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Stu (Stu)
Username: Stu
Registered: 04-2008
Posted From: 90.246.135.187
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 27, 2012 - 05:28 pm: | |
Until recently I had only read a couple of Charles L Grant stories and hadn't been overly impressed. But last week I picked up the volume of Night Voices featuring his work and enjoyed it. So I tried Nightmare Seasons and that was very good and am now two thirds of the way through The Orchard which is so far equally good. Glad I gave him another try. |
Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig
Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
| | Posted on Thursday, June 28, 2012 - 03:50 am: | |
It took me some time to really take to Charles Grant myself, Stu. For a long time, he was just another horror writer to me, albeit a damn fine editor. But then something must have clicked because I really sort of "got" his style and sentiment, his temperament and choice of material/themes. I've read only his first two Oxrun novels, which (to me) are styled (or maybe, read more) like their era's suspense novels—but are still compulsively readable, and overall, rewarding. His short fiction is not to be missed. Someday I shall work through his oeuvre... alas, for that pile of things I hope to do before I... well, you know....  |
Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston
Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.168.207.207
| | Posted on Thursday, June 28, 2012 - 09:27 am: | |
Is the story Night's Swift Dragons in the Orchard?
I'm not sure off the top of my head. Whichever collection it's in it's a story with images that have stayed in my head for 25 years now...
The first of his novels I read was The PET. It had the same impact on me as when I first read Bradbury's classic short The October Game and I went out buying anything I could find by Grant. When he's on top form he's almost unbeatable. I think I'm going to read another of his when I fnish the book I'm on now. |
Stu (Stu)
Username: Stu
Registered: 04-2008
Posted From: 90.244.34.79
| | Posted on Thursday, June 28, 2012 - 10:18 am: | |
Night's Swift Dragons is in Nightmare Seasons. The Pet is on my TBR pile. A lot of people recommended that one when I mentioned I was reading Grant. |
Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel
Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.37.199.45
| | Posted on Thursday, June 28, 2012 - 01:33 pm: | |
Stu, the early collection Tales from the Nightside and the recent 'best of' collection Scream Quietly are awesome. Of the novels, The Black Carousel is underrated and awesome: a savagely pessimistic response to Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes. |
Stu (Stu)
Username: Stu
Registered: 04-2008
Posted From: 90.244.38.57
| | Posted on Thursday, June 28, 2012 - 02:38 pm: | |
Cheers, Joel. I'm definitely considering Tales from the Nightside and Scream Quietly but I recently picked up A Glow of Candles and still haven't worked out how many stories in that and Night Voices (plus the various Grant short stories I've got in anthologies) feature in the other two collections.
Am I right in thinking that The Black Carousel is another quartet of loosely linked novellas in the manner of Nightmare Seasons, The Orchard and Dialling the Wind? |
Thomasb (Thomasb)
Username: Thomasb
Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 75.25.141.120
| | Posted on Thursday, June 28, 2012 - 05:17 pm: | |
At the risk of bragging, I have nearly all his short story anthologies in paperback, including his "Shadows" series. A fine writer I thought and one of the very best from the 1970s and 1980s. |
Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel
Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.37.199.45
| | Posted on Thursday, June 28, 2012 - 06:53 pm: | |
Stu – yes. |
Stu (Stu)
Username: Stu
Registered: 04-2008
Posted From: 90.244.42.5
| | Posted on Thursday, June 28, 2012 - 07:36 pm: | |
Good -- I've got the other three, I'll try to track down TBC. |
Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston
Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.171.117.222
| | Posted on Friday, June 29, 2012 - 01:06 am: | |
That's actually the one I was thinking of picking up next...
Of his novels I think it's a tough call between In A Dark Dream, Stunts, and The Tea Party. IADD actually sent a shudder down my spine on the last page. The Tea party was one of the most frightening things of his I've read.
His X-files books were disappointing. He wasn't strong enough on the plot side of things to get the air of conspiracy over as effectively as was needed. Creepy atmosphere 10/10. The plotlines weren't great though - and far too predictable. |
Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel
Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.37.199.45
| | Posted on Friday, June 29, 2012 - 02:30 pm: | |
"The Tea Party was one of the most frightening things of his I've read."
It wasn't near-future SF by any chance? |
Stu (Stu)
Username: Stu
Registered: 04-2008
Posted From: 90.244.37.127
| | Posted on Friday, June 29, 2012 - 02:38 pm: | |
Are his novels with the Universal monsters -- vampire, werewolf, mummy -- worth getting? |
Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston
Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 194.66.23.11
| | Posted on Friday, June 29, 2012 - 05:40 pm: | |
All of his books that I've read are worth rading.
The Universal monster ones are a little slow even by his standards but drenched in atmosphere. |
Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston
Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 194.66.23.11
| | Posted on Friday, June 29, 2012 - 05:41 pm: | |
*reading
My kingdom for an edit button |
Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston
Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 194.66.23.11
| | Posted on Friday, June 29, 2012 - 05:48 pm: | |
His kent Montana books (as Lionel Fenn) are actually really funny. Not to mention that they have some of my favourite book titles of all time -
Kent MOntana and the once and future thing
Kent Montana and the really ugly thing from Mars
Kent Montana - 668 the neighbour of the beast
Kent Montana and thr mark of the moderately vicious vampire
Kent Montana and the Reasonable invisible man |
Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston
Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 194.66.23.11
| | Posted on Friday, June 29, 2012 - 05:49 pm: | |
*reasonably |