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Post by Johnlprobert on Jun 22, 2010 10:14:31 GMT
Oh, and Good boy, Slayer. You're the biggest of them all - and the only one with a red head  |
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Post by Johnlprobert on Jun 22, 2010 10:38:08 GMT
I'll stop after this, but it really is like Ed Wood does nasties:
He'd have four kids - and maybe more - because he'd want to feed his self esteem by replacing himself as many times as he could
He did not want to displease the great mantis by making him ride in the back of truck like the others.
Her breasts that were half out of the low cut dress she wore, booming large...
"Let me go! Don't kill me! Don't eat me any more!"
Dyke would keep the old pants with their frightful odour so he could continue to live among the mantises
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Post by dem on Jun 22, 2010 11:14:01 GMT
and to think some people prefer Henry James. what a muddled up world we live in!
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Post by andydecker on Jun 22, 2010 14:47:47 GMT
I ordered this. Can´t wait to get it ;D
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Post by Johnlprobert on Jun 23, 2010 5:47:53 GMT
I finally, finally finished this last night, and my God what an experience it's been.
I think I can honestly say that out of all the art I have ever experienced - film, music and books included - this has to be the one single item with the least redeeming features. Utterly mean-spirited, not really badly written enough to render it entirely laughable but still pretty incompetent, relentlessly misanthropic, nauseatingly repetitive and to be honest just plain stupid, this might well be the worst book I have ever read. I find it hard to believe that someone started writing this, then kept writing it, then actually finished it, then sent it to a publisher, who also thought 'Yes this is fine as it is - it doesn't need editing or radically rewriting or burning to a crisp - let's put it out!"
The ending was so completely out of left field and so desperately, stupidly funny that chunks were read out loud at Probert Towers last night before sleep claimed us. Not that I would have slept if I hadn't calmed myself down with some H H Ewers first
Eat Them Alive - it lives up to its well-deserved reputation as a singular work within the genre. At least I hope it is. And if there are any more books around like this one I don't want to read them. I escaped with my sanity once but I don't think I'll be so lucky a second time. Anyone who has yet to experience it - you have been warned!
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Post by dem on Jun 23, 2010 8:52:50 GMT
Not that I would have slept if I hadn't calmed myself down with some H H Ewers first oh dear god, you've made me want to read it again now. it seems there really is nothing in literature quite like Eat Them Alive but the search continues regardless. lovely review, lord P. perhaps not quite in the same league, but i live in hope that 'Arabella Randolph's The Vampire Tapes finds itself under the Probert microscope at a future date .... |
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Post by andydecker on Jun 23, 2010 9:33:44 GMT
I can´t wait for this to arrive  |
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Jun 24, 2010 6:54:52 GMT
I finally, finally finished this last night, and my God what an experience it's been. I think I can honestly say that out of all the art I have ever experienced - film, music and books included - this has to be the one single item with the least redeeming features. Utterly mean-spirited, not really badly written enough to render it entirely laughable but still pretty incompetent, relentlessly misanthropic, nauseatingly repetitive and to be honest just plain stupid, this might well be the worst book I have ever read. I find it hard to believe that someone started writing this, then kept writing it, then actually finished it, then sent it to a publisher, who also thought 'Yes this is fine as it is - it doesn't need editing or radically rewriting or burning to a crisp - let's put it out!" The ending was so completely out of left field and so desperately, stupidly funny that chunks were read out loud at Probert Towers last night before sleep claimed us. Not that I would have slept if I hadn't calmed myself down with some H H Ewers first Eat Them Alive - it lives up to its well-deserved reputation as a singular work within the genre. At least I hope it is. And if there are any more books around like this one I don't want to read them. I escaped with my sanity once but I don't think I'll be so lucky a second time. Anyone who has yet to experience it - you have been warned! After universal condemnation and John's final nail in the coffin can anyone explain why I have to get this book somehow? |
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Post by kooshmeister on Mar 14, 2011 12:23:12 GMT
Wow. This book was absolutely amazing in its sheer audacity, cruelty and gruesomeness. But that's what I bought it for! It was well worth the money and the wait for it to come in the mail.
I love how hypocritical Dyke is. Clearly he thinks the entire world revolves around him. And I love how he doublecrossed the other guys first, something he doesn't factor into his thinking (i.e. that maybe he deserved what he had coming). God, did I ever hate him. The story progression was great but I think Dyke Mellis is the least likable main character since... ever.
But it was a good kind of hate. It was like reading a horror novel from the insane villain's viewpoint where all his twisted reasoning makes sense because it makes it no sense.
I also love how he, early on, entertains the idea of getting military-grade weapons to deal with the mantises he can't control when his handgun doesn't penetrate their shells... only to, closer to the end, be so drunk with power that he is fantasizing about the mantises tackling entire armies. Guess he forgot his own initial reasoning. And that most modern militaries have things like armor-piercing rounds and rocket launchers and such. Heck, a properly-armed SWAT team could wipe out his stupid mantises.
This is completely random but I was thinking how neat a sequel would be, and if it were Sir Darren Penward from Carnosaur who leads an expedition to Malpelo Island or Marno to catch himself some giant mantises for his private zoo. Can't decide if I'd want it to be a Carnosaur prequel or a sequel revealing Penward survived somehow.
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Post by Johnlprobert on Mar 14, 2011 15:51:54 GMT
This is completely random but I was thinking how neat a sequel would be, and if it were Sir Darren Penward from Carnosaur who leads an expedition to Malpelo Island or Marno to catch himself some giant mantises for his private zoo. Can't decide if I'd want it to be a Carnosaur prequel or a sequel revealing Penward survived somehow. Good to see yet more praise heaped on this throughly disreputable book. I do like your idea for a sequel Mr Koosh, as well as your avatar - welcome! |
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Post by dem on Mar 14, 2011 20:06:58 GMT
hi, koosh. Ah, where would we be without Eat Them Alive,eh? From time to time we'll have somebody enthuse they've found a novel "worse" than Pierce Nace's masterpiece, but i can't say i ever have. There are exceptions - very notable ones: 'Arabella Randolph's The Vampire Tapes and Ken MacCauley's The Nuclear Nazi's are two personal favourites - but most of the truly 'bad' books i've read are only bad because they're monumentally boring, whereas Nace elevated wrong to some kind of art form. so glad to hear from another of his (her?) fans!
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Post by kooshmeister on Mar 14, 2011 22:16:17 GMT
My enthusiasm for it is unusual, as I am actually usually a very squeamish person. I guess it isn't disturbing to me because instead of ever being horrifying, it's funny. As someone else pointed out, Nace is just trying too hard. Trying too hard to be scary, gruesome and offensive, that he/she just goes so over the top it turns the novel in a really hilarious grossout comedy. If ever a movie were made it would certainly be a black comedy like Brain Dead. As to Nace's gender I support the idea it was Evelyn Pierce Nace who penned this wonderful little book, if only because the idea of an over-fifty woman penning this insanity amuses me. Oh and I did a TV Tropes entry for the book, too, just to help it get more well-known: tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EatThemAlive |
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Post by lemming13 on Mar 16, 2011 10:50:07 GMT
I'm beginning to feel nostalgic for this bloody book - and it holds the record of being the only piece of fiction I disliked so much I wouldn't even give it to a charity shop, but gave a ritual burial to (under a stinking hellebore for added sarcasm).
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Post by kooshmeister on Mar 29, 2011 17:56:33 GMT
Bought a second copy of the NEL edition off of eBay. One to keep safe, one to read, something I think a lot of comic book collectors do. I also am looking into getting the original Manor edition, too, which will give me three copies of the book. Excessive? I dunno. But this awful little book has captured my heart.  |
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Post by noose on May 30, 2011 19:18:08 GMT
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