[Hobbit]

New month...

OK. Tell us what was superb, great or not so good from your reading pile this month. And tell us why. (We don't want much, do we? :) )

Hobbit

[The One]

I'm in the middle of reading Hell House by Richard Matheson. I assumed it was going to be a copy of The Haunting of Hill House, but it's actually really good.

[Hobbit]

OOh, yes...we talked about Richard Matheson last month, too. That's a very good one; often underrated is Mr Matheson, I think.

Hobbit

[Kanin]

Yes!! Hell House is great!! I Love the characters and Hobbit is right, Matheson is underrated.

The One:

I would recommend I am Legend by Matheson if you like Hell House and some of his short stories as well.

[FicusFan]

I actually finished this the end of last month, but I will post it here.

I read a collection of short stories/novellas by David Prill called Dating Secrets of the Dead. It was just ok. I saw a review about it on the SF site quite a while ago, and I finally got a used copy. It was one of those vanity HC for $35.00. Anyway I got it for much less, but probably still paid too much.

The title story was about the dead dating, a real 1950's type of social set-up, where your memories of high school social problems are nothing compared to your eyball popping out, or your toes and fingers falling off while on a date with a 'fresh' one.

Then there was a story about a man and his son. The man traveled around the country roads into small towns and set up 'day's as civil events for the towns. Like 'trout fishing day'. He decided to retire and hand the business over to his son. His son went around and set up 'days' with his own brand on them: 'necrophila day' and so on.

Then there was a story more about lost innocence than horror - where a kid watches as the traveling spooky magic show comes to town year after year and then he meets the people learns the tricks, and plans to join them when he is older. But times change, the show people get older, and sadder and some move on, and he loses his dream.

The final one was something about a goldfish, not very memorable at all.

[Horrorfiend]

So far I've read:

The Queen of the Damned - Anne Rice
The Drawing of the Three - Stephen King
The Wastelands - Stephen King

All are excellent. I then watched the movie Queen of the Damned and was horrified to see how bad they butchered the story.

[FicusFan]

I just finished The Devil You Know a collection by Poppy Z. Brite. It should have been all horror, but she is on a reality kick, and there were only a couple of real horror stories, and several real life stories with nasty things going on. Not bad, but I miss her old stuff, though I do like her new stories about the characters from Liquor.

[Kanin]

Finished up reading A Case of Eavesdropping by Algernon Blackwood. One of my fav Blackwood stories. The landlady that rents out an apartment to Jim Shorthouse ,gives me the creeps.

[Priestvyrce]

Read two stories from The Vampire Sextte edited by Marvin Kaye. So far, the first two stories were fantastic!

Kim Newman's The Other Side of Midnight was eerie mystery , which was about bringing a dead(truely dead) Dracula back to life through the use of film. It had Orson Welles as one of the film makers, it was a bittersweet homage to the man.

The other story was by Nancy Collins, who used her Somja Blue character. It wasn't mind blowing, but the story telling aspect was neat to read.

I'm reading these stories in order, so I get to save teh best for last, which is a novella by Tanith Lee!

[FicusFan]

I have started The Five of Cups by Caitlin R. Kiernan. It is a vampire story and her first novel, sold but never published until recently. So far it seems promising, I am only about 20 pages in.