|
|
Post by ohthehorror on Dec 31, 2014 9:24:04 GMT
Being the new-boy, I wasn't sure whether to add my thoughts to demonik's thread or start another so I thought it safer to put them here. I'm 6 stories in so far and am really enjoying it.
Schrodinger's Human - I very nearly gave up on this one before it got going but I managed to wade on through the animal cruelty and pretty soon came out the other side into good, honest 'full-blown' psychopath stuff. I'll not forget that unfortunate butterfly in a hurry though. The young ladies for some reason I can more or less take in my stride, but the poor little critters? And so I felt quite justified in thinking, fuck him! at the end. So, an emotional ride what with the disgust, a worrying feeling of eroticism and a justifiably smug cat to finish. I'll always remember that butterfly though.
Little Pig - This one read a lot like a Grimm's Fairy Tale to me. It has snow, which is good, and wolves, which are even better, and a little old lady who gives us a nice little lesson in the art of sacrifice. I'm not much for the Fairy Tale style ordinarily but this was cute, and I like stories with a message.
Fish - This story is the reason I bought this book. I read it first on this very site's Vault Advent Calendar for 2013 and was overjoyed to find the author had a collection out, which arrived yesterday. I'm never sure how much to say since I'm hopeless at deciding where and when to use the spoiler thingy so I'm erring on the side of more general feelings about each story, but suffice to say this is a true gem and one I'll be re-reading many, many times. I've always longed to find the joy in H P Lovecraft that so many others seem to, but it strikes me that if I ever do then this little beauty will probably remind me of him. I'm not sure that even made sense but anyway... This is one of those stories that makes me check myself periodically to see if the seaweed has disentangled itself from my poisonous spines yet, or if my eyes are quite as bulbous as I'd like, only to find I'm still disappointingly human. It's a fantastic tale of transformation and vengeance that manages to inject a little humour into the guts of it all, and the way in which the author brings it all together is inspired. This is a real treat and if it hasn't already won awards somewhere then I think it's only a matter of time.
Buy a Goat for Christmas - There's something to be said for the simple life. Take Pierre for example and his wonderful ambition to be able to say, 'Your Mother sucks cocks in Hell' in every language on Earth. There's something to be said for such simplicity I think. We meet him admiring an old tank that's to be stripped down and made into farm implements and the like. Alicia, who is travelling with the volunteers bringing the goodies to the village, has been attacked by a vicious, possibly rabid dog. Or has she? Aha! So what we have here is a girly-werewolf then, and what a wonderful young lady-wolf she turns out to be, smelling the flowers as she snacks on unattended babies and the like. Pierre to the rescue then, and he does it in some style too. I don't think I've ever seen a werewolf dispatched in quite so definitive a manner before, and doubt I will again.
Cut - As good as it is to be drawn into a really horrific or grim story, sometimes it's just nice to kick back and have a bit of a chuckle, especially when it has an element of good old horror to it and this story ticks those boxes very nicely. I'm sure characters in short stories aren't always easy to bring to life but by the end of this one I felt like I'd known Eli, Nicki and Sylvia in particular all my life. I was smiling all the way through this story, right up to the director's final cut!
Arthur's Cellar - I love a good beast in the cellar yarn. I devoured Richard Laymon's Beast House Trilogy, loving every second. The difference here is that I didn't see the ending coming at all, not for one single solitary moment, which for me is one of those great pleasures when reading a short story. I never expect it, nor look for it, but it's lovely when it strikes you unexpectedly like that.
A third of the way through and not a single duff one amongst them. I'm really enjoying them so far.
|
|
|
|
Post by dem on Dec 31, 2014 18:44:43 GMT
Great stuff, Mr. Horror. I'm very glad, but not the least surprised you're enjoying " ... Monsters." As to Fish. When I first plucked up sufficient shamelessness to approach Anna about the possibility of running one of her stories on the calendar, she very kindly gave me the run of the collection (talk about spoilt for choice). Fish suggested itself as ideal because, not only is it a brilliant horror story, it holds appeal to various factions of the board; something for the golden age of pulp fans, the E.C. comic diehards, the give-me-Guy. N. Smith-or-give-me-death brigade, and former postmen is pretty rare, but Fish ticks every box. Certain other stories have the cruel streak of a Charles Birkin or Dino Buzzati about them, or so it seems to me. The good news is, for some time now there has been talk of a second collection so we live in hope. I'm never sure how much to say since I'm hopeless at deciding where and when to use the spoiler thingy so I'm erring on the side of more general feelings about each story To be honest, it really is far too late for this board to worry about spoilers, but the plug-in is still very useful for those occasions when you're discussing the finer points of a story with others who have read it. "New-boy"? Survive a month on Vault and you're already verging on veteran status. Happy new year! |
|
|
|
Post by ohthehorror on Dec 31, 2014 20:35:55 GMT
...The good news is, for some time now there has been talk of a second collection so we live in hope. Happy new year! That's just about the best start to the new year I could hope for then. I'll take it as a good omen. And Happy new year to you too. |
|
|
|
Post by dem on Jan 8, 2015 14:37:45 GMT
This is a real treat and if it hasn't already won awards somewhere then I think it's only a matter of time. To best of my knowledge, Fish has yet to win an award, but the For Those Who Dream Monsters collection landed the Dracula Society's Children Of The Night award for "the best piece of literature published in the Gothic (including horror or supernatural) genre - novel, short story, or biography - during 2013." Here, in all its glory, the hand-crafted trophy, designed and created by Drac Soc stalwart Vince Mattocks.  Photo: Julia KrukPrevious winners include Vault favourites as Lord John L. Probert, Reggie Oliver, Chris Priestley and Ramsey Campbell, so fair play to the Dracula Society, they obviously recognises the proper stuff when they see it. Many thanks to Julia for allowing us to reproduce her photograph. |
|
|
|
Post by ohthehorror on Jan 9, 2015 16:53:54 GMT
That's a great looking award.
Well, I've read some more of this now. Here's the latest,
The Apprentice - This one was interesting. It seems to be a lesson in how passivity and submission can overcome persistent violence and brutality even to the point of causing real and actual change in a person that would probably otherwise have been considered a lost cause, or too far gone to change. Very interesting.
The Girl in the Blue Coat - Oh my! This was a little too real for my liking. The short stories I've read in the past have always tended to have that general air of detachment. What I mean is that I can nearly always take that little mental step back and enjoy the horror from that slight remove(if I'm feeling a bit wimpish). I found it difficult to do that with this one. It was all too real. And that's in no way a criticism of course, on the contrary, it's all too uncommon I think to come across stories that cut off your mental escape route like this and force you to face it all head-on whether you want to or not.
A Tale of Two Sisters
I. Rusalka - Being simultaneously beautiful and terrible at the same time must be a wonderful thing to be, and no doubt to experience. So maybe you won't necessarily survive such terrible beauty, but you'll be in no doubt at all that you lived. Anyway, I found this one to lean more towards the beautiful than the terrible, even if his obsessive longing for the girl does lead him nose first into a watery grave. I felt all his heartrending pain and every last ounce of desperation as he drove himself on in search of her. That's my kind of obsession.
II. First Night - This one flits back and forth between different times. It's done quite well and is a great little tale of vengeance, showing us the Rusalka in a different form. I particularly enjoyed these two, but especially 'Part I' which I still find heartrending every time I so much as think of it. Another couple for the re-read list then.
Halloween Lights - I'm a bit stupid sometimes. Just look what I thought 'Love at First Sight' was about(...eeek!). Anyway, I'm pretty sure this is about someone who's dying and having a kind of vision or Out Of The Body experience after having crashed his car. Something is following him, a shadowy presence, while he goes looking for Alice(presumably his young lady?). He eventually comes round in his burning car speared by a piece of blackened metal as he watches the shadowy presence through the windscreen, and continues pining for his beloved Alice as he dies. I love a bit of yearning with my horror, and there's a real sense of desperation and longing here that's really very touching.
The Coffin - I found this one mildly amusing in a creepy, edge of your seat kind of way. Jack, a man that doesn't seem to appreciate how lucky he is to have inherited a house next to a cemetery is plagued by a coffin that seems to be following him around. Suffice to say, he ends his days drained of blood with the remains of an old coffin in a little pile at the foot of his bed. I smiled...
The Creaking - This reminded me a little tiny bit of a film I particularly love called 'The Company of Wolves'. I don't really know why exactly because they're quite different stories. Maybe it's the woods. Anyway, this also has a girl called Alice in it. This worries me because I'm now wondering if I'm supposed to have linked this Alice to the Alice of 'Halloween Lights'. Hmmm..., think it's a coincidence, but then there is that ominous creaking sound she keeps hearing, like something's following her, a lot like the shadowy presence in 'Halloween Lights'. Maybe our two Alices are linked in some way after all!? I'm not really much of a witch story kind of person actually when all's said and done, but once again the atmosphere conjured up by the Author is wonderful and really draws you in. And then there are those little teases with the creaking here and the shadowy presence previously. Or I could just be reading too much into it.
|
|
|
|
Post by ohthehorror on Jan 18, 2015 15:56:18 GMT
The last few stories now.
Dirty Dybbuk - I remember this one from one of the Vault Advent Calendars too. I'm always a sucker for a bit of sexiness in my stories and this didn't disappoint. A nice little tale of a young girl afflicted with the spirit of a dybbuk and so just can't help herself when it comes to sex, eventually finds herself not only cured but helps another young woman and her man along the way. The dybbuk seems perfectly happy too.
The Underbelly - Anna has cancer. It's spread and she's in terrible pain. Happily, she meets a creature in the basement(underbelly?) of the building she's living in who can remove her pain as long as she keeps him supplied with tasty morsels to eat(heh, heh!) Of course, once she's dragged away by the police and finds herself in a cell the creature has no more use for her.
Tea With the Devil - This came across as a cozy little story involving Lucifer visiting his friend one night. They get around to the subject of whether it's possible for him(the devil) to be redeemed in the eyes of God and finishes up with him drawing some thugs away from his friends place in order to keep him from harm. Is this the start of his redemption?
Elegy - I'll come back to this.
Bagpuss - *sigh* I'm now very depressed after reading this. I have four cats myself and felt every bit of sadness and despair that Emily did. Every little worry about her cat Bagpuss hit me just as hard as it did her and to be honest, I was(probably unjustifiably) glad when her Mum copped it at Emily's hands. Poor Bagpuss. God I'm depressed.
I loved this collection, even though stories involving animals coming to sad ends really depress me. I reserve the right to skip any sad animal stories in future. Highly recommended.
|
|
|
|
Post by dem on Jan 18, 2015 16:20:04 GMT
Now that's what I call a review! Was wondering what you'd make of Bagpuss. To my mind, I think it's the very best of Anna's stories to date, certainly the one that first set me to raving about her work, though I'll grant you, its not exactly sunny side up. The Creaking is not dissimilar to a 'Philip Murray' story, Hangman's Cottage, in one of the Creeps collections, except Ms Taborska's tale is even grimmer. I love Dirty Dybbuk. There's something so gleefully mischievous about it, and, located toward the end of a brilliant collection of mostly painful and pessimistic stories, its like walking into an ambush.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us!
|
|
