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Post by nightreader on Jul 9, 2008 18:17:30 GMT
Some more to add to the 'to read' mountain...
'Killer Crabs' - GNS (NEL 1978)
'Frankenstein No. 3 - Bones of Frankenstein' - Donald F. Glut (NEL 1977) Excellent cover
'Night Whispers' - Charles Veley (Granada 1981)
'The Touch of Hell' - Michael R. Linaker (NEL 1981)
'Ladygrove' - John Burke (Coronet 1981) I see he's got his own section now...
'Subterranean' - James Buxton (Futura 1989) The wild card, no idea what this will be like...
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Post by nightreader on Jul 5, 2008 16:13:28 GMT
Couldn't help wondering if this could be a contender... The Undead - Vampire Masterpieces. Ed. by James Dickie (Neville Spearman 1971)
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Post by nightreader on Jul 5, 2008 16:08:04 GMT
Breeding Ground by Sarah Pinborough (Leisure Books 2006) Matt and Chloe had a good life and they were happy, she was pregnant with their first baby and he couldn’t believe how lucky he was. That changed very quickly, almost as quickly as his wife did. The changes are subtle at first but then Matt finds Chloe eating raw meat and talking with her friend fifty miles away – without using the phone. Chloe has also developed powers to control Matt, to hold him in place while she gives birth. On the kitchen floor is the dead baby, partially eaten – not by Chloe but by the other thing growing inside her. The last vestige of what was Matt’s wife releases him and he runs. Bear in mind we’re only up to page 51 and you get a sense of how good this book is going to be. Matt begins to realise his wife isn’t the only woman affected, all the women have become hosts to monsters. In one memorable scene he enters an abandoned café, follows a noise upstairs and finds a man slowly being eaten alive by something with spider like legs. He gets a better look at the creature later on… “it’s bank of pinprick red eyes glowing angrily as it hissed, long spindly legs pawing at the dull carpet, whatever substance that flowed through its veins almost visible through their revolting milky surface. Its mouth, its two mouths,if they could be called that, clacked wetly as two sets of mandibles mashed into each other…”
Matt eventually meets up with other similarly traumatised men, with their own terrible experiences. Because the creatures look like spiders they name them widows. The men also meet Katie and Jane, sisters who seem to be unaffected by whatever has happened to all the other women. The men are naturally suspicious but Matt convinces them they can’t abandon them, Jane is just a young girl. Along the way they also meet Rebecca, a deaf woman similarly unaffected. The plan is to get out of the town and find a safe place and hopefully other survivors. They head for Hanstone Park, a military communications base with high electrified fences. They meet other men there, scientists and communications men who reveal the widows are everywhere but there are small pockets of survivors around the country. Wisely I think the author doesn’t go into too much detail of how the widows came to exist, some scientific dabbling in genetically modified crops are mentioned. It doesn’t really matter, the effect is almost apocalyptic and the widows are such hideous creations its enough just to go along with the author for the ride. ‘Breeding Ground’ was a great read, I really enjoyed it – there’s plenty of big nasty spider action, its pretty gory and has enough yuck moments to keep those of us who like yuck moments happy. Big thumbs up from me. Sarah Pinborough is a British writer. There may be more to it but it seems a shame that our good new horror writers have to get published in America rather than over here. I believe Tim Lebbon is another Brit published by Leisure, though I'm not sure if he has a UK publisher. Leisure Books do loads of horror books in the US – maybe they’re the nasty NEL for the noughties… Shame we can’t do as well.
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Post by nightreader on Jun 5, 2008 19:29:53 GMT
I wondered if she'd get out of the closet all jerky like the girl in 'The Grudge' and go to the fridge for ice cream...
Kinda creepy story I thought... I dont want a Chinese woman in my closet...she'd frighten the cat...
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Post by nightreader on Jun 5, 2008 19:24:41 GMT
I do have both 'Plastic Man' by Jeremy Brent (definitely Horror No. 4) dated August 1974 and 'Draco The Dragon Man' by Cyril Donson dated October 1974... here they are... Not the most brilliant NEL covers I thought. Nothing on 'Draco' to indicate it's No.5 either... Haven't read either I'm afraid...yet....
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Post by nightreader on Jun 4, 2008 20:08:39 GMT
Could just be the mood I'm in (my telly has been kaput for 10days now ) but for me I'm thinking gruesome, and one of the best at that is Graham Masterton. In 'The Djinn' one of the early deaths is by suicide - in order to prevent a trapped demon from gaining a human visage Max Greaves destroys every picture and photograph in his home then cuts his own face off. Masterton always seems to be able to find the most bizarre and extreme ways of offing people. In 'The Manitou' the spirit of Indian medicine man Misquamacus kills a male nurse by turning him inside out! Great stuff...
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Post by nightreader on Jun 3, 2008 19:33:44 GMT
The Death Box by Errol Lecale (NEL 1974) As with the other ‘Specialist’ books this has a strong atmospheric opener. The steam-ship ‘Unity’ encounters a drifting tall ship in the calm waters of the Sargasso Sea, it’s sails set but it’s crew missing. On boarding the craft crusty old sea dog Captain Macneil finds provisions but no log book or charts, all seems to point to the Dutch ship's Captain and crew abandoning the vessel. Captain Macneil decides to tow the ship back to London as salvage. Eli Podgram, the Specialist in all occulty things, reads with interest the story in ‘The Times’ about the abandoned ship brought to the docks in London and the mystery surrounding her. He gets a whiff of the Twilight World and sets out to investigate. There’s a quick introduction of the rest of the team, big Hugo and deaf-mute Mara, a further recap (for those not familiar with the series) of Podgram’s history – how he was once bitten and turned into a vampire in his ancestral home in Transylvania, and how he proceeded to attack the young Mara in the woods thus terrifying her into being a deaf-mute, how he overcame his vampire curse with a blood tranfusion from a dying monk and in his guilt offers to care for the young girl he’d almost killed. Podgram’s brief journey into the Twilight World leaves him with a distinctive white cross in his hair. From then Eli Podgram vows to fight against the Twilight World and forms a close telepathic bond with the girl Mara and a strong friendship with Hugo, his muscular manservant. It soon transpires there’s a vampire loose in London. Naturally not just any old vampire, this is Dagmar the Black, Archduke of Szlig in Lower Ruthenia, an Adept of the Black Arts. This is what I call a proper vampire, he’s tall and darkly dressed with a wide brimmed hat and burning eyes and a stench of decay about him. He hides his coffin filled with his native earth in a seedy lodging house and proceeds to feed off whoever gets in his way… There’s lots of dramatic chasing around, Eli goes onto the Astral Plane, Mara is almost vamped and there’s a great finale in the British Museum. This was great fun, a bit of a cliché perhaps but it was just like reading a classic Hammer vampire flick – swirling fog in Victorian London, high melodrama, a bit of occulty stuff, proper fanged vampires with hypnotic eyes, and a big satisfying finale. A brilliant quick read I thought.
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Post by nightreader on May 26, 2008 12:34:41 GMT
Heart Shaped Box - Joe Hill (Gollancz 2007) Heavy metal rock god Judas Coyne has a collection of the bizarre – a used hangman’s noose, a confession from a witch burned at the stake, cartoons from jailed serial killers, and a particularly nasty snuff film that is the real deal. So when a ghost turns up for sale on the Internet (no, not ebay) he doesn’t hesitate to buy it, no questions asked and not really believing it anyway. Jude has a good life. In his fifties he’s semi-retired, doing solo stuff after his band finished – most of its original members dead. He’s still in demand, has a nice home, two great dogs Bon and Angus and plenty of cash. He also has Georgia – not her real name, he calls all the goth rock chick girls he’s had by the name of the State they originally come from. His last girl was Florida, a pretty girl with severe manic depression which eventually got too much for Jude so he sent her home to her family. That’s when the trouble really started. Jude’s purchase arrives in a large black heart shaped box. Inside is a neatly folded black funeral suit, and the ghost of Craddock McDermott, Florida’s step daddy. The house is suddenly freezing cold and it’s Jude who sees the ghost first, a creepy looking old man in a black suit with inky black scribbles over his eyes and carrying a shiny razor blade on a chain. Jude learns the old man used to be powerful hypnotist, a dowser and a communicator with the dead, a talent he learned while in Vietnam. Jude contacts the seller of the ghost, who turns out to be Florida’s sister. She says the suit was always meant for him, she accuses Jude of killing Florida, for the girl she knows as Anna came home after Jude sent her away and slit her wrists in the bathtub. Step daddy Craddock means to kill Jude and anyone else close to him… And all that in the first third of the book. Having finished it I can say it delivers on the promise of the first few chapters. The ghost is a real nasty, very creepy and twisted and like all the characters in the story, believable. Jude is a great central character, he’s very self-aware, he knows he hasn’t always been a good man, he admits his failings but doesn’t apologise for them and his saving grace is his genuine affection for Georgia and Anna. Georgia (real name Marybeth) feels real too, a pale skinned goth girl with her piercings and tattoos, she meets Jude in a sleazy strip club while getting naked. Like Jude she’s been quite damaged by her life but she’s strong, resourceful, smart and she loves Jude. The ghost is a real threat, it’s unrelenting and inventive and convincing. The pace of the book is brisk, it doesn’t feel like there’s unnecessary padding out anywhere in the book. I really liked this and would recommend it to anyone.
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Post by nightreader on May 25, 2008 6:30:19 GMT
I recently bought 'The Fungus' by Harry Adam Knight - any good? The cover is brilliant though
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Post by nightreader on May 25, 2008 6:27:09 GMT
Actually there are some of us in Hull who didn't mind they won at all
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Post by nightreader on May 24, 2008 9:27:36 GMT
The purchases that most excited me were really the ones that started my collection off again after a long-ish hiatus, getting the books back that I'd had as a teenager then lost over the years - the Peter Saxons, the Errol Lecales, the Robert Lorys in particular. Now of course its madly out of control, and largely due to the influence of this very Vault I get well chuffed over almost everything I get Think it's because I know there'll be someone on here who will appreciate it as much as me. My friends just don't get it of course... A book I'm enjoying a lot at the moment (but haven't bought yet, its from the library) is Joe Hill's 'Heart Shaped Box' - I'm just over a third through it and it's really very good. Also enjoying Douglas Clegg's work too. Surprising myself here about liking modern stuff!
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Post by nightreader on May 19, 2008 19:26:21 GMT
Just found a link to a new movie called Chemical Wedding(opens end of May)... with Simon Callow playing Aleister Crowley... www.chemicalweddingmovie.co.uk(hope that works!)
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Post by nightreader on May 19, 2008 19:19:39 GMT
One Foot In The Grave Davis Grubb (Arrow 1966) Published in the sixties with a very groovy cover most of the stories are copyrighted as much earlier, from the mid 1940's through to the late 1950's. Busby’s Rat The Rabbit Prince Radio One Foot in the Grave Moonshine The Man Who Stole the Moon Nobody’s Watching! The Horsehair Trunk The Blue Glass Bottle Wynken, Blynken, and Nod Return of Verge Likens Where the Woodbine Twineth Busby's RatOld Busby hates the river, even if he is the wharfmaster. He lost his legs in an accident on board a ship on the river 20 years ago. Busby develops a strange relationship with the river rats, feeding and talking to them, and they respond to him, particularly the leader, the largest and most intelligent of them all. Busby also has a beautiful daughter called Eliza who he guards jealously from the attentions of young men. Then Jonas Tanner falls in love with Eliza, and she responds to him but her father forbids their relationship. Jonas is determined to be with Eliza so Busby pulls out a pistol but in the fray Busby is killed. Jonas and Eliza marry and eventually return to the river but the rats haven’t forgotten what happened… The Horsehair TrunkMarius Lindsey is a nasty piece of work. The story opens with him in the grip of typhoid fever, watched over by his pretty young wife. Marius is cruel to her even as his fever rages. Days later as he recovers Marius learns he has gained the ability to leave his body, to wander about invisibly while his body appears to be sleeping. He wonders how he can use this ability to further torment his poor wife, but to his surprise he finds that she is having an affair and is planning to leave him with her lover on the night boat. In a rage he plans his revenge, packs his horsehair trunk, books a ticket on the same night boat ensuring he has the cabin next to his wife’s new man. Of course it all goes horribly wrong… This story also appeared in Pan Horror 4.One Foot In The GraveHenry has a terrible accident at the sawmill and has to have his foot amputated. His friend and physician Doc sandy cares for Henry as his recovery begins. Henry tells Doc that somehow he can still feel his missing foot but Doc reassures him that this often happens. The two friends had once drunkenly bet that whoever died first the other had to give him a first class send off. Henry reckons he’s won the bet and Doc assures him the amputated foot has been buried, complete with sock and brand new shoe. It isn’t long before Henry feels he is going mad, for he is sure he can feel pavement and even grass under his missing foot. Henry decides to dig up the foot and sees that Doc had given it a proper burial, in a sock and one of the new shoes he’d bought but never got to wear, except the shoe is now scuffed and muddy and worn...
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Post by nightreader on May 18, 2008 13:29:44 GMT
Ade, the publication year is 1987 in Arrow Books.
According to Fantastic Fiction website he's also done: 'Fatal Secrets' in 1981 'The Unholy' in 1982 (which looks good) 'Kenya' in 1983 (non horror) 'Hantu' in 1987
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Post by nightreader on May 18, 2008 7:06:32 GMT
The Sorcerers of Set by Martin Thomas (Mayflower Dell 1966) Pulphack said I'd probably enjoy this, and he was spot on. This was a great fun read, and being a Sexton Blake virgin I was pleasantly surprised. Sexton Blake is approached by the mother of Myra Dent who wants the Baker Street detective and his sidekick Tinker to investigate Myra’s murder. To complicate things there is an inheritance involved. Myra’s late father left her a bundle of cash providing she had not been involved in any kind of scandal. Not much chance of that as Myra liked a drink, the company of strange men, and getting involved with a secret cult practicing the dark magic of Ancient Egypt. Blake and Tinker’s investigations race along, with Blake’s other close ally Inspector Coutts doing his bit too. The cult of Set, the Egyptian god of darkness and evil, proceed to bump off another two men connected with Myra and the cult, striving to preserve their secret. To his credit Blake doesn’t dismiss the psychic and occult aspects of the case. He’s quite open to them in fact. Which is good for Tinker who ends up in hospital after a car crash in dense fog. The Priest of Set hears of Tinker’s condition and tries to kill him using a psychic curse, but Blake fights back with his own adept of the Right Hand Path, Gideon Ashley who protects the young man and frees Blake to go after the baddies. It’s not long before Blake is captured and taken to the Temple of Set, with it’s gathering of scantily clad worshippers, an underground chamber containing the ever hungry Sobek, a mummy case contaning the remains of the god’s Hierophant, and of course the living and thoroughly wicked Priest of Set, his identity concealed behind a mask depicting the god of darkness. His identity, as in all good murder mysteries, is revealed at the end and all is satisfyingly tied up. Tinker is thankfully ok too. On the strength of this I reckon I'll be looking out for more Blake novels. 'The Laird of Evil' also by Martin Thomas sounds up my alley
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