Reading in November 2005

[Hobbit]

Hope you all had a good Halloween - or is that a bad one?

Autumn's here and the nights are really drawing in at Hobbit Towers. Though it shouldn't really matter down in the deep dark recesses where the Horror books are kept, of course, what else to do but read more new books?

This is the thread where you tell us what Horror you've been reading this month, and whether it was worth it or not.

Tell all!

Hobbit

 

[Luke_B]

As well as a science fiction novel, I’m reading Midnighters #1: The Secret Hour by Scott Westerfeld. It’s the first in a YA series about a group of gifted children that were born at exactly the stroke of midnight and can inhabit the secret 25th hour of the day, along with a menagerie of beasties such as darklings and slithers.

 

[AuntiePam]

I'm starting Doug Clegg's Priest of Blood tonight.

 

[Randy M.]

Recent reading

Recently started Adrift on the Haunted Seas, a collection of stories by William Hope Hodgson.

So far, so good, though Hodgson sometimes twists his sentences until they squeal, which I find distracting. "Voice in the Night" gets a vote as one of the more sadly horrific stories I've read recently.

Randy M.

 

[Nottobrite]

Just finished Simon Clark's Night of the Triffids. Just about to start Richard Matheson's I Am Legend.

 

[Randy M.]

The Stupidest Angel

Is it horror/humor or is it fantasy/humor using horror tropes and props?

Well, I don't know so I'll just say that if like novels that just might crack your ribs from laughing, you should treat yourself to Christopher Moore's The Stupidest Angel.

Moore combines O.Henry's "The Gift of the Magi" with ... well, that would be telling too much, and I won't do that. The cast of characters include Lena, a divorcee at war with her ex, Tucker Case, pilot, semi-ladies-man, and self-absorbed and horny to a degree that makes you want to throttle him, Gabe, Theo's best friend, who tries to condition himself not to be attracted to women, Theo, the town constable and his wife Molly, former screen queen who sometimes believes herself to be Kendra, Warrior Babe of the Outland; all are consistently depicted, and completely human in their behavior and outlook, even as they exaggerate some of our tendencies.

Moore's writing moves along at a gallop, his observations of the behavior of people and the reasons behind their behavior are acute, and his conversations at cross-purposes are a high-light of the novel.

Anyway, if you decide you need a read for Christmas, and you're tired of the same old sappy Christmas reads, I'd highly recommend this one.


Randy M.