|
|
Post by dem on Nov 16, 2022 18:05:51 GMT
John Miller [ed] - Polar Horrors: Strange Tales from the World's Ends (British Library, 10 Nov. 2022)  Sandra Gomez
A Note From The Publisher
North
James Hogg - The Surpassing Adventures of Allan Gordon
Harriett Prescott Spofford - The Moonstone Mass
Arthur Conan Doyle - The Captain of the "Polestar"
John Buchan - Skule Skerry
Idwal Jones - The Third Interne
Aviaq Johnston - Iqsinaqtutalik Piqtuq; The Haunted Blizzard
South
Hamilton Drummond - A Secret of the South Pole
John Martin Leahy - In Amundsen's Tent
Sophie Wenzel Ellis - Creatures of the Light
Mordred Weir - Bride of the Antartic
Henry Kuttner - Ghost
Malcolm M. Ferguson - The Polar Vortex
Story SourceBlurb:
"As I moved with stiff legs along the reefs I slipped into the water. It was cold beyond belief — the very quintessence of deathly Arctic ice, so cold, that it seemed to sear and bleach the skin."
Inspired by ground-breaking expeditions in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, writers of the weird began to construct a literary Arctic and Antarctic in which terrors lay undiscovered in the ice and gateways to bizarre hidden worlds lay waiting. From lurid Arctic narratives of life amongst polar bears to tales of ghostly visitations within the wind-blown wilds of the southern continent, this new collection uncovers a wealth of neglected material from this niche of literature obsessed with the limits of human experience.
Featuring tales rife with aliens, twisted science and madness spanning from 1837-1946, this anthology also includes a gem of twenty-first century Arctic horror to trace the enduring lure of these sublime and uncanny spaces at the ends of the Earth. The polar ice collection of chillers (sorry) is currently top of my list. Aviaq Johnston - Iqsinaqtutalik Piqtuq; The Haunted Blizzard [...] this anthology also includes a gem of twenty-first century Arctic horror It's interesting to see them throw in a contemporary story. Will be fun if this trend continues. Seriously considered posting this in the Fantastic Pulps section, as no less than six of the stories first saw publication in weird and SF monthlies. Mordred Weir [Amelia Reynolds Long ] - Bride of the Antarctic: ( Strange Stories, June. 1939). Captain 'Mad' Bill Howard insisted wife Gloria accompany his winter expedition to Antartica. Of the sixteen strong party all but the Captain and the cook, Witherspoon, perish. On their rescue Witherspoon, more dead than alive, raves of the horrors he'd witnessed. "But that part was the nightmare of delirium, of course. Not even such a sadistic monster as Captain Howell would have turned a human creature, stripped naked, out into the merciless cold of the Antarctic blizzard." A second expedition discover their shack is haunted by the ghost of a nude woman ... Idwal Jones - The Third Interne: ( Weird Tales, Jan. 1938). A brief tale of a surgical horror in the Asiatic wastes of northern Russia. Yarmolinsk prison, North Russia, during a time of plague. An eminently suitably remote location for the scientist who seeks to conduct morally dubious experiments away from prying eyes. Dr Melchior Pushev has kept the severed head of a mastiff "functioning beautifully" for three years. But will the same technique succeed with a human? And who would be willing to provide the required raw materials?
|
|
|
|
Post by dem on Nov 17, 2022 16:41:40 GMT
Sophie Wenzel Ellis - Creatures of the Light: ( Astounding, Feb. 1930). He Had Striven to Perfect the Faultless Man of the Future, and Had Succeeded — Too Well. For in the Pitilessly Cold Eyes of Adam, His Super-human Creation, Dr. Mundson Saw Only Contempt — and Annihilation — for the Human Race. Dr. Mundson's intense eyes swept over Northwood's tall, slim body.
"Ah, you're a man!" he said softly. "You are what all men would be if we followed Nature's plan that only the fit shall survive. But modern science is permitting the unfit to live and to mix their defective beings with the developing race!" His huge fist gesticulated madly. "Fools! Fools! They need me and perfect men like you." "Why?"
"Because you can help me in my plan to populate the earth with a new race of godlike people. But don't question me too closely now. Even if I should explain, you would call me insane. But watch; gradually I shall unfold the mystery before you, so that you will believe." Dr. Emil Mundson, "deformed, hideous hunchback," MAD SCIENTIST, GERMAN, etc., tempts John Northwood, a perfect specimen of manhood, aboard his Sun Ship for a flight to a top secret new Garden of Eden in the icy wastes of the Antartic. Mundson shows Northwood a photograph of Athalia, an "houri from Paradise" and "your future wife" who they'll meet at journey's end. The young man refuses to be smitten; there is not a woman on this or any earth can hold a candle to his beloved, if, admittedly, plain-looking and very dull fiancée, Mary Burns. Still, civility costs nothing .... They arrive in next to no time (the Sun Ship travels at above 1,000 mph) ... but Mundson's renegade superman, Adam has beaten them to it. In a huge blow to mankind, Adam — who can time travel, read minds, turn invisible and destroy puny 'Black age' civilizations at will — has rejected his lab-created Eve. "I have one human weakness. I want Athalia" - and, after the briefest of introductions, so does Northwood. Tough luck, Mary! While Mundson hosts Northwood on a tour of a super-baby nursery, he explains that, when he first met Athalia she was toiling in New York sweat shop and half-dead of consumption. A blast from his Life-Ray restored her to near perfection. John Northwood is a man in demand. Eve no longer cares that Adam doesn't want her now she's clapped eyes on this dishy human hunk. How to remove the Athalia distraction? Adam, furious that Athalia would reject him for Northwood, primes his putrefying death ray to destroy every life form on the planet. "Astounding" is the word. Even for a between the wars pulp this one is excessively lunatic. I'm very grateful to the editor for reviving it.
|
|
|
|
Post by cauldronbrewer on Nov 22, 2022 13:36:57 GMT
John Miller [ed] - Polar Horrors: Strange Tales from the World's Ends (British Library, 10 Nov. 2022) Sandra Gomez John Miller - Introduction
A Note From The Publisher
North
James Hogg - The Surpassing Adventures of Allan Gordon
Harriett Prescott Spofford - The Moonstone Mass
Arthur Conan Doyle - The Captain of the "Polestar"
John Buchan - Skule Skerry
Idwal Jones - The Third Interne
Aviaq Johnston - Iqsinaqtutalik Piqtuq; The Haunted Blizzard
South
Hamilton Drummond - A Secret of the South Pole
John Martin Leahy - In Amundsen's Tent
Sophie Wenzel Ellis - Creatures of the Light
Mordred Weir - Bride of the Antartic
Henry Kuttner - Ghost
Malcolm M. Ferguson - The Polar Vortex
... Seriously considered posting this in the Fantastic Pulps section, as no less than six of the stories first saw publication in weird and SF monthlies. Stories I haven't read by Sophie Wenzel Ellis and Henry Kuttner? This one goes to the top of the to-order list. Cool cover, too. The folks at the British Library have done a great job on the art and design for the series; the books look great on the shelf. Sadly, I will need to banish a book to storage to make room for this one--I think Roger Luckhurst's Late Victorian Gothic Tales will be the unlucky victim. |
|
|
|
Post by dem on Nov 25, 2022 8:04:30 GMT
Stories I haven't read by Sophie Wenzel Ellis and Henry Kuttner? This one goes to the top of the to-order list. Cool cover, too. The folks at the British Library have done a great job on the art and design for the series; the books look great on the shelf. Sadly, I will need to banish a book to storage to make room for this one--I think Roger Luckhurst's Late Victorian Gothic Tales will be the unlucky victim. That Luckhurst book looks lovely. We may have to launch a campaign to save it.  Lee Brown Coye: ( Weird Tales, Sept. 1946). All alone on the night side of the world time moves at a snail's pace. Journal of Daniel Imfrifer, impoverished student, duped by Professor Leopold Lemming, multi-millionaire turned scientist and "dabbler," to spend a month alone inside his glass-domed observatory on the South Pole. Marooned in a wasteland of eternal darkness, Imfrifer loses his mind. Lemming is not the least trouble that the experiment cost a man's life.  Frank Kramer: ( Astounding, May 1943). The great calculator was haunted — haunted by the ghost of a madman's madness. The machine had to be treated by a psychiatrist, and was cured — but the doctor forgot an ancient adage. Set in 2030. When a succession of men assigned to care take a Polar ice station either kill themselves or lose their minds, Dr. Elton Ford, the world's greatest living psychologist, diagnoses the problem. "Modern science, my dear man, has finally gone full circle and created a haunting. Now I'm going down to Antarctica to try exorcism." It seems the Integrators — thirty huge, cylindrical robots with radio atomic brains — have been so grievously affected by the suicidal depression of the initial caretaker, Bronson — as to manifest an entity Ford compares to Le Maupassant's Horla. Treat the disease, he rationalizes, and the ghost will be vanquished. In the meantime, Larry Crockett, the facility's current caretaker, is not quite his usual self. But then Ford has problems of his own. Not sure I should chance a rematch with John Martin Leahy's In Amundsen's Tent. I have such fond memories of the story that it would be wretched to have them ruined at this late stage. |
|
|
|
Post by cauldronbrewer on Nov 27, 2022 19:17:10 GMT
That Luckhurst book looks lovely. We may have to launch a campaign to save it. It's a mix of the obvious ("Sir Edmund Orne," "The Mark of the Beast," "Lot No. 249," and "The Great God Pan") and the obscure. I wound up with it because I reviewed a book proposal for Oxford University Press and they paid me in books from their catalog. In the same exchange, I also landed copies of The Oxford Book of Victorian Tales, The Oxford Book of Ghost Stories, and The Oxford Book of Victorian Ghost Stories along with two Wilkie Collins novels ( The Woman in White and Armadale, neither of which I've read), The Monk (ditto--shocking, I know), and Vathek (which I have read). Not sure I should chance a rematch with John Martin Leahy's In Amundsen's Tent. I have such fond memories of the story that it would be wretched to have them ruined at this late stage. I suspect it would hold up. I read it during the early phase of my Weird Tales fascination and thought it was great. |
|
|
|
Post by Jojo Lapin X on Nov 27, 2022 19:44:57 GMT
two Wilkie Collins novels ( The Woman in White and Armadale, neither of which I've read) That was almost ten years ago! Is it not high time you read them, so that we can have an intelligent conversation? |
|
|
|
Post by cauldronbrewer on Nov 27, 2022 19:46:46 GMT
two Wilkie Collins novels ( The Woman in White and Armadale, neither of which I've read) That was almost ten years ago! Is it not high time you read them, so that we can have an intelligent conversation? Yeah, I just found my old post about that. In my defense, they are very thick books. |
|
|
|
Post by Jojo Lapin X on Nov 27, 2022 19:57:49 GMT
That was almost ten years ago! Is it not high time you read them, so that we can have an intelligent conversation? Yeah, I just found my old post about that. In my defense, they are very thick books. They are very entertaining thick books. Again, Collins is readable in a way that most of his contemporaries were not. He was also very inventive. THE WOMAN IN WHITE contains a twist that made my jaw drop. |
|
|
|
Post by dem on Dec 1, 2022 11:46:55 GMT
John Buchan - Skule Skerry: (Runagates Club, 1928). "Folk dinna gang near it. It has aye had a bad name. My grandfather use to say that the place wasna canny." In defiance of veteran ferryman John Ronaldson, Anthony Hurrell, a young ornithologist, insists on spending a night on Skule Skerry, a remote rock island West of the Orkney's. Ronaldson won't, or can't, specify what is so terrible about the place, but legend has it the skerry is haunted by a sea ghoul, the Black Silkie. Hurrell for his part, believes the rock and 'the Island of Birds' of the Icelandic sagas are one and the same. Ronaldson duly carries him across, helps him secure the tent behind a stone barrier, before setting off back to the mainland before the storm kicks in. Which it does with a vengeance. A great supernatural horror story — until ...
|
|
|
|
Post by helrunar on Dec 1, 2022 15:32:40 GMT
That sounds like a very cool story by Buchan. I've enjoyed his work on the occasions when I have come across it.
Now I'm wondering just what sort of publication Runagates Club was. Editing to add that according to the interwebs, it was a collection of short stories in which various club members told tales around the dinner table. The narrators included popular characters from Buchan's various series, such as Richard Hannay (cracking good television series featuring him as played by Robert Powell, from the 1980s.)
Overall, this anthology sounds decent.
cheers, Hel
|
|
|
|
Post by dem on Dec 2, 2022 9:58:33 GMT
 , Hugh Rankin: ( Weird Tales, Jan. 1928). A horror lurked in Roald Amundsen's tent at the South Pole - an utterly abominable and terrible monstrosity. Drumgold, Sutherland and Travers have worse to contend with than the disappointment of their being pipped to the North Pole by Amundsen's team. Panicked at their discovery of what's taken up residence in the explorer's tent, the trio take to flight. Insane with terror, they're stalked through a snow blizzard by hostile beings not of this earth. Not sure I should chance a rematch with John Martin Leahy's In Amundsen's Tent. I have such fond memories of the story that it would be wretched to have them ruined at this late stage. I suspect it would hold up. I read it during the early phase of my Weird Tales fascination and thought it was great. Yes, even after all this time, I get a kick from it. Can only suppose Christine Campbell Thomson didn't receive that issue of Weird Tales. Martin's story might have been written to order for her. Harriet Prescott Spofford - The Moonstone Mass: ( Harper’s New Monthly, Oct. 1868). The young narrator, recently engaged to Eleanor, the most beautiful, adorable girl on the planet, etc., is reluctant to marry until he has fortune enough to support them both. His millionaire great-uncle Paul, "a bitter misogynist" frowns upon the romance, but stops short of disinheriting the lovesick fool. Instead, he offers a challenge. The youth will undertake to locate the Northwest Passage, fabled seawater route to the North Pole. Uncle Paul believes the Polar cap is rich in plutonium and, close to death though he be, is keen as ever to exploit a commercial opportunity. Nephew accepts the challenge, books a passage aboard The Albatross (there's tempting fate for you), sets sail for Denmark and on to the frozen "Valley of Death." Although our hero succeeds in his mission, the loss of Glipnu the dog handler, two hounds and a sledge leaves him stranded and half insane in an icy Hell. Which, from a horror fan perspective, is where we’d have preferred to leave him, but you know what these Victorian authors were like.
|
|
|
|
Post by dem on Dec 2, 2022 12:14:45 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by cauldronbrewer on Dec 6, 2022 18:49:13 GMT
James Hogg's "The Surpassing Adventures of Allan Gordon" is an odd tale (though not a weird one), and I think it's the first work of his I've read; I never got around to trying The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner. It's about a Scottish sailor who finds himself stranded on a mountain of ice drifting through the arctic. Most of the action involves polar bears. The narrator kills one and feels guilty about it, then befriends its cub. The pair live an idyllic, if chilly existence, before fighting another polar bear and eventually discovering a lost Norse colony in Greenland. Our hero plots to marry one, or maybe three, of the young Norsewomen (they're short of Norsemen), but the cub--which he has named Nancy--is jealous (let's just say there's a lot more man-bear chemistry than man-woman chemistry in this story). In the climax, a horde of polar bears attacks the Norse village, slaughtering most of its inhabitants, but Nancy saves the narrator (who hardly spares a backward glance for his wife and "supposed" children). Eventually he finds his way home to Scotland.
|
|
|
|
Post by Jojo Lapin X on Dec 6, 2022 19:41:13 GMT
If you only want to read stories set in Antarctica for the rest of your life, it can be done! |
|
|
|
Post by cauldronbrewer on Dec 8, 2022 0:23:55 GMT
Idwal Jones - The Third Interne: ( Weird Tales, Jan. 1938). A brief tale of a surgical horror in the Asiatic wastes of northern Russia. Yarmolinsk prison, North Russia, during a time of plague. An eminently suitably remote location for the scientist who seeks to conduct morally dubious experiments away from prying eyes. Dr Melchior Pushev has kept the severed head of a mastiff "functioning beautifully" for three years. But will the same technique succeed with a human? And who would be willing to provide the required raw materials? Fair setup, but the follow-through was a bit of a letdown. Still, I'm surprised this wasn't revived for one of the Barnes & Noble 100 Something Something books. |
|
