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Post by killercrab on Jun 13, 2008 9:35:41 GMT
We're bad aren't we Caroline?! I blame the books we read!  KC |
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Post by dem on Jun 13, 2008 10:08:35 GMT
Please miss! It wasn't me, it was ADRIAN! If you reread it, you'll see I was on my most impeccable behaviour ever, as usual.
Hope you have a good time at the Fantastic Films Weekend!
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Post by killercrab on Jun 13, 2008 11:28:15 GMT
Bwaahhhh! Too late you've been tarred by association!
... and call me Killercrab when pointing fingers in class! ;D
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Post by jkdunham on Jun 14, 2008 1:08:23 GMT
I'd rather she write me Eat Them Alive than knit me a jumper. In that case, Dem, you're probably still not ready for Ms. Nace's extremely rare follow-up, KNIT THEM ALIVE ("a new pullover in horror!"), which gives new and even more sinister overtones to the phrase, click click clickety click... "No! Oh Jesus, no!", screamed Mona. "Please don't knit me anymore!" |
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Post by manitoudoll on Jun 17, 2008 22:24:31 GMT
I am loving this exercise to expose Nace.
I have read the novel three times and love it every time. The fact that it is so gratuitous and trashy makes me want to heap endless praise on the writer. Not only is it a "new peak in horror", it's a new peak in guiltless horror writing.
Even my non-reading brother, who had only ever enjoyed the novelizations of "The Exterminator" and "Magnum Force", gobbled up (excuse the pun) "Eat Them Alive" and treasures his paperback orginal, as do I. I have the Manor and NEL originals. Was there ever a hardback? If there was, name your price anybiody who has it!
I'd love to hear about other Manor paperbacks. They sound like my kind of company. Perhaps a 70's version of Paperjacks, the publisher of "The Happy Man" (another fave of mine)?
Some of these theories on Ms. Nace are holding water for me.
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Post by manitoudoll on Jul 3, 2008 1:22:41 GMT
Regarding the true authorship of EAT THEM ALIVE.
My Manor Books edition is (c) copyrighted, 1977, to Manor Books, Inc. Why isn't it copyrighted to Pierce Nace or his/her real name?
This suggests an in-house job, does it not?
The mystery deepens.
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Post by sean on Jul 3, 2008 7:08:12 GMT
My Manor Books edition is (c) copyrighted, 1977, to Manor Books, Inc. Why isn't it copyrighted to Pierce Nace or his/her real name? This suggests an in-house job, does it not? Not necessarily. It could just be that Manor Books bought all the rights off the author (paid him/her off in one lump sum, so all further money or re-printing rights remain with the publisher). |
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Post by manitoudoll on Jul 3, 2008 15:10:37 GMT
Thanks for clarifying, Sean.
Would it follow that the NEL edition would also be copyrighted to Manor?
To answer my own question: Not if Manor only bought rights for the US?
I'd love to know if "Pierce Nace" ever wrote anything else because I want to read it. I realize the female author who is being suggested as the author has written several books, but we don't know it's her for sure.
Finally: What type of writer sells all rights (to such a classic?) I know I would never do that.
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Post by justin on Jul 3, 2008 16:28:50 GMT
I doubt if Manor ever had in-house writers as they were such a cheap-jack operation- rumoured to be owned by the Mafia!
I've recently discovered that a crappy paperback of theirs I have stuffed in the attic is very rare and collectible- Titans of the Universe by James Harvey. I purchased it in case it was a Laurence James,/John Harvey collaboration but actually it's a pirated copy of a 1964 Gardner Fox pulp Escape Across the Cosmos and was withdrawn and pulped. I think it sums up Manor's approach to business!
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Post by manitoudoll on Jan 18, 2009 23:38:52 GMT
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Post by Johnlprobert on Jun 18, 2010 7:07:24 GMT
I needed something to complement the classic ghost stories I'm reading and courtesy of Cardinal Noose a nice copy of this NEL paperback recently came into my possession so...
Four chapters in and has already been mentioned on here a LOT I don't think I've ever read anything that's so non-stop mean spirited. There is a bit of stupid writing for sure, but not an awful lot, and it certainly doesn't detract from the fact that Mr / Ms / Mrs / Brigadier etc etc Nace was probably loads of fun (in a 'I hate everyone and everything' kind of way) if you met him / her in a pub as long as you didn't stay too long and certainly got out before the Tequila slammers kicked in.
I don't know what else to say at the moment. Lady P was reading Aickman's The Trains and kept being disturbed by eruptions of chuckling from me as I read this tale of giant mantises that pop out of a crack in the ground which then closes up again and are so hungry they will even eat each other and yet somehow they waited to escape from the earth to do so rather than getting on with it before the earthquake happened.
'His leisure activities were torturing small animals and any children who happened to come close' conjured up more images of black humour of Chris Morris proportions as well.
More later - thanks Mr Noose!
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Post by dem on Jun 18, 2010 7:39:06 GMT
ah, mention of this one always brings a tear to my eye. Eat Them Alive is perhaps the ultimate Vault Mk I novel, and typically shrewd of the Right Hon. Lord P. to read it off the back of 1st Fontana Book Of Great Ghost Stories, undoubtedly the best way to fully appreciate Nace's genius. recently i read E. B. Stambaugh's Mantis which adopts a relatively sober approach to the giant praying mantis menace. Stambaugh's had his/ her work cut out even trying to live with Eat Them Alive but he/ she makes such a decent fist of it. Pierce Nace is still God, but Mantis is very recommended to those who love this stuff. |
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Post by andydecker on Jun 18, 2010 11:42:07 GMT
This sounds like my kind of book.  |
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Post by Johnlprobert on Jun 19, 2010 11:25:48 GMT
Well I haven't read any true 'nasty pulp' in years but I have to say I'm having a whale of a time with this. I think it actually works better if you intersperse it with stuff that's actually good. And so, after reading Blackwood's 'The Willows' last night, I unwound with more of Dyke's adventures leading his new giant mantis pet to his hut. He's given it a name now as well - Slayer - which is just as well seeing as a giant bloodthirsty mantis named Delorice is somehow just not as scary. Anyway Delorice...sorry Slayer immediately rips the heads off a couple of monkeys and eats a handy thief who's trying to sneak out the back way and pays for it by having his own back door savagely ripped open (sorry again - but this book asks for this sort of treatment). There are a lot of killings in this book and they do get rather repetitive, which is why I think it's probably best "enjoyed" in small doses. But I AM enjoying it, oh yes indeed. God help me  |
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Post by Johnlprobert on Jun 22, 2010 10:07:43 GMT
I know exactly what Demonik means. I'm now two thirds of the way through and this book must set a record for the number of times someone's 'heart, liver and intestines' get torn up and gobbled, again and again. Combine that with such choice literary examples as:
He must not allow any beast to eat any part of him any more
and
God, my feet and ankles don't smell bad at all - not like the rest of me
And I'm starting to develop a love-hate relationship with this book.
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