
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Post by Johnlprobert on Apr 19, 2011 15:14:17 GMT
Stephen King - Children of the Corn. First time I've read this on thirty years and it's really very good indeed. Squabbling couple find themselves in the town of Gatlin where the streets are deserted, the church has been altered considerably, and there's an awful lot of corn stuffed into everything, including the church organ. The register of births and deaths reveal that something terrible happened in 1964 and all those children congregating around the car don't look as if they want to play nice...
Charles L. Grant - If Damon Comes. A decent little tale of a clingy child who isn't deterred by either his father snogging another woman or, for that matter, by death itself.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Apr 21, 2011 13:28:49 GMT
Stephen King - Children of the Corn. First time I've read this on thirty years and it's really very good indeed. Squabbling couple find themselves in the town of Gatlin where the streets are deserted, the church has been altered considerably, and there's an awful lot of corn stuffed into everything, including the church organ. The register of births and deaths reveal that something terrible happened in 1964 and all those children congregating around the car don't look as if they want to play nice... Charles L. Grant - If Damon Comes. A decent little tale of a clingy child who isn't deterred by either his father snogging another woman or, for that matter, by death itself. I read Children of the Corn again quite recently and was very favourably impressed. I think that's the contradiction with King. One kind of dismisses him and then you get a really quality story like that.
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zaraath
Crab On The Rampage
Posts: 12
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Post by zaraath on Sept 26, 2014 6:09:51 GMT
I thought Cobweb was a great story despite the somewhat archaic Poe-ish prose. I have Home's Hollow Faces, Merciless Moons but I don't think I ever read anything else from it, I certainly would have if all the stories were like this. He seems to have dropped out of sight after that. Some more about him here: wwwbillblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-kind-of-face-you-slash-day-21-is.htmlPerhaps I will read it after all... At the Bottom of the Garden made a big impression on me as well. Horse Lord, Children of the Corn were also good. The only story I really thought dragged on too long and had little horror beyond mere distastefulness was Within the Walls of Tyre, about a woman with a history of difficult pregnancy. YMMV. The Russell Kirk story is also long and maybe not that scary, but moving and beautifully written. I once saw a framed(? mounted at least) print of the skeletal hobo cover image in a small magic shop in Wheaton MD, it may well have been the original painting for all I can remember. I passed on it due to to the price ($200-ish back in the early 1980s).
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Post by dem bones on Jun 11, 2018 19:38:06 GMT
Janet Fox - Screaming to Get Out: (W. Paul Ganley [ed.], Weirdbook #12, Sept. 1977). "He always chose the ugly ones. They seemed his legitimate prey in a world that worshipped physical beauty." Serial rapist falls victim to a bloated human grub masquerading as a waitress in a fast-food joint. It seems that inside every fat person, there are several thin ones literally screaming to get out.
David Drake - Best of Luck: An American werewolf in the jungles of Vietnam. Captain Warden leads Dog troop into an ambush that he may feed on their corpses. Machine gun fire has no effect on him but Curtis, who watched him tear apart the radio operator has a secret weapon - his lucky silver dollar.
Lisa Tuttle - The Horse Lord: (MF&SF, June 1977). Back in the 1880's, Martin Hoskins added a stable to his house in defiance of a Native American tribe who warned the local God would destroy him. He was brutally killed shortly afterwards, reputedly by his five horses which partially ate him. Now mystery novelists Derek and Marilyn Hoskins have moved in with their five adopted daughters. A stray horse has taken to roaming the fields at night. Young Kelly is determined to claim it for her own ...
Manly Wade Wellman - Ever the Faith Endures: Divorced, retired, the kids all grown up, Wofford Belson of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, can finally embark on a visit to England to see the land of his forefathers. At Belstone he meets Anne, his cousin of several removes. Anne confides the reason behind Thomas Belstone's jumping ship to Virginia in 1643. Belstone, a warlock, had come to the attention of Matthew Hopkins, the Witch-finder General, and for good reason. The family serve a bestial God for the benefit of all mankind. Anne, the last of the Belstone's, draws the line at human sacrifice unless her rare visitors grow tiresome.
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Post by dem bones on Jun 12, 2018 21:01:18 GMT
Dennis Etchison - I Can Hear The Dark: When horror B-movie actress Laura shoots dead estranged husband, her soap opera pals contrive an entirely fabricated version of the incident which has the murderer acting in "self defence." As they wait for the cops to arrive, little Willum, already a deeply disturbed kid, overhears snatches of the conversation. Sensing something precious has gone missing from the house, he bravely confronts his terror of the dark to explore the attic. William Scott Home - A Cobweb of Pulsing Veins: (Hollow Faces, Merciless Moons, 1977). A veteran grave-robber steals a cast iron coffin from a tomb, and, on removing the lid, wishes he hadn't. Oh dear. If once I found the author's studied Gothic prose attractive, now it just gets in the way of a decent horror story.
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