DanielSavage
Zombie
Reged: 09/25/03
Posts: 3050
Loc: West Virginia
|
|
Quote:
I just finished McCammon's Stinger. It's a good read. Did this guy write a bad book?
I found a Robert McCammon book that I'm not crazy about.
Boy's Life.
--------------------
Your hands are so cold, my love, beneath these leafless winter trees. Your lips are ocean blue, my love, and have ceased to call my name.
|
EdgarAllen
Living Dead
Reged: 09/16/00
Posts: 2176
Loc: Star City
|
|
Quote:
I found a Robert McCammon book that I'm not crazy about.
Boy's Life.
Haven't gotten to that one yet. I do think it's the novel he's most proud of. And I know he's probably gotten more critical praise for that book more so than any of his others. They even teach it here and there in high school lit classes. I'm sure at some point I will get to it.
I think my next McCammon read will be Speak the Nightbird. This is the beginning of a series of historical novels for him. Set in the 1600s or 1700s. I think there's probably some supernatural slant to it, but I don't think it's going to be all out horror. He's three novels deep into it so far with the last being Mister Slaughter, which appears to involve a Jack the Ripper type killer in New York or Chicago.
--------------------
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!"
- Lewis Carroll
|
DanielSavage
Zombie
Reged: 09/25/03
Posts: 3050
Loc: West Virginia
|
|
I'm only 160 or so pages into Boy's Life, so I may have spoken too soon. I don't care for it so far, but that doesn't mean I'll feel the same once I finish it. Hell, I didn't care for Swan Song until I got WAY into it, and now it's one of my favorites...
--------------------
Your hands are so cold, my love, beneath these leafless winter trees. Your lips are ocean blue, my love, and have ceased to call my name.
|
EdgarAllen
Living Dead
Reged: 09/16/00
Posts: 2176
Loc: Star City
|
|
Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman.
--------------------
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!"
- Lewis Carroll
|
Fenril
Rotting Corpse
Reged: 06/25/03
Posts: 384
Loc: Mexico City, Mexico
|
|
Read Gallery of horrors, by Hideshi Hino. It was very good, a manga collection of seven horror stories each tied to a particular color (The first story is titled "Horror in black", the second "Horror in blue" and so on); they reminded me a lot of "Tales from the crypt" (both the tv series and the original comics) in that all were pretty gruesome and gory, yet darkly humorous (two particular stories, "Red" and "Green" were quite sad, too). The one thing that surprised me is that all of the stories were particularly nasty with the child characters, who seem to suffer the most. You don't see that very often in genre fiction, not even in Asian works...
Hino's art seemed a bit cartoonish (it's kinda like a Fernando Botero painting, where everything and everybody seems inflated), but you quickly get used to it, and in a sense it made the images even more gruesome. Everything seems distorted in Hino's world.
Currently reading Coldhearth Canyon, by Clive Barker. So far it's not as bad as I'd been told, but it's definitely not one of Barker's best.
--------------------
Laurie Birgham took an axe,
gave her husband forty whacks.
When she saw what she had done,
she gave his girlfriend forty-one.
--Joan Crawford's Strait-jacket
|
EdgarAllen
Living Dead
Reged: 09/16/00
Posts: 2176
Loc: Star City
|
|
Quote:
Currently reading Coldhearth Canyon, by Clive Barker. So far it's not as bad as I'd been told, but it's definitely not one of Barker's best.
Is this the one set in early Hollywood? I'm interested in that but I'm really hoping to eventually read The Damnation Game.
--------------------
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!"
- Lewis Carroll
|
Fenril
Rotting Corpse
Reged: 06/25/03
Posts: 384
Loc: Mexico City, Mexico
|
|
Quote:
Quote:
Currently reading Coldhearth Canyon, by Clive Barker. So far it's not as bad as I'd been told, but it's definitely not one of Barker's best.
Is this the one set in early Hollywood? I'm interested in that but I'm really hoping to eventually read The Damnation Game.
It's set in both early and contemporary (well, "contemporary" meaning "late 90's") Hollywood. You know, I actually liked this one a lot, I think it's underrated, and certainly more of an horror novel that his entire 90's production. Granted that it's a bit too long and the main characters are hardly sympathetic, but the plot itself is nifty enough to make up for that, not to mention the many nods to 20's/30's Hollywood for classic movie buffs.
But you really should read "The damnation game" first; it was his first novel and it's certainly better than this one.... I take it you have already read all the Books of blood, right? Because those are still his finest work. Likewise "Cabal" and "The hellbound heart".
--------------------
Laurie Birgham took an axe,
gave her husband forty whacks.
When she saw what she had done,
she gave his girlfriend forty-one.
--Joan Crawford's Strait-jacket
|
MojoNexus
Flesh Eater
Reged: 10/22/01
Posts: 1318
Loc: Manhattan, KS USA
|
|
MONSTER ISLAND, a serialized novel by David Wellington
Monster Island is a novel posted in blog format. It is set in Manhattan, one month after New York has been overrun by zombies.
--------------------
Lick my plate...
Mojo
My Horror Bundle
My DVD collection!
|
EdgarAllen
Living Dead
Reged: 09/16/00
Posts: 2176
Loc: Star City
|
|
Quote:
you really should read "The damnation game" first; it was his first novel and it's certainly better than this one.... I take it you have already read all the Books of blood, right? Because those are still his finest work. Likewise "Cabal" and "The hellbound heart".
I have read I, II and V (The Inhuman Condition). None of the others yet.
Quote:
Monster Island is a novel posted in blog format. It is set in Manhattan, one month after New York has been overrun by zombies.
I'm really interested in this one. Haven't read anything by this author yet. Let us know what you think.
--------------------
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!"
- Lewis Carroll
|
Fenril
Rotting Corpse
Reged: 06/25/03
Posts: 384
Loc: Mexico City, Mexico
|
|
Now reading Misery, by Stephen King
--------------------
Laurie Birgham took an axe,
gave her husband forty whacks.
When she saw what she had done,
she gave his girlfriend forty-one.
--Joan Crawford's Strait-jacket
|
EdgarAllen
Living Dead
Reged: 09/16/00
Posts: 2176
Loc: Star City
|
|
John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.
--------------------
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!"
- Lewis Carroll
|
Fenril
Rotting Corpse
Reged: 06/25/03
Posts: 384
Loc: Mexico City, Mexico
|
|
Finished Misery. Very good and kind of unusual for King, in that he almost (not quite, but almost) manages to tell the entire story from a single charcter's viewpoint and in a single scenario. Also, some time ago I read a critique of the movie adaption (which is very good, by the by) which proposed an idea that I now think applies perfectly to the novel: that it's not so much a riff on a writer's fears of demanding fans, as it's often interpreted, but rather a thinly-veiled metaphor about mainstream best-seller writers and publishing houses.
To wit: a woman (Goddess, she's sometime called) who claims to be a writer's number one fan keeps him imprisioned with hostile methods, critiques his less mainstream work as too complicated and forces the writer to destroy it, then forces him to continue with the best-selling books the writer has come to hate. And so on.
....oh, yeah, that's spoilers for the novel. Sorry about that (but then, isn't this novel very well known by now?).
Currently reading the third volume of Memoria del fuego, by Eduardo Galeano.
Love Steinbeck, but have never read The grapes of wrath. Do let us know what you think of it, will you, EdgarAllen?
--------------------
Laurie Birgham took an axe,
gave her husband forty whacks.
When she saw what she had done,
she gave his girlfriend forty-one.
--Joan Crawford's Strait-jacket
|
EdgarAllen
Living Dead
Reged: 09/16/00
Posts: 2176
Loc: Star City
|
|
Have missed out on Misery so far. I do think you're correct about it being a allegory on publishing. I have read more King books than any other author, thirteen I think. I really like King, obviously, but kinda sad he leads my reading list. Sorta makes me feel like a lemming. Second place would only be four or five books tops. Ray Bradbury, Robert McCammon, maybe Peter David.
**SPOILERS**
I fail to understand why the lawnmower scene was not included in the film version.
--------------------
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!"
- Lewis Carroll
|
Previous
Index
Next
Threaded
Edit
Reply
Quote
