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Post by Johnlprobert on Jul 30, 2010 8:56:01 GMT
This is more of a footnote to the other Sarban thread as this is a companion piece to 'The Sound of His Horn' in the volume we have, and while it never made it into paperback it contains enough 'deviant elements' that Vault members may find it of "interest".
Alison Grant and Nicola Joubert are two young women in their early twenties (you just KNOW something awful's going to happen straight away, don't you?) planning to travel across the Sahara (see? I said didn't I?) as part of a convoy with two families (oh maybe it won't then). However, every official they meet tells them they are destined for disaster if they take their proposed route (Hurrah!) so they agree on an alternative one (Boo!) but once they're on their way, in true horror pulp book / movie / comic tradition they realise they can cut a week off their schedule if they go the way they were told not to, presumbly not realising that something rather more important than a week might get cut off them if the don't listen to warnings.
A MASSIVE storm blows up. The two families are ok (Boo!) but the two girls find themselves somewhere very strange indeed. The description of the oasis they end up in really does go on a bit in (oh no!) true John Norman style (according to Lady P - she's more the Gor expert than I am) but finally they meet the chap in charge of the place. Well, part of him anyway as most of him is draped beneath a sheet (Goodness me I wonder why?). He has a story to tell.
And so we head into Arabian Nights territory, except it's more Arabian Nights written by someone who had read a lot of EC comics and had a fetish about taming beautiful women by making them wear complicated harnesses that stopped them doing anything other than allowing themselves to be ridden.
And that's about it. As the king finishes his story a lot of comely maidens come and hold down Nicola and Alison so that he can...
Well, I think the sensibilties of the Vault are sufficiently delicate (or sufficiently jaded) that I need go no further.
Needless to say, Lady P & are are so concerned that the taming and domination of women by such methods as this and the 'Cats' in The Sound of His Horn that we feel duty bound to seek out more Sarban so that we can warn others of his possibly corrupting stories.
More soon if we survive.
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Post by dem bones on Jul 30, 2010 10:22:35 GMT
Me want, must have! Needless to say, Lady P & are are so concerned that the taming and domination of women by such methods as this and the 'Cats' in The Sound of His Horn that we feel duty bound to seek out more Sarban so that we can warn others of his possibly corrupting stories. More soon if we survive. Poignant, very poignant, Lord P. Without wishing to disparage anybody's viewpoint, sometimes i think our critics and other big girls blouses don't seem to grasp the sheer scale of the martyrdom involved in this work. Do you know there are even times when i think they truly BELIEVE that we actually enjoy reading about tits and bums and giant preying mantises? Yeah, right! Like anyone's gonna sample the dubious delights of The King of the Lake, The Brain-Eaters or The Nuclear Nazis out of choice when they could be reading Proust, Tolstoy, Jeffrey Archer or other dead people! I for one hope to see the day when yourself and Lady P are lavishly rewarded for your commendable selflessness. But do be careful! |
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Post by cw67q on Aug 1, 2010 8:36:21 GMT
This is a very powerful, unforgetable tale. It succeeds for me due to Sarban's slow build up, introducing us to the character of the two girls and gradually leading up to the horrific climax. (Whereas the Sound of His Horn fails for me as a flat S&M fanatsy, sorry ;-))
Sarban's characters, and their relationships remind me strongly of those in Aickman, perhaps no more so than in this story. The plight of the two girls calls to mind the two female ramblers in "the Trains".
This is one of the stories first printed by Tartarus, it did not appear in earlier publications of the tSoHH. I first read it in Tartarus press' "the Sacrifice" which conatins four superb novellas that were not published prior to TP (although King of the Lake and Number Fourteen appeared in slightly earlier TP editions, the first alongside tSoHH and the second in thier edition of Ringstones).
- chris
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