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Post by dem on Aug 21, 2012 8:50:24 GMT
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Post by ramseycampbell on Aug 21, 2012 9:26:41 GMT
When I put Adam Nevill in the search box on the home page of this site it brings up a number of threads. Me, I'm proud to have helped discover his horror fiction. |
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Aug 21, 2012 10:08:15 GMT
Ok, almost nothing, then. By the way, I never use the native search function. It just brings up mentions of Adam Nevill, never what you want.
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Post by ramseycampbell on Aug 21, 2012 12:33:16 GMT
Well, let me add a little about Adam to the site. From my introduction to his Banquet of the Damned:
"Given that our author first became familiar with the field when his father read him tales by [M. R.] James at bedtime, I hope to be forgiven for the repeated invocation of the name, but a great deal here is Neville’s alone. For example, chapter thirty-seven offers a house possessed by evil, a condition so powerfully characterised that I would class the passage among the great sustained scenes of modern supernatural horror. Again, I can think of few sequences in the literature to equal the apocalyptic finale, in which a suffocating atmosphere of doom closes around the town. From the half-glimpsed manifestations that haunt the entire book to the pure visceral horror of the climax, from the understated menace that lurks under passages of dialogue to the lyrical terror we experience elsewhere, Neville the novelist displays an impressive range of effects and skills."
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Post by ramseycampbell on Aug 21, 2012 13:41:15 GMT
Agh! And I never noticed I misspelled his name throughout. The published version is corrected, thank heaven.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Aug 21, 2012 19:28:39 GMT
Agh! And I never noticed I misspelled his name throughout. The published version is corrected, thank heaven. So easily done in these days of spellcheckers. I was saved by John Mains not long ago from making a similar gaffe. |
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Post by Dr Strange on Aug 22, 2012 9:49:56 GMT
I've read all his previous novels, plus a couple of short stories, and would consider myself a fan. I also have a tendency to mispell his surname as "Neville" (had to change it in my last post about Last Days) - I've no idea what's going on there. Here's a link to his website - www.adamlgnevill.com/ |
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Aug 22, 2012 12:04:56 GMT
I also have a tendency to mispell his surname as "Neville" (had to change it in my last post about Last Days) - I've no idea what's going on there. Maybe you were crossing wires with Robert Neville, the protagonist of Richard Matheson's I Am Legend? Or Kris Neville, the science fiction writer and author of the fine horror story "Dumb Supper"? Or even John Neville, of The X-Files and the underrated T he Adventures of Baron Munchausen? So easily done in these days of spellcheckers. So true. I see that I accidentally called Alison Prince "Alison Price" in the post of mine that you quoted yesterday. |
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Post by Dr Strange on Aug 22, 2012 13:09:39 GMT
Maybe you were crossing wires with Robert Neville, the protagonist of Richard Matheson's I Am Legend? Or Kris Neville, the science fiction writer and author of the fine horror story "Dumb Supper"? Or even John Neville, of The X-Files and the underrated T he Adventures of Baron Munchausen? Any of those would be entirely acceptable (though the I Am Legend link is the only one that is at all likely). I'm just hoping it's got nothing to do with Gary or Phil... When I put Adam Nevill in the search box on the home page of this site it brings up a number of threads. Does rather depend on getting the spelling right though! |
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Post by Dr Strange on Sept 3, 2012 10:35:26 GMT
I will attempt a proper review when I've finished it... Scratch the word "proper", this is all I can manage right now - I finished Last Days, and enjoyed it (though not as much as his previous one, The Ritual). The "film crew in peril" aspect started to get a bit wearing, and seemed very contrived, and early on there was quite a lot of technical stuff about digital cameras and sound recording that seemed unnecessary. But the plot moved along at quite a pace, and I'd say that the overall feel of the story was distinctly "pulpy" - especially towards the end, which featured scenes reminiscent of computer games like Doom - and I thought the "monsters" were nasty and original. I'd give it 4 out of 5. |
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Post by dem on Feb 25, 2013 4:42:23 GMT
Dennis Wheatley - Such Power Is Dangerous (Arrow, 1973: originally Hutchinson, 1933) Blurb When Avril Bamborough left London with a Hollywood contract, she little thought that she would fall in love with another woman's fiance, become the head of a great film empire, and face a murder charge.
A group of unscrupulous financiers had determined to gain control of the entire film industry. All opposition to their combine was to be ruthlessly destroyed. Strikes, arson, hired gunmen, were among the weapons they would use.
Yet there were people in the industry, both in America and England who were prepared to fight the combine. This was the struggle in which Avril was to become involved and the background to her romances.After failing abysmally to complete more than fifty pages of his acclaimed sc-fi excursion Star Of Ill-Omen, i thought that might be the end for me and the great man's prodigious non-Black Sorcery output, but what's this? A Dennis Wheatley 'Film Crews In Peril' entry! Did the man's God-like genius know no boundaries? The prospect of Dennis applying his 'trade unionists = fledgling traitors & Satanists' doctrine to pre-McCarthy Hollywood (Chapter one is promisingly titled The Plot To Dominate The World) has seen this go straight to the top of the 'next novel to start and then forget all about' pile.
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Post by andydecker on Feb 25, 2013 9:05:46 GMT
I also bought this years ago and never read it. Put it on the pile of half a dozen Historicals by Wheatley, which I bought because I really wanted to read his take on the French Revolution. You know, something like an anti-Sharpe. (I know, weak comparison, still.) "Such Power" even has the merit of being much thinner then his other books. Maybe someday ...
Btw, ever read Barker's Coldheart Canyon? Also a Hollywood Horror novel. One of its problems though is that it is one of those doorstopers books.
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Post by dem on Feb 25, 2013 10:37:32 GMT
I also bought this years ago and never read it. Put it on the pile of half a dozen Historicals by Wheatley, which I bought because I really wanted to read his take on the French Revolution. You know, something like an anti-Sharpe. (I know, weak comparison, still.) "Such Power" even has the merit of being much thinner then his other books. Maybe someday ... Btw, ever read Barker's Coldheart Canyon? Also a Hollywood Horror novel. One of its problems though is that it is one of those doorstopers books. Then I think I'll pass. Theodore Roszak's Flicker was likely my final doorstopper. Might as well quit at the top.  Wheatley's looks do-able at around 250 pages, but then I see Chetwynd-Hayes the Psychic Detective still lying there, all unfinished ... |
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Post by andydecker on Feb 25, 2013 12:14:50 GMT
Just for the fun of it. Remarkebly restraint for the Wheatley covers. ![]()  |
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Post by pulphack on Mar 2, 2013 7:49:59 GMT
I'd recommend this - I think it's only about his second or third book, and owes a lot to Edgar Wallace in terms of plotting and pacing. I loved it as I love old Hollywood stories, and to be honest it's the only DW I've not had periods of grim struggle with - even The Devil Rides Out was tough going in places. If you expect it to be laced with his more arcane interests you'll be disappointed, but if you treat it as a Boys Own romp, it'll be fun.
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