Bookmonkey vs The Hoard: Post Nine – Year’s Best Horror Series One

All right, I’ll admit I’m a sucker for a great short story, and when it comes to horror, short stories are often the best at delivering the scares, so when I first found a copy of DAW’s Year’s Best Horror volume eight at a used bookstore, I knew I would be adding the series to my ongoing collection.

Over the years I’ve collected eight of the twenty-two volumes published between 1972 and 1994, and although I don’t have the complete run yet, I did manage to find volume one last year and decided this month would be a good one to decide whether or not the series is worth collecting.

Short answer, absolutely.

Long answer, Year's Best Horror Stories: Series One (although missing some of my favourite parts of a good anthology – like an introduction, or bios on the author) collects a number of a pretty great horror fiction from 1972 (a year before Stephen King's first novel, Carrie, was published). The collection includes works by Robert Bloch (Psycho), Richard Matheson (I Am Legend), and Brian Lumley (Necroscope), along with a lot of others. The standouts for me were Matheson's "Prey" wherein a young woman purchases a gift for her boyfriend that moves from curious to terrifying in one night, "Warp" by Ralph Norton, which moves nicely into the Science Fiction/Horror crossover work I find so good in shows like Rick & Morty, and "After Nightfall" by David A. Riley, a Lovecraft-influenced story which looks into why you should always pay attention to local culture.

The book is short, a lot of fun, and definitely going to lead me to finding more of this series.

My Next Author

Last month I finished reading Never Go Back (2013), the latest of author Lee Child's 18 books about Jack Reacher.  As I dedicate one of my books each month to reading through the collected works of a specific author (before Child it was Richard Matheson, and before that it was P.G. Wodehouse and Robert McCammon), it is now time to decide who I will be beginning with next.

So starting this month I'm going to give the works of Canadian fantasist Charles de Lint (pictured left) a try.  I've been collecting his books on and off for years in my various used bookstore runs, so tomorrow I'll begin with his first novel The Riddle of the Wren.

To date I've only read one of his books, the 1987 book Jack the Giant Killer, which was listed as a recommended read in one of my Changeling: the Dreaming Role-Playing-Game Books.  I read it in the late '90s; it was excellent and the reason I started collecting his books almost fifteen years ago (yikes!).

Anyway, I'm hoping the experiment will turn out well, over the years my wife has read an awful lot of his books and tells me I'm in for a treat.

R.I.P. Richard Matheson

For those of you who have reading my blog for a while now, you know that I've actually spent the last few years reading the works of Richard Matheson at the rate of one book a month since July of 2011 - I finished earlier this year and one of my favourite aspects of his work was just how varied it was - everything from Science Fiction to Westerns, Mysteries and Crime Fiction to Horror and his own views on the afterlife, Matheson's work always impressed me, from both the basic ways in which his stories worked, to the incredible ideas he came up with.

I couldn't possibly give a list of my favourite novels written by the author as they are so different from each other it's virtually impossible to compare and contrast them.

The stories are great - whether you like WWII stories, straight up Horror or romance, he has stuff that would appeal to you, (My BFF Mike will happily point out that he wrote the original series Star Trek episode The Enemy Within), and I've barely even mentioned his work in television.

In my adult life I've worked my way through the complete fiction of maybe a dozen authors; everyone from Robert B. Parker (Thrillers), to Pierre Berton (Canadian Non-Fiction and History), to Elmore Leonard (pretty much everything), but I can honestly say that Matheson is one of my favourites of the whole bunch - his work was massively influential (Stephen King is quoted as calling Matheson "...the author who influenced me most as a writer"), filled with interesting and intriguing ideas and great characters, and most importantly, a whole lot of great reads.

Genre Character of the Week: Alex White

Today I finally caught up to author Richard Matheson; to be fair, I’m just talking about the novels, not the short stories, screenplays or other writings, and even then there are still a few tittles I could not track down for a reasonable amount of money (much as I love the writing, I’m not paying more than $50 for a paperback of The Night Stalker).  His latest book, Other Kingdoms focuses on the events which happened to a World War I soldier in England after he is injured in the war.  The protagonist, and this week’s genre character,Alex White.

 

The story is told from the point of view of 82-year-old horror author Arthur Black, creator of a series of horror books called Midnight.  Born Alexander White, he tells the reader the story of an event which occurred to you just after he finished serving as a soldier in WWI due to injury.  The story is one of his first loves, to two very different women while living in a small town called Gatford.

 

Although I wasn’t a fan of the author commenting on the structure of his book while writing it (commenting on nice turns of phrase or unacceptable word usage depending), it did a great job of conveying the feel of life and love at that young age (the main character is 18 at the time of the events in the story), and although more than a little whiney at times, he did come across as an honest look at a young man in extreme situations.

 

Having now caught up, I’m moving into another genre (which is tricky, as Matheson has written in Crime, Fantasy, Horror, Western, Non-Fiction and straight literature), but for me right now I’m jumping over to Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series, and then perhaps to something a little more Fantasy-based.

Why I'm Excited about Revolution

Next Monday (Sept. 17) I’m going to be sitting down to check out what appears to be a show tailor-made for me, NBC’s Revolution.  Taking place in a post-apocalyptic earth 15-years after an event caused all technology to stop, the series follows a family called the Matheson’s (for newcomers to my blog, Richard Matheson is the guy who famously wrote the classic post-apocalyptic story I Am Legend, which was turned into the Vincent Price 1964 film The Last Man on Earth, then the Charlton Heston 1971 filmOmega Man and most recently the 2007 Will Smith film I Am Legend and I’m currently working my way through all his published works).

The show was created by Eric Kripke, who created the CW series Supernatural, which currently rides pretty high on most of my friends I-can’t-belive-bookmonkey-doesn’t-already-watch-this-because-it-is-totally-his-kind-of-thing-list (The sad part is that Supernatural isn’t even at the top of that list) and looks an awful lot like a 2004 science fiction novel called Dies The Fire by S.M. Stirling (which was also pretty great and deserves a review of it’s own here someday).

In the end the first few weeks of September are always like a hyper Christmas for me, full of fancy gifts that I’m sure I’ll play with for years to come, and containing any number of gifts that will surely be broken and forgotten by New Years – I’m just hoping this one post-apocalyptic present may stick around for a while (or at least until I can judge the pilot).

Book Review: 7 Steps to Midnight

Continuing along my reading of the works of Richard Matheson, we come to the 1993 novel, 7 Steps to Midnight.  One of the things I've enjoyed most about reading his works is that he doesn't limit himself to one genre; I've come across crime novels (Fury on Sunday), Supernatural Thrillers (A Sitr of Echoes), Science Fiction (The Shrinking Man) and my personal favourite three, I Am Legend, What Dreams May Come, and Hell House.


This novel is a thriller, in a lot of ways close to the classic 1959 Hitchcock movie North by Northwest in that we follow an everyman through a terrifying chase across the globe as all sorts of creepy and threatening people seem to be hunting him down for different agendas.


The story's protagonist, Chris Barton, is a mathematician working for the United States government who comes home one day to find there is another man in his house claiming to also be Chris Barton, and believes that our main character is some sort of impostor.


The rest of the novel follows Chris as he evades police, government agents, and all sorts of shady folk who seem to want to kill him, capture him or help him.


In the end I enjoyed the book - it wasn't a game changer like my favourite three Matheson novels, but it was a solid thriller and I'd recommend it to anyone who is a fan of the genre.

Movie Review: Real Steel

Yesterday my wife and I decided to check out the Hugh Jackman robot fighting film, Real Steel, based off the short story Steel by Richard Matheson.


Although the film has a significant science fiction element (giant fighting robots), I would actually consider it a cross between two Sylvester Stallone films, Rocky (1976) and Over The Top (1987), and for the record, I really liked both of those films.


The movie focuses on Charlie and Max Kenton (played by Hugh Jackman and Dakota Goyo) as an estranged father and son involved in the world of robot boxing.


It's a lot of fun; the fight scenes are great, the human drama is engaging and it felt both futuristic and quite contemporary in theme.


Although definitely a guy movie, I think it is well worth the watch.

Book Review: Earthbound by Richard Matheson

My continuing journey through the works of Richard Matheson led me to the 1982 novel Earthbound this week (which he wrote under the pseudonym Logan Swanson), and it was pretty darn cool.

Having recently read his What Dreams May Come, which could basically be described as a romance set in the afterlife, this book is a lot darker, a little spookier and definitely more adult in nature.

The novel follows a married couple, David and Ellen Cooper, who have travelled back to the site of their honeymoon to try and rekindle the romance of their marriage as well as get over an affair David has recently had.

Unfortunately, the little cottage they stay in has another resident, a beautiful and mysterious woman named Marianna, who takes an immediate and intense interest in David.

The novel was a lot of fun, I enjoyed the fact that both the leads were in their forties (they are soon-to-be-grandparents) and found the atmosphere pretty interesting. The novel is described an erotic ghost story, so be warned, some of the book gets pretty graphic.

Overall a lot of fun, and leaves me looking forward to his next novel, a western called Journal of the Gun Years.

Genre Character of the Week: Chris Nielsen

I’m currently on my 10^th book by Richard Matheson, author of I Am Legend, and The Shrinking Man, and this one is called What Dreams May Come, which most people may recall was adapted into a Major Motion Picture starring Robin Williams back in 1998 that was well received and even nominated for a number of awards. Also the main character happens to be this week’s genre character, Chris Nielsen.

Chris begins the book by dying in a pretty terrible car accident, and thereafter spends the rest of the book in the afterlife. Oh yeah, for those of you who haven’t seen the movie, the story is also a romance. Here’s what I like about Chris.

The guy loves his wife.

That’s not everything, he’s also a good father, a writer (so he’s quite good at explaining the afterlife – which he does through a medium to his brother Robert) and incredibly brave, but at the most basic level, Chris loves his wife Ann, and it is that love that is the guiding theme behind the entire story.

If you haven’t seen the movie yet (or in a while) definitely check it out; Robin Williams is great and the art direction and visual effects are simply stunning. The story is a wonderful read as well, and although it doesn’t feature ghosts, vampires, or time travel (like some of my other favourite Matheson novels) it is currently sitting in my top three Matheson novels I’ve read so far.

Book Review: Ride the Nightmare

For the last few months my author of choice has been Richard Matheson. In the past I've worked my way through Michael Crichton, Pierre Berton, Terry Pratchett and a few others, simply working my way from oldest to newest, a book a month.

Although I was most familiar with Matheson in his horror and dark fantasy work (I Am Legend, Hell House, The Shrinking Man), he worked in all sorts of genres, and just a Elmore Leonard started out in Westerns before moving to the crime novels he was later famous for, Matheson began writing crime novels and thrillers. So far I've read Fury on Sunday, Someone Is Bleeding, and Woman; all of which were novels involving a relatively terrifying evening or few evenings in the lives of relatively normal people (although Woman has a decidedly Twilight Zone feel to it).

Ride the nightmare follows a married couple and their young child over the course of about 24 hours and involves mistaken identity, escaped criminals and a lot of punch for a novel that is only about 120 pages. If you've read a lot of crime novels the twists may not be too surprising to you, but the feel throughout the book is really great, the tension just builds and builds and the stakes get higher and higher.

I read the story in a collection called Noir, which contains three of Matheson's early books, and honestly, it was a lot of fun. Next up for me is actually a war novel called The Beardless Warriors, but as that is my February Matheson book, it'll have to wait.

Book Review: A Stir of Echoes

Like most people, I’ve seen a lot of movies based on books well before I ever got around to the novel, if at all. Often the film ruins any exciting plot twists you might have found in the book so there is even less of a reason to pick up the original work. But sometimes…

A few years back while in Germany I read Robert Bloch’s Psycho, a book that has become one of the most famous films ever made. Yes there is a secret ending, yes it is incredible, no I will not spoil it for the six or seven people out there who don’t know (it is that cool), so you would think that the original novel would have little to offer a reader who is “in the know.” To my surprise, that book was fantastic, scaring me almost all the way through, and surprising me in story elements that would not have translated well into the medium of film.

Two years ago I read Ira Levin’s Rosemary’s Baby, and the same thing occurred; even though I had seen the Polanski film at least five times, the book brought a wicked sense of humour to the material that I was not expecting and totally enjoyed.

This brings me to my current book, A Stir of Echoes by Richard Matheson. Like most people, I saw the 1999 Kevin Bacon film first (and yes I’ve won more than a few games of six degree of Kevin Bacon using this film or Tremors as a link; interesting note, Serious SDoKB players consider it a cheat to connect through star-studded films like JFK or Apollo 13). It’s kind of funny actually, as at the time the film came out there was a sort of backlash against it, saying it was basically a rip-off of The Sixth Sense, which is funny, because the book is based off of a novel published forty years earlier in 1958.

The book is actually a lot of fun, definitely helped by the fact that I saw the movie more than a dozen years ago so the story seems a little fresher. Add to that the fact that the victim and the killer are different in the novel than in the movie, and you end up with a story even someone who just saw the movie could still enjoy today.

This is the six Richard Matheson novel I’ve read in the last half year (the others were Someone is Bleeding, Fury on Sunday, Woman, I Am Legend, The Incredible Shrinking Man) and I love reading any authors work in order of publication because I get to see them grow as an artist. The book is quite good, and makes me want to go back and check out the movie again.

Things I've Noticed: Choosing your next author can be hard

Alright, I'm going to explain my reading schedule to you - yes I'm aware that I hold to a rigid schedule while readings books and yes, I'm aware I may over-think this aspect of my life - but you know what, I'm a reader, so I should be doing it the best I can.

Every month I read six novels (It's normally ten, but I'm nearing the end of my Undergraduate education so I've cut down for the time being), they break down as follows:

1) Read one Fantasy book

2) Read one SF book

3) Read one Horror Book

4 & 5) Read whatever my two book club books are, and

6) read a book by my current author

Usually I pick the Genre books off of either an awards list, the best-sellers list, or a list of top 100 books I'm working through for each (that top 100 horror books book? Yeah, there's one for both SF and Fantasy as well).

The book club books pick themselves and that just leaves me with my own choice.

Back in 2003 I read the complete works of Elmore Leonard, and got hooked on the habit of reading complete authors. Right now I'm just about up-to-date with Robert R. McCammon (Horror, then Horror/Fantasy, then Historical Fiction), and have just caught up with the Ancient Rome mystery novels of Steven Saylor.

My dilemma is this - who should I read next? Here are my three choices and reasons why I should pick them.

1) Michael Crichton

A big reason for reading Crichton is that I've already done most of the work - like a lot of people I got into his stuff after Jurassic Park came out and read virtually all of his fiction in my twenties. I think I have about 8 books of his left (including the non-fiction) and then I could be finished with his stuff - plus his last book was a pirate novel.

2) Charles De Lint

I'm a pretty big fan of Urban Fantasy, so the idea of a Canadian Urban Fantasy writer definitely peaks my interest, in addition my wife is a big fan and his earlier books were horror fantasy novels, makes him a strong contendor, the fact that I'd be signing myself up for over 60 novels (and still counting) makes me a little hesitant.

3) Richard Matheson

Having read three of his books (I Am Legend, Incredible Shrinking Man, and Hell House) I know I would enjoy the books, plus the fact that a couple of them are westerns appeal to me (I did go through that big Louis L'Amour phase a while back), added to the fact that I've got about half a dozen books of his on my shelf make him a pretty strong contender.

It's tricky stuff - I'll eventually read them all but where to start? Any ideas?

Top Five books I want to read in 2010

As New Years is just around the corner, this is usually the time of year when I start to think of things I'd like to get done in the next year. 2010 for me will likely include doing some more University courses, hopefully writing some more stories and hopefully dropping more than a few pounds.

The resolutions I would like to talk about here however, are the book I will definitely want to be reading at some point in the next year, and as I usually read more than a hundred a year, I think I'll just stick to my top 5.

Bookmonkey's top five books to read in 2010

5. The Fall: Strain Trilogy #2, by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan

One of my very first blog posts was about the first book in this trilogy, wherein Vampires began their plan to take over the world, and a few dedicated humans did everything they could to stop it. The sequel comes out in May, and even though I'll have to wait until February 2011 to finish the trilogy, I will be reading this book as soon as I can. (Sorry - couldn't find an image of the cover!)

4. Fury on Sunday, by Richard Matheson

Over the years I've read a number of books by Richard Matheson, Hell House, The Incredible Shrinking Man, Somewhere in Time, and I am Legend. This guy can really get under your skin. This year I'm going to try my best to read all of his books in publishing order. That starts with a 1953 novel I may have a lot of trouble finding, but as I love this guys books, I'm really gonna give it my best try.

3. The Glass Teat, by Harlan Ellison

As I'm working towards getting a Bachelors degree in Professional Arts, majoring in Communicates Studies (TV, Movies, Internet, etc.), sometimes I'll hear of a book that both interests me personally and might give me good arguments for upcoming university courses. Ellison's book, a non-fiction look at America's dependence on Television written back in the 1970s, appears to be just this kind of book.

2. Queen & Country, by Greg Rucka

I started reading these graphic novels from my public library a few years ago and loved them, basically they follow British MI-6 and specifically a spy named Tara Chase. The writing was tense, sometimes brutal, and felt totally real. Unfortunately for me me, the library had only the first 5 collections so I had to wait. But for Christmas this year I got all 4 Definitive Edition of the series, which means I finally get to finish this incredible series.

1. Paradise Lost, by John Milton

Every year I try to read something that is not only good, but good for me as well. Last year it was The Iliad of Homer, this year, I'm going to attempt Paradise Lost. It's kind of funny as a big part of why I am reading this book is the fact that I've had a novel called To Reign in Hell sitting on my "To be Read" shelf for the last couple of years, and it is a modern retelling of this classic. I'm doing the same thing with Dan Simmon's Hyperion and the Canterbury Tales, but I think that that book will have to wait for 2011.

Things I've Noticed #7: The 5 Reasons Horror Fiction Rocks

A couple weeks ago I spent almost an entire post explaining why I hated Scott Smith's The Ruins. As we have now entered October, I figured it might be a good idea to explain some things I love about Horror Fiction.

1. It's pretty much the only genre that allows you to kill off your main character - yes, I know, people die tearfully in dramas and often in action and mystery books, but for the most part, your main character is a guaranteed survivor - unless you're reading horror and then all bets are off.

2. Shorter is often better - Short Stories seem to be a natural place for Horror, I think it's easier to ramp up the tension and really get the fear going when the story is less than 50 pages. Even when I think of my favourite horror novelists, Stephen King and Richard Matheson, both of them excel at the short story.

3. It can even work when you know how it will end - case in point, I read Psycho by Robert Bloch two years ago - and even though I had seen the movie and knew the entire story, the book seriously gave me a case of the heebie jeebies.

4. Horror is not often considered literature - and sometimes that suits me just fine - I read a lot of books that are good for me, but every once in a while it is nice to just read something that has an incredibly high "Cool" factor. Also, since it is not considered literature, more people are willing to talk to you about it.

5. Horror is an emotion - so it can show up in any genre. I've read horror westerns (Track of the Cat), Horror Fantasy (Night's Master), Horror SF (The Sheep Look Up) and tonnes more. Unlike other genres, horror can easily sneak up on you anywhere - and when it mixes with comedy (my personal favourite), you get something very cool!

I think the reason I love horror is simple; I like getting an emotional reaction from the stuff I read, and really good horror can leave you a little scared for a long time.

Bookmonkey's top 5 books in a Post-apocalyptic setting

Last week I took a look at Guillermo Del Toro's The Strain, a 2009 horror novel focusing on the beginnings of a vampire apocalypse and stated that the Post-apocalyptic sub-genre is one of my personal favourites. So now I guess it's proper Internet etiquette to hold up my top choices for you to compare and judge (be gentle!).

So here we go:

5. The Stand, by Stephen King

My own personal first taste in the sub-genre, this massive story (over 1000 pages - yes I know I was all on about how giant books like this are the death of genre fiction, but come on - It's The Freaking Stand!), did a lot for me, it made sure I take getting the flu seriously, ensured I would be law abiding - nothing would be worse than being trapped in a jail cell when everyone else died, and heightened my already healthy fear of underground tunnels. For those of you who don't know, Marvel is doing a great adaptation of this series, it's totally worth a look.

4. I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson

To be fair I liked the movie (more than Omega Man, and not quite as much as The Last Man on Earth), but the best part of the book comes down to two words - Ben Cortman. Ben is a former friend and neighbour of the protagonist, Robert Neville and spends most of the novel being a HUGE thorn in his side, as Robert spends most of his days hunting for his former friend/Vampire nemesis. Unlike the 2007 film, the vampires in the book are sentient, smart and still have all their human memories.

3. Swan Song, by Robert R. McCammon

For those of you unfamiliar with Mr. McCammon's work, I would actually suggest starting with Boy's Life (a winner of the World Fantasy Award), but if you want some great post-nuclear disaster, good versus evil, hint of magic type stuff, than this book is definitely for you.

2. The City and the Stars, by Arthur C. Clarke

Probably the only pure SF book on the list, This story takes place when a city of people who have survived generations after an apocalypse and are basically immortal, bring to life a young clone (they are all clones) who has the drive to go outside of the city, and what he finds out there changes the world forever.

1. Earth Abides, by George Stewart

This book probably deserves its own review (coming soon), but it is hands down my favourite SF book of the '40s (sorry 1984), and definately my favourite post-apocalyptic book period. It starts by following the life of a Berkeley graduate named Isherwood (Ish for short) Williams, just after WWII, follows him through the apocalypse (a plauge like in The Stand) and then continues to follow his life for the next 4o years in the post-apocalyptic world! Books that follow people through an apocalypse probably make up 80% of the sub-genre, books that take place generations after the apocalypse make up 15% of the sub-genre, but a book that takes the long view definately stands out on its own. Put simply - buy this book.

Now I know I've missed tonnes of peoples favourites in this sub-genre, but believe me, this category is one of my fav's - I could do a top five comics, top five young adult books, top five of classics, the '50s, '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s, '00s, and that doesn't even touch movies, TV series or Anime. I'm just talking novels and even with a category this narrow I had to think long and hard about which books would make the cut.

Honourable mention: Children of Men, The Long Tomorrow, A Canticle for Liebowitz, The Handmaid's Tale (I am Canadian after all) - I'm sorry, I'll stop now.