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    A Touch of the Creature - Charles Beaumont

    Satan sipped at his liquor and scrooged up his face. “This here is a highly unusual conversation,” says he. “Hmm. You want ta know what I do with souls, hey? Let’s see now: give me a minute ta study . . . Hmm. You mean, what do I do with—Well, I—That is—Hellfire, what’s in this corn anyways? Danged if I can recomember; though I know well they is some reason.”

    Here it is. For me, the companion book to Centipede’s unstoppable Mass for Mixed Voices, though this book was published far in advance of that career retrospective.

    Both uncollected and unpublished, the second word especially is a bit of a scare card for me. Unpublished? Why? Was there something wrong with the stories? Were they unfinished? I’ll sometimes pass because of asking myself questions like these. But Mass for Mixed Voices was a collection of the century, and none of these stories are in there. Bottom line is, they’re Charles Beaumont, and that’s enough for me. The fact that the collection is introduced by Richard Matheson, with nothing but kind words, cements the deal.

    These stories are a bit different that the Beaumont I’m familiar with, though they’re remarkable tales. Not as much Twilight Zone, but plenty of recognizable life, often dark. There’s some weird here, too, and most exhibit the mastery he was known for: intelligent, lean, dark, sometimes hitting hard or touching deeply—all Beaumont.

    I’ve included a full, hidden list of the stories for those who want a brief summary of each, but in a brilliant overall collection, here are my favorites with a little additional commentary:

    “Adam’s Off Ox” – A honky-tonk of a story about Billy the traveling salesman hawking his miracle cure-all and a deal with the Devil for him to tell the truth once in his life.
    Joe Lansdale may have risen from the ashes of stories such as these. Fast-paced, fantastically told in the vernacular, and in a somewhat rip-roaring style that Mr. Lansdale would go on to perfect.

    “The Rival” – Tim suspects his wife is having an affair and one day returns home hours earlier than expected. He finds a strange coat in the apartment and confronts his wife, who admits to the affair and that she’s seeing the new beau tonight. Convinced the manly thing to do is to meet his rival, Tim agrees to travel with his wife to the rendezvous in order for him to bring his own relationship with her to a close.
    Though this one does require some additional suspension of disbelief, I’m surprised “The Rival” was never published. A very strong story, it’s got a lot of heart and is one of my favorites here.

    “A Friend of the Family” – Reynolds is on a date with a co-worker when a man from the office invites himself to sit down and attempts to ruin the relationship by speaking at length of Reynolds’ recently deceased wife.
    This is a beautiful story of life and death, and my favorite in the collection. With stories like this it doesn’t matter whether or not they’re fiction. They are true, and I defy you not to be moved. If you can get your hands on this book or this story, read it, and then advise your friends and family to do the same. You will have made the world a little bit better if you do.

    “Moon in Gemini” – Jodi is pregnant, and as she goes about a few daily errands her inner monologue gets her increasingly upset as her worries compound.
    This one doesn’t quite have the sparkle of some of the other stories contained here, but it contains something else: a ridiculously strong character study.

    “Resurrection Island” – To get a scoop, a Hollywood magazine writer smuggles himself as an extra into the newest mega-blockbuster filming of the industry’s top director’s newest project, where thousands of extras are shipped to the director’s private island for filming, not knowing what to expect.
    Another fantastic entry, this one’s packed with lean muscle and stark imagery and is an epic showing despite being a short story.

    full story list
    Spoiler!


    Richard Matheson has the introduction and Christopher Beaumont the forward, and I’d recommend skipping both until you’ve read the stories. Christopher Beaumont’s piece doesn’t discuss the stories at all, but is particularly moving after you’ve seen what all of the hullabaloo with this writer is about. And you’ll see it, it’s here. Not so much in horror or even speculative fiction this time, but in perception and humanity, and in the skill with which we’re examined.

    High marks again, some stories being the highest, to you, Mr. Charles Beaumont. I am deeply saddened to have finished the book, as I was with your retrospective collection. You died far too young and the world was deprived of a truly special writer. I miss you; I wish I would have met you. We all miss you, even if we don’t know it.

    “It’s like winning twenty hands of poker and then losing fifteen. I don’t know why, but you’re never happy about the twenty you won.”

    4 stars

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    Last edited by bugen; 06-08-2016, 06:25 AM.
    “Reality is a nice place to visit, but you wouldn’t want to live there.”
    -John Barth

    https://bugensbooks.com/

    Comment


      I have five Beaumont books that I haven't gotten around to reading, although I've had them for over six years now. Sounds like I need to bump them up to the top of the to-read pile.

      Comment


        You won't be disappointed if you do, believe me. I've not yet read his novels The Intruder and Run from the Hunter but can vouch for his short stories.

        3 collections cover most of the body of his work: The Hunger, Night Ride and Yonder, but actually miss 17 of his published stories in addition to the 14 unpublished found in A Touch of the Creature.

        Some legwork went into figuring out what is needed to cover the stories missing from Mass and Creature, but in case anyone here is interested I created a fairly complex Excel sheet covering his career that I'm unable to upload.

        Long story short, if you want to read every last one of his stories you need 7 books, and you'll need a table if you want to work out efficiencies. Best of Beaumont covers about 1/2 that are missing from Mass and Creature.

        The Hunger
        Night Ride
        Yonder

        Mass for Mixed Voices
        Best of Beaumont
        Selected Stories
        A Touch of the Creature
        “Reality is a nice place to visit, but you wouldn’t want to live there.”
        -John Barth

        https://bugensbooks.com/

        Comment


          I love your website Andrew! Very cool indeed!!

          Comment


            Originally posted by bugen View Post
            You won't be disappointed if you do, believe me. I've not yet read his novels The Intruder and Run from the Hunter but can vouch for his short stories.

            3 collections cover most of the body of his work: The Hunger, Night Ride and Yonder, but actually miss 17 of his published stories in addition to the 14 unpublished found in A Touch of the Creature.

            Some legwork went into figuring out what is needed to cover the stories missing from Mass and Creature, but in case anyone here is interested I created a fairly complex Excel sheet covering his career that I'm unable to upload.

            Long story short, if you want to read every last one of his stories you need 7 books, and you'll need a table if you want to work out efficiencies. Best of Beaumont covers about 1/2 that are missing from Mass and Creature.

            The Hunger
            Night Ride
            Yonder

            Mass for Mixed Voices
            Best of Beaumont
            Selected Stories
            A Touch of the Creature
            Thanks, I may ask you for that spreadsheet one of these days.

            I have:

            Black Country
            Free Dirt
            Night Rider
            Selected Stories
            The Beautiful People

            Once i get through those I may need to look for more.

            Comment


              Originally posted by Tommy View Post
              I love your website Andrew! Very cool indeed!!
              Thanks, Tommy! I'm still tweaking things, but think I've got it set up now so folks can leave comments anonymously. I always hated in when I saw a site and a post I wanted to talk about but was asked to register first.
              “Reality is a nice place to visit, but you wouldn’t want to live there.”
              -John Barth

              https://bugensbooks.com/

              Comment


                Originally posted by Dave1442397 View Post
                Thanks, I may ask you for that spreadsheet one of these days.

                I have:

                Black Country
                Free Dirt
                Night Rider
                Selected Stories
                The Beautiful People

                Once i get through those I may need to look for more.
                Great stuff there, for sure. I thought "Black Country" and The Beautiful People were both excellent, "Night Rider" was good and was "Free Dirt" was OK, but having read more Beaumont now I wouldn't be a bit surprised if the old ratings start to creep up when I get to the stories again.

                In Selected Stories, wait until you hit "Fair Lady," "Last Rites" or "Perchance to Dream." I'm jealous you get to read these for the first time, no joke.

                If you end up wanting the spreadsheet I uploaded it at the end of the old Mass for Mixed Voices review on my site so you can view or download it there. It may look ugly but functions well enough when you apply filters.
                “Reality is a nice place to visit, but you wouldn’t want to live there.”
                -John Barth

                https://bugensbooks.com/

                Comment


                  Worlds of Weber - David Weber

                  Every time I’ve gotten into trouble in my life, it’s been because someone convinced me it was the ‘right thing to do.’

                  This career retrospective collection covers a range of speculative fiction including some decently hard science fiction, some military fantasy and some historical fiction. It’s a massive book with a quarter of a million words but only 9 stories, and only the first and the last are short. But settle in and take your time. No matter what you paid, this book is worth it.

                  A full story list with simple descriptions is below, but there are a few here that need special attention:

                  A Beautiful Friendship – Half of this story is 11-year-old Stephanie and her two parents, among the first settlers of a new world, about to discover a sentient species living in the forest. The other half is the People, the sentient species, studying humans unnoticed. Climbs Quickly and Stephanie meet and a bond is formed between the two on first contact.

                  With a strong sense of wonder but also with themes familiar to us all, this was an outstanding story of compassion and would easily be the best story in nearly any collection—this is the full 5 stars, even for those who are stingy with ratings. But it just so happens there’s an upcoming story that’s as good as it gets and makes some wish an even higher rating had been reserved.

                  Ms. Midshipwoman Harrington – Fresh out of the academy, young Honor Harrington is on her “snotty” cruise, her first real test as a spacer in the Navy, before she will finally be welcomed as an officer. She’ll be tested by fire, far beyond what anyone could have expected on the voyage. As the captain says,“no plan survives contact with the enemy.”

                  Honor Harrington is David Weber’s greatest creation, his most beloved character, and it appears she’s starred in at least 14 novels. The author states in his introduction that he does not want to write any prequel novels, citing his style has developed over time and he doesn’t want to jar the chronological reader, but this novella was a way for him to develop Honor’s history without a full-blown novel.

                  Miles to Go – This is it. This one will knock you over.

                  Merrit is dispatched to a sparsely inhabited planet where he learns the government’s files are woefully out of date and the entire planet has basically been lost under the blanket of bureaucracy for a century. He’s tasked with the recovery of an old Bolo.

                  All Bolos, gigantic, nearly indestructible, artificially intelligent battle-tanks, have had most of their capabilities crippled by design unless engaged in combat as protective measures for their human masters. This particular Bolo, 80 years out of date, has undergone special modifications at the hands of her deceased programmer, unlocking her intelligence.

                  Meanwhile, certain unscrupulous, enterprising individuals have realized the planet will be worth a boatload of money relating to trade routes after an upcoming change in space travel and have launched plans to kill everyone on the surface to pave the wave for their profits. An invasion is launched against an unsuspecting world.

                  Most surprising here in this novella is the emotional relationship developing between the Bolo named Nike and Merrit—a man and his war machine, reading poetry together. A particularly moving scene occurs when the machine, on a training exercise, encounters a large cat-lizard. The decisions she makes along with her rationalizations when questioned by Merrit go a long way in establishing a rich, intelligent, empathetic character.

                  There are a few complicated sections with some hard science fiction that’s not always easy to follow, but the intricate data-flow is necessary to contrast personality with programming. Most important, the story has a huge heart. When it’s ending and the final words are rolling, you will clench your fist, you will stand, and you will cheer.

                  Science fiction, fantasy or horror, this novella is what speculative fiction is all about—highest marks.

                  full story list

                  Subterranean Press has really assembled something special in this 600 page behemoth. The kind of fiction David Weber presents here shines a bright light, and should sit proudly next to your all time favorites.

                  There’s a whole, weird, cyberpunk world ahead of us, and sooner or later we’ll turn this planet into Cybertron if we can survive long enough. But survival continues to be a problem and it’s getting worse, as is to be expected when you have a bunch of power mad, libido driven, barely conscious apes running amok in a nuclear facility with blinking red end-of-the-world buttons in every office. Nevertheless, this kind of high concept, emotionally charged speculative fiction is encouraging. We can do this.

                  4 stars

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                  Last edited by bugen; 07-06-2016, 06:31 AM.
                  “Reality is a nice place to visit, but you wouldn’t want to live there.”
                  -John Barth

                  https://bugensbooks.com/

                  Comment


                    Hey guys, I posted this yesterday on my site and hadn’t planned to include it on CD as it’s about 1,000 miles away from horror. It’s speculative fiction and has some magical realism to it, but it’s really a love story all the way. I’m posting it here now because part of the write-up talks about how we should share these things with each other, hype things like this, and I’m not doing that if I keep it contained on my little site.

                    The story is as good as they get. I hope you read the book and pass your thoughts to people you care about.
                    “Reality is a nice place to visit, but you wouldn’t want to live there.”
                    -John Barth

                    https://bugensbooks.com/

                    Comment


                      Cybele, with Bluebonnets - Charles L. Harness

                      Gene Wolfe’s words to the publisher sold me on this title, reprinted here:

                      “There are perhaps a thousand wonderful books. Most of us are fortunate if we so much as hear the titles of them in the course of a lifetime. Very few of us ever touch the covers of more than half a dozen. This is one of them. If you do not buy the copy you are holding, you are not likely to see one again.”

                      I started the e-book and quit it twice; it was just too good. In a span of the first few paragraphs, I knew I wanted a hardcopy and set the reader down. A couple of days after that initial start I thought, “Screw it, I’ll go ahead and read the e-copy now and just pick up a physical copy later.” So I picked it back up, read a chapter, then set it down again. It was just too good, and I wanted a hardcopy.

                      A boy crawls into a cave then exits immediately, running for his life from what dwells inside. Joe Barnes grows up and falls in love with his chemistry teacher and with chemistry, both of which impact his next few decades in unexpected ways. Joe struggles through the Great Depression, he tries to get himself drafted and he holds multiple jobs while attending night classes. Even in jobs not normally related to chemistry it’s his knowledge of the field that is repeatedly called upon. Elements of magical realism like ghosts and the Holy Grail permeate the story as Joe spins tales, saves people and blows things up. “Yes, chemists love explosions. If they say they don’t, they lie.” As he narrates the events of his life we’re swept along with the character and touched deeply as he loves, hurts and triumphs.

                      The book is short, about 65,000 words, but it’s enriched in ways I can’t begin to explain. Novels three times this size can’t cover the ground here, let alone the emotional content that seems so effortlessly conveyed. As in the very best fiction, it doesn’t matter that the events in this story never happened, because they did. It’s a true story, in any meaningful sense of the term. It will touch souls, even those badly burned. Not only do you owe it to yourselves to read this, you owe it to the person next to you. Convince someone you love they need to read it, and that someone can convince someone else in turn, and we can catalyze a positive reaction, leaving the earth we’ve traveled better than it was when we first passed.

                      “May I tell you a fable?”
                      “Sure.”
                      “A great explorer lifted his eyes and scanned the horizon, far and wide, in all directions, looking for the North Pole. But he never found it, because he was standing on it.”


                      5 stars

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                      Last edited by bugen; 06-23-2016, 12:58 AM.
                      “Reality is a nice place to visit, but you wouldn’t want to live there.”
                      -John Barth

                      https://bugensbooks.com/

                      Comment


                        Endymion - Dan Simmons

                        “Sometimes . . . the shortest route to courage is absolute ignorance.”

                        Set a few hundred years after the conclusion of The Fall of Hyperion, our narrator, Raul Endymion, trapped in a jail cell that will kill him at any moment, recalls the adventures leading up to his incarceration.

                        The Cruciform, a cross-like, parasitic organism discovered centuries earlier on planet Hyperion which gives its bearer resurrection after death, was taken over by the Church, who used the power of everlasting life to seize control of the universe. While a cruciform revives a person from death, he comes back slightly reduced in mental and physical capacity. The Church has perfected resurrection technology, avoiding this pitfall, and gives members the cruciform as everlasting life as long as they give 1 year of every 10 in service to the church, as long as they tithe.

                        The Church has timed when the young girl Aenea, having disappeared into the Time Tombs hundreds of years ago (The Fall of Hyperion), will finally reappear in the future. They know the prophecy that the girl will bring knowledge and freedom to mankind, and as its current ruler, the church has positioned entire armies to seize the girl when she exits the tomb. But The Shrike appears alongside Aenea, and the entrenched armies and the battleships orbiting the planet don’t stand a chance against this creature of legend.

                        The girl escapes and an emissary of the Church is given unlimited papal authority to chase her across the universe, expending any and all resources he dreams necessary, to bring her back, and this chase is the bulk of the story.

                        First, there’s pacing. The book is the longest of the Cantos so far, tells the most linear story, and is the fastest paced, alternating like gunshots between Raul Endymion’s story and that of the Church emissary, De Soya, tasked with chasing down Aenea’s party. De Soya’s chase is complicated by the fact the girl’s party is able to use the farcasters, instant transport portals which were outlawed and disassembled in the previous centuries. The Church emissary is desperately trying to catch the group while the perilous farcaster journey through ocean worlds, ice caves and the paradise of God’s Grove keeps changing locales, and the skill and speed which the author alternates between the two main stories makes the entire book difficult to put down once you’ve read a couple of pages.

                        Second, there’s the science. It’s not mired in terminology, but we can safely categorize this as hard science fiction using a lot of physics. An aspect other writers have probably covered, but I’ve not yet encountered, is the fantastic idea of death by acceleration. In order for De Soya to chase down Aenea and her party, he’s given command of a ship that is so fast it can cross the universe in a couple of days. The forces exerted reaching these speeds mean using it kills everyone on board, and they are subsequently resurrected through cruciform technology at the end of each journey. You may begin to image the horror of multi-staged trips across space by this method, and Mr. Simmons really brings this home.

                        Third, The Shrike in action is brief but glorious. I mean glorious. We’re all used to the idea of one-man armies. Movies like Robocop and The Terminator have given us visuals on the firepower these individuals can bring to bear, but that’s nothing compared to the instant violence with which The Shrike dispatches his enemies. An army of 10,000 terminators wouldn’t stand the slightest chance against him because of his ability to manipulate time, so seeing him single-handedly rip apart armies that would shatter worlds is a spectacle.

                        Fourth is the Church, one of the more complicated facets of humanity which this work uses to tell its story. The symbolism is obvious here with the cross-like cruciform, the three-day resurrection, the prophecy of the return of someone who will teach us the way, and towering above all of this is the institution of the Church itself.

                        Major religions postulate it’s through submission to a power higher than ourselves we find inner peace. It’s through relinquishing control, and much more dangerously, relinquishing personal responsibility for our actions, that people find freedom. And it’s religious institutions that give us maps, permission, and encouragement to do so. Because human beings are so corruptible, this is a really big issue. It’s in our nature to abuse power. Any decent investigator knows what to look for first when unraveling a series of events—motive. Now what possible motive would an institution have to incite people to give 10% of their lives to it? To what lengths would they go to attain this level of contribution? To what lengths would they go to preserve it? Knowing these things, it’s outrageous we’d let modern interpretation of written words, however ancient or venerated by authority, dictate right vs. wrong. Inform, fine, yes. Dictate? That’s not an argument in which I can calmly participate.

                        Fifth, and finally, the theme that power corrupts. Why must power corrupt? In the event a person in power wasn’t an evil bastard to begin with, it’s not the power itself that exerts an evil influence. My belief is our limitless adaptability combined with our instinct for self-preservation exposes us to corruption. For instance, a person in power often attains the top spot for a good reason. But things change, things mutate, new technologies are discovered. Like heaving ground during an earthquake events change the landscape of society itself. The king of the world may sometimes find the circumstances which rightly led him to the throne no longer apply after these changes, and instead of yielding to the new order and relinquishing his power, he considers his power equal to his life and quite naturally acts to preserve it. We attain power, we adapt and get used to it, then we mistake the power for life itself. No wonder we’re so screwed up.

                        This is all just my takeaway from a complex story, my feelings on the deeper constructs beneath one hell of a novel, all housed in a kind of adventure tale more deliberately paced and action oriented than either of the preceding books. But it’s this kind of depth that makes speculative fiction the modern man’s philosophy. Yes, person A went to place B and events C and D happened along the way, but what does it all mean? There’s the real rub, and one of the most compelling reasons to look at speculative fiction in the first place.

                        Dan Simmons, probably the smartest writer I’m reading these days, did it again way back in ’96. The man has my highest respect as a writer of complex, compelling and stimulating fiction. Also, a deep nod to Subterranean Press for a luxurious presentation, the four-book Cantos now comprising the cornerstone of my library.

                        Endymion
                        is an incredible work of science fiction and philosophy, and a 200,000 word reason to read books.

                        5- stars

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                        “Reality is a nice place to visit, but you wouldn’t want to live there.”
                        -John Barth

                        https://bugensbooks.com/

                        Comment


                          Those are really beautiful editions!

                          Comment


                            Thanks, Brian.
                            “Reality is a nice place to visit, but you wouldn’t want to live there.”
                            -John Barth

                            https://bugensbooks.com/

                            Comment


                              The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard - Robert E. Howard

                              “Man was not always master of the earth—and is he now?”

                              Here he is, the legendary creator of the Sword and Sorcery genre, in his element. Even in their adventure tales it was horror and darkness that shaped Conan’s stoicism and provided the motive for Solomon Kane. Bran Mok Mon lived it, as did the Picts. Along with many others these characters are represented here with either an undercurrent of terror or a tidal wave. The book is a monster, a massive collection so rich in dread it’s best to take it slow. Let ‘em sink in, there won’t be any more.

                              One of the recurring motifs is the fever dream, when a person is ripped from normal, current life and deposited into a violent Earth long since passed in order to experience war or other monstrosities. Another is the idea we’re barely scratching the surface of what’s actually happening in our world, that unknowable mysteries are not just everywhere, they’re the foundations upon which everything is built. Lovecraft used this too, that we’re better off not knowing what’s really going on, and a great example of Mr. Howard’s use is “The Black Stone.”

                              There’s a lot to love in this collection, but this is old horror. You won’t find torture porn here. Nor will you find graphic depictions of gratuitous, naked college girl dismemberment; this is the real deal. With this book containing a whopping 60 stories and poems, here are a few favorites:

                              “The Dream Snake” – A man is telling his friends about a recurring dream he’s had since childhood where he believes he’s being hunted by a giant serpent, but the dream is more vivid than ever before and the serpent is getting nearer.
                              This was an excellent story but not actually a favorite. It deserves special callout because there was something extraordinary about the atmosphere here. The author draws a real, palpable horror even though it’s just a character explaining a dream. Study this one carefully.

                              “Dead Man’s Hate” (poem) – A man is glorifying the hanging of his enemy, mocking his enemy’s curse upon him, when the corpse reanimates and gives chase.
                              “He reeled on buckling legs that failed, yet on and on he fled;
                              So through the shuddering market-place, the dying fled the dead.”

                              “The Spirit of Tom Molyneaux” – Our narrator, a boxing trainer, tells the tale of his top shelf fighter taking on the recently emerged champion, a man of such ferocity no one can stand in the ring with him. Prior to the fight our trainer witnesses his boxer speaking to the portrait of another champion fighter, 100 years gone, for advice.
                              Most of this story unfolds in the ring and it’s expertly told. Not only can you picture in vivid detail the blows raining down like sledge-hammers, you can hear their impacts; you can feel them. And you can smell the blood on the canvas as the warriors dig into each other among the cheers. Even the mighty Hemingway’s boxing tales get dropped to the mat and counted out by Mr. Howard. Highest marks and congratulations are due to a perfect boxing story.

                              “The Song of a Mad Minstrel” (poem) – This poem was killer, the story of a man who has seen and reaped it all bringing gifts of horror and death.

                              “Worms of the Earth” – Bran Mak Morn, in disguise, witnesses one of his men crucified unjustly by the Romans and exacts revenge through an alliance with unspeakable creatures from below.
                              Everyone is familiar with the thirst for revenge, and some have taken the idea far enough to enlist Hell for aid. But rarely do we see Hell quail in the face of human mastery. This isn’t sweet, sweet revenge, it’s bittersweet, and a fantastic end to a horrific story.

                              “Man on the Ground” – Two men who’ve hated each so hard and for so long they can’t even remember why have trapped each other in the rocky hills, pinning each other down with rifle fire, each unwilling to give an inch and may the best man win.
                              This one was extra special in a collection of special stories. We’ve all seen countless stories about the power of love, some of them excellent. This one’s about the power of hate.

                              “The Dead Remember” – Bill has received a stack of letters. The first is from his brother, Jim, detailing an incident with a witch that has left his life in danger. He explains the ill luck he’s suffered since the encounter. The rest of the letters are from witnesses.
                              Not only was the story superb here, the structure lends it extra power as we begin to guess what’s happening before events revealed in the letters.

                              These five stories and two poems are outstanding, but the list of show stoppers is limited to them only to keep the length of the review down. This book is incredible and is packed with the monstrous in the classical tradition, and there are a ton of other 5 star entries to be found.

                              Accompanying the numerous stories and poems is a striking series of color and black and white illustrations by Greg Staples, who captures the darkness repeatedly in a heavily illustrated volume released by Subterranean Press.

                              Robert E. Howard was a talented craftsman, no doubt, known not only for his world building but his genre building. There’s something else here, too … something harder to name. Other, successful world-builders start with characters interacting with environments and we eventually learn about the worlds they inhabit through those interactions. Mr. Howard’s worlds seem to rise up out of the mists, materializing somewhere between our mind’s eye and our nightmares.

                              “Darkness and silence were the natural state of the cosmos, not light and the noises of Life. No wonder the dead hated the living, who disturbed the grey stillness of Infinity with their tinkling laughter.”

                              If you’re a student of horror, this is one of the ultimate single author collections.

                              5 stars

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                              Last edited by bugen; 07-10-2016, 03:17 AM.
                              “Reality is a nice place to visit, but you wouldn’t want to live there.”
                              -John Barth

                              https://bugensbooks.com/

                              Comment


                                Very nice art in that one. Really dig the slipcase as well.

                                Comment

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