|
CAS was indeed a better writer. He was also the originator of the Dying Earth genre, if I recall correctly. Emperor of Dreams has some really good stories in it. I wouldn't really call him that good at the horror thing. He did have some horror stories but the Zothique and Hyperborea ones were always much more interesting.
|
#
¿
Feb 17, 2012 20:39
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 07:52 |
|
|
So, I just finished The Croning. It was okay. My main issue with it was the pacing: after a fun opening vignette (the Spy was pretty cool) and the chapter in Mexico which was a lot too vague to be creepy we get chapters and chapters where the allusions are too imprecise and general to really evoke any fear. The final 10% was quite good, I will admit, and I found Don's ending suitably depressing. I wouldn't mind reading how a more aware character (maybe Kurt) deals with the knowledge of the threat facing mankind, although I know that the notion of humanity being able to defend itself at all would run counter to this style of horror. Do any of Barron's short stories tie into the same world?
|
|
#
¿
Jul 10, 2012 15:34
|
|
|
Don read like a man in his late 60s. Some frailties and neuroses but nothing crippling. Then again, he could have been a Rupert Murdoch type who defies senescence, I guess. Honestly I thought the mid section was very weak, while the Rumplestiltskin story and conclusion were very strong. The former appealed to my basic superstitions and human fear of the dark, while the latter was pure cosmic horror. I've read the first few stories in Occultation and Other Stories and I have really not been impressed. Occultation itself was okay but not particularly scary. The ghost story was just kind of meh. It meandred along and never emerged from the muck. Barron has a few writer ticks that bother me as well. "He/she lighted a cigarette" (which reads wrong to my Australian English) and his obsession with alcohol (despite being an inveterate boozehound myself) are a little jarring every time.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 17, 2012 14:48
|
|
|
It's pretty bad. Alan Moore is a great writer but Neonomicon was just bizarre and not very enjoyable.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 18, 2012 16:20
|
|
|
Oh and Ed Brubaker is writing Fatale now which is heavily Lovecraft influenced. It's pretty good. But then every Brubaker/Phillips collaboration is good.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 18, 2012 16:58
|
|
|
The prose and pacing are kind of poo poo in the Laundry Files so I could understand people not liking it. I found it okay but nothing remarkable. I should add I finished reading Declare a couple of weeks before reading the Laundry Files so it would probably always look bad by comparison. Neurosis fucked around with this message at 11:29 on Sep 8, 2012 |
|
#
¿
Sep 8, 2012 11:23
|
|
|
coffeetable posted:Tim Power's Declare isn't as intense but it follows the same commies-and-cthulu theme. S Declare is a bit heavier on the John le Carre spy fiction than it is on the cosmic horror. The horror is fed to you slowly. In the end, it works on both levels and as an excellent work of historical fiction, and is a fantastic read.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 26, 2012 09:47
|
|
|
Barron's Children of Old Leech stories all creep me out. The other stuff I find hit or miss. Some of the stories with dream logic piss me off, but a lot of writers use that technique.
Neurosis fucked around with this message at 17:46 on May 21, 2013 |
|
#
¿
May 21, 2013 12:27
|
|
|
I just finished Barron's The Light is the Darkness... That was an interesting take on cosmic horror. My only question is: are there any links to the Old Leech stories? The cosmic threats in each seem pretty distinct, but the feel was very similar. I haven't read all the short stories so I might not pick up on everything.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 5, 2013 11:59
|
|
|
So, I have read The Imago Sequence and Other Stories, The Light is the Darkness, The Croning, 70% of Occultation and Other Stories... I like most of the stories, but I must say that Barron's best stories are those that are mythos-building cosmic horror. The universe still feels Lovecraftian in that it takes little note of human activities, but he introduces some unique attributes: the most prominent being that while the big fish are indifferent to us in every sense, there are bottom-feeders who enjoy our suffering. They love us, as he has said several times. And they want to devour us in some fashion. Probably something involving a lot of teeth. The second idea I get from his works is that the most forward of our species are on the precipice of becoming inhuman aliens themselves - and by doing that there is no guarantee of ascendance, but rather that they are likely to revert to something more basic. Obviously atavism is not a new idea... But the fusion with cosmic horror works really well. I enjoyed Imago more than Occultation, but they are both very good. Barron probably sucks if you like strong female or non-archetypically masculine characters. Neurosis fucked around with this message at 17:19 on Jun 14, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Jun 14, 2013 16:28
|
|
|
Smapti posted:Huge fan of Laird Barron. He's said that there are links to his Old Leech mythology in The Light Is The Darkness (which I loved, btw), although it's hard to extract a coherent mythology from his work. I think that lack of clarity actually works wonders for his stories; it feels as though you are truly only seeing a fragment of a horrific whole. I've had his new anthology on preorder from Amazon forever; I hope it actually comes out sometime soon. Huh, that's really interesting. That implies pretty heavily that the Imago Sequence stories are set in the same world, too - since The Light is the Darkness seems to have some more obvious connections to those. That makes the mythology crowded. Now I want to know what the post-human abominations think of the Children of Old Leech. Although from one of the stories in Occultation, many of the newer Children are in fact post-human abominations themselves, given how they breed.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 17, 2013 12:14
|
|
|
I'm reading some of Ligotti's short stories. This encouraged me to look up an interview with him. What a mistake that was. He seems insufferable and smugly superior. Sorry your life sucks so much, Thomas, but I like mine. I'll still keep reading the fiction, though. I haven't seen anything really Lovecraftian so far but the stories are good.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 22, 2013 16:56
|
|
|
Ornamented Death posted:As much as I love Barron, "Procession of the Black Sloth" may be the worst short story I've ever read. It goes on and on and on forever and nothing loving happens! The Wild West one was also kind of crap. Proboscis was weird but I liked it a lot more in hindsight and I thought Hallucigenia was awesome.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 24, 2013 14:05
|
|
|
Does anyone have an opinion on Cody Goodfellow's Radiant Dawn books? I've nearly finished reading Radiant Dawn on the strength of a plug from Laird Barron. It's okay, but I feel like he needs to develop a little bit more in terms of his technical writing ability. and maybe research some of his stuff more. When the Lovecraftian elements show up they are pretty good, but they're sparse. I have read that the sequel, Ravenous Dusk, is heavier on the horror, but I'll have to see.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 2, 2013 09:57
|
|
|
I've been reading some of the recent Barron stories that will appear in the next collection, and I know I've said it before and am just repeating myself, but man his mythos is pretty crowded. Just the more obvious ones. Children of Old Leech are in the same universe as The Light is the Darkness if what a poster put up earlier is true. The Blackwood stuff is in the same world, which means some kind of devil creature is also there. - confirmed by Phil Wary living in the Broadsword Hotel. There are more mundane aliens from Proboscis running around doing whatever gets them hard. It feels like he's running a lot of things together, since straight up magic seems to co-exist with cosmic threats who are explicitly science fiction based. Oh well, I don't mind, I still like his work. Edit: and oh man, Vastation is great. I feel like Barron's gone as far as he can with tension building tales of barely-revealed horrors. Stuff like The Light is the Darkness and the Croning went a bit further and brought the abominations into the light and what do you know, they were still pretty creepy. Vastation goes even further and has something much closer to sci-fi, although still pretty horrific. And it's a really interesting read. It's actually in the Lovecraft mythos, as far as I can tell, but I'd love to see his main oeuvre get this treatment. Neurosis fucked around with this message at 04:17 on Jul 16, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Jul 15, 2013 14:03
|
|
|
I'd managed to track down most of the stories and only had a couple to read. The Ligotti tribute owned.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 24, 2013 14:21
|
|
|
muscles like this? posted:I've been reading The Light is the Darkness and man, that book is loving weird. It owned. A lot. Not an ignorant protagonist, but instead one on the inside, eliding his understanding until the transhuman stuff enters his mind and he cannot escape. It was said that it is in the same universe as the Children of Old Leech. What a loving horrible planet. Still want to know whether the big dog transhumans are going to put up a fight against Old Leech. Hallucigenia is my favourite Barron story. The sense of loss, the horrible world it alludes to, the sense of insanity, oh my. The alcoholism hit a note with me, as well... Still trying to correlate all the Barron stories. All the fantasy and sci fi I have read has instilled in me a desire to build mythologies out of the stories I read. And some of Barron's stories don't make any sense when put together, but it is still cool. Neurosis fucked around with this message at 19:21 on Aug 2, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Aug 2, 2013 19:16
|
|
|
Fire Safety Doug posted:Hallucigenia is without a doubt a good story. Last time I was doing a re-read of Barron stuff, Mysterium Tremendum worked really well for me. Remind me which one Mysterium Tremendum is?
|
|
#
¿
Aug 3, 2013 16:00
|
|
|
Fire Safety Doug posted:Gay dudes stumble upon evil book during camping trip, with typical Barron consequences. The one with the 3 tough as nails gay dudes who get in a fight? The Children of Old Leech one? I love all the Old Leech stories. I always tell my friends to read that story (if it's the one I'm thinking of) and Hallucigenia, as an intro to Barron.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 3, 2013 17:53
|
|
|
Fire Safety Doug posted:Yeah, that's the one (although the protagonist is not keen on fighting if I remember correctly). That was really good, but I don't know if it would be so good for the naïve reader (I still recommend it because it really crept me out). I read it immediately following on The Croning, and loved it. The narrator wasn't super keen on the fight, but he was still a pretty doughty fellow. Also, narrator move somewhere without a cellar. Holy gently caress. Neurosis fucked around with this message at 21:24 on Aug 3, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Aug 3, 2013 20:54
|
|
|
Is John Langan actually any good? Barron recommended him but he also recommended Cody Goodfellow's Radiant Dawn which was okay but not great. I'm basically looking for stuff that builds the same sense of dread as Barron. I'm finding it hard.  Edit: Also, got 50% through Southern Gods, didn't care for it that much. Will probably finish it at some point but didn't really do much for me.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 16, 2013 20:31
|
|
|
I think Hallucigenia is better written and overall a better story but there's something about the Children of Old Leech that really creep me out. They are Barron's best malignant alien creation in my opinion. The Croning suffered a bit because some parts felt drawn out - it probably would have worked better in something the length of say, the Light is the Darkness. Still really good, though, as nearly all of Barron's stuff is. Looking forward to more Children of Old Leech stuff - I hope he moves things forward in the overall setting since apparently there's a mass immigration of the Children to Earth taking place.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 18, 2013 07:09
|
|
|
20% through The Wide Carnivorous Sky. Do not find this creepy at all. Actually, the stories are kind of tedious and the ideas not very interesting. Where are the authors that can evoke terror at the barely revealed horrors of the universe as well as Barron can? I know, I'm setting a high bar.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 20, 2013 21:11
|
|
|
PateraOctopus posted:Having recently finished The Imago Sequence and made it a third of the way through Occultation before returning it to the library, I can safely say that I don't really like Laird Barron. Could I ask what it is you disliked about his stuff? Not every Barron story is genius, but some of them (Hallucigenia, The Light is the Darkness I would put right at the top) are terrifying and amazing.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 22, 2013 16:26
|
|
|
That's the one. I don't remember anything about Jews. The main villains, such as they were, were a weird rural family that made everyone uncomfortable, a little like the family in The Dunwich Horror, I guess. I don't remember anything about them being Jewish, and I've always thought the science Barron used was pretty vague so it doesn't offend my knowledge of it too much. Albeit my training is in law and economics and my science understanding is mostly from private research so there's not much there to offend. I really liked the imagery in the story, the depiction of the extreme alcoholism and depression of the protagonist, and I thought the monsters, such as they were, were pretty creepy.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 23, 2013 02:26
|
|
|
Apparently he got some stuff out recently so he might write more. With the nature of his mental illnesses there are going to be certain phases he'll be more productive in so it's going to be kind of cyclical.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 1, 2013 16:07
|
|
|
I thought More Dark was all in good fun. My image of the story has been shattered; the Ligotti stuff made me giggle. I'd actually be happiest if Barron started writing more novels, even though The Croning had some hallmarks of a writer trying to transition into the longer format I enjoy the mythos building, and thought the book was overall very good. Neurosis fucked around with this message at 14:35 on Nov 19, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Nov 19, 2013 14:33
|
|
|
Anyone have an opinion on Jeremy Robert Johnson? I saw him recommended to me on Amazon and the reviews for his We Live Inside You look pretty good but I know to not trust internet reviews very far.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 25, 2013 13:22
|
|
|
I've only had time to read a few stories in Johnson's book but they've been pretty  . Check it out if you like sci-fi/horror or body horror!
|
|
#
¿
Nov 27, 2013 08:17
|
|
|
Ornamented Death posted:I am specifically referring to her short story collections, of which there are several. I keep forgetting they aren't widely available, though I started reading The Red Tree, but it moved really loving slowly. I got 28% of the way through before giving up, according to my Kindle, and still nothing interesting had happened. When does it pick up?
|
|
#
¿
Feb 4, 2014 05:53
|
|
|
Ornamented Death posted:It starts getting weird when the main character (been years since I read it, so I can't remember her name) first walks around the tree, and gets progressively weirder after that, culminating in a really hosed up trip through the basement that includes a lot of stuff that goes unexplained (not a terribly specific spoiler, but tagged just in case). However, like I said, it's a low-key story and if the general weird atmosphere didn't do it for you, chances are the few "action" scenes won't, either. All I recall was her agonising over her previous relationships for many pages. I'll check out her short fiction instead, I think. Also will check out Whom the Gods Would Destroy since that seems a bit more overtly Lovecraftian. It's very hard to scratch that Lovecraftian itch. Most of those who ape is style manage to make it cheesy and unreadable. Barron's the only one who's really worked for me as coming close on a reasonably reliable basis (A Colder War is obviously the high point, otherwise). Ligotti works, too, but his writing style is more removed from cosmic horror than Barron's. Neurosis fucked around with this message at 06:46 on Feb 4, 2014 |
|
#
¿
Feb 4, 2014 06:43
|
|
|
Ornamented Death posted:There are the classic answers, Ligotti, Kiernan, and Barron, but here's a new entry: Whom the Gods Would Destroy by Brian Hodge. Read Whom the Gods Would Destroy. It's good. Very solid prose, hit the right notes. A short read, but that's not a bad thing. Anything else by Hodge in this vein? Re: Ligotti... The above posters are right in that Barron makes his cosmic horrors much more malevolent and overtly evil than is traditional in cosmic horror, while Ligotti's universe seems more passive and indifferent. Nonetheless something about the entities Barron writes of feel more comparable to the Outer Gods and Great Old Ones that were in Lovecraft's bestiary. The grounding in the real world also resonates more. Some of Lovecraft's protagonists did try to fight back, as well, some with success, although none were the cigarette smoking whisky drinking alpha males seen in Barron's works. For whatever reason, the oppressive and bizarre worlds Ligotti writes of I enjoy a lot as interesting ideas, but it's Barron's work that has made my skin crawl.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 5, 2014 08:26
|
|
|
BigSkillet posted:Bit of a tangent, media-wise, but apparently the writer behind HBO's True Detective has mentioned being directly influenced by Thomas Ligotti in a couple of recent interviews. I haven't seen it myself yet, but there were apparently a couple lines in the first episode specifically written to sound Ligotti-esque. I hadn't seen that show, thanks. When Rust starts talking in the car about human consciousness being a misstep in evolution it could have been taken from The Conspiracy Against the Human Race.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 11, 2014 08:18
|
|
|
Halfway through The Ritual on the strength of this thread's recommendation. Is the second half really that bad? I've enjoyed it so far. I find the characterisations very believable. The arguments they have and the physical confrontation, and Luke's reactions to it afterwards, have reminded me very strongly of some of my own experiences. The horror elements are maybe not so strong - I don't find the thing hunting them particularly scary.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 13, 2014 16:12
|
|
|
Just finished The Ritual. I didn't mind the second half, it was readable. It didn't have the same level of tension or characters near as interesting, but I don't feel like I wasted my time. I would have liked some kind of epilogue dealing with the protagonist in the unlikely event he survived, or even if he didn't, but it was okay.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 14, 2014 08:50
|
|
|
ElectricWizard posted:I've only watched the very promising first episode, but apparently True Detective is full of references to Robert Chamber's The King In Yellow. Not just Chambers. There's also very apparent influence from Ligotti, and some elements appear to be taken from Barron. He talks here about what he reads: http://www.arkhamdigest.com/2014/01/interview-nic-pizzolatto-creatorwriter.html quote:I caught a glimpse of an interview in which you spoke about Laird Barron, one of the finest current practitioners of the weird tale, and an author whose work shows a strong literary backbone. How often do you read dark fiction, and do you have any personal favorite authors, or authors you would dub as essential reading? The show is loving amazing.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 18, 2014 14:56
|
|
|
Where to start with Ramsey Campbell? I picked up The Hungry Moon and so far the book is not impressing me. Every chapter has different characters and I find it hard to keep track of who is who and I wonder why I should give a poo poo about any of them. The prose is also strange. It seems to elide a lot of details and actions that would help to make sense of what is happening in the scene. Is this just an anomalous book or is all his writing like that?
|
|
#
¿
Feb 20, 2014 16:35
|
|
|
Jedit posted:The Doll Who Ate His Mother for his horror work, and Cold Print for his Mythos stuff. And the stylistic issues I have with The Hungry Moon? Peculiar to that book?
|
|
#
¿
Feb 21, 2014 05:38
|
|
|
PateraOctopus posted:It's been about five or six months now since I read The Imago Sequence and I legitimately can't remember anything from a single one of the stories except the bit in the barn in "Hallucigenia." The stories all felt exactly the same. I really do not understand the love for this author. There are certainly some major similarities between his work. He is fond of ultra-masculine, whisky swilling heavy smoking protagonists. Even the protagonist of The Croning, an erudite geologist, has a past as a bit of an adventurer and drinks like a fish. Despite that, I think there are enough variances to make each story interesting. More recently he has begun branching out a bit more - female protagonists, a sociopathic protagonist, that odd Lovecraft mythos story (which a lot of people didn't like but I thought was pretty good), the Ligotti story, and reaching back further the story written by an actual eldritch abomination and Proboscis, the latter of which which was quite strange and which I did not like much or understand at the time but which grew on me as I thought about it more. I get why people wouldn't like him, but I don't think his stories are as similar as you suggest. Other horror writers show about as much stylistic homogeneity, I think. Lovecraft and Ligotti spring to mind as two authors who put their own stamp on every page they write and it is hard to mistake them as any other writer. Not that that in itself is an excuse - both of those writers are fairly flawed, in their own ways. Neurosis fucked around with this message at 03:52 on Feb 25, 2014 |
|
#
¿
Feb 25, 2014 03:49
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 07:52 |
|
|
Strappado was fairly odd. Again, one of those stories I like more in hindsight than I did at the time. I am a bit of a sci fi and fantasy geek and I like Barron's mythos building ones the most. Mysterium Tremendum, The Croning, Hallucigenia and The Light is the Darkness. Several people on these boards have said they thought The Light is the Darkness is terrible. Clearly something is wrong with me, because I loved it. That breakdown (investigation --> revelation) does describe a lot of his stories... I feel enough break the mould to keep it interesting, even if his bread and butter is what I like the most. Especially the more recent ones, even though I feel they're overall weaker.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 25, 2014 08:51
|
|