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Post by flashman on Oct 26, 2008 16:25:52 GMT
This is my first post so would just like to say hi to everyone here.
I'm trying to identify a story that I read as a child in the 70s. I don't know if it was in the Pan series but...
It was about a boy who is trying to sleep and every night he can hear a moth outside the window (or maybe door!?) and it gets more terrifying each time. That's about all I can remember. It may have been a giant moth!
Anyway, it was just one of those stories that stuck in my memory so I'd like to read it again. If you can help I'd really appreciate it!
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Post by dem on Oct 26, 2008 16:46:20 GMT
Hi Flashman i've a feeling the story you're after is J. L. Goodwin's Cocoon from the 6th Fontana Book of Great Horror Stories: Butterfly obsessive Danny Longwood, eleven, hides away in his room tending his smelly collection of caterpillars and pupae like a mad scientist. His father, a retired explorer of note and doesn't he let everyone know it, neglects him and his mother ran off five years ago so he's left to his own devices for the most part. When his father refuses to lend him his enormous cigar bowl, Danny has no alternative but to dispose of his prize find - a huge mutant moth with crab and mouth-like simulacra on its wings. But the cyanide jar fails to kill it .... Helpfully, the cover is rather memorable! Hope this helps! |
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Post by killercrab on Oct 26, 2008 17:20:54 GMT
My question is - how do you get run over by a snail - big or not? Was he asleep when the giant mollusc crawled by? What a cover ...
KC
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Post by dem on Oct 26, 2008 17:27:41 GMT
There's two of 'em and they catch him in a pincer movement. It's all very plausible when you think about it.
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Post by flashman on Oct 27, 2008 14:18:23 GMT
Many thanks for that!
I think that sounds like the story I'm looking for!
I'll buy it on ebay :-)
But here's a couple more I'm trying to identify!
OK. The first one is about a spaceship that lands somewhere. It doesn't do anything at first but suddenly, after everyone is lulled into a false sense of security it suddenly fires out blobs of some kind of gel. If one of these attaches to you, it starts to drag you towards to the spaceship.
Any idea on that one?
The second story is abouta kind of creature that is existing in a forest of some kind. maybe a national park. I can't remember the full story but anyway at the end this creature happens to lay down in a stream or river and becuase it is made of some kind of gel-type flesh it gets washed away so that only its bones remain.
Any idea on those two?
Many thanks!
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Post by dem on Oct 27, 2008 14:38:01 GMT
You'll need a saucerhead to help you with the first one, but the second sounds like Theodore Sturgeon's ghastly It which has been anthologised several times, you shouldn't have too much trouble locating a copy.
From memory, It/ the skeleton is animated due to exposure to radiation and goes on the rampage in the wood, tearing up a family pet and dispensing death to at least one poor bastard.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Oct 27, 2008 14:58:42 GMT
Hi and welcome he said entering with a saucer on his head,
The story sounds very like one P.K Dick or Bradbury. Both have done the disguised space ship routine. Dick several times. Can't remember titles though. Can you remember a cover?
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