What Are You Reading At The Moment?

[AndyBlade]

'The Glory Bus' by Richard Laymon. I actually thought this might not be so good as it's a very late work of his;

So late that he never actually finished it - This was one of the several unfinished manuscripts he was working on when he died. The last 60 pages or so were actually written by Laymons friend Dean Koontz, who receives an editing credit (in the US version at least) The last novel to be entirely written by Laymon was Night In The Lonesome October, published in 2000, which was also one of his best works.

Koontz also edited Amara and The Lake, and has finished work on four more unfinished Laymon novels, which wont see the light of day anywhere until late 2011 at the earliest, once the existing deal the Laymon estate has with Leisure Publishing (who are publishing the majority of the Laymon back catalogue in the US - many for their first US printing) has run its course.

[Leatherface]

I had no idea of that, Andy. Thanks for the info

I will check out Night In The Lonesome October, too. I'm really into him at the moment.

[AndyBlade]

My girlfriend went to college in the US with Kelly Laymon - Richard Laymons daughter - in the late 90s/early 00s. Its one of my few extremely tenuous links to anyone in the public eye. They still speak/email often, so I get to find out occasional snippets about the US horror fiction scene from time to time. Plus I've managed to bag some signed bits and pieces and other goodies..

Richard Laymon made his living through being published in the UK and Australia and was almost unheard of in America outside of a few limited edition Cemetary Dance releases in the mid-late 90s. Its only since he died that his stuff has started to be published mass market. Many of the novels which have been available over here for almost 20 years (Funland, Quake etc) have not yet been published in America. Even some of his UK releases have been trimmed for one reason or another - The Woods Are Dark lost around 50 pages (the complete novel was released for the first time almost 25 years after it was originally released, via Leisure in the US last year) Endless Night lost around 20 pages, and even as late a release as Night In The Lonesome October is missing about 30 pages which were submitted to be published.

He was never high art, but everything he wrote was readable and entertaining. He was also the last American author who wrote horror to be given a UK publishing deal, believe it or not. Since then no-one from over the water has managed to crack the market. Any number of the current crop of US horror authors - Brian Keene, John Everson, Nate Kenyon, Jonathan Maberry and so on - all openly credit him as a big influence on their writing.

[orgasmo]

Ive been a fan of Richard laymons work since my teens-First novel I read by him was one rainy night And I never looked back.
Im going to have to order the woods are dark-never knew it had so much cut from it.
As a fan I even now still have not got over his death.

[AndyBlade]

Recently finished John Ajvide Lindqvist's Handling The Undead. This is the Swedish author who wrote Let The Right One In, and its a much easier read than that was. In this one, the dead come back to life and go home to carry on with their lives. Not an out and out horror story, more of a study into life and death. It reminded me quite a bit of The Lovely Bones from a few years ago. Lindqvist is Swedens top selling author at the moment, so I'm sure a movie version and probably US remake will come along at some point.

I'm currently reading Jonathan Mayberry's Patient Zero. I liked his Pine Deep trilogy, and this one has started well so far. I'm also sporadically dipping in and out of HP Lovecrafts massive short story collection, Necronomicon.

[AndyBlade]

Horror fiction by UK authors is undergoing a minor resurgence at the moment via the independent and print on demand publishers. Bloody Books have just published second novels by both Joseph D'Lacey and Bill Hussey, Virgin Books have Conrad Williams, Adam Nevill and Robin Baker all publishing new novels, and Sarah Pinborough, Simon Clark and Maynard and Sims (who always co-write) all have work regularly published. Of course, the major publishers such as Headline and Macmillan wouldnt ever be so willing to take a chance, but the work is there, for the first time in years, for anyone interested enough to look beyond the supermarkets and high streets for their fiction.

The last book I finished was The Absence, by Bill Hussey. I cant praise this book highly enough. I'd even say its one of the best books I've read in ten years or so. Gaining a few extra points for being one of the few books I;ve read which is set in a place I used to live in, its the story of an haunted watermill in the Lincolnshire fens, and its the closest I've found to the work of MR James in a long time. Whilst its set in modern times, its basically an old fashioned ghost story high on atmosphere and creeping tension. Its rare to find books like this - either they overdo the blood and gore, or they're just not interesting enough. Highly recommended, anyway, along with the authors other novel, called Through A Glass, Darkly.

[Count Yorga]

Im currently reading Colin Wilsons Space Vampires and Fritz Liebers Conjure Wife.

/Yorga

[Pinback]

Im currently reading Colin Wilsons Space Vampires and Fritz Liebers Conjure Wife.

/Yorga

Space vampires was the inspiration behind the much derided Life force. I marvelled at the film and am quite keen to get my grubby mitts on the book. Another Colin Wilson book I'd recommend is outsiders, a factual treatise on porn and celebrated sexual deviants from the last two hundred years. Informative and entertaining.

[Leatherface]

Just finished 'Friday Night in Beast House' - after the brilliant 'The Glory Bus', this was incredibly disappointing. I had heard bad things about it beforehand, but being it was part of the Beast House series, I had to read it for completion sake. 80 pages of rubbish, not saved by a final 20 pages of rape and a half decent sex scene. Unless you've read the others in the series, don't bother - this is terrible.

[Timmy Lea]

Finally finished The Magus, about six months after starting- and about fifteen years after my first attempt in 1994.

I can honestly say that no book has had, or ever will have had such a profound effect on me, since the first Pan, Armada and Fontana horror anthologies I read as a fresh-faced ten year old. Not even One Hundred Years of Solitude or LACE, which lurk at completely opposite ends of the literary spectrum, but which I both adore for very different reasons.

As far as I'm concerned, I am the character of Nicholas Urfe, albeit a slightly older, more working class version who has never lived abroad. I haven't identified with a fictional literary character in quite this way before (barring my fantastic dreams of being either Jerry Cornelius or Mark Sabat) and it's a little worrying.

I've never been one of those weirdo types who believes that authors have any mystical powers, or know the the answers to the cosmos- after all, they're only humans- but were John Fowles still alive, there's a few questions I'd like to ask him. Having said that, perhaps the whole point of the book is that not knowing and not understanding all is sometimes preferable.

[AndyBlade]

It turned into a bit of a quest, but I've finally finished The Terror, by Dan Simmons. Its a huge book at over 1000 pages. I dont actually remember the last time I read such a massive book - most likely it was either It, or The Stand in the late 80s/early 90s.

The real-life account of the mid-1800s Arctic expedition of the HMS Terror and HMS Erebus form the basis for this story. Commandering the ships are Captain Francis Crozier and Sir John Franklin, respectively, who seek a northwest passage for England but find instant trouble once their boats are frozen in place in the ice-waters. Temperatures remain sub-zero, supplies start to run out, their food is tainted and crewmembers come down with scurvy. This all really happened in the dim and distant past, but Simmons throws them the biggest conflict yet: there’s a gigantic creature out on the ice that’s very hungry.

It’s not for nothing that Simmons dedicates the novel to the cast and crew of THE THING. But here the creature is not nearly as tangible; rather, it’s a supernatural force with so few distinguishable features that it’s often referred to as simply, the shape. Each chapter follows a different crew member, some of whom fall victim and some of whom think the beast has something to do with the arrival of the mute Eskimo woman to their ship. Regardless, the situation gets ever more bleak with each day that passes.

Highly recommended if you have the time to invest in reading.

[Mark Y]

Finally finished The Magus, about six months after starting- and about fifteen years after my first attempt in 1994.

I have the Pan movie tie-in of The Magus but have never got round to reading it. Your comments have intigued me though Timmy so its one I may well consider for the future.

I recently finished Chris Lee's autobiography Tall Dark and Gruesome - an entertaining read, even though detail on his horror career is minimal. He displays a fine (and earthy) sense of humour that rarely comes across in his work and some parts had me laughing out loud. Other parts are quite moving, especially the sections dealing with his daughter's birth and the obstacles she had to overcome. The arrangement of the book is also a little strange.

Have just started the Don Simpson biography High Concept...

[MarcMorris]

Have just started the Don Simpson biography High Concept...

You're in for a hell of a great read with that one. How many drugs? How many private jets? How many hookers? XS!

[claire]

High Concept is a great read, agreed. I won't speak ill of the dead, but suffice to say Mr Simpson is in a better pace now (as are Hollywood actresses, away from his fat woman-abusing carcass).

[Companero]

I've read High Concept too and loved it. I love film industry exposés. Others I would recommend include Easy Riders, Raging Bulls and Down and Dirty Pictures (both by Peter Biskind), The Egos Have Landed (about Blighty's own Palace Pictures) and Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life, which is about Handmade Films.

I'm currently reading Alex Cox's excellent 10,000 Ways To Die: A Director's Take On The Spaghetti Western.

[jacksmith1983]

It's been some time since anyone posted in this thread so I thought I would take this opportunity to revive it.

At the moment I'm currently reading Cannibals by the one and only Guy N. Smith. Now Smith really isn't an especially accomplished writer, but whenever I'm stuck for something to read I find any of his books to be a good choice as they are always a fast-moving fun read and invariably are crammed with plenty of gore and misanthropy. Cannibals however is pretty hardcore even by Smith's standards. I don't wish to spoil it for anyone who intends to read it at some punt for themselves, but in a nutshell the plot concerns a remote, mountainous region of the Scottish highlands which is stalked by a colony of hideously malformed, bestial cannibals. When an enterprising local builds a few holiday chalet's several unwitting tourists descend on the area and much grisly carnage predictably ensues as the cannibals decide to begin snacking on the interlopers. Not finished it yet but there is some real nastiness in this one as Smith lovingly dwells upon graphic description's of the cannibals dismembering their victims ready for the cooking pot and one unlucky lass is even gang-raped by several of the slavering fiend's prior to being hacked to pieces.

All in all a good, breezy and delightfully graphic and unpleasant read so far. But would you really expect anything less from Smith?

[Leatherface]

Looks cool, Jack - any idea where it's available?

[jacksmith1983]

I got mine off a market stall this past weekend. However, there are also cheap used copies currently available on Cannibals (Paperback)

[AndyBlade]

Guy N Smith is a spectacularly poor author who should be ashamed of making a living from everything he ever had published up to around 1990. His later attempts to write more up to date and adult novels via the independent press are also comedy bad. Everything he writes is poorly written, almost identical to everything else no matter what setting he puts the story in, and he manages to do the seemingly impossible and make another terrible English writer, James Herbert, look like a wordsmith by comparison.

In my opinion, of course.

Currently reading Wrath James White's Succulent Prey, a cheerful, heartwarming everyday story about a necrophile cannibal serial killer.

[jacksmith1983]

I do think your assessment of Guy N. Smith is a tad harsh to be honest Andy, although obviously you are entitled to your opinion. As I said on my previous post I don't think even most of his fairly significant cult following would try and argue that he is a very good writer. However, his books, for me at least, whilst essentially silly, badly-written crap do invraiably offer what you want from a trashy 200 page horror novel. Namely a pulpy, ridiculously far-featched plot and plenty of gore.

I do however agree with you that once you've read a few of Smith's books you;ve really read them all, although I do personally find his brand of shameless lowest common denominator horror very addictive.