F G Cottam

[Mike Brough]

I've just finished reading Cottam's Colony trilogy.  And it's great.  Although the writing is very much 21st Century, it also feels very much like the first half of the 20th Century.  It's well worth reading.  My 'paid for' - a preview copy - review of the final installment (what a slut , I am):

For those who have read the first two books in this trilogy, don't hesitate: buy this book now and read it tonight. With the lights down low. And a large whisky or glass of Chablis to hand. For those who haven't read the first two books a) you have a treat ahead of you and b) what are you reading this for? Just buy them.



The quality of the writing, the story and the characterisation are, if anything, better than anything Mr Cottam has written so far. Ruthie remains one of the best characters in modern horror fiction. She's interesting, she's intelligent and she's ballsy. And she likes a fag and a drink. How could any red-blooded male, or female, not fall in love with her? Will she and her raggedy party survive? Depends what you mean by 'survive'.



This final episode has more of an adventure-story feel about it but that's to be expected as a story of this kind moves towards its climax. The resolution of this tale of baleful magic, horror, redemption and revenge is... terrifying... and beautiful... and very, very moving. My vision was a bit blurry a few times over the last few page. A beautiful goodnight kiss of a final chapter.



There are only a few horror writers of the 21st Century that I feel can tell a good, engaging horror story. F G Cottam is right there at the top of the list.


For the rest of us?  Ruthie?  God, yes.  Mr Cottam has 'invented' the 21st Century Louise Brooks .  I pine.

[Swampirella]

Oct 22, 2016 20:15:25 GMT Mike Brough said:

I've just finished reading Cottam's Colony trilogy.  And it's great.  Although the writing is very much 21st Century, it also feels very much like the first half of the 20th Century.  It's well worth reading.  My 'paid for' - a preview copy - review of the final installment (what a slut , I am):

For those who have read the first two books in this trilogy, don't hesitate: buy this book now and read it tonight. With the lights down low. And a large whisky or glass of Chablis to hand. For those who haven't read the first two books a) you have a treat ahead of you and b) what are you reading this for? Just buy them.



The quality of the writing, the story and the characterisation are, if anything, better than anything Mr Cottam has written so far. Ruthie remains one of the best characters in modern horror fiction. She's interesting, she's intelligent and she's ballsy. And she likes a fag and a drink. How could any red-blooded male, or female, not fall in love with her? Will she and her raggedy party survive? Depends what you mean by 'survive'.



This final episode has more of an adventure-story feel about it but that's to be expected as a story of this kind moves towards its climax. The resolution of this tale of baleful magic, horror, redemption and revenge is... terrifying... and beautiful... and very, very moving. My vision was a bit blurry a few times over the last few page. A beautiful goodnight kiss of a final chapter.



There are only a few horror writers of the 21st Century that I feel can tell a good, engaging horror story. F G Cottam is right there at the top of the list.


For the rest of us?  Ruthie?  God, yes.  Mr Cottam has 'invented' the 21st Century Louise Brooks .  I pine.

I just discovered Cottam; really enjoyed "House of Lost Souls" and "The Lazarus Prophecy"

[Dr Strange]

I've read a few of his novels:

House of Lost Souls is definitely my favourite - "old-fashioned black magic romp" is how we ended up describing it here: vaultofevil.proboards.com/post/18484/thread

Dark Echo I also liked - it's a bit like House of Lost Souls, but with a haunted boat instead of a haunted house. As with House of Lost Souls, he added some real historical details (this time around WW1) that made the story much more convincing than it might otherwise have been.

The Waiting Room has some weird "time slip" stuff going on in it (WW1 again), along with a fake TV "psychic investigator" (ex-military) who gets the crap scared out of him when he realises he's dealing with genuine supernatural phenomena, and an ending that took me (at least) completely by surprise: vaultofevil.proboards.com/post/27176/thread

The Magdalena Curse I don't remember a lot about, except that it had something to do with a young boy becoming possessed after his father is cursed by a witch in the South American jungle, where he was taking part in some dodgy special forces operations. Yet another ex-soldier being attacked by dark occult forces - I think I was starting to lose interest by this point.

Brodmaw Bay was a big disappointment - it seemed to promise the perfect mash-up between Wicker Man-style British folk horror and Lovecraftian cosmic horror, but (in my opinion) it was spoiled by too much padding and a completely irrelevant backstory. Pedantic quibbles abounded - detective policemen wore uniforms, paleontologists were confused with archaeologists, etc.

I also read his novelization of the 2011 Hammer stalker film The Resident - it didn't do much for me, but I'd already seen the film which probably didn't help: vaultofevil.proboards.com/post/38430/thread