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Post by andydecker on Oct 20, 2010 9:34:28 GMT
, Lemming got me into Anthony Horowitz and now i can't get enough of him. It is really funny about Horowitz. I havn´t read any of his novels to date, but earlier this year I was in my "british crime drama" phase. Now we get to see a lot of those series on tv, but because of some demented reason german tv never bought the rights to Morse (but we got Lewis recently ) or Poirot, and of course they skipped Foyle´s War. I so liked his work on Poirot (which I have complete on Dvd) and on Midsomer that I kind of took the gamble and ordered Foyle´s War unseen. (The pricing on Amazon also helped. In many cases british Dvd cost half or a third ot what they cost here.) And I liked it a lot. So I am sure to sample his other work sometime. i'm going to keep battering the keyboard Keep battering on On a more thread-related note, Amazon informed me today that the 7th Black Book is on the way. Together with Zombie Apocalypse. After reading so much about it, I am really looking forward to both.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Oct 20, 2010 14:53:54 GMT
not being wilfully dim here, but i genuinely do not understand the concept. please explain in layman's terms how a 'real time' review differs from the plain old reviews served up by everybody else? Hi, I suppose JLP is right later on this thread, it is a personal way of reading a book: a public rite of passage that the authors themselves, at least, according to feedback, enjoy. Here's an example. My real-time review of BACK FROM THE DEAD: nullimmortalis.wordpress.com/2010/08/22/back-from-the-dead/Nothing better than having concepts subverted almost the moment you create them. I'll continue reviewing this great book on my site and then post the finished review.
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Post by dem bones on Oct 21, 2010 10:58:24 GMT
It is really funny about Horowitz. I havn´t read any of his novels to date, but earlier this year I was in my "british crime drama" phase. Now we get to see a lot of those series on tv, but because of some demented reason german tv never bought the rights to Morse (but we got Lewis recently ) or Poirot, and of course they skipped Foyle´s War. I so liked his work on Poirot (which I have complete on Dvd) and on Midsomer that I kind of took the gamble and ordered Foyle´s War unseen. (The pricing on Amazon also helped. In many cases british Dvd cost half or a third ot what they cost here.) And I liked it a lot. So I am sure to sample his other work sometime. Happy birthday, Andy! it's only the Horowitz Horrors i've tried so far, but have had as much enjoyment from them as anything i've read all year. would love to see the pick of them adapted (by him, of course) for a TV series. If the proposed Hammer TV series gets off the ground, they could do a lot worse than get him to write the screenplays. On a more thread-related note, Amazon informed me today that the 7th Black Book is on the way. Together with Zombie Apocalypse. After reading so much about it, I am really looking forward to both. in view of some of the comments on this thread (and elsewhere), i hope your copy of the 7th Black Book Of Horror had a WARNING: May Contain HORROR STORIES sticker plastered across the cover.
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Post by andydecker on Oct 21, 2010 16:27:16 GMT
Thanks it's only the Horowitz Horrors i've tried so far, but have had as much enjoyment from them as anything i've read all year. would love to see the pick of them adapted (by him, of course) for a TV series. If the proposed Hammer TV series gets off the ground, they could do a lot worse than get him to write the screenplays. Yeah, the Alex Rider books don´t interest me, frankly. I am not a fan of these James Bond junior books. in view of some of the comments on this thread (and elsewhere), i hope your copy of the 7th Black Book Of Horror had a WARNING: May Contain HORROR STORIES sticker plastered across the cover. It is embarassing to say this loud, but because of this I am very curious this time. ;D
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Oct 22, 2010 11:05:40 GMT
Real time review so far (or vault review in abnormal spatial time continuum with a few qualifications, so far)
I had no idea that Thana Niveau was a writer having briefly met her not far from Brighton Pier in the company of the renowned master of horror John Llewellyn Probert. My naivety in this respect has now sunk beneath the memories of waves on Brighton’s shore. Memories which are now lent a certain grim chill by ‘THE PIER’, a tale which seems to have been written by a consummate veteran of horror. Easy to see why Charles picked this one as an opener. A series of disturbing memorial plaques lead the protagonists and the reader along the burnt out remains of the old pier. Fascinating concept, skillfully told with a grim ending that opens the hotel doors of the black book with all the panache of an elegant vampyric host.
MINOS OR RHADAMANTHUS by Reggie Oliver – echoes of ghosts, ancient language, bleak public schools with their green pleasant lands and incensed cloisters overshadowed by sadistic masters and woe begone pupils; injustice and deadly revenge. This story, with a faint bow to M.R. James but it’s own unique voice, contains everything I like about the Horror genre.
My first introduction to Joel Lane was to find one of his characters unwittingly standing on an eye. Difficult to forget that image. I doubt I’ll be eating chips out of newspapers after this MORNING’S ECHO, a tale of teen gangland wickedness. This short piece by Joel Lane is not instantly powerful but like a bats radar, leaves interesting repercussions in the psyche.
I believe John Llewellyn Probert is Consultant Urological Surgeon in his spare time. My general experience of surgeons is a confrontation with a competent and dignified man who often makes light of the terrible thing that is about to happen to your body with a humorous anecdote or two and a genial manner. This is my vast problem with John Llewellyn Probert’s horror: I vastly enjoy the anecdotes, the quirky humour and the stylish approach but when he stops being funny I get ridiculously scared. IT BEGINS AT HOME offers us some surgery but perhaps not with the precision we might expect and, because of our expectations, we suffer a lot more. It’s a tale with an unexpected twist that leaves the poor reader with a very genuine but grim aftertaste. Don’t visit this without emotional anesthetic.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Oct 23, 2010 14:34:31 GMT
Real time review so far (or vault review in abnormal spatial time continuum with a few qualifications, so far) I had no idea that Thana Niveau was a writer having briefly met her not far from Brighton Pier in the company of the renowned master of horror John Llewellyn Probert. My naivety in this respect has now sunk beneath the memories of waves on Brighton’s shore. Memories which are now lent a certain grim chill by ‘THE PIER’, a tale which seems to have been written by a consummate veteran of horror. Easy to see why Charles picked this one as an opener. A series of disturbing memorial plaques lead the protagonists and the reader along the burnt out remains of the old pier. Fascinating concept, skillfully told with a grim ending that opens the hotel doors of the black book with all the panache of an elegant vampyric host. MINOS OR RHADAMANTHUS by Reggie Oliver – echoes of ghosts, ancient language, bleak public schools with their green pleasant lands and incensed cloisters overshadowed by sadistic masters and woe begone pupils; injustice and deadly revenge. This story, with a faint bow to M.R. James but it’s own unique voice, contains everything I like about the Horror genre. My first introduction to Joel Lane was to find one of his characters unwittingly standing on an eye. Difficult to forget that image. I doubt I’ll be eating chips out of newspapers after this MORNING’S ECHO, a tale of teen gangland wickedness. This short piece by Joel Lane is not instantly powerful but like a bats radar, leaves interesting repercussions in the psyche. I believe John Llewellyn Probert is Consultant Urological Surgeon in his spare time. My general experience of surgeons is a confrontation with a competent and dignified man who often makes light of the terrible thing that is about to happen to your body with a humorous anecdote or two and a genial manner. This is my vast problem with John Llewellyn Probert’s horror: I vastly enjoy the anecdotes, the quirky humour and the stylish approach but when he stops being funny I get ridiculously scared. IT BEGINS AT HOME offers us some surgery but perhaps not with the precision we might expect and, because of our expectations, we suffer a lot more. It’s a tale with an unexpected twist that leaves the poor reader with a very genuine but grim aftertaste. Don’t visit this without emotional anesthetic. David Williamson is a Pan Horror author par excellence having stories in Number 28 and 30 respectively. Like me he must get somewhat tired of hearing how awful the last Pan's were as they descended into gratuitous violence and cheap laughs. The problem with this viewpoint, which may well be valid, is that I suspect that few people who endorse it have ever read the final volumes. In REST IN PIECES I hope Williamson answers the critics: it's a well conceived tale, suitably macabre, jocular and containing all the Pan elements that made the series a winner. At times the male female relationships are like something from a Blackpool postcard but isn't that what you want deep down? The horror is horrific and the bad guy gets his comeuppance in a rather neat finale. In WALK TO THE SEA by Rog Pile a lady is attracted by something down on the beach. Is it a memory of something awful is it a ghost, is she a memory or is she a phantom treading a hypnotic and well worn path? In common with many of Rog Pile's stories there is an amorphous, insubstantial quality, an atmosphere tinged with pathos and regret. As always he offers a well crafted tale, which like waves on a lonely beach, leave a vague hush in the mind. Enjoyed the walk. I'm a huge fan of the classic Zombie film. I like my zombies shuffling and slow and I like it when there are lots of them and only one of you. Zombie stories on the other hand can often fail to deliver. In ROMERO’S CHILDREN by David A. Riley the Zombies are slightly faster than I like on film but they are indubitably very scary. This story shines out among a star cast. It's simple: Zombies everywhere on the hunt. Scattered humanity fighting back but Jack is a loner carving out an existence in the deserted town. There is a whiff of John Wyndham, Post apocalyptic, a solid identification with the central character, a good advance on the zombie concept and a really awful ending that's already made a few people cry. The only fault I could find? It's not a novel. In FLITCHING’S REVENGE by Gary Power a close knit English village has it’s own informal method of extracting justice but the price of judicial error is somewhat high. There are different forms of justice of course, social and judicial come to mind, but Gary Power finds an interesting twist in a tale where spiritual justice bows out. The problem with being a fantastic author I suspect is that everyone anticipates your brilliance. If anyone else wrote the THE GREEN BATH I would commend it as a very good story, well paced, economically written with a finely balanced erotically charged plot. However, it offers a complex but somehow fragmented plot with a somewhat idiosyncratic ending as though Paul Finch deliberately retreated from cliche – which of course he did but in the process I found myself searching for the overt horror. Still classy though. TELLING, a thoroughly enjoyable short from Steve Rasnic Tem. An artist needs a certain atmosphere to paint and she needs to get it from a certain house. Perhaps the atmosphere was looking for her. SWELL HEAD by Stephen Volk went to the top of the shelf and got the teddy bear. Very like Stephen King at his best. I felt as though I was halfway through a later Pan edition and this was the American contribution and a fine contribution too with echoes of the Elephant Man. What happens if your brother’s head starts to get bigger? Volk will tell you and make you very sad as he does. WALKING THE DYKE by Alex Langley is a nasty piece of work. Unlike many, I am never too comfortable with in-genre stories. It always feels a little incestuous. However, this was well told with enough offense against political correctness to amuse me. Anna Taborska is a gentle careful writer whose work always looks rounded and immaculately professional but sometimes gives the feeling that Horror is not her natural genre. Nevertheless THE CREAKING is a well crafted tale about the villages and a good ‘witch’. The poor witch should perhaps have teamed up with the wicked witch of Oz. Handing out potions and being helpful is generally the passport to doom in any small village and when you hear a suspicious creaking better not hang around. I had to warn my mum not to read BERNARD BOUGHT THE FARM by James Stanger, which the editor seems to have inserted to create maximum controversy: ‘Page upon page of unflinching cruelty, bestiality, sodomy and eye-watering torture … Proper horror gone completely nuts.‘ to quote demonik from the renowned Vault of Evil proboard. I should imagine opinions will be wildly different on this gruesome offering. For me, almost because it was written in a conventional manner with an accomplished and soundly crafted style, the impact of its atrocities was all the more distasteful. TED’S COLLECTION by Claude Lalumière is simply a superb story of isolation, fetish and eccentricity taken to terrible extremes. There were moments during the reading of it where I whimpered ‘no, don’t got there’ in a scared squeak. Terrifying. ‘What seems, at first, like a slight story, is redeemed by its powerful Roald Dahl-like twist’, Mark Samuel’s comment on NEW TEACHER by yours truly. The new teacher’s having difficulty with his class while his indifferent colleagues reflect on old times. THE IN-BETWEENERS by Tony Richards asks the question ‘Who are these amorphous teenagers hanging around the street corners.’ But do you really want to know? It’s a splendid finish to the best Black Book I have read. Polished off with my favourite Black Book cover by Paul Mudie I must make a final remark on the hidden author, Charles Black. I believe this to be the best Black Book not because the stories were better than others – far from the case. I think this was a kind of coming of age celebration for Charles Black where he really achieved a perfect balance as an editor. I found it hard to put the anthology down and more or less read it from cover to cover with interest, excitement, sorrow, distaste, laughs and most of all pure horror. Big thumbs up
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Jan 23, 2011 23:19:22 GMT
I was quite amused to see that having rated 'The Seventh Black Book of Horror' amongst my Amazon purchases, Amazon recommended the Enid Blyton 'Mallory Towers' collection. Must be based on that well-loved Mallory Towers story where the jolly hockey match is invaded by ravening ghouls, I reckon.
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Post by dem bones on Jan 24, 2011 10:33:23 GMT
happy new year/ decade to you, lurks. Steve noted elsewhere that the good spam-bots of Amazon arrive at some curious assumptions as to what those who purchased The Third Black Book Of Horror might also be up for: Spatula Recommendationcraig, i must have been AWOL when you posted it as this is the first time i've seen the conclusion to your 'vault review in abnormal spatial time continuum with a few qualifications of BB7. it's very annoying, but i agree with just about everything you've written, even down to: "I believe this to be the best Black Book not because the stories were better than others – far from the case. I think this was a kind of coming of age celebration for Charles Black where he really achieved a perfect balance as an editor." Personally, i'll always have a soft spot for the debut but each one has its moments and i reckon Charles has been on a roll from five onwards.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Jan 24, 2011 16:27:12 GMT
Thanks Dem. Number 7 was a very mature anthology in the best sense of the word. Starting to wonder when number 8 might be winging its way out of the bat cave.
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Post by Dr Terror on Jan 27, 2011 14:11:16 GMT
Starting to wonder when number 8 might be winging its way out of the bat cave. It'll be some time yet, Craig.
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Post by franklinmarsh on Jul 11, 2015 23:09:05 GMT
Jings, I've been so out of the loop with things. Thana Niveau - The Pier Tremendous stuff. So evocative of the crumbling British seaside resort in the best possible manner as here - vaultofevil.proboards.com/thread/5745/seaside-stuff?page=1It really evoked my childhood, especially walking out to sea along a pier, gazing through the cracks in the planking at the mysterious sea below. The partners with markedly different tastes, those marvellous memorial signs... Reggie Oliver - Minos Or Rhadamanthus I'm not familiar enough with M R James to make a direct comparison, but the school, the ecclesiastical overtones, albeit laced with an undercurrent of perversity, and an unexpected ending... Joel Lane - Morning’s Echo Underlining a tragic loss. Dreams or reality in piecing together the gothic girl's jigsaw? John Llewellyn Probert - It Begins at Home Not quite what I expected from the surgeon of surreal suspense, but an emotional, thought-provoking tragedy. An oblique comment on those who moan about overseas aid and think the funds could better be spent closer to home? Gary Power - Flitching’s Revenge Terrific wrong man accused melodrama, slating small minded villagers in positions of authority, although you can't help feeling for the poor girl's father, Vigilantism goes awry as it surely must... David Williamson - Rest In Pieces Deliriously evocative of the best of Pan. Wanted to cheer the dastardly 'hero' on, but you know it's going to go pear-shaped... Rog Pile - Walk To The Sea Good old Rog. A welcome subtle corner-of-the-eye, is-it-all-in-her-head tale, with great scene-setting... David A. Riley - Romero’s Children And it's off to the good ol' US of A for an alternative look at the cult of youth and beauty, gone wrong in a wildly appropriate way. Alzheimers rears its ugly head in a different way (as in Lord P's yarn). Very well done. Have just begun The Green Bath. I say, that Mrs Trelawney's a bit of a girl, isn't she?
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Post by franklinmarsh on Jul 12, 2015 15:41:02 GMT
Paul Finch - The Green Bath
What a story! I was about about make facetious remark about what red-blooded man hasn't wanted a nice warm bath with a honey appearing out of the steam in a diaphanous nightgown, but in view of what happens next that might not be wise. Plus sinister vegetation. Cracking.
Steve Rasnic Tem - Telling
Very odd little number with a frustrating non-ending.
Stephen Volk - Swell Head
More weirdness, but all of a sudden you find yourself drawn in.
Alex Langley - Walking The Dyke
Yippee! More Pan lunacy in the vein (groan) of Flitching's Revenge and Rest In Pieces. A tale celebrating the victory of hackbloodgore over quiet horror? Is there any info around on Alex Langley?
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Post by franklinmarsh on Jul 13, 2015 21:39:34 GMT
Anna Taborska - The Creaking
Anna's story sets off pleasantly enough as almost a fairy tale, with a slightly witchy hint, then brutally swerves with the introduction of a foul-mouthed drunken father, leaving us on the inexorable path to tragedy. James Stanger - Bernard Bought The Farm
I've never actually met James but we have spoken on forums and ISTR him dropping me a line about how made up he was to appear in a Black Book. He's always struck me as being a quiet, unassuming kind of chap. One of his previous stories I read, Beggar's Banquet was pretty grim, but this yarn pushes the boundaries. Inevitably hyped up by talk here and elsewhere I perhaps overcompensated and managed to keep a distance. Pecky nearly got to me, but I stepped back again and soldiered on. A true horror story. Uncompromising and genuinely disturbing. A critique of the callousness of factory farming together with an unflattering portrait of capitalism. Quite unique and affecting.
Claude Lalumière - Ted’s Collection
A twisty turny tale of mystery, with an ultimately disappointing finale.
Craig Herbertson - New Teacher
Whereas Craig's ending is very neat and out of nowhere.
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Post by franklinmarsh on Jul 14, 2015 7:30:29 GMT
Tony Richards - The In-Betweeners
And what a great finish - deffo engendering a fearful symmetry with Ms Niveau's The Pier. Tainted with sci-fi but in a good Village Of The Damned way. Empty pedestrianised town centres, youths gathering, there was so much to this story that rang bells. Particularly enjoyed the giant worm casts and the title with it's age/location meanings.
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Post by dem bones on Jul 16, 2015 6:35:02 GMT
James Stanger - Bernard Bought The Farm I've never actually met James but we have spoken on forums and ISTR him dropping me a line about how made up he was to appear in a Black Book. He's always struck me as being a quiet, unassuming kind of chap. One of his previous stories I read, Beggar's Banquet was pretty grim, but this yarn pushes the boundaries. Inevitably hyped up by talk here and elsewhere I perhaps overcompensated and managed to keep a distance. Pecky nearly got to me, but I stepped back again and soldiered on. A true horror story. Uncompromising and genuinely disturbing. A critique of the callousness of factory farming together with an unflattering portrait of capitalism. Quite unique and affecting. God, that one caused quite an over-reaction. Horrible for horrible's sake? Probably. But it makes its point in much the same way as there was always a method to Alan Timperley's sado-madness. Very glad to see some Black Book action on here. Now you've made me want to read them again. Have really good memories of #7 because Charles made up some postcards and Milan distributed them to innocent customers in Type.
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