Anthology of thirteen stories that are part of a larger story set in a ghostly apartment complex and connected to the murder of a controversial real eAnthology of thirteen stories that are part of a larger story set in a ghostly apartment complex and connected to the murder of a controversial real estate mogul, Tobias Fell.
A few characters and storylines that stood out to me were the creepy imaginary friend in “Bad Penny,” the unscrupulous art dealer in “The Knock,” and the insomniac mother in “Sleepless.” They were all nicely, psychologically unsettling in a fun way.
Each character suffers in their own version of capitalist-created hell, whether they are poor or well off. Tobias Fell is a kind of reverse-Jesus scapegoat, taking the blame for everyone who has ever knowingly made money off the suffering of others.
Sims is very heavy-handed in his social/economic statement. In fact, most of the book is about the evils of exploitative capitalism rather than giving the characters complexity or other layers. They are all under pressure from one particular thing that haunts them. Though the type of haunting varies from person to person, it all leads back to the need/love of profit, directly or indirectly.
The book hates the rich.
“Gonna be honest. A rich man suffering consequences sounds a lot less plausible to me than ghosts.”
“His origins were similar to any other billionaire: he was provided with a small fortune by his father’s family”
Those statements are probably fair.
“He considered himself a good man, and always did his best to avoid passing judgment on others, but deep down he had an unshakeable conviction that all rich people were deeply, deeply stupid.”
That one is possibly wishful thinking.
Fans of the Magnus Archive podcast might enjoy this book. Same author, same message. 13 Storeys lacks the rich mythology of Magnus Archives, however. ...more
Collection of Western-themed short stories, blended with science fiction/fantasy. Many would fall into the subgenre of Steampunk, which compliments thCollection of Western-themed short stories, blended with science fiction/fantasy. Many would fall into the subgenre of Steampunk, which compliments the Western very well.
They were generally fun to read, mostly action-oriented narratives featuring outlaws or lawmen (and some women). For my taste, they could have been far “weirder” and gone a bit deeper.
Two that stood out to me were:
"Bookkeeper, Narrator, Gunslinger" by Charles Yu, a story that played meta games with the conventions of the “gunslinger” type of charter, and "Alvin and the Apple Tree" by Orson Scott Card, which read like a religious parable. ...more
Book of funny short stories about young men in the leisure class. Most of the plots involved the younger characters scheming to keep the financial supBook of funny short stories about young men in the leisure class. Most of the plots involved the younger characters scheming to keep the financial support of their older, wealthier relatives while retaining their freedom to live as they wish. Beats working for a living.
Only half of these were about Jeeves and Wooster; the others featured Reggie Pepper, a character similar to Bertie.
I laughed out loud quite a bit while reading the stories and will definitely check out more of Wodehouse's work. ...more
Book of fairy stories taking place in the same world as Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. By which I mean, each of the stories features a fairy or faiBook of fairy stories taking place in the same world as Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. By which I mean, each of the stories features a fairy or fairies as characters, though they are “fairy tales” as well. There’s a classic European folklore vibe, even down to the cover art.
Many entertaining characters populate these stories and Clarke uses a fun, sparkling writing style, even when dark events are occurring.
A few of my favorites were "On Lickerish Hill," which I recognize as a retelling of “Rumpelstilskin,” "Mr Simonelli, or the Fairy Widower," which features an entertainingly vain and manipulative narrator, and the title story.
“Ladies of Grace Adieu” features a cameo appearance by Jonathan Strange, that rock star of 19th-century magicians. In this story we find out that women are magic users too, they just keep it a little more low key.
The collection is focused mostly on female characters and their power, though it doesn’t scream out that it’s a feminist statement. ...more
This is my second attempt at reading a Lovecraft collection. The first time I read a similar collection, I lost interest and mostly skimmed the storieThis is my second attempt at reading a Lovecraft collection. The first time I read a similar collection, I lost interest and mostly skimmed the stories. But because so many of my favorite authors draw inspiration from Lovecraft, I felt compelled to get familiar with, and hopefully learn to enjoy, his work.
This collection has everything a curious/casual reader would want. All the Cthulhu Mythos stories and other well-known ones are here.
With some of these stories, Lovecraft’s writing still challenged my attention span. He has an incredible imagination but doesn’t connect the reader emotionally to the characters, most of whom are there as a channel through which he imparts long descriptions of weirdness from his vast imagination.
A classic example is the longer story, “The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath'' featuring Lovecraft’s recurring explorer of unknown worlds, Randolph Carter. In this story, Carter travels to various fantasy locations and interacts with strange beings such as Ghouls, Ghasts, Gugs, and Ghaunts. Sounds a bit like Dr. Seuss, no? There are some conflicts but most of the words are spent on describing the landscape.
“Down through this verdant land Carter walked at evening, and saw twilight float up from the river to the marvelous (sic) golden spires of Thran. And just at the hour of dusk he came to the southern gate, and was stopped by a red-robed sentry till he had told three dreams beyond belief, and proved himself a dreamer worthy to walk up Thran’s steep mysterious streets and linger in bazaars where the wares of the ornate galleons were sold.”
We don’t know what the dreams were, it just goes on like that. This is about halfway through the story, when things should be heating up.
However, I discovered a handful of favorites, most of them short-form stories.
Longer stories:
Herbert West, Reanimator: Horror fans are probably already familiar with the 1985 film. An insane physician tries to cure death (cue the diabolical laughter). Macabre wackiness, cannibalistic zombies, and animated body parts create chaos. It’s told from the view of one of West’s colleagues so we are spared (or denied) the thoughts of the probably insane title character.
The Thing on the Doorstep: A young man gets married and his new bride takes him over, body and soul. (I’ve known couples like this.) Again, the story is told by a secondary character who observes the identity-related horror of loss of sanity and bodily autonomy. There is some gory and gross fun involving an undead corpse.
Shorts:
“Cats of Ulthar”: In the town of Ulthar, there is an old couple who is suspected of killing all the pet cats. Fun revenge story if you are a cat lover.
“Music of Erich Zann” and “Pickman’s Model”: These are similar so I’m grouping them. Both are about creative types who tap into other dimensions for inspiration.
“Cool Air”: A New Yorker describes his neighbor, a doctor who saved his life. The narrator likes him but finds it creepy that he always keeps his apartment incredibly cold.
“The Hound”: Two friends seek thrills by doing some grave robbing. They amass an impressive collection until they are hunted by a beast with flapping wings.
“The Outsider”: The narrator recounts his childhood of living in a dark, dank, depressing castle until he finally ventures out only to confront some cultists and a monster. One of my favorites because it reads like a Poe story.
“In the Vault”: Slapstick story of a lazy, corner-cutting undertaker trapped in his own vault and attacked by a displeased “customer.”
My choices might be odd. I was surprised that I found some of them funny but that could be my weird sense of humor. I didn’t find the classic mythos stories as accessible as the ones I listed above.
My loss (I guess), but I did achieve my goal of familiarizing myself with this work. The collection was perfect for that purpose....more
The ten short stories in this collection all take place in the same area in Florida. Most of them (9/10) are told from the point of view of kids.
I enjThe ten short stories in this collection all take place in the same area in Florida. Most of them (9/10) are told from the point of view of kids.
I enjoyed her more recent collections a bit more than this one, maybe because the newer ones had more of a variety of styles and voices.
As for these stories, my favorites were "Z. Z.’s Sleep Away Camp for Disordered Dreamers" about a group of kids with various sleep dysfunctions, "Out to Sea," the only story told from the POV of an adult, and the title story which included some surreal humor....more
Lots of variety to these stories. Imaginative authors used characters, themes, and dialogue from Carroll's books and combined them with genres like WeLots of variety to these stories. Imaginative authors used characters, themes, and dialogue from Carroll's books and combined them with genres like Western, Sci-Fi, Horror, Spy Thriller, and of course Fantasy and Dark Fantasy. Multiple stories shared themes of growing up and leaving Wonderland behind or trying to return to it after living an adult life.
My favorite in the collection was “The Hunting of the Jabberwock (Jonathan Green), a High Fantasy story and one of the few that added humor. I also especially enjoyed the unexpected apocalyptic horror of “There Were No Birds to Fly” (M.R. Carey) and the Sci-Fi Spy story, The “White Queen’s Pawn” (Genevieve Cogman) which had a Philip K. Dick appeal.
If I had one wish for this collection it would be that more of the authors had taken the wordplay and humor as part of their inspiration for their contributions to this collection. It doesn’t seem to be the done thing these days. (Even Tim Burton neglected this.)
Individual interpretation is part of what makes the collection appealing and diverse yet it is curious that most of the stories weren’t particularly playful in tone. Especially for something inspired by a classic book for kids....more
This is a decent collection of novellas, two of which were excellent and will stay with me for a long time.
“Snapshot” was good up to a point, with itThis is a decent collection of novellas, two of which were excellent and will stay with me for a long time.
“Snapshot” was good up to a point, with its subtle emotional resonance about dealing with aging loved ones afflicted with Altzeimers. It should have ended about 20 pages sooner than it did. Hill dragged out various epilogues, for what?
“Loaded” was more of an agenda than entertaining story, made obvious by portraying the protagonist, Kellaway, as an absurd caricature. (The secondary definition of “loaded” is “weighted or biased toward a particular outcome.”)
“Aloft” was excellent and convinced me that Hill can indeed be a good storyteller. A little cosmic horror, a little personal growth. Fantastic imagination and imagery. Rock solid for a story about a cloud.
“Rain” was my favorite, bizarre apocalyptic road story with an oddball cast of characters. The answer to where the rain originated was far-fetched, yet, since the story is flavored with tongue-in-cheek humor and outrageous incidents, the resolution suits the tone.
I nearly gave up on this after the second novella but the last two saved the collection for me. ...more
I recently read Grady Hendrix’s Paperbacks from Hell and noted that while many books sounded simply awful (in a fun way) some were intriguing enough tI recently read Grady Hendrix’s Paperbacks from Hell and noted that while many books sounded simply awful (in a fun way) some were intriguing enough that I wanted to track them down.
This one in particular topped my list. It looks like, thanks to Paperbacks from Hell, some of the books listed were re-released. (This one in particular has a sticker on it, noting the connection to PfH.)
This is actually two novellas rather than one long horror novel. They share a common theme of young women who are outcasts from society and the consequences to their lives and the lives of others. Engstrom is a fine writer and these stories strike me more as tragedy than horror. This one has a little more depth and not so many visceral thrills typical in the genre. ...more
Fun if you like Waters, his films, and his sense of humor. The most interesting part of the book was the real life hitchhiking trip and seeing how it Fun if you like Waters, his films, and his sense of humor. The most interesting part of the book was the real life hitchhiking trip and seeing how it was a) hard to get a ride and b) most people were quite nice and decent to him once he did finally get a ride. He even made a good friend! Someone he probably wouldn't necessarily have met otherwise.
That is only one-third or less of the book though. Most of it is Water’s fantasy’s/nightmares about what might happen to him on this trip. Of course, they are extreme and frequently gross/raunchy. They start out almost believable and then amp up to utterly absurd. Some chapters are quite funny. Some are a bit much.
I am a fan of Waters and like the way he writes. It’s hard to imagine who to recommend this to outside of other fans though. ...more
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