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Post by franklinmarsh on Nov 9, 2018 13:58:05 GMT
Someone else on this planet has also read Waldrop? Few are the blessed. Great vampire story too. I recall the coach riding over undulating streets. I shall be later, Albie. Looking forward to it.
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Post by franklinmarsh on Nov 9, 2018 14:01:11 GMT
Beyond Any Measure is class. Needle frontman, Nemo Skagg, a Syd Barrett - Sid Vicious hybrid, returns to hang around Kensington Market in KEW's Did They Get You To Trade. I always wanted a t-shirt with Barrett and Vicious on it - and Sid James. What with the appalling Eddie Teeth, KEW has a penchant for apt names. Will look out for more. Needle weren't going down too well at the booze and gear beano. I hung around Kensington Market once. I think it would have suited him.
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Post by andydecker on Nov 9, 2018 20:43:24 GMT
Beyond any Measure is also one of my favorite KEW tales. It would have made a good Hammer movie.
Along Neither Brute Nor Human and River of Night's Dreaming. Closely followed by Where the Summer Ends, which is actually creepy. Often when I see the public greenery along the streets or highways I shudder to think what lives in them under the bushes.
Strangely I don't care much for Sticks. Always thought that the ending is tacked on and ruins the story.
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Post by andydecker on Nov 9, 2018 20:49:11 GMT
Someone else on this planet has also read Waldrop? Few are the blessed. Great vampire story too. I recall the coach riding over undulating streets. A few tales. I really liked them.
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Post by franklinmarsh on Nov 11, 2018 21:14:53 GMT
Howard Waldrop – Der Untergang des Abendlandesmenschen: Billy The Kid Versus Dracula is probably weird enough for most tastes, but just in case, here are William S. Hart and his Watson, Bronco Billy' Anderson transported to pre WWII Berlin to combat Nosferatu. Unfortunately, hangers-on Adolph, Hermann, Ernst, Joseph and Martin are on hand to pick up tips and they are fast learners. Kim Newman has made a career of alt-history fantasies, but rarely (never?) to such dark ends. I kind of enjoyed this, but it's seriously strange.I think I need to look up some of the peripheral characters to see where they fit in. The ending is very disturbing, whereas most of the story has been daft with a side order of odd. Beware of the flickering.
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Post by franklinmarsh on Nov 12, 2018 12:31:49 GMT
So frehazzled by the Waldrop almost forgot to conclude
M. R. James – An Episode of Cathedral History
The discovery of a tomb in Southminster Cathedral during renovations despite the more elderly clerics' warnings leads to unearthly crying in the night, a shadow accompanied by red glowing 'eyes' and a general malaise amongst those who frequent the religious edifice. Talky but dripping with atmos and low key horror.
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Post by franklinmarsh on Nov 13, 2018 4:20:54 GMT
"Peter Tremayne - Dracula's Chair: The narrator's wife purchased it from an Essex antique dealer who'd landed it when the furniture from a certain asylum in Purfeet went to auction. Our man takes an instant dislike to the ugly chair, but to avoid arguments, dumps it in his study. It is more comfortable than he'd suspected, and he dozes off .... to reawaken in Cairfax Abbey as drooling, straitjacketed lunatic Upton Welford (the debonair Victorian gent turned vampire hunter in Tremayne's novel, The Revenge Of Dracula). Kindly Dr. Seward is striving in vain to cure his patients 'delusion' that he's being persecuted by vampires. To make matters worse, Dracula is determined to prolong his fiendish revenge on Welford over several nights.
Originally written as the epilogue to The Revenge Of Dracula but Tremayne reconsidered and gave it to - what was he thinking ?!!!- the C**nt Dr*cula F** Club for use in one of their publications instead. "
Dem says it all.
Hee! Nice to read a simple, straightforward tale for a change! This volume is most entertaining and thought-provoking. Viva Jonesy. And Pete. Can't help wondering if the narrator's wife should show up on Antiques Roadshow one day. "It's from Eastern Europe...."
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Post by franklinmarsh on Nov 14, 2018 8:33:28 GMT
"Graham Masterton – Laird of Dunain: Mr. Morrisey takes his art class on a field trip in the Scottish Highlands to practice landscape painting. The Laird, who has put his castle at their disposal, takes a shine to young Claire and offers to sit for her. Claire struggles to do his deathly pallor justice. He explains that the Dunain's are notoriously ashen on account of an ancestor, slaughtered by Cumberland's men at Culloden in 1746, who vowed to make the English pay a million times over for every drop of blood he lost that day. His corpse was never recovered. Comes the day when Claire nicks her finger with a scalpel .."
Now this was a complete blast. Further to Dem's comments above, Claire's nicking herself with a scalpel leads to her blood mixing with the paints, and the Laird's portrait takes on a...er...healthier glow. But the next morning, it has returned to it's former ashen pallor. More blood required? This is a romp, with an hilariously gory payoff.
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Post by andydecker on Nov 14, 2018 18:04:20 GMT
I really have to revisit this sometime.
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Post by fritzmaitland on Oct 14, 2019 22:48:52 GMT
E.F. Benson - The Room In The Tower
Flamin' 'Eck. My admiration for Mr Benson continues to grow. Jonesy mutters that this is one of his best in the intro, and he's not kidding (and he knows his onions). What a shudder-fest! When our man reaches out from his bed and touches the picture frame...bbbrrrrrrr!!! And there's worse to come...the ending's not great but it's a marvellous journey.
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Post by fritzmaitland on Nov 3, 2019 23:29:47 GMT
R. Chetwynd-Hayes The Labyrinth. Young Rosemary and Brian are out hiking on the moors when they come across an old house in the middle of nowhere. This is no ordinary house - and there's a charming old dear sat outside who offers them tea - and a room for the night as the shadows lengthen. What of Carlo, the lupine manservant? The portrait of the old girl's husband? And the horrible groaning noise that seems to emanate from the very house itself? An unusual vampire story to say the least.
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Post by pstjmack on Jan 6, 2020 12:11:46 GMT
Almost anything by Stephen Jones is usually worth a look, because he is so conscious about what he does, as opposed to floating in the abyss between horror and weird.
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