| Author | Message | ||
     Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.147.50.90 |
Just finished this. Sigh. The first half is slow, but, I felt deeply affecting and quite real. Then it changes, becomes a sort of thriller, then ... it changes again into a sort of fantasy thing. Then, in the end, the last two pages are quite intriguing, and hint at something quite wondrous. Does this sound odd, for a review? It probably should as it's an odd book. King keeps trying this sort of thing, trips into twee whimsical fantasy after a few brutal hops around a thriller. Rose Madder did it, even Cell had hints. But King can not do this sort of thing. It's like watching one of those guys jumping off a pier dressed as a bird; he tries to fly, he wants - needs - to fly, but by golly he drops just like the rest of 'em. It's sad, but I don't know; he is astoundingly good at painting on broad canvases - he can fill pages with stuff about a whole town, a way of life and the passage of time, but when he tries to have just one or two characters he still feels the need to fill those pages, those breeze-blockian tomes. And - he shouldn't. For the love of God, there isn't the time for me to read him again if he keeps doing this. Please, Steve; go back, read Salem's Lot, read The Stand - hell, read IT if you must - but please, please USE YOUR PAGES. I miss you doing that. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.159.156.247 |
I think a lot of what you say there feels true for me as well, Tony, as we've sort of discussed via text - just that I found the first half to be a bit full of nothing in a way, and that it picked up a fair bit from the half-way point. To each... Never mind, Zed'll be along in a bit like an express train, swearing his love for the book! | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.249.146 |
Yep, I loved LISEY'S STORY. The Long Boy, the Laughers...brrr. Great stuff. The realism was real; the fantasy was dark and rather thrilling. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.147.50.90 |
I wish I could read with other people's eyes. I'm reading The Other now and it's irking me, like watching someone showing off, hiding the fact that the story is so-so with flashy writing. Preferred Harvest Home, I think, looking back. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.149.129.211 |
"I wish I could read with other people's eyes." Another fab story idea. Especially if the eyes were extracted before use. I liked THE OTHER a lot. You have to finish it though. Makes no sense before you get to the end. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.227.250 |
"I wish I could read with other people's eyes." Sounds like early Bloch  I have never even seen a copy of THE OTHER, but if it's half as good as the film, I daresay it's worth seeking out. | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 88.110.161.180 |
I'm reading a biography of Alistair MacLean right now. A collection of thriller tales, which are mostly crime tales, called THRILLER. And I'm rereading John Connolly's THE BLACK ANGEL. (Oh, my guilty secret read in the bath book is THE INSIDER, Piers Morgan's diaries.) | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.147.50.90 |
I got my Other from the US, an old hardback for less than a fiver. Lovely cover, I just seem to be finding it hard trying to get on with it. It feels like faux Capote. | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.100 |
A new edition of The Other has just been published with an introduction by me. I greatly admired the book. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.23.225.121 |
Well... it's getting better, or growing on me. I've not put it aside yet! | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.197.72 |
I read The Other many years ago, and remember that I thought highly of it. The new Millipede Press edition (which I believe is the one Ramsey refers to above) looks like a lovely production. I wish I could afford more of these books. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.23.225.121 |
Ah, that refrain again. Horror now just belongs to the rich. | ||
| Albie (Albie) Username: Albie Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.195.244.67 |
Seems the fewer people who want to read you, the rarer your books become. Then they slip into the exclusive file. And the price bumps up. A trick Arkwright would have used. My stories must be worth millions. Having said that some rare writers are good and deserve to be advertising coke cola along with the rest.  | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.31.119 |
Who is publishing THE OTHER Ramsey? | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.149.129.211 |
Surely there's only one? | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.219.8.243 |
The Other is by Thomas Tryon, Ally... | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.192.196 |
I think Ally meant the publisher, Zedney. It's Millipede Press:http://www.millipedepress.com/ Millipede Press | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.96.177 |
I did say "publishing" - a new edition has just been published. Published :>)Thanks Huw! | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.96.177 |
Can't afford that price anyway :>( | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.147.50.90 |
Wouldn't it be nice if you could just buy your own printing of a book in a plain cover, just to make sure you got the text and the author got a bit of money? One day there might be no need for publishers. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.147.50.90 |
This is one of those plain, cheap covers; 9780140620306%2C00.html?breadcrumbList=%7B+Mary+Shelley+%7D&bcPath=c590614%2D000 00000%23%23%2D1%23%23%2D1%7E%7Eq617574686f723a2266617374706266617374204d61727920 5368656c6c6579206661737470626661737422&searchProfile=UK-590614-global&strSrchSql =#,http://www.penguin.co.uk/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780140620306,00.html?breadcr umbList=%7B+Mary+Shelley+%7D&bcPath=c590614%2D00000000%23%23%2D1%23%23%2D1%7E%7E q617574686f723a2266617374706266617374204d617279205368656c6c657920666173747062666 1737422&searchProfile=UK-590614-global&strSrchSql=# | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.147.50.90 |
Um, this one; 9780140620306%2C00.html?breadcrumbList=%7B+Mary+Shelley+%7D&bcPath=c590614%2D000 00000%23%23%2D1%23%23%2D1%7E%7Eq617574686f723a2266617374706266617374204d61727920 5368656c6c6579206661737470626661737422&searchProfile=UK-590614-global&strSrchSql =#,http://www.penguin.co.uk/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780140620306,00.html?breadcr umbList=%7B+Mary+Shelley+%7D&bcPath=c590614%2D00000000%23%23%2D1%23%23%2D1%7E%7E q617574686f723a2266617374706266617374204d617279205368656c6c657920666173747062666 1737422&searchProfile=UK-590614-global&strSrchSql=# | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.147.50.90 |
Nooo!!!!!!! Oh, look; it's green, and wobbly. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.147.50.90 |
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Frankenstein-Prometheus-Penguin-Popular-Classics/dp/0140 620303 Phew... | ||
| Chris_morris (Chris_morris) Username: Chris_morris Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 12.165.240.116 |
Tony, that's why we need a lot of these machines around ... http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1677329_1677980_1677970,0 0.html or on video, here: www.ondemandbooks.com/perfectbook.mov | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 92.11.29.159 |
Reading these is better than reading magazines. It's like a magazine with you in. |