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Post by vaughan on Jul 17, 2009 23:45:19 GMT
Zebra Books - 1988 - 286 Pages Once again I have been unable to find a picture of the cover for this one, which is really a shame, because it's a bit of a cracker! The story here is of two children, Todd and Caryn. Each are blind, and each are about to benefit from a cornea transplant, restoring their sight. However, for every transplant that takes place, someone has to be a donor. And most donors have to die. Asking the question, "Is it right for wish for a donor when you know someone has to die first", See No Evil also introduces us to Anna Lee. Anna Lee isn't a normal donor, she'll feel pain and donate - for a price! And the price is "a death for a death", sending this book off into a few violent episodes that ought to warm the heart of horror readers everywhere. There is a (very brief) review on amazon.co.uk that claims this book is much more than a horror novel, it's also a medical drama. I have to disagree with that, it's plainly a horror tale centered around transplantation. There are plenty of moaning doctors, mean nurses, and grumpy old patients along for the ride too. The writer is decent, even if it all feels a little rushed. This is supported by the odd number of chapters - 59 plus an epilogue. One chapter is all of four lines long. It almost reads like a screenplay, if I'm honest. Still, it rolls along at a decent pace, even if it's short on explanation and resolution. Not bad. The cover rocks though.
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Post by vaughan on Jul 17, 2009 13:40:47 GMT
Sorry to go a bit off-topic, but this isn't the La Vey who made the three "Death" movies, is it?
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Post by vaughan on Jul 17, 2009 13:36:53 GMT
Leisure Horror - 1989 - 362 Pages Hm, I couldn't even find a picture on the net for this one, sorry about that. Margo was a pretty good read, although for me it was a little different. You see, in this book there are no "normal people", everyone is either a witch, a Demon, or Death itself. This makes it feel more like a fantasy novel than anything else. The plot revolves around a few elements - first there is Margo herself. Margo is a recluse, she only have Jared for company. Despite being more than 60 years old she appears to people as though she stopped aging at 30. Jared is her lover, sent by her husband to look after her immediately after their wedding (yup). The tranquility of their reclusive lifestyle is torn asunder by the arrival of three children, nieces and nephews of Margo. It is clear from the beginning that Margo, Jared, and the children are all satanists. The children have arrived because of an impending ceremony, a ceremony that will reveal which of the children is, in fact, taking over from Death himself, taking their place next to Satan. But which of the children is it? And why is Jared so afraid of them? And on their trip to Philadelphia, the kids had been followed by another strange man, a man whose appearance changes from view to view.... We won't get started on the murders in the village (22 when the book starts), and the zombies that shuffle around the woods.... As I say, this was a different kind of story for me. Without someone you can relate too you're at the mercy of your imagination. Fortunately Dana Reed writes fairly well, and Margo is a very sympathetic character. I have one other Dana Reed book, and after this I'd have liked to jump right into it. However, I've made myself the promise that I wouldn't run through any particular author in a rush, spreading out their work. As far as Margo goes, it was a satisfying read. However, there is no real sex (except of the kind that states "they kissed and held each other... then it was morning...) and Ms. Reed doesn't have the heart, it seems, to get down and dirty with the gore either. Anyhow, decent. ps: Does anyone read anything in this forum, or is it just that the books I'm finding aren't well considered?
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Post by vaughan on Jul 17, 2009 13:21:18 GMT
Yes! They arrived this morning (I'm a bit remote here).
The payment should have gone through too.
Can't thank you enough for this. It's a real treat, and living "out in the boonies" a bit, secondhand book stores aren't exactly close. So getting these (especially as they're Guy N. Smith books) is a real treat.
Can't wait to dig in!
If you find any more duplicates, please let me know!
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Post by vaughan on Jul 15, 2009 16:35:47 GMT
A Tower Book (Leisure Occult) - 1981 - 238 Pages Well, as you all know I'm just getting back into this stuff, and this is the first reading of a J.N. Williamson work. So far so good! Also, my ignorance was legion, since I had no idea what a "Tulpa" was. So this was was going to interesting. Finally, my wife took one look at the cover and asked: "What's wrong with testicles". After that, I wasn't sure what I was getting into. As it turns out an understanding of a "tulpa" might help a bit, but it's not essential. If I might be a classic cinematic comparison, be thinking of the 1958 classic "Fiend Without a Face". If you recall that film included some hideous brains, with spinal column, that crawled around like caterpillars in search of brains. These creatures were created from the mind of Dr. Warren. They were, in more relevant parlance, his Tulpa. The story centres around Charlie Kavanagh and his immediate family (daughter, son-in-law, and their two children). As the story starts Charlie is burying his long-loved wife, and at the funeral he suffers a stroke. Which ends up having unexpected negative effects, such as allowing him to see into the future. Charlie's visions are in the way of warnings about impending doom. First there is a clash at a rally, then a ball game, and so on. As the family become aware of what is going on, they set out to try and prevent needless deaths. Which alone would have made an interesting story, but the book isn't done there. Nope, because Charles, unwittingly, creates a Tulpa in the form of a giant beast, barely a man. And it thinks nothing of ripping off heads and arms just for fun......... And so the tale goes on. J.N. Williamson's style of writing got int he way a bit, for me. What I mean by that is that he feeds the reader some facts that they don't need to know in order to push the story along, with some long introspective passages that don't alter anything. I suppose he was fully fleshing out the story, but in the end I found it a bit off putting. But then again, never so much that I wanted to give up. As the story enters its final third it really hits its stride. Enter some goobledegook about fourth dimensions and this and that, and the novel rides out in a blaze of gore. Nice. All in all this was a fine novel, I think. Not pulp in the strictest sense, since the author sometimes wanders a little too far away from the core of the tale. But as mentioned, never too far, and the final third really is quite nice. Recommended then. (and those are NOT testicles).
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Post by vaughan on Jul 15, 2009 16:21:20 GMT
Charter Books (Sphere) - 1977 - 250 Pages David McIlwain (aka Charles Eric Maine) wrote quite a few sci-fi/horror titles in his tenure as an author. He died in 1981, aged 60. Thirst! is my first time reading his work. This book noted that it is "a revised version of THE TIDE WENT OUT first published by Hodder & Stoughton Ltd. in 1958", so I guess it started as a short story and then was brought up to date and expanded some. Even so, through the eyes of 2009, the story lacks a lot of things we take for granted (such as no Internet - which would play a key role when communication is key, and the government want to censor media), no cell phones and whatnot. On the other hand there are plenty of people guzzling Whiskey and chain smoking, so it's not all bad. I'm not sure what attracted me to the book. I think it was the lure of getting one of those disaster thrillers we've all seen on TV at one time or another. Always awful, and always terribly dated. If I had got that I'd have been satisfied, but as it happens I got a lot more. Thirst! tells the story of a world in decline. Fissures have opened up in the sea beds of the world, and all the water is simply draining away into underground caverns created by the shrinking of the Earths core over thousands of years. With the water level dropping there's no shipping, no international trade - soon we have famine, disease, and of course - a terrible Thirst! Against this backdrop our hero (using the term loosely) is Phillip Wade. Wade is an editor on a so-so weekly magazine. His marriage is slightly rocky after an affair, but they stay together because of their son, David. Phillip has prepared a story for the current issue telling the world of earthquakes, falling sea levels, mixed with tabloid speculation. On the day it is due to be printed and released, a government ban comes into force, and the story has to be pulled. Phillip is then mysteriously told "when you're offered a government job, take it, no matter what." And so Phillip takes over as an intelligence officer writing propaganda to appease the frightened masses. His wife and son are whisked away to a secret base being put together at the North Pole, and with his privileged view of things, Phillip watches the world go down the proverbial plug hole. In the end the story centres itself on covering the change in people as disaster, and death, come knocking on the door, the psychological effects, the impact on morals, truth, honesty, and integrity. The background of hell breaking out, as we hear the various intelligence reports, and the impact this has on old friendships, on the will to survive, and how Phillip sees himself is paramount. Of course, there is plenty of action along the way for gunfights, fires, explosions, rape and murder. You're never far from some excitement. The writing is good, and although the science is silly at times, I truly think this was done to ensure the story was pared down, and stayed in focus. After all, such a novel could clearly be 1000 pages long and still have something to say. As it is, the author sticks to the central characters and themes, and never tells us more than we need to know. Also worth mentioning is that the author doesn't balk at telling us like it is. Meaning there are pretty downbeat sections in this book, can there truly be a happy ending with so much death? Can the world be saved? What is the purpose of government and the military at times such as this? You'll have to read and find out. The above cover is the best I could find on the net. It's not the cover I have, mine looks like an advertisement for an 80's Dr. Who episode. All in all, a good read I think, and worth checking out if you like this sort of thing. JG Ballard loved these end-of-the-world stories, but if you prefer your disasters a little more down to earth and less introspective (without being blaise), then this book should fit the bill. Enjoy, I did.
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Post by vaughan on Jul 15, 2009 16:01:33 GMT
Yeah, thought so. Thanks for getting clarification.
I only know of German and French editions - mine if German.
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Post by vaughan on Jul 15, 2009 4:28:05 GMT
Any clarification on the Monster Mag issue 2..... erm... issue?
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Post by vaughan on Jul 13, 2009 12:02:24 GMT
Whoa! That is very very cool. I'd love to have a copy of that! I also actually like the film. If you discount the climatic scenes, which were horribly botched due to the original ending being far too similar to a previous Dracula movie (Scars of Dracula). Having come up with something different it's just laughably bad. And then there were all the problems with poor drunk Richard Widmark - it's amazing they ever finished. But the whole tone of the film is one big build up.. to an admittedly poor climax. The journey is decent though, imo. Or maybe I just like Hammer too much to be truly critical.
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Post by vaughan on Jul 12, 2009 19:33:10 GMT
This would be a lot of fun to do. I'd love to get there (even though I'm a newbie). Sadly funds won't allow. A return ticket on the train is 35 quid from here...... and I like my beer too. Hope you all have fun!
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Post by vaughan on Jul 11, 2009 10:38:42 GMT
This is "off topic" - right? I took a break from horror novels in order to read this title yesterday, and since I've written a review (since there was none) for Amazon, I thought I'd post it here. Hope this is okay in "off topic". "Firstly I'm a lover of early cinema, and I bought this book to see if it had any interesting facts I didn't already know. I was pleasantly surprised to find it did. The book essentially overs the 20 year period between 1893 and 1913, the growth of commercial cinema, taking in the inventions of Edison/Dickson and the movie making magic if the early pioneers. However, it doesn't actually start there. In fact some of the most interesting material comes right at the beginning of the book (and can be sampled on the main amazon page for the title) when the author discusses early versions of the Magic Lantern. This account goes back as far as 1420! I was left wishing there was a fuller account of this piece of cinema's history. From there the book discusses all the major developments. As a window into the early steps of maturation in American Cinema it's a concise account that seems to hit all the right notes. Still, it wouldn't be a fair review if I didn't mention a few things that bothered me. Firstly - and this is entirely my fault - there were times when I was disappointed that the book didn't take a more all-encompassing view. Key figures like Melies is here, but only in fairly brief asides. I repeat - THIS IS MY FAULT - because the title of the book ought to set expectations: The Birth of AMERICAN Film. Still, there is so much to know, I was often having to fill in the gaps from other sources. Hence, this isn't a book for someone with broader interests, although on the other hand it is worth a read and owning in order to get some other tidbits. Secondly, the very nature of the writing is a bit difficult to juggle sometimes. There are, seemingly, a million names and a million dates, sometimes three or four a page, that I couldn't get to stay in my head. Maybe it's my own feeble mind. I was soon awash in names I'd never heard and dates that formed important parts of the puzzle, but I had trouble bringing them all together. Thirdly, the book is short. The text occupies 175 pages, and I read it in one sitting quite comfortably (maybe if I'd taken more time some of the names and dates might have stuck better!) Again, expecting a more in-depth assessment of early cinema was probably a bit much considering the length - silly me! However, let me end on a couple of highs. Firstly, as all good books ought to do, this one made me very very interested in looking more deeply into topics discussed. The aforementioned "Magic Lanterns" is one, the locations, setup, and conditions within Nickelodeons is another, the working conditions of the projectionists... and on. These are dealt with all too fleetingly, and I'd love to read fuller, more detailed accounts of these specific elements. And finally - this book wins on the illustration front. Very few pages go by without a picture and caption of some sort, and some are truly excellent - from original Patent applications, to shots of early Boxing matches being filmed, to color shots of Magic Lantern slides (I didn't mention, there are 16 colors prints, on glossy paper, in the center of this book). Everyone is excellent, and well captioned. So all in all, this book is a winner. Stay focused on what the book sets out to do, and if that leaves you wanting more, well that's a good thing. It's not full of jargon, and it's never boring. Recommended."
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Post by vaughan on Jul 11, 2009 2:30:33 GMT
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Post by vaughan on Jul 10, 2009 0:35:47 GMT
Did anyone ever get this? I've been keeping my eyes out, but sadly it looks like an Internet purchase will be necessary.
Anyone?
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Post by vaughan on Jul 10, 2009 0:08:21 GMT
Sphere - Reprinted 1981 - 180 Pages Well, this book has had cover designs much better than the one shown above - but that's the one I have, so I went with it. You can see the other (better) covers here: dontbetonit.tripod.com/devils_of_dday.htmlAnyway, on to the book! I had fun with this one, I must admit. Although I'll stop short of calling it a "classic". Unlike my previous Masterton read (Prey) the story in this one is parred down, and to the point. During the Second World War the Americans had used thirteen demons, housed in 13 black tanks, to help win a key battle. After the battle was won the demons were collected up.... all except one that was left behind..... When reading these novels there are plenty of times when suspending your disbelief is required, although in this one I found I had to do it more than most. Which is the basic flaw in the work. I found it started off with grand designs, and some mighty freaky occurrences, but the longer it went on, the more things dwindled. There is a grand climax, but even that felt somewhat rushed. The book works better in the opening half, among the snow covered fields in France, where mystery gives way to fear. By the time soldiers are giving up state secrets simply because they're asked, it felt as though Masterton simply wanted to find the fastest way to move the plot along. Oh well, maybe I'm nitpicking, because in the end it was quite a fun read. I'd say this was a 6 or 7 out of 10. Not bad. It's just that the path from A to z was a tad spartan at times..... Decent.
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Post by vaughan on Jul 8, 2009 23:23:56 GMT
Phew. Nice cover. I simply cannot make any headway in the book though. 60 pages or so was enough, and for the first time since I returned to the wonderful world of fiction horror, I simply had to give up....... There are two things that sinks it - firstly there is a lot of Gypsy folklore in the book, which could/should be a good thing. However, it's layered on so thickly, with strange terms used and scattered profusely about, that I found the book didn't flow, my reading just stuttered along..... Secondly, Mort Castle is a tad too inclined to hyperbole. When something exciting happens, fair enough, but I was actually laughing at some of the descriptions of ordinary things. It's simply way over-the-top. Dealing with tricky subjects such as pedophilia and incest, I thought his one might be a tough read. It was, but for different reasons. Sorry folk - I bailed out. I'm not proud of it, but I wasn't having fun at all. Loving her new home and its big basement, five-year-old Missy is unaware that her imaginary playmate, Lisette, is the tortured soul of a murdered child determined to get revenge on a cruel world for her destroyed life.
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