April - How Many?

[Theli]

Read it too quickly as "I probably huffed my MAILMAN"...

Did that one too many times, now I can't go within 100 feet of my mailman. Sucks having to walk across the street to get my mail.

[brlesh]

Finished 5 in April, one long novel and 4 shorter works.

The City of Mirrors is the conclusion to Justin Cronin's epic Passage trilogy. Now that I've finished the series I can say, without a doubt, this series of books is my all time favorite. It's been a long time since I've found myself immersed in a story as I was with these books. Will be interesting to see what direction Cronin takes next with his fiction. 5/5

Lost Girl of the Lake by Joe McKinney & Michael McCarty. This one was a quick, novella-length read. A coming of age story involving an old family curse with a Lovecraftian twist. I liked this one a lot. I haven't read a lot by McKinney, but what I have read I've liked. Need to seek out more of his work in the future. 4/5

A Little Aqua Book of Marine Tales by Tim Waggoner. All the stories in this short collection revolved around water, mainly the psychological effects of surviving a near drowning. The two stories I like best, 'Waters Dark and Deep" and "The Nature of Water" had a Lovecraftian feel to them. None of the other stories really stood out as memorable. 3/5 (4, 2, 3, 3, 4, 3, 3.5)

Nightflyers is a short SciFi / horror novel written by George RR Martin in the early 80's. I originally read this about 30 years ago and remembered that I liked it. It didn't hold up as well the second time around. The story is kind of clunky, the characters, other than 2 or 3 of the main characters, are interchangeable, and the dialogue is, for the most part, unbelievable. (There are two main characters, that just about every time they speak, they say the same phrase over and over again. Very quickly got annoying.) Still there is enough of a story here to provide some entertainment, especially if looking at it from the perspective of GRRM's development as a writer. 3/5

Unearthed is a short two story collection; the stories were started by Richard Chizmar in the 80's and recently completed by Ray Garton & Brian Keene. The Garton story was an OK read. Entertaining, but had the feeling of being done before. (3.5/5) The Keene story, IMO, was the better of the two, although it felt like it needed to be fleshed out a little more. (4/5)

B

[JasonUK]

Here are my 4 books for the month.

Stephen Leather - Midnight (7/10) Second book in an ongoing series of supernatural thrillers. Fast-paced compelling narrative as a British ex-cop tries to outfox demons & satanists. Good stuff.

George RR Martin - A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (7/10) Some adventures from a pre-Game of Thrones Westeros. More YA than the Song of Ice and Fire books, but told in Martin's compelling style. Fun but not in the same league as GOT.

Joe Lansdale - Vanilla Ride (6/10) The title character doesn't appear until the last 50 pages of the book and just serves to highlight how mediocre the rest of the book has been.

Richard Laymon - Cuts (8/10) Erotic thriller with all the usual elements of Laymon's writing - sex, gore, perversion, humour and above all immediacy. It doesn't make my Laymon top 10, but still much better than most of the genre books I read.

[sholloman81]

Here are my 7 books for the month.

Don Winslow – The Border (8/10) Third book in trilogy. All three books were great; however, this was probably my least favorite of the three. Felt as if this book should have been about 200 pages shorter. Still, a great end to this series.

Joe Lansdale – Elephant of Surprise (7/10) I will always like the Hap & Leonard novels due to Joe Lansdale’s voice; however, if I’m being honest, this one felt a bit rote to me. If you’ve read the last few, then you read this one.

Josh Malerman - Birdbox (8.5/10) This was a reread for me. Liked it just as much, if not more, the second time around. Am interested to see what he will do with the sequel. Hopefully, it isn’t a money-grab due to the popularity of the Netflix movie.

Josh Malerman – On This, The Day of the Pig (8/10) Enjoyed this one a lot. One of the more unique mind-control stories I have read. What a mean pig!

Josh Malerman - Inspection (7.5/10) Was torn with this one. Didn’t really enjoy the first half of the book; however, once the 2nd half of the novel kicks off, I couldn’t put it down. I think what saved this one for me was the complete uniqueness of the story. Never read a story quite like this. Would make a great movie.

CJ Tudor – The Chalk Man (8.5/10) This one lived up to the hype for me. Really enjoyed the story. Much bleaker than I thought it was going to be. On a side note- I do wish people would stop comparing any story with a group of kids in it to Stephen King’s “IT”.

Christopher Golden - Ararat (8/10) This one was also reread for me. Just as good the 2nd time. Am hoping the sequel, “The Pandora Room”, will be even better. I believe “The Pandora Room” will be my first May read.

[jeffingoff]

Josh Malerman – On This, The Day of the Pig (8/10) Enjoyed this one a lot. One of the more unique mind-control stories I have read. What a mean pig!

Josh Malerman - Inspection (7.5/10) Was torn with this one. Didn’t really enjoy the first half of the book; however, once the 2nd half of the novel kicks off, I couldn’t put it down. I think what saved this one for me was the complete uniqueness of the story. Never read a story quite like this. Would make a great movie.

Totally agree with both of these ratings. Though, I'd bump both a little higher. I thought PIG was his best to date. And the first half of INSPECTION was too slow. that definitely could have been trimmed back. But once that train starts rolling, it's unstoppable.

[Sock Monkey]

On a side note- I do wish people would stop comparing any story with a group of kids in it to Stephen King’s “IT”.

Amen, brother. I understand that IT is a touchstone for a lot people, but the reference does get tiresome.

[Sock Monkey]

Tried reading the Malerman LITTLE BOOK tonight. Just godawful. And Borderlands’ copyediting sure isn’t getting any better... A disappointment all the way around.

I was fine with the story ideas but the execution was lacking. The copy errors were a little distracting.

I've been finding this issue more and more troublesome. I was irritated when A Little Orange Book of Ornery Stories by Ed Gorman had been "Ampersand'ed to death" during The Brasher Girl, but was more so when reading Laird Barron's A Little Brown Book of Burials. I was nearing the end of the story "DT" when the last sentence was "Her head swam as it had that night at the bar and her bizarre encounter with the stranger and she covered"...and that was it. I've never read the story before, so I have no comparison as to if this is the way the story actually ends, but I was left rather confused and frustrated. ***EDIT: From what I have gathered from the interwebs, this is how the story is supposed to end. My confusion and frustration with this story are now transferred from Borderlands to Mr. Barron.***

I know the books are not expensive in Limited Edition terms, but they should at least be readable. All of this has had me thinking about selling off my set.

[mhatchett]

Amen, brother. I understand that IT is a touchstone for a lot people, but the reference does get tiresome.

I guess because I'm older, any story with a group of kids gets compared to"Our Gang" LOl!!!

[RonClinton]

I've been finding this issue more and more troublesome. I was irritated when A Little Orange Book of Ornery Stories by Ed Gorman had been "Ampersand'ed to death" during The Brasher Girl, but was more so when reading Laird Barron's A Little Brown Book of Burials. I was nearing the end of the story "DT" when the last sentence was "Her head swam as it had that night at the bar and her bizarre encounter with the stranger and she covered"...and that was it. I've never read the story before, so I have no comparison as to if this is the way the story actually ends, but I was left rather confused and frustrated. ***EDIT: From what I have gathered from the interwebs, this is how the story is supposed to end. My confusion and frustration with this story are now transferred from Borderlands to Mr. Barron.***

I know the books are not expensive in Limited Edition terms, but they should at least be readable. All of this has had me thinking about selling off my set.

No, the Barron collection was erroneously truncated by Borderlands. I have the errata sheet I can take a photo of for you if you’d like a copy... :-)

Edit: Actually, I just found it for you… here you go. I just printed out the page, folded it, and laid it in the book. https://lairdbarron.wordpress.com/errata/

[Sock Monkey]

No, the Barron collection was erroneously truncated by Borderlands. I have the errata sheet I can take a photo of for you if you’d like a copy... :-)

Edit: Actually, I just found it for you… here you go. I just printed out the page, folded it, and laid it in the book. https://lairdbarron.wordpress.com/errata/

Hey, thanks! I had read somewhere that indicated that the story ended somewhat unfinished so I assumed this was on purpose. To what extent, I don't know. But at least this clarifies it a bit. Thanks for the heads up and the link!

[RonClinton]

You bet, glad to help.

[Martin]

Here are my 7 books for the month.

Don Winslow – The Border (8/10) Third book in trilogy. All three books were great; however, this was probably my least favorite of the three. Felt as if this book should have been about 200 pages shorter. Still, a great end to this series.

Joe Lansdale – Elephant of Surprise (7/10) I will always like the Hap & Leonard novels due to Joe Lansdale’s voice; however, if I’m being honest, this one felt a bit rote to me. If you’ve read the last few, then you read this one.

Josh Malerman - Birdbox (8.5/10) This was a reread for me. Liked it just as much, if not more, the second time around. Am interested to see what he will do with the sequel. Hopefully, it isn’t a money-grab due to the popularity of the Netflix movie.

Josh Malerman – On This, The Day of the Pig (8/10) Enjoyed this one a lot. One of the more unique mind-control stories I have read. What a mean pig!

Josh Malerman - Inspection (7.5/10) Was torn with this one. Didn’t really enjoy the first half of the book; however, once the 2nd half of the novel kicks off, I couldn’t put it down. I think what saved this one for me was the complete uniqueness of the story. Never read a story quite like this. Would make a great movie.

CJ Tudor – The Chalk Man (8.5/10) This one lived up to the hype for me. Really enjoyed the story. Much bleaker than I thought it was going to be. On a side note- I do wish people would stop comparing any story with a group of kids in it to Stephen King’s “IT”.

Christopher Golden - Ararat (8/10) This one was also reread for me. Just as good the 2nd time. Am hoping the sequel, “The Pandora Room”, will be even better. I believe “The Pandora Room” will be my first May read.

Ararat has intrigued me for quite some time and I keep hearing good things about The Chalk Man. I may have to give these a try.