Panda
Creeping Corpse
Posts: 83
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Post by Panda on Jan 14, 2011 21:21:01 GMT -5
Ps. Breathless was pretty dull and seemed to be an echo of much better books.
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maarow
Ghost in the Graveyard
Posts: 509
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Post by maarow on Jan 23, 2011 23:39:28 GMT -5
The Devil: A Biography by Peter Stanford. Historical summary of Satan's role in Christian mythology and popular culture throughout the years. It's interesting to note that his influence is small in the canonical Bible and chiefly grew in the centuries after Christ's death as a useful tool for demonizing the church's enemies and converting the pagans of Europe. Sine diablo nullus dominus--without the Devil, no God.
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Post by bishop746 on Jan 24, 2011 17:53:17 GMT -5
The Devil: A Biography by Peter Stanford. Historical summary of Satan's role in Christian mythology and popular culture throughout the years. It's interesting to note that his influence is small in the canonical Bible and chiefly grew in the centuries after Christ's death as a useful tool for demonizing the church's enemies and converting the pagans of Europe. Sine diablo nullus dominus--without the Devil, no God. Added to my Amazon wishlist. Thank you.
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Post by therottoenone on Jan 25, 2011 9:29:32 GMT -5
The Walking Dead compendium book one. Pretty cool. And just finished 2nd Nephi in the Book Of Mormon. I did that to balance things out. LOL
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Post by spiffybiffy on Jan 29, 2011 13:20:44 GMT -5
Been bouncing back and forth between rereading Neuromancer, Books of Blood and The King in Yellow.
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Post by Demon Sprocket on Mar 1, 2011 11:23:00 GMT -5
Just finished a quick read. Day By Day Armageddon by J.L Bourne. It's a zombie apocolypse book written in journal form in a 3 month span. Interesting view on survival/observations on the writers behalf on Zombies. Thumbs down to the ending where it just dropped off waiting for a second book.
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ilnino
Disembodied Voice
Posts: 473
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Post by ilnino on Mar 6, 2011 3:18:47 GMT -5
Also by him One Rainy Night, about a strange rain that when it touches you turns you into a homicidal lunatic. Good stuff! I read that a long time ago... its one that always stuck in my mind though. Really liked it.
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maarow
Ghost in the Graveyard
Posts: 509
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Post by maarow on Mar 6, 2011 22:29:40 GMT -5
The Red Tree by Caitlin R. Kiernan.
The book jacket promises a deep and disquieting tale of Lovecraftian shadow-realities and steadily unfolding madness as a writer with a troubled past moves to New England for a fresh start and becomes increasingly obsessed with a giant oak tree on the property that has served as the focal point for disturbing folklore and local legend over the past few centuries.
What the jacket didn't promise was a petulant, self-loathing, self-absorbed narrator whose digressive sad sack ramblings are about as enjoyable as a high school wanna-be goth girl's angst-ridden LiveJournal entries about how her parents are awful because they wouldn't buy her a new car and life is so fucking shit. Seriously, the main character (whose diary entries make up the novel) is a moderately successful novelist in her mid-forties and yet she whines like an adolescent about the whole world turning against her. Can't imagine why, since her moods range from "dour" to "pissy" to "what a miserable cunt." Gee, what an attractive character.
I could complain more but there are some good things. The atmosphere--woodsy, small-town, sleepy Rhode Island--is well established. The backstory concerning the red oak is intriguing, imaginative, and delightfully grotesque. I didn't hate the novel, but I wish the same story had been told by a different character--one that was perhaps, I don't know, tolerable.
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Post by bishop746 on Mar 7, 2011 19:53:34 GMT -5
The Red Tree by Caitlin R. Kiernan. The book jacket promises a deep and disquieting tale of Lovecraftian shadow-realities and steadily unfolding madness as a writer with a troubled past moves to New England for a fresh start and becomes increasingly obsessed with a giant oak tree on the property that has served as the focal point for disturbing folklore and local legend over the past few centuries. What the jacket didn't promise was a petulant, self-loathing, self-absorbed narrator whose digressive sad sack ramblings are about as enjoyable as a high school wanna-be goth girl's angst-ridden LiveJournal entries about how her parents are awful because they wouldn't buy her a new car and life is so fucking shit. Seriously, the main character (whose diary entries make up the novel) is a moderately successful novelist in her mid-forties and yet she whines like an adolescent about the whole world turning against her. Can't imagine why, since her moods range from "dour" to "pissy" to "what a miserable cunt." Gee, what an attractive character. I could complain more but there are some good things. The atmosphere--woodsy, small-town, sleepy Rhode Island--is well established. The backstory concerning the red oak is intriguing, imaginative, and delightfully grotesque. I didn't hate the novel, but I wish the same story had been told by a different character--one that was perhaps, I don't know, tolerable. ;D Great review. There is a fine line between a character that is flawed but likable or just a goddamn prick. Some writers can handle it, some can't.
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maarow
Ghost in the Graveyard
Posts: 509
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Post by maarow on Mar 9, 2011 0:04:33 GMT -5
;D Great review. There is a fine line between a character that is flawed but likable or just a goddamn prick. Some writers can handle it, some can't. I have a feeling this was more than a little autobiographical--particularly the diatribe of our intrepid narrator against "self-styled" Amazon.com reviewers, whom she characterizes as unsophisticated and uneducated because they complain about her books using too many dream sequences. Did I mention that The Red Tree has a dream sequence every five pages or so?
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Post by bishop746 on Mar 10, 2011 9:33:45 GMT -5
Well, Brian P. Easton doesn't spend time carping about bad Amazon reviews. He just wrote a great novel about werewolves that I just finished last night.
Autobiography of a Werewolf Hunter is near perfect. The story tells how the narrator's father was murdered in the Canadian mountains and his brutal training to become a hunter by an old Cheyenne Indian. Driven by rage and a single-minded desire to kill every wolf he encounters we watch this character destroy everything around him including himself. That's what makes this story so good. He's not a man who hunts and kills because he believes its the right thing to do. He does it because without the killing he knows there isn't anything for him. Incredibly compelling and so much better than we deserve from these kinds of stories. Just so damn good.
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Post by Stuart on Mar 15, 2011 3:17:29 GMT -5
Zombie Survival Guide – Max Brooks. People rave about this but I found it rather lightweight and repetitive. I was hoping for more detail and better descriptions of “incidents”.
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ilnino
Disembodied Voice
Posts: 473
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Post by ilnino on Mar 15, 2011 6:12:25 GMT -5
Has anyone on here read Hater. I read it a year or so ago and have been meaning to get dog blood since then.. it wasnt out at the time so it kind of slipped down my list. I thought it was a very good "zombie" story and Del Toro was linked with a movie for quite a while, Id like to see that happen.. its del toro after all
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Dezz
Cellar Dweller
Posts: 10
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Post by Dezz on Mar 19, 2011 21:40:01 GMT -5
Just finished both Pressure by Jeff Strand and Red by Jack Ketchum within the same week. Maybe need to think about balancing light and dark fair a bit more evenly. While both have light touches, when they get dark its pitch black.
I did have Clive Barker's Great and Secret Show lined up next but I might just put that back a while. Should probably be concentrating on my study books but its so hard to stop the novels once I get some momentum going.
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maarow
Ghost in the Graveyard
Posts: 509
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Post by maarow on Mar 20, 2011 0:21:33 GMT -5
Finally caught up with Ray Bradbury's seminal classic Something Wicked This Way Comes. It lost nothing and perhaps even benefited from my being older than the "target" age. Fantastical, whimsical, poignant, wistful, creepy coming-of-age story about two adolescent boys pursued in their hometown by a dark, nomadic circus. Bradbury is endlessly inventive and his prose is lightning on speed.
Interesting to note this came out the same year as the film Carnival of Souls. I wonder if there was some cross-influence; I think Bradbury even uses the phrase "carnival of souls" at one point in the novel.
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