|
Post by Shrink Proof on Jan 4, 2019 13:21:49 GMT
Thanks, Shrink Proof, for mentioning Tenebrous Tales. I had never heard of the book, nor of author Christopher Barker. I found this interesting review of the book from 2010: nullimmortalis.wordpress.com/2010/10/31/tenebrous-tales-by-christopher-barker/It seems as if the book is now available only in an electronic edition. It might make for an interesting follow-up for me to Elizabeth Walter. Evidently, Christopher Barker used to be on the Vault, possibly in the pre-Pro Board days, and was described as "controversial." You're welcome. I wasn't aware that Christopher Barker used to frequent this museum of madness (or maybe Vault 1.0), but it doesn't surprise me. Funnily enough, I'm about to read Elizabeth Walter's "The Spirit of the Place", as I thought it would segue well after "Tenebrous Tales".
|
|
|
Post by helrunar on Jan 4, 2019 15:07:33 GMT
That's cool, Shrink Proof. Great minds, etc.
I still have a few Elizabeth stories to read. I really like her voice as a writer. I'm at a point now where the voice, the textures, and the atmosphere are the most significant elements in what I read by around 500 percent. The story or plot or whatever is way way back towards the exit door of the bus at this point. Though I can still be surprised by a plot twist on rare occasion.
New Year's joy to you and yours,
Hel
|
|
|
Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Jan 4, 2019 17:50:11 GMT
It'll probably be well into 2019 before I get a chance to read most of the books I bought published in 2018, so many of my picks are simply books I read during the year that were released pre-2018. And I don't go to the cinema much to see new films, or read many novels, so my films and novels of the year are a limited selection. And I'll have missed out some stuff in various categories that'll come back to me later, no doubt.
Anthologies: A Ghosts & Scholars Book of Folk Horror - Edited by Rosemary Pardoe Best British horror 2018 - Edited by Johnny Mains
Collections: Revenants & Maledictions - Peter Bell This is Not a Picture - Howard David Ingham Friends of the Dead - James Doig Help the Witch - Tom Cox Malevolent Visitants - C.E. Ward Seven Ghosts and One Other - C.E. Ward
Novels: The Stones of Muncaster Cathedral - Robert Westall
Non-Fiction: The Black Pilgimage & Other Explorations - Rosemary Pardoe We Are the Martians (Deluxe Edition) - Edited by Neil Snowdon
Films: Ghost Stories The Lodgers The Secret of Marrowbone
Television: The League of Gentlemen Inside No.9 Live Hallowe'en Special The Dead Room The Haunting of Hill House
Radio: The Road The Haunting of M.R. James
DVD & BluRay: Night of the Demon Doctor Who: Season 12 Quatermass and the Pit (BBC) The Changeling The Old Dark House
|
|
|
Post by andydecker on Jan 4, 2019 20:11:28 GMT
Yeah, I finished it, and the end was a bit over the top - in fact the whole thing was a bit over the top. I agree about Michael McDowell - nobody does Southern Gothic better, except maybe Joe Lansdale, eg The Bottoms. I finished Swan Song after stop and starting for a few years - it was okay, a sort of 2nd tier The Stand. Over the top is a good description of McCammon. In summer I started rereading They Thirst. Got sidetracked after a third or so, but I had forgotten what a rollercoaster his work can be. It is summer blockbuster material. No wonder that at the time he was so often compared to King.
Has anyone read his new stuff? I was pretty excited when he started publishing again, but thought his "The Five" so thoroughly mediocre and disappointing that I didn't bother with the Corbett series.
|
|
|
Post by jamesdoig on Jan 4, 2019 21:32:32 GMT
Some very enjoyable reading this year, when I sat down and thought about it. Collections:By No Mortal Hand by Dan McGachey I knew there were a few I forgot - this and Johnny's anthologies of vintage supernatural tales and Doug Anderson's Late Reviews.
|
|
|
Post by mcannon on Jan 5, 2019 0:19:45 GMT
Yeah, I finished it, and the end was a bit over the top - in fact the whole thing was a bit over the top. I agree about Michael McDowell - nobody does Southern Gothic better, except maybe Joe Lansdale, eg The Bottoms. I finished Swan Song after stop and starting for a few years - it was okay, a sort of 2nd tier The Stand. Over the top is a good description of McCammon. In summer I started rereading They Thirst. Got sidetracked after a third or so, but I had forgotten what a rollercoaster his work can be. It is summer blockbuster material. No wonder that at the time he was so often compared to King. Has anyone read his new stuff? I was pretty excited when he started publishing again, but thought his "The Five" so thoroughly mediocre and disappointing that I didn't bother with the Corbett series.
I've read - and enjoyed - most of McCammon's work, although I'm a couple of novels behind. Of his early work I particularly liked "Swan Song" and "They Thirst", which I still consider one of the most enjoyable, completely over the top-bonkers vampire novels I've ever read. I didn't dislike "The Five", although it didn't seem to quite work - for me, novels about the power of Rock music rarely seem to. I've loved McCammon's series of "Matthew Corbett" novels, about a young man in early 18th Century colonial America (and elsewhere). While horrific, they're non-supernatural, although there have been hints in the last couple of books that they may be building up to something other-worldly. I'd also highly recommend "Boy's Life" a Ray Bradbury-esque novel of childhood adventures with mild fantastic elements that's thankfully free of the sentimental excesses of some of Bradbury's work. Mark
|
|
|
Post by andydecker on Jan 5, 2019 11:50:47 GMT
I didn't dislike "The Five", although it didn't seem to quite work - for me, novels about the power of Rock music rarely seem to. Ah, thanks. Good to know with the Corbett. I should give him a chance. I also have a hard time with those Rock music novels. I have read a few of them - Skipp/Spector The Scream, Rickman December, David Schow The Kill Riff - and have almost no recollection of them all. Missing is only Martin's Armageddon Rock, which is still on the maybe list.
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Jan 6, 2019 14:24:41 GMT
I didn't dislike "The Five", although it didn't seem to quite work - for me, novels about the power of Rock music rarely seem to. Ah, thanks. Good to know with the Corbett. I should give him a chance. I also have a hard time with those Rock music novels. I have read a few of them - Skipp/Spector The Scream, Rickman December, David Schow The Kill Riff - and have almost no recollection of them all. Missing is only Martin's Armageddon Rock, which is still on the maybe list. I liked The Scream well enough, not quite so keen on Kill Riff. A few more that spring to mind: Michael Slade's magnificent Ghoul. Phil Caveney's Bad To The Bone (Agatha Cristie's And Then There Were None .. in a recording studio). Bjarne Rostaing novelisation of Phantom Of The Paradise (Star, 1975). And Rex Sparger's The Bargain, once read, impossible to forget (though you might wish you could).
|
|