Book Review: Whispers

Book Review: 'Whispers' edited by Stuart David Schiff

4 / 5 Stars

'Whispers' was a semi-professional magazine published by Stuart David Schiff (b. 1946), a dentist and resident of Binghamton, New York. 

'Whispers' was a labor of love for Schiff, who produced the magazine in his spare time, and sf writer David Drake, who served as editor. The first issue appeared in July, 1973 and the last (No. 11) in October 1987. In addition to the magazine, Schiff edited six anthologies, Whispers I - VI, which were published by Doubleday and Jove in hardbound and paperback versions from 1977 - 1987. The Best of Whispers, a limited-edition deluxe anthology, was published by Borderlands Press in 1997.

All of the original magazines and the anthologies can have rather steep asking prices; I was fortunate to collect some of the anthologies when they first were printed, and my review of 'Whispers II' is here. 

I also was able to procure the very first anthology, 'Whispers', in hardback, as a used library book, for an affordable price. The rather unremarkable cover illustration is by Tim Kirk. 

So........ what do you get in 'Whispers' (226 pp., Doubleday, 1977), the first anthology ?

All of the 20 stories compiled in 'Whispers' saw print in the interval from 1971 - 1977; about half of them first appeared in the magazine, while others were written exclusively for this anthology. Along with the stories, there are black-and-white and halftone illustrations from Lee Brown Coye, Stephen E. Fabian, George Barr, and others.

Perhaps the best story in 'Whispers' is 'Goat', by the UK writer and playwright David Campton. It is adept in bringing folk beliefs into a modern setting and features a memorable villain.

Other well-composed and readable stories include Karl Edward Wagner's 'Sticks' (Lovecraftian horror in rural New York State), David Drake's 'The Barrow Troll' (medieval souls sold for gold), Hugh Cave's 'Ladies in Waiting' (stay away from the haunted house), Brian Lumley's 'The House of Cthulhu' (old-school Lovecraft), John Crowley's 'Antiquities' (a tale told at the Traveler's Club), and Joseph Payne Brennan's 'The Willow Platform' (Lovecraftian horror in rural New England).  

Also worth reading are Manley Wade Wellman's 'The Dakwa' (stay away from the haunted lake) and Charles Fritch's 'Pawnshop' (don't make a deal with the Devil). Robin Smyth's 'The Inglorious Rise of the Catsmeats Man' takes the Sweeney Todd legend and updates it to 20th century Britain.

Horror of a traditional style is represented by Fritz Leiber with 'The Glove', Robert Bloch and 'The Closer of the Way', Richard Christian Matheson's 'Graduation', William F. Nolan in 'Dark Winner', and Ray Russell's 'Mirror, Mirror'. Basil A. Smith's lengthy 'The Scallion Stone' is modeled on the classical English Ghost Story.

The remaining entries in 'Whispers' all suffer from thin plots deeply drenched in wordy prose:

Robert Aickman's 'Le Miroir' features the phrases 'sedulously eschewed' and 'aged tricoteuse'; as well as the aphorism 'Time flies when we watch it, but has no need to fly when we ignore it'. 

Dennis Etchison's 'White Moon Rising', about a campus serial killer, employs his usual style of oblique prose and a denouement that is too contrived to be effective. 

James Sallis and David Lunde's 'The Weather Report at the Top of the Stairs' is based on a cartoon ('And Then We'll Get Him !') by Gahan Wilson about vengeful toys, but neglects to inform the reader of this. Accordingly, the reader is left on their own to intuit the backstory, which is not helpful. Even with the knowledge of the Wilson cartoon, 'Weather Report' is too overloaded with determinedly poetic prose to be very effective.

Even Ramsey Campbell's most ardent fans are going to find 'The Chimney' to be a disappointment, as its melodramatic prose cannot inject much energy into its plot about a neurotic British boy who suspects the Boogeyman is hiding in his bedroom's chimney. But, in the interests of objectivity, I direct you to another review of this story at the 'Too Much Horror Fiction' blog. 

Summing up, 'Whispers' provides a good overview of the state of horror and fantasy fiction as it was in the mid-70s. None of its entries are particularly groundbreaking or imaginative, but they are competently written. Those readers who are comfortable with the traditional horror story model will find 'Whispers' to their liking.

Down and Out with William Burroughs

Down and Out with William Burroughs
from Laid Bare by John Gimore

John Gilmore (July 5, 1935 - October 13, 2016) was an actor, director, sleaze paperback author, true crime author, and chronicler of Hollywood Excess. Laid Bare, his 1997 memoir of his career during the 1950s and 1960s, is filled with anecdotes and reminiscences about a variety of fellow actors and L. A. citizens and is well worth reading.

On pages 147 - 149 of Laid Bare (Amok Books, 2003), Gilmore writes about his encounters with the riffraff staying at the so-called 'Beat Hotel' in the Latin Quarter of Paris in 1959, and the times he spent with the writer William Burroughs:

William Burroughs was also at the hotel, genuinely in pain - he seemed to shriek with every breath. A sad man, all static like a radio on the fritz, he'd shot his wife in the head with a gun in Mexico, killed her, though he claimed to have only been showing off his marksmanship. The police were always looking for him. Emaciated and desperate, he was a lecherous spook. Another post-Beat American, Gregory Corso - a loud and obnoxious poet - shouted that he had to keep pulling Burroughs out of public cans, where "he's always on his knees giving blowjobs to anyone who'll whip it out !" Burroughs made him sick, he said, and he'd have to "kill Bill" sooner or later; he'd have to "beat him to death" and turn Burroughs' face into a "flattened mass of burger."

Burroughs knew where to find the best absinthe in a section of Paris he called " the sewer", and I went with him and another poet named Frank Milne, from Hoboken, who wore some sort of turban on his head.....Burroughs kept staring at my crotch and almost obscenely licking his lips, or making strange remarks about a "penis colony in the desert." He drank quickly, painfully, and at one point began sweating and shaking. His eye rolled up like an epileptic's, and he seemed to go into a kind of fit. I got up and away from him when he started frothing at the mouth and shitting his pants.

Frank Milne's turban fell off as he tried to pull Burroughs back into a sitting position and get him out of the cafe. The turban was dirty inside and I didn't pick it up, but as I followed them outside I noticed Frank's bald head had a square scar like a flap on the crown, as though he had a metal plate in his head, or his skull had been operated on.

Burroughs died on August 2, 1997, aged 83..............who would have thought he would have lived that long ? Just goes to show, sometimes those who are the most down and out, stick around the longest...........

Book Review: Demon Summer

Book Review: 'Demon Summer' by Elaine Booth Selig

1 / 5 Stars

'Demon Summer' (224 pp) was published by Pocket Books in June 1979. The cover artist is uncredited.

Elaine Booth Selig wrote a number of novels during the 70s, including 'Mariner's End' (1977) and 'Scorpion Summer' (1977).

'Demon Summer' has an attention-getting cover, but alas, it's really a pretty lukewarm novel.

'Demon' is set in the late 70s, and as the novel opens, the Spencer family - John, wife Kathy, and infant son Christopher - are aboard the ferry from Bayshore to Fire Island, where John has just secured a job as pastor of the Unitarian Universalist church.

It seems like a plum assignment, but John is a soyboy - ambivalent about his decision to enter the ministry, and impatient with what he sees as the outmoded and simplistic theology and doctrines of mainline Unitarians. He anticipates conflict with the congregation, who are accustomed to a more traditional interpretation of Unitarian theology.

There also are tensions with Kathy, over John's impotence (back in '79 there was no such thing as Viagra). While John blames his service in Vietnam as the cause of his Limpness, there may be other reasons (let's wink and snap our fingers !) why he finds it difficult to have sex with his wife. Kathy does her best to be the Understanding Spouse who supports her husband through all his difficulties, but for her, the absence of physical intimacy is becoming more and more disheartening.

The residents of Fire Island are very welcoming to the Spencers, although the village eccentric, an elderly woman named Ida Leighton, speaks knowingly of the 'dangers' of witches and the ability of bells to ward off 'evil spirits'. She also imparts a troubling anecdote: the previous pastors at the Fire Island Unitarian church have a habit of dying in accidents, or going mad, soon after taking office........

As the Spencers settle into the parsonage and go about building their ministry, their first Summer on the island seems to offer the promise of a rewarding life. But when Kathy begins having erotic dreams in which she is possessed by a demonic horse (?!), it's a signal that all might not be what it seems, among the idyllic dunes fronting the Atlantic coast.....

While it's a well-written book, 'Demon' disappoints by failing to live up to the potential of its premise - modern-day Satanists living large in a resort town - and squanders much of the narrative in documenting marital melodrama. It's never a good sign when the most appealing personality in the entire novel is that of 'Punk', the Satanic Kitten, nor when the first overt appearance of any truly occult plot point doesn't happen until page 166, a good four-fifths into the novel.

The closing chapter tries to redeem the indolence of the earlier portion of the narrative by abruptly layering on some 'Rosemary's Baby' - style antics, but they seem forced, and I finished 'Demon Summer' thinking that it tried, unsuccessfully, to straddle the ground between a Gothic Romance and the modern horror story. This novel can be passed on without penalty.

Isaac Asimov, the Groper

 Isaac Asimov, the Groper

An interesting article by Alec Nevala-Lee about the creepy behavior of the well-known sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov, which, even in the un-Woke days of the 70s and 80s, raised eyebrows and disapproving stares.

Then again, given the fact that Asimov wrote the books titled The Sensuous Dirty Old Man (1971) and Lecherous Limericks (1976), his behavioral violations shouldn't have been that surprising. 

[Nevala-Lee also comments on Asimov's tremendous output as an author, but somehow ignores the strong possibility that a portion of this output likely was ghostwritten.] 

Book Review: Summer Solstice

Book Review: 'Summer Solstice' by Michael T. Hinkmeyer

1 / 5 Stars

'Summer Stolstice' (213 pp.) was published by Futura (UK) in 1980. The artist who provided the striking cover illustration is uncredited.

And, as it turns out, the cover illustration actually is the best thing about 'Summer Solstice'.....

As the novel opens, our heroine, Katie Ellenwood, returns to her childhood home in St. Alazara, a dwindling village in the northern part of Minnesota. Her mother, Katrin, has had a stroke and been rendered an invalid. Distressed by the seemingly negligent treatment - heavily reliant on sedatives -  her mother is receiving from the unctuous town doctor, Katie resolves to stay in St. Alazara to assist with her care. 

The local Wise Woman, Aggie Jensen, drops hints that all is not as it seems when it comes to Katrin's illness. Katie's father, Ben, is evasive when questioned about the circumstances of her mother's stroke. He's also installed locks on the door into the basement, from where suspicious noises originate. When Katie begins having strange hallucinations about places she never has been to, she starts to wonder if something very wrong is going on in St. Alazara...........something that has ties to the worship of the deities of the Earth, a worship that goes back to the pagan beliefs her Scandinavian ancestors brought with them from the Old Country........... 

The cover of 'Summer Solstice' includes a blurb referencing Thomas Tyron's 1973 novel 'Harvest Home', and in its initial chapters, 'Solstice' adheres to the same themes of Tyron's novel..... and adopts his leisurely approach to plotting. 

Author Hinkemeyer is reasonably adept at creating the menacing atmosphere of a rural village sunk into decay and peopled by eccentrics. However, by the midpoint of 'Solstice' the insinuations that Evil Doings are afoot in the environs of St. Alazara had become so repetitive, but the narrative so diffident in revealing any specifics of said Evil Doings, that I came close to tossing the book aside. 

Without disclosing spoilers, I'll say that persevering to the final page brings a denouement to 'Solstice' that is too glib and unconvincing to be effective.

The verdict ? Even devotees of the most obscure entries in the 'Fertility Cult from Hell' sub-genre of Paperbacks from Hell are going to find 'Summer Solstice' unrewarding. 

Splatterpunks, 1980s

Splatterpunks, 1980s

left to right: Craig Spector, Joe R. Lansdale, Richard Christian Matheson, David J. Schow, Ray Garton, Robert McCammon, and John Skipp. Photo by Beth Gwinn, 1986/7. From the Robert M. McCammon website, https://www.robertmccammon.com

Book Review: Book of the Dead

Book Review: 'Book of the Dead' edited by John Skipp and Craig Spector

4 / 5 Stars

'Book of the Dead' (390 pp.) was published by Bantam Books in July 1989. The cover artist is Richard Kriegler.

I remember picking this book up the instant I saw it on the shelf of Waldenbooks in downtown Baltimore in the late Summer of 1989. A zombie anthology..........and not only that, but one that showcased graphic horror !

I wasn't yet aware of the term 'Splatterpunk', but 'Book of the Dead' was indeed the world's first Splat anthology. As the back cover advertising blurb states,

This is a book that goes too far.

And invites you along for the ride.

Yep, no Charles L. Grant 'Quiet Horror' in this volume.

My capsule summaries of the contents (all of the entries were written exclusively for 'Book of the Dead'):

Introduction: On Going Too Far, by John Skipp and Craig Spector: the Editors make an overly earnest pitch that instead of giving a middle finger to the horror establishment, the goal of 'Book of the Dead' is to show that only by going too far, can we learn more about Our Humanity. 

Yeah, sure, boys. 

The first two stories, 'Blossom' by David J. Schow (as 'Chan McConnell') and 'Mess Hall' by Richard Layman, both deal with women revenging themselves on predatory males. Both gleefully display in-your-face Splat, and anyone proceeding further into the volume after encountering these two tales cannot make any excuses about being unprepared for the awaiting Carnography.

It Helps If You Sing, by Ramsey Campbell: Bright, a man living in a depressing English council house apartment, is visited by some religious canvassers who are a little......strange. Lacking any Splat content and featuring mild, deracinated zombies, this story compares poorly to the others in the anthology.

Home Delivery, by Stephen King: Mainers living on Jenny Island display folksy wisdom in confronting the risen dead.

Wet Work, by Philip Nutman: what if zombies could be made to work as paramilitary hitmen ? This short story later became expanded into the eponymous novel.

A Sad Last Love at the Diner of the Damned, by Edward Bryant: Martha, the waitress at the Cuchara Diner in Fort Durham, Colorado, thinks that patrolman Bobby Mack Quintana is just fine. But then a Zombie Holocaust erupts............can romance persevere ? Given Bryant's prediliction for New Wave-style overwritten prose, I approached this story with skepticism. But while it takes its time getting underway, it is redeemed by the closing pages, which revel in Splat.

Bodies and Heads, by Steve Rasnic Tem: Nurse Elaine is on duty at a Denver hospital when the Zombie Plague begins. She witnesses some disturbing things.

I had mixed feeling about this story, which is an early example of the 'Weird Horror' genre (of which, Steve Rasnic Tem would go on to be a foremost practitioner). Plotting is subordinate to the emphasis on the lead character's psychological state, her awareness of bodily decay and corruption, her perceptions of the collapse of the world around her, etc. The closing segments of the story emphasize the fantastical quality of Weird Horror rather than traditional zombie tropes. 

Choices, by Glen Vasey: a man named Dawson roams the USA in the aftermath of the Zombie Apocalypse, chronicling his interactions with the wary survivors. His experiences are related in the form of poetically phrased journal entries.

This over-long, and over-written, novelette is the worst entry in the anthology. The author is so focused on using the zombie theme to say something Profound about the Human Condition, that the narrative quickly becomes trite, and finishing it was a chore.

The Good Parts, by Les Daniels: what happens when a 483 lb. Incel becomes a zombie ? Gross-outs, that's what..........

Less than Zombie, by Douglas E. Winter: a Splat parody of the 1985 novel 'Less Than Zero' by Bret Easton Ellis. Given that Ellis's novel is quite forgotten nowadays, the premise is a bit hollow, and I doubt many contemporary readers will 'get it'.

Like Pavlov's Dogs, by Stephen R. Boyett: Sailor the Wasteland Raider decides to target a Biodome occupied by self-centered 'technoweenies'. A bit too long and overwritten to really provide much of a jolt, although I was rooting for the demise of the Biodome-ers.

Saxophone, by Nicholas Royle: in a dystopian, near-future Yugoslavia, a team of zombie criminals seeks to acquire contraband goods. While the plot is a bit contrived, this story has a cyberpunk flavor that makes it one of the more imaginative entries in the anthology.

On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert with Dead Folks, by Joe R. Lansdale, and Jerry's Kids Meet Wormboy, by David J. Schow: outrageous and over-the-top, these two stories fully exemplify the Splatterpunk ethos.... and provide laugh-out-loud humor in the bargain. These, more than the other entries, give the 'Book of the Dead' its status as one of the best horror anthologies of the 1980s.

Dead Giveway, by Brian Hodge: what happens when you mix zombies with a television game-show ? 

Eat Me, by Robert R. McCammon: love, in the time of decaying tissues. McCammon shows he can Splat with the best of them, and even work some humor into the gore.

The verdict ? 'Book of the Dead' deserves a solid four-star rating, which I rarely hand to out horror anthologies of the 60s, 70s, and 80s. 'Dead' set out to bring Splatterpunk to a wider audience and it succeeded, as well as sending a clear message to the practitioners of 'Quiet Horror' that not everyone shared their supercilious attitudes towards graphic horror. 

The impact of the success of 'Book of the Dead' can be seen in the inclusion of 'Jerry's Kids Meet Wormboy' in the venerable anthology The Year's Best Horror Stories: XVIII (1990). Editor Karl Edward Wagner, who primly refused to feature graphic horror in any of the previous volumes in the series, could no longer dismiss the Power of Splat - ! 

If you are a horror fiction fan, then having a copy of 'Book of the Dead' in your personal library is warranted.

(For another take on 'Book of the Dead', readers are directed to the Too Much Horror Fiction blog). 

Deathblow: Sinners and Saints

Deathblow: Sinners and Saints
by Brandon Choi, Jim Lee (script) and Jim Lee and Tim Sale (art)

Image, 1999

'Deathblow: Sinners and Saints' (256 pp) compiles the first twelve issues of the Image comic 'Deathblow', originally published from April 1993 to January, 1995.

There is another compilation of these same issues, in hardback, titled 'Deathblow: The Deluxe Edition', that was published in 2014.

Michael Cray, aka Deathblow, first appeared in March 1993 as a nine-page story in the single-shot anthology 'Darker Image' from Image comics. Cray showed up again a few months later in the four-issue series 'Team 7', as one of the members of the eponymous special forces unit. In 1993 Image gave him his own series, which lasted for 29 issues, till August 1996.

Deathblow was envisioned as the quintessential early 1990s, Great Comic Book Boom-era superhero: tree-trunk legs, torso, and arms, topped with a tiny head, wearing a do-rag:

The twelve-issue story arc featured in 'Sinners and Saints' is interesting for placing Deathblow, and various supporting characters from the Image lineup, into a Book of Revelation-style Apocalyptic Crisis. 

As the story opens, our hero is tormented by guilt over his violent actions as part of a covert U.S. special operations team:

He nonetheless agrees to participate in a commando raid on an Iraqi data storage facility. But even as the corpses pile up during the raid, a sinister development takes place in a monastery in the remote desert: servants of the demon known as the 'Black Angel' have contrived to open the gates of Purgatory, and free him from his entombment.

The Black Angel promptly sets out to fulfill a number of earthly tasks necessary to pave the way for Satan to come into power and invade Heaven. 

At first, Deathblow is simply an unwitting pawn in these schemes, but over the course of the story he undergoes some personal revelations, and willingly takes up the battle for the fate of the planet.

Choi and Lee's plot is a decent melding of superhero action and horror / occult themes, although it sometimes goes a bit over-the-top in its melodrama.

The artwork, which primarily was done by Tim Sale (Jim Lee did only the first three chapters) is the main selling point for 'Sinners and Saints'. It clearly was influenced by the visual style of Frank Miller's Sin City, which had debuted in 1991, but Lee and Sale were much better artists than Miller, and, according to Keith Dallas's American Comic Book Chronicles: The 1990s, Image / Malibu had the industry's best color printing facilities.

All the stylings of Sin City are present and accounted for in 'Sinner and Saints': limited color palettes, heavy-duty chiaroscuro effects, rain slashes and gunsmoke trails forming decorative motifs, oversize sound-effect text, dames with immense clouds of colorless hair, black-and-white silhouette panels, etc. It certainly gives the book a 'look' that is markedly different from the visual style used in other Image, Marvel, and DC comics from the early 90s.

Copies of the 1999 paperback edition of 'Sinners and Saints' are available for under $10 at your usual online retailers, and the 2014 'Deathblow: The Deluxe Edition' also is affordably priced. If you're a fan of comic book art, or a fan of Combat Nuns, or someone who likes Omen - style occult thrillers, or are just looking for a story that represents the early 90s comic book aesthetic at its most idiosyncratic, then getting a copy is worth your while.

Protective bags for your paperbacks

Protective Bags for Your Paperback Books

UPDATE, JANUARY 1, 2023: GT Bag is now a subsidiary of Action Bags of Bensenville, Illinois. The GT Bag catalog No. #E5B5.75x8.625, is now the Action Bag catalog No. E6B5.75x8.625, a pack of 100 selling for $13.

I've been collecting mass-market paperbacks since 1974 and I don't know how many I own, as most of them are stored in boxes in my basement. I'm guessing it's more than 2,000.

Lately I've been thinking that I should make an effort to secure some of the older and more treasured titles in plastic bags, much like the comic book collectors do.

I have found two vendors of polypropylene bags for storing mass market paperbacks:

BCW sells their 5 “ x 7 3/8 “  bags on amazon. These bags can accommodate thinner (i.e., ~ 225 pages) mass market paperback books.

For thicker mass market paperbacks, you're going to want to visit the website of the GT Bags Company of Petaluma, California. GT Bags sells 5 3/4 “ x 8 5/8 “ bags which can accommodate paperbacks like the 544-page 1967 edition of ‘Dune’ from Ace Books (see accompanying photo). You also can easily fit two slimmer paperbacks into one GT Bags 5 3/4 “ x 8 5/8 “.

A sack of 100 of the GT Bags are slightly more expensive than a sack of 100 of the BCW bags, but they also feature an adhesive strip on the back of the bag that you can fold the lip over onto and fasten (you have to scotch-tape down the lip of the BCW bag). You can purchase the GT Bag products in smaller lots (i.e., 100 bags) or in bulk lots (i.e., 1000 bags)

The GT Bag 5 3/4 “ x 8 5/8 “ bags are [not] going to accommodate monster-sized mass market paperbacks, like the 1280-page Brandon Sanderson book ‘The Way of Kings’. I’m guessing a GT Bag 6” x 9” may accommodate such a monster size, but since I don’t buy the Sanderson tomes, I really don’t know.

Hopefully this post has given you some ideas of your options for storing and sheltering your paperbacks.

Book Review: The Year's Best Horror Stories: Series IV

Book Review: 'The Year's Best Horror Stories Series IV', edited by Gerald W. Page

2 / 5 Stars

`The Year's Best Horror Stories: Series IV' (208 pp., DAW Books, November 1976) features cover art by Michael Whelan.

Most of the stories in this anthology first were published in 1974 and 1975; some in other anthologies, such as Whispers, and others in magazines like Playboy and Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine.

Editor Gerald Page provides a brief Introduction.

My capsule summaries of the stories:

Forever Stand the Stones, by Joe Pumilia: a prehistoric incident at Stonehenge has reverberations throughout the future. This story evokes a ‘cosmic’ sensibility and at times reads like something Harlan Ellison would have written. The denouement is underwhelming, but ‘Forever’ deserves recognition for being ambitious in scope.

And Don’t Forget the One Red Rose, by Avram Davidson: laborer Charley Barton makes the acquaintance of a mysterious man who sells the very rarest of books.

Christmas Present, by Ramsey Campbell: Christmas-time in Liverpool, and the first-person narrator allows an argumentative young man to join a houseparty…..with unforeseen consequences. 

I’ve become so inured to Campbell’s purple prose and elliptical plotting that I didn’t blink my eyes at this segment: 

….the tune led toward recognition and then fled squealing and growling into impossible extremes, notes leaping like frogs and falling dead. The voices squirmed between the suffocated tones of the bell, voices thin and cold as the wind, thick and black as wet earth, and paced toward us up Canning Street. 

A Question of Guilt, by Hal Clement: in ancient Rome, a little boy named Kyros suffers from a bleeding disorder. Could a form of ‘vampirism’ save him from premature death ?

I’ve always considered Hal Clement to be one of science fiction’s more boring authors, and this novelette does nothing to alter that judgment. It’s more of a melodrama than a horror story, and its inclusion doesn’t bring much to this anthology.

The House of Stillcroft Street, by Joseph Payne Brennan: a quiet New England village, an eccentric uncle, and a house that has seen better days……what could possibly go wrong ?

The Recrudescence of Geoffrey Marvell, by G. N. Gabbard: Editor Page apparently included this tale as a favor to the author, who was a friend / acquaintance. It’s about a 17th century English cavalier who encounters some spooky goings-on in the Black Forest. The dialogue, which is modeled on Old Tyme plays by Shakespeare and Marlowe, seems to be designed to allow author Gabbard to display his wittiness in writing prose. I was unimpressed.

Something Had to Be Done, by David Drake: a modern take on vampires; one of the better entries in the anthology.

Cottage Tenant, by Frank Belknap Long: disturbing events at a seashore home in New England, where someone apparently is conjuring up monsters from the mists ?! The story’s premise is too contrived to be effective.

The Man with the Aura, by R. A. Lafferty: the story takes the tradition in which two gentlemen sit with their brandies in a drawing room, sharing a ghostly tale, and neatly subverts it. One of the better entries in the anthology.

White Wolf Calling, by Charles L. Grant: an early-career tale from Grant. In a wintry countryside, viewing an apparition of a white wolf means someone is going to die. The ending, like too many Grant tales, is too oblique to render the story effective. 

Lifeguard, by Arthur Byron Cover: Bob Strawn has a part-time job as a pool lifeguard, and is enjoying a carefree summer, in Blackton, Virginia. That is, until he takes a toke of some really powerful ‘grass’……!

The Black Captain, by H. Warner Munn: old-school pulp tale about a man under an unusual curse. 

The Glove, by Fritz Leiber: disturbing goings-on in San Francisco apartment house. Surprisingly well-plotted, and devoid of pulp prose; sometimes Leiber could get it right.

No Way Home, by Brian Lumley: George Benson finds that the narrow roads of rural England can lead you into places that aren’t on any map. 

The anthology closes with an essay, ‘The Lovecraft Controversy: Why ?’ by ‘Weird Tales’ writer E. Hoffman Price. Price, who at age 77 (in 1975) still was hale and hearty. Price intervenes in a dispute over L. Sprague de Camp’s 1975 biography of Lovecraft; it seems Lovecraft supporters were very unhappy over de Camp’s depiction of their beloved writer. Price makes a rather strident argument that both de Camp’s biography, and Frank Belknap Long’s 1975 Lovecraft memoir, are genuine tributes to The Master in their own ways. The main value of this essay is to show that even back in 1975, Fanboy-dom was alive and well among the fantasy literature cognoscenti……..

Summing up, the entries from Brennan, Drake, and Lafferty aren’t enough of a counterweight to the other material to make this volume worth searching out. I can’t give it more than two stars.

October 2020 is Spooky Stories Month

October is Spooky Stories Month at the PorPor Boks Blog

In the spirit of Halloween, here at the PorPor Books Blog we devote every October to reviewing horror fiction. With the arrival of unusually early, cool, and crisp Fall weather here to central Virginia, the mood is right to offer up some verdicts on a number of shorter novels and anthologies (mainly because I am reluctant to dutifully wade through those 400-page horror novels that too often turn out to be duds).

For October 2020 we have a promising lineup of books representing traditional 70s horror, Splatterpunk, and Brit-flavored Harvest Home-style weirdness. Stand by for reviews all this month !

My Fall Reading

 My Fall Reading

Back in August, I discovered my monthly water bill was decreasing from $42 per month to $14 per month, a savings of $28 per month. Quite a drop........I'm not sure how long it will last, as the local politicians will undoubtedly find a way to increase the monthly bill back to what it was (if not more). But for the time being, I cheerfully decided to apply my savings to the purchase of vintage paperbacks (above) for my Fall 2020 reading.

I'm confident that many of the books pictured above are truly awful, but that's all part and parcel of the art of collecting these things.....isn't it ........?!