Countdown to Hallowe'en 2016

[Hobbit]

Here's where we begin our now rather traditional Countdown to the end of the month. Randy M. has returned, and with the SFFWorld staff, has compiled to suggestions of books, films, interviews and articles that we think you'll enjoy as the time draws ever near until 31st October.

We've been doing this for a few years now, but there's always something new for us to look at. Feel free to contribute with your own favourites or comment on those suggested here as we go through the month.

Over to our Curator of the Curious, Randy M., for more details:

 

[Hobbit]

As this year gradually slides into reds and oranges and yellows, and nights increasingly call for fires on the hearth and warm beverages close at hand, let’s gather again in the glow of our screens to discuss stories we hope cause a safe, exciting shiver; what M. R. James termed a pleasing terror. Come closer … just a little closer … and listen closely. I have a little story …


Sometimes I grow nostalgic for old black and white movies, a staple of TV when I was a kid, particularly the creature features that whiled away chilly, rainy Saturday afternoons, some of which were based on written science fiction. Rereading one such story, “Who Goes There?” suggested reading a few other stories that share features with it, some as old or older, some a bit newer, and so a few suggestions of stories merging horror with science fiction.


There are other threads tying this reading together, too. Hauntings for one, film and television, video, for another, but even larger is family. I just recently recognized how many of the stories I’m suggesting deal in one form or another with the creepy, happy, dysfunctional, cohesive, self-destructive families who appear again and again in fiction as hero or victim. No Addams family, though, just normal folk sometimes wound up in the abnormal.


But first, before we talk of family, let’s scan an icy stretch, a wide and barren stretch where the wind rolls the snow into balls that tumble across our vision in the cold, cold Antarctic …





At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft (first published in two parts in Astounding Science Fiction, February & March 1936; The New Annotated H. P. Lovecraft, 2014; for further publishing information, http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?21818; on-line: http://www.freesfonline.de/authors/John W._Campbell.html)


I am forced into speech because men of science have refused to follow my advice without knowing why. It is altogether against my will that I tell my reasons for opposing this contemplated invasion of the antarctic –with its vast fossil-hunt and its wholesale boring and melting of the ancient ice-cap – and I am the more reluctant because my warning may be in vain.

-- first paragraph


It was young Danforth who drew our notice to the curious regularities of the higher mountain skyline – regularities like clinging fragments of perfect cubes, which Lake had mentioned in his messages, and which indeed justified his comparison with the dream-like suggestions of primordial temple ruins, on cloudy Asian mountain-tops so subtly and strangely painted by [Nicholas]Roerich.

-- from chapter 3



In September of 1930, in the footsteps of Shackleton, Amundson, Scott and Byrd, Professor William Dyer (full name only later revealed in “The Shadow Out of Time”) of Miskatonic University lead an expedition to the antarctic (Lovecraft did not capitalize this), fully supplied with shortwave radio, five Dornier aeroplanes, sledges, dogs, 20 men of various skills and expertise, and the newest apparatus for drilling and melting ice. The voyage provides Lovecraft room for foreshadowing as Dyer contemplates Poe’s The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym and, on sight of the mountains beyond McMurdo Sound, the paintings of Nicholas Roerich, and finally the fabled plateau of Leng as told of in the “dreaded Necronomicon of the mad Arab Abdul Ahazred,” a volume which resides in Miskatonic’s library and which Dyer perhaps too assiduously studied. In short, and without meaning to be, Professor Dyer is supremely qualified to understand and convey the terror of his experiences beyond McMurdo Sound and, more dreadfully, beyond the mountains that rise in the distance with sharp pinnacles and strange outcroppings perhaps too symmetrical to be produced by nature.


Prodded by discoveries not far from McMurdo Sound, Lake and Gedney break from the main expedition to fly northwest, discovering a plateau near the base of the mountains and on which they land. Upon drilling they discover a cave and in exploring it uncover bones and strange objects, including barrel shaped fossils that might be the remains of an unknown species. They share their enthusiasm and information over the shortwave until bad weather strikes their encampment and they stop responding to repeated calls.


When Dyer and Danforth arrive to rescue Lake and Gedney, they find the encampment destroyed, Lake and the dogs dead, and Gedney missing; they also find signs of a sledge moving toward the mountains beyond. Flying through a dangerous pass in the mountains, they discover another plateau even more forbidding than the one they just left, and what looks to be the remains of a Cyclopean (a favorite Lovecraft adjective) city. The rest of the novel details their exploration of the city and the tunnels beneath it, and their finding of Gedney, among other … things.


After rereading “The Shadow Out of Time” a few years ago I approached this reread with misgivings. The imagination behind “Shadow…” is still powerful, but at times Lovecraft lost narrative momentum by, I thought, straining to sell his premise. There is no straining for effect here: At the Mountains of Madness is Lovecraft at his most imaginative and confident, telling his story as briskly as he knew how, his prose suited to the academic background of his narrator as he merged his enthusiasms for the Antarctic, architecture and science into a great short adventure novel not quite like anything before and rarely equaled since.




“WHO GOES THERE? by John W. Campbell Jr (first published in Astounding Science Fiction, August 1938; Adventures in Time and Space, 1946; The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, vol. 2A, 1973; Foundations of Fear, 1992; for further publishing information, http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?48111)


“Twenty million years ago Antarctica was beginning to freeze. We’ve investigated, thought and built speculations. What we believe happened was about like this.


“Something came down out of space, a ship. We saw it there in the blue ice, a thing like a submarine without a conning tower or directive vanes, 280 feet long and 45 feet in diameter at its thickest.”

-- McReady to the rest of the crew


A great shadow deep in the ice pack of the Antarctic and a group of scientists are certain they’ve finally found one. But the thermite bombs used to melt the ice ignite the metal of the embedded ship and the resulting explosive heat nearly kills them as it sinks what little of the ship survived. Not far away, though, lies another shadow, much smaller, promising something else: The pilot.


They carve out and transport a block of ice containing the alien to their base. Some scientists are eager to test it; others are wary of alien contamination, bacteria that might be inimical to man; and a few wonder if the alien isn’t still alive, aware of them, watching them, maybe affecting them – there have been dreams among those who found it …


And then the ice melts.


A group isolated and in peril has been a recurring basis for plot time and again in various genres, examples range from Clemence Housman’s “The Werewolf” (1896) to Agatha Christie’s And Then there Were None (1939) to James Blish’s “There Shall be No Darkness” (1950) to Dawn of the Dead (1978) to The Walking Dead and, I’m sure, beyond. Here, the evolving understanding of the nature of their enemy and its powers isolates each man from the others, wary of an enemy that infiltrates the very cells of their bodies and so could be anyone.


“Who Goes There?” was the basis for the 1951 movie, The Thing (from Another World) directed by Christian Nyby, one of the great Halloween evening movies (note its use in the background of John Carpenter’s Halloween [1978], another great Halloween movie) and the 1982 movie, The Thing directed by John Carpenter, with various sequels and off-shoots since. The original story by Campbell is written in what I’d identify as pulp style, journalistic prose given a heroic edge when dealing with tough, clear-eyed men used to hard work and problem solving, for instance his description of the main character, McReady:


Moving from the smoke-blued background, McReady was a figure from some forgotten myth, a looming, bronze statue that held life and walked. Six-feet-four inches he stood as he halted beside the table, and, with a characteristic glance upward to assure himself of room under the low ceiling beams, straightened. His rough, clashingly orange windproof jacket he still had on, yet on his huge frame it did not seem misplaced. Even here, four feet beneath the drift-wind that droned across the Antarctic waste above the ceiling, the cold of the frozen continent leaked in, and gave meaning to the harshness of the man. And he was bronze—his great red-bronze beard, the heavy hair that matched it. The gnarled, corded hands gripping, relaxing, gripping and relaxing on the table planks were bronze. Even the deep-sunken eyes beneath the heavy brows were bronzed.



The first movie incorporates a post-World War II sensibility, and also the sensibility of its producer, Howard Hawks, who is thought to have had a hand in the direction of the film, by high-lighting the trust and camaraderie between the military men, who had survived the war together, and some of the scientists, the sense of team work against a shared threat, but also respect for higher authority, whether the airmen’s Captain or orders from headquarters. Carpenter’s version is closer to Campbell’s story regarding the nature of the alien, maybe closer to the relationships between characters who seem to know each other only from this project, and very much, I think, a post-Vietnam War movie in its somewhat jaundiced view of a military outpost and military discipline. Carpenter’s film is fine, and the special effects still startlingly effective, but the Nyby/Hawks version is the one I’m more likely to watch again and again in spite of changes to the story necessitated by the special effects of the time.


Among those who care about such things there is a continuing controversy as to whether Campbell was influenced by At the Mountains of Madness. Perhaps the answer is somewhere in Campbell’s writings but the best answer I’ve seen on-line is, maybe. On rec.arts.cthulhu several years ago a poster had me convinced that the time needed for writing, editing, submitting and being added to the publication schedule would exceed the two and a half years between the initial publication dates of the stories. I’m less sure now, if only because as a professional writer for the pulps Campbell may well have been able to write his story in a few weeks; according to Leslie Klinger, Lovecraft wrote his novel during February and March, 1931, and I doubt Campbell would have needed much more. But whether or not there was a conscious influence, the story shaves the parallels of location and of scientists seeking to understand something alien and threatening, though perhaps the strongest parallel is that each has now excited and entertained succeeding generations of readers.




Other s.f./horror invasions:

“The Autopsy” by Michael Shea (http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?49726; http://www.sffworld.com/forum/threads/countdown-to-halloween-2011.32378/page-3#post-663908)

“Passengers” by Robert Silverberg (http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?41078; http://www.freesfonline.de/authors/Robert_Silverberg.html)

The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney (1955; a.k.a.: The Invasion of the Body Snatchers)


S.f. in a similar vein:

The Puppet Masters by Robert Heinlein (1951)

Camouflage by Joe Haldeman (a well-written novel taking on some of the themes found in Campbell’s story)

(Neither of these are horror, exactly, but enjoyable all the same)


Chilling:

“White” by Tim Lebbon (http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?92351)

The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

The Terror & A Winter’s Haunting by Dan Simmons (haven’t read these, but their reputations are solid)

 

[RedMage]

Yay! One of my favorite threads of the year is back! I can't wait to see what Randy, Hobbit and everyone else has in store for us.

 

[Hobbit]

And here we go.... with grateful thanks to Juliana S. Mills who conducted the interview, SFFWorld spoke to Peadar O Guilin, author of The Call. He discusses the Horror elements of his book (nasty fae!) and what he likes about Hallowe'en:

http://www.sffworld.com/2016/10/countdown-to-halloween-2016-interview-with-peadar-o-guilin/

 

[Alchemist]

Perhaps of relevance is that I'm investigating some of the great dark fantasists of the late 19th and early 20th century: Arthur Machen, M.R. James, Algernon Blackwood, William Hope Hodgson, and of course H.P. Lovecraft.

 

[Hobbit]

Perhaps of relevance is that I'm investigating some of the great dark fantasists of the late 19th and early 20th century: Arthur Machen, M.R. James, Algernon Blackwood, William Hope Hodgson, and of course H.P. Lovecraft.

Very interested in your thoughts, Alchemist. Are they new to you or are you revisiting old friends?

 

[Alchemist]

Very interested in your thoughts, Alchemist. Are they new to you or are you revisiting old friends?

All new to me, except by name. I think I read a Lovecraft story some years ago, but can't be sure.

I was thinking of doing an annotated bibliography of my reading--sort of like mini-reviews, musings, etc--maybe in blog format, but then posting to here.

 

[Hobbit]

I was thinking of doing an annotated bibliography of my reading--sort of like mini-reviews, musings, etc--maybe in blog format, but then posting to here.

Sounds good. Feel free to add your thoughts here during October. I'm sure we can find somewhere for another time should it be needed.

M.

 

[Hobbit]

American Literature has some great old stories (some of which have been mentioned in previous Countdowns and by Randy) available for free online here: https://americanliterature.com/halloween

These include:

The Furnished Room - O. Henry

Sredni Vashtar - H.H. Munro (SAKI)

Lost Hearts - M.R. James

'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You My Lad' - M.R. James

The Phantom Coach - Amelia B. Edwards

Luella Miller - Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

The Hand - Guy de Maupassant


Afterward - Edith Wharton

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow - Washington Irving

The Black Cat - Edgar Allan Poe

The Cats of Ulthar - H.P. Lovecraft

The Great God Pan - Arthur Machen

The Monkey's Paw - W.W. Jacobs

The Beast With Five Fingers - W.F. Harvey

The Tell-Tale Heart - Edgar Allan Poe

The Phantom Rickshaw - Rudyard Kipling

The Romance of Certain Old Clothes - Henry James

Camilla - Joseph Sheriden le Fanu

The Death of Halpin Frayser - Ambrose Bierce

Count Magnus - M.R. James

The Cask of Amontillado - Edgar Allan Poe

The Middle Toe of the Right Foot; The Damned Thing ; The Moonlit Road - Ambrose Bierce

Skeleton Lake; The Empty House - Algernon Blackwood

Shadows on the Wall - Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

The King in Yellow - Robert W. Chambers

The Terrible Old Man - H.P. Lovecraft

The Body-Snatchers - Robert Louis Stevenson

The Mortal Immortal - Mary Shelley

August Heat - W.F. Harvey

Note: click on the title for a direct link to the story - click on the author's name for a biography and a range of material from the author.

Should be enough to keep you amused for a while.....

 

[Windshadow]

my fathers favorite poem... and so i memorized it so I could recite it for him when he was no longer able to read... at his request I recited it from memory at his funeral back in 1985
Tomlinson
Rudyard Kipling, 1865 - 1936
Now Tomlinson gave up the ghost at his house in Berkeley Square,
And a Spirit came to his bedside and gripped him by the hair—
A Spirit gripped him by the hair and carried him far away,
Till he heard as the roar of a rain-fed ford the roar of the Milky Way:
Till he heard the roar of the Milky Way die down and drone and cease,
And they came to the Gate within the Wall where Peter holds the keys.
“Stand up, stand up now, Tomlinson, and answer loud and high
“The good that ye did for the sake of men or ever ye came to die—
“The good that ye did for the sake of men on the little Earth so lone!”
And the naked soul of Tomlinson grew white as the rain-washed bone.
“O I have a friend on Earth," he said, “that was my priest and guide,
“And well would he answer all for me if he were at my side.”
—“For that ye strove in neighbour-love it shall be written fair,
“But now ye wait at Heaven’s Gate and not in Berkeley Square:
“Though we called your friend from his bed this night, he could not speak for you,
“For the race is run by one and one and never by two and two.”
Then Tomlinson looked up and down, and little gain was there,
For the naked stars grinned overhead, and he saw that his soul was bare.
The Wind that blows between the Worlds, it cut him like a knife,
And Tomlinson took up the tale and spoke of his good in life.
“O this I have read in a book," he said, “and that was told to me,
“And this I have thought that another man thought of a Prince in Muscovy.”
The good souls flocked like homing doves and bade him clear the path,
And Peter twirled the jangling Keys in weariness and wrath.
“Ye have read, ye have heard, ye have thought," he said, “and the tale is yet to run:
“By the worth of the body that once ye had, give answer—what ha’ ye done?”
Then Tomlinson looked back and forth, and little good it bore,
For the darkness stayed at his shoulder-blade and Heaven’s Gate before:—
“O this I have felt, and this I have guessed, and this I heard men say,
“And this they wrote that another man wrote of a carl in Norroway.”
“Ye have read, ye have felt, ye have guessed, good lack! Ye have hampered Heaven’s Gate;
“There’s little room between the stars in idleness to prate!
“For none may reach by hired speech of neighbour, priest, and kin
“Through borrowed deed to God’s good meed that lies so fair within;
“Get hence, get hence to the Lord of Wrong, for thy doom has yet to run,
“And . . . the faith that ye share with Berkeley Square uphold you, Tomlinson!”

The Spirit gripped him by the hair, and sun by sun they fell
Till they came to the belt of Naughty Stars that rim the mouth of Hell.
The first are red with pride and wrath, the next are white with pain,
But the third are black with clinkered sin that cannot burn again.
They may hold their path, they may leave their path, with never a soul to mark:
They may burn or freeze, but they must not cease in the Scorn of the Outer Dark.
The Wind that blows between the Worlds, it nipped him to the bone,
And he yearned to the flare of Hell-gate there as the light of his own hearth-stone.
The Devil he sat behind the bars, where the desperate legions drew,
But he caught the hasting Tomlinson and would not let him through.
“Wot ye the price of good pit-coal that I must pay?” said he,
“That ye rank yoursel’ so fit for Hell and ask no leave of me?
“I am all o’er-sib to Adam’s breed that ye should give me scorn,
“For I strove with God for your First Father the day that he was born.
“Sit down, sit down upon the slag, and answer loud and high
“The harm that ye did to the Sons of Men or ever you came to die.”
And Tomlinson looked up and up, and saw against the night
The belly of a tortured star blood-red in Hell-Mouth light;
And Tomlinson looked down and down, and saw beneath his feet
The frontlet of a tortured star milk-white in Hell-Mouth heat.
“O I had a love on earth," said he, “that kissed me to my fall;
“And if ye would call my love to me I know she would answer all.”
—“All that ye did in love forbid it shall be written fair,
“But now ye wait at Hell-Mouth Gate and not in Berkeley Square:
“Though we whistled your love from her bed to-night, I trow she would not run,
“For the sin that ye do by two and two ye must pay for one by one!”
The Wind that blows between the Worlds, it cut him like a knife,
And Tomlinson took up the tale and spoke of his sins in life:—
“Once I ha’ laughed at the power of Love and twice at the grip of the Grave,
“And thrice I ha’ patted my God on the head that men might call me brave.”
The Devil he blew on a brandered soul and laid it aside to cool:—
“Do ye think I would waste my good pit-coal on the hide of a brain-sick fool?
“I see no worth in the hobnail mirth or the jolthead jest ye did
“That I should waken my gentlemen that are sleeping three on a grid.”
Then Tomlinson looked back and forth, and there was little grace,
For Hell-Gate filled the houseless soul with the Fear of Naked Space.
“Nay, this I ha’ heard," quo’ Tomlinson, “and this was noised abroad,
“And this I ha’ got from a Belgian book on the word of a dead French lord.”
—“Ye ha’ heard, ye ha’ read, ye ha’ got, good lack! and the tale begins afresh—
“Have ye sinned one sin for the pride o’ the eye or the sinful lust of the flesh?”
Then Tomlinson he gripped the bars and yammered, “Let me in—
“For I mind that I borrowed my neighbour’s wife to sin the deadly sin.”
The Devil he grinned behind the bars, and banked the fires high:
“Did ye read of that sin in a book?” said he; and Tomlinson said, “Ay!”
The Devil he blew upon his nails, and the little devils ran,
And he said: “Go husk this whimpering thief that comes in the guise of a man:
“Winnow him out ‘twixt star and star, and sieve his proper worth:
“There’s sore decline in Adam’s line if this be spawn of Earth.”
Empusa’s crew, so naked-new they may not face the fire,
But weep that they bin too small to sin to the height of their desire,
Over the coal they chased the Soul, and racked it all abroad,
As children rifle a caddis-case or the raven’s foolish hoard.
And back they came with the tattered Thing, as children after play,
And they said: “The soul that he got from God he has bartered clean away.
“We have threshed a stook of print and book, and winnowed a chattering wind,
“And many a soul wherefrom he stole, but his we cannot find.
“We have handled him, we have dandled him, we have seared him to the bone,
“And, Sire, if tooth and nail show truth he has no soul of his own.”
The Devil he bowed his head to his breast and rumbled deep and low:—
“I’m all o’er-sib to Adam’s breed that I should bid him go.
“Yet close we lie, and deep we lie, and if I gave him place,
“My gentlemen that are so proud would flout me to my face;
“They’d call my house a common stews and me a careless host,
“And—I would not anger my gentlemen for the sake of a shiftless ghost.”
The Devil he looked at the mangled Soul that prayed to feel the flame,
And he thought of Holy Charity, but he thought of his own good name:—
“Now ye could haste my coal to waste, and sit ye down to fry.
“Did ye think of that theft for yourself?” said he; and Tomlinson said, “Ay!”
The Devil he blew an outward breath, for his heart was free from care:—
“Ye have scarce the soul of a louse," he said, “but the roots of sin are there,
“And for that sin should ye come in were I the lord alone,
“But sinful pride has rule inside—ay, mightier than my own.
“Honour and Wit, fore-damned they sit, to each his Priest and Whore;
“Nay, scarce I dare myself go there, and you they’d torture sore.
“Ye are neither spirit nor spirk," he said; “ye are neither book nor brute—
“Go, get ye back to the flesh again for the sake of Man’s repute.
“I’m all o’er-sib to Adam’s breed that I should mock your pain,
“But look that ye win to a worthier sin ere ye come back again.
“Get hence, the hearse is at your door—the grim black stallions wait—
“They bear your clay to place to-day. Speed, lest ye come too late!
“Go back to Earth with lip unsealed—go back with open eye,
“And carry my word to the Sons of Men or ever ye come to die:
“That the sin they do by two and two they must pay for one by one,
“And . . . the God you took from a printed book be with you, Tomlinson!”

 

[Randy M.]

Perhaps of relevance is that I'm investigating some of the great dark fantasists of the late 19th and early 20th century: Arthur Machen, M.R. James, Algernon Blackwood, William Hope Hodgson, and of course H.P. Lovecraft.

Like Mark I'll be interested in your response. I've read most if not all of the fiction of James and Lovecraft, but I've only touched the surface of the others.

American Literature has some great old stories (some of which have been mentioned in previous Countdowns and by Randy) available for free online here: https://americanliterature.com/halloween

Nice, Mark. Some great stories there. I'm especially fond of the M. R. James' "Oh, Whistle...", the Le Fanu, the Stevenson and the Wharton.

Randy M.

 

[Randy M.]

“BLACK DESTROYER” by A. E. VAN VOGT ( Astounding Science-Fiction, 1939; Adventures in Time and Space, ed. Raymond J. Healy and Francis McComas, 1946; for further publication information see, http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?41604;
on-line version: http://www.freesfonline.de/authors/A. E._van Vogt.html)

On and on Coeurl prowled!

—first line​

Coeurl hunts for id-creatures across the length and breadth of his world, but he and his species have hunted the planet barren, until only Coeurl remains.

And then a space ship lands.

The humans from the ship largely ignore Coeurl, an apparently friendly alien, vaguely reminiscent in looks and actions to a large cat. In exploring the planet, they find the ruins of a great city and speculate that Coeurl is a descendant of those who built it. Except Coeurl is not a descendant and now he plays a cat and mouse game of ingratiating himself with his new source of nutrition, looking for ways to learn their secret of space flight and move on to worlds filled with more id-creatures.

Van Vogt’s “Black Destroyer” though written from the alien’s point of view still reads like a variation on Campbell’s “Who Goes There?” Instead of the alien coming to us, we go out and find the alien; both aliens show some telepathic abilities; a group of men have to find ways to defend themselves and save mankind, and the scenes of isolation aboard the space ship are well-played for suspense, though not quite as effective as Campbell’s Antarctic. One of the story’s points of interest is the sense that Coeurl has devolved over time and only now, with the challenge of mankind, is his intellect fully awakening.

I haven’t read a lot of Van Vogt – a couple of stories and a novel – but my impression is that those who read Van Vogt don’t read him for the beauty of his prose or the neatness of his plotting and story-construction but rather for the (sometimes daffy) ideas he radiates and his energetic (maybe even frenetic) story-telling, which is said to have influenced Phillip K. Dick. This story is no exception and like Campbell’s novella is a cornerstone of the American pulp science fiction as it developed in the 1930s and 1940s.

“Black Destroyer” was later incorporated in Van Vogt’s The Voyage of the Space Beagle


Of related interest from Van Vogt: “Asylum” (1942; Away and Beyond, 1977; Adventures in Time and Space, 1946)

Maybe the ultimate alien in spaceship movie: Alien (1979)

(This holds up as one of the scariest movies I’ve ever seen.)​

“NIGHTFLYERS” by GEORGE R. R. MARTIN (Analog, 1980; Dreamsongs, Vol. 1, Bantam Spectra, 2007; for further publishing information see, http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?49769)

“I will begin the tale with my mother,” Royd replied. “The Nightflyer was her ship originally, custom-built to her design in the Newholme spaceyards. … My mother did not worry about how often she and her crews returned home. Her ships were her home. She forgot about Vess as soon as she left it, and seldom visited the same world twice if she could avoid it.”​

“Adventurous,” Melantha Jhirl said.​

“No,” said Royd. “Sociopathic. …”

-- from “Nightflyers”​

Karoly d’Branin has used a small grant from his university to hire a ship and crew for a flight to go to the edge of the galaxy to watch the passing of the volcryn, an alien life-form whose slower than light ships should be passing into the Tempter’s Veil soon on a journey that started before Jesus of Nazareth was born and may continue after humanity no longer exists.

Royd, the ship’s captain, keeps a close eye on his passengers but each of Karoly’s crew, while competent, has personality issues, issues that might not have mattered if one of them wasn’t a telepath and if something inhuman did not inhabit the Nightflyer.

In discussing “Nightflyers” in Dreamsongs, Martin calls it, “my haunted starship story” and says, “I wanted to see if I could provide a legitimate sfnal explanation for the hauntings.” I’ve read the story three times and each time I’ve found Martin mostly successful, interweaving the search for the volcryn nicely with the internal struggles of the crew to understand what is haunting them and how to protect themselves. It is one of the few stories that I’d like to see expanded to novel length: There are opportunities here, I think, to strengthen the characters, to make the story more suspenseful, and to further explore both the idea of the volcryn and the basis of the haunting. That said, it’s entertaining as is.

For s.f. written and published in the 1970s and 1980s “Nightflyers” is notable for featuring a young Black woman as protagonist. From Martin’s description of Melantha Jhirl you can easily imagine her as somewhat like Serena Williams, so it was one disappointment in a disappointing film version (Nightflyers, 1987) that it starred a white actress who wasn't physically imposing. That actress' potential for stardom popped an airlock with this movie, but really she was not the worst of its many problems. I strongly recommend sticking to the novella. (Did I mention the movie is disappointing?)


Other sf/horror from Martin: “Sandkings” (also in volume 1 of Dreamsongs) and Fevre Dream. Note, Martin wrote a fair amount of horror, some of which I’m still catching up to. Besides “Sandkings” and “Nightflyers,” the horror section of Dreamsongs includes “Meathouse Man,” “Remembering Melody,” “The Monkey Treatment” and “The Pear-Shaped Man.”

 

[Hobbit]

Lovely: I'm pleased to see the SF stuff get a mention. I think my only point of query would be that I think that the GRRM short stories collection was called Dreamsongs, here in the UK, at least.

 

[Randy M.]

Brain cramp corrected.

 

[Randy M.]

my fathers favorite poem... and so i memorized it so I could recite it for him when he was no longer able to read... at his request I recited it from memory at his funeral back in 1985

Hi, Windshadow.

"Tomlinson" is an interesting poem that seems to say, if you can't sin big, go home: Petty sinners not allowed. Seriously, I think it's easy to forget, in discussions of Kipling's politics, how entertaining his works are. As with this poem, his writing flows beautifully and his story-telling at his best is a pleasure: The site Mark mentions includes Kipling's "The Mark of the Beast" as well as "The Phantom Rickshaw," and both are well worth one's time.

And here we go.... with grateful thanks to Juliana S. Mills who conducted the interview, SFFWorld spoke to Peadar O Guilin, author of The Call. He discusses the Horror elements of his book (nasty fae!) and what he likes about Hallowe'en:

http://www.sffworld.com/2016/10/countdown-to-halloween-2016-interview-with-peadar-o-guilin/

Nice interview, Mark. I'll have to look into The Call.


Randy M.
(If he wants a title suggestion for his next book, how about The Recall?
Just a thought.)

 

[Randy M.]

Lovely: I'm pleased to see the SF stuff get a mention. I think my only point of query would be that I think that the GRRM short stories collection was called Dreamsongs, here in the UK, at least.

I think around 11 of the stories in the first volume of The Science Fiction Hall of Fame could be argued as horror as well as science fiction (think "Fondly Fahrenheit"; "It's a Good Life"; "The Little Black Bag"; and so on). And besides Martin, I bet you could put together horror collections for Silverberg ("Passengers" is terrific), Connie Willis and Joe Haldeman, who had short stories in a lot of horror anthologies in the '80s and '90s. Then include some of work by Lucius Shepard and at least a couple of stories by James Tiptree, Jr.

I'm not keeping up with s.f. much any more, so I'm not sure if more recent s.f. writers also write horror.


Randy M.

 

[Hobbit]

I think around 11 of the stories in the first volume of The Science Fiction Hall of Fame could be argued as horror as well as science fiction (think "Fondly Fahrenheit"; "It's a Good Life"; "The Little Black Bag"; and so on).

Good point. I think there's a lot we can tap into here. I like a bit of a scare in my SF at times - fear of the unknown, perhaps?

Here's one for our US Forumites: Cable station TCM (Turner's Classic Movies) has announced over 100 movies over the month of October that contribute to its own countdown. Though people might want a look: http://www.wonderalliance.com/our-c...en-all-october-long-on-turner-classic-movies/

Sadly, the UK version of TCM does not seem to be anything like as comprehensive...

 

[Randy M.]

Here's one for our US Forumites: Cable station TCM (Turner's Classic Movies) has announced over 100 movies over the month of October that contribute to its own countdown. Though people might want a look: http://www.wonderalliance.com/our-c...en-all-october-long-on-turner-classic-movies/

It's a terrific line-up for anyone, like me, who enjoys older movies. I'm looking forward to a few of the silent movies, in particular. I have yet to see The Phantom Carriage and The Monster.

Randy M.

 

[bard`s song]

For me Halloween is the start to my Favorit time of the year.

I am not only a big fan of fantastic literature but also a gamer. Last year I spent Halloween playing through a game called "Until Dawn" and it has been a great (although short) experience.
This year I might spend the evening with the newest title of my favorite Franchise "Dark Souls 3".

However, I am writing this as I have learned that this Franchise has been influenced by the art of Polish painter Zdzisław Beksiński. Having googled some of his work I can clearly see the similarity in atmosphere.

I would recommend to check out some of his pics in the net.

 

[Windshadow]

"Tomlinson" is an interesting poem that seems to say, if you can't sin big, go home: Petty sinners not allowed. Seriously, I think it's easy to forget, in discussions of Kipling's politics, how entertaining his works are. As with this poem, his writing flows beautifully and his story-telling at his best is a pleasure: The site Mark mentions includes Kipling's "The Mark of the Beast" as well as "The Phantom Rickshaw," and both are well worth one's time.

Kipling is an author with distinct periods in his writing.
The clearest mark is before his only son dies in WW1 and after that loss (though a point can be seen in the later 1920s where he seems to forgive himself for using his political influence to have his sons bad eyesight overlooked to get him the combat posting that the son so desperately wanted.)

When I was studying English Lit in the 1960s Kipling was so far beyond the pale that i would not have been surprised to have seen the English department organizing periodic book burning events for all but some of his children stories.

You also have to look at the markets for which he wrote at the zenith of the British empire ... He was a master of the narrative poem and the short story forms. Even though it does not fit the topic of this thread (though it was first published as a part of The Phantom Rickshaw and other Eerie Tales in 1888) I commend The Man Who Would be King to your consideration (and it's discovery of the lost remnant of the Alexandrine empire sort of puts it in the fantasy realm) And the Film that Huston made of it in 1975 is one of the best films made by Michael Cane and Sean Connery in the 70s.

For a novel that is more of what folks think of when Kipling is mentioned Consider Kim, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_(novel) I think it is in many ways the archetype of a Young Adult book. I is not written down to some academic set of norms (approved for age 12 to 14 for example) in its use of vocabulary or grammar and it will greatly reward the curious reader that wants to do further reading about the geopolitics or the region and the period. (and does the Mind Magic of Lurgan Sahib give it a tiny touch of fantasy?)
Critical assessment
Considered by many to be Kipling's masterpiece, opinion appears varied about its consideration as children's literature or not.[13][14] Roger Sale, in his history of children's literature, concludes "Kim is the apotheosis of the Victorian cult of childhood, but it shines now as bright as ever, long after the Empire's collapse..."[15]

In a reissue of the novel in 1959 by Macmillan, the reviewer opines "Kim is a book worked at three levels. It is a tale of adventure...It is the drama of a boy having entirely his boy's own way... and it is the mystical exegesis of this pattern of behavior..." This reviewer concludes "Kim will endure because it is a beginning like all masterly ends.."[16][17]

And this further info also from the wikipedia page for Kim shows further connections of the book to modern science fiction and fantasy

• The first sixty pages of Robert Heinlein's 1957 novel Citizen of the Galaxy [21] depict a clever slave boy of mysterious parentage living in a feudal planet and guided by an inter-stellar great-game spy. Peopled with fakirs, street vendors and wealthy elites, the beginning of the novel parallels Kimin many ways.
• Poul Anderson's 1985 novel Game of Empire,[22] the last of his Dominic Flandry series, is loosely modeled on Kim, with the plot transferred to a science fictional setting.
• Tim Powers' 2001 novel Declare uses Kim for inspiration and epigraphs.[23]
• Steven Gould's 2011 novel 7th Sigma is heavily based on Kim,[24] featuring a young boy named Kim who is raised by a martial arts teacher and becomes involved in intelligence work, eventually becoming a trained agent. Quotes from Kipling's Kim are used as chapter headers.