| Author | Message | ||
     Griff (Griff) Username: Griff Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.100 |
What do people think of this new collection edited by JT Joshi? | ||
| Griff (Griff) Username: Griff Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.100 |
ST even!  | ||
| John_l_probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 90.203.130.237 |
I think it's lovely - and My God I never thought I'd see the day Stephen King was in a Penguin Classic! | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.249.146 |
Just ordered it, so I guess I'll let you know. :-) Thanks for the tip, matey. | ||
| Griff (Griff) Username: Griff Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.100 |
I've started buying cookery books and interior design books instead of horror. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.15.15 |
26 stories for £6.99. Good value. Every time I'm interested in something it is always £30 plus. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.179.80 |
There are some great stories in there, but also some unfortunate omissions (no Jack Cady? Joseph Payne Brennan? Theodore Sturgeon? Lucius Shepard?). All in all, though, a nice selection, and great to see these tales appearing under the Penguin imprint. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.129.20.239 |
I saw this this week. Lovely cover, but I've got a lot of the stories already. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.188.147 |
Same here, Tony. I'm still tempted to buy it just to put next to my Penguin Lovecrafts. ;-) The cover is reminiscent of the recent Penguin Blackwood collection, not to mention an old paperback edition of Ancient Sorceries that Penguin brought out decades ago. That Algie and his cats... | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.24.122.40 |
Which King tale is it? | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.188.147 |
'Night Surf' | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.236.13 |
"Night Surf"?! I've always thought this was a mere finger exercise, a preamble to THE STAND. King's written far better tales. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.193.100 |
I agree: 'The Last Rung on the Ladder', 'One for the Road', or several others would have been better choices, in my opinion. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.193.100 |
Several of his choices strike me as odd. For Karl Edward Wagner, he's chosen 'Endless Night' over tales like 'The River of Night's Dreaming', '.220 Swift', 'In the Pines', 'Sticks', and so on. For Leiber he's included 'The Girl with the Hungry Eyes': a great story, but perhaps a better choice would have been something less frequently anthologised, like 'A Bit of the Dark World', or 'The Button Molder'. It seems churlish, perhaps, to criticise omissions when space is obviously limited, but I can't help feeling some authors really should have been included. Caitlin Kiernan is here, but where is Lisa Tuttle (a superior writer, in my opinion)? Davis Grubb? Peter Straub? Good to see Klein's 'The Events at Poroth Farm' and Etchison's 'The Late Shift' in there, though. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.47.141 |
I'd really would have liked to see Lisa Tuttle in there. Also - Charlotte Perkins Gilman with The Yellow Wallpaper. | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.103.74 |
Hmm, do I buy this or not? Already got several of these stories but there's severeal others that I'm missing. Decisions, decisions. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.47.141 |
I desperately want the Joshi biography on Lovecraft and before anyone says that I should have read that by now - I don't have the money :>( It's about £15 on the American site and £35 here. http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/search/ref=pd_lpo_ix_dp_ms_us_uk_en_joshi.020biograph y.020lovecraft_gl_book?keywords=joshi%20biography%20lovecraft&tag=lpo%5Fixdpmsus ukenjoshi.020biography.020lovecraftgl%5Fbook-21&index=blended | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.47.141 |
"His literary criticism is notable for its emphases upon readability and the dominant worldviews of the authors in question; his The Weird Tale looks at six acknowledged masters of horror and fantasy (namely Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, Dunsany, M. R. James, Bierce and Lovecraft), and discusses their respective worldviews in depth and with authority. A follow-up volume, The Modern Weird Tale, examines the work of modern writers, including Shirley Jackson, Ramsey Campbell, Stephen King, Robert Aickman, Thomas Ligotti, T. E. D. Klein and others, from a similar philosophically oriented viewpoint. The Evolution of the Weird Tale (2004) includes essays on Dennis Etchison, L. P. Hartley, Les Daniels, E. F. Benson, Rudyard Kipling, David J. Schow, Robert Bloch, L. P. Davies, Edward Lucas White, Rod Serling, Poppy Z. Brite and others." Joel - you mentioned these books once. You'll have read them. Anyone else? I've been so busy trying to get hold of fiction to read - I need to look a lit crit too. | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.103.74 |
I've got The Modern Weird Tale and The Evolution of the Weird Tale. Read most of the former and occasionally dip into the latter. I'm no expert but to me Joshi comes across as well-informed but opinoniated. Sometimes the combination can be entertaining and informative but sometimes it can be a little irritating and blinkered. | ||
| Griff (Griff) Username: Griff Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.100 |
I was very impressed by his intelligent, extremely well researched and concise introduction to Blackwood's Ancient Sorceries and Other Weird Stories (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics). | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.103.74 |
Review of the Penguin antho here http://www.darkfantasy.org/fantasy/?p=310 | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 61.216.38.252 |
Ally, I have all of these Joshi books and they are definitely worth getting. I don't always agree with him, but at his best Joshi is extremely insightful. The Lovecraft biography is indispensable. He also wrote a study of Ramsey's fiction titled Ramsey Campbell and Modern Horror Fiction. It expands on the chapter he wrote for The Modern Weird Tale and, needless to say, is recommended reading for everyone here on this message board! I can't agree with Joshi's assessment of The Influence ('a slight novel') though. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.47.141 |
Thanks all! I'll try to get them when I can. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.129.20.239 |
You see I was underwhelmed by The Influence. It began very well but then for me sputtered out, had one very long scene that went on a bit long then suddenly ended without fully feeling it had been sorted out or developed. Funny; I wasn't keen on that snowy one, either, with people frozen in their front rooms and stuff. Both books seem much loved but for me they felt a little drawn out and needing something extra at the end. | ||
| Albie (Albie) Username: Albie Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.195.236.131 |
I liked 'The Snowy One.' With the people frozen up. I love it when he goes mad and shares his delusions with his kids. That was funny. | ||
| Griff (Griff) Username: Griff Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.100 |
Do you have a wish list on Amazon.co.uk Albie? | ||
| Matt_cowan (Matt_cowan) Username: Matt_cowan Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 68.249.106.58 |
The snowy one is Midnight Sun, correct? I did enjoy it. Although not as much as Incarnate, The Grin of the Dark, or Ancient Images, which are my favorites in that order.  | ||
| Albie (Albie) Username: Albie Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.195.236.131 |
I don't buy over the net. This will soon mean I will be completely naked and hungry. |