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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 82.132.229.55
Posted on Sunday, March 13, 2016 - 06:49 pm:   

May as well get this started... at long last (and with a list). I started 2016 on the tail end of a rediscovery of Stephen King - as my reintroduction to genre reading after a year's sabbatical. Thoroughly entertaining it was too and here's the order I read them in:

1. Bag Of Bones (1998)
2. Hearts In Atlantis (1999)
3. Dreamcatcher (2001)
4. Black House (2001) - with Peter Straub
5. Duma Key (2008)
6. Under The Dome (2009)
7. Needful Things (1991)

And I followed those with:

1. 'Revolt In 2100' (1953) by Robert A. Heinlein
2. 'Thieving Fear' (2008) by Ramsey Campbell
3. 'Lost Boy, Lost Girl' (2003) by Peter Straub
4. 'Galilee' (1998) by Clive Barker
5. 'Cell' (2006) by Stephen King

I enjoyed them all and here they are ranked in order of preference, for what it's worth:

1. 'Lost Boy, Lost Girl' (2003) by Peter Straub
2. 'Black House' (2001) by Stephen King & Peter Straub
3. 'Galilee' (1998) by Clive Barker
4. 'Under The Dome' (2009) by Stephen King
5. 'Cell' (2006) by Stephen King
6. 'Duma Key' (2008) by Stephen King
7. 'Thieving Fear' (2008) by Ramsey Campbell
8. 'Revolt In 2100' (1953) by Robert A. Heinlein
9. 'Hearts In Atlantis' (1999) by Stephen King
10. 'Needful Things' (1991) by Stephen King
11. 'Dreamcatcher' (2001) by Stephen King
12. 'Bag Of Bones' (1998) by Stephen King

Individual write-ups to follow...
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Matteus (Matteus)
Username: Matteus

Registered: 10-2014
Posted From: 93.47.159.51
Posted on Sunday, March 13, 2016 - 09:12 pm:   

Clive Barker, Imajica. First read in 1993. I'm halfway through the book. Clearly, his masterpiece.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 82.132.235.119
Posted on Monday, March 14, 2016 - 03:16 pm:   

I completely agree, Matteus. You can read my thoughts on 'Imajica' on here. I read it for the first time a couple of years ago. It's an absolutely stunning fantasy epic on a par with any of the great legendary works in the genre ('The Lord Of The Rings', 'Dune', etc) but made its own uniquely disturbing beast by Barker's nightmare visual sense and ballsy "take no prisoners" modernity. I also found it extremely moving and more intimate in its characterisations than his early works of raw visceral horror. You can really see the growth of maturity, skill and ambition in his writing from 'Imajica' through 'Sacrament' and 'Galilee' in the 1990s. The man was creating works of true visionary genius at that time, imho. Any horror fans who got turned off by his venture into dark fantasy with 'Weaveworld' in 1987 have no idea how good he was to get in that genre and what a mad trip they would be missing. I know... I was one of their number.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 82.132.235.119
Posted on Monday, March 14, 2016 - 03:41 pm:   

Here are my thoughts on the Stephen King marathon that recently rekindled my love of genre fiction:

1. Bag Of Bones (1998)
King was cruising in neutral with this one, imo, as it is his take on the traditional haunted house yarn. A freshly grieving widower (and struggling author... ho hum) takes off to an isolated picturesque retreat in the country to lick his wounds and finds himself distracted by disturbing echoes of an old tragedy from 100 years before. You can pretty much guess the rest but the book survives its cliches, as do so many of King's, on the strength of the characterisation and sheer likability of the central protagonist. I'm surprised this one hasn't been filmed as it reads like a Hollywood movie script in waiting. Not one of his best but - and this is the man's strength - it is still impossible to put down once started.

2. Hearts In Atlantis (1999)
I approached this book with a great deal of trepidation, and almost as a challenge to myself and the author, having absolutely detested the sickeningly schmaltzy film version with Anthony Hopkins. I needn't have worried. The film is an utter travesty that only tells a quarter of the story and does that misleadingly as well as badly. This episodic multi-stranded character study comes across as a heartfelt and impressively ambitious paean to the spirit of 1960s America - the naive enthusiasm of the hippie dream and the coming-of-age of the nation, in the face of Vietnam, as much as its beautifully drawn characters, whom we follow from childhood innocence to adult disillusion and rueful wisdom in the decades that followed. Four linked novellas, subtly tinged with the intrusion of the supernatural, tell the story in chronological order and I found it surprisingly moving and extremely enjoyable.

3. Dreamcatcher (2001)
Like 'The Tommyknockers' (1987) this is King having fun with the old 1950s style alien monster "small town invasion" yarn and the creatures he invents here are truly disgusting! It's a fast paced and unpretentious pulp adventure that goes by in a flash and leaves one almost guiltily satisfied at having enjoyed it so much. It's the kind of thing one imagines King could knock out in his sleep. Impossible not to warm to and ridiculously unputdownable for all its populist manipulations and moments on "Come on, Steve" improbability. I really liked the unfairly notorious film version and, as usual, the book is so much better. A real guilty pleasure.

4. Black House (2001) - with Peter Straub
The sequel to their previous collaboration 'The Talisman' (1984). Where that novel was a weird, and not entirely successful, blend of children's fantasy and adult horror the sequel has to be one of the grimmest things either author has turned their hands to. Jack Sawyer is now an adult and renowned homicide detective who has blanked his childhood adventures from his mind, but remains subliminally haunted by them. He finds himself hunting a cannibalistic paedophile serial killer who appears to be modelling himself on Albert Fish. Gradually the supernatural intrudes into the case and Jack is forced to confront the flood of memories this ushers in. This is an absolutely epic and impossibly gripping ultra-dark horror/fantasy that I would put on a par with the best and most ambitious works of Clive Barker. For me there is no higher praise in this field. 'The Talisman' does not have to be read to enjoy its masterly narrative drive and I would rank it as one of the greatest high points of either author's career. Straub's richly multi-layered literary strengths combine with King's ever compelling storytelling and characterisation to create a modern masterpiece of soaring imagination and scope. It's a real corker, folks!!

5. Duma Key (2008)
This was one of King's character driven slow burners of a supernatural horror story and, as such, was his finest in that vein, that I have read, since the classic 'Pet Sematary' (1983). The story involves a tortured artist (of the painting variety) getting away from it all, on his doctor's advice, to what promises to be a paradise on earth but that, of course, turns out to harbour a deeply buried dark secret that, despite the warnings of the locals, he can't help but delve into... to his inevitable cost. Around that familiar set-up King constructs actually one of his most original and engrossingly unpredictable tales, populated by some of his most vividly drawn and likeable characters (which is saying something). This one is best read knowing as little about the plot as possible and builds remorselessly to one of his most memorably horrific finales.

6. Under The Dome (2009) - researched by Russ Dorr
Back in 1976, when King's creative energy was at its peak, he started two mega ambitious projects of apocalyptic science fiction - this story, of insular small town implosion (in which we get to know virtually everyone who lives and dies there), and what was to become his masterpiece, 'The Stand' (1978), with its staggeringly detailed global catastrophe. In another world 'Dome' could be the work that he is most revered for, by people of a certain age, but it wasn't to be. That book was shelved until 2007, when he again felt up to the task, with the help of the same old friend and technical researcher, Mr Dorr. And he produced one of his most unputdownable novels. The action starts in top gear and never lets up for a second as King continually cranks the tension to the absolute max, while deftly constructing a Rod Serlingesque satirical parable aimed squarely at the Bush regime. What the story may lack in subtlety (the characterisation is much broader than in 'The Stand') it more than makes up for in breathless excitement and impressive technical detail, as every possible physical and sociological consequence of enforced imprisonment behind an impregnable barrier from nowhere is thought through and presented to us with utter conviction. Another belter of a thriller that puts you right there with every one of its hapless protagonists!! For the record; I deliberately avoided the TV series adaptation and have it on good authority, from mates, that it is a mockery of the book.

7. Needful Things (1991)
Reading this right after 'Under The Dome' was an interesting experience as the two stories were almost identical in their multi-character depiction of small town apocalypse in the face of a supernatural threat straight out of 'The Twilight Zone'. The book reads like a pulpy early draft of the later more technically detailed and original epic. What we have here is a broadly drawn moral parable in which the Devil rides into town and opens a new shop that offers its customers all that their hearts desire... at the cost of their souls. Reading like a cynical black comedy there is a surprising amount of contempt for the Bradburyesque idyll of small town Americana in this one - which I found its greatest strength. It's like King was deliberately trying to shake off the schmaltz that had started to weaken his fiction in the previous few years. It's another effortlessly compulsive read for all the predictability of the simplistic plot. As simple and enjoyable as a fairy-tale, really.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 82.132.233.76
Posted on Tuesday, March 15, 2016 - 08:47 pm:   

'Revolt In 2100' (1953) by Robert A. Heinlein
A collection of three linked novellas from Bob's 'Future History' series - an epic project of fictional prophecy that he would continually return to throughout his life, jumping forwards and backwards in chronology as he filled in the gaps. The stories were:

1. If This Goes On (1940)
A fascinating and still relevant tale of secular "terrorist" rebellion against a future religious dictatorship in the USA. One either believes and obeys the "Laws of The Prophet" or one is put to death. The story plots the increasing disillusion and seditious seduction of a respected member of the Imperial Guard and the hair-raising adventures and moral dilemmas he must endure when he throws in his lot with the inevitable and carefully planned armed uprising against the State, that he had loyally served. It's a thrilling all-action and intrigue adventure story first and an impassioned political parable about the rights of the individual second. Classic Heinlein!

2. Coventry (1940)
Set in the aftermath of the successful revolution this story has a violently outspoken opponent of the New America - a Professor of English Literature - being given the choice of submitting to "psychological readjustment" for the good of the State or being exiled to the realm of Coventry, a real place populated by dissidents behind an impregnable force field (shades of 'Under The Dome'). He puts free will first and chooses exile but finds the reality of Coventry to be far from the paradise of like-minded individualists he had hoped for. A somewhat problematic but typically brave tale that seems to insist that some level of State control is preferable to unbridled anarchy.

3. Misfit (1939)
The final story introduces Andrew "Slipstick" Libby, who would become a recurring character in the 'Future History' saga. An autistic "idiot savant" gifted with extraordinary mathematical capabilities (Heinlein describes him as a human calculating device) the boy is wholly unable to fit into the new post-revolution society and the story details his and his wards efforts to find him a place and a role in life. This develops into another of the author's thrilling outer space adventures with our hero predictably saving the day and gaining a level of acceptance despite his handicaps. An irresistibly old fashioned ripping yarn with heaps of charm.

The three stories bridge the narrative gap between the short story "The Menace From Earth" (1957) and the classic novel 'Methuselah's Children' (1941 and expanded in 1958). That book was the very first thing I read by Heinlein and is the one that instantly hooked me on his storytelling style. It also introduced his most famous recurring character - the immortal space adventurer, Lazarus Long.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 82.132.227.29
Posted on Wednesday, March 16, 2016 - 03:06 am:   

'Thieving Fear' (2008) by Ramsey Campbell
Following what is arguably the man's horror masterpiece, 'The Grin Of The Dark' (2007), this book was another exercise in intense psychological paranoia and a gradual fragmenting of reality that may, or may not, have a supernatural cause. It harks back to early works such as 'To Wake The Dead'/'The Parasite' (1980), 'Incarnate' (1983) and 'Obsession' (1985) while channeling the disorienting surrealism of 'Needing Ghosts' (1990) and features a group of four main protagonists who each fall victim to their own individual worst fears, being; spatial confusion, negative body image, crippling claustrophobia and inability to communicate. As their lives disintegrate around them the group of old friends desperately try to band together in an effort to get to the bottom of the mystery and confront their supernatural tormentor - a possibly imagined and dimly glimpsed entity that stalks them, signalling its presence by the smell of freshly dug earth. Extremely disturbing and full of unforgettably skin-crawling sequences of inner turmoil and confusion it's far from an easy read and, half the time, leaves one wondering what the hell is going on but it builds to a fantastically nightmarish finale and ends with one of Ramsey's most uncompromisingly ambiguous and haunting codas. I finished it months ago but still find myself returning to the characters and worrying about them. Was it all a dream? Did they end up damned or saved? Please, Ramsey, put me out of my misery!! Incidentally, the novel works as a kind of loosely linked sequel to 'The Parasite' as it features some of the same characters. Nuff said...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 82.132.227.29
Posted on Wednesday, March 16, 2016 - 10:05 am:   

'Lost Boy, Lost Girl' (2003) by Peter Straub

Now this is what I call a great piece of horror literature! Coming straight off 'Black House' the synopsis made it sound worryingly like a desperate cash-in, to my ears, as both books feature not only a community haunted by a paedophile serial killer, with seemingly supernatural powers, but a derelict house at the centre of the action that is shunned by the locals due to its evil reputation. I needn't have worried. What we have here is a brilliantly paced, admirably succinct and utterly compulsive multi-layered mystery told in a series of complexly interwoven flashbacks and flash forwards, from two different perspectives, that refuses to palm feed the reader (as with King) and yet remains impossibly gripping in its narrative drive. Yep... think all the mind pleasures and emotional impact of 'True Detective', folks!!

In the past a young man on the cusp of adulthood plays amateur detective following a personal tragedy, that may or not be linked to the wave of murders terrorising his town, while, in the present, his loving uncle retraces his steps in an attempt to discover the boy's whereabouts and whether or not he has become the latest victim of the killer! That's the basic hook but Straub somehow constructs around it a sublimely involving and impossible to predict tale that manages to combine terrifyingly tangible supernatural horror, straight out of M.R. James territory, with a tender coming of age drama, a thrilling detective story, a devastating exposé of dark family secrets that reaches Shakespearean levels of tragedy, a bittersweet "boy meets girl" romance of aching poignancy, a riveting whodunit, a quite beautiful - Bradburyesque even - ode to childhood innocence and a horribly twisted examination of deep rooted sexual perversion, soul destroying guilt and unholy seduction. One minute the reader is smiling inanely filled with a warm glow of contentment and the next we are almost afraid to turn the page for what unspeakable horrors it may reveal... about ourselves as much as the characters. It's a tour-de-force, pure and simple, that left me stunned, all over again, at just how bloody good a writer Peter Straub is. Now I only wish I could discuss the book with someone else who has read it.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 82.132.226.225
Posted on Wednesday, March 16, 2016 - 04:17 pm:   

'Galilee' (1998) by Clive Barker

In my opinion, and for all the brilliance of his 1980s debut, Clive Barker was at his absolute peak of creativity in the 1990s, producing his unarguable masterpiece with 'Imajica' in 1991 (see above) and almost matching it with the fantastic metaphysical adventures of 'The Books Of The Art' (1989-94) and the heartbreakingly personal 'Sacrament' (1996). So one can imagine the excitement with which I approached this breezeblock of an epic. The book was disconcertingly billed as "A Romance", and a doomed love affair that outdoes 'Romeo And Juliet' in its unspeakable transgressions, does indeed take up much of the plot, but what we really have here is a monumentally ambitious centuries spanning family saga with all the literary skill, huge cast of unforgettable characters and stunning attention to detail of a modern day Dickens, imho. The action swings backward and forward through time from the pre-millennial angst of the late 90s to the time of Christ as it plots the history of a family of god-like immortals, the fearsome Barbarossa clan, and all the generations of their mortal enemies, the Gearys... a family of super rich global power-brokers - considered "American royalty" - whose wealth and influence was built on leeching the supernatural power of their foes through a pivotal act of unforgivable betrayal and blackmail, way back in the mists of time. There's only one way to get a flavour of the indescribable pleasures of this great feat of the imagination, and that's to read the opening:


"At the insistence of my stepmother Cesaria Barbarossa the house in which I presently sit was built so that it faces southeast. The architect--who was no lesser man than the third President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson--protested her desire repeatedly and eloquently. I have the letters in which he did so here on my desk. But she would not be moved on the subject. The house was to look back towards her homeland, towards Africa, and he, as her employee, was to do as he was instructed.

It's very plain, however, reading between the lines of her missives (I have those too; or at least copies of them) that he is far more than an architect for hire; and she to him more than a headstrong woman with a perverse desire to build a house in a swamp, in North Carolina, facing southeast. They write to one another like people who know a secret.

I know a few myself; and luckily for the thoroughness of what follows I have no intention of keeping them.

The time has come to tell everything I know. Failing that, everything I can detect or surmise. Failing that, everything I can invent. If I do my job properly it won't even matter to you which is which. What will appear on these pages will be, I hope, a seamless history, describing deeds and destinies that will range across the world. Some of them will be, to say the least, strange events, enacted by troubled and unpalatable souls. But as a general rule, you should assume that the more unlikely the action I lay upon this stage for you, the more likely it is that I have evidence of its having happened. The things I will invent will be, I suspect, mundane by comparison with the truth. And as I said, it's my intention that you should not know the difference. I plan to interweave the elements of my story so cunningly that you'll cease to even care whether an event happened out there in the same world where you walk, or in here, in the head of a crippled man who will never again move from his stepmother's house."



See what I mean? And it only gets better from there...
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Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch)
Username: Mark_lynch

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 87.113.241.2
Posted on Wednesday, March 16, 2016 - 07:38 pm:   

I've read both those books, Stevie, and agree with you. The Straub you mention is the scariest thing of his I have read, and there were moments reading the damn thing I felt a delicious dread at what might lurk over the next page. You haven't mentioned it, but the protagonist Timothy Underhill is the secret hero of Straub's Koko, the co-author of Mystery (if we are to believe The Throat) and the star of The Throat. The whole Underhill sequence, including the short stories, is just stunning. The last book to feature him was In the Night Room, though Straub's graphic novel The Green Woman is worthy of attention in the sequence too.

(Really glad someone else appreciates Barker's masterworks Imajica, Galilee, and Sacrament too; I'd thought it was just me!)
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 82.132.216.16
Posted on Thursday, March 17, 2016 - 02:24 am:   

I haven't mentioned 'Koko', Mark, because - hold your breath - I haven't read it... or any of the rest of what you call the Underhill sequence!!!!

Thanks so much for drawing my attention to them! So many books, so little time. But I'm going to dedicate the rest of 2016 to reading all the Straub I can. I kept picking up inferences to characters and events in Underhill's past, as I read LBLG, that did make me wonder if I was missing out on something. You've just confirmed my suspicions and my wildest hopes.

These are all the novels I have read by the man, ranked:

1. Ghost Story (1979)
2. Shadowland (1980)
3. Lost Boy, Lost Girl (2003)
4. Black House (2001) - with Stephen King
5. Floating Dragon (1983)
6. The Talisman (1984) - with Stephen King

The strength of those books alone was enough to make him one of my favourite horror authors and I even considered him better than King back in the day - quality over quantity and all that. Really excited at the thought of catching up with all the works I've missed in the interim. Thanks again, man!
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.153.254.41
Posted on Thursday, March 17, 2016 - 04:51 am:   

Oooh... once again, I just didn't care for Ghost Story which I read just a few months ago. The fact you put that at #1, Stevie.... The best parts of that novel were better done by Henry James. However, that being said - I've loved the few novellas I've read by Straub, including "The Juniper Tree," and rank him high based on just those. I mean to read Floating Dragon, and I was wondering about his mystery (? - are they of that genre? I assume) novel sequence, too.

Right now, speaking of the mystery genre, thought I'd give Walter Mosley a chance with his 2nd Easy Rawlins novel, A Red Death (1991), the sequel to the first, Devil in a Blue Dress, from which came the okay film with Denzel Washington. So far, fun reading, period-piece (1953 L.A.), ...

Finished after many months (from dipping in and out) the John D. McDonald collection. The longest story I kept putting off, "They Let Me Live" (1950), and it ended up being the very best of a fine collection. I'm so impressed, I want to go find more. I was kinda surprised (unfairly ignoring him all this time) to see how universally admired the man is - even King called him (in On Writing [2000]) "the greatest entertainer of our age, and a mesmerizing storyteller." I am going to put the first Travis McGee novel, The Deep Blue Good-bye (1964) on my look-for-it list.
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Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch)
Username: Mark_lynch

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 87.113.241.2
Posted on Thursday, March 17, 2016 - 09:13 am:   

Oh, you have a treat in store, Steve. When you have read the Blue Rose trilogy - Koko, Mystery, and The Throat - read lost boy, lost girl again and you will see a different , and richer, novel.

I enjoyed The Throat so much that as soon as I fi
Nished it I turned back to the first page and read it again.

I don't know that I have a fixed order of favourites, but The Throat, Mystery, Hellfire Club and lost boy, lost girl would probably be at the head of it.

Mm. Black House. While I loved about three quarters of the book, I could have done without the Dark Tower ending. I blame King for that. Otherwise it's a very Straubian book.
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Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch)
Username: Mark_lynch

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 87.113.241.2
Posted on Thursday, March 17, 2016 - 09:15 am:   

Just got around to starting Ramsey's The Kind Folk and it's gearing up to be one of his best.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 82.132.236.29
Posted on Thursday, March 17, 2016 - 06:08 pm:   

'Cell' (2006) by Stephen King

Dedicated to Richard Matheson and George A. Romero - specifically the works; ‘I Am Legend’ (1954) and ‘Dawn Of The Dead’ (1978) - this was King, somewhat predictably, giving us his take on the done to death “undead apocalypse” scenario - finally made redundant by the definitive excellence of ‘The Walking Dead’. So I approached the book expecting to be entertained but not expecting anything particularly special. I was wrong. The author takes the fail safe premise of humanity falling prey to a monstrously transformed version of itself, on a global scale, and does everything in his power to create something we have never seen before. In that he succeeds and gives us one of the best works of apocalyptic science fiction since the glory days of John Wyndham and John Christopher - specifically the works; ‘The Day Of The Triffids’ (1951) and ‘The Death Of Grass’ (1956) - to which it bears as much comparison as its dedicatees. For a start the apocalyptic event takes the form of an electronic pulse of alien origin that targets the one piece of modern technology that has become most ubiquitous and had the most profound transformative effect, for good or bad, on society and the frighteningly speeded up evolution of the human race… no, not the Internet… but mobile telephones.

Think about it. King did, and, as with ‘The Stand’ (1978), ‘The Mist’ (1980) and ‘Under The Dome’ (2009), gives us a scarily convincing “end of the world” that, this time, happens in a split second and destroys everything overnight. Anyone, anywhere in the world, who had the misfortune to be using their cell phone (as the Yanks call them) at the time of The Pulse has their mind instantly wiped clean, turning them into creatures of pure brute instinct that live only to survive and eat - with all that those two ungoverned prime impulses imply for their subsequent behaviour. Far from being undead these inhuman creatures are the very embodiment of Life for Life’s sake. But the horror doesn’t end there. With a clean fully functioning brain, unfettered by millennia of societal evolution and the growth of reason, these beings themselves begin to evolve anew and wage war on all the poor schmucks who fortunately, or perhaps not, missed The Pulse (not being on their phones - again, look around you on any city street and think about it…) and were left behind - up shit creek without the proverbial paddle. King introduces us to one such survivor and keeps the narrative tight and thrilling by concentrating only on him and his desperate search for his family amid the hellish chaos that engulfs Boston. I finished it in no time and would rank it as one of the man’s most unpretentiously entertaining all-action adventures while still being clever and original enough to hold its own with any of the great works that followed Wells’ ‘The War Of The Worlds’ (1898).

Here’s hoping the upcoming film version, that again pairs John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson (so good together in ‘1408’ (2007)), does it justice.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 109.147.136.134
Posted on Sunday, March 20, 2016 - 11:31 am:   

I liked Cell until the floating zombies. Maybe I need to read it again because I have no memory of it...
On the other hand I'm zooming through Lost Boy Lost Girl. I was unsure at first because the main character felt a tad pretentious and old fashioned, the language a little fancy and odd. But then, when the younger characters take over it bowls you over with life. The boys feel so rounded. It does feel like an unconscious stab at King, in a way, to not have kids who only seem to live in the fifties. But my, has it dated already; 'Let's go to the mall and look for some good new CDs'. How old that sounds.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 109.147.136.134
Posted on Sunday, March 20, 2016 - 11:34 am:   

But it's a wonderful book. I love it. And it reinforces my old belief that amateur detectives have better, scarier adventures than policemen.
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Lincoln (Lincoln_brown)
Username: Lincoln_brown

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 120.21.39.126
Posted on Sunday, March 20, 2016 - 08:55 pm:   

Some recent reads:
'It', by King
'20th Century Ghosts', by Joe Hill
'The Passage', by Justin Cronin
'Slade House', by David Mitchell

Next up will be the second part of 'The Passage' trilogy - 'The Twelve', before the third part is released in a couple of months.
Stevie, I highly, highly recommend 'Koko', by Straub. Great novel. Another related story is 'The Ghost Village'. Blew me away.
I'm definitely bumping 'Lost Boy, Lost Girl' up the pile.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 82.132.226.194
Posted on Monday, March 21, 2016 - 03:20 pm:   

I've actually read "The Ghost Village", Lincoln, in one of the 'Best New Horror' volumes, and it was brilliant.

I agree with you, Tony, that LBLG beats King at his own game by giving us a richly nostalgic and touching tale of childhood without succumbing to any level of sentimentality. If anything the horror is made more frightening by the young heroes' naive faith in their own safety while getting in way over their heads. The fact we know from the beginning that it must end badly for them, due to Underhill's investigations in the present, made me almost sick with worry the more I grew to like them. It is a wonderful book.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 82.132.226.194
Posted on Monday, March 21, 2016 - 10:27 pm:   

Just ordered 'Koko' (1988) on Amazon for 1p!!!! Really looking forward to it.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 82.132.226.194
Posted on Monday, March 21, 2016 - 10:41 pm:   

Tony, the creatures in 'Cell' weren't zombies but a rapidly evolving new species of human beings, their brains rebooted by alien technology. I liked the fact that they were intelligent, cooperated with each other, ate the same everyday food as we do, rather than human flesh, and were most active in the day time, resting by night. It was their coldly emotionless will to survive and, ultimately, replace us that made them so dangerous. Kind of like a more aggressively apocalyptic twist on Wyndham's 'The Midwich Cuckoos' (1957).
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 82.132.219.45
Posted on Tuesday, March 22, 2016 - 03:16 pm:   

Craig, I'm amazed, stunned even, that you didn't get what was so great about 'Ghost Story' (1979). I know it isn't just nostalgia for the pivotal books of my youth talking, as I reread it recently and got so much more out of it.

The book is brilliantly constructed, damn scary and completely original. Reading it made me realise just how good horror writing could be when done with serious literary ambition that doesn't forfeit the thrills and narrative drive of pulp fiction. It exists in a different world from the demanding psychological subtlety of Henry James, imho.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.153.254.41
Posted on Tuesday, March 22, 2016 - 03:37 pm:   

I enjoyed the writing, Stevie, as I always do with Straub. But I found the story got rushed, sloppier and sloppier as it approached the conclusion. The story within the novel being told - about the genesis of the villain/s - was pretty much a complete rip-off of "Turn of the Screw," if I remember both correctly.

Not just blowing smoke, but I find Campbell's novels tremendously better - tighter, finer, uniquely realized, building tension and horror without seeming to be overly contrived. The Parasite, Night of the Claw, The Nameless, Incarnate... sorry, I just don't think Ghost Story holds a candle to those, as far as the horror novel is concerned....
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Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch)
Username: Mark_lynch

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 87.112.240.254
Posted on Wednesday, March 23, 2016 - 06:41 pm:   

"The Ghost Village" sort of appears, edited down, in The Throat. So my suggestion would be to hold off reading it until after you have read The Throat.

Glad lblg is working for you, Tony!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.197.105.247
Posted on Monday, March 28, 2016 - 06:47 pm:   

While I wait for 'Koko' to arrive I've decided to start 'Carol' aka 'The Price Of Salt' (1952) by Patricia Highsmith. Been far too long since I was beguiled by her sinister world. Thoughts anon.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.197.105.247
Posted on Monday, March 28, 2016 - 06:49 pm:   

Yes, Craig, Ramsey is hands down the greatest living horror author. I couldn't agree more. But Straub is well up in the Top 10, imho, and a much superior writer to King.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.197.105.247
Posted on Monday, March 28, 2016 - 06:56 pm:   

Been trying to reason what stopped me reading ‘Koko’ (1988) at the time and come up with two explanations. First was my relative disappointment with Straub & King’s much heralded collaboration, ‘The Talisman’ (1984), and second was the fact that a non-horror novel, as I believed it to be, about the Vietnam war didn’t appeal at that time, as I was going through a period of reading true war accounts, and had recently been blown away by Guy Sajer’s ‘The Forgotten Soldier’ (1965) - still one of the most harrowing and emotionally affecting books I have ever read. After that Straub sort of left my radar as I thought he had abandoned horror in favour of crime thrillers, etc. My loss then and my gain now…
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.197.105.247
Posted on Monday, March 28, 2016 - 08:00 pm:   

Read the first few chapters and, as ever, I'm hooked. These characters live and breathe and I already care dearly for them. Marvellously inciteful and gripping writing for one so young. 'Strangers On A Train' (1950) was anything but a flash in the pan.

That's me acting as if I didn't know what was to follow...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.197.105.247
Posted on Monday, March 28, 2016 - 08:15 pm:   

Insightful even ffs... although it is inciting me to read on lol.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 88.144.86.70
Posted on Tuesday, March 29, 2016 - 02:05 am:   

Carol is not exactly a thriller, more a very moving, touching romance.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.197.105.247
Posted on Tuesday, March 29, 2016 - 04:12 am:   

Yes, Tony, I'm getting that already. But Patricia had the genius to make such a dangerously transgressive romance, for 1952, into something every bit as grippingly suspenseful as any of her thrillers. It is one of the most painfully personal books of her's (which really is saying something) that I have read to date. She really laid her soul bare in this one. God help her and God help these lovely characters.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.197.105.247
Posted on Tuesday, March 29, 2016 - 04:17 am:   

I'm already thinking of this book as a masterpiece decades (literally) ahead of its time. I can't put it down.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 93.97.134.20
Posted on Tuesday, March 29, 2016 - 08:09 pm:   

And at the same time I'm reading another old favourite: 'Space Cadet' (1948) by Robert A. Heinlein. It's a short novel that I'm breezing through and thoroughly enjoying. So far it comes across like a more light hearted and innocently thrilling early draft of 'Starship Troopers' (1959). It took me a while to realise how startling the characters' use of mobile phones (described as such) is for a book written at that time. He even predicted the problems with poor signals and being able to be found anywhere by one's spouse, etc. And all that as a casual background detail in the story. But that's Heinlein.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.197.105.247
Posted on Wednesday, March 30, 2016 - 02:48 pm:   

What I'm really enjoying about 'Carol' is the beautifully measured pace. This is a story of close friendship that the two women involved hardly even realise, due to their upbringing and the attitudes of the time, is growing into real love and physical attraction. The emotional tension between them is palpable. Others have begun to notice and whisper about what is already patently obvious and I can see all the ingredients for great suspense once their relationship is consummated. I don't usually go in for "message novels" but that isn't what I'm getting from this book. It is quite sublime and impossibly gripping.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.197.105.247
Posted on Wednesday, March 30, 2016 - 03:06 pm:   

The other great tension in the story is the big age difference between them and the fact that Carol is respectably married with a child. One can feel her protectiveness for her naive and inexperienced young friend battling with her attraction. But love is a funny thing... the most powerful and dangerous of all the emotions, imo. It makes us throw caution to the wind.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.197.105.247
Posted on Wednesday, March 30, 2016 - 03:09 pm:   

Hate takes effort. Love swallows us whole.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.197.105.247
Posted on Wednesday, March 30, 2016 - 05:36 pm:   

Just reading a bit about Patricia. Apparently she voluntarily underwent psychoanalysis "to regularise herself sexually" in 1948, with the plan being that she would then marry her novelist partner Marc Brandel. She gave up on the treatment and ditched him after six months and 'The Price Of Salt' was her first written (second published) novel as a result. How's that for discovering oneself through one's Art?! What a woman.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.197.105.247
Posted on Wednesday, March 30, 2016 - 05:46 pm:   

Have to say Bob and Patricia are making for odd bedfellows in my reading world at the minute. From military minded conservatism to ballsy liberalism and back again. Or so it would seem on first appearances... but the two of them had more in common than they may ever have realised. Two pig-headed and supremely talented libertarian individualists who made an artform out of their respective genres and took no shit from anyone. My kind of writers.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.197.105.247
Posted on Wednesday, March 30, 2016 - 06:07 pm:   

'Space Cadet' (1948) tells the story of a group of callow teenagers applying to join the Space Patrol in 2075 and being put through the mill in basic training - who will stick the pace and who will drop out - before embarking on their first all too dangerous mission as young men - who will survive and who will pay the ultimate price. It's one of those charmingly predictable old stories that never fails to grip and entertain but it is made great by the sheer wealth of uncannily accurate scientific, technological and sociological detail Heinlein manages to cram in without the reader even realising it - because they are enjoying the story so much. The man really was a genius, imho.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.197.105.247
Posted on Thursday, March 31, 2016 - 03:23 am:   

I've just realised that Highsmith's first and last written novels are her two most personal and could be seen to chart the story of her emotional and physical development really.

'Carol' (1952) is an achingly optimistic novel of a beautiful young woman finding her true place in the world and embarking on a great adventure, despite all the transgressions, perils and persecutions it entails.

'Small g : A Summer Idyll' (1995) is a disturbing story of a bitter old woman's unexpressed lust for a young girl under her charge, and how her jealousy drives her to want to destroy the girl's heterosexual relationships and keep her all to herself.

These are the only two books in which the author explicitly tackled her own sexuality and it is hard not to draw the conclusion that she saw herself as both the naively optimistic young nymph, Therese Belivet (when she was a real beauty), and the self loathing old witch, Renate Hagnauer (when she was anything but). Interesting...
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 178.117.197.80
Posted on Thursday, March 31, 2016 - 09:02 pm:   

Koko is a masterpiece, probably Straub's best. I believe it's his favourite novel.
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 178.117.197.80
Posted on Thursday, March 31, 2016 - 09:33 pm:   

Recently bought for 1 euro apiece: Shadowland, Floating Dragon and The Throat. Roughly the first half of Shadowland - the school part - I found excellent, but the rest was too much of a fairytale for me. Am currently at page 200 of Floating Dragon. So far I like it, even if the multiple viewpoints and the plethora of characters is somewhat confusing at times. Some good shudders.

There's no supernaturalism in Koko, but the serial killer who operates under that name haunted me for several months afterwards. A pathetic figure who invokes compassion. There are a few crafty literary devices in this book, possibly too subtle for the general reader.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 217.35.85.78
Posted on Monday, April 04, 2016 - 05:29 pm:   

Finished 'Carol' (1952) and 'Space Cadet' (1948). The first exceptionally moving and the second exceptionally thrilling.

Now, as a wee experiment, I'm starting 'Koko' (1988) by Peter Straub and 'Mr Mercedes' (2014) by Stephen King. Both serial killer crime thrillers that have been described as "masterpieces". Thoughts and comparisons to follow...
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 178.117.197.80
Posted on Tuesday, April 05, 2016 - 11:26 am:   

Found another Straub book, Magic Terror - a collection of shorter stories (seven in all), as good as new, for 1 euro. The thrift shop in question also had quite a few Kings and Herberts, but I'll pass on those. Only ever saw one Campbell, The Hungry Moon, which I already have.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 217.35.85.78
Posted on Saturday, April 09, 2016 - 05:15 pm:   

So much for the experiment lol. I've found 'Mr Mercedes' a fast paced and impossible to put down suspense thriller and already I'm almost finished it. 'Koko', after the first few chapters, is a much richer more absorbing novel that, I'm afraid, will have to wait a tad longer for me to do it justice. It's unfair to compare the two books. King's is a relatively short corker of a page-turner that, one imagines, is already being turned into a film somewhere.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.153.254.41
Posted on Sunday, April 10, 2016 - 08:20 pm:   

Think I might turn to some horror short fiction. Found at the library store Monsters in Our Midst, ed. by Robert Bloch (1993). All original stories by Bloch, Campbell ("For You To Judge"), Carroll, Somtow, Tem, Grant, etc. Must have missed this one somehow, even back in the day. It's been too long since I dove into some good old short horror....
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 93.97.134.20
Posted on Sunday, April 10, 2016 - 09:54 pm:   

Finished 'Mr Mercedes' (2014) and it's certainly no "masterpiece". What it is is a superbly well crafted white knuckle suspense thriller with no excess fat whatsoever. The kind of story Donald E. Westlake used to turn out in his sleep. I'm coming to the conclusion that King is at his most satisfying when he concentrates on pure story and action. It's one of his best non-horror novels. Nothing particularly original the story is your basic battle of wits between a psychopathic master criminal, with delusions of grandeur, and a retired homicide detective brought back for one last case, but, for all that, this is a supremely entertaining modern noir that really is impossible to put down once started.

Now I can concentrate fully on the no doubt deeper pleasures of Peter Straub's 'Koko' (1988).
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.197.107.237
Posted on Monday, April 11, 2016 - 03:34 pm:   

Well into 'Koko' now and the book has had me almost filling up several times. The emotional resonance of all those old Vietnam vets meeting up again years later to lay a few deadly ghosts is powerfully well done. I already care dearly for all of them and fear what their delving into the unresolved mysteries of the past may reveal. Superb writing!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.197.107.237
Posted on Monday, April 11, 2016 - 03:47 pm:   

Hubert, it was the weird otherworldliness of 'Shadowland' that really captivated me about the novel. It is the closest Straub has come to the subtly creepy magic realism of Jonathan Carroll, imho. A kind of dark adult fairytale with an unsettling surrealism that threatens to fracture the characters' world. Sometimes I even think it superior to 'Ghost Story'. Ripe for a reread that one!
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 5.81.136.109
Posted on Thursday, April 14, 2016 - 11:27 am:   

I just read Lost Boy Lost Girl but only half loved it. It felt messy, a tad lazy. If it had focussed on one character I might have liked it more. I also quickly read an old John Christopher, The Little People, and hated it. A right, unfocused mess.I don't think even Christopher knew what kind of book he was writing.
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 178.117.197.80
Posted on Thursday, April 14, 2016 - 05:38 pm:   

Currently on p. 550 of Floating Dragon. While I haven't read all of Straub yet, I'd say this is his most King-like effort. Fortunately it lacks what I would call the overpowering 'chumminess' we get in King's sometimes tediously long novels.

Glad to hear you like Koko, Stevie. The climax is a shattering one indeed. Are you already past the very strong scene in the NY Public Library where one of the vets is stalked by the killer? Strange as it sounds (the man is dangerously insane after all), by the end you'll fully understand Koko's motivation. By the way, the book has the same set of characters as the short story "The Ghost Village". Apparently they're also present in The Throat, which is next on my reading list after Magic Terror.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.153.254.41
Posted on Thursday, April 14, 2016 - 08:00 pm:   

I read "The Ghost Village" within the last year, and just thought it kicked ass - fantastic piece! So if anyone thinks I'm ragging on Straub for not liking Ghost Story, no no no....

Turned after a few horror stories in this Bloch antho (including Ramsey's - classic twisted wicked Ramsey), to finally give a shot to the first Travis McGee novel by MacDonald, The Deep Blue Good-by (1964). Quick reading, light and hardly blush-inducing by today's thriller standards. Fun. I'm trying to get to as many "significant" works, in all genres, as I can that I've missed lo these many years. It's a big mountain of a task, but there it is. I picked up Spillane's I, The Jury(1953), the first Mike Hammer novel, a gigantic & influential bestselling pulp. Just need to read faster....
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Lincoln (Lincoln_brown)
Username: Lincoln_brown

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 101.187.185.136
Posted on Monday, April 18, 2016 - 07:35 am:   

Hubert, there are a lot of similiarities between 'Floating Dragon' and 'It', don't you think?
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 178.117.197.80
Posted on Tuesday, April 19, 2016 - 12:33 pm:   

Haven't read It, Lincoln. I sort of dropped King after Firestarter, which to me was just a re-hash of the great Carrie. His prolixity and all-pervading chumminess too began to get seriously on my nerves around that time. I still love the short stories in Night Shift, though, and some of his early novels, like The Shining and The Dead Zone. Tried The Tommyknockers not too long ago and gave up after fifty pages.

Floating Dragon is far from perfect, but has its moments. The linking up of old legendry with the latter-day escape of the DRG gas (in itself an interesting idea) is unconvincing, however, and there are far too many expendable characters. Look at what Straub does in Koko with only a dozen or so memorable chracters. Magnificent.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 94.10.34.171
Posted on Tuesday, April 19, 2016 - 02:30 pm:   

I agree, Hubert. I greatly enjoyed 'Floating Dragon' (1982) at the time but also found it overly influenced by the style of Stephen King and Robert R. McCammon when Straub's previous two novels had shown him to be capable of so much more. 'The Talisman' (1984), I believe, was an artistic misstep for the author and I can now see 'Koko' (1988) - almost halfway through - as a storming return to form and creative integrity. It is a magnificent work of art - indescribably emotionally powerful.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 94.10.34.171
Posted on Tuesday, April 19, 2016 - 02:35 pm:   

Yes, Lincoln. 'Floating Dragon' (1982) reads like 'It' (1986) shorn of the cloying sentimentality and self-indulgent showing off. It is a much superior novel but I still rank it as the relatively weakest of Straub's big breakthrough works.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 94.10.34.171
Posted on Tuesday, April 19, 2016 - 02:41 pm:   

If 'Koko' continues at this level it will even eclipse 'Ghost Story' in my affections. See my ranking list of Straub's works above.
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 178.117.197.80
Posted on Tuesday, April 19, 2016 - 03:00 pm:   

How does the killer strike you, Stevie? Weirdly enough I felt nothing but guilty sympathy.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 94.10.34.171
Posted on Tuesday, April 19, 2016 - 04:19 pm:   

So far I'm finding the killer frighteningly intense and illogical in his reasoning, Hubert. A true psychotic on a mission of misguided redemption. He doesn't enjoy what he is doing, finds it "messy", but he feels emotionally compelled to carry out his horrific actions in order to "right a wrong", as he sees it. I kind of understand him and feel for him on a certain level but I don't like him.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.150.36.142
Posted on Tuesday, April 19, 2016 - 07:55 pm:   

The third in the Martin Beck books, 'The Man on the Balcony'. The Beck books feel like phone books, distant as the news on pretext, but by God are they compelling, and grubby, and upsetting.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.150.36.142
Posted on Tuesday, April 19, 2016 - 07:56 pm:   

Teletext
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 178.117.197.80
Posted on Tuesday, April 19, 2016 - 09:04 pm:   

Well, I was kind of in two minds at first, but there's a chapter close to the end where I felt nothing but a profound sadness. I won't spoil the book for you, but by means of a literary device Straub communicates to the reader who Koko is long before the protagonists find out who he is.
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 213.233.148.1
Posted on Wednesday, April 20, 2016 - 01:30 am:   

Kalkitos.
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Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch)
Username: Mark_lynch

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 80.229.52.233
Posted on Saturday, April 23, 2016 - 05:13 pm:   

A Time of Torment. John Connolly's newest Charlie Parker book.
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Matteus (Matteus)
Username: Matteus

Registered: 10-2014
Posted From: 93.40.158.219
Posted on Tuesday, April 26, 2016 - 09:46 am:   

The Grin of the Dark.
Have yet to recover from it.
Thank you, Ramsey.
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 178.117.197.80
Posted on Tuesday, April 26, 2016 - 05:58 pm:   

Two thirds through Straub's Magic Terror, which contains several short stories previously published elsewhere. The genuinely disturbing and very short "Ashputtle" reminded me of Michael Blumlein's "Keeping House". "The Ghost Village" I already knew from a Datlow & Windling collection. "Isn't it Romantic" is an exciting read but not horror. "Bunny is Good Bread" is another study of the making of a serial killer. Almost a rewrite of "The Juniper Tree", it contains references to child molester Heinz Steinmitz (who's eqaully present in Straubs superlong novel The Throat), the discovery of blue roses and the fictional town of Millhaven. "Porkpie Hat" is another interesting albeit non-horror read. Jazz buffs will love this story.
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Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch)
Username: Mark_lynch

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.46.129.45
Posted on Wednesday, April 27, 2016 - 11:39 pm:   

I thought the scream of the guy driving the car through the woods in "Porkpie Hat" worthy of including it in any definition of horror, Hubert.
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 178.117.197.80
Posted on Thursday, April 28, 2016 - 03:04 pm:   

Yes, that was a powerful image. But why the town doctor should be so shaken by the (admittedly unexpected) miscegenation at the heart of the story remains unresolved. A very good story by anyone's standard; it reminded me of the stories in King's 'non horror' collection Different Seasons.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 94.10.34.9
Posted on Friday, April 29, 2016 - 03:49 am:   

Three quarters through 'Koko' (1988) and so enthralled by it I've just ordered the second part of the Blue Rose Trilogy, 'Mystery' (1990).

I'm finding this book to be intensely moving. An emotionally shattering epic tale of friendship and undying loyalty... as well as undying guilt. It is hands down the best thing I have read by Peter Straub to date. His mastery of such painful material is nothing short of awe inspiring. This is true adult literature of a richness and depth that cries out to be recognised and venerated way beyond any shallow definition of "horror fiction". A remarkable read!!
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 178.117.197.80
Posted on Friday, April 29, 2016 - 10:52 am:   

It's Straub's own favourite. I read somewhere he rewrote the novel four times to get things just right. The plot is full of red herrings (have you noticed?), but in the course of one very remarkable chapter toward the end it becomes clear (to the reader, if not the protagonists) who Koko is. There's no supernaturalism of any kind present in the work, unless ones is willing to count the significant image of the elephant.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 82.132.223.213
Posted on Monday, May 02, 2016 - 08:20 pm:   

Yes, Hubert, part of the fascination of the book is trying to work out who Koko is and even now, when his identity seems to have been revealed, I'm half expecting to have the rug pulled out from under me again. The clues and references Straub has scattered through the story have me dying to read the linked tales "Blue Rose" (1985), "The Juniper Tree" (1988) and "Bunny Is Good Bread" (1994), as well as rereading "The Ghost Village" (1992). There is a richness here and a sense of multi-layered mystery that is wholly captivating and compelling way beyond he excitement of the individual story being told. These are works to be read and obsessively mulled over and reread and haunted by and, I can well imagine, returned to time and again.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 82.132.223.213
Posted on Monday, May 02, 2016 - 08:32 pm:   

'Koko' is quite possibly the ultimate literary laying to rest of the ghosts of Vietnam - without being in any way a typical war novel. It has all the emotional intensity of Cimino's 'The Deer Hunter' (1978), which surely must have had some influence on the author, is as grippingly clever and addictive as any classically structured whodunit and as epic human drama is the very essence of great literature. A contender for "The Great Unrecognised American Novel"? I think so.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.181.137.67
Posted on Monday, May 02, 2016 - 09:26 pm:   

1974 by David Peace. It's incredible. Also...it has a faint supernatural thread that makes it feel quite mysterious. Just a speck, but enough.
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 178.117.197.80
Posted on Tuesday, May 03, 2016 - 01:41 pm:   

"The Ghost Village" is as intense as the 'Vietnam' pages in Koko - and they're all there: Puma, Beevers, Linklater, Underhill, Poole and M.O. Dengler. The village's name is different though, so the events narrated in the short story are chronologically pre-Koko. There's real supernaturalism in "The Ghost Villag", too. I understand Underhill is very much present in The Throat, which is next on my reading list.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 94.10.34.9
Posted on Thursday, May 05, 2016 - 04:51 pm:   

Finished 'Koko' and can't wait for 'Mystery' to arrive. In the meantime I'm hunting out my copy of "The Ghost Village" as I imagine it will be all the richer now and my memories of it are hazy, apart from being impressed at the time.

I had my suspicions about the identity of Koko about two thirds through the novel and talked myself out of them thinking that was what Straub wanted me to think - then was proved correct in the end. One cannot help but feel a crushing sadness for the character, a grudging respect at his almost supernatural ingenuity and intense dislike at his callous single-mindedness and treatment of the innocent. That final image of one of the surviving characters (desperately trying to avoid spoilers here lol) following in his footsteps, mourning the loss of a friend, was incredibly haunting and will stay with me for quite some time. This is a book that can't be praised enough. Sublime!

And now I'm about to start 'Doctor Sleep' (2013) by Stephen King... with just a few mixed feelings. But hope springs eternal.

I recently rejoined the Belfast Central Library and borrowed my first five books in well over 30 years. Along with 'Doctor Sleep' they are; 'Revival' (2014) by King, 'The Invention Of Murder : How The Victorians Revelled In Death And Detection And Created Modern Crime' (2011) by Judith Flanders, 'Broadmoor Revealed : Victorian Crime And The Lunatic Asylum' (2013) by Mark Stevens, and 'Jack The Ripper : The Terrible Legacy' (2013) by The Whitechapel Society - a collection of academic essays on the sociological aftermath of the murders, including their influence on art, fiction, cinema, etc.

Speaks volumes about my predilections!
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.153.254.41
Posted on Friday, May 06, 2016 - 06:09 am:   

As usual, got distracted by some other book than what I planned, and so tore through an old anthology I found: The Vintage Anthology of Science Fantasy, ed. by Christopher Cerf (1966). Every tale in here is top-notch quality writing, and includes authors as familiar as Bradbury and A.C. arke, and as obscure as Jose Maria Gironella and Julian Kawalac (never heard of either; but both rock). As far as anthologies go, this one's definitely one of the best: the ratio of great stories too good is overwhelming; and the amount of poor stories is zero; excellent selections made, thank you Mr. Cerf (fifty years later).

Could wax on about this collection, but the one author I want to focus on is hardly unknown: Theodore Sturgeon. I've kind of ignored him in my reading life, and only fairly recently have read a handful of his shorter workds; without exception, they've all been not just good, but damn good. The novelette here by Sturgeon, "And Now The News"(1956), THE best piece in this anthology, is only by a stretch "science fantasy"; it's hard to describe quite what it is, but it's one of those stories where - literally - the very final line of it is a gut punch of horror indeed. Clearly Sturgeon is of a class above and beyond, and I'm going to have to take serious time to investigate further.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.153.254.41
Posted on Friday, May 06, 2016 - 06:14 am:   

As usual, got distracted by some other book than what I planned, and so tore through an old anthology I found: The Vintage Anthology of Science Fantasy, ed. by Christopher Cerf (1966). Every tale in here is top-notch quality writing, and includes authors as familiar as Bradbury, Dahl and A.C. Clarke, and as obscure as Jose Maria Gironella, Idris Seabright and Julian Kawalac (never heard them; but they rock!). As far as anthologies go, definitely one of the best: the ratio of great stories too good is overwhelming; and the amount of poor stories is zero; excellent selections made, thank you Mr. Cerf (fifty years later).

Could wax on about this collection, but the one author I want to highlight is hardly unknown: Theodore Sturgeon. I've kind of ignored him in my reading life, and only fairly recently have read a handful of his shorter workds; without exception, they've all been not just good, but damn good. The novelette here by Sturgeon, "And Now The News"(1956), THE best piece in this anthology, is only by a stretch "science fantasy"; it's hard to describe quite what it is, but it's one of those stories where - literally - the very final line of it is a gut punch of horror indeed, to the often comic, but ultimately disturbing tale of psychological breakdown. Clearly Sturgeon is of a class above and beyond, and I'm going to have to take serious time to investigate further.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 94.10.34.9
Posted on Friday, May 06, 2016 - 11:15 am:   

The first Theodore Sturgeon story that wowed me was "The Other Celia" (1957), Craig. Completely original, scary and unforgettably sad doesn't even begin to describe that tale. Part horror, part sci-fi, part surreal fantasy, part psychological character study, I could go on... Everything else I have read of his since has been touched with the same genius.

'Mystery' (1990) by Peter Straub has just dropped through my letterbox! And, incredibly, I'm already over half way through 'Doctor Sleep' and loving it.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 94.10.34.9
Posted on Friday, May 06, 2016 - 11:27 am:   

I've noticed that King's recent books are much shorter and faster paced thrillers than his earlier stuff. 'Doctor Sleep' is no exception. It lacks the depth and character detail of 'The Shining' (1977) but is still a great story and compulsive page-turner. One can tell he enjoyed writing it and revisiting these characters while the tie ins with 'Carrie' (1974) and 'Salem's Lot' (1975) are irresistible for all their obviousness. I can see this one going down as a real guilty pleasure.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.153.254.41
Posted on Wednesday, May 18, 2016 - 05:08 pm:   

Now hip-deep in Bradbury's collection Long After Midnight (1976). It occurs to me reading this that Bradbury is the Robert Frost of American prose: like Frost - the fuzzily-imagined icon of American wistful sentiment, who's actually far deeper and darker than generally known - Bradbury is himself much darker and more pessimestic, than the starry-eyed nostalgic many might instinctively think of him. But I suppose this collection made a point of collecting his darker works - in theme rather than mere genre, like his many EC-esque horror fillips (where The October Country went).

I didn't know that there was an aborted novel in Bradbury's past; and that the planned final chapter, which was the hallmark horror piece of October, "The Next In Line" (maybe one of the finest pieces of horror writing of the last century); was preceded - in this abandoned novel - by another section, which is the longest story in Midnight, "Interval in Sunlight" (1954). If anyone wants to find a darker, bleaker portrait of a marriage gone wrong, it'd be hard going. But wow is it a powerful, moving piece - horror too, in its own way. Bradbury certainly could do it with the best when he wanted to; one sees maybe one of the top five influences in King, in Mr. Bradbury, too, imho....
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.181.137.235
Posted on Thursday, May 19, 2016 - 03:45 pm:   

1974, by David Peace. Wow. Also, The Loney, by somebody Wesley. It's a horror but has won a book of the year prize. For me it's like Ramsey reigned in, and for 99% of the time it's a masterpiece.
Currently on with Ballard's High Rise, which is ok, but much better than the truly awful film.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 94.10.34.9
Posted on Saturday, May 21, 2016 - 01:00 pm:   

Since last posting I have finished Stephen King's 'Doctor Sleep' (2013) and Peter Straub's 'Mystery' (1990) and I'm currently halfway through King's 'Revival' (2014) and have Straub's 'The Throat' (1993) ordered from Amazon.

'Doctor Sleep' was a thoroughly entertaining catch up with what happened to Danny 'Doc' Torrance after the events of 'The Shining' (1977) - with sly references to King's other two defining early masterworks, 'Carrie' (1974) and 'Salem's Lot' (1975) - and is also the one book I would hold up as evidence of how radically the author's writing style has changed over the years.

Where 'The Shining' was a psychologically dense masterpiece of great literary worth and complexity - written by a well meaning struggling alcoholic, as King admits in the intro - DS is a lean, fast moving, consummately professional thriller that aims mainly to entertain and was obviously the work of a man comfortable with who and what he is - a recovered alcoholic enjoying life and writing for pleasure. It is exciting and disturbing where 'The Shining' was balls to the wall terrifying and intensely moving - and it is a much, much lesser work but, yes, I'm glad he wrote it and it is a great yarn.

Adult Danny finds himself in the Dick Hallorann role in this one as he battles to save a young girl cursed/blessed with the same gift that blighted his own childhood (as well as telekinetic rage issues) from a nomadic band of particularly nasty paedophilic vampires. Sound good? It is.


And now let me marshall my thoughts for the exquisite reading experience that was 'Mystery'... Jesus H. Christ but I bloody loved that book!!!! In many ways I feel that I now am Tom Pasmore. More anon.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 94.10.34.9
Posted on Saturday, May 21, 2016 - 01:54 pm:   

Here's the latest rejigged list of recent reads:

1. ‘Koko’ (1988) by Peter Straub
2. ‘Mystery’ (1990) by Peter Straub - such a close call but 'Koko' marginally shades it... for now!
3. 'Lost Boy, Lost Girl' (2003) by Peter Straub
4. 'Galilee' (1998) by Clive Barker
5. 'Black House' (2001) by Stephen King & Peter Straub
6. ‘Carol’ (1952) by Patricia Highsmith
7. 'Under The Dome' (2009) by Stephen King
8. 'Cell' (2006) by Stephen King
9. 'Duma Key' (2008) by Stephen King
10. 'Thieving Fear' (2008) by Ramsey Campbell
11. 'Revolt In 2100' (1953) by Robert A. Heinlein
12. 'Hearts In Atlantis' (1999) by Stephen King
13. ‘Space Cadet’ (1948) by Robert A. Heinlein
14. ‘Doctor Sleep’ (2013) by Stephen King
15. ‘Mr Mercedes’ (2014) by Stephen King
16. 'Needful Things' (1991) by Stephen King
17. 'Dreamcatcher' (2001) by Stephen King
18. 'Bag Of Bones' (1998) by Stephen King

So far 'Revival' is looking like the best of King's recent books. Up near 'Duma Key' unless he fluffs the second half.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 94.10.34.9
Posted on Saturday, May 21, 2016 - 02:33 pm:   

Anyone who LOVES detective fiction NEEDS to read Peter Straub's 'Mystery' (1990). It is easily the finest mystery novel I have ever read and fully deserves its emphatic title. Think Poe, Dickens, Dostoevsky, Conan Doyle, Christie, Hammett, Chandler, Greene, Highsmith, Raymond, et al, all rolled into one by way of an immensely poignant coming-of-age drama cum family saga cum ingenious whodunit and "outwardly idyllic small town with a dark secret" thriller that spans the 1920s to the 1960s and ties in subtly and brilliantly with the author's masterpiece, 'Koko' (1988), and you're only beginning to scratch the surface of this marvellous book's many joys. The lead character, amateur detective Tom Pasmore, is now arguably my favourite character in literature. I identified with him so strongly that I often felt Straub was writing about me or must have been reading my mind as he wrote it. A miraculous achievement that touched me on a deeply personal level and was an almost absurdly entertaining page-turner that tops Stephen King at his own game, and then some.

Jesus but I cannot wait for 'The Throat' (1993) to arrive!!!! Tom is in it again and, I now realise, appeared as a crucial supporting character in 'Lost Boy, Lost Girl' (2003) and I didn't even realise how much I loved him.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.153.254.41
Posted on Saturday, May 21, 2016 - 05:23 pm:   

Alright, Stevie, you have me wanting to read MYSTERY - I will read it, too. One question: is it a stand-alone novel, or will I have to read something else prior to it?... I'm in-between books, so it's a good time to give Mr. Straub another shot....
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 93.97.134.20
Posted on Saturday, May 21, 2016 - 07:15 pm:   

Craig, 'Mystery' can be read as a stand alone novel but it is all the richer for having read 'Koko' first. Or 'Koko' would equally be all the richer for having read 'Mystery' first. I believe 'The Throat' is the novel in which the characters from both finally come together. Chronologically the events of 'Mystery' all predate those of 'Koko'.

'Koko' is one of the best "hunt for a serial killer" novels ever written and 'Mystery' is one of the best old fashioned detective murder mysteries... yet both are also so much more.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.153.254.41
Posted on Sunday, May 22, 2016 - 02:08 am:   

Sounds good Stevie! I will find me a copy of Mystery, and dive in. Luckily, I'm always in the mood for a good detective yarn....
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 94.10.34.9
Posted on Sunday, May 22, 2016 - 12:32 pm:   

It's an absolute belter, Craig! Straub obviously loves the genre too as the whole book is a glowing homage to all the greats while being entirely its own beast. I was hugging myself with pleasure through every wonderful page. Enjoy!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 94.10.34.9
Posted on Sunday, May 22, 2016 - 01:18 pm:   

You know those great dark mystery stories where we are terribly torn for the investigating hero? We want him to discover the truth while at the same time our fear for the character and what he may find has us screaming inside for him to stop digging and just go back to his former life of happy ignorance? In film form I'm thinking 'Soylent Green' or 'Angel Heart'. That's what you get with 'Mystery'... in spades!!!!

But the book also has that epic wealth of character detail, rich incident and multi-layered philosophical and emotional meaning that one expects from a writer of Dickens', Dostoevsky's or Greene's stature.

I haven't been as deeply touched on an emotional level by a book since I read 'The Doubleman' (1985) by C.J. Koch a few years ago. That book is an indescribably haunting supernatural coming-of-age doppelgänger drama set in a small island community (Hobart, Tasmania) that spans the 1940s to 1960s and explores themes of loss of faith, Faustian pacts, the quest for truth, guilt and redemption and it shares much with 'Mystery' in terms of mood and resonance. I wonder if Straub had read it before writing the book.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 94.10.34.9
Posted on Sunday, May 22, 2016 - 02:49 pm:   

'Koko' is probably marginally the "better" book but 'Mystery' I found more purely enjoyable. If that makes sense? What 'Koko' shows us graphically is deeply upsetting and often hard to take while all the horrors of 'Mystery' are implied - left for the reader to infer - and they are all the more haunting for that. It is a story of dark secrets buried deep that the detective hero really doesn't want to uncover... but, being "of the night", he has no choice. It would make a fantastic neo-noir movie but would take one hell of a visionary director to do it justice.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 94.10.34.9
Posted on Monday, May 23, 2016 - 12:15 pm:   

Once again I'm really enjoying this latest Stephen King book, 'Revival' (2014). If you want a ripping yarn well told you really can't go wrong with the guy. It's another of his slow burning character driven tales of the supernatural that one can feel building to a terrible climax - similar in style and effect to 'Pet Sematary' (1983) or 'Duma Key' (2008).

Two thirds through and I'd call it a classically structured and pleasingly uncluttered gothic horror yarn, of the mad scientist playing God with nature variety, and works as a modern variation on the old 'Frankenstein' theme, with much ruminating on the opium of the masses and lost faith in the face of personal tragedy, etc. I can see the ending going one of two ways: predictably (making the book an entertaining potboiler) or unexpectedly (making it really rather special). Here's hoping...
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.142.128.168
Posted on Monday, May 23, 2016 - 01:30 pm:   

Revival didn't hold out till the end for me. I'll see what you think.
Gave up on JG 'phonebook' Ballard's High Rise and started TED Klein's Ceremonies.
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 178.117.197.80
Posted on Monday, May 23, 2016 - 02:48 pm:   

As much as I like Klein's shorter fiction, Ceremonies didn't work for me and I put it down at page 100 or so. That was 20 years ago. Maybe I should give it another try soon.

On the other hand Straub's earlier novel If You Could See Me Now has just the right atmosphere. From the outset we are led to believe the main character is psychically unstable - but is he?
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 93.97.134.20
Posted on Monday, May 23, 2016 - 03:16 pm:   

'The Ceremonies', imho, is quite possibly the greatest horror novel of the 20th Century. It vies with 'The Exorcist'/'Legion' in my personal rankings.

'High Rise' is one of my three favourite Ballard fantasies (they are constantly changing position in my affections) while 'Empire Of The Sun' probably is his best novel. The other two fantasies are 'The Drought' and 'The Crystal World'. But I love every word the man ever wrote and particularly venerate his short stories.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 93.97.134.20
Posted on Monday, May 23, 2016 - 03:57 pm:   

Yeehaa!! 'The Throat' has just arrived (and what a brick it is) while I should be finished 'Revival' very soon.
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 178.117.197.80
Posted on Monday, May 23, 2016 - 04:02 pm:   

I was just about to start on The Throat. May want to read some shorter stuff first. No spoilers please!
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.153.254.41
Posted on Monday, May 23, 2016 - 05:19 pm:   

I'm hoping to pick up a copy of Mystery today, Stevie. I had to sort of scatter-read your encomiums... I like to have as few spoilers as possible whatever I read, so the bulk of your recenty reviews will have to wait till I'm finished.

I read Ceremonies way back when, and I remember little about it, except that it started strong and floundered towards the end. The start of that novel, again if I'm remembering correctly, was at previously a stand-alone novella, so it could just be a case of going on beyond what shouldn't have been gone beyond. But unsure if I would still have that opinion today?...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 94.10.34.9
Posted on Tuesday, May 24, 2016 - 01:14 am:   

Don't worry, Craig, I've given nothing away plot-wise beyond anything you could have read in the blurb. Just tried to give a flavour of what to expect and what I enjoyed about the book with comparisons to other works that may or not be red herrings but that struck me as valid.

Approaching the big climax here and after 'Revival' I'll be plunging into 'The Throat'.

Did I really just say that?
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 94.10.34.9
Posted on Tuesday, May 24, 2016 - 03:04 am:   

Have you read 'Mystery' (1990) yet, Hubert? Jesus it's a great book!!!!
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Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch)
Username: Mark_lynch

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.169.149.102
Posted on Tuesday, May 24, 2016 - 06:50 am:   

If Mystery is Straub's "rom-com", as he has called it in the past, then The Throat is his film noir masterpiece. It's a massive book and pure, dark pleasure. When I finished the last chapter I immediately turned to the first page and read the book again. Stunning.

Tim Underhill's slippery reality continues from that book into lost boy, lost girl and then In The Night Room.

Fee Bandolier's brooding terrors are then examined in Straub's superb graphic novel The Green Woman. (He does look a lot like Peter Capaldi in it...)
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 178.117.197.80
Posted on Tuesday, May 24, 2016 - 04:02 pm:   

Nope Stevie, haven't seen it yet. Due to financial constraints I have to limit myself to whatever second-hand books I can find. Plus my bike was stolen last month and I had to find another machine pronto.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 94.10.34.9
Posted on Wednesday, May 25, 2016 - 03:08 am:   

I could post my copy of 'Mystery' to you, Hubert. No problem.

You could email me on (ignore the dashes) s- w- a- l- s- h- 1- 2- 3- @- h- o- t- m- a- i- l- .- c- o- m
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 94.10.34.9
Posted on Wednesday, May 25, 2016 - 03:10 am:   

Mark, I see where the romance element comes in with 'Mystery' but not the comedy. If anything I'd describe it as a tragedy. I wonder what Straub was getting at. Any idea?
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 94.10.34.9
Posted on Wednesday, May 25, 2016 - 05:56 am:   

Just finished 'Revival' and thought it was excellent. Kind of predictable, yes, but so well written and nightmarishly effective as to still work. The joy of the book is all in the detail. It's pure Lovecraftian horror at its most bleak and, praise be, is completely devoid of Kingian sentimentality. How would I rank it? In the list above it would slot in marginally behind 'Hearts In Atlantis' and ahead of 'Space Cadet'. Very, very good but just shy of a really great King novel, imho.

And tomorrow 'The Throat' will be getting my full attention. Can't bloody wait!
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 178.117.197.80
Posted on Wednesday, May 25, 2016 - 06:18 pm:   

I appreciate that, Stevie. You may expect a message shortly. Btw, where do you Britons buy your books nowadays?
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 94.10.34.9
Posted on Wednesday, May 25, 2016 - 11:34 pm:   

Got your email, Hubert. Will post the book and really looking forward to your thoughts on it. I would suggest you read 'Mystery' before 'The Throat' as the latter would appear to bring the events of 'Koko' and 'Mystery' together and features some of the surviving main characters of both.

I pick up my books in second hand shops, charity shops like Oxfam and on Amazon Marketplace when I'm looking a particular title I feel I must read. That's where I picked up all three of the Blue Rose Trilogy in recent months for 1p + £2.80 postage each!!
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 178.117.197.80
Posted on Thursday, May 26, 2016 - 11:34 am:   

Same here, except for safety reasons (temptation, temptation!) I have no longer a credit card. Practically all of the Straubs I own I found second hand. Over here a used paperback will still set you back 1 or 2 euros, but I'm not complaining. The books recently bought are in well-nigh pristine condition. Not so Koko, which looks as if it has been voraciously perused dozens and dozens of times.

I look forward to Mystery. I'll let you know when it reaches my shores.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 94.10.34.9
Posted on Thursday, May 26, 2016 - 11:39 am:   

'The Throat' has had me by the throat from the very first page. The reason? The tremendous emotion I have already invested in these characters and their personal journeys following the unmatched brilliance of 'Koko' and 'Mystery'. Anyone wanting to savour this great trilogy should heed my words and, at very least, leave the third book till last. Peter Straub is an effing genius!! A far, far greater writer than I had ever given him credit for - and he's been in my Top 10 horror authors since 'Ghost Story'. Respect to that man!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 94.10.34.9
Posted on Thursday, May 26, 2016 - 12:03 pm:   

NB: I have decided to be disciplined and not yet reread Straub's "The Ghost Village" as I have it from Mark that it is retold as part of 'The Throat' and I would rather re-experience it afresh therein. God but I'm loving this book. Books like this are the very reason I read at all.
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 178.117.197.80
Posted on Thursday, May 26, 2016 - 06:25 pm:   

Well, I did reread "The Ghost Village", so I'm confused now as far as the chronology is concerned. I really want to read The Throat, but shall await the arrival of Mystery.

Btw if you liked the Vietnam passages in Koko, seek out Jack Cady's story "By Reason of Darkness" in which a trio of American veterans comes to terms with what has been haunting them after the war. Genuinely frightening. You'll find it in Prime Evil by Douglas Winter (ed.)
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 94.10.34.9
Posted on Thursday, May 26, 2016 - 08:04 pm:   

The events of the Blue Rose Trilogy, and related stories, occur throughout the twentieth century, from the 1920s to the 1990s, as far as I can make out, and with some even earlier echoes. The pivotal time period appears to be the 1960s-early 70s when things were going to hell in Vietnam and, equally so, back home in the States. Straub's mastery of the material allows him to flit back and forth in time as the needs of the story dictate. It really is an incredible literary achievement. And that's without even taking into account the two later related novels; 'Lost Boy, Lost Girl' (2003) and 'In The Night Room' (2004). Phew!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 94.10.34.9
Posted on Thursday, May 26, 2016 - 09:05 pm:   

Will post the book to you in the morning, Hubert. Enjoy.
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 178.117.197.80
Posted on Friday, May 27, 2016 - 01:20 pm:   

Will tell you when it arrives, Stevie. Thanks!
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 178.117.197.80
Posted on Friday, May 27, 2016 - 04:10 pm:   

Picked up today for 1 euro: Lost Boy Lost Girl. Tim Underhill is in this one too. My first foray into more recent Straub.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.142.128.168
Posted on Monday, May 30, 2016 - 09:07 am:   

After not being sure about The Ceremonies I now love it. I can still see all the little flaws i saw earlier (the odd bit of heavy-handidness and misjudgements in structure) but it`s got better as it`s gone along. In fact it`s gone from feeling padded to feeling like the kind of world i want to wallow in for a while.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 217.35.85.78
Posted on Monday, May 30, 2016 - 03:54 pm:   

What I loved and found incredible about 'The Ceremonies' was the wealth of detail and thought that had went into every single page and character in the book. It created a world that was totally convincing and captivating within the Lovecraftian universe. Klein's perfectionism and skill expands upon that world in a way that makes the book, arguably, the single greatest literary achievement within the realm of Lovecraftian fiction, including the works of the great man himself, imho. It is a book I have read twice and that continues to resonate in my mind as one of the greatest horror novels I have ever or could ever experience. I thought the ending was like something out of Dante. A kind of apocalypse of the imagination that engulfs the world without any of us being aware of it, outside of the central characters. A magnificent book!
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.142.128.168
Posted on Tuesday, May 31, 2016 - 01:05 am:   

Don't give too much away!
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 178.117.197.80
Posted on Sunday, June 05, 2016 - 04:48 pm:   

"The Events on Porroth Farm", on which The Ceremonies is based, is a nice read. I have the Necronomicon Press edition, magnificently illustrated by Jason Eckhardt. A pity NP disappeared from the field. just when I was delivering more and more contributions, too . . .
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 178.117.197.80
Posted on Monday, June 06, 2016 - 04:24 pm:   

@ Stevie: the book duly arrived. I'll read it asap. Thanks again!
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.153.254.41
Posted on Tuesday, June 07, 2016 - 01:45 am:   

Circumstances and failed-luck meant me not finding the Straub book so far... but today, I found a paperback copy for sale in another library for $.75 - so I finally have a copy of Mystery, and will begin reading soon!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 2.221.175.34
Posted on Tuesday, June 07, 2016 - 02:01 am:   

Great stuff, Hubert! I look forward to hearing both your thoughts on what is now my favourite Straub novel.

Almost finished 'The Throat' (1993) and it is another masterpiece that finishes the trilogy with a devastatingly brave literary conceit that I can't even begin to hint at to avoid what would be a monstrously criminal spoiler. Let's just say it ties everything up from 'Koko' (1988) and 'Mystery' (1990) in a way that is not only ingenious but that one would never in a million years expect... I am in awe of the man's talent. This is fiercely intelligent, deeply complex literature of the absolute highest order. Amazing!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.201.218.205
Posted on Tuesday, June 07, 2016 - 02:11 am:   

The book is also sickeningly gruesome at times. More so even than 'Koko'. Dark, dark, dark material.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.204.207.193
Posted on Tuesday, June 07, 2016 - 07:31 am:   

Timothy Underhill and Tom Pasmore both feature as central characters coming to terms with their experiences in the previous two books and the recurring mystery of all those Blue Rose references is explained. This is an indescribably epic psychological crime drama that, for all its great length and wealth of detail, is a hopelessly addictive read that doesn't seem nearly long enough. I'm going to miss these characters and this world.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.142.128.168
Posted on Tuesday, June 07, 2016 - 10:18 am:   

This is taking a long time to load for my poor kindle!
God is Ceremonies frustrating. It's one of these rare books that I love while i'm reading, but seem to forget while I'm away from it. And the pace...I do wonder that it's a little liesurely. It feels to trying to be Ira Levin, and could be, if it picked up its stride a touch.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.204.207.193
Posted on Tuesday, June 07, 2016 - 12:32 pm:   

Should be finished 'The Throat' today, alas, and then it's back to Stephen King world. I've decided on '11/22/63' (2011). Or '22/11/63' as I would call it. This is another right brick of a book that I've heard nothing but gushing praise for from anyone I know has read it. So looking forward to another of his captivating epics.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 93.97.134.20
Posted on Tuesday, June 07, 2016 - 04:53 pm:   

Just finished 'The Throat' and now there's a lump in my own. The ending is one of the most unbearably suspenseful sequences of writing I have ever experienced - and the pay-off... Jesus!!!! This book is nothing short of an emotional tour-de-force the ramifications of which will be echoing in my mind and my heart for years to come. Part psychological odyssey of self discovery, part manhunt, part whodunit, part police procedural thriller and entirely an epic quest for truth and redemption it is surely the crowning glory of Peter Straub's writing career.

I'd now rank the trilogy (though there is a hair's breadth separating all three):

1. 'The Throat' (1993)
2. 'Koko' (1988)
3. 'Mystery' (1990) - which remains my favourite for personal reasons.

Now I must track down a copy of 'In The Night Room' (2004) and all those unread related stories that cannot fail to add even more richness and depth to what is already a flawless literary achievement. Surely with this trilogy Straub has peaked. I can't imagine him ever bettering it. Even 'Ghost Story' (1979), for all its supernatural magnificence, seems to pale in comparison. I'm stunned, folks!!!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.204.207.193
Posted on Wednesday, June 08, 2016 - 02:35 am:   

Yes, Tony, 'The Ceremonies' is a slow paced epic rich in detail and subtly implied horrors and that's what I loved about it. For me Rosie is one of the most memorable villains in all horror literature and the thing that he serves is one of the most insidiously terrifying. Waiting, waiting, waiting, through endless aeons for its time to come.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.204.207.193
Posted on Wednesday, June 08, 2016 - 02:51 am:   

Can't get 'The Throat' out of my head. This is one of those books that stops you in your tracks at odd moments well after finishing it with sudden flashes of revelation and a welling up of emotion. Just when you think it all makes sense some deeper level of understanding and sadness hits you... I can imagine, days, months and years later.

Like the Factory novels of Derek Raymond this trilogy exists in a nightmarishly dark realm halfway between the bleakest of crime fiction and the most frightening of horror. They create a world that is as beguiling as it is disturbing and as thrilling as it is haunting. And there is a perfectly controlled and subtle vein of the supernatural running through all three that hints at things unseen beneath the hard veneer of reality without ever undermining the nuts-and-bolts integrity of the story. Miraculous, really...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.204.207.193
Posted on Wednesday, June 08, 2016 - 03:37 am:   

So here now are the novels of Peter Straub, that I have read, ranked:

1. The Throat (1993)
2. Koko (1988)
3. Mystery (1990)
4. Ghost Story (1979)
5. Shadowland (1980)
6. Lost Boy, Lost Girl (2003)
7. Black House (2001) - with Stephen King
8. Floating Dragon (1983)
9. The Talisman (1984) - with Stephen King

And I'm ordering 'In The Night Room' (2004) now... 1p + £2.80 postage from Amazon Marketplace. A steal!


But first the pleasures of '11/22/63' await me. I've read up to the bit where Al opens that door and invites Jake to go through. Don't do it man!! Somehow I don't think he's going to listen. Yep, I'm hooked.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.204.207.193
Posted on Wednesday, June 08, 2016 - 12:30 pm:   

So far this book is King at the absolute top of his game and on a mighty roll. It's pure Twilight Zone fantasy stuff but made utterly real by his mastery of character and incidental detail. Loving this and can see it possibly eclipsing 'Under The Dome' (2009) as my favourite of his very recent books.

After expending so much energy on three gargantuan epics in a row King seems to have taken a breather (for him) since 2011 with a whole series of satisfyingly short sharp no-nonsense thrillers - 'Doctor Sleep', 'Mr Mercedes', 'Revival', etc. And who can blame him!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.204.207.193
Posted on Wednesday, June 08, 2016 - 12:41 pm:   

What King has done here is taken the ever irresistible premise of 'Mr Benn' (1971) and treated it with deadly adult seriousness. The result is pure fantasy escapism of the most magical kind. Only he could have gotten away with such a book in this day and age and made it work so well.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 93.97.134.20
Posted on Wednesday, June 08, 2016 - 09:55 pm:   

Stephen King has found his metier. This book is fucking brilliant and may possibly be the defining novel he was working all his life towards. It plays to all his strengths and makes a virtue of what we, his readers, perceive as his weaknesses. Rod Serling would be proud!
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Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch)
Username: Mark_lynch

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.43.91.119
Posted on Thursday, June 09, 2016 - 09:44 am:   

Stevie, Mr S would have had his tongue somewhat in his cheek when calling Mystery a rom-com. Check out his interviews online; despite the dak nature of his books he is a very funny chap away from the word processor...

I'm really glad you liked Throat so much. I have long thought the whole Blue Rose trilogy an underrated classic, the Throat the crowning achievent. I can only assume Straub's credentials as a horror writer have prevented the books from gaining the acknowledgement they deserve as possibly the best crime trilogy of the 20th century.

Check out The Hellfire Club soon, if you can. Another brilliant crime thriller from Straub.
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Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch)
Username: Mark_lynch

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.43.91.119
Posted on Thursday, June 09, 2016 - 09:47 am:   

22.11.63 (as it is known in the UK) didn't really work for me. Otherwise it was another dazzling day in King's Indian Summer. I have been watching the TV adaptation, which differs a fair bit from the book, but is nevertheless worth a watch.
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Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch)
Username: Mark_lynch

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.43.91.119
Posted on Thursday, June 09, 2016 - 09:53 am:   

I must try The Ceremonies again. I failed to finish it on a previous attempt for some reason.

I have just finished Paul McCauley's Into Everywhere, the second book in what I hope is a new trilogy from him. He has to be the best working SF writer at t moment. His prose is the business.

And I have just started Stephen Baxter and Alastair Reynolds's sequel novel to Arthur C Clarke's novella A Meeting with Medusa,entitled The Medusa Chronicles. Only a couple of chapters in but the authors' love and respect of the source material and its author shine through. It is genuinely Clarkian, though not as tightly written as Clarke's stuff. I am enjoying.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.204.207.193
Posted on Thursday, June 09, 2016 - 02:19 pm:   

I couldn't agree more, Mark, and thanks again for drawing my attention to them after reading 'Lost Boy, Lost Girl' (2003) by happy chance. The Blue Rose Trilogy is up there with any of the truly great works of crime fiction. It may even be the finest such work since Dostoevsky's 'Crime And Punishment' (1866), imho. Both works deal with the psychological ramifications of murder in a way that beggars belief. Straub unquestionably belongs in the ranks of Hammett, Chandler, Thompson, Highsmith and Raymond at very least.

My plan is to read 'In The Night Room' (2004) next and then I'm making my continuing chrono read of Ramsey's novels a priority. Need to track down an affordable copy of 'Creatures Of The Pool' (2009). After that I intend to do the same with Ballard - next of his is 'The Day Of Creation' (1987). Such joys await...
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Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch)
Username: Mark_lynch

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 188.29.165.36
Posted on Friday, June 10, 2016 - 09:16 am:   

Don't forget The Green Woman, Stevie. Straub's graphic novel featuring Fee Bandolier.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.204.207.193
Posted on Friday, June 10, 2016 - 11:22 am:   

The elements that separate Straub's crime fiction from what are considered the more traditional forms of the genre are, as I noted above, the subtle intrusion of the supernatural and his mind bending metatextual tricks. Crime purists can be as sniffy as horror purists and it is for that reason the books of the Blue Rose Trilogy lie relatively unrecognised - falling between two stools one might say. Yet it is that very bravery that marks them out as works of transformative stand alone genius. Straub has created a new form of fiction here - one that plays with the rules of genre quite brilliantly.
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Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch)
Username: Mark_lynch

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.43.91.119
Posted on Friday, June 10, 2016 - 09:49 pm:   

The crime fiction community does seem very conservative.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.185.28.199
Posted on Sunday, June 12, 2016 - 02:43 pm:   

Just finished Ceremonies and my overall feeling was that the book was written over a long period of time by someone who found it difficult, even though they had ability. After taking a long time for me to get through it and enjoying several stretches it felt ultimately rushed at the end, and the final impression is of watching something you've been occasionally very engaged in being rolled up into a ball in front of your eyes and launched into a waste bin. My toughest read since taking up reading again in that it had so much going for it.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 93.97.134.20
Posted on Sunday, June 12, 2016 - 11:46 pm:   

Well, Hubert? What are you making of it so far?

Conversation is the milk I feed on.

Tony, I thought your analysis of 'The Ceremonies' was very well put and honest if a tad cruel... for no author slaves over a work for years before throwing it in the bin. In my opinion Klein gave us exactly the ambiguous ending such s well thought out and written epic deserved. I urge you to read it again with all populist expectations held in check and hopefully you will see what I mean and appreciate the book afresh and with, imo, the respect it deserves from every fan of horror fiction who wishes for literary excellence. People pooh-poohed 'Dracula' at the time, and some idiots still do, but yet that book has stood the test of time. So shall 'The Ceremonies'. Of that I have no doubt. Respect, man.
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 178.117.197.80
Posted on Monday, June 13, 2016 - 01:56 pm:   

I have only just begun reading it, Stevie and am not too far in at his point. I'm impressed by the near-death sequence. Funnily enough the figure of Lamont reminds me of the Spy versus Spy cartoon in MAD - the black Spy, that is. A certain insidiousness . . . Will let you know more soon.
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 178.117.197.80
Posted on Monday, June 13, 2016 - 02:42 pm:   

Talking about metatextual devices: did you notice, Stevie, that in Koko, in the course of the interview with Helga Dengler (a sublime chapter) the woman at least once says "This is one thing I know", a stock phrase the reader has become familiar with because it is repeatedly used in the "Koko" soliloquy chapters that intersperse the novel . The beauty of this is that the reader finds out who the killer is long before the searchers do.
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 178.117.197.80
Posted on Monday, June 13, 2016 - 02:45 pm:   

". . . that Straub intersperses the novel with . . . " is probably a better choice of words.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.214.168.17
Posted on Tuesday, June 14, 2016 - 01:54 pm:   

Yes, Hubert, but there are realities within realities in these books and what can appear to be clues to the identity of the killer are instead signs of the unreliability of the narrator. Read the opening sequence of Clive Barker's 'Galilee' (1998), that I posted above, and you'll get a hint of what I mean. Straub plays mind games with his readers through these wondrous books that boggle the imagination. Yet he always remains true to the solid reality of the central mystery. When you've read the eventual resolution, at the end of 'The Throat' (or is it...?), and then start connecting it in your mind with all the events leading up to it, you'll see what I mean. And that's when the sense of awe really sets in...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.214.168.17
Posted on Tuesday, June 14, 2016 - 02:22 pm:   

Halfway through '11/22/63' (2011) and have to say it's shaping up to be King's great fantasy masterpiece. At very least it is the best, most gripping and well written of his epic adventures that I have read since the glory days of the 1970s. Even 'Under The Dome' (2009) already pales beside it. The whole early "test run" sequence set in Derry, with its irresistible references to 'It' (1986), would work as a great short novel in its own right. But now we're on to the meat of the story... and a date with destiny. That's my half-time analysis and if he fluffs the second half of this one I'll never forgive him!

I know the whole time paradox story is hardly original - in fact the crew of 'Red Dwarf' specifically got to Kennedy first in the episode "Tikka To Ride" (1997) - but, as ever with King, I don't think this hoary old plot device has ever been thought through and presented with quite so much loving detail or quite as grippingly. I mean he's thought of every single minute eventuality and difficulty that going back in time to stop a pivotal assassination would present, and some that would never have occurred to me, and he's having a ball weaving them into one joyous spellbinder of an escapist fantasy - with sentimentality, so far, held in check and soul destroying darkness, for Jake Epping, very much to the fore. I mean... we all know he can't possibly succeed. The past is indeed obdurate. This is a marvellous yarn, people!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.214.168.17
Posted on Monday, June 20, 2016 - 01:53 pm:   

Onto the climactic final section of this fabulous book as that date approaches. It certainly is the very best thing I've read by King since back in the day. Definitely one of his masterpieces, imho.

And I've Straub's 'In The Night Room' (2004) lined up for after.
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 178.117.197.80
Posted on Monday, June 20, 2016 - 02:56 pm:   

I'm going to refrain from offering a complete verdict on Mystery until I've finished the book, but my first impressions are:

1° The island setting somehow doesn't ring true.

2° The relationship between Tom and Lamont is all too similar to the one depicted in Shadowland (I forget the names of the young protagonist and his uncle). I get the same feeling of 'entirely concocted' and hence 'not entirely true' with this novel.

3° The family relationship between Tom and his father reminded me of the one in Floating Dragon; I half expect the father to set fire to his house soon.

4° Intriguing: + those very old blocks of stone inscribed with nonsense words (or are they?) + The sudden and unaccounted for illness of Tom's mother.

All of this may be cleared up long before the end of the book.

How did The Throat grab you, Stevie? *** no spoilers please - if possible ***
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.214.168.17
Posted on Monday, June 20, 2016 - 03:16 pm:   

I can't say too much, Hubert, but many of your points above are true and intended by the author.

All is made clear and tied up to perfection in 'The Throat' - which is the best of the trilogy, imho - if you can buy into the central conceit that Straub had planned from the very beginning of 'Koko'. Nuff said, I think.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.214.168.17
Posted on Tuesday, June 21, 2016 - 04:17 am:   

Hubert,

1. Wait and see.

2. I haven't read 'Shadowland' (1980) since it was first published so can't comment on the similarities you note but, for me, the relationship between Tom and Lamont, as his mentor, was one of the most memorable and poignant elements of the book.

3. Wait and see just how the relationship between Tom and his father pans out.

4. The "nonsense words" and the mental state of Tom's mother are central to the mystery, horribly so.


In the end I would describe 'Mystery' (1990) as a loving homage to, and multi-layered deconstruction of, classic detective fiction, both of the hard boiled noir variety and the intricately constructed murder mysteries of Conan Doyle, Christie, etc. It was for that reason that I found the book so irresistibly entertaining.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.214.168.17
Posted on Monday, June 27, 2016 - 03:01 pm:   

Finished '11/22/63' (2011) - having been a tad distracted by the football!! - and all that I said above still stands. This is King at the very top of his considerable game and playing to all his strengths. It's manipulative as hell and when he goes for the tear-jerking option boy does he go for it... but it works. A great big remarkably entertaining dark fantasy adventure that it would be churlish to pick holes in, imo. I'm genuinely surprised Speilberg didn't snap it up to adapt straight away as it would play to all his showmanship skills as well. I'll be avoiding the TV series as I want to keep my memories of the book undiluted. It is easily the best thing I have read by the man in recent years.

And now it's time to plunge back into the tricksy world of Peter Straub and Timothy Underhill with 'In The Night Room' (2004).
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 178.117.197.80
Posted on Wednesday, June 29, 2016 - 02:29 pm:   

Stevie, You've piqued my interest, certainly with your comment anent the nonsense words. There are other things, but I'll want to finish the book first. It's not going as fast as I would like, but that is just because traditionally come Summer I'm more involved with music than literature. We're trying to set up a recording studio of sorts too and are tackling more difficult pieces, like Metheny's "The Girls Next Door". I usually come home between two and three am and not much reading is done after that.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.214.168.17
Posted on Wednesday, June 29, 2016 - 02:29 pm:   

Just picked up copies of Stephen King/Richard Bachman's 'Desperation' (1996) and 'The Regulators' (1996) - published together on the same day - and I know I won't be able to resist reading them after the Straub book. 'Desperation' first I think. I know absolutely nothing about them.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.214.168.17
Posted on Wednesday, June 29, 2016 - 02:34 pm:   

No problem, Hubert. Those books take a lot of concentration to catch all their nuances. 'In The Night Room' (2004) features Timothy Underhill again, this time coping with the aftermath of 'Lost Boy, Lost Girl' (2003) - and a new supernatural mystery. Great stuff so far.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.214.168.17
Posted on Thursday, June 30, 2016 - 07:46 am:   

'In The Night Room' is where reality in the Underhill series finally breaks down completely. A third through it and the book is pure supernatural horror, more so even than LBLG, and is very close to Jonathan Carroll territory - almost surreal fantasy in fact. Has Tim gone completely mad or have the ghosts that haunt him, making eerily subliminal appearances right from 'Koko', broken through at last into the "real" world? Fascinating stuff.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.214.168.17
Posted on Thursday, June 30, 2016 - 07:56 am:   

Actually this book reminds me as much of Philip K. Dick's later surreal masterpieces - with their heavy duty philosophical/mystical musings on the nature of reality and the universe - as it does the weird world of Jonathan Carroll. I have long believed that we are all the centre of our own individual universe and that we mould reality around us to suit our perceptions and prejudices. Straub makes it clear in this book that Tim Underhill's world is entirely his own creation. Realities within realities stretching into eternity.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.214.168.17
Posted on Thursday, June 30, 2016 - 08:06 am:   

There is a terrible truth in insanity - or what other people define as insanity in their own worlds. That's what this book is saying.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.164.193.49
Posted on Friday, July 01, 2016 - 12:45 pm:   

Reading Michel Faber's Under the Skin. Utterly wonderful, funny and sad. Grim without ever rubbing your nose in it. And proper sf, to boot.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.214.168.17
Posted on Friday, July 01, 2016 - 08:07 pm:   

From all I've heard I really fancy seeing the recent film version of that Tony. I was really impressed with Jonathan Glazer's first two films, 'Sexy Beast' (2000) and 'Birth' (2004). He has something of the genius of Kubrick about his filmmaking style, imho.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 93.97.134.20
Posted on Sunday, July 03, 2016 - 05:48 pm:   

Yes, Hubert, think anagrams. An obvious and not particularly clever authorial trick, I know, but one that only adds to the fun of the chase. Remember Straub is an entertainer and that 'Mystery' is, arguably, his most entertaining novel.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 93.97.134.20
Posted on Sunday, July 03, 2016 - 06:00 pm:   

Another clue... Gene Wolfe is the master of this kind of thing.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.214.168.17
Posted on Monday, July 04, 2016 - 01:28 pm:   

Flew through 'In The Night Room' (2004) and should finish it today. The two later Underhill novels are much shorter brisker reads than any of the Blue Rose Trilogy, and this one, for all its reality warping weirdness, is the most grippingly suspenseful thriller I have read by Straub. At heart the book is a classic Hitchcockian chase thriller, full of devious twists and turns, and I really have no idea how things are going to work out.

Looking forward to starting King's 'Desperation' (1996) later today.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 93.97.134.20
Posted on Monday, July 04, 2016 - 06:03 pm:   

Finished it. And now I want to go back and read the whole sequence of novels again - but I'll wait. So much complexity to take in. Everything comes full circle in the end and the truth of the Night Room is revealed. Must read all the related stories for more clues. A dazzling literary achievement by any standards one cares to mention!

Starting 'Desperation' now...
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.153.254.41
Posted on Tuesday, July 05, 2016 - 05:39 pm:   

I'm meaning to read Mystery, but lately I've just become completely unable to pick up fiction of any kind... little time and patience, must be. These spells happen. The only thing I'm reading currently is Tacitus' Annals, endlessly fascinating. But when the mood passes, I'll dive back in to fiction.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.142.128.135
Posted on Tuesday, July 05, 2016 - 06:28 pm:   

I finished Under the Skin and have to say it'll be staying with me, I think. I gave up on David Peace's sequel to 1974, 1977, for the use of the same voices for every character, as well as that of the characters in 1974. It's repetitious, hilariously nihilist stuff, so much so it often reads like comedy, albeit the kind that raises no laughs. But it never fails to intrigue me how a book on man-eating aliens can be more moving and funny and relevant than a book on a real police manhunt.
Currently on Gerald Clarke's Capote, after a bit of an interlude. It's jaw-dropping.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.214.168.17
Posted on Tuesday, July 05, 2016 - 07:40 pm:   

Wow!! I am already a third through 'Desperation' (1996) because - here we go again - I simply couldn't put it down, right into the wee small hours last night.

One criticism often levelled at Stephen King is that his books simply aren't scary enough, for a horror author. Well, let me tell you, this one is bloody petrifying right from the word go!! It is pure visceral action/suspense psycho-slasher horror, with a disturbing frisson of something else going on beneath the surface, that has had my heart in my mouth. The set up is simplicity itself... a disparate group of brilliantly drawn innocent travellers fall foul one-by-one of a homicidally deranged highway patrol cop in the middle of nowhere - where he is "the only law west of the pecos". The atmosphere is pure "Children Of The Corn" as they are each taken to the desert ghost town of Desperation and have unspeakably horrible things done to them, while we readers desperately follow their efforts to make sense of their predicament and somehow escape back to civilisation. King excels at this kind of white knuckle multi-protagonist suspense writing and he has rarely been so graphically horrible in his no holds barred creation of a monster. This terrifyingly plausible and unpredictable psycho cop is one of his most memorable villains. No one is safe from his sadistic whims and any of them can be snuffed out in a heartbeat if he so chooses. They're currently split into four small groups of survivors and the cop's whereabouts are unknown. There are intimations of something very wrong with the town, beyond just its idea of law enforcement, and bit-by-carefully-crafted-bit one can feel some nature of occult supernaturalism intruding. Stone cold classic King and so damn exciting my fingers are near chewed to the bone!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.214.168.17
Posted on Tuesday, July 05, 2016 - 07:52 pm:   

When King turns on all his jets (as he himself would say) there is no one in the world better at this kind of pulse pounding "fuck me" storytelling. It's the best pure action horror novel of his that I have read since 'Salem's Lot' (1975). Fantastic!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.214.168.17
Posted on Tuesday, July 05, 2016 - 08:04 pm:   

I know what you mean, Craig. I spent virtually all of 2015 unable to even pick up a book. With me it was depression. I feel eternally indebted to Stephen King for easing me back into the groove again. Now I couldn't stop reading to save my life lol.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Wednesday, July 06, 2016 - 02:14 pm:   

Here's how I'd now rank the Peter Straub novels I've read:

1. The Throat (1993) - Blue Rose trilogy/Underhill sequence
2. Koko (1988) - Blue Rose trilogy/Underhill sequence
3. Mystery (1990) - Blue Rose trilogy/Underhill sequence
4. Ghost Story (1979)
5. Shadowland (1980)
6. Lost Boy, Lost Girl (2003) - Underhill sequence
7. In The Night Room (2004) - Underhill sequence
8. Black House (2001) - Talisman sequel with Stephen King
9. Floating Dragon (1983)
10. The Talisman (1984) - with Stephen King

The Underhill sequence is a unique achievement in literature. Through the five novels (and related stories) we follow the emotional life and psychological meltdown of their one linking protagonist. Tim doesn't always feature as the main character but it is his experiences and (not always reliable) perceptions that tie the whole epic narrative together. He is the centre of the universe in which these books and their characters exist. But even he gets intimations that his universe is only part of a larger whole. Peter Straub would appear to have come to the same philosophical conclusion as myself in regard to the nature of reality. These stories, like PKDs before them, act as a sublime guidebook to the unknowably infinite. Phew!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Wednesday, July 06, 2016 - 02:34 pm:   

I must also point out that 'In The Night Room' is a straight sequel to 'Lost Boy, Lost Girl' in that it directly continues the narrative and features all the same characters, tying up some of that book's teasing ambiguities, and brings the whole Millhaven mystery to a neat conclusion. But there is so much else going on, taking us right back to that underground torture chamber in Nam, that I'm still trying to take it all in. I'd love to get a peek in Straub's no doubt copious notebooks!!
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.153.254.41
Posted on Saturday, July 09, 2016 - 04:52 pm:   

I didn't realize you went through that, Stevie. For me it was about eight years ago or so, I remember the whole year went by and I maybe read three books. Which seems impossible now, even in my current lull. I always want to read something. Of course, now, I kind of want to pick up the novel more, not just because of the encomiums - after landing another small script reading job, now that I can't read anything else, I suddenly really want to!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Monday, July 11, 2016 - 12:30 am:   

Nearly finished 'Desperation' (1996) and I have mixed feelings about it now. The first half, when the maniac cop is the sole antagonist, was absolutely riveting suspense writing and truly frightening. Then when the dark fantasy elements took over and King's ambitions got the better of him I found myself increasingly frustrated at his lack of restraint. It's still a wonderfully entertaining read and has me gripped wondering who will live and who will die but I can't help but be distracted by its flaws. What could have been one of his best and scariest pure horror novels instead turns into something of a wasted opportunity - due entirely to the author's self-indulgence. The deranged monster cop was enough. There was no need to introduce all the other horror, fantasy and sci-fi elements. Much the same thing reduced the effectiveness of books like; 'It' (1986), 'The Tommyknockers' (1987) and 'Needful Things' (1991), for all their incidental pleasures and addictive narrative drive, imho.

Will be starting 'The Regulators' (1996) as soon as this one's finished.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Tuesday, July 12, 2016 - 06:37 pm:   

Finished it. Very much a book of two halves. The first exceptional. The second entertaining but frustrating with it. Now for 'The Regulators'...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Tuesday, July 12, 2016 - 06:44 pm:   

This year's reading so far:

1. ‘The Throat’ (1993) by Peter Straub
2. ‘Koko’ (1988) by Peter Straub
3. ‘Mystery’ (1990) by Peter Straub
4. ‘11/22/63’ (2011) by Stephen King
5. 'Galilee' (1998) by Clive Barker
6. 'Lost Boy, Lost Girl' (2003) by Peter Straub
7. 'In The Night Room' (2004) by Peter Straub
8. 'Black House' (2001) by Stephen King & Peter Straub
9. 'The Price Of Salt’ (1952) by Patricia Highsmith
10. 'Under The Dome' (2009) by Stephen King
11. 'Cell' (2006) by Stephen King
12. 'Duma Key' (2008) by Stephen King
13. 'Thieving Fear' (2008) by Ramsey Campbell
14. 'Revolt In 2100' (1953) by Robert A. Heinlein
15. 'Hearts In Atlantis' (1999) by Stephen King
16. 'Revival’ (2014) by Stephen King
17. 'Space Cadet’ (1948) by Robert A. Heinlein
18. 'Doctor Sleep’ (2013) by Stephen King
19. 'Desperation' (1996) by Stephen King
19. 'Mr Mercedes’ (2014) by Stephen King
20. 'Needful Things' (1991) by Stephen King
21. 'Dreamcatcher' (2001) by Stephen King
22. 'Bag Of Bones' (1998) by Stephen King

'Desperation' was up there with 'Under The Dome' and 'Cell' until it starting getting too big for its boots, imho. Still a fine read but it could have been so much better.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Tuesday, July 12, 2016 - 06:55 pm:   

And that's the problem with Stephen King. For as many times as he blows you away (e.g. 11/22/63) he kind of leaves you deflated with what might have been (e.g. Desperation). But the man is always impossibly readable.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.155.189.53
Posted on Wednesday, July 13, 2016 - 11:14 am:   

I have heard the Regulators is bad, too. Just finished the life of Capote. Now that WAS a horror story. That poor man.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Wednesday, July 13, 2016 - 12:06 pm:   

But the first half was so bloody strong, man. I mean he was on fire! And that's what irks me so much about King. In the 70s he was awesome. In the 80s he started to lose the plot. It seems in the 90s he hadn't a clue what he was at. In the 2000s he rediscovered his form. And in the 2010s he's reached a kind of plateau of solidity. One can never give up on him but he doesn't half try the patience at times.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Wednesday, July 13, 2016 - 12:22 pm:   

So far 'The Regulators' (1996) features all the same characters from 'Desperation' (1996) - finally killing off the Richard Bachman persona - but couldn't be any more different. They're all living completely different lives in an alternate universe! I have a bad feeling about this.

But (and here's the rub) you never can tell with King...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Wednesday, July 13, 2016 - 12:48 pm:   

I'm about to order Ramsey's 'Creatures Of The Pool' (2009) for my next read. At least with the governor you always get the same level of quality and consistency of vision. Well, almost always.

Here's my current ranking (it changes frequently - a good sign) of the novels of Ramsey Campbell from my ongoing complete chrono read:

1. Incarnate (1983)
2. The Grin Of The Dark (2007)
3. The Nameless (1981)
4. To Wake The Dead (1980)
5. The Influence (1988)
6. Ancient Images (1989)
7. Obsession (1985)
8. The Face That Must Die (1979)
9. Midnight Sun (1990)
10. Needing Ghosts (1990)
11. The Doll Who Ate His Mother (1976)
12. The Count Of Eleven (1991)
13. The Long Lost (1993)
14. The One Safe Place (1994)
15. The Overnight (2004)
16. Silent Children (2000)
17. The Darkest Part Of The Woods (2003)
18. Secret Stories (2005)
19. The Claw (1983)
20. The House On Nazareth Hill (1996)
21. Thieving Fear (2008)
22. The Last Voice They Hear (1998)
23. The Hungry Moon (1986)
24. The Pact Of The Fathers (2001) - his only relative failure, imo.

Keep them coming sir!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 93.97.134.20
Posted on Wednesday, July 13, 2016 - 02:49 pm:   

Exciting find time!! Just picked up 'A Spectre Is Haunting Texas' (1968) by Fritz Leiber so will read it along with 'The Regulators'. Had never even heard of it before today!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 93.97.134.20
Posted on Wednesday, July 13, 2016 - 03:22 pm:   

Wow!! Crazy coincidence time as well, folks!

'A Spectre Is Haunting Texas' (1968), as is made evident on the very first page, is about how the Kennedy assassination changed the history of America for the worse - turning it into a future fascist hell! Chiming eerily with what Stephen King imagined in '11/22/63' (2011) - see above. It appears to be a science fiction novel.

I love it when unexpected things like this happen!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 93.97.134.20
Posted on Wednesday, July 13, 2016 - 03:28 pm:   

It is how the universe speaks to us. Timothy Underhill and Philip K. Dick would understand...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Wednesday, July 13, 2016 - 07:00 pm:   

Several chapters in and it's pure Heinlein. A half man-half machine space traveller returns to Earth after 100 years exile and finds it a fascist super-state run by redneck racists who consider themselves the descendants of the original Texans. Very much a satirical black comedy culture clash adventure yarn. To give a flavour - Lyndon B. Johnson is considered a mythical Christ-like figure and Kennedy to have been his John The Baptist!!!! It's funny, original, intriguing and oddly prescient so far. There has even been talk of the assassination of the Divine Ronald in the 1980s!!!! Seems like Frank Zappa wasn't the only one to predict that particular "implausibility". Jesus wept!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Thursday, July 14, 2016 - 12:29 pm:   

ASIHT has the anarchic fast-moving picaresque feel of Leiber's Lankhmar stories.

The narrator hero, Scully, has a body shrivelled by the weightlessness of space and encased in an eight foot titanium exoskeleton to keep him alive. This makes him an almost indestructible giant on returning to an Earth that was decimated by the nuclear holocaust of World War III and that is populated by stunted mutants ruled over by the non-mutant but nightmarishly Texan 'good ole boy' descendants of LBJ's huge Texas Bunker. Our hero (the result of a misfiring colonisation of the Moon) finds himself being manipulated into the role of revolutionary symbol as a kind of god-like super-hero figure drscended from the stars to set the "literally" little people free.

I wonder how this book goes down among real Texans lol?! Leiber clearly wasn't a fan of them or of LBJ. A savagely satirical piece of work written at the height of America's nervous breakdown in the wake of the JFK assassination and amid the humbling horrors of Vietnam. Quintessential Leiber!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Thursday, July 14, 2016 - 12:38 pm:   

The Supreme Texan President attains power not by election but by the assassination of the incumbent. This is a practice that the ruling redneck elite actively encourage and celebrate. Each successive leader thus grows increasingly, hilariously paranoid in his attempts to hold onto power. See what I mean?
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.155.189.53
Posted on Thursday, July 14, 2016 - 01:43 pm:   

After the horror of Capote's biography I'm now on In Cold Blood. In short; read it before you die. I've never read anything like it. No wonder he could hardly write again - he didn't need to. To have topped it would have been impossible. Poor, poor Mrs Clutter... I think I am her, returned.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Thursday, July 14, 2016 - 04:40 pm:   

Yes, Tony. It is one of the most magnificently powerful books of the 20th Century! A key work that turned me on to the literary merits of true crime writing at its best. It is a devastating story of obsession and almost self-destructive empathy. How do we understand the nature of evil? One could do no better than starting with 'In Cold Blood' (1966).

Richard Brooks' 1967 film version, with Robert Blake and Scott Wilson (good old Hershel), was another extraordinary achievement. I watched it one harrowing night in a triple bill a while back with 'The House On The Edge Of The Park' (1980) and 'Capote' (2005), based on Gerald Clarke's biography. The three films complemented each other exceptionally well. Watching them back-to-back was like taking a freight train through hell. Some crimes are unimaginable in their inexplicable cruelty.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Thursday, July 14, 2016 - 05:00 pm:   

I'm also a huge fan of Capote's early gothic horror stories. Boy but they are hauntingly powerful! I remember one being brilliantly dramatised as an episode of either 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' or 'The Twilight Zone'. One of the most memorable episodes I can recall. Will check what it was and get back to you,
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Thursday, July 14, 2016 - 05:20 pm:   

Found it!

'The Twilight Zone', Season 1, Episode 29 (1960) - "Nightmare As A Child" is a brilliant adaptation of Capote's short story "Miriam" (1945). One of the ones that really haunts the mind, like a dimly remembered fever dream. The story itself made the young unknown Capote famous at the time of publication. It's a supernatural masterpiece!!
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.155.189.53
Posted on Thursday, July 14, 2016 - 06:29 pm:   

He is actually my favourite author. I recently got Des into him, which was wonderful.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 93.97.134.20
Posted on Thursday, July 14, 2016 - 08:45 pm:   

Another one of those troubled geniuses who prove it's quality over quantity that counts, Tony.

Speaking of 'The Twilight Zone' it is becoming ever more apparent that King's 'The Regulators' was inspired by that famous episode with Billy Mumy: "It's A Good Life", Season 3, Episode 8. The one with the spoilt brat sending them all off to the cornfield. Shudder.

I'm enjoying the book but with reservations already built in following 'Desperation'.
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Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch)
Username: Mark_lynch

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.42.255.60
Posted on Saturday, July 16, 2016 - 08:19 am:   

Just reading Alan Glynn's latest, Paradime. More tricksy crime stuff tied up with big business and moral vacuums. Glynn is one of the best modern crime writers, I would say. Here he resorts to an old trick - the doppelganger- but pulls it off well. It's a short book, shorter than usual for him, probably because of the first person narrative. Worth a read if you come across it, but his trilogy of Winterland, Bloodland, and Graveland is still, for my money, his biggest achievement so far.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 93.97.134.20
Posted on Saturday, July 16, 2016 - 04:29 pm:   

The set up of 'The Regulators' (1996) is very much in the mould of King's great novella 'The Mist' (1980) - with its trapped group of disparate suburban protagonists being picked off one-by-one by a reality warping Evil from "outside" that attacks them in the most mundane of locations that has become nightmarishly altered - but it is far less effective due to its unconvincing far-fetchedness. This problem is accentuated by the unnecessary and self-indulgent connections to 'Desperation' that he shoe-horns in for no apparent reason. So far, at half way through, I'm finding it easily the least interesting of my recent marathon read of his books. It's Stephen King lite by numbers, imho. Still eminently readable and superficially entertaining but also pretty much half-baked.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Sunday, July 17, 2016 - 02:00 pm:   

Three quarters through 'The Regulators'. It's a much shorter brisker read than 'Desperation', which was far from a Kingian epic itself. I'm enjoying the unpredictable action of the thing. Again it's a case of who will live and who will be next to die. But there is literally nothing else to the book and I can't help feeling that it was written very quickly and made up as he went along. A poor effort.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Sunday, July 17, 2016 - 02:16 pm:   

Compared to the mind stunning originality and imagination of Leiber's 'A Spectre Is Haunting Texas' and the TV show I'm watching, 'Snuff Box', this latest Stephen King book is looking even more anodyne.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Monday, July 18, 2016 - 03:04 am:   

Finished it and it's bottom of the list for this year so far. He was really only half trying with this one.

Now just waiting on Ramsey's 'Children Of The Pool' (2009) to read after the Leiber novel.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Monday, July 18, 2016 - 03:05 am:   

Make that 'Creatures Of The Pool' even!!!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Monday, July 18, 2016 - 03:28 am:   

'The Regulators' (1996) took the basic set up of 'The Mist' (1980) and the premise of the "It's A Good Life" (1961) episode of 'The Twilight Zone', mixing it with elements of 'The Exorcist' (1973) and 'Village Of The Damned' (1960), to give us a particularly unoriginal reworking of the "evil child" theme, as a pure action piece of pulp blood 'n' guts horror that was way below King's usual standard. Even the characters came across as cardboard cut-outs in this one and I found myself not overly concerned who would live or die in the end.

Ironically the book makes 'Desperation' (1996) look all the stronger, flawed as it is. It features all the same characters much better fleshed out but living different lives in a parallel universe, where they come up against the same demonic entity from beyond, this time possessing a succession of characters starting with the "maniac cop" - the scariest thing in either book. King would rework the otherworldly villain from these books into the alien menace in 'Dreamcatcher' (2001), that again featured a mentally subnormal child with strange powers. It was another of his more pulpy lowbrow efforts, though much stronger than 'The Regulators'. And there you have it.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.155.189.53
Posted on Monday, July 18, 2016 - 12:35 pm:   

Stevie - too much! Wait till you finish! :-)
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.155.189.53
Posted on Monday, July 18, 2016 - 12:36 pm:   

It's in danger of becoming your blog! :-)
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
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Posted on Monday, July 18, 2016 - 02:43 pm:   

This is how I pass the time when I'm bored, Tony. Sad I know lol.
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Hubert (Hubert)
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Posted on Thursday, July 21, 2016 - 05:43 pm:   

Well, Stevie, Mystery was a long hard slog - not a good sign. There are way too many charcters, the final revelations are kept off too long, and I really don't get why Tom's granddad had to be turned into such a villainous chracter in the end. The relationship betwixt Tom and Lamont has a contrived feel about it, as has the general setting of the island (I wouldn't be surprised if Straub never set a foot on any Carribean isle). Overal, the characterisation feels wooden. I had the same feeling with the second half of Shadowland, so eventually I began to think it was me.

But no, right after Mystery I plunged straight into The Throat and was immediately hooked. The language is very close to the one deployed in Koko and I even felt the odd sense of exhilaration when reading sentences like "In Vietnam people were seriously trying to interfere with your existence." I feel this is going to be a great book.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
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Posted on Thursday, July 21, 2016 - 05:51 pm:   

And now you know the secret of the previous two books, Hubert. 'The Throat' is Underhill talking in his own voice, as it were.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
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Posted on Thursday, July 21, 2016 - 05:57 pm:   

'Koko' was self mythologising. 'Mystery' was pure invention. And 'The Throat' is the truth.

In the two later Underhill novels that truth and reality breaks down completely to become nightmarish fantasy.

I loved all five books and remain haunted by them. They are works that demand to be returned to at a later date, imho.
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Tony (Tony)
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Posted on Friday, July 22, 2016 - 06:13 pm:   

In Cold Blood was incredible. I finished it today and can't stop thinking about it. It became more real than my life. Curiously I was unable to hate anyone in it. So much understanding for and of people, even in the worst moments.
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Hubert (Hubert)
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Posted on Saturday, July 23, 2016 - 01:33 pm:   

The Throat is a marvelous read. I'm at page 200 at present and so far have spotted no incongruencies. It helps if you've read Mystery and Koko beforehand, though. If not, references to the characters in those novels might be a bit bewildering. Part of "The Ghost Village" sailed by, too; I wonder whether the rest of the tale will be used somewhere.
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Hubert (Hubert)
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Posted on Sunday, July 24, 2016 - 01:38 pm:   

Page 300. The pace is relentless.

Serial killer Walter Dragonette is obviously based on Jeffrey Dahmer. Found another reference to a Straub short, namely "Bunny is Good Bread", which in turn reads very much like "The Juniper Tree". In "Bunny" mention is made of blue roses.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
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Posted on Sunday, July 24, 2016 - 01:52 pm:   

Yes, Hubert, it's the masterpiece of the trilogy and the finest thing I have read by Straub to date. I'm glad you held out and read 'Koko' and 'Mystery' first. They make it all the richer and more rewarding an experience.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
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Posted on Sunday, July 24, 2016 - 01:55 pm:   

The cool detached way Straub described Dragonette's crimes almost made me throw up. A truly nightmarish bit of horror writing.
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Hubert (Hubert)
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Posted on Sunday, July 24, 2016 - 11:20 pm:   

It's a fair description of the things they found in Dahmer's little white house. Dahmer didn't kill his mother. But he drilled holes in his victims' heads while they were still alive: the idea was to drip an acid solution into their brains in order to turn them into zombies. Really! Dahmer is all the more fascinating since he is obviously intelligent. There are interviews with him on Youtube. When a relative of one of his victims broke down and physically attacked him in court, Dahmer looked genuinely shattered. That event,too, is on Youtube.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
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Posted on Monday, July 25, 2016 - 03:48 am:   

Intelligent and a chronic alcoholic with severe psychotic disassociation from life, a warped sex drive and a rather twisted sense of humour. He was known to wind up the other inmates in prison by going on about his crimes and making little effigies of dismembered bodies out of food garnished with ketchup. It was this unrepentant cockiness that eventually got him killed... and not a day too soon.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
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Posted on Monday, July 25, 2016 - 03:55 am:   

This Leiber novel is revealing him as a master of broad satiric humour. Bits of it are even reminding me of Tom Sharpe!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
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Posted on Monday, July 25, 2016 - 04:02 am:   

Dahmer was also a self confessed devil worshipper. When they caught him he was in the process of constructing a satanic altar out of body parts. Interestingly he was known for his macabre sense of humour in his schooldays. Fellow pupils found him odd but funny. He would feign epileptic seizures in front of teachers, and the like, to amuse his classmates. And he was drinking heavily from at least the age of 14, probably younger.
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Hubert (Hubert)
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Posted on Monday, July 25, 2016 - 05:45 pm:   

I don't know about the devil worshipping, to me he seems to have been too intelligent for rubbish of that kind.

Thankfully The Throat's language and construction are not too dissimilar from what we find in Koko. I also appreciate the bits of humour and the unforgiving look at some of ours society's institutions and the people in charge of them.
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Tony (Tony)
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Posted on Monday, July 25, 2016 - 06:06 pm:   

I quite liked Dahmer. He seemed remorseful at the end, when it didn't matter. Apparently his parents rowed constantly, something that can do real damage to a kid to hear, no matter what anyone says.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
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Posted on Monday, July 25, 2016 - 06:42 pm:   

Yeah, he had a very troubled childhood and turned to drink at a frighteningly young age to help him cope with it. That coupled with his sexual confusion at being a self-loathing homosexual who couldn't connect with others and was developing a high frustrated sex drive all contributed to what he became. He committed his first murder at the age of 18 and was scarily adept at disposing of the remains. Once that line had been crossed he was on the road to hell. His obsession with Satan and perception of himself as a kind of demon in human form - all documented - was, I believe, an attempt to rationalise his crimes. Intelligent and deeply troubled or not the man was a monster. His is a fascinating case of embracing Evil to make sense of his own life.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
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Posted on Monday, July 25, 2016 - 06:48 pm:   

Dahmer showed no remorse and in fact revelled in his notoriety while in prison. By that stage he had completely accepted what he was and played to that demonic persona shamelessly. Throughout his life he had always enjoyed shocking people. His fate was sealed from the first moment he turned to the booze, imho.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
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Posted on Monday, July 25, 2016 - 06:55 pm:   

God yes, Hubert, 'The Throat' is a terribly bleak and cynical novel. No one and no institutions come out of it unscathed. The same can be said of 'Koko' and 'Mystery' but it is in the final part of the trilogy that the real darkness haunting Timothy Underhill is revealed. It's a magnificent book!!
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Hubert (Hubert)
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Posted on Wednesday, July 27, 2016 - 01:20 pm:   

Page 500. Am beginning to think the police are involved in a less than savoury way. That Blue Rose file which someone consulted and never took the trouble to put back in place, is intriguing.

Yet another short story is mentioned in an oblique fashion, "A Short Guide to the City", wherein the 'angel' is mentioned. There's a viaduct killer, too.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
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Posted on Wednesday, July 27, 2016 - 03:34 pm:   

I really envy you reading it and trying to get to the bottom of the mystery, Hubert. There are so many devious twists in store for you but it is possible to work out what is going on by following the clues. I totally understand why Mark was so compelled to read it again immediately on finishing it. That is a pleasure I look forward to in years to come.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
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Posted on Wednesday, July 27, 2016 - 03:50 pm:   

Getting back to Dahmer for a moment. I believe he came to see himself as completely Other, on the outside of normal society, and he came to accept this role and revel in it as a self-made bogeyman. To me that is the very definition of a person perfectly possessed by Evil. He was far from insane, knew what he was doing was wrong and came to revel in that fact. He found solace and some level of belonging or rationalisation by his study of Evil and Satanism. If other people believed in this stuff then maybe he wasn't alone and had a place in the universe. He was a twistedly logical sex-driven sociopath of above average intelligence taken to the ultimate conclusion, imho.
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Tony (Tony)
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Posted on Wednesday, July 27, 2016 - 03:51 pm:   

Reading Helter Skelter now. Wow.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
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Posted on Wednesday, July 27, 2016 - 04:12 pm:   

One of my favourite true crime books, Tony. A brilliant and very scary read. Bugliosi was bang on the nail in his dissection of Manson and The Family.
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Hubert (Hubert)
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Posted on Thursday, July 28, 2016 - 12:47 pm:   

Helter Skelter is a compelling read. I found myself guiltily falling in love with some of the Manson girls as I proceeded. I never understood their attraction to the little twerp they called Charlie.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
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Posted on Thursday, July 28, 2016 - 01:10 pm:   

Spiritually tormented is a good way of describing the mind set of young people who find it difficult to fit in and give meaning to their lives and who believe everything is against them, leading to confusion and despair and/or bitterness and anger. They want to believe in something and they want to belong to something - to be accepted. It's part of the human condition. That powerful need is all too easy to corrupt through the influence of powerful charismatic leaders and the physical gratification of mind altering drugs, sex and the practice of reinforcing rituals. Once the individual has been made to feel accepted the next step is to reinforce their detachment from, and animosity toward, everything deemed Other i.e. society at large. Thus dedicated footsoldiers for the cause, be it The Family or Satanism or ISIS or whatever, are created.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
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Posted on Thursday, July 28, 2016 - 01:16 pm:   

Dahmer was a tormented soul too and found solace in embracing Evil. He was intelligent and imaginative enough not to have needed any outside influence. He did it all himself. Your classic lone wolf maniac.
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Tony (Tony)
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Posted on Friday, July 29, 2016 - 12:32 am:   

Helter Skelter, i'm shocked to find myself not hating anyone in it. You hate what they do, not them. The sign of a great book. (Yes, even the one who killed Tate, Susan Atkins, she's so loopy - a real crazy psycho puppy dog, almost 'innocent', like a child.)
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Tony (Tony)
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Posted on Friday, July 29, 2016 - 12:35 am:   

I STILL liked Dahmer. He was just not like you or I.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
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Posted on Friday, July 29, 2016 - 04:15 am:   

Like I said, they were all tormented souls. Drugs and drink, in Dahmer's case, played a very big part in their crimes.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
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Posted on Friday, July 29, 2016 - 04:18 am:   

That in no way exonerates them - fuck, no - but it makes them a bit easier to understand.
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Hubert (Hubert)
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Posted on Friday, July 29, 2016 - 03:26 pm:   

Page 600. The plot thickens. The Bandolier story is basically a reworking of the short tale "Bunny is Good Bread", which is more or less told from the POV of Bandolier's young son Fee. After his mother dies his father throws him out of the house. The boy grows up with relatives, enlists in the army and by the end of the story confesses to killing animals, children and adults. I'd have to re-read the story to establish more clues (if any). Perhaps I'll do just that after I've finished The Throat. Only one quibble so far: Underhill's conclusion that the Blue Rose killer is to be found in the ranks of the police is a trifle premature imho. There is not enough evidence at this point. But the book is a genuine roller coaster ride!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
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Posted on Friday, July 29, 2016 - 09:13 pm:   

Don't assume that all Tim's assumptions are logical or correct, Hubert.
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Hubert (Hubert)
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Posted on Friday, July 29, 2016 - 11:35 pm:   

I now, Underhill appears to be a problematical narrator, on a par with the protagonist in If You Could See Me Now. For one thing he keeps seeing ghostly children just about everywhere.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
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Posted on Saturday, July 30, 2016 - 03:34 am:   

It's as if there is a miasma of evil following Underhill about. He keeps getting glimpses of a terrible malign force at work behind the facade of everyday reality. That problem will only get worse for the poor guy.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
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Posted on Saturday, July 30, 2016 - 01:26 pm:   

Have you ever read Derk Raymond's Factory novels, Hubert? Underhill's odyssey reminded me of the unnamed hero of those books. Both men experienced an increasingly horrific descent into hell, due to the awful events they became involved with, that left them haunted souls and emotional wrecks. Hence the unreliable narration.
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Hubert (Hubert)
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Posted on Saturday, July 30, 2016 - 02:33 pm:   

Nope, haven't even heard the name. I'll see if I can find anything.

Page 700. Btw, there is a verbatim reference to "Bunny is Good Bread" on p. 619, when Underhill encounters the ghostly little Fee: "Don't fear me, I thought, I have a thing to tell you. The world is made of fire. You will grow up. Bunny is good bread. We can, we can come through. [. . .]"
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Hubert (Hubert)
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Posted on Monday, August 01, 2016 - 01:43 pm:   

Finished The Throat. Wow. I'm still digesting. A hefty bite at 875 pages, but from the outset I was totally absorbed by the story. I wouldn't immediately re-read it (like I did with Koko), but I'm certain I'll want to peruse it again at some point.

For now, a minor quibble: that John Ransom killed his wife is not too hard to swallow, but the carnage in Vietnam should not be so easily attributable to him. Is that sort of thing (mass killing, cannibalism) really in his character?

The studied anticlimax of the ending came across as a a minor letdown - until the last couple of pages when we learn that Fee got his inspiration partly from an old movie where all those mysterious names come together. I'm not clear where Underhill got the name Lenny Valentine so early in the game, but it's enough to make Fee Bandolier lose his cool at the crucial moment when he is about to shoot Underhill.

When you've read Straub's harrowing short story "Bunny is Good Bread" you know a little more about the events that shaped Fielding Bandolier, yet I miss something. Lots of people are abused in their youth in some way or another, yet they don't turn into serial killers. What does Fee think he accomplishes by killing? Is it a form of retribution?
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
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Posted on Monday, August 01, 2016 - 01:53 pm:   

I still have to read all the Blue Rose associated short stories, Hubert, so may be missing some clues myself. But that is the labyrinthine beauty of the world Straub has created in these books. He gives us multiple mysteries with just enough answers and just enough ambiguity to leave the reader both fascinated and haunted. Wanting more. That's why I consider the Blue Rose stories (all of them) to be works of unparalleled literary genius.

Now let me think about some of the points you raise...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
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Posted on Monday, August 01, 2016 - 02:00 pm:   

Underhill sees Fee Bandolier as the innocent abused boy he was and as the troubled monster he became. A boy worthy of pity and a man worthy of killing. As with Jeffrey Dahmer, imho. We start life as one thing and end it as another. Somewhere along the way we either find ourselves or we lose what we might have been. That is the essence and the glory and the tragedy of life. The choices we make define us.

Fee and Koko are one and the same.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
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Posted on Monday, August 01, 2016 - 02:06 pm:   

Is it ever too late to give up anyone? I don't believe so. Redemption is possible right up until the last breath.

But some people give up on themselves, surrender their souls to bitterness, and the rest of us need protected from them.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
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Posted on Monday, August 01, 2016 - 02:32 pm:   

Straub tackles two forms of evil in these books. The individual kind and the institutional kind. 'Mystery' was an allegory that brought both together in the forms of Mill Walk and its monstrous demagogue, Glendenning Upshaw. Vietnam was the melting pot in which Underhill was made aware of how even he could become a part of institutional evil and be thus partly responsible for the individual evil of Koko/Bandolier that grew out of it.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
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Posted on Monday, August 01, 2016 - 02:36 pm:   

Koko was seeking redemption and so must Fee in some warped way of his own. I think.

I'd now recommend you read 'Lost Boy, Lost Girl' (2003) and its sequel 'In The Night Room' (2004), Hubert. They are about Underhill seeking his own redemption.
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Hubert (Hubert)
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Posted on Monday, August 01, 2016 - 04:30 pm:   

I've already begun reading Lost Boy, Lost Girl. The Night Room I have yet to find. I've also read tons of online interviews with Straub and sent him a Twitter of appreciation, but never got any response. Judging from his alusions to hospital visits (as a patient) I gather Straub isn't in very good health at present.

"Bunny is Good Bread" is an absolute must-read if you're into the Underhill cycle. The thing that haunts me the most about that story is the condition of Fee's mother Anna who's in a coma and slowly dying of neglect. People always harp on certain elements of "The Ghost Village" present in The Throat, but "Bunny" is much more of a key story. It's similar to "The Juniper Tree". "Blue Rose" I have not yet seen.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
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Posted on Monday, August 01, 2016 - 04:44 pm:   

LBLG is a genuinely frightening supernatural horror classic, Hubert. A truly disturbing read. From the events you are now reading INTR plunges Underhill into a kind of nightmarish fantasy realm that represents a surrender to insanity. At least that's what I took from it but the book can be read in many different ways. I'd call these works of metaphysical self-discovery with Straub himself appearing as a character and the real narrator behind the scenes. Maybe?
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
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Posted on Monday, August 01, 2016 - 05:06 pm:   

I believe Stephen King has been attempting something similar, with markedly less subtlety, by all the countless cross references he fills his books with - including introducing himself as a character in 'The Regulators' (1996). But Robert A. Heinlein (maybe others?) got their first with the career defining revelations he introduced in 'The Number Of The Beast' (1979) and expanded upon in 'Job' (1984). Some authors get so lost in the art of storytelling that they become part of their own stories themselves. I've always enjoyed that kind of thing.
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Hubert (Hubert)
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Posted on Monday, August 01, 2016 - 05:38 pm:   

What I like most in Koko and in The Throat is the verisimilitude: Elizabeth Street in NY really exists, as does the shadowy alley where Koko catches Harry Beevers - except in the late eighties the street wasn't exactly part of the main hustle and bustle, as it is nowadays. With Mystery I sense that everything is contrived. I wonder why the setting had to be a non-existent Carribean island (even if it is Milwaukee in disguise) when Millhaven woudl have been just as good if not better? Next to Koko and The Throat, Mystery is weak. Odd that Straub should have written it right after Koko, or that it should be followed by The Throat. Odd, too, that Straub recommends it as his most accessible book.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
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Posted on Monday, August 01, 2016 - 06:21 pm:   

I believe he intended the fictional island community of Mill Walk to represent a microcosm of the United States. I actually did find it his most accessible and entertaining book - as I said above. I see it as a kind of political allegory dressed up as a thrilling tribute to old-fashioned detective fiction. We have an island in which the indigenous people were shunted aside into abject poverty by rich mainlanders who created a paradise for themselves on the back of institutional corruption and hideous crimes. I'm actually reminded quite a bit of Jersey in the Channel Islands!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
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Posted on Monday, August 01, 2016 - 06:32 pm:   

Yes, Hubert, 'Koko' and 'The Throat' were set in the real world, horribly so.

'Mystery' was pure Dickensian fantasy in which all the horror was implied.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
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Posted on Monday, August 01, 2016 - 06:36 pm:   

Of all the characters Peter Straub has created Tom Pasmore is my favourite. I loved the journey he took in that book.
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Hubert (Hubert)
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Posted on Monday, August 01, 2016 - 07:05 pm:   

My favourite character? M.O. Dengler, even if he surely would return the compliment by plunging a long, sharp knife into my ribcage . I would have liked to catch a glimpse of the inner workings of Fielding Bandolier's mind, too. We get next to nothing on that score. My favourite good egg would have to be Tim Underhill. Lamont von Heilitz got on my nerves after a while.

Have you noted Straub's penchant for odd names?
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
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Posted on Monday, August 01, 2016 - 10:45 pm:   

Another trait he shares with Dickens! I sometimes feel that Straub is hiding messages in the names of his characters. This could be fun. Let's see... Lamont Von Heilitz. Working on it.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
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Posted on Monday, August 01, 2016 - 10:57 pm:   

How about "Nihil not. Mazel tov!" The accessibility of 'Mystery' as an antidote to the nihilism the author may have been accused of after 'Koko'? Is Straub Jewish lol?
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
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Posted on Monday, August 01, 2016 - 11:13 pm:   

And M.O. Dengler comes out as "Mold genre". That's something Straub certainly did with crime and horror in these books!

One could drive oneself insane very easily this way lol.
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Hubert (Hubert)
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Posted on Monday, August 01, 2016 - 11:15 pm:   

I've always thought he's jewish . . . Not that it matters.

von Heilitz, ike in Sieg heil! The old know-all is truly unsufferable imho.

Underhill: the one who operates secretly, under cover of the night as it were.

Ransom: the one who is after the money.

Pasmore: the more he passes through certain levels of cognition or awareness, the more complicated things get.

Fontaine: a spout of wisdom. He know more than is good for him.

Bookner: the bookish one

Levy Valentine: yet another jew. I knew it!

Doubtless I'll come up with other instances (likewise to be taken with a pinch of salt)

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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
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Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Monday, August 01, 2016 - 11:58 pm:   

Lamont was a pure fantasy figure, Hubert. Lamont Cranston alias The Shadow. It was that knowing playfulness that I enjoyed so much about 'Mystery'. That book was an escape for Underhill and for Straub. 'The Throat' brought them back down to earth. Of course Tim and Tom are thinly disguised versions of Straub himself.
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Hubert (Hubert)
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Posted From: 178.117.197.80
Posted on Thursday, August 04, 2016 - 04:39 pm:   

The Throat in places reminds me of James Ellroy's L.A. Confidential. The BIG difference between that novel and the film extracted from it is that the book's plot is driven by the search for a serial killer with particularly gruesome methods. The film retains the rivalry between the three detectives and some dialogue, but otherwise focuses on police captain Dudley Smith's becoming the city's main heroin dealer - a plot element kept in the background by Leonard.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

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Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Sunday, August 07, 2016 - 03:03 pm:   

Nearly finished 'A Spectre Is Haunting Texas'. One very weird and funny book. Incredibly un-PC too! Leiber had a wicked sense of humour. I wouldn't call it one of his best. For all the biting satire it is rather too light a pulp adventure to be considered one of his great books. Entertaining and picaresquely unpredictable though. The hero Scully is completely amoral. In fact there isn't a single likeable character in the book. Everyone he encounters attempts to use him for their own ends and he they.

I've been having trouble getting a copy of Ramsey's 'Creatures Of The Pool' as my Amazon copy failed to arrive and had to get a refund. Will have to change my plans and randomly picked up another King - 'Lisey's Story' (2006) - which I'm just about to start. A friend of mine ranks this one as her all time favourite of his novels and has been exhorting me to read it for years. Here goes...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

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Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Sunday, August 07, 2016 - 03:16 pm:   

Say what you like about King but his writing style is bloody addictive. Even his weakest books are always a pleasure to read. It's only afterward that one sometimes feels frustrated. But when he's on form the man is phenomenal. I have a good feeling about this one already. Fingers crossed.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

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Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Sunday, August 07, 2016 - 06:50 pm:   

Very impressed with 'Lisey's Story' so far. It reads like nothing I've experienced of King's before. An intimate and deeply moving character study and a heartfelt rumination on grief. The heroine is the recently widowed wife of a famous author who finds herself discovering things about him, and the inspiration for his horrific fiction, that have her questioning her entire married life and all she knew about him. The old story of how we can ever know what is going on in the minds of even those we are closest to. It's one of his leisurely paced slow burners with subtle hints of the supernatural and dark secrets that may be best left hidden. The frequent flashbacks mingled with troubling disclosures and reluctant investigations in the present is very well constructed and intriguing. He really makes you feel his heroine's pain and loneliness.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
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Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Sunday, August 07, 2016 - 06:57 pm:   

I wonder how much input Tabitha had to this one? He certainly gets the woman's voice spot on.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
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Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Sunday, August 07, 2016 - 07:03 pm:   

The husband seems to have been haunted by something monstrous he called "the dark boy" and his fiction was an attempt to deal with it. Now she is having to deal with that same dark force all on her own. Haunting stuff so far and exceptionally well written. Unlike his pulp yarns, such as 'The Regulators', you can tell he was really trying with this one.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.185.27.105
Posted on Monday, August 08, 2016 - 12:22 am:   

I LOVED Lisey's story till three quarters of the way, when it became something different - and crap. :-(
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
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Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Monday, August 08, 2016 - 04:54 pm:   

Finished 'A Spectre Is Haunting Texas' (1968) and it was a fun if slight read in the end that reveals Leiber at his most cynical about the then state of American politics.

Already half way through 'Lisey's Story' (2006) which is turning into a strange amalgam of noirish crime thriller and dark supernatural fantasy. Lisey Landon has to be one of his most fully fleshed out three dimensional characters and I'm finding the journey she's on to be deeply touching and not a little scary. There seems to be a horrible genetic secret in her dead husband Scott's bloodline that meant they could never have children... not because they were incapable but out of fear. The man's childhood was a nightmare of insane paternal abuse that reminds me greatly of the Bill Paxton's great Southern Gothic horror film 'Frailty' (2001). I wonder if it was an influence on the book? Single backwoods redneck father and two sons he raises to share his own violent delusions. This is a cracking thriller and character portrait of a woman consumed by grief and terrible doubt so far!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
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Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Monday, August 08, 2016 - 05:09 pm:   

So far I'd rank 'Lisey's Story' as the second best of my recent King reads after '11/22/63' (2011). I hope you're wrong about the second half, Tony! It's brilliantly paced and thoroughly gripping so far.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
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Posted on Friday, August 12, 2016 - 02:01 pm:   

Nearly finished 'Lisey's Story' and I rank it very highly. One of King's best and most personal novels. I think I see where you found problems with it, Tony, as I was bemused at first by the segue into 'Alice In Wonderland' territory late in the novel but for me it worked as he didn't over egg the fantasy elements but used them in an allegorical sense. Lisey is drawn into her late husband's imaginary world as the only way she has of communicating with him. The meat of the novel is all in the real world and concentrates on her struggle to get to the truth. The field of lupins, the path through the dark forest with its unseen horrors and the healing pool from which Scott drew his ideas and his strength are all a visualisation of dream reality. I found the flashbacks to Scott's nightmare childhood and the strange illness that blighted his family to be highly disturbing and moving. Like a hereditary case of demonic possession. A great book!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
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Posted on Sunday, August 14, 2016 - 10:04 pm:   

Finished 'Lisey's Story' and I found it incredibly moving in a way that only Stephen King at his best and when he's really trying,can do. I got the impression all through this one that he was writing from the heart and that the book was very important to him. Definitely one of the man's very best novels, imho!
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

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Posted From: 178.117.197.80
Posted on Monday, August 15, 2016 - 06:01 pm:   

Lost Boy, Lost Girl has its moments, but there's no way Straub could have topped Koko or The Throat. The books chronology is unnecessarily complicated and references to Eminem etc. are already dated. The concept of the house that has been 'added to' isn't new, either: Christopher Fowler uses it to chilling effect in "The Master Builder" (1991).

Next: either Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey or Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights. I perused her sister Charlotte's Jane Eyre not too long ago and was amazed how eminently readable I found it. But then I dote on all things Victorian.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

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Posted From: 86.185.27.105
Posted on Monday, August 15, 2016 - 10:58 pm:   

I loved Jane Eyre!
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Hubert (Hubert)
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Posted From: 178.117.197.80
Posted on Monday, August 15, 2016 - 11:48 pm:   

They don't come any more Romantic than that! Wuthering Heights may prove a strong contender, though.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

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Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - 11:20 am:   

I doubt you'll enjoy 'In The Night Room' then, Hubert, as the narrative structure gets incredibly complicated, metaphysical even, in that one. It reminded me of late period Philip K. Dick. Brilliantly written and philosophically fascinating but a highly demanding read. As I've said before I loved all of the Underhill sequence. One of the most engrossing and rewarding reading experiences I've had in recent years.

Just started 'The Day Of Creation' (1987) by J.G. Ballard and I'm overjoyed to see him back in apocalyptic sci-fi adventure mode. This book is already reminding me of 'The Crystal World' (1966) with its African setting. Actually, as the title implies, the book is more of an anti-apocalypse "springing to miraculous life" story. Yet the changes wrought in the environment are no less disruptive for all their fecundity - reminding me also of 'The Unlimited Dream Company' (1979). There's something I always find weirdly captivating about Ballard's prose. A kind of chilly detachment and descriptive precision that sneaks up on the reader with unexpected sucker punches of emotional resonance. I adore the man's writing. Always have done since first stumbling across some of his short stories as a teenager and not being able to get their images out of my head. I believe it was 'The Terminal Beach' (1964) collection borrowed from the library that served as my introduction. He wrote wonderful, deceptively understated, disturbing, mesmerising, hallucinatory psychological fantasias that remain unmatched in literature. I'm really going to enjoy this book!
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Hubert (Hubert)
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Posted From: 178.117.197.80
Posted on Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - 09:40 pm:   

I read quite a few of his disaster novels in my misspent youth and am extraordinarily fond of his Arkham House collection Memories of the Space Age. Thought-provoking yet intrinsically romantic stories with a power to cling to the memmory. I'm especially fond of "The Dead Astronaut", which is up there (literally!) with Bradbury's "Kaleidoscope".
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.153.254.41
Posted on Thursday, August 18, 2016 - 07:16 am:   

Hubert, Wuthering Heights is sublime, one of the finest novels ever written (imho). It also in its own way, touches the limits of horror: Heathcliff is possessed by madness or... something. (That scene with Heathcliff at the grave has got to go down as one of the most grotesque in all fiction.) I have my own conspiracy theory

(spoiler)

that Emily originally wrote it or intended to that Heathcliff is Mr. Earnshaw's bastard child - it's the only feasible explanation for his taking Heathcliff home. Ergo, his romantic relationship with Cathy would be impossible. But maybe Charlotte (I believe she helped edit it?) convinced Emily it wouldn't fly, or be too shocking - or, that just removing all explanation whatsoever regarding Heathcliff's origin, would make the novel's core all the more haunting, eerie....
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

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Posted From: 178.117.197.80
Posted on Thursday, August 18, 2016 - 06:16 pm:   

I may read David Morrell's First Blood first. The book practically jumped into my hands today in an Oxfam shop. I wrote Morrell an e-mail letter of appreciation two years ago after reading Testament (heartily recommended!) and, of course, also extolled the virtues of his very interesting "Orange is for Anguish, Blue is for Insanity". He very graciously replied almost immediately and we corresponded for a couple months until it petered out.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

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Posted From: 99.153.254.41
Posted on Thursday, August 18, 2016 - 09:26 pm:   

Wow! That's amazing, Hubert. I really respect Morrell, and I love reading his nonfiction bits where he talks about writing, the process of writing. Testament is indeed a great novel, the only so far I've read by Morrell - though I've read all his shorter works. "Orange is for Anguish" is brilliant. Even when he's not the very best, he's still a great read: his novella that appeared in Dark Delicacies III recently, "The Architecture of Snow," is ultimately not one of his best... but he manages to make the piece a complete page-turner: I could not put it down, and I say that about few writers' work. He's had terrible tragedy in his own life, I know; it's gratifying to see he's never let his literary stardom make him remote.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

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Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Thursday, August 18, 2016 - 11:45 pm:   

I'm already well over half way through 'The Day Of Creation' and it's classic Ballard. The best novel I've read this year so far. The book is a real throwback to his 1960s apocalyptic novels. A miraculous spring of water comes gushing out of the ground in the central Sahara transforming all that was barren into verdant jungle and turning the politics of the region on its head. Into this chaos a small group embark on an expedition to the heart of the miracle zone - kind of like 'Heart Of Darkness' in reverse - and encounter all manner of weird transformations. As ever with Ballard the prose is indescribably haunting and the action as gripping as it is unpredictable. The kind of book that has you gasping in awe at times with its imagery. Wonderful!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

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Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Thursday, August 18, 2016 - 11:58 pm:   

I thought it would take a lot for 'The Throat' to be ousted from the top of the list but this Ballard is just sublime. Effortlessly readable, profoundly original and a more than worthy follow up to 'Empire Of The Sun' (1984). No one in literature has a voice quite like him.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
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Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Friday, August 19, 2016 - 12:05 am:   

I agree with you, Craig, that Heathcliff was most likely the bastard son of Mr Earnshaw and Cathy's half brother. 'Wuthering Heights' is the greatest gothic novel of the 19th Century. Once read never forgotten. It made me kind of fall in love with Emily Brontë.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Friday, August 19, 2016 - 02:47 am:   

I've just made another attempt to order 'Creatures Of The Pool' (2009) - from the States this time. Here's hoping this one arrives!

In the meantime I plan to read yet another Stephen King novel next. Just picked up 'Blaze' which was written way back in 1973 under the Richard Bachman name and lay unpublished until 2007! King was at his best in the 70s so I'm really curious about this one.
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 178.117.197.80
Posted on Friday, August 19, 2016 - 11:55 am:   

Yes, receiving my first mail from Morrell was a great moment. We talked about the controversial ending of Testament, his flying experience (my father is a pilot, so I could talk more or less knowledgeably about that) and other things. I discovered a pirate edition of his Lessons from a Lifetime of Writing: A Novelist Looks at His Craft (2002) he didn(t know existed and pointed it out to him. He thanked me profusely.

I've stopped talking about my brief encounter with this great author. People generally don't know who he is, but they all know RAMBO (the film) and simply don't want to believe I corresponded with him. That tells you something about the hole I'm stuck in.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 109.155.218.177
Posted on Wednesday, August 24, 2016 - 11:10 am:   

Gave up on Helter Skelter. Started Ghost Story. It's better than I remember, but patches of it ARE sort of draggy, and I'm terrible at remembering more than two characters at a time. But to give the book mostly credit, I'm finding it much more rewarding than most of my King rereads.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

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Posted From: 109.155.218.177
Posted on Wednesday, August 24, 2016 - 11:12 am:   

In fact, I feel a bit of a Straub marathon coming on (I stopped at Talisman).
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

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Posted From: 178.117.197.80
Posted on Wednesday, August 24, 2016 - 01:29 pm:   

Disappointed in Helter Skelter? Curious, I remember it as an enjoyable read. A tad long perhaps, but so were the proceedings against Charlie et al. Bugliosi's interviews with the Family are chilling.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 109.155.218.177
Posted on Wednesday, August 24, 2016 - 04:09 pm:   

I think I just needed a break. I stopped feeling scared of them and started feeling sympathetic, too.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.216.225.246
Posted on Friday, August 26, 2016 - 03:21 pm:   

Finished 'The Day Of Creation' (1987) and I'd rank it as one of my very favourite Ballard novels. On a par with any of the great elemental apocalypse books of the 60s but somehow more personal and emotionally powerful, written in the immediate wake of the long bottled up autobiographical outpouring that was 'Empire Of The Sun' (1984). It takes the form of one man's personal odyssey to the heart of the post-colonial experience in modern Africa and to Western society's collective guilt over the wreckage left behind. It's all there; the mass starvation, the disease, the refugees flocking north in their millions, the political corruption and holding onto riches of an armed elite, the tribal wars, the terrorism, the persecution, the documentary film crews lapping it all up for our TV screens back home, the celebrities popping in and out on their brief conscience salving sojourns - and complaining about the stink, etc. And in the middle of it all a miracle of biblical proportions that gets subsumed into the surrounding chaos and made just one more ingredient of the quagmiric stew. Just another resource to be fought over and squandered. This is a desperately sad book and completely mesmerising in its unfolding voyage of discovery. There are scenes here that will haunt me forever. From rapturous beauty to festering horror Ballard conjures up all the sights, sounds and smells of that vast melting pot of a continent on one unforgettable river voyage. And the ending is just devastating. This is a well nigh perfect work of art and one of the finest allegorical fantasy adventures I have ever read. Awe inspiring!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

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Posted From: 90.216.225.246
Posted on Friday, August 26, 2016 - 03:42 pm:   

Mallory's redemptive attempts to protect the child Noon, a brutalised 13 year old girl kidnapped by rebels and turned into a sex slave, and bring her along with him to the source of the miracle - each of them getting weaker and more disease riddled all the time - is heartbreaking in its intensity and attention to every physical and emotional detail. The last chapter had me nearly in floods myself. It was the perfect ending to such an epic journey. Perfect in its stark simplicity and complete lack of sentiment. My God, what a writer!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.216.225.246
Posted on Friday, August 26, 2016 - 03:54 pm:   

Since finishing it I am also half way through Stephen King's really gripping little crime thriller 'Blaze' (1973-2007). It is a short work with all the immediacy of 'Carrie' (1974) or any of his early short stories - when he was an absolute master of the form. A riveting and extremely well written character study of a mentally subnormal criminal who comes up with a get rich quick scheme - the kidnapping of a rich family's baby - and finds himself horribly out of his depth. It sounds icky and sentimental as hell but it isn't. King admits he was trying to emulate the style of Donald E. Westlake's famously hard hitting and unsentimental crime thrillers and in his young unpretentious way I would say (so far) he has succeeded. The attention to every grimy detail and concentration on action reminds me of everything I loved about him as a writer in the 1970s. If this is a minor work it is still one of his best, imho.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

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Posted From: 90.216.225.246
Posted on Friday, August 26, 2016 - 04:06 pm:   

That's a great story about David Morrell, Hubert. I've had a few interactions with famous writers in my years of waffling online and always try to treat them with respect but honesty. I abhor sycophancy despite my penchant for gushing praise when moved by a work of literature lol. It's always a lovely experience when they reply in kind.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.216.225.246
Posted on Saturday, August 27, 2016 - 02:13 pm:   

Have to say 'Blaze' is a really enjoyable read. It may even be my favourite of all the Bachman books. It's such a pleasure to see King keeping it simple and concentrating on pure story. None of your overly ambitious flights of fantasy here. Just a gripping thriller well told. The flashbacks to the main character's delinquent childhood and what made him the way he is are all the more powerful for their succinctness. And the inevitable bonding with the infant captive is abjectly pitiful rather than sentimental. I want him to be caught for the child's sake and think he would be better off out of the world and no longer a menace to the public. The man is a frighteningly unstable cold blooded killer who knows only violence and bitterness. Death or incarceration would be a mercy for him. And yet King shows us the person he could have become but for the hand he got dealt in his youth. A sad but mercifully unsentimental portrait of what makes a career criminal.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.216.225.246
Posted on Saturday, August 27, 2016 - 02:21 pm:   

He's also hopelessly incompetent and leaves a trail of clues a mile wide for the authorities to follow. The tension as the net tightens is brilliantly sustained. Can't see this one ending well, folks.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.216.225.246
Posted on Sunday, August 28, 2016 - 05:51 pm:   

Finished 'Blaze' and I'm relieved to say he sustained the book's purity of vision right to the finish. It ends powerfully, badly and unsentimentally. A great wee thriller well up to the standard of the other early Bachman books. It makes 'The Regulators' (1996) look all the more like a horrible miscalculation. Fine stuff!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.216.225.246
Posted on Monday, August 29, 2016 - 10:01 am:   

Still waiting on 'Creatures Of The Pool' arriving so in the interim I've started 'Insomnia' (1994) by Stephen King as I picked it up cheap at the weekend. I know absolutely nothing about it.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.153.254.41
Posted on Friday, September 02, 2016 - 12:02 am:   

So I broke my spell of non-reading with Graham Greene's BRIGHTON ROCK. Great novel, needless to say. About 2/3s through, it's hurtling towards some terrible climax, I'm sure. Must (when I'm finished) seek out both film versions of it, the one from the late 40's and the recent one from a couple years back.

Tony, I noticed up above you said you started GHOST STORY, and have liked it more than you remembered... did that feeling persist through the entire read-through? But I also notice you said you felt a Straub marathon coming on - if you start reading MYSTERY, I can read it along with you - I'll probably be reading that next regardless.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.216.225.246
Posted on Friday, September 02, 2016 - 12:28 am:   

'Brighton Rock' (1938) was the novel that made me absolutely fall in love with Graham Greene's writing, Craig. It works as a gripping crime thriller, a devastating portrait of a psychopathic mind and a work of intense existential and spiritual depth. I found it a profoundly moving and highly disturbing read. You are probably aware of the book's links to the earlier novel 'A Gun For Sale' (1936).

As for the films; the Boultings' 1947 version is a masterpiece. One of the greatest of all British noirs with an unforgettably powerful performance by Richard Attenborough as Pinkie. He wasn't to be as scarily intense again until '10 Rillington Place' in 1971. I went to see the recent version in the cinema and it was eminently forgettable i.e. of no worth whatsoever as an adaptation of such a great novel.

I know how much you enjoy a good detective yarn, Craig, and can't wait to hear what you make of 'Mystery' (1990). I consider it the most Dickensian and entertaining of all the Straub novels I have read. Really wonderful stuff!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.216.225.246
Posted on Friday, September 02, 2016 - 12:39 am:   

Motoring through 'Insomnia' and I'm really enjoying it. I had no idea the book was set in Derry and works as a kind of sequel to 'It' (1986). This time the evil that stalks the city is targeting the elderly and infirm rather than children. It's quintessential King. A right ripping yarn. The prancing bald headed demon with the rusty scalpel, that appears to be some new emanation of Pennywise, is a wonderfully grotesque creation and reminds me of something out of 'The League Of Gentlemen' or 'Psychoville'. Nice to see a hero in his seventies too. This is shaping up to be the best King of the 90s I've read to date. But then I thought the same about 'Desperation' (1996) until the half way point... which is rapidly approaching with this one. Please, Steve, keep it tight man!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.216.225.246
Posted on Friday, September 02, 2016 - 12:54 am:   

Here's the latest list of this year's reads, with a new Number 1:

BOOKS READ IN 2016:

1. 'The Day Of Creation' (1987) by J.G. Ballard
2. ‘The Throat’ (1993) by Peter Straub
3. ‘Koko’ (1988) by Peter Straub
4. ‘Mystery’ (1990) by Peter Straub
5. ‘11/22/63’ (2011) by Stephen King
6. 'Galilee' (1998) by Clive Barker
7. 'Lost Boy, Lost Girl' (2003) by Peter Straub
8. 'In The Night Room' (2004) by Peter Straub
9. 'Lisey's Story' (2006) by Stephen King
10. 'Black House' (2001) by Stephen King & Peter Straub
11. 'The Price Of Salt’ (1952) by Patricia Highsmith
12. 'Under The Dome' (2009) by Stephen King
13. 'Cell' (2006) by Stephen King
14. 'Duma Key' (2008) by Stephen King
15. 'Thieving Fear' (2008) by Ramsey Campbell
16. 'Revolt In 2100' (1953) by Robert A. Heinlein
17. 'Hearts In Atlantis' (1999) by Stephen King
18. 'Blaze' (1973-2007) by Stephen King as Richard Bachman
19. 'Revival’ (2014) by Stephen King
20. 'Space Cadet’ (1948) by Robert A. Heinlein
21. 'A Spectre Is Haunting Texas' (1968) by Fritz Leiber
22. 'Doctor Sleep’ (2013) by Stephen King
23. 'Mr Mercedes' (2014) by Stephen King
24. 'Desperation' (1996) by Stephen King
25. 'Needful Things' (1991) by Stephen King
26. 'Dreamcatcher' (2001) by Stephen King
27. 'Bag Of Bones' (1998) by Stephen King
28. 'The Regulators' (1996) by Stephen King as Richard Bachman

And so far 'Insomnia' is at least as good as 'Cell' or 'Duma Key' for me. Hoping to read Ramsey's 'Creatures Of The Pool' (2009) next, if it ever drops through my letterbox. Also picked up the second part of King's Bill Hodges detective trilogy, 'Finders Keepers' (2015), so will be reading that soon too.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.153.254.41
Posted on Sunday, September 04, 2016 - 02:11 am:   

Finished Brighton Rock, and have started Mystery - will tell you what I think, Stevie, as I go along.

Brighton Rock is one of Greene's finest, yes, my early assessment. I sense our landlord was heavily influenced in his own writing by Mr. Greene. The novel ends on a note of horror itself (nearly the last word of the novel is, in fact, "horror"); the whole builds like a study in caustic psychological breakdown, much like his other "Catholic" novels, Heart of the Matter, End of the Affair... and as such also reminiscent of Ramsey's own studies in mental decay, like The Claw, The Face That Must Die....

Any young newlyweds that want to get married should be made to read Brighton Rock, and Heller's Something Happened - maybe a third one if someone can think of one equally bleak and despairing. If they still want to get married after THAT... god bless them!
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 178.117.197.80
Posted on Sunday, September 04, 2016 - 12:55 pm:   

Joyce Caroll Oates' story collection The Wheel of Love. Technically not horror, although it contains some very odd tales indeed.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.185.27.162
Posted on Wednesday, September 07, 2016 - 02:17 pm:   

Just finished Ghost Story, but after initial love for it some loony cut and pasted the ending of Salem's Lot onto it, changing just the names. So many great things, but ultimately schizophrenic and unsure. It felt like it had no idea how to end so just kept going till it had tried everything.
Started reading Fourth of July Creek by a Smith Henderson. MUCH better - and not horror.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 81.133.201.120
Posted on Wednesday, September 07, 2016 - 03:36 pm:   

Yeehaa!!!! At long bloody last 'Creatures Of The Pool' (2009) by Ramsey Campbell has just arrived!! As I've just finished King's 'Insomnia' (1994) - thoughts to follow - I'm starting into it right now.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.153.254.41
Posted on Wednesday, September 07, 2016 - 05:22 pm:   

Tony, that's precisely how I felt about my recent read of GHOST STORY. You nailed it there... can't add to what you said. Glad it wasn't just me that thought that.

However... still early on, but must say, MYSTERY is proving to be much better, surer, finer. Straub learned something in the fifteen or so years that passed between these books, I think. Greatly enjoying it, as Stevie promised. The threads are developing....
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 81.137.244.250
Posted on Thursday, September 08, 2016 - 03:48 pm:   

Couldn't disagree more. There was obviously a 'Salem's Lot' (1975) influence on Straub when he wrote 'Ghost Story' (1979) but, for me, it is a far finer and more original supernatural horror epic. He created a new kind of monster in that book that I found far scarier than vampires or ghosts. I still rank it as one of the greatest horror novels of the 1970s golden era. I find it nice that we can agree to disagree on here as old friends do.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 81.133.201.120
Posted on Sunday, September 11, 2016 - 05:00 pm:   

Two thirds through 'Creatures Of The Pool' (2009) and I just can't get over how bloody good it is! Up there with 'To Wake The Dead' (1980), 'Incarnate' (1983) or 'The Grin Of The Dark' (2007) and it's pure Lovecraft. Reads like a Liverpool version of Klein's 'Children Of The Kingdom' (1980) with all the subtlety and attention to historical detail but made even more nightmarish by Ramsey's unsettling accumulation of surreal psychological dread. One of his absolute best supernatural horror novels, imho. Loving it beyond words!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 81.133.201.120
Posted on Tuesday, September 20, 2016 - 05:51 pm:   

Finished 'Creatures Of The Pool' and 'The Green Brain' (1968) by Frank Herbert since I was last on here. Now reading the short story collection 'Eleven' (1970) by Patricia Highsmith.

COTP is one of the finest and scariest pure Lovecraftian horror novels Ramsey ever wrote, imho. A nightmare in prose. Just superb. It has all the intensity and unrelenting dread of any of his best works. The book has me afraid to ever visit Liverpool now it paints the city in such a disturbing light. Really can't get over how good it was. Any Ramsey Campbell fans who have yet to read it need to do themselves a favour and seek out a copy come hell or high water.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.172.16
Posted on Friday, September 23, 2016 - 12:42 pm:   

That's me back online again. Thoughts on; 'Insomnia', 'Creatures Of The Pool', 'The Green Brain', 'Eleven', 'Finders Keepers' (read it in two days) and 'The Heaven Makers' (currently reading) to follow...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.172.16
Posted on Saturday, September 24, 2016 - 06:01 am:   

Today I picked up the final part of Stephen King's highly entertaining Bill Hodges detective trilogy, 'End Of Watch' (2016), so will be reading that next.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.172.16
Posted on Saturday, September 24, 2016 - 06:27 am:   

When people think of Frank Herbert they tend to imagine him as a dauntingly prolific writer of gargantuan multi-volume epics but I've been finding him just as fine a writer of short exciting stand alone Heinleinesque thrillers that are impossible to put down once started. Books like; 'The Green Brain' (1966), 'The Eyes Of Heisenberg' (1966), 'The Heaven Makers' (1967), 'The Santaroga Barrier' (1968) and 'Hellstrom's Hive' (1973) are criminally overlooked and amongst the best written and most original sci-fi/horror novels of their era, imo. Fiercely intelligent yet as fast movingly entertaining as the lowliest pulp fiction. Ripe for rediscovery.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.153.254.41
Posted on Saturday, September 24, 2016 - 04:46 pm:   

I am about 4/5's of the way through Straub's MYSTERY, and I should have an assessment to post here soon myself. It's definitely been enjoyable, and again - the only Straub novel I can compare it to, since the only other one I've read - finer than GHOST STORY. More anon.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.172.16
Posted on Monday, September 26, 2016 - 09:12 am:   

Craig, all three of the Blue Rose Trilogy are finer novels than 'Ghost Story' (1979) and, imho, represent the crowning achievement of Straub's career. Please read 'Koko' (1988) next and, whatever you do, leave 'The Throat' (1993) till last - as everything is tied up to perfection there.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.172.16
Posted on Monday, September 26, 2016 - 03:33 pm:   

Finished 'The Heaven Makers' (1967) by Frank Herbert. One of the bleakest and most disturbing paranoid sci-fi/horror novels I have read. It's the old X Files idea of human beings existing as playthings for an unknowably superior Godlike alien race that a few people come to suspect the existence of and fight vainly to reveal. But Herbert takes that basic idea to the ultimate and most terrifying conclusion imaginable. At once a brilliantly exciting adventure yarn and a frightening odyssey into the depths of helpless paranoia. Quite brilliant and hugely influential.

Just started King's 'End Of Watch' (2016). The first part of the Bill Hodges trilogy was pure hard boiled crime thriller. The second was also ingeniously constructed crime/suspense but with the subtle encroachment of the supernatural. This final part is pure supernatural horror. It's been supremely enjoyable to follow Hodges and his colleagues as their investigations take them further away from all that their life experiences and training have prepared them for deep into the darker recesses of King's literary world. It's shaping up to be a fine trilogy. No doubt the TV series is already being discussed in offices across Hollywood. Irresistibly fine storytelling.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.172.16
Posted on Monday, September 26, 2016 - 03:49 pm:   

'The Heaven Makers' is really a classically constructed horror novel. It is set in contemporary times and involves a homicide detective investigating what at first appears to be a routine murder and suicide case but that leads him to a mind shattering conclusion. What makes the book brilliant is the portrayal of the alien persecutors as real characters involved in the narrative. It is told from both points of view which only makes the human characters' efforts to understand and fight back all the more suspenseful and frightening. The book leaves one gazing up at the night sky with a sense of utter fear.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.172.16
Posted on Monday, September 26, 2016 - 04:02 pm:   

'The Green Brain' (1966) was also a rivetingly exciting near future sci-fi/horror novel that has a scientific and military expedition up the Amazon River encountering a mutant strain of intelligent insect life that plans to exterminate the human race because of the irreparable damage they are doing to the environment. There are great attack sequences and moments of gruesome skin-crawling horror that resolve in the few survivors desperate race to make it back to civilisation in a hopelessly crippled armoured boat and warn the rest of us of the encroaching nightmare. Pure pulse pounding excitement from first page to last. Anyone with a fear of creep crawlies really doesn't want to read this book. It may well have kick-started the 70s trend for "revenge of nature" horror stories.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.172.16
Posted on Monday, September 26, 2016 - 04:13 pm:   

'The Santaroga Barrier' (1968) was, again, contemporary sci-fi/horror about a shape-shifting alien blob creature able to possess human beings by infiltrating their food. It was filmed entertainingly by Larry Cohen as 'The Stuff' (1985) but the book is so much better and scarier.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.172.16
Posted on Monday, September 26, 2016 - 04:21 pm:   

And 'Hellstrom's Hive' (1973) was the same. One of the best "small isolated community with a dark secret" horror novels I have read. In this case the hapless interlopers from outside find themselves trapped by human mutants who have based their way of life on that of the social insects and adapted their biology accordingly. The book bears serious comparison to the greatest of all such stories, Lovecraft's 'The Shadow Over Innsmouth' (1936), imho.

There is so much more to Herbert's writing than the 'Dune' series.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.153.254.41
Posted on Sunday, October 02, 2016 - 09:08 pm:   

Finished Straub's Mystery finally (just a slow reader on my part, and reading different things at once). An entertaining read, with a good cast and storyline. Fun and intriguing. I would classify it as "novel" first (that's not a genre I know, but for sake of argument I'll use it, assuming we all know what I mean), because I wouldn't put this in the "mystery" genre primarily (and I think that's agreed upon: I've never seen this actually filed in the "Mystery" section in bookstores or libraries): This is mostly the slowly unoflding story of Tom Passmore's unusually adventurous childhood with attendant "soap"-ish characteristics. As well, the mystery isn't solved or attended to quite like we expect in firmer members of that genre, like all the books wherein Tom's immersed himself, as he lists early on in the novel (Christie, Stout, Sayers, etc.). Both as novel and as mystery, the chief aim/result here is one of entertainment: a story of a character, and a story of a story (the plot itself). It's an accident of thicker novels, that one expects something "more": higher insights, complex character development and analysis, social insights, epic or sprawling plot threads, even a colorful travelogue. All those are missing here (it's odd that there is virtually no reminders to time/place/history; why this is set in the 50s/60s, is purely accidental to the story's needs), but not terribly missed. Never boring, always entertaining... but I'm not sure I exactly share your lush enthusiasm as detailed above, Stevie. Only because the novel doesn't quite reach the same lofty levels for either genre - neither the "novel" novel, nor mystery - when analyzed seperately, and as such: the characters don't quite reach their depths; the mystery perse (the crimes attendent upon -- including the method of -- their unravelling) doesn't either. Still, an engaging read that makes me want to get to The Throat/Koko, the other sections in this connected series.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.172.16
Posted on Monday, October 03, 2016 - 06:34 am:   

Glad you enjoyed it, Craig. To me it was more of a poignant coming of age drama disguised as a mystery novel. It will all make more sense once you have read the other two Blue Rose novels.

I enjoyed Ramsey's 'Creatures Of The Pool' (2009) so much that I've just ordered the next in line, 'The Seven Days Of Cain' (2010).
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.172.16
Posted on Monday, October 03, 2016 - 12:42 pm:   

Finished 'End Of Watch' and can't say too much about the plot to avoid spoilers. It involves the hunt for a demonic serial killer with frightening psychic powers and that's all I'm saying. The Bill Hodges trilogy is one of King's most thoroughly entertaining and tightly structured achievements. No excess fat whatsoever just concentration on pure story and suspense. All three books are very much in the Donald E. Westlake mould of short sharp hard boiled crime thrillers. The supernatural does creep in but that only gives them a distinctive Kingian flavour that does not detract from the overall narrative drive. I was actually quite sad to say farewell to these characters in the end.

Very hard to rank the series as they are all so close in quality and read like one work but here goes:

1. Finders Keepers (2015)
2. End Of Watch (2016)
3. Mr Mercedes (2014)

Yes they are King-lite and a long way from the literary greatness he is occasionally touched with but as unpretentious modern noir entertainments go this trilogy would be hard to beat.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.172.16
Posted on Monday, October 03, 2016 - 01:00 pm:   

'Mr Mercedes' was about the hunt for a deranged genius carrying out random mass killings and taunting the retired homicide detective who failed to catch him.

'Finders Keepers' was the most original of the three involving the hunt for a priceless treasure by a ruthlessly determined ex-con killer who has waited his entire adult life to be free and reap the rewards of his ill-gotten gains. But someone gets there before him and that's when the fun starts.

'End Of Watch' was back to hunting a serial killer but one with a particularly inventive and cruel way of selecting and killing his victims... without so much as raising a finger.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.172.16
Posted on Monday, October 03, 2016 - 01:24 pm:   

While I wait for 'The Seven Days Of Cain' to arrive I think I'll plunge straight into another King. That man's writing is damn addictive. Perhaps it's the curiosity of wondering each time whether this one will be good King or "bad" King? Anyway, I've decided on 'Rose Madder' (1995). Here goes...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.172.16
Posted on Monday, October 03, 2016 - 01:36 pm:   

Craig, if 'Mystery' was great entertainment, 'Koko' is superb literature and 'The Throat' is a jaw dropping masterpiece, imho.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.172.16
Posted on Monday, October 03, 2016 - 02:00 pm:   

Here's the latest list:

BOOKS READ IN 2016:

1. 'The Day Of Creation' (1987) by J.G. Ballard
2. ‘The Throat’ (1993) by Peter Straub
3. ‘Koko’ (1988) by Peter Straub
4. ‘Mystery’ (1990) by Peter Straub
5. 'Creatures Of The Pool' (2009) by Ramsey Campbell
6. ‘11/22/63’ (2011) by Stephen King
7. 'Galilee' (1998) by Clive Barker
8. 'Eleven' (1970) by Patricia Highsmith
9. 'Lost Boy, Lost Girl' (2003) by Peter Straub
10. 'In The Night Room' (2004) by Peter Straub
11. 'Lisey's Story' (2006) by Stephen King
12. 'Black House' (2001) by Stephen King & Peter Straub
13. 'The Price Of Salt’ (1952) by Patricia Highsmith
14. 'Under The Dome' (2009) by Stephen King
15. 'The Heaven Makers' (1967) by Frank Herbert
16. 'Cell' (2006) by Stephen King
17. 'Insomnia' (1994) by Stephen King
18. 'Duma Key' (2008) by Stephen King
19. 'Thieving Fear' (2008) by Ramsey Campbell
20. 'Revolt In 2100' (1953) by Robert A. Heinlein
21. 'Hearts In Atlantis' (1999) by Stephen King
22. 'The Green Brain' (1966) by Frank Herbert
23. 'Finders Keepers' (2015) by Stephen King
24. 'Blaze' (1973-2007) by Stephen King as Richard Bachman
25. 'End Of Watch' (2016) by Stephen King
26. 'Revival’ (2014) by Stephen King
27. 'Space Cadet’ (1948) by Robert A. Heinlein
28. 'A Spectre Is Haunting Texas' (1968) by Fritz Leiber
29. 'Mr Mercedes' (2014) by Stephen King
30. 'Doctor Sleep’ (2013) by Stephen King
31. 'Desperation' (1996) by Stephen King
32. 'Needful Things' (1991) by Stephen King
33. 'Dreamcatcher' (2001) by Stephen King
34. 'Bag Of Bones' (1998) by Stephen King
35. 'The Regulators' (1996) by Stephen King as Richard Bachman

Just started 'Rose Madder' (1995) and he's done it again. I'm hooked...
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.153.254.41
Posted on Monday, October 03, 2016 - 04:31 pm:   

I am looking forward to the others, Stevie. When Straub is at his best, you just get to sink into his story like getting comfortable with a soft pillow. He absorbs you slowly, and you genuinely like the characters he creates.

Though I do admit I see why, just comparing the two, King is King. King's mastery, even when he slips, is never so evident as when compared to his contemporaries. But that's just comparing these two....
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.153.254.41
Posted on Tuesday, October 11, 2016 - 01:12 am:   

It's well into October, and I thought I'd dip my toes back into the pool of horror with Ray Russell's 1960 novella "Sardonicus." I barely remember the film based upon it, from 1961, screenplay also by Russell. A good thing: I like to go into a given work of art fresh.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.172.16
Posted on Tuesday, October 11, 2016 - 09:34 am:   

I have 'Mr Sardonicus' on DVD and it's probably the best thing William Castle ever made. Grand Guignol horror at its most atmospheric.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.153.254.41
Posted on Tuesday, October 11, 2016 - 05:23 pm:   

I must see it now, Stevie. Finished the novella: Russell fashioned an eerie gothic flavor to this psychological horror - all's implied, evocative, and the more disturbing for it. Definitely one of the top-tier horror tales.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.172.16
Posted on Tuesday, October 11, 2016 - 10:44 pm:   

I've read it myself, Craig, in either one of the Pan or Fontana anthologies. Cracking tale!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.172.16
Posted on Tuesday, October 11, 2016 - 10:48 pm:   

Yes, it was in 'The 4th Pan Book of Horror Stories' (1962) which was one of the strongest collections of the series.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.153.254.41
Posted on Thursday, October 13, 2016 - 09:20 pm:   

I read it in this collection I've had for some many years, and every so often I dip in to read a few more; I'm hoping to finally finish it this year: Masterpieces of Terror and the Supernatural, ed. by Marvin Kaye (1985).

And wow! Lemme tell you! Ever read a story that just totally blew you away; that made you go from being completely unfamiliar with an author, to in that one story, wanting to read everything the author ever wrote ever? I just had that experience with the late Parke Godwin's "Stroke of Mercy," originally published in the long defunct Twilight Zone Magazine (1981). Just a perfect tale of... horror? Science fiction? Fantasy? Magic realism? Whatever it is, it's lyrical and strange and poetic and truly masterful. I've been only barely aware of this writer Godwin in the far periphery of my vision; never more than a name in a list of contents to me before. But holy crap! What a writer! Anyone more familiar with him and his work?
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.164.193.85
Posted on Wednesday, October 19, 2016 - 02:55 pm:   

I'm reading Straub's If You Could See Me Now, which while it's a better book than Ghost Story is much less scary. My only quibble is where I am, halfway, it's starting to feel less urgent and focussed.
I have a confession. I have been diagnosed autistic and ADHD. I have the horrible feeling I can never fully enjoy anything in life fully, and certainly not for long. Everything I get into becomes my ALL TIME FAVOURITE THING, until it isn't. Recently I got into carving dolls, making jointed limbs and everything. Now, I can barely remember the moment I got into it. It's terrible, and makes life seem utterly pointless.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.153.254.41
Posted on Wednesday, October 19, 2016 - 05:25 pm:   

I'm sorry to hear that, Tony. I hope you're coping with it well.

I do wonder if maybe we blame ourselves, for something not our fault?... Take that novel you're reading - which could be any novel, you just happened to mention that one, Straub's. Is the novel not so fine, is it flawed, lesser-than...? And if you were to blame yourself for losing interest in it, that's not your fault - it's the novel's.

If nothing in life is perfect, maybe we have to accept that includes our reactions to experiences. If something fills us with exuberance and elation, to extreme levels, we should distrust it - maybe if something appears too perfect, too fine, too amazing, too. Much of Shakespeare isn't quoted, after all.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.164.193.85
Posted on Thursday, October 20, 2016 - 12:39 pm:   

You're right. The Ghost Story and the Ramseys I couldn't finish, and currently another Straub, If They Could See Me now, which is a good book, just going round in a few circles right now, I do wonder that it's the books, not me. Actually, it is, really. It's just all my other dwindling enthusiasms makes me think it's me.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.172.16
Posted on Thursday, October 20, 2016 - 07:23 pm:   

You are not alone, Tony. I recently was retired from the civil service on ill health grounds (after 30 years) following a nervous breakdown precipitated by a run of bad luck that I could no longer cope with (two floods, family illness, crippling debt, personality clash bullying in the workplace, etc).

As a result of the psychiatric treatment I have been undergoing - a fascinating process - I have just recently been told that I am most likely an undiagnosed sufferer from Aspberger's Syndrome - a form of high functioning autism that explains everything I always wondered about myself and my odd obsessions. I am undergoing the evaluation process now to get a concrete diagnosis. At first I felt a mixture of shock and anger when I was told this. I felt I had been misunderstood and mistreated all my life through what I now realised was no fault of my own - after blaming my own eccentric behaviour all of my adult life. But now I've come to terms with the idea and I'm actually excited and happy to be finally given an explanation for why I am the way I am. It's a feeling of wonderful liberation and self discovery.

I look at my collections and my lists now and I love and accept myself the way I am more than ever before in my life. Finally everything makes sense. You should take your diagnosis as a positive thing. When we were kids these conditions weren't understood or even accepted as real. We were just thought of as odd or difficult. Now we know we just think differently from the herd. The way our brains are wired is as much a gift as it may appear to be a curse. Revel in it, Tony. Believe me we are in great company!
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.153.254.41
Posted on Thursday, October 20, 2016 - 07:33 pm:   

I hope it passes, Tony. Reading some really great stuff will help!

I went and found the other Parke Godwin story I knew I had - "The Fire When It Comes," originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, May 1981 (reprinted in Terry Carr's Fantasy Annual V). Superb craftsmanship and style - a style that's distinctive, that makes you want to read more from that particular author rather than, say, that genre. The story of a ghost haunting an apartment in 1970's New York, the character development was just top-notch: in the space of a short novella, you're as invested and moved as any full-length novel. The flaw lay in that the story felt to be all exposition, no action; all Act I, no Acts II or III. But enough of quality remained that - with two extremely strong items in evidence - Mr. Godwin qualifies as my own, personal "Writer Discovery of the Year."

Have now turned back about a hundred and fifty years, to read Sheridan Le Fanu's gothic pre-Stoker vampire novella, "Carmilla."
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 81.133.201.120
Posted on Thursday, October 20, 2016 - 09:18 pm:   

'Carmilla' is Le Fanu's masterpiece, Craig. As great a gothic horror story as anything that came out of that century. I'd rank it second only to 'Dracula' as the best vampire tale ever written. Hammer made a surprisingly faithful and effective film version, 'The Vampire Lovers' (1970) by Roy Ward Baker, that I rank as one of their best and most underrated late period movies. Ingrid Pitt was perfectly cast as the demonically seductive vampiress. It's her best film, imo.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.172.16
Posted on Friday, October 21, 2016 - 02:47 am:   

Like Tony I just poured my heart out expecting friendship from what used to be the greatest and friendliest and most intellectually stimulating online community in existence. If I or Tony (an artistic genius with a unique outlook on life gifted to him by himlf) get nothing back then we can safely consign the RCMB to the realm of dead web sites. I can do no more to keep this thing afloat. Sorry.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.164.193.85
Posted on Friday, October 21, 2016 - 10:28 am:   

A few people changed around me a bit when I was diagnosed, especially on the net.
I took my diagnosis badly. It was like being told I was a robot. But...I'm ok, now, I've just gone more into my shell. I'm just getting used to things, watching life from up in the 'Gods'. It's ok. And in the end I come on here for talk about books and movies, and only mentioned my situation because of its effects on those things. Anyway, this is the quietest place on the net and that suits me down to the ground. (If you need to talk about autism FB is great for that - message me?)
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.172.16
Posted on Friday, October 21, 2016 - 08:23 pm:   

Thanks, Tony. Will do. You are not a robot. Nothing could be further from the truth. A robot wouldn't have the sheer creativity and originality you exhibit in everything you turn your hand to.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 109.147.136.205
Posted on Sunday, October 23, 2016 - 12:30 pm:   

Close to abandoning the Straub - it's gone a bit like Ichabod Crane vs the Dukes of Hazzard. It's slightly comic, sadly.
RE the autism, I don't expect or want others here to understand my situation or even be sympathetic. It's just what it is. It's ok. I come here for the banter.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.153.254.41
Posted on Sunday, October 23, 2016 - 08:13 pm:   

Finished "Carmilla." So much sets the ground for Stoker, clearly. Still chilling and effective; and despite knowing so much about vampires (they've become pretty boring nowadays), this one manages to maintain the mystery and repulsiveness of them. Ends on a distantly ambiguous note: does the narrator still love Carmilla, and will she someday fall prey to vampirisim herself? There's also an ambiguity about origins - we never learn who or what originally turned Carmilla.

I started the Roy Ward Baker version on youtube - classic Hammer, so far. But it looks like it's changing things around... I do wonder if there's a more faithful version out there?... I know there's lots of them that have been made.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.153.254.41
Posted on Tuesday, October 25, 2016 - 05:19 pm:   

Have started reading An Object of Beauty by Steve Martin (2010) - yes, that Steve Martin. There's a huge laudatory paragraph from Joyce Carol Oates on the back cover, and so far, must admit - guy's a damn good writer, too! I've been increasingly fascinated with contemporary art, and this novel was recommended to me as a "must read" primer. It's an easy read so far, so I should be able to juggle this one in-between whatever genre (horror? mystery? etc.?) I pick next....
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 109.147.136.205
Posted on Wednesday, October 26, 2016 - 07:07 pm:   

I have a Steve Martin book! Shop Girl. Yes , he's very good.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.153.254.41
Posted on Thursday, October 27, 2016 - 08:22 pm:   

I'm amazed at how good this book of Martin's is so far, Tony... it's depressing when someone who's already so talented in one area, shines seemingly effortlessly in another. But a good kind of depressing.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.153.254.41
Posted on Monday, October 31, 2016 - 04:31 pm:   

Strange. I'm now just over halfway through Martin's novel... and it's consistently excellent, yes. Good story, great writing, smooth style. But there's something about it... I can't put my finger on it, and I can't point to it. But there's something off-putting. Something cold and impersonal, and no it's not an effect of the damaged protagonist or the cutthroat world of art she wallows in. It's like the voice of an author being completely absent, is the closest I can come to saying. Even the Straub book I complained about, GHOST STORY, an overall flawed novel indeed - it has more life and vibrancy in the writing, more of an author's warm and necessary presence, than this one. It's almost like a computer wrote this, or rewrote it. I need to finish it, and yes, it might just be sour grapes. We shall see if my hesitancy persists.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 109.147.136.205
Posted on Monday, October 31, 2016 - 04:41 pm:   

I understand that. I learned of an apparently good new author today and almost bought a book by him, but then found he was friends with someone from this board who's doing well, and it kind of put me off. It's bad, the sour grapes thing, but it happens. I can't understand people who don't feel envy, especially when you're not doing so well.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 109.147.136.205
Posted on Monday, October 31, 2016 - 04:45 pm:   

Finished If You Could See Me Now yesterday and think it should have been a non genre piece about lost love. Totally.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.153.254.41
Posted on Tuesday, November 01, 2016 - 04:21 pm:   

Who from the board is... well, I guess it's gauche to actually ask that question. Is there anyone even left on the board but us, Tony? A couple of guys waiting around for Godot?

Yes, there's certainly sour grapes with me vis-a-vis this Martin novel. But I am still convinced... there's something behind the writing of this novel. This isn't just some guy who sat down and wrote a novel like this, first draft then rewrote, etc. There's *something* else going on... I can't put my finger on it, but I'm sure of it. My sour grapes tell me so.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 109.147.136.205
Posted on Wednesday, November 02, 2016 - 12:36 am:   

Shop Girl, it had a slick feel to it, robotic, like a mimic was writing it and knew what words to use without ever having to tap into deep, dirty "shit". Some great writers reach that zone when ennui sets in - autopilot. The ability is there, the pool of tricks, but nothing more, like the horse that knows the delivery route of the milk wagon, the milkman dozing. I just started reading a late Aickman today and there was the same thing - a new reader might think it was ok, but not the reader who's followed the career.
I have the feeling we've upset Stevie, I just don't know how...
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 109.147.136.205
Posted on Wednesday, November 02, 2016 - 12:41 am:   

God, even that read like a drone. How are you feeling about the possibility of a child-rapist being in power, Craig? The U.S. has become so crazy-scary it's unbelievable. We're feeling the fear over here, if that can be any comfort.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 109.147.136.205
Posted on Wednesday, November 02, 2016 - 12:44 am:   

You know, I have the awful feeling people from here found FB a bigger and better place to advertise wares. Does that sound awful? It's how it looks.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.153.254.41
Posted on Wednesday, November 02, 2016 - 02:59 am:   

Your description of Shop Girl fits my experience reading An Object Of Beauty perfectly, Tony. The pithy phrases that are meant to be caustically funny or elicting a Wilde-ean grunt of assent, come off instead as... not quite totally trite and flat, but almost. This doesn't feel written by a single mind; something's interfering - another writer, a computer, writers plural, etc. I feel like I'm reading the equivalent of a computer game - technically flawless, but *programmed.* I'm yearning to read something else. Something with some life to it. I've come to appreciate Straub far more (I mean, because I feel I was riding him too much lately) while reading this.

The child-rapist I'm confused about - I've honestly heard no allegations of child-rape concerning either candidate. Do you mean Trump? I can give you the results of the election right now - Trump's won. I contend he won way back when the primaries ended - I contend this entire election is a grand kabuki show. Any Republican was always going to win, it's just how it was destined to be. The reason they're so bitter, the other Republicans, is they knew this from the beginning, and are angry an outsider like Trump stole the seat from them. "Never Trumpers" of course could say whatever they want about Hillary, because they too know Hillary will never win.

I've been telling anyone who cared to listen that the polls meant NOTHING until the final week, when the REAL poll numbers would emerge - the ones they (i.e., those in power) knew about all along - and lo and behold, read the news: it's all coming true. Reputations (accuracy in polling when it counts, actually calling the election on its eve) must be saved by the end, but propaganda can be spread far and wide for a long time before that. Things are swinging mightily towards Trump, and will continue to do so.

Want another conspiracy theory? These latest revelations are from somewhere in the orbit of Obama, and the higher echelons of the Democratic Party. Why? Because Hillary was always destined to lose; but (according to my theory) she's now appearing to lose far worse than they at first dreaded. So someone pulled the trigger on Comey re-opening it in advance of the election, to CYA - "It's not us Democrats: it's Comey, it's Hillary, it's Weiner, etc."

You read this here first: TRUMP LANDSLIDE.

Btw: Don't confuse my analysis for endorsement. Trump scares me. I just see what is (to me) clearly the case, and report on it. And yes, I'm saying, next week - Trump landslide win. If I'm wrong, I encourage people to come on here and lambaste me, too.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.153.254.41
Posted on Wednesday, November 02, 2016 - 03:06 am:   

Let's say you're a betting man. You wander up to the Roulette table, put all your money on green 00... and it comes up! Now then. Do you put all your money on green 00 *again*?....

We've had 200+ years of white male Presidents. We suddenly get green 00 - a highly charismatic, Adonis-like black male President. Denzel Washington, basically, running for office. Do the odds favor you that we will now roll green 00 again, with a less-than-Adonis-like female President?...

You've had one female leader over there - Mrs. Thatcher. Before, after... many years sans such. But then you had precedent, too: a great many powerful Queens. We've had nothing like that here. Ever.

It's the dirty secret no one wants to talk about. I am NOT endorsing this position, mind, I'm just analyzing. And I'm seeing around me a country that is not willing to elect a woman President. Yet. Not in Hillary at least.

But even so... rolling green 00 twice in a row... highly unlikely, at any casino.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.181.138.175
Posted on Thursday, November 03, 2016 - 09:36 am:   

I'm just bracing myself for Trump world. It's going to happen. Thing is, I saw a film of Hillary Clinton more or less laughing and clapping her hands at Gaddaffi's horrible, agonising death, and she felt even more monstrous than Trump.
Actually, yesterday I had a set-to with some Christian Trump supporters over my sharing the rape allegations and not paying taxes, saying he looked like a massive sinner. They wouldn't have it and called me a troll. I think the net has made facts and ideas a currency of forgeries, people going purely with gut feeling, and that's a nightmare situation I can't see us coming back from.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.181.138.175
Posted on Thursday, November 03, 2016 - 09:39 am:   

Maybe Martin just got a bunch of literary buddies together and his books got overpolished...
I'm enjoying Sick man again, and have realised an odd skill he has; his stories leave your memory but leave you desperate to read them again.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.153.254.41
Posted on Thursday, November 03, 2016 - 07:44 pm:   

Who/what is "Sick man," Tony?

Just about done with the Martin novel. I don't know what to think. Writing quality: Very high. Readability: Very high. There's little to the plot, it's sort of a meandering account of a girl who - when all's summed up - isn't novel-worthy. Martin tries to make her exotic, alluring, special... she's blah, she's basically ho-hum, in sum. But there's lots of extremely insightful glimpses into the world and ways of high-art - this is where I trip up. It's the kind of insider knowledge and wisdom it would seem could only be gleaned by a TRUE lifer, insider, life-long participant. I find it very hard to believe these are Martin's own insights... maybe, but I dunno. I can just as easily jot down all my misgivings to base & surly sour grapes. I'd have to read more Martin to get a fuller assessment. When I have time, when I have time....
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.181.138.175
Posted on Thursday, November 03, 2016 - 07:56 pm:   

Argh! It's AICKMAN! Damon spellchecker...
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.181.138.175
Posted on Thursday, November 03, 2016 - 07:57 pm:   

AAAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.181.138.175
Posted on Wednesday, November 09, 2016 - 10:42 am:   

Struggling with Aickman now, at least with this last story, and the one I've just started feels the same. I wish I could seriously tell if it was me or the books.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.153.254.41
Posted on Thursday, November 10, 2016 - 08:48 pm:   

Aickman's hard to read, that's for sure, Tony. I know I'm gonna have a hard time when I pick up Aickman. Same goes for Henry James, the writer most like him - gotta have a lot of strength and stamina piled up to dive into James.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.181.138.66
Posted on Saturday, November 12, 2016 - 02:02 pm:   

SOME of Aickman is hard. It's just too aloof, like polite letters from long ago. I should be saying how smart I was to dig such stuff, but I'd be lying. I have tried reading Henry James but couldn't get on. I pinned it down to his not being a very sensory writer, or sensual. Kind of like a brain in a jar sort of thing, like he'd never touched or smelled anything. I might be wrong.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.153.254.41
Posted on Saturday, November 12, 2016 - 05:35 pm:   

Oh, Tony, James is sheerly brilliant. He's incredibly difficult to read, at least I find him to be. But he is so richly rewarding. He writes about the torments of the mind: he is Hemingway-ian in this one respect - where everything is deeply encoded. Hemingway hides the codes in the inanimate; James, in the sinuous chattering quenchless activity of consciousness. There is a Shakespearean poignancy to James found in few other writers. To best introduce you to James, I recommend actually the best movie done from his work - The Heiress, 1949, where Olivia de Havilland gives a performance for the ages. Goth? Punk? Disaffected Millenials? No one knows DARK darkness, like Henry James did, and this movie showcases it....
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.190.206.179
Posted on Tuesday, April 23, 2019 - 01:28 am:   

All of you, come back. This was as close to heaven as life got.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 45.24.89.171
Posted on Tuesday, April 23, 2019 - 03:14 am:   

I'm here Tony! We can make this like the revived sitcoms so popular lately in America, don't know if that trend has crossed over into Britain? Where you have these sitcoms that have been dead for many years, suddenly revived - same actors, same sets - as if they never died at all. I find the ones I've seen, for that very fact, surreal, fascinating, slightly disturbing, & somewhat guiltily [sic.] comforting. Hey, that's what the RCMB should was at its best!

I'm going to dive right in: I'm just about finished with my very first ever Robert Parker novel, EARLY AUTUMN (1981). About as opposite in style as can be from Henry James! Parker's is fast, easy, staccato, Hemingway-esque, a breeze to whip through. I was quite thrown off, because most of the novel can only be stretched to fit the genre of crime/mystery; though it's swerving into it in its third act. Spenser is a more happily-grounded Hemingway male persona: capable of desperate violence, but not so scarred by his past traumas; let alone emasculated by his very masculinity. It grows on you, the writing, and the skilled mind behind the writing: I'm actually fast becoming a fan, and as I reach the close I actually wish this novel were longer. The highest praise I give (I was recommended this via an essay by an Irish writer, actually, in a book listing the hundred best mystery novels of the last century).

So what else is everyone reading?

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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.190.206.179
Posted on Tuesday, April 23, 2019 - 01:22 pm:   

Craig!!!!!
I was reading this last night, and while I realise I was kind of outside looking in (a lot of it was about Straub, and I haven't read many of his books) it just took me back to a kind of internet conversation we just don't have anymore. But I remember you analysing how stories worked and why they didn't. It made me realise a story had to feel like this huge blob where you COULDN'T pick it apart because everything fitted, like an engine, but you had to because you do need to study these things if you want to do them yourself. I have heard of Parker, but not read. Wasn't he Bill Clinton's favourite writer?
God, sadly you were right about Trump. We have assholes in power too, dismantling our NHS, taking our great connection with Europe away. I hate them, and it's depressing living in a country where people are a little more openly racist than they might have been even two or three years back. It's like the Sliders guy got stuck somewhere shitty and the series just ended.
But yes, I know of those sitcoms. Bands are doing it too, releasing new stuff after decades away. But yes, it is disturbing, and not quite right somehow. I started coming on here a few months ago and it was JUST ME. Honest, it's been like being in the Shining or I am Legend. I literally was walking round reading old threads, rereading old rows. I realised I was an asshole and got worked up at old things I'd said, and things other people had said. It's worth looking. Did you know Joel's last lines were 'group hug' and 'goodbye'? Did you even know Joel had died?
I hope you stick around. It was great when you got back so fast. I've become kind of isolated and missed this place, and seeing you talk on here made me reach out.
As for reading, I stopped writing, too, and stopped going on facebook (it really is a terrible place), and started after too long a time reading again. I've loved it. I've written on another thread about reading Ramsey's first, The Doll Who Ate His Mother, and how 'alive' it feels, so vibrant and urgent. It's like it's the book equivalent of a video camera on his shoulder, filming everything, zooming in suddenly on arbitrary, unexpected things, and the old things people used to do or wear. I've never felt so transported back to old days like this. I want to read everything he's done again, in order. His characters were great, too, you really see them in your mind's eye, can almost smell them.
It was great to hear you might have a movie happening. What's it about?
I gave up writing but a friend (Mark Lynch - see above) got me putting an anthology together of more or less everything I've done so far. He sent me a formatted version and told me to polish them. I have to say I took a lot of the overt horror out - it was too clunky, didn't sit right with the rest of what I'd written. Some I've cut whole endings off and put in new ones. Some are barely horror at all. Stories I used to hate I now love, and some I used to quite like I REALLY love - one is one of my favourite stories by anybody now, I don't know how I did it, but it had me in suspense and everything. God, polishing it made me so happy. A few stories really needed a lot of work, even though they'd been published before. I think, ultimately, I was going mainstream - ish. I have no problem with self publishing - the climate for writing has changed, there's so much crap out there officially and it's so hard to get things read now, and a lot of good stuff has been taken up by publishers and done 'properly'. I should be finished soon.
This is great, I'm so glad to see you, even if I'm aware I look like one of these old horror trope guys who's gone lonely and weird and will probably eat you in a stew at some later point.
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 89.100.87.82
Posted on Tuesday, April 23, 2019 - 06:34 pm:   

Three people on here? It's getting a bit elbowy now.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.190.206.179
Posted on Wednesday, April 24, 2019 - 01:21 am:   

I know. I can't see it going much farther, though.
Now I'm just cringing at and wanting to take back much of what I posted in that wall of words.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.153.254.41
Posted on Wednesday, April 24, 2019 - 08:11 pm:   

Hi Protodroid! Three whole people - getting to be like our infamous lines at the Department of Motor Vehicles in here!

Why would you want to take back much of what you wrote, Tony? It was wonderful to read, and it's good to catch up!

Yes, I did know Joel had passed away, I was around for that - probably what helped put this board to bed back then, among the other factors.

I myself keep meaning to go back and revisit Ramsey. The reason I haven't so much - except for the occasional short story - is that I don't own/have access to his books so much now; and unlike so many other authors, I never run across his books anymore! Out here, we had the tyranny of the giant bookstores take over - Borders, Barnes & Noble, etc. - they put out the smaller stores. Well, then they went bust, and now bookstores - in southern California no less! - are exceedingly hard to find, let alone used bookstores. That job has fallen to our local libraries, which all have fine used bookstores inside them - though still, sadly, I just about never come across Ramsey's books (and forget his later work!). Sure, I could order them on Amazon... I rarely order anything on Amazon, though, in my defense. And I have stacks of books here all competing for my attention daily. It's not just desire that determines my next read, it's all the winds of whim, my mind will pick something over something else... but it would be great to start all over, at the beginning, with DOLL. I remember loving intensely all Ramsey's early novels - those were the heyday of horror indeed.

But if I were to order a "later" Ramsey, what would you/anyone else be the best recommendation? I mean, say, publication date later than year 2000. I'll make a point of purchasing the best recommendation given me.

That's great about the anthology Tony! And I find myself gravitating towards the less-overt horror as it is, so it would be right up my alley. Writers like Aickman, Collier, Ellin, Oates, Jackson, Highsmith.... Isn't it great, reading something you haven't read in so long, that you feel like you're reading something by an entirely different author? It's the best when it really fires on all cylinders! Congrats!

The sad thing about our fractured & democratized publishing world now, as I see it, is that there's no gatekeepers for quality - or few, few trusted sifters of what's worth one's time, what's not. I'm so picky and particular about what I choose to read, I vet things heavily before I venture in with a new author or work - and despite this I'm left with piles of reading material! And, despite this, shit gets through the cracks often enough - I need to up my vetting process.

Facebook, social media, streaming shows, etc. - I lump it all under what I call the "Tyranny of the Screens." Me, I'm the coal mine canary who's already keeled over from the fumes: - I can't take it anymore, and have been overtaken by mostly loathing, when it comes to it all. I think the masses will be soon enough joining me. I like to think it'll herald a return to the written word, to a renaissance of reading (among other things). Not that the visual arts should vanish altogether, or even will - but they've just become so pervasive, so overwhelming, so choking, upon us. They've crowded everything else out, to our vast detriment. That's how I see it, anyway.

I guess it doesn't matter if this thread has mostly been hijacked for purposes other than "what we're reading" - date's off anyway, should start a new thread for that! Oh, and no, I didn't know Parker was Clinton's favorite writer... that kind of ruins it for me, actually.

Let's see who else will show up here!...
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.190.206.179
Posted on Thursday, April 25, 2019 - 09:54 am:   

You think we live in the slush pile now? People have started accepting second best because it's just so proliferate?
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 213.233.150.24
Posted on Friday, April 26, 2019 - 12:36 am:   

I'm interested to see what's happened to the visual media. Something has happened to the image, especially the moving image through its ubiquity. Did something similar happen to the written word already? If so, what was it? If not, why not?

I do think some sensory deprivation would be good. We could enjoy the image again. I took ALIENS, a film that's too burned into my mind for me to be able to really see it any more, and flipped it horizontally. I could feel my brain almost physically stretch when viewing it that way. And indeed, James Cameron says that's how he views his films sometimes while editing, to keep them fresh.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.190.206.179
Posted on Friday, April 26, 2019 - 01:22 am:   

A thing I do if bored or too familiar with a film is focus just on the background, the sets and stuff. But my weirdest thing was watching a film in a mirror because I was having a bath (you had to do what you could when you only had one chance to watch something back then).
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.190.206.179
Posted on Friday, April 26, 2019 - 01:23 am:   

I once heard if you watch a film upside down long enough it goes the right way up.
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 89.19.67.158
Posted on Friday, April 26, 2019 - 10:25 am:   

Same with your eyes. Someone wore upside down glasses for several weeks your brain adjust and then when you take them off again you see everything upside down normally. For a while.

I saw people do this on a BBC programme in the 80s. This is all I could find on Youtube. My how intellectual standards have slipped. ("We rely on our eyes to guide ourselves around the world." Thanks, 21st century BBC!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kohUpQwZt8
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.190.206.179
Posted on Friday, April 26, 2019 - 04:36 pm:   

You ever feel your attention HAS shrank? People seem to need only a single image or GIF to have their imaginations fired. I was thinking today how my days felt big and expansive, ordered, like a road, perhaps. Now it feels like gravel flung up in the air, thoughts in my mind flying past like a flock of birds. I can't prowl round in my head, exploring places I imagined like I used to. I never know whether to be scared it's dementia or that my mind has been broken by the modern world.
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 89.19.67.133
Posted on Friday, April 26, 2019 - 05:21 pm:   

I feel that my attention and focus has reduced, but I'm not sure how much is habit, how much biology and how much a shift of interest in me that draws me to focus on other things. My days do seem much shorter these days. It's like I can accomplish one or two things a day and sometimes whole days go by and I can't remember them.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.137.109.102
Posted on Saturday, April 27, 2019 - 08:09 am:   

Yes... It's like when my son asks if I'm scared of dying and I say no, because I'm kind of bored. It's like we've realized we're in essentially a huge gerbil cage and we know every inch. Even the new toys that get dropped in end up being much like the old ones.
God this is bleak. I'll find a lighter note and post it here - eventually!
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 213.233.132.138
Posted on Saturday, April 27, 2019 - 02:21 pm:   

You need to consciously refresh yourself, which you can do by even simple physical things - stand on your head, walk down a street you don't usually take, talk to a stranger. That shakes the snowglobe.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.137.109.102
Posted on Sunday, April 28, 2019 - 10:40 am:   

That coast to coast bike ride did that for me. A big journey, unplanned. It had a beginning and an end. It was the most storylike time of my life - I think I actually remember every moment. I've actually done a few longish bike rides these past few weeks. You know what's weitd? Cycling a route you know well by car is NOT the same if you do it by bike, not one bit. And I got to climb a telegraph tower hill I've been going past for years and never did. The view was incredible, the place so otherworldly because I had been imagining it so long and it was nothing like it. The disconnect was wonderful, like going to a real parallel universe. I want to do land's end to John O'groats next, but maybe the coastal route. I love the sea.
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 213.233.147.161
Posted on Sunday, April 28, 2019 - 11:51 am:   

That all sounds so great. I think physical experience pops it all into three dimensions.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.137.109.102
Posted on Sunday, April 28, 2019 - 11:57 am:   

I recommend getting a bike. It's like something by HG Wells, achieves unexpected things.
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 213.233.147.161
Posted on Sunday, April 28, 2019 - 12:14 pm:   

Yeah, I live in the city centre right now though...

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