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Post by andydecker on Aug 4, 2011 11:27:30 GMT
I ordered it today on Amazon.de . It is featured as not in stock, but I guess I will get it fast. Or never. The not in stock is tricky sometimes. But they delivered the last ones, so I am optimistic :-)
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Post by dem bones on Aug 4, 2011 13:37:20 GMT
No, no problem at all, Dem, carry on with your write up. You'd paid some time ago, so thought I might as well let you have that one rather than keep it for myself. And it's good to get a bit of publicity in advance. I offered PDFs to a few reviewers, although there wasn't much uptake, but reviews are expected to appear on the Page Horrific, and Ginger Nuts of Horror blogs, and in the Estronomicon ezine. thanks, dr. t! the rest of you, just ignore anything else i have to say about #8 until you have your copy. it shouldn't be difficult. i never read any of my shit and am far the happier for it. John Llewellyn Probert – How The Other Half Dies: After an evenings gathering of distasteful material for his next editorial, crusading journalist Duncan Drysdale and his flagrant other half Rachel return home to discover a teenage burglar turning the place over! Drysdale soon has the sniveling little oik in an armlock, but he knows better than anyone how lapse the police are in dealing with the criminal fraternity so now it is for he and Rachel to decide how best to teach young Kenny the error of his ways. Fortunately, they're old hands at the game. Judge Jeffreys - and several hundred Da*ly M*il readers - would surely approve of their uncompromising if unorthodox approach. pause to wonder what exactly it is goes on in that mysterious room at Probert Towers, decide that it is too hideous for the human mind to contemplate, swiftly move on - only to walk smack into the clutches of stony faced disciplinarians Tina & Tony Rath! Tina & Tony Rath – Casualties Of The System: More crime and punishment. Mr. Scroggins, feared 'Witchfinder General' of the Dept. of Political Awareness, investigates a young offenders' rehabilitation centre whose results are so far above the national average as to beggar belief. What have these drooling old timers been doing to achieve such a remarkable success rate? More to the point, why have their three acknowledged lost causes vanished from the face of the earth? Mr. Witherspoon and his esteemed colleagues explain all and then treat the minister to a demonstration of their black arts.
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Post by Johnlprobert on Aug 4, 2011 20:17:43 GMT
pause to wonder what exactly it is goes on in that mysterious room at Probert Towers, decide that it is too hideous for the human mind to speculate, swiftly move on I thought of all sorts of responses to this but in the end I'll just leave it at
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Post by dem bones on Aug 5, 2011 9:37:53 GMT
This next came as a pleasantly unpleasant surprise: essentially it's Bernard Taylor's Traveling Light revamped and updated for the techno age. love the ending.
Gary Fry – Behind The Screen: Jake is on business for the social services in Ipswich, two hundred miles from wife Zoe and the kids. its hardly a Midnight Express scenario, but thanks to the joys of the inter-net, Jake can prevail on Zoe to give him an eyeful via the web-cam to keep him going now it's apparent the hotel's attractive barmaid is blanking all comers. Load shot and all cleaned up, Jake nips downstairs for another pint and soon falls into conversation with a grey man who mentions something about being in 'insurance.' It's a one-sided exchange for the most part, and the more Jake drinks, the more the man of the world he becomes: "how lucky you are not to be fucking married with fucking kids" is the gist of his theme. The grey man thanks him for "downloading all that information" and drinks up. When Jake next hooks up his webcam he's in for the most appalling surprise.
Paul Finch - Tok: Lancashire hillside. There have been three grisly murders in quick succession on on the Bannerwood housing estate and, worried about his elderly mother who lives alone in the grand old house nearby, Don Presswick and his wife Berni arrange to move in with her until the police have caught the culprit. Don is ex-force himself and soon gets talking to the local cops who admit to being baffled. Whoever perpetrated these terrible crimes seems to have gained access to the victims' homes via entry points no wider than a cat flap.
Don works nights which leaves Berni with the unhappy duty of attending the old battleaxe who clearly despises her. Worse - and it might sound silly - Miriam dotes on Tok, a spectacularly hideous fetish doll (Mr. Finch excels himself in describing just how ugly this thing really is). Don explains that the doll is a Tokoloshe, given his mum by a kindly Zulu nurse when she was a little girl in Africa. Shortly afterward, Miriam witnessed the machete murders of her parents during the Mau Mau uprising. It was only the tribesmen's fear of the Tokoloshe that saved the child's life so she and Tok have been inseparable ever since.
That night another murder ...
Pushed to pick a "best" story from what is a particularly strong collection (hasn't been one i didn't get off on in some shape or form), then it would be a three way fight between Quieta Non Movere, Tok and one other ...
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Post by dem bones on Aug 6, 2011 9:30:20 GMT
it's not that i planned it like this but the running order of the book and the fact i all but synopsized The Little Pig to death in the initial outpourings means we've four women authors to finish on. Marion Pitman – Music In The Bone: One young lady's lucky escape spells doom for another. After witnessing one of his astonishing live performances, Lena falls dangerously in love with Ed, a seriously devoted musician who records as Procne. Ed has a fondness for unusual instruments - he plays a mean thigh-bone flute - and just now he's especially keen to restring his harp.
Anna Taborska - Little Pig: Those of you who were around for the big vault advent calendar last year might remember E. R. Winch's horrible war story in which a young mother faces an appalling dilemma? Ms. Taborska's latest is not a million miles removed from A La Tartare. Our unnamed heroine has just watched her husband Piotr slaughtered Cannibal Ferox-fashion by Russian soldiers, and is now whipping her beat up old horse through the forest, a pack of starving wolves at his heels. Behind in the sled, her three terrified children. What could possibly go right?
Thana Niveau - The Coal Man: As a child, Jenny would torment little sister Megan with terrible tales of the man who lives in the coal cellar. Eventually, after they've both scared each other silly, Jenny devises a prank which takes their game to a whole new spiteful level. Humiliated, Megan plots her revenge with inevitable tragic consequences. Even at my most horrible, i couldn't bring myself to reveal more, but suffice to say, this is that third joint best-in-collection i alluded to.
Not that this next and final offering is just there to make up the numbers either. Admittedly, the opening paragraph gave me 'oh no, not dark bloody fantasy vibes, but it's all plain sailing afterwards.
Kate Farrell – Mea Culpa: You're smug in your perfect marriage to Alex, sneering down from on high at all those fools who lack your brains and financial acumen and can't hold their relationships together. But there's something troubling you. Of late, you've become frighteningly accident prone. And your partner has the uncanny knack of being in the closest vicinity to witness every spillage of blood, every crunching of bone ...
and that's a take on The Eighth Black Book Of Horror. Conclusion; a number of you have a delicious treat heading your way while i, having greedily wolfed mine down, have none and i think you're rotten.
Hurry along with volume nine now, Dr. Terror, There's a good chap!
*a sincere 'very well done!' to all concerned*
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Thana Niveau
Devils Coach Horse
We who walk here walk alone.
Posts: 109
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Post by Thana Niveau on Aug 7, 2011 12:18:30 GMT
Aww, thanks, Dem! I'm glad you liked it and I'm extra chuffed to be in that threesome (oo-er!) with Reggie and Paul!
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Post by dem bones on Aug 8, 2011 6:22:55 GMT
keeping good company as ever, your magnificence. i was very taken with your gory ripper story, thought The Pier was even better, but i swear on my Guy N. Smith's The Wood mouse-mat that The Coal Man tops them both, so i think you'd better keep writing. looking forward to finding out what others make of number eight. i'm thinking it might well be the strongest to date, but doubtless someone who knows what they're on about will learn me the error of my ways!
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Post by David A. Riley on Aug 8, 2011 8:00:41 GMT
My copies arrived today, so I can start enjoying the stories in it. After reading your brilliant comments about them, Dem, I can hardly wait.
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Post by Dr Terror on Aug 11, 2011 13:50:26 GMT
I ordered it today on Amazon.de . It is featured as not in stock, but I guess I will get it fast. Or never. The not in stock is tricky sometimes. But they delivered the last ones, so I am optimistic :-) Thanks Andy. It might take a bit longer as it's new, but there shouldn't be any problem getting it.
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Post by David A. Riley on Aug 11, 2011 14:25:22 GMT
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Aug 31, 2011 17:46:55 GMT
Just finished reading this one, and thought it was a very strong collection - nothing unusual there as far as the Black Books are concerned. Unsurprisingly, I was very taken with the Jamesian goings on in Reggie Oliver's story - the glimpse of something at the window made me shudder - and I enjoyed everything that followed, but I think "The Coal Man" was the one that got to me most. Excellent, moving, and frightening.
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Thana Niveau
Devils Coach Horse
We who walk here walk alone.
Posts: 109
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Post by Thana Niveau on Sept 1, 2011 6:46:33 GMT
Aww, Lurker, you've made my day!
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Post by franklinmarsh on Aug 14, 2015 12:04:34 GMT
QUIETA NON MOVERE - Reggie Oliver
Flamin' 'eck! Reggie's there to wave me goodbye from the Lake District, and when I arrive at The Eighth Black Book Of Horror, who should open the door? Yep, it's M R James territory (not that I know much about that) and brilliantly done.
THE LAST COACH TRIP - David A. Riley
Just getting used to David's nastiness and he kind of pulls a Quiet Horror fast one. As with the opener, the writing really sets the scene beautifully, and I didn't see the ending coming.
HOME BY THE SEA - Stephen Bacon
Stephen ditches the pathos of Room Above The Shop for some social comment - the scene where something crawls out of a toilet is ultra-creepy.
BOYS WILL BE BOYS - David Williamson
I hope this is the Bernard Bought The Farm/No Such Thing As A Friendly of Vol 8 or I might possibly be waving a white flag (So early, Marsh? You wimp!) Gah! Disgusting!
BEHIND THE SCREEN - Gary Fry
Absolute corker - shame The Man In Grey With The Insect Eyes couldn't be around longer, but after the David Williamson gorefest, the left-to-the-imagination ending here is just the ticket.
Splendid opening.
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Post by franklinmarsh on Aug 17, 2015 7:49:13 GMT
THE OTHER TENANT - Mark Samuels
I found this horribly grim. I'm sure there's more to it than just the story you read. Which makes it worse.
TOK - Paul Finch
I said in my comments on the second in the series that Daniel McGachey's The Crimson Portrait was my favourite story of the Black Books. That has just been knocked down into second place by Tok. A wondeful piece of writing. I'd recently caught up with quite a few old horror films of my youth (suchas as The Witches '66, The Oblong Box, Craze) and Tok invokes elements of them all whilst bringing things bang up to date with home invasion fears whilst making sure elderly relatives are safe. Invoking the Mau Mau crisis is inspired and I liked Berni's character. Great how the whole thing changes part way through, and that ending....
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Post by dem bones on Aug 17, 2015 8:21:06 GMT
The severed head special. Bloody hell - four years ago! Honest, it really does seem like only yesterday. Amazingly, Reggie Oliver - who doesn't seem to have much of, indeed any internet presence - allowed us to include Quieta Non Movere on the most recent Vault Advent Calendar, even providing one of his beautiful illustrations for the occasion. Lovely gesture. Reckon you'd enjoy Mr. Finch's DS Mark 'Heck' Heckenberg series, FM. They're like .... Horror novels for crime fans who might not normally do horror/ Crime novels for horror fans who might not normally do crime. I still have some catching up to do as have only read the first pair, Stalkers and Sacrifice, but they're an all-action, Laymon-paced treat.
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