|
The Cipher is on Kindle. I wouldn't expect a physical edition outside something done for one of the anniversaries, and that will almost certainly be done as a limited edition.
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2018 18:38
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 18, 2024 14:58 |
|
|
StrixNebulosa posted:Okay, Paperbacks From Hell is a great book, but I'm getting annoyed at how every other book I look up from it is like 40-50$ if I want to own a paperback copy. Would some publisher please get on reprinting these things! Grady Hendrix, who wrote Paperbacks From Hell is working with Valancourt Books to reissue some of the titles.
|
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2018 22:51
|
|
|
SilentChaz posted:Grady Hendrix, who wrote Paperbacks From Hell is working with Valancourt Books to reissue some of the titles. Excellent. Now I can only hope that these reprints include the ones I want to read. 
|
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2018 22:59
|
|
|
Ornamented Death posted:The Cipher is on Kindle. I wouldn't expect a physical edition outside something done for one of the anniversaries, and that will almost certainly be done as a limited edition. Yeah I read it on a Nook. Can't teach literature on an ebook tho.
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2018 00:18
|
|
|
Dr. Video Games 0081 posted:Yeah I read it on a Nook. Can't teach literature on an ebook tho. Would an ebook reader display properly using an overhead projector? Granted, I graduated high school in the 80's so I don't know if schools still have them in inventory.
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2018 02:22
|
|
|
Target has Ligotti's "Conspiracy Against The Human Race" in paperback for $11.59 Link
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2018 02:31
|
|
|
C2C - 2.0 posted:Would an ebook reader display properly using an overhead projector? I graduated college in 2014 and I had a professor who wheeled one with him to every class
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2018 02:52
|
|
|
Horror report: as I swivel from reading a lot of fantasy to wading into horror and true crime, I've got Nancy A Collins' Sunglasses at Night and its opening delivers, with one of those faith healer cinematic TV show things, but gone wrong - the sick are escorted to the stage to be healed, and the healer does something awful to them and the crowd reacts as if she's healed them. Pulpy and a little unnerving, I like it. I also went ahead and in a fit of curiosity ordered Necroscope, which is bound to be... either really bad, or really entertaining. Or both.
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2018 02:58
|
|
|
C2C - 2.0 posted:Would an ebook reader display properly using an overhead projector? The school I teach in has document cameras in each room which would be fine with an ebook reader. Paper books just have so many advantages over ebooks when you're working with a novel, though.
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2018 04:16
|
|
|
StrixNebulosa posted:I also went ahead and in a fit of curiosity ordered Necroscope, which is bound to be... either really bad, or really entertaining. Or both. The first one is bad in an entertaining sort of way, but they get real stupid, real fast after that.
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2018 07:06
|
|
|
Ornamented Death posted:The first one is bad in an entertaining sort of way, but they get real stupid, real fast after that. I would say the original trilogy is worth reading. If you liked 3, read 4 and 5 - they were initially meant to be one book, but the story had too much compression that way. If you're still enjoying yourself the Vampire World trilogy has some good ideas and individual beats but it's starting to get repetitive. Don't bother with the Jake Cutter books or The Lost Years. Ultimately, your tolerance of Necroscope will be determined by your threshold for the use of ellipsis followed by an exclamation mark and, later, extremely weird sex.
|
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2018 22:49
|
|
|
StrixNebulosa posted:Horror report: as I swivel from reading a lot of fantasy to wading into horror and true crime, I've got Nancy A Collins' Sunglasses at Night and its opening delivers, with one of those faith healer cinematic TV show things, but gone wrong - the sick are escorted to the stage to be healed, and the healer does something awful to them and the crowd reacts as if she's healed them. Pulpy and a little unnerving, I like it. The title is Sunglasses After Dark  but it's on kindle unlimited so thanks!
|
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2018 03:51
|
|
|
C2C - 2.0 posted:Target has Ligotti's "Conspiracy Against The Human Race" in paperback for $11.59 Man that cover sucks.
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2018 16:38
|
|
|
Zartosht posted:Man that cover sucks. Ah, wow, that's sure a redesign that... did anyone want that? I mean, I guess this book might sell if they started stocking it in hot topic.
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2018 16:42
|
|
|
Skyscraper posted:I mean, I guess this book might sell if they started stocking it in hot topic. It's doesn't tie in with a media property aimed at teenagers so I doubt they'd be interested
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2018 16:45
|
|
|
Pththya-lyi posted:It's doesn't tie in with a media property aimed at teenagers so I doubt they'd be interested I wasn't a hot topic goth growing up, but I'd assume that most YA "I'm clumsy and relatable but also way paranormal, I have exactly two men from opposite sides of the tracks to choose from!" is not a thing they're into? I feel old having to ask that.
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2018 16:58
|
|
|
I've been catching up on this thread and the Cosmic Horror thread for about a week now and getting a ton of good recommendations. I've seen most of the recommendations, but I didn't ever see mention of Japanese Horror stories. Anyone reading that stuff? Also are there any Cyberpunk horror stories that are pretty decent? I've recently played through the Observer PC game and it was pretty slick, but want something in novel form, preferably audiobook /shrug not exactly the techno-psychological horror, but that's cool and all. I would like something in that setting but cosmic-y. idk I've read Altered Carbon and it was decent, but not horror.
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2018 11:07
|
|
|
I've yet to read the "Wonderland Cycle" starting with "Shadow of a Dead Star" but that was recommended to me when I asked if anyone had done Cosmic Horror/Cyberpunk before. There's also the "Punktown" books. Not read too much of them, but what little I have read has been fun. They're more sci-fi/fantasy but have horror elements to them. Jeff Noon's "VURT" is another one I'd recommend and it is totally bonkers. The best way I could describe VURT would be the Matrix meets Hellraiser... on acid (because I'm a lazy, boring comedy slag).
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2018 13:24
|
|
|
I just read 14 because I saw it earlier in this thread. Any other recommendations for really out-there mystery horror like that, but maybe more general horror than 14 was?
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2018 18:22
|
|
|
Loutre posted:I just read 14 because I saw it earlier in this thread. Any other recommendations for really out-there mystery horror like that, but maybe more general horror than 14 was? For people who didn't read it, what was it about 14 that you want more of?
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2018 18:49
|
|
|
Skyscraper posted:For people who didn't read it, what was it about 14 that you want more of? The best I can describe it is a mystery that gets less and less reasonably-explained as time goes on. My horror experience is limited to Stephen King so that may be a hugely broad area of books though.
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2018 19:46
|
|
|
Loutre posted:The best I can describe it is a mystery that gets less and less reasonably-explained as time goes on. My horror experience is limited to Stephen King so that may be a hugely broad area of books though. I haven't read 14, so keep that in mind with these recommendations: Not explicitly horror, but V. by Thomas Pynchon has quite a few horror moments. The central mystery is "Who or what is 'V.'?", the name of a person(?)--possibly a woman--who appears in the diary of a character's deceased father, and that mystery grows larger as the plot continues. If you haven't read Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, the central mystery is whether anything supernatural is occurring. A few other books that come to mind that loosely fit this theme: I'm Thinking of Ending Things The Turn of the Screw by Henry James The Exorcist
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2018 20:04
|
|
|
Loutre posted:The best I can describe it is a mystery that gets less and less reasonably-explained as time goes on. My horror experience is limited to Stephen King so that may be a hugely broad area of books though. Well, that seems like a good description of Dead Mountaineer's Hotel by the Strugatsky brothers, which I liked, though I'm not sure it's what you want. I don't think it's horror.
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2018 20:10
|
|
|
Drunken Baker posted:I've yet to read the "Wonderland Cycle" starting with "Shadow of a Dead Star" but that was recommended to me when I asked if anyone had done Cosmic Horror/Cyberpunk before. Thanks, added the Shadow of a Dead Star and VURT to my audible list! To chime in on 14. I really liked the book (and narrator was decent). Its definitely a cool mystery about a weird cool old building. The horror is a bit mild, but the cosmic stuff is neat. Haven't really found anything similar yet.
|
|
#
?
Dec 6, 2018 00:39
|
|
|
Drunken Baker posted:I've yet to read the "Wonderland Cycle" starting with "Shadow of a Dead Star" but that was recommended to me when I asked if anyone had done Cosmic Horror/Cyberpunk before. The author of the Wonderland Cycle is (was?) a goon. I remember buying his first book and talking to him on here. I read Shadow of a Dead Star, but I'd sorta forgotten about the series until now. I'll have to pick up the other books and give them a go. And yeah, 14 is great. I'm most of the way through Entropy in Bloom, by the author of Skullcrack City, and it's a really great, varied set of short stories. I'd highly recommend if you were into Skullcrack City at all.
|
|
#
?
Dec 7, 2018 01:49
|
|
|
I was just trawling through the thread looking for recommendations, (thanks!) and I noticed folks mention Blood Meridian a few times. I'll repeat that recommendation, and suggest that if you like Cormac McCarthy's style, you should look at Child of God. I guess it's Appalachian gothic? I'd be interested in other recommendations in that incredibly specific sub-genre if anybody's come across them.
|
|
#
?
Jan 4, 2019 17:30
|
|
|
when are we getting our gritty animorphs reboot
|
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2019 02:17
|
|
|
i will accept a gritty appalachian animorphs reboot
|
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2019 02:30
|
|
|
animorphs is already a gritty reboot of animorphsK. A. Applegate posted:So, you don't like the way our little fictional war came out? You don't like Rachel dead and Tobias shattered and Jake guilt-ridden? You don't like that one war simply led to another? Fine. Pretty soon you'll all be of voting age, and of draft age. So when someone proposes a war, remember that even the most necessary wars, even the rare wars where the lines of good and evil are clear and clean, end with a lot of people dead, a lot of people crippled, and a lot of orphans, widows and grieving parents. 
|
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2019 02:50
|
|
|
So I read at the mountains of madness and... I really hated it. This was my first experience reading anything by lovecraft. I think it might be one of the worst books I’ve ever voluntarily read all the way through. Mild spoilers ahead. I swear 50% of the word count is descriptions of rocks or buildings, giving you the exact height, length, shape, longitude and latitude and age. He took such a cool concept of an ancient alien plant monster race and ruined it by explaining every single aspect of it in meticulous, incredibly dry detail. He uses the same words over and over again til they lose all meaning. What the gently caress even is a cyclopean room and why should it scare me!!! I felt like when I was reading my little cousins lovely fan fiction that told me all about his protagonists hp stats and sword length and epic ninjitsu strikes and I had to pretend it was good so he wouldn’t feel bad. I don’t think there’s a single line of dialogue or character building in the 100 pages. It basically alternates between “my god, this was so horrible, so horrendous, I cannot possibly explain what it is and have you understand “ and 10 pages of meticulous detail telling you the area and volume of every room he stepped through to get there and did I mention the rocks and carvings he found and the exact length and number of tentacles coming from it’s anus, before finally ending on “ahh what he saw was so terrible, I cannot describe it, it drove him mad! space! Horror! Yogg! Necronomicon! Old gods! Other lovecraft buzzwords! be afraid!”. The scariest part were the giant penguins I’m like, actively mad at this book. I’ve been reading my way through the “classic” horror stories of the 20th century and everything I’ve read so far has been good to great, but this was just so poorly written and boring it was like pulling teeth to get through.
|
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2019 04:53
|
|
|
Tolkien minority posted:So I read at the mountains of madness and... I really hated it. This was my first experience reading anything by lovecraft. I think it might be one of the worst books I’ve ever voluntarily read all the way through. Mild spoilers ahead. I swear 50% of the word count is descriptions of rocks or buildings, giving you the exact height, length, shape, longitude and latitude and age. He took such a cool concept of an ancient alien plant monster race and ruined it by explaining every single aspect of it in meticulous, incredibly dry detail. He uses the same words over and over again til they lose all meaning. What the gently caress even is a cyclopean room and why should it scare me!!! I felt like when I was reading my little cousins lovely fan fiction that told me all about his protagonists hp stats and sword length and epic ninjitsu strikes and I had to pretend it was good so he wouldn’t feel bad. I don’t think there’s a single line of dialogue or character building in the 100 pages. It basically alternates between “my god, this was so horrible, so horrendous, I cannot possibly explain what it is and have you understand “ and 10 pages of meticulous detail telling you the area and volume of every room he stepped through to get there and did I mention the rocks and carvings he found and the exact length and number of tentacles coming from it’s anus, before finally ending on “ahh what he saw was so terrible, I cannot describe it, it drove him mad! space! Horror! Yogg! Necronomicon! Old gods! Other lovecraft buzzwords! be afraid!”. The scariest part were the giant penguins Read Arthur Machen instead if you have not already
|
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2019 06:17
|
|
|
That's exactly my reaction to MofM, I couldn't even finish it. But HPL wrote some actually good stories, like The Color out of Space.
|
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2019 10:36
|
|
|
Well, there are two things to bear in mind here: 1) HPL was not a good writer, 2) Mountains of Madness is pretty much the worst place to start with him as it provides a "scientific" background for the mythos.
|
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2019 12:53
|
|
|
Bilirubin posted:Read Arthur Machen instead if you have not already I’ll check him out, looks right up my alley. The book I read before was a collection of Algernon Blackwood stories, which I really liked, and I guess I was expecting something similar and while there were a lot of shared themes the drop off in writing quality was huuuuge. sicDaniel posted:That's exactly my reaction to MofM, I couldn't even finish it. But HPL wrote some actually good stories, like The Color out of Space. anilEhilated posted:Well, there are two things to bear in mind here: 1) HPL was not a good writer, 2) Mountains of Madness is pretty much the worst place to start with him as it provides a "scientific" background for the mythos. I’ll read color out of space next, it’s in the same book I have anyways and I feel obligated to read at least one more of his stories because he’s so well regarded and influential. I can see why he’s influential, but I didn’t realize going in he was famous for his ideas more than his actual writing.
|
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2019 16:28
|
|
|
it is important to know, when approaching lovecraft, that he is a bad writer in every way. it is possible to derive pleasure from his stuff despite that - i very much enjoy lovecraft - but i do stress the word despite there MoM is probably the worst possible place to start with Lovecraft, as 90% of it is just an exposition dump which serves no other purpose than to flesh out his mythos. i would absolutely not recommend reading it unless you've already read, and enjoyed, a bunch of his other short stories that said, yeah, read color out of space. if you dont like it, you probably don't like lovecraft, and That's Okay chernobyl kinsman fucked around with this message at 03:49 on Jan 9, 2019 |
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2019 18:30
|
|
|
I don’t know if it’s just the way horror fiction has evolved over time but when I last reread MoM I found myself constantly thinking that the narrator spends a lot of time circling obvious conclusions like ”hey those ancient monsters were actually alive and were defrosted and killed everyone”. I guess it’s his rational scientific mind refusing to go there, but come on. Had the same issue with Charles Dexter Ward.
|
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2019 21:40
|
|
|
Lovecraft is one of those authors where I really love the idea of a lot of his stories, while really not enjoying the execution. That's why I tend to steer people either to a small handful of Lovecraft stories or towards more modern authors that are just significantly better writers. MoM is a classic example of that, to me. I loving love the idea of MoM but I didn't really enjoy it either time I've read it, and one of those was when I was a dumb high schooler. I'd kill for a good cosmic horror novel like MoM. On another note, if you liked Blackwood, you may like some of Laird Barron's stuff. He's kind of divisive among horror goons, but a lot of his stories feel a bit like high-octane modern Blackwood stories, plus he makes pretty overt reference to Blackwood or his stories in more than one instance. MockingQuantum fucked around with this message at 22:30 on Jan 5, 2019 |
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2019 22:24
|
|
|
Recently finished: Ship of Fools - Thought it was overall pretty spooky. A few things let me down but the mystery at first was really cool. Bird Box - I'd say it was a cool concept but let down there really was no description or info. We never got to see anyone experimenting with different image processing or the like. If video is affected, what about photos and still images etc, oh well. Cosmic horror was minimal I guess mild lol I'd rather see the event from some other point of view/characters. Movie didn't really do any better, maybe worse actually, after the book and Netflix's run lately thought it would be good. The Cipher - I felt like having to shower after reading this lol not a terrible book. Interesting premise, hella 90s grunge so some nostalgic stuff. Imago Sequence - Grabbed the audiobook, it's pretty cool, I've finished half of the stories in it including the title, like it for the most part so far. Currently reading: The Fisherman So far it's a pretty well written book. I think I'm almost done with the Dutchman's Creek tale. They just unhooked the Leviathan and the fisherman got hooked into the ocean. :0 Looking for: Something similar to the X-files, either in government agency or etc investigates mysterious thing. Emphasis on investigation I guess. Though a cool partner dynamic would be nice. Seems like most stories are 'some dude gets spooked'. Area X series was close but I feel like that just teased it, would have been better if it was a prequel during the first expedition (waiting on that btw). Don't want to go looking for Stargate SG1 fanfic :/ Was mentioned to read laundry files, but looking for more recommends always. Generally prefer spooky but if not I'm still willing to look into it.
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2019 20:03
|
|
|
I'm with you on Bird Box, it's one of those odd books that I enjoyed a lot when I read it, but it seems much weaker in retrospect. Actually, my wife and I just watched the movie, and I was describing to her what was different in the book, and as I was recalling it, I kinda went "y'know, that book wasn't as good as I thought". It does some cool things, and overall was a pretty engaging read, but I do agree that there were a lot of interesting avenues that the story didn't take. That said, I feel like there is such a fine line in horror when it comes to what's worth describing and probing. Some books, I feel like I get way too little, others hand you too much. I feel like Area X really walks that line pretty well-- the Area itself is so bizarre and the books capture that well, without an exposition dump of "here's why everything is weird, let us discuss our 40 different experiments we performed." I'm reading The Gone World right now (which could arguably be called horror) and I feel like it occasionally dips too deep into exposition dump territory. I'd also be interested to hear recommendations for x-files-like books. I'm big on books where there's an expedition sent to figure out what the hell some weird thing is, but I haven't found many books that scratch that itch very well. Honestly The Sick Land is one of the better examples, if you're willing to read it in the blog format.
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2019 20:18
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 18, 2024 14:58 |
|
|
MockingQuantum posted:I'd also be interested to hear recommendations for x-files-like books. I'm big on books where there's an expedition sent to figure out what the hell some weird thing is, but I haven't found many books that scratch that itch very well. Honestly The Sick Land is one of the better examples, if you're willing to read it in the blog format. I haven't read nearly as much horror as the regulars in this thread, so take this suggestion for what it's worth, but The Sick Land is one of my favorites and I'll recommend it any chance I get.
|
|
#
?
Jan 9, 2019 00:09
|
|
