A Ruritanian reimagining of Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher,” featuring linguistic invention, zombie hares, and heroic deeds by an aunt of Beatrix Potter. As always, Kingfisher is imaginative and entertaining.
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Writer and software engineer in the US Midwest. I enjoy poetry, horror, some f/sf, some mystery, some literary fiction (but not the kind where the main character is a professor and nothing happens).
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caracabe reviewed What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher
Review of What Moves the Deaf
4 stars
caracabe finished reading What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher
caracabe reviewed Horrors Unknown by H. P. Lovecraft
A few gems in a handful of gravel
3 stars
This anthology describes itself as “newly discovered masterpieces by great names in fantastic terror,” but it’s mostly B-list work. I’m not sorry I read it, but that’s due to a couple of bright patches in the blah.
The opening story, “The Challenge from Beyond,” is a novelty, with parts written in turn by C. L. Moore, A. Merritt, H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, and Frank Balknap Long, Jr. It’s not a seamless collaboration, but it is fun to read if you’re familiar with the works of those authors.
The final story, W. Fenimore’s “The Pool of the Stone God,” is more sketch than tale, and seems to be included because Fenimore might have been a pseudonym for A. Merritt.
Between those two, the real revelation for me is “From Hand to Mouth,” by Fitz-James O’Brien. I would call it a surrealist story, but it appeared decades before surrealism was …
This anthology describes itself as “newly discovered masterpieces by great names in fantastic terror,” but it’s mostly B-list work. I’m not sorry I read it, but that’s due to a couple of bright patches in the blah.
The opening story, “The Challenge from Beyond,” is a novelty, with parts written in turn by C. L. Moore, A. Merritt, H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, and Frank Balknap Long, Jr. It’s not a seamless collaboration, but it is fun to read if you’re familiar with the works of those authors.
The final story, W. Fenimore’s “The Pool of the Stone God,” is more sketch than tale, and seems to be included because Fenimore might have been a pseudonym for A. Merritt.
Between those two, the real revelation for me is “From Hand to Mouth,” by Fitz-James O’Brien. I would call it a surrealist story, but it appeared decades before surrealism was invented. O’Brien never finished the piece, and his editor wrote the weak ending.
Two versions of an early Ray Bradbury story appear here: the version Bradbury self-published in his zine because no one would buy it, and a revised version co-written with Henry Hasse that Super Science Stories eventually bought. Neither is great, but it’s interesting to compare the two.
caracabe started reading What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher
caracabe finished reading Horrors Unknown by H. P. Lovecraft
Horrors Unknown by H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Frank Belknap Long, and 9 others
caracabe started reading Horrors Unknown by H. P. Lovecraft
Horrors Unknown by H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Frank Belknap Long, and 9 others
caracabe reviewed Nicked by M. T. Anderson
Review of Nicked
4 stars
A heist caper set in the Middle Ages, with the loot being the bones of St. Nicholas. A dash of queer romance. Based on actual events.
caracabe finished reading Nicked by M. T. Anderson
caracabe started reading My wars are laid away in books by Alfred Habegger
caracabe reviewed Black Guy Dies First by Robin R. Means Coleman
Review of The Black Guy Dies First
5 stars
Thoughtful, richly informative, and entertaining. My one tiny complaint is the lack of an index, because I’d like to use this book as a reference work. However, the lists are easy to find and as useful as they are fun: “10 Horror Movies About Black-White Race Relations Not Named Get Out,” “The Baddest Black Horror Villains,” untitled lists such as horror movies with Black leads, and more.
caracabe finished reading Black Guy Dies First by Robin R. Means Coleman
caracabe started reading Nicked by M. T. Anderson
caracabe reviewed We Mostly Come Out at Night by Rob Costello
Review of We Mostly Come Out at Night
4 stars
An anthology of queer monster stories—as in, the monsters are queer. I didn’t realize when I bought the book that it’s YA. I wish books like this had been available when I was a young adult, and I wouldn’t hesitate to give this book to a young adult in my life.