Good New Horror

[j. d. worthington]

Conn: Carrion Comfort is a vampire novel -- albeit of a different kind. George R. R. Martin's Fevre Dream is also on that theme, and well worth your time. If you can find it (it has been anthologized several times, which would be cheaper than going for one of his original collections) Robert Aickman's "Pages from a Young Girl's Diary" is one of the best short pieces in this... vein. (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

The Cisco was "Violence, Child of Trust", in Black Wings, an anthology of new Lovecraftian horror tales. As I said, the story itself is fine; it is just that the ending left me feeling a bit disappointed. I would still recommend the piece, though....

[nomadman]

Connavar, I wrote a brief review of a great little vampire story in the Bob Leman thread, The Pilgrimage of Clifford M. Unfortunately, the story to date has only been collected in the expensive and OOP Feesters in the Lake. I read it in the May 1984 issue of Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine in whcih the story first appeared.

Thomas Tessier's The Nightwalker is an interesting take on the werewolf genre, worth looking into.

[Connavar]

I tried finding hard that Bob Lemon collection but i can only find him in some anthologies. Shame i wanted that story badly.

JD: Fevre Dream i plan to get, it looks too good. Is Carrion Comfort written differently than Hyperion books ? I found his writing really far from interesting.

This is kind of horror im looking. More literary,well written than just the popular stuff.

[j. d. worthington]

Yes, Carrion Comfort is written quite differently. It opens with a very gripping scene, and seldom lets up the pressure throughout... and it is (in the edition I have) an 884 page book! His Song of Kali has also been listed among the best novels in the genre.

Though I strongly disagree with Simmons when it comes to Wilkie Collins, Simmons himself is a very skillful writer whose style and manner varies depending on the story he is telling....

[Fried Egg]

I agree. In "Song of Kali", Simmons was excellent. Can't compare it to Hyperion though as I am yet to read it...

[Connavar]

Originally Posted by j. d. worthington

Yes, Carrion Comfort is written quite differently. It opens with a very gripping scene, and seldom lets up the pressure throughout... and it is (in the edition I have) an 884 page book! His Song of Kali has also been listed among the best novels in the genre.

Though I strongly disagree with Simmons when it comes to Wilkie Collins, Simmons himself is a very skillful writer whose style and manner varies depending on the story he is telling....

Maybe it will be like it was with GRRM. I sampled 20-30 pages of Fevre Dream in the library and prose,writing wise i couldnt believe its the guy that wrote A Game of Thrones series that i tried to read but the writing put me off.

Fevre Dream i could really understand why its so hailed, in fantasy masterwork series.

[GOLLUM]

Originally Posted by Connavar

Fevre Dream i could really understand why its so hailed, in fantasy masterwork series.

Like I've said before the best Vampire story I've probably read alongside Matheson's I Am Legend.

[Fried Egg]

I know that she sometimes gets associated (unfairly I think) with the paranormal romance genre, but I really liked Anne Rice's "Interview with a Vampire". I haven't read any of her other books so I have no idea if the quality of that first one is maintained but I think that one (at least) is definitely worth a read.

[mrichardson17]

If you're looking for weird fiction along the lines of Ligotti, I'd recommend a collection called Dark Awakenings by Matt Cardin. He is in the top tier of modern weird fiction writers.

[Fried Egg]

Thanks for the recommendation; I'll look into it.

[mrichardson17]

If you enjoy older horror stories along the lines of M.R. James, you might enjoy John Langan's old school 2008 collection "Mr Gaunt and Other Uneasy Encounters." This same author has also recently released what I take to be a haunted house novel, although I've yet to read it.

[Fried Egg]

Well, the Amazon turns up Dark Awakenings but for an eye watering £23.75.

A bit pricey for me, especially to splash out on a new author I've not tried before. But if he is as good as Ligotti, it may just be worth it.

[mrichardson17]

Originally Posted by Fried Egg

Well, the Amazon turns up Dark Awakenings but for an eye watering £23.75.

A bit pricey for me, especially to splash out on a new author I've not tried before. But if he is as good as Ligotti, it may just be worth it.

I didn't say he was as good as Ligotti. In truth, it is difficult to make that judgment. Ligotti is the superior stylist, but Cardin is the superior storyteller.

I mostly appreciate Ligotti for his expertise in creating a weird and disconcerting atmosphere for his stories. Moreover, he is an absolutely magnificent writer. But when I am reading his works I always feel alienated and disconnected, as if I am an observer but not a participant. This seems to be a deliberate element of his style. Also, his characters are so bizarre that it is absolutely impossible to relate with them at all. And, to be fair, Ligotti has stated that he has no interest in writing about normal people. It leads to reading that is very enjoyable but not especially gripping.

Cardin, while still a very good writer, doesn't have nearly as distinctive a style as Ligotti does. A page of Ligotti's fiction is like nothing else you'll ever encounter, whereas Cardin's work, while extremely well-told, is not written in such a way that you could imagine only Matt Cardin being the author. In many ways I find him superior to Ligotti, though. First, his stories are incredibly engaging. They exerted an almost magnetic pull on my attention, whereas it isn't uncommon for me to space out when reading a Ligotti work and get lost in my own mental nightmare world. The narrative elements of his works are of secondary importance to the atmosphere. Secondly, Cardin is able to find a middle ground between normal people and Ligotti's basket-cases with his characters. Thirdly, Cardin's work is much more academic, in that he pulls in many outside ideas and connects the dots between many different concepts and disciplines, which I find absolutely fascinating.

If nothing else, the collection is worth reading for the first piece, Teeth, which is the most horrifying story I've ever read in my life. I was already going through a kind of grieving process when I read it, and so that put me over the edge into a kind of paranoid and borderline delirious state for several hours afterward. I'm sure if I had been in a normal mood that I wouldn't have been so powerfully affected by it, but it still remains, even upon multiple re-reads, an incredibly overwhelming work of fiction.

Only about half of the book is fiction, though. The book's second half is composed of fascinating essays on: 1. the conceptual history of the angel and the demon, 2. a spiritual analysis of George Romero's Living Dead trilogy, and 3. a "horrific reading" of the Book of Isaiah from the Holy Bible.

[Fried Egg]

Well thanks for your analysis of their comparative styles. Matt Cardin does sound interesting.

[ravenus]

Yeah, Matt Cardin certainly looks like an author whose work one should look out for. Do you know if he has contributed to any of the Best New Horror type anthologies?