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Post by dem bones on Dec 2, 2011 21:42:20 GMT
Another from this late contender for best anthology i've read in 2011.
Natasha Rhodes - Crazy Train: Mickey James, bassist with the Four Comets, dead by his own handgun in a gutter outside a Sunset Strip rock club. Esmerelda, a stunningly gorgeous Goth, raises him from the ground and invites him to a very special gig, but they'll have to take the silver subway train. Mickey is confused as well he might be. How comes that hole in his head has healed in a matter of minutes? And whoever heard of a metro line in Hollywood?
They board the crowded train. Mickey recognises every one of his fellow passengers, their faces long familiar from posters and magazine covers. These commuting corpses eventually let on to him that he's joined "that stupid club" (© Courtney Love), and tonight the massed hordes of rock stars dead-before-their-time play a concert in his dishonour. Esmerelda ("Merry" to her victims) is an avenging angel, enticing the musicians she considers to be innovative to their doom. There's an underlying "my music is better than your music" snobbery that kind of grated on me, but its a fun story and you can have a good time playing spot-the-rock-legend as the train chunters relentlessly on to nowhere.
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Post by Shrink Proof on Dec 3, 2011 17:32:19 GMT
TBH, "Crazy Train" was the only story that didn't work for me in the whole anthology; I guess I just didn't find that the overall concept clicked with me. Jonathan Oliver's latest collection, "House of Fear" is, IMHO, even better, as every story scores in that one.
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Post by dem bones on Dec 3, 2011 18:44:39 GMT
TBH, "Crazy Train" was the only story that didn't work for me in the whole anthology; I guess I just didn't find that the overall concept clicked with me. i thought it had its moments, myself, but no, not my pick of the collection. Stephen Jones' criticism of The End Of The Line in the current 'Best New Horror' is that the stories are too samey, but i'm not getting that at all. Have since finished Simon Bestwick's explanation for the lack of a Manchester metro system and it's another that works for me. We'll have to see about House Of Fear. It's only recently i've got used to the idea of actually liking contemporary horror again, so i don't wanna go mad! but, must admit, it sounds a tempting proposition and Lord P.'s endorsement - "People like me will be delighted and relieved to learn that out of the 15 stories I've read so far there isn't a single impenetrable, self-indulgent, what-the-hell-was-that-supposed-to-be-about piece of self-consciously arty farty claptrap in there" - inspires confidence.
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Post by Shrink Proof on Dec 3, 2011 21:07:12 GMT
I've got a lot of time for Stephen Jones - after all, he's introduced me to all sorts of intriguing stuff - but I think he was way off the mark when he said the stories in "End of the Line" were samey.
It's a good collection. "Houses of Fear" is a VERY good collection. You won't be wasting your hard-earned on it. Having said that, if you feel it doesn't come up with the goods, don't go looking to me for a refund...
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Post by David A. Riley on Dec 4, 2011 12:43:42 GMT
"there isn't a single impenetrable, self-indulgent, what-the-hell-was-that-supposed-to-be-about piece of self-consciously arty farty claptrap in there."
Trust JLP to sum that sort of stuff up in a nice crisp sentence!
I'm afraid I've had to abandon far too many recently published books that have been recommended to me because of that - though I am far too considerate to name any names. (Besides, I might get waylaid at a future convention!)
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Post by dem bones on Dec 5, 2011 21:14:34 GMT
is that novels or anthologies, Mr R? i can't comment on the former, but i have to say if those few contemporary horror anthologies i've read these past two-three years are typical, then the corpse is showing some very encouraging twitches.
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Post by dem bones on Dec 23, 2011 10:18:45 GMT
Finally got me a copy of The End Of The Line yesterday in Forbidden Planet on Shaftesbury Avenue (they didn't have House Of Fear). It's a present from the lovely bride of, so i'm not allowed to open it 'til Sunday or it will "ruin the surprise." Good job i renewed the library book. Paul Meloy - Bullroarer: Noel finally gets his revenge on rotten conniving Pascal, the boy who tempted him into a kiss at school, then made his days such a misery that he blew his exams, took a factory job at the first opportunity and effectively ruined his life. The instrument of Noel's vengeance arrives in the unlikely form of Dion, the beautiful, phenomenally well-hung sculptor who has made off with his wife, Erica. Six weeks into a drinking binge and racked by flu, Noel receives a visitation from Dion - resplendent in just the skimpy loin cloth and brandishing a wooden phallus - in an otherwise empty tube compartment. Seems, just as the perpetually orgasmic Eric claimed, Dion really is a deity among men, and now he's made it his business to liberate Noel. Some nasty piece of work will become a male-on-male tube rape statistic very shortly ...
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Post by dem bones on Feb 4, 2015 10:00:11 GMT
Found a second copy of The End Of The Line in local charity shop recently, previous owner, a compulsive ticker off and crosser-outer, but am not too disappointed as the scribbled-in edition makes for ideal companion on tube journeys. The following modern classic (honest) made for an engrossing read on otherwise dreary recent trek to Ruislip Manor.
Stephen Volk - In The Colosseum: "Nothing is healthy. Everything is sick. We see panther-like women newsreaders telling us stuff but all we want to do is fuck them. Mess up their perfect hair and make-up and rip their perfect clothes ...."
Simon Guest, the celebrated, very hands-on TV producer, is much despised and feared within the industry, making it all the more essential that he keep his powerful sycophants onside. Guest is nothing if not a master of exotic entertainment, and for tonight's diversion he's commandeered the security control room at Oxford Circus tube station. For reluctant first timer Marcus, a picture editor on Guest's latest production, the experience proves a game-changer like no other. He and the other lucky lackeys get to gather around the CCTV monitors and wank off to live action snuff movies as Guest's hired psychos prowl the platforms in search of lone revellers who've missed their last train. Highlights include the frenzied stabbing and beating of a homosexual and the multiple rape of a drunk and isolated hen-nighter. "The only thing worth preserving is honesty, even if that honesty is the honesty of the swamp. The mud and dirt that is human beings."
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Post by ohthehorror on Feb 5, 2015 17:29:28 GMT
I've just ordered this from 'Sunrise books' via Amazon for the princely sum of £0.01. Can't argue with prices like that. I'm really looking forward to this one. There's just something special about a good train/underground based theme.
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Post by dem bones on Feb 10, 2015 6:31:07 GMT
I've just ordered this from 'Sunrise books' via Amazon for the princely sum of £0.01. Can't argue with prices like that. I'm really looking forward to this one. There's just something special about a good train/underground based theme. Has your copy turned up yet? If so I hope you get/ are getting as big a kick from End Of The Line as I have so far. Am off to embark on a non-Vault related research project (i.e. proper facts & dates, absence of guesswork, etc.) at the gloriously named Headstone Manor in witchy Wealdstone today, so long tube journey should provide ideal opportunity for a dip into the remaining stories.
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Post by ohthehorror on Feb 10, 2015 10:51:57 GMT
I've just ordered this from 'Sunrise books' via Amazon for the princely sum of £0.01. Can't argue with prices like that. I'm really looking forward to this one. There's just something special about a good train/underground based theme. Has your copy turned up yet? If so I hope you get/ are getting as big a kick from End Of The Line as I have so far. Am off to embark on a non-Vault related research project (i.e. proper facts & dates, absence of guesswork, etc.) at the gloriously named Headstone Manor in witchy Wealdstone today, so long tube journey should provide ideal opportunity for a dip into the remaining stories. Got notification this morning that it's waiting for me at parcel motel at this very moment. My wife's picking it up for me at some point today (12 hour shifts you know). Probably won't get much chance to give it a proper read much before the weekend but I'll post some thoughts here as I go. Am really looking forward to it now.
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Post by ohthehorror on Feb 11, 2015 21:43:46 GMT
Well, after coming home late yesterday evening and ripping open the package like it was my last day on earth I did my usual flick back and forth, followed by a good hard sniff of the thing inside and out and finally examined the 'Coventry City Libraries' sticker in much more detail than it probably deserved(just because...) before making up my mind to read at least one of the stories that very night, almost certainly in bed.
I dispensed with my usual method of reading the stories in order and throwing caution to the wind, decided upon 'Siding 13 by James Lovegrove', mainly because there's a bit early on where our man Marcus finds himself squashed up against 'the pretty girl' in a carriage that is already full to bursting and just keeps getting fuller and fuller as it trundles from station to station. On the down side, he also has a fat banker to the rear, which can't be a good thing. Marcus is a comic book artist, or graphic novelist if you will, and is on his way to Whaam!! comics HQ in central London to pitch his wares. It's been a good while since I've been on the underground(I've been in Ireland now for 7 years odd and didn't actually live in London in the first place, at least not for long anyway) but readily remember the tube travelling above ground and below, which on my first trip quite surprised me.
So everyone's squashed in pretty tight and it's not long before passengers that do wish to alight find themselves not only unable to do so but most are even struggling to breath. The fat man's the first to go, followed before too long by practically half the carriage. Not to worry though, the powers that be have a fail-safe method of dealing with just such an occasion, and it's called Siding 13, and it's not good news. The doors shut, the lights go out and...
This story also has one of the best quotable bits ever. I'm looking forward to crow-baring this into the first conversation I can get away with,
I loved this one. It reminded me of all the best and worst bits of the London Underground all at the same time, and I'm always a sucker for a story that begins by squashing it's protagonist up against 'the pretty girl'. I could very nearly see her and smell her perfume wafting up off the page. I'd like to have seen it build the tension a bit more for a bit longer especially given the setting of the tube train, but nit-picking aside, I really enjoyed it. It had that sense of panic-y, 'I'm helpless... I can't get out... aaaarggghh!!' followed a little later by that strange sense of resignation as the lights go out and the realisation dawns that perhaps Commandant Beck might not have been quite as sincere as his little calming smile might have indicated.
A very good one to start us off then.
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Post by ohthehorror on Feb 13, 2015 9:39:20 GMT
Next up is a little offering called Bullroarer by Paul Meloy, a vicious tale of vengeance and regret. Noel, bullied as a child by a boy he fell in love with is given his chance to even the score when a man called Dion enters his life, complete with large wooden phallus and a penchant for smearing grapes over his naked body. After chastising Noel for repressing his beautiful, Goddess of a wife for two decades with his narrow-minded and prejudiced outlook on life and then telling him that his only success was his underachievement, he proceeds to give him a good clump about the head with his Bullroarer. From this moment on, Noel then allows himself to become a channel for Dion's vengeance, describes as liberation here though. Anyway, we're now treated to a flashback of the events that led up to Noel's lack of go-get-em attitude in life, which Dion seems to have taken such offence to, before they both corner the unfortunate Pascal on the tube and we witness Noel exacting his revenge with the aid of a large, divine, wooden dildo. It's all very well done and has that air of seediness that just seems to fit nicely with the setting. It's never going to be one of my favourites but I can't fault it for doing it's job, and it does, after all, do it very well. I'm not sure I entirely got the next one. I understood most of it I think, but 23:45 Morden (via Bank) by Rebecca Levene has a few, 'hang on now... what?', moments for me. It's one of those stories that enjoys messing with your head, and clearly it's done a good job with mine. From what I can make out(and from what Dem said too), Adam is the unwitting victim of a tramp who 'borrows' his life and then proceeds to wreck it before returning it at the end. Here's where I get confused though. I get that Adam is acting strange due to him effectively being possessed by the tramp, but what's with the strange way that other people he knows acting so weird. Here's a few examples: - Angela on reception acts/is upset about Adam getting it in the neck from his boss due to his alleged sexual harassment of her, she even hugs him and has a tear in her eye as she does so, but then whispers to him, 'Nobody wants you here.' and, 'Why don't you just go away?'. Surely it should be one or the other, or is she just acting upset for him while people in the office are watching only to whisper the truth to him when they can't hear? I don't know if this worked for me.
- Mrs Matthews takes a hammer to Pickles, smashing his little head in and keeping him in her bag. When Adam realises what she's done she just acts like it's a perfectly normal thing to do. It's like she's completely oblivious to the heinous act of violence she's just committed. Is this the tramp jumping temporarily into other people to make them do these things or..., I dunno.
I think what's confusing me most is that I can understand Adam himself acting strange and doing weird things, but why are other people around him acting so strangely? Angela contradicting herself in the same sentence, almost like she's two different people at once, and then Mrs Matthews' irrational and it has to be said, psychopathic actions regarding Pickles. It's very confusing.
So, I really liked the premise here, and once again it felt like a really good use of the gritty, grimy underground kind of setting what with the tramp and all, but then I'm left with the feeling that everyone's in on the joke except me. I almost felt like the author was poking me and saying, 'Hah, hah. You're stupid. You don't get it.', and she's probably right too, which makes it even worse. Oh well, onward!
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Post by ohthehorror on Feb 13, 2015 10:30:39 GMT
Almost forgot about this one, and it's the title story. End of the Line by Jasper Bark. This is one of those unreliable narrator types as far as I can tell. Another one that's intent on messing with my head, although I'm pleased to say I got a much better hold of this one right from the start. It reminds me a little of a book called 'Psychic Warrior by David Morehouse', a true account of the CIA's remote viewing program.
So, we're led to believe from the start that our man's John Sanger. He's a Chrononaut, which is essentially a psychic time traveler, one of a group that make up a kind of group mind and use their abilities to see through the eyes of anyone, anywhere in time(and space I presume) to learn about and actually experience history as it happens. This isn't a new idea(see the book I mention above, or any number of occult tomes), but it's an enjoyable little jaunt that you'd almost expect to get a little too repetitive given our protagonist's situation but happily it doesn't. It trundles along at quite a pace and we're gradually allowed to see more and more of what's really happening(or so we think) as John keeps ignoring the voices behind that old door with the peeling paintwork and continues to try and alter his bloody future by entering the train over and over again until finally he realises that he's just going to have to open that door after all. He does so in the end only to find, as we do, that he wasn't who he thought he was after all, and then the situation really takes a turn for the worse. And the intestinal tube map is just inspired.
These first four have been great. All different, all very well planned and executed and a real pleasure to read. I may end up having to re-read the odd one here or there at the end of it all(I'm looking at you Rebecca!), but that's not a bad thing of course. I'm loving them so far. All of them.
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Post by ohthehorror on Feb 14, 2015 15:55:36 GMT
I'm not usually a great fan of ghost stories, and so it says a lot for The Girl in the Glass by John L. Probert that I enjoyed it so much. Tom is travelling on the tube to meet up with his friend Mike when he sees a young woman's refection in the window opposite even though there's nobody but him left on the train. This happens again when he next use the train and even moving seats, carriages and even trains isn't able to stop it. After almost being dragged under the train on a subsequent journey he decides to avoid using the tube at all and visits a woman who runs a strange little shop called 'Eleanor's Alchemy' where he learns all about the God's who own the land and how they demand payment in the form of a sacrifice from time to time, and that since the young woman isn't actually dead she can still attempt to find another to take her place. Hence her interest in Tom.
I like the nod toward old gods and sacrifice. It's always good to be reminded that there are those older, darker more primitive aspects to life than most of us are aware of much of the time. Makes you feel like there's something just below the surface that might just take an interest in you should it take their fancy. There's something quite threatening about that, something that makes you realise that you're basically fucked if it were to ever glance in your direction. Anyway, Tom reluctantly decides that if she's attempting to kill him in a bid to make him the sacrifice then he'd better kill her first. Unfortunately plain old murder doesn't cut it and he realises too late that he's not only made a big mistake, but has in fact made things a whole lot worse for himself.
If you're a fan of ghost stories then I'd imagine they don't get much better than this. It has that wonderful feel to it that there's something dangerous lurking just beneath the surface of life. Atmosphere counts for a lot for me in any horror story, and this has plenty.
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