Cosmic Horror and Weird Tales

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mdemone: Mar 14, 2001

C2C - 2.0 posted:

Just reiterating the Thomas Ligotti recommendation. Finding his material in print can be frustrating; it's rather expensive. Thankfully, his stuff is slowly getting rolled out in the Kindle format.

Finding a plastic-wrapped first edition of Teatro Grottesco in the local used-book shop...ah, memories-

# ¿ Aug 25, 2012 03:12

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 08:41

mdemone: Mar 14, 2001

Ornamented Death posted:

An actual Durtro first edition or the Mythos edition? There's a huuuuuuuuge difference .

Mythos (it was only $10) -- I wish I had the Durtro, but it's up there with the Vollmann complete set & signed Infinite Jest 1st-ed. hardcover on the list of "books I'm not allowed to Google anymore".

# ¿ Aug 25, 2012 03:32

mdemone: Mar 14, 2001

MockingQuantum posted:

So I'm sure they've come up in the past in this thread, but what's everybody's opinion on the Southern Reach trilogy? I just finished the first book and enjoyed it, though I wasn't blown away by it. I've heard that the second and third books depart somewhat from the style of the original, can anybody confirm this? Is the rest of the trilogy worth a read?

Yes, the books are all very different in terms of POV and tone. Sort of three different perspectives on the meaning of Area X.

It's worth reading, but I did find that I liked the first book the best after having finished the trilogy. Still I'm glad I read the second and third, so maybe you should temper your expectations and give them a chance anyway. They are relatively quick reads, to their credit.

# ¿ Mar 30, 2015 16:02

mdemone: Mar 14, 2001

MockingQuantum posted:

I think there was only one moment (or image, I guess) in Annihilation that really gave me the creeps in a fun way.

Was it the bit where she sees the letters being written? That's the one that sticks out most to me, some months after finishing it.

# ¿ Mar 30, 2015 20:08

mdemone: Mar 14, 2001

The Vosgian Beast posted:

Man, don't be such a Eosinophiliac about this.

*rings buzzer*

What is "Chinese Horse Lover"?

Ooooh, I'm sorry that is incorrect.

# ¿ Jun 22, 2015 22:58

mdemone: Mar 14, 2001

Ornamented Death posted:

I have an extra copy of the signed, limited edition of Brian Hodge's Whom the Gods Would Destroy and was wondering if anyone here would be interested in it before I toss it up on eBay. It's a PC copy, but still signed by Hodge.

I'm not looking to make a fortune, just + shipping + paypal fees (so I end up with a tenner, basically). If someone is interested, I'll create a thread over in SA Mart so that everything is on the up and up.

I also have copies of Deadlock by Tim Curran, Conduits by Jennifer Loring, and Bloodeye by Craig Saunders, but the first wasn't well received by folks in here, and the other two authors are probably largely unknown around here. Same price as Hodge's book.

Hey, I'd love the Hodge book. Just sent you a PM.

# ¿ Jun 28, 2015 17:52

mdemone: Mar 14, 2001

If you're looking for an excuse to get off Simmons forever, go read The Abomination. I've said it in here before: I actually enjoyed the mountaineering aspect of the novel, but when he revealed the macguffin, I actually threw it across the room in disgust, and I never treat books that way.

Here's the Amazon summary:

quote:

It's 1924 and the race to summit the world's highest mountain has been brought to a terrified pause by the shocking disappearance of George Mallory and Sandy Irvine high on the shoulder of Mt. Everest. By the following year, three climbers -- a British poet and veteran of the Great War, a young French Chamonix guide, and an idealistic young American -- find a way to take their shot at the top. They arrange funding from the grieving Lady Bromley, whose son also disappeared on Mt. Everest in 1924. Young Bromley must be dead, but his mother refuses to believe it and pays the trio to bring him home.

Deep in Tibet and high on Everest, the three climbers -- joined by the missing boy's female cousin -- find themselves being pursued through the night by someone . . . or something. This nightmare becomes a matter of life and death at 28,000 feet - but what is pursuing them? And what is the truth behind the 1924 disappearances on Everest? As they fight their way to the top of the world, the friends uncover a secret far more abominable than any mythical creature could ever be. A pulse-pounding story of adventure and suspense, The Abominable is Dan Simmons at his spine-chilling best.

Sounds cool, huh? Only read this spoiler if you have no plans to ever read this book -- it turns out that the "abominable secret" is photographs of Hitler loving little boys. I'm not loving kidding. I almost drove to Dan Simmons' house to ask for my money back.

# ¿ Sep 20, 2015 16:07

mdemone: Mar 14, 2001

hopterque posted:

What the gently caress.

It gets worse. The denouement of the novel is that the "secret" winds up safely in British hands, where Winston Churchill can use it decades later as blackmail to get Hitler to secretly agree not to invade the British isles.

# ¿ Sep 20, 2015 20:53

mdemone: Mar 14, 2001

LashLightning posted:

Took a look at Amazon's sample of it, realised that the same guy wrote Soon I Will Be Invincible and brought it.

Yeah, I just read the first three pages of Crooked and realized it is extremely my jam. I'm a politics junkie and a sucker for eldritch stories, and you couldn't hope to create a better character than Nixon for this.

# ¿ Sep 22, 2015 04:10

mdemone: Mar 14, 2001

The Rat posted:

I thought it was pretty unremarkable. Don't remember much about the story other than something involving vampires maybe?

Mildly interesting twist on vampire mythology. If the blurb piques your interest, it's probably worth a shot. But as you say, it's not all that memorable.

# ¿ Sep 24, 2015 17:55

mdemone: Mar 14, 2001

Ornamented Death posted:

In an effort to swing this thread back to something vaguely interesting...

The latest Humble Book Bundle is full of Phillip K. Dick Award winners. Now, most of them are sci-fi and fantasy, but I want to draw your attention to The Cipher by Kathe Koja because it is really loving weird!. The basic premise is that a guy and his friend find a mysterious hole in a utility room in his apartment building and start experimenting with it.

Sold! I don't even need to hear more.

# ¿ Sep 25, 2015 02:23

mdemone: Mar 14, 2001

Ornamented Death posted:

Cool, always glad to hear when people like my more obscure recommendations .

Yep, I'm enjoying it too BUT I HAVEN'T FINISHED IT YET SO DON'T SPOIL IT OR DOWN THE FUNHOLE WITH YOU

Right now I just feel bad for Vanese.

# ¿ Oct 1, 2015 03:51

mdemone: Mar 14, 2001

FWIW, Blindsight was also the very first thing I thought of when I read that paragraph.

I think it's far more likely that intelligent life is absolutely everywhere in a cosmic sense, in the sense that sentience is emergent from sufficient complexity, but self-awareness and emotionality and what we would think of as Consciousness are not at all necessary, and they might be deeply troubling and self-defeating in exactly this way for beings that evolve to develop it.

# ¿ Nov 14, 2015 05:56

mdemone: Mar 14, 2001

General Battuta posted:

Hoooooly gently caress I just read The Cipher by Kathe Koja and I can't recommend it enough. It's the book about the hole you've probably heard of, greasy filthy hangover headache horror that's at once cosmic and abjectly, horribly mundane.

Yeah I read this recently and I had to finish it in one sitting. The last scene is�whew.

# ¿ Mar 14, 2016 15:57

mdemone: Mar 14, 2001

Skyscraper posted:

It really is one of my favorite endings to anything ever.

I had to go outside and get some fresh air at like 2AM. One of Koja's pieces of imagery there (Malcolm's face getting turned into viperfish teeth) really got to me for some reason, even though it's not a particularly remarkable idea.

# ¿ Mar 14, 2016 17:03

mdemone: Mar 14, 2001

Rough Lobster posted:

My troubles with The Terror are what's preventing me from reading Carrion Comfort. The synopsis seems right up my alley, but I've been burned before.

Eh, he wrote it well before 9/11, and it's actually not terrible. That's as far as I will go in support of it. Maybe read the first few chapters and then reconnoiter?

I will say that I finished it without literally throwing it against the wall, something I cannot say for The Abominable. Do not read that book, you have been warned.

Edit: I can't say that without explaining why, for maybe the 9th time in this forum. Read the cover blurb for The Abominable. Sounds interesting, maybe? But what is the McGuffin these intrepid mountaineers seek?

It's photographs of Hitler loving young boys.. I'm serious. I wanted to kill Dan Simmons and then myself when I hit the reveal. Possibly worse than that, in the denouement it turns out that since the British recovered the photos, Churchill is able to bribe Hitler into not invading Britain.

I don't know who published that book but they should die in a fire along with Simmons.

mdemone fucked around with this message at 03:21 on Feb 3, 2017

# ¿ Feb 3, 2017 03:13

mdemone: Mar 14, 2001

Ornamented Death posted:

You can simplify this by just advising people to skip post 9/11 Simmons. One of two things is going to happen: 1) the story is going to veer into some pretty nasty Islamophobia, or 2) he's going to beat you over the head with all the research he did for the book.

Oh it's much worse than over-eager exposition. Read my edit.

# ¿ Feb 3, 2017 03:21

mdemone: Mar 14, 2001

Ornamented Death posted:

Hahahaha now I remember you posting about that some months ago. I had blanked it out because it's so terrible.

I tell the story whenever I can because if it saves even one goon from reading it, I will have done a good deed.

# ¿ Feb 3, 2017 03:25

mdemone: Mar 14, 2001

Relevant Tangent posted:

By new one do you mean the HPL/Hunter S Thompson joint?

Rarely have I been so quickly sold on a book.

# ¿ Mar 13, 2017 12:52

mdemone: Mar 14, 2001

gently caress yeah, I literally just walked out of B&N with issue 01 of the Black Monday Murders after totally walking in there with every intention of buying other things. I was goofing around in graphic novels looking for that "Damned Highway" book (which they don't have, aargh)...and I got sucked in by that one instead.

I never was into comics/graphic novels but my eyes are opening to the fact there's some really amazing stuff in the genre. Obviously I'd read Watchmen but not really gotten much further than that.

My wallet is not pleased at this development.

# ¿ Mar 13, 2017 19:46

mdemone: Mar 14, 2001

Skyscraper posted:

EDIT: I have a soft spot in my heart for The Great And Secret Show and The Damnation Game but I suspect they might be bad. If I had to articulate the plot to either, I really couldn't.

They are bad, and I like them too. Don't feel bad.

# ¿ Apr 13, 2017 22:31

mdemone: Mar 14, 2001

Cumslut1895 posted:

So I just re-read "The Fold" by Peter Cline and I'm seriously disappointed with the author. if you have a character with a perfect memory (a great subject for a lovecraftian novel) who unintentionally visualizes memory recall as red ants dragging memories into his mind and black ants as dragging (calculated) ideas into his mind, and you've already set up that a symbol of the Ancient (telepathic) Predatory Gods is green cockroaches, you should absolutely have green cockroaches drag terrible things that the character does not want to see but he can't forget into his mind.

instead you have a bunch of stupid SciFi references. WTF peter Cline.

What a really great premise. Too bad it sounds like it was foiled by the enemy of all good ideas: the author being a dumb gently caress.

# ¿ May 5, 2017 13:39

mdemone: Mar 14, 2001

Horrorst�r is lots of fun. Felt very JDATE in tone.

# ¿ Jan 16, 2018 01:50

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 08:41

mdemone: Mar 14, 2001

MockingQuantum posted:

I'm thinking about starting The Weird myself, so I'm interested to read your impressions of stuff as I finish it, Solitair.

Anybody read A God in the Shed? It looks interesting, and popped up on a lot of "Best Horror of 2017" lists, but I know very little about it.

Just picked it up. Will post soon about it, probably.

# ¿ Apr 26, 2018 15:56

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