| Author | Message | ||
     Gcw (Gcw) Username: Gcw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.145.240.86 |
Just so you poor authors believe I read your books, I thought I would just update you on my recent reading, with review snippets. Since gorging myself on new books at September's Fantascon, I have read... The Lost District - Joel Lane -Amazingly bleak, not really horror in the style of many others here, but all the more welcome for that, skewed & dark, sweetly brief, perfectly formed for workday lunchtimes. Loved it. Coffin Nails - JLP...A polar opposite!_ Full of JLP touches, humour & a lightness of touch the man excels at, slightly long, I prefer my JLP in shorter burst a la Faculty, just seems to work better that way,maybe better as two volumes? though it would be churlish to complain at too much JLP (like having too much fine wine!). I had to forbid Soozy from reading this until I had - down girl! Thieving Fear - RC. Prose as brilliant as ever. I didn't feel the plot and structure held together as well as some Campbells...But this is bearing in mind the almost impossible high standards that I, and I am sure the man himself sets himself. The amazing run of books RC has had lately, culminating in the near career best of Secret Stories and Grin Of The Dark, is difficult to beat. Duma Key - Stephen King. My evening read, and has been for some time, I will beat it. This one feels a little like a hard meal to digest. The usual King warm & personal style of writing, but an arduous & slightly pretentious (ouch!) plot which makes this a lesser King. A shame after the superb Lisey's Story & the taut-to-the-bone Blaze. Currently reading Simon Strantzas Beneath The Surface, with Zed's How To Make Monsters, and Ally's Bull Running For Girls to follow. Also have two Conrad William's novels to read for when I go on a much needed holiday to Mexico in May... After that, I restock - Please arrange your release dates to suit ..!  gcw (PS - No particular reading order to the short story books incase anyone feels left to last... ) | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.166.188.81 |
Nobody ever reads my 'Weirdmonger' book(2003)! :-( | ||
| Gcw (Gcw) Username: Gcw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.145.240.86 |
Sorry Des, I ain't got it! Where is it available? gcw | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.166.188.81 |
GCW, Amazon etc. Info; http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/weirdmonger_book.htm | ||
| Gcw (Gcw) Username: Gcw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.145.240.86 |
I will check it out Des. gcw | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
Des - I just ordered a copy of WEIRDMONGER. For some reason I thought I'd already read the book, but I haven't. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.166.188.81 |
Thanks!! | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 90.208.214.38 |
GCW - thanks for that! I'm delighted Coffin Nails did the business for you and I hope its does the same for Soozy as well. And you'll be pleased to hear that three out of the next four books (of which Catacombs of Fear is the first) will be a bit shorter. Des - I've read Weirdmonger after I won it in one of your competitions! It gave me a headache, some weird dreams and a skewed sense of reality. I would therefore suspect that it succeeded admirably in its intentions. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.166.188.81 |
Thanks, John. The headache was not an intention. Or maybe it was. :-) | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.159.51 |
WEIRDMONGER rules. It's best read in smallish doses (otherwise you get punch-drunk), but the structure (many short-short stories) makes that easy. It's a measure of the DFL talent that even in this omnibus there are notable omissions, and choices among versions with which one might disagree. The only thing it lacks is illustrations, but your dreams after reading the stories will compensate for that. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.159.51 |
Anyone who says there's no good weird fiction to read these days knows nothing. Not that anyone here would say that. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.159.51 |
GCW – it's a source of real pleasure to me that John's book is not 'the polar opposite' of mine in any sense that implies conflict. In that we both believe in a wide-spectrum and inclusive genre in which quality and passion are what really matters, we're totally on the same side. | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 90.208.214.38 |
GCW – it's a source of real pleasure to me that John's book is not 'the polar opposite' of mine in any sense that implies conflict. In that we both believe in a wide-spectrum and inclusive genre in which quality and passion are what really matters, we're totally on the same side. Absolutely. | ||
| Steve Bacon (Stevebacon) Username: Stevebacon Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 90.213.27.228 |
I've had 'Weirdmonger' for years. I have to say that I found it quite the opposite; the dreamlike quality of the prose tends to add to the overall sense of unreality. Due to the short length of the stories, I kept thinking, 'just one more', and I read it fairly quickly. The gestalt of the book is like a warped dream, and you'll return to the imagery long after you finish the stories. | ||
| Richard_gavin (Richard_gavin) Username: Richard_gavin Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 65.110.174.71 |
It's high time that the fiction of Des Lewis is shown some love, since not only has he been extremely generous with his thoughts on other people's work (mine included), but he is also an unequalled writer. I have read WEIRDMONGER as well as "Agra Aska", and dozens of old 'zines from the extraordinarily obscure, Canadian 'zine "Lost" to "The Book of Dark Wisdom". I've been a huge fan of Des's for many years, ever since I discoverd "Flints" in Peter Crowther's TOUCH WOOD anthology. Des is also one of the few authors I wrote a fan email to back in the '90s. When Colin Wilson described the stories of Guy de Maupassant, he said they were like oysters, meant to be devoured in great amounts. Des is like that for me. His stories are dense seeds which we take in and tend by our reading of them. Inside us they hatch and we realize just how potent that little two-page tale really was. Des's sentences come at you like spears flung from obscure peripheries. He is the architect of tiny stories that house massive ideas and massive chills. Long live the Weirdmonger!!! Best, Richard | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.166.188.81 |
Thanks Richard, Steve and Joel. I didn't know who (beyond revieweres) had read (let alone 'enjoyed') "Weirdmonger". It's good to know at least you three did. Sorry, I didn't really mean to *elicit* opinions. It was just a throwaway line in the context of the first post on this thread. | ||
| Gcw (Gcw) Username: Gcw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.145.240.86 |
Des, Selling books (or even music)involves the creator having to do a bit of 'nudging' -If you are like me, you love the process of creation...And loathe having to sell it. I can't afford anymore books just yet, but Weirdmonger will be on the list of the next batch. See! -it IS worth nudging us now & again! gcw | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.166.188.81 |
Nudge, Nudge, Know what you mean, Live in Purley? :-) (I lived in Purley area 1971-1994) | ||
| Gcw (Gcw) Username: Gcw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.145.240.86 |
"...Say n'moere" gcw | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.175.65 |
Des was the angel at the Purley gates. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.166.188.81 |
Joel was the Piper at the Gates of Dawn. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.175.65 |
That was Lenny Henry. Bless. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.166.188.81 |
Why Lenny Henry? Something to do with Tiswas?  | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
Married to Dawn French. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.166.188.81 |
Blimey! That's a good joke! But am I the only one who didn't understand it? | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.29.170.223 |
I've just written a review of ISLINGTON CROCODILES by Paul Meloy: http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/islington_crocodiles__paul_meloy.htm | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.168.160.222 |
Des - I've read Weirdmonger after I won it in one of your competitions! It gave me a headache, some weird dreams and a skewed sense of reality. I would therefore suspect that it succeeded admirably in its intentions. ========================== It does that to me, too. Actually I don't know if this thread needs to know but I recently real-time reviewed 'Weirdmonger' as objectively as possible here: http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/realtime_review_of_weirdmonger_by_df_lewis_by_d f_lewis.htm | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 82.38.75.85 |
I can't believe anyone here hasn't read "Weirdmonger"! If you haven't, READ IT! It's one of the most amazing experiences you'll ever have. PS: I'm not on commission or anything, am I Des? I'm just a huuuuuuuge DFL fan. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.168.160.222 |
Well, thank you, Caroline, and can confim no commission was paid. However, I can count on two hands those who have told me they have read 'Weirdmonger' including those who I know by other means have read it without telling me directly! |