Pan Horror 23

[charliegrenville]

Jul 2, 2013 2:20:59 GMT marcgreenman said:

just finished this collection, here is my verdict.

the sleeping prince 2.5/5 decent story, really nasty ending, yuck!

dengue fever 3.5/5 interesting story, effective, sad ending.

you can't be too careful 3/5 effective thriller.

a rhyme 1.5/5 a bit lame, not that good.

fat old women who wear fur coats 2/5 not scary, not badly written.

daughter of the house 2/5 interesting, but not that scary, could have had a stronger resolution

dr dichter and the terminal cosmetic 2/5 darkly comic, had the potential to be more grotesque.

foster parents 2.5/5  interesting story, not bad.

a backwards shadow 3/5 effective story, ghost rather than horror.

chance governs all 2.5/5 another tale of the supernatural, not bad.

the dogs 3.5 gruesome but fun, entertaining.rightfully mine 4/5 nasty nazi meets a grisly end, a gruesome winner!

rightfully mine 4/5 nasty nazi meets a grisly end, a gruesome winner!

kowlongo plaything 5/5 awesome, gut-wrenching, utterly bleak. best of the collection.

Overall: 2.75/5 mixed selection, entertaining, some effective, one unforgettable. kowlongo plaything is the best entry, quite liked rightfully mine as he deserved his fate. dengue fever and the dogs also quite good, hated the poem. might try volume 15 next, also have volume 12 and may get more. alan temperley is an author to check out, norman p. kaufman is also quite good.


I still haven't finished this volume after owning it for about 27 years, but, I seem to remember DAUGHTER OF THE HOUSE, A BACKWARDS SHADOW and CHANCE GOVERNS ALL all being very subtle and atmospheric, contrasting with the sheer onslaught of filth that was KOWLONGO PLAYTHING and the vomit-inducing splatter of THE SLEEPING PRINCE, RIGHTFULLY MINE and THE DOGS. Elsewhere A RHYME is just plain daft, FAT OLD WOMEN WHO WEAR FUR COATS is Harry Turner at his most ridiculous, and FOSTER PARENTS possibly the most surreal entry since WALLY some seven books earlier. 

Two things I've always wondered: 1) just what IS that 'thing' on the cover, and 2) just how did already-extremely-elderly Bertie feel when faced, year after year, with such obscenities? Surely a man of his gentlemanly upbringing wouldn't, despite presumably having undergone national service at some point, been able to embrace profane language, gore, splatter, and in some cases what amounted to primitive torture porn in literary form, without the slightest tinge of reticence? I mean, it didn't bother my Dad, but he was born in 1942, not 1903..


 

[drauch]

Outside of the Pan collections, is there a way to read some of Alan Temperley's work, like the aforementioned Kowlongo? isfdb and the usual avenues of the Archive didn't pull up much for me. 

[𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr]

Oct 20, 2021 14:10:07 GMT drauch said:

Outside of the Pan collections, is there a way to read some of Alan Temperley's work, like the aforementioned Kowlongo? isfdb and the usual avenues of the Archive didn't pull up much for me. 

this gives the collections his short fiction appears in:

www.fantasticfiction.com/t/alan-temperley/

I didn't find any on Archive. Just his children's fiction and his Tales of Galloway.

[𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr]

Oct 20, 2021 14:29:42 GMT 𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr said:

Oct 20, 2021 14:10:07 GMT drauch said:

Outside of the Pan collections, is there a way to read some of Alan Temperley's work, like the aforementioned Kowlongo? isfdb and the usual avenues of the Archive didn't pull up much for me. 

this gives the collections his short fiction appears in:

www.fantasticfiction.com/t/alan-temperley/

I didn't find any on Archive. Just his children's fiction and his Tales of Galloway.

It's interesting that the anthology Realms of Darkness is on Archive. It is from 1988 and the stories are in author alphabetical order, but the edition only goes up to S, and is 663 pages. the complete earlier edition from 1985 is 796 pages.

[drauch]

I got a little brazen at work and continued my search, stumbling onto a PDF of Pan 23, placating my search for the time being until these shipping prices come down, if ever!

[andydecker]

So, Pan 23. According to the Vault lore one "don't miss!" story and a lot of so-so contributions. I did resist the temptation to read "The Story" first and dutifully started with page 1.

As usual no content, so many synopses here and I couldn't make a better one anyway.

Angus Gellatly - The Sleeping Prince
It is the mad woman again. Unrequited Love and all. A subdued beginning for this book. A decent story, no doubt, but all the uniformed nurses just made me think of stuff like Carry On Nurse.

Paul Theroux - Dengué Fever
I never read anything by Theroux. It is one of those colonial tales and oddly timeless. Still it seemed an odd choice for a Pan, much more suited for some Ghost anthology. As a reprint this seems to be chosen for the name value of the writer.

Ruth Rendell - You Can’t Be Too Careful
Another reprint by a well-known writer and indeed material better suited for a crime story anthology. In which it was actually published first, in an issue of Ellery Queen's in 1976. And while you could argue that the mad spinster with a knife is material for Pan, in this case it was a bit (or more than a bit) blah. The story itself is okay and up to Rendell's usual high standard, but the ending isn't exactly a surprise.

Elizabeth Naden-Borland - A Rhyme
The beginning is funny, granted, but still I skipped it.

Harry E Turner - Fat Old Women Who Wear Fur Coats
The dependable Harry E Turner. As already observed more than once in this thread this is no real story (and the best is the great title which only got better with time.) Still I liked it. A few pages of relatable mean spirited observation of fellow human beings and a nasty ending. A shame that Turner's collections are nearly unobtainable. That would be a great project for P.S. Publishing for a reprint.

Heather Vineham - Daughter of the House
The old story of a child being locked away in a room for their own good. This is a quote from our esteemed Vault keeper, and I don't have much new to contribute here. You can endlessly debate if the story of the stranger who comes to a strange house at night and discovers evil things was a the time of publishing a collection of tired cliches or still had potential. Some classics are hard to beat – a nod to Seabury Quinn -, but this tries to be different insofar as the narrator is just the narrator and neither hero nor victim. But as a horror story it doesn't work well. Maybe in this case it is the years, but the ending just merits a shrug.

Jane Louie - Dr. Dichter and the Terminal Cosmetic
I guess it falls into the "sadistic and misogynistic" category which made Pan infamous in hindsight in some circles. But it left me rather cold. It reads like the conscious attempt to imitate a Alex White or Norman Kaufman story which makes it quite artificial and puts it in the category of trying too hard. It is markedly different than the contribution of the writer in Pan 22, which is interesting for itself. But I can't imagine that the casual reader cared about anything I wrote above, so I guess the story achieved what it tried to attempt.

TBC …

[dem]

Apr 5, 2024 9:37:55 GMT andydecker said:

Paul Theroux - Dengué Fever
I never read anything by Theroux. It is one of those colonial tales and oddly timeless. Still it seemed an odd choice for a Pan, much more suited for some Ghost anthology. As a reprint this seems to be chosen for the name value of the writer.

You are right. It was entered - via Playboy - for the competition that gave rise to The Times Anthology Of Ghost Stories (as infamously rejected Ramsey Campbell's In The Bag and Roger Johnson's The Scarecrow).

Apart from the Temperley, all I remember about #23 is thinking that by now even Harry E. Turner was losing some sparkle (compare this with something like The Tunisian Talking Ferret), while in terms of his PH contributions, I reckon Norman Kaufman peaked with Lady On Display. Try as he did, he couldn't out-nasty it.

[andydecker]

The rest of the show ...

Gregory Alexander - Foster Parents
A Tale of the backwoods. All those things should be physically impossible, but who cares. I guess Dark Fantasy is an apt description. This could have easily been in Twilight Zone Magazine.

Rosemary Timperley - A Backwards Shadow
I have my problems with Rosemary Timperley. Well-written stories, but honestly not well suited for Pan. This is a weak ghost story.

W. S. Rearden - Chances Governs All
In typically van Thal style, this is another ghost story after a ghost story. But this is so much better. A vivid background of WWI, Sinn Fein and the Irish countryside, of the craft of fishing, a nasty ghost and well done ambiguity. This one will stay in mind.

Alex White - The Dogs
Clear from the beginning how this would end, still Alex White managed to keep this suspenseful, keeps us guessing which psycho will suffer at the end. What can I say, sad and sadistic.

Norman P. Kaufman - Rightfully Mine
Hm. For all its vivid descriptions and evil people getting what they deserve, this left me rather cold. Rather ambitious in its plot, with its multiple viewpoints and all. But methinks Norman tries too hard at the time.

Alan Temperley - Kowlongo Plaything
The saddest thing about this nasty and revolting tale is that it hasn't lost any actuality and reads in places like non fiction. There is not much more to say about this except I salute van Thal's gumption to publish this. No chance in hell this would find a mainstream publisher in this day and age.

One look above the horrible cover of #23 in 1982 on the rest of the landscape reinforces the impression that the Pan Book was in a downward spiral. Not only is the content jarringly uneven – how can anyone compare A Backwards Shadow with Kowlongo Plaything -, it is divorced from most trends in the genre. Hard to imagine someone who liked Dark Forces would be very satisfied here. 

Taken for itself, I want to quote our esteemed Vaultkeeper: "#23 really is a case of Kowlonga Plaything and supporting cast, ain't it?"

Yes.