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Untrustable posted:I am currently reading the Five Nights at Freddy's trilogy for work. These books fuckin suck. drat, what kind of Ligottian nightmare job do you have?
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Jun 13, 2021 19:17
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Is there a good place to get skullcrack? Everywhere I’m looking it’s at least a couple hundred bucks
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Jun 15, 2021 02:37
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Looks like it's OOP so your only real option for a cheap copy is to stalk Ebay and hope someone throws up a copy and doesn't bother checking trending prices.
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Jun 15, 2021 03:24
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Silver John posted:Is there a good place to get skullcrack? Everywhere I’m looking it’s at least a couple hundred bucks Great news! It’s coming back this fall 
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Jun 16, 2021 20:17
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Bilirubin posted:Three stories into Gemma Files' new short story collection In That Endlessness, Our End, and this is some good poo poo. The Puppet Motel is just a great haunting story for our modern times. Best collection I have read so far since NALM I’m several stories in (just finished the story about the classic actress) and man is this just not clicking with me at all. It seems every story is someone talking about how spooky something is or describing how spooked they are and then there’s a brief ‘oh it was this thing’ and then it ends. The writing itself is well crafted but so far I remember the stories being the lights in my apartment are spooky, my Airbnb has a spooky tone, and statistically some bad stuff happens more often around this actress who may, in fact, be spooky. Then the last page of each story is like ‘oh yeah it was spooky because of electricity jellyfish/ghost(?)/ritual that turned actress into a weird tree? I’m sorry for being jokingly reductive here but I’m disappointed because I had high hopes for this one
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Jun 16, 2021 22:18
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Good Citizen posted:I’m several stories in (just finished the story about the classic actress) and man is this just not clicking with me at all. It seems every story is someone talking about how spooky something is or describing how spooked they are and then there’s a brief ‘oh it was this thing’ and then it ends. The writing itself is well crafted but so far I remember the stories being the lights in my apartment are spooky, my Airbnb has a spooky tone, and statistically some bad stuff happens more often around this actress who may, in fact, be spooky. Then the last page of each story is like ‘oh yeah it was spooky because of electricity jellyfish/ghost(?)/ritual that turned actress into a weird tree? Huh. Not at all what I recall of it or my reactions to it, but I guess I hope you didn't pay too much?
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Jun 17, 2021 03:00
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Bilirubin posted:Huh. Not at all what I recall of it or my reactions to it, but I guess I hope you didn't pay too much? Oh no worries I paid a tenner and have no regrets about supporting a writer who's trying something. I'm glad you enjoyed it too, it just didn't work for me
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Jun 17, 2021 03:13
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Has anyone else followed the online furor surrounding Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin? It's such a snarl of accusations and different issues and I don't know where to begin to unravel it, with people whose opinions I respect arguing both in favor of and against the book.
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Jun 17, 2021 11:07
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Nope, but after reading a description of the what the book is about it became an instant preorder.
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Jun 17, 2021 13:48
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FPyat posted:Has anyone else followed the online furor surrounding Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin? It's such a snarl of accusations and different issues and I don't know where to begin to unravel it, with people whose opinions I respect arguing both in favor of and against the book. Can you point to some of this furor? I haven't seen any, and now I'm curious.
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Jun 17, 2021 15:26
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a foolish pianist posted:Can you point to some of this furor? I haven't seen any, and now I'm curious. It's largely on twitter. The crux of it is that Gretchen has been consistently opposed to softening or otherwise making queer expression palatable and will argue about it strongly on internet in ways that aren't softened or palatable. This has made her a lot of enemies. So when she published a work that's in some ways similar to the "Attack Helicopter" story that's going to win a mea-culpa Hugo award, people took it as an opportunity to go on the attack. fez_machine fucked around with this message at 15:57 on Jun 17, 2021 |
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Jun 17, 2021 15:53
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fez_machine posted:It's largely on twitter. The crux of it is that Gretchen has been consistently opposed to softening or otherwise making queer expression palatable and will argue about it strongly on internet in ways that aren't softened or palatable. This has made her a lot of enemies. I've followed Gretchen for a while on Twitter, and read her self published stuff, as well as her essays/media criticism, and I will say so much of that is people being absolutely ridiculous and cruel and who just don't even understand (or want to take even the tiniest effort to try to understand) what she's writing about or why she's writing it. And yes, she is Mean Online to people who act like assholes toward her, and has a mean persona, but a lot of this backlash is just because she's an outspoken trans woman and people, even other queer and trans folks, love to poo poo on trans women. And, as a trans person, I will say that Manhunt sounds like it'll be a lot of gross, nasty fun and I can't wait to read it and I preordered it instantly. She posted (part of?) the first chapter a while ago and if that's still up online you can check it out for yourself (it might have just been her Patreon, though, I can't remember).
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Jun 17, 2021 16:23
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Jeez, that cover: EDIT: oh, and from the macmillan page about it: quote:A timely, powerful response to every gender-based apocalypse story that failed to consider the existence of transgender and non-binary people, Manhunt is full of body horror, desire, and a grotesque spectrum of pain. Are there lots of gender-based apocalypse stories out there? The only one I can think of offhand is The Screwfly Solution. a foolish pianist fucked around with this message at 15:12 on Jun 18, 2021 |
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Jun 17, 2021 17:54
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a foolish pianist posted:Are there lots of gender-based apocalypse stories out there? The only one I can think of offhand is The Screwfly Solution. Maybe not a lot, but I've seen them around before besides Screwfly Solution. Y: The Last Man is probably the biggest recent one, but any of those sort of "Last Man On Earth"-type scenarios would count too (there was even a 4-season long Fox show called "The Last Man on Earth" a few years back that I had to doublecheck and make sure wasn't a feverdream memory). There's even a different gender dystopia book (sort of different from a gender apocalypse, of course, but I'd say the genres probably have more in common than not) coming out in October called "Femlandia" but from some ARC reviews I've seen, it looks like it's exactly the sort of thing Manhunt is written in response to, hah.
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Jun 18, 2021 19:33
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Gemma Files' new short story collection In That Endlessness, Our End Is the only way to get this physical? Is there plans for an ebook version?
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Jun 20, 2021 01:29
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Flaggy posted:Gemma Files' new short story collection In That Endlessness, Our End a foolish pianist posted:The Kindle edition of this is up on the grimscribe site for pay-what-you-want. I just bought a copy for 5 bucks, and I feel kinda like I should have paid a bit more. https://grimscribepress.com/in-that-endlessness-our-end/
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Jun 20, 2021 01:33
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Rad, thank you, after purchase did it take a while to get a copy?
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Jun 20, 2021 03:22
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Flaggy posted:Rad, thank you, after purchase did it take a while to get a copy? Like 10-15 minutes for me. But it seems like she may be fulfilling by herself through sharing a drop box so it’s entirely possible that it could take longer at some times?
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Jun 20, 2021 03:25
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DurianGray posted:Maybe not a lot, but I've seen them around before besides Screwfly Solution. Y: The Last Man is probably the biggest recent one, but any of those sort of "Last Man On Earth"-type scenarios would count too (there was even a 4-season long Fox show called "The Last Man on Earth" a few years back that I had to doublecheck and make sure wasn't a feverdream memory). There's even a different gender dystopia book (sort of different from a gender apocalypse, of course, but I'd say the genres probably have more in common than not) coming out in October called "Femlandia" but from some ARC reviews I've seen, it looks like it's exactly the sort of thing Manhunt is written in response to, hah. iirc William S. Burroughs' The Wild Boys is one, and if we're counting video games, LISA is also a gender apocalypse story.
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Jun 20, 2021 15:51
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fez_machine posted:It's largely on twitter. The crux of it is that Gretchen has been consistently opposed to softening or otherwise making queer expression palatable and will argue about it strongly on internet in ways that aren't softened or palatable. This has made her a lot of enemies. Attack Helicopter is going to win the Hugo because people actually read it now and it's really good. The backlash was based solely on the title, that story was nothing like this sounds.
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Jun 24, 2021 10:26
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Man, Carrier Wave is some dark poo poo. Reminds me of all of the vignettes from World War Z, except without any of the slapstick or optimism. I'm about half way through and a little burnt out on the gore and hopelessness. I hope some sort of overall narrative starts to develop soon.
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Jun 25, 2021 17:52
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Paddyo posted:Man, Carrier Wave is some dark poo poo. Reminds me of all of the vignettes from World War Z, except without any of the slapstick or optimism. I'm about half way through and a little burnt out on the gore and hopelessness. I hope some sort of overall narrative starts to develop soon. The tone starts to lighten up at around the halfway mark, specifically with "The Walled City." It never turns into a happy book exactly, but that's when the story starts working toward resolution. I was similarly bummed out, but I enjoyed the rest.
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Jun 25, 2021 18:00
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You weren't kidding. Princess Sparkle Hog is one of the most jarring tonal shifts that I think I've ever seen.
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Jun 28, 2021 18:04
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I'm a quarter of the way through Carrier Wave and starting to wonder if I can finish. It's not the gore that's getting to me, it's that Brockway really seems to want to write the POV of people who are either "skeevy slacker rear end in a top hat" or "person romantically/sexually obsessed with their coworker" and it's starting to grate. If the prose were better than workmanlike I might be able to forgive it, but no luck there. I'm up to The Black Spot and almost rooting for the monsters at this point. Does he ever mix it up, or am I in for another 18 hours on audio of this?
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Jul 3, 2021 18:35
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Time for another roundup of pulpy horror genre trash I read recently Primitive by J.F. Gonzalez: I enjoyed Clickers so decided to give this a spin. It's basically a zombie-virus tale but people turn into weird savage neanderthals instead of zombies. There's also some old gods stuff thrown in as Gonzalez likes to do. Overall an alright book but it was a bit too explainy through dialogue and it felt like it was building to something but never quite 'got there'. The Resurrectionist by Wrath James White: A very creepy dude has the power to resurrect people with limited knowledge of what happened immediately before their death and uses it for his own gratification and to terrorize people, mostly the couple across the street that he's obsessed with. This book was hosed up even on the relative scale of Wrath James White books, which was already a high bar. Just unsettling and gross all around, but you probably knew that's what you were signing up for with a WJW book. Animal Kingdom by Iain Rob Wright: All the animals in the world suddenly go all Maximum Overdrive on humanity and the protagonist and his son are at the zoo. Solid creature feature action with a big dose of 'other humans are the true monsters' cliches. You could do a lot worse if you're in the mood for some schlocky b-movie style action on a lazy afternoon or a moderately long flight. The Gates and Legion by Iain Rob Wright: Enjoyed Animal Kingdom so gave Wright's 'end of the world/demon invasion' series a shot. The first book (The Gates) was alright but the second book was just the same events from the first book from other characters' perspectives with a tiny bit of advancement at the end. That really sapped my motivation to continue on so I drifted off after book 2. I've read several more recently but the books not included above range from 'forgettable enough that I hardly remember them', all the way to 'embarrassed to admit that I read it', not counting the half dozed anthologies I'm perpetually half-way through.
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Jul 5, 2021 00:35
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Good Citizen posted:Time for another roundup of pulpy horror genre trash I read recently
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Jul 5, 2021 02:44
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Chas McGill posted:Is there a good (or at least fun) example of this genre? Ehhhh. The one I mentioned isn’t bad. I’d just read the first book, maybe read the news reporter sections and the last chapter of Vamps’ story from the second, and then move on to the third (which I haven’t read yet). Comedy fun answer is the salvation war, though. Earth vs Hell and eventually Heaven but neither adversary had been paying attention to earth’s weapon development for the last few centuries. That’s more hilarious military porn than horror, though. E: there’s obviously a lot more good stuff if you start branching out into elder gods instead of Abrahamic demons though. If anyone has more suggestions I’d love to hear them because I love that over the top silly Armageddon stuff Good Citizen fucked around with this message at 03:17 on Jul 5, 2021 |
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Jul 5, 2021 03:14
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Kestral posted:I'm a quarter of the way through Carrier Wave and starting to wonder if I can finish. It's not the gore that's getting to me, it's that Brockway really seems to want to write the POV of people who are either "skeevy slacker rear end in a top hat" or "person romantically/sexually obsessed with their coworker" and it's starting to grate. If the prose were better than workmanlike I might be able to forgive it, but no luck there. The perspective does started varying drastically and pretty much immediately after where you're at, so I would stick with it!
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Jul 5, 2021 03:29
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I just read my first splatterpunk novel, Aron Beauregard's The Slob. Hoo boy.
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Jul 6, 2021 14:58
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Yeah, I finished Carrier Wave, and aside from an interesting premise I wasn't impressed. The first half was super bleak, but was it was still fun to see the different manifestations of the signal, and I was eager to see where the plot went. After The Walled City and Princess Sparkle Hog though I had a hard time taking it seriously. The characters also weren't very realistic or likable, and like the poster above said, the prose wasn't good enough to cover for it. The ending just sort of "happened" too, and in a random way that just came off as contrived. Seems like a lot of people on here liked it, but I guess it just wasn't for me.
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Jul 6, 2021 18:28
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I really enjoyed most of Carrier Wave, but the pig and ending really fumbled all that build up.
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Jul 6, 2021 23:42
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I only got a 5th of the way through it. Didn't get on with the prose or the format, unfortunately.
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Jul 7, 2021 00:00
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No. 1 Juicy Boi posted:I just read my first splatterpunk novel, Aron Beauregard's The Slob. That one always shows up on my 'based on your reading' list because I read terrible poo poo and still my reaction is always 'naaaaaah I'm good thanks'
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Jul 7, 2021 04:17
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What's the deal with ST Joshi? I'd like to get into Lovecraft and have seen recs for the Penguin Books collections edited by Joshi.
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Jul 11, 2021 08:41
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Siivola posted:What's the deal with ST Joshi? I'd like to get into Lovecraft and have seen recs for the Penguin Books collections edited by Joshi. Those books are fine, but he went crazy and hard apologist for Lovecraft when people began to question the things perpetuating the canonisation of Lovecraft like the World Fantasy Award statuette and the revisionist Lovecraftian trend in general. It went way beyond someone freaking out because people were attacking his bread and butter. He also built a reputation as a good editor of fiction in the Lovecraft style that got exposed because he doesn't have great taste just better than what existed at the time he was putting together collections and writing screeds about the state of modern horror fiction prompted people to go in fighting. edit: Reading over his blog from the last few years he appears to have mellowed out a little, but he's still a Lovecraft racism apologist (rarely denying but always softening). fez_machine fucked around with this message at 10:41 on Jul 11, 2021 |
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Jul 11, 2021 10:25
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Wllum Pugmire's passing really took some of the wind out of Joshi's sails, that was when he pulled back from the worst of his online shenanigans.Siivola posted:What's the deal with ST Joshi? I'd like to get into Lovecraft and have seen recs for the Penguin Books collections edited by Joshi. I think a good chunk of Lovecraft's work is public domain now. For the stories that aren't, there's no real reason to get anything beyond one of those big Complete Works books Barnes and Noble put out, or pick up the old Del Rey collections. Edit: Also, avoid criticizing Joshi on more public forums because Ramsey Campbell of all people will likely show up to argue with you. It's really loving weird. Ornamented Death fucked around with this message at 13:22 on Jul 11, 2021 |
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Jul 11, 2021 13:15
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I'm a chunk of the way through Kathe Koja's Cypher and it's such a strange book to get into. Like, it has some of the edgelordiness of Palahniuk, but the prose is SO GOOD that I'm just mesmerized by it.
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Jul 15, 2021 16:21
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Question about the ending of Carrier Wave: If the humans left alive to repopulate the earth are the ones who can synthesize their own concepts like justice and such without help, then wouldn’t their offspring be immune to a follow-up of the kind of attack that the four beings launched with the signal? The embodiment of Justice said he wanted to plant a seed for a future harvest, if possible, but the beings seemed to undermine their own ability to repeat the harvest by being so indiscriminate. Maybe the farming metaphor goes deeper than I thought!
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Jul 19, 2021 22:00
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The conclusion I came to was that future generations may not be 100% immune to the signal, just more than the last one, and ideally the cycle would continue until that number became too high and the last harvest occurred.
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Jul 19, 2021 22:21
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Also never listen to the stars
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Jul 20, 2021 02:11
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