Showing posts with label horror. Show all posts
Showing posts with label horror. Show all posts
Monday, October 11, 2010
The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey
The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey
The story is told by an orphan boy, Will Henry, who is the apprentice to Erasmus Grey, a monstrumologist, or scientist who studies monsters. Erasmus Grey is clearly mad, obsessed and manic in his behavior seeking out monsters.
This novel focuses on the legendary anthroposophai, headless bipeds with rows of sharklike teeth in their stomachs. What makes the monsters frightening actions endurable is the cold clinical scientific detachment that stems from Erasmus Grey; brains eaten, bodies ripped to shreds in frenzy, and children killed. What would drive most other people mad fascinates and repels the monstrumologist.
The heros of the story are as dark as the creatures they are hunting. We get an excellent description of nihilism, and being truly beyond good or evil when we meet the hunter Kearns.
The creatures are pulled directly out of Greek and African mythology. The author adds a kind of natural history to the creatures with travelers accounts, bits of strange natural history, and inexplicabe deaths found in the newspapers.
This books writing is superb. It combines modern psychological suspense with the old fashioned fear of ghost stories, classic horror, and strange cryptozoological accounts. It is not overbearing, or overly gross and would be appropriate for both teenagers and adults.
The book won the Michael L. Printz Honor, YALSA Best Book for Young Adults, Booklist Editors' Choice For Youth, Kids' Indie Next List, and Florida Books Award, Silver Medal.
The story is gripping. It makes me want to read the next book in the series, The Curse of the Wendigo (Monstrumologist) by Rick Yancey.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Daily Thoughts 1/2/2009
Russian writer and Nobel prize winner Alexander Solzhenitsyn looks out from a train, in Vladivostok, summer 1994, before departing on a journey across Russia. Solzhenitsyn returned to Russia after nearly 20 years in exile. Photo by Mikhail Evstafiev, 1994, Gnu Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 Daily Thoughts 1/2/2009
I am reading In The First Circle, The First Uncensored Edition by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. This is the first posthumous book after his death in 2008. So far, the writing is entertaining and extremely well crafted. The title, The First Circle, refers to Dante Alighieri's first circle in hell where virtuous pagans are sent when the die in his book Inferno. Most of the action occurs in a sharaska, a minimum security prison in Russia.
Today is a day to work on the displays. I put up a new display of books which we have in storage for horror genre books. I picked out some titles by Robert Bloch, Graham Masterton, Kim Newman, Stephen King, Clive Barker, and H.P. Lovecraft. I also added the complete short stories of Edgar Allen Poe. Horror is very popular. More popular than science fiction in the library I work in.
We also put up a display of books and videos on African American leaders. We might also add some audiobooks to make the display truly multimedia.
Right now, I am also going to update the current events and people in the news display. I went through and updated the lobby display for gardening and added a few books to the oversize art books in the display cases in our gallery. We have a small art gallery supported by a local arts organization in our library.
Some more books came in for me to read, I now have a few more books added to my to read pile; Usagi Yojimbo Yokai by Stan Sakai. This is one of my favorite comics, it is a furry samurai comic book. The main character is based on Musashi and is an anthropomorphic rabbit. There is a lot of fighting and many mythical creatures from Japan as well as ninjas, samurais, thieves, gamblers, and outlaws of various persuasions in the stories. The next book is Jane Bites Back by Michael Thomas Ford, Jane Austen as a modern day vampire. The last one is The Cartoon History of the Modern World Part II from Bastille to Baghdad by Larry Gonick. I enjoyed his previous books on ancient history, The Cartoon History of the Universe, Parts I, II, and III.
I am preparing for the next graphic novels club which is on January 25, 2009. I am hoping to focus on Watchmen and other comics by Alan Moore.
I just put in my new day by day desk calendar and threw out the old one. It is one of the first things to do during the new year.
Having read some more of The First Circle, I am beginning to realize that this will take me quite a while to read. It has the depth of thought and feeling of the great russian novels like Crime and Punishment. There is a strong sense of ironic realism. This includes a lot of philosophical ground which is already starting to reveal itself; Dante, Goethe, Lenin, Stalin, mathematics, liberalism, nazism, totalitarianism, communism, the secret police are only a few subjects that the novel has touched on in the first fifty pages.Saturday, August 8, 2009
Necroscope Harry and The Pirate and Other Tales by Brian Lumley
Necroscope Harry and The Pirate and Other Tales by Brian Lumley
This book is a set of two novellas and a short story. Brian Lumley is a good enough and popular enough writer where almost everything he has written gets published. He is a British Fantasy Award winning author. There is a touch of the analytical in his writing. He adds a bit of espionage, skulduggery, and historical analysis to weird tales about things from other worlds, mythical beasts, and horrors from the ancient past.
The main character, Harry Keogh, is a psychic who can speak to the dead, a necroscope. However, he also has a very deductive mind much like a detectives as well. The way Harry talks to the dead is rather interesting. Often the dead make references to many things which have happened in the historical past.
In the first novella, The Dead Travel Slowly, Harry contends with a thing from the ancient past. Lovers have been disappearing from the woods for many years. I especially like when Harry visits the local museum to uncover newspaper stories about the creature. There is a sense that Brian Lumley took local settings in the English countryside he had visited and put them into his story.
The second novella has Harry Keogh talking to dead pirates in a graveyard. It includes references to Port Royale, Edward Teach (Black Beard), and viking raiders. It is clear Brian Lumley read some pirate stories to make the stories have the original flavor. It is a story of lust , greed, and something terribly strange.
The stories are interesting because of the strange creatures, historical allusions, and skulduggery. This is a nice way to spend several afternoons reading. It is pure escapism. The stories are more suspenseful and entertaining than scary.
This book is a set of two novellas and a short story. Brian Lumley is a good enough and popular enough writer where almost everything he has written gets published. He is a British Fantasy Award winning author. There is a touch of the analytical in his writing. He adds a bit of espionage, skulduggery, and historical analysis to weird tales about things from other worlds, mythical beasts, and horrors from the ancient past.
The main character, Harry Keogh, is a psychic who can speak to the dead, a necroscope. However, he also has a very deductive mind much like a detectives as well. The way Harry talks to the dead is rather interesting. Often the dead make references to many things which have happened in the historical past.
In the first novella, The Dead Travel Slowly, Harry contends with a thing from the ancient past. Lovers have been disappearing from the woods for many years. I especially like when Harry visits the local museum to uncover newspaper stories about the creature. There is a sense that Brian Lumley took local settings in the English countryside he had visited and put them into his story.
The second novella has Harry Keogh talking to dead pirates in a graveyard. It includes references to Port Royale, Edward Teach (Black Beard), and viking raiders. It is clear Brian Lumley read some pirate stories to make the stories have the original flavor. It is a story of lust , greed, and something terribly strange.
The stories are interesting because of the strange creatures, historical allusions, and skulduggery. This is a nice way to spend several afternoons reading. It is pure escapism. The stories are more suspenseful and entertaining than scary.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Twilight - Fantasy or Horror?
The big word for 2009? Twilight.
While vampire stories used to be strictly considered horror, lines between genres seem to be blurring. But Stephenie Meyer's Twilight still didn't make the top 25 with fantasy readers. (It came in at #31.)
According to this list of the Top 100 Fantasy books, the real favorite was -
Ta-da! The Lord of the Rings, which ranked at #1.
I admit, I didn't read many from the list either. How many did you read? (Well, seeing the movie counts for something, right?)
And what is Twilight - horror or fantasy?
Here's the top 10 Fantasies with older and some new authors:
1 Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkein
2 Harry Potter series, JK Rowling
3 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkein
4 Wheel of Time series - Robert Jordan
5 A Song of Ice and Fire - George RR Martin
6 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
7 The Belgariad Series - David Eddings
8 Wizard's First Rule - Terry Goodkind
9 Magician - Raymond E. Feist
10 His Dark Materials Trilogy - Philip Pullman
** Your turn: What's your favorite fantasy book? (Or movie?)
While vampire stories used to be strictly considered horror, lines between genres seem to be blurring. But Stephenie Meyer's Twilight still didn't make the top 25 with fantasy readers. (It came in at #31.)
According to this list of the Top 100 Fantasy books, the real favorite was -
Ta-da! The Lord of the Rings, which ranked at #1.
I admit, I didn't read many from the list either. How many did you read? (Well, seeing the movie counts for something, right?)
And what is Twilight - horror or fantasy?
Here's the top 10 Fantasies with older and some new authors:
1 Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkein
2 Harry Potter series, JK Rowling
3 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkein
4 Wheel of Time series - Robert Jordan
5 A Song of Ice and Fire - George RR Martin
6 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
7 The Belgariad Series - David Eddings
8 Wizard's First Rule - Terry Goodkind
9 Magician - Raymond E. Feist
10 His Dark Materials Trilogy - Philip Pullman
** Your turn: What's your favorite fantasy book? (Or movie?)
Sunday, December 14, 2008
The Taint and other Novellas By Brian Lumley
The Taint and other Novellas By Brian Lumley
This is a collection of novellas sent in the world of H.P. Lovecraft. Lovecraft was a master of macabre horror. His writing is often called "cosmic horror." H.P. Lovecraft was influenced by Arthur Machen a writer of macabre stories.
The stories in the novellas for the most part follow the pattern of the stories in Lovecraft's works. This collection is focused on the Cthulhu mythos, stories about strange and terrible beings from other dimensions and the far stars. The elements of fear to the point of madness, monstrous slimy octopoid things, forbidden occult tomes, shadowy places at the edges of this world, and places too horrible to imagine are in these stories.
There is a real sense of nameless dread. Brian Lumley does this well. He has written a wide variety of horror books. His main hero is the occultist Titus Crow who prevents dark things from entering our world from the dreamlands and the Cthulhu mythos. Lumley has a website at
http://www.brianlumley.com/
The first story is a story about the god of the winds who bears a son in the frozen north. The story is called Born of the Winds. This is a story where everyone even the hero dies in the chill.
The Fairground Horror is a story of greed and folly. Hamilton Thorpe acquires a collection of terrifying antiquities from his mad brother. His greed blinds him to the increasingly terrible things happening around him. He is warned but does not listen and succumbs to a gruesome death.
In many of the stories, the protagonists are given chances to quit what they are doing, but they do not due to their own personal failings or curiosities.
The opening story, The Horror at Oakdeene is about a man studying strange psychological cases in an insane asylum. He himself becomes drawn into the madness of the patients and eventually after experiencing something unspeakable becomes a patient himself.
All of these stories have the terrible guttural language of things that came before man. There are short dark poems and reminders to not name the things which dwell in the dark.
The Taint is the feature story of the volume. The Deep Ones who themselves are often fishlike monstrosities have acquired the science of genetic engineering and have learned to pass themselves off as normal men. One of their number leaves Innsmouth and has two children, one human looking and one deformed and piscine. The story is excellent.
Lord of the Worms is the story of how Titus Crow, Brian Lumley's main hero becomes a master magician and defeats a maggot infested, evil, ancient wizard.
Rising With Surtsey is the story of a man who becomes obsessed with books about old ones. He reads fiction and occult books about Cthulhu and slowly turns into one of their priests. He ends up killed by his own brother.
The final story is The House of the Temple. It is the story of an accursed family, The McGilchrist's. An inheritor goes back to destroy his old ancestral home and goes mad in the process.
This is an excellent collection of novellas. If you like horror, especially cosmic horror you will enjoy this collection. Cthulhu, an octopoid alien monstrosity features in the background of many of these stories sitting in the bottom of the ocean in sunken R'lyeh. These stories have a strong suspense element to them, they are not just go and fight the monster. They are reminders that there are things which we should not see and places and knowledge best left alone.
Bob Eggleton did the cover art for the book. He also did several small internal illustrations; most of these are about an inch and a half acros, a skull with tentactles, a winged octopuss, and a monsters eye. Bob Eggleton has an art blog here: http://bobsartdujour.blogspot.com/ / (Bob's Art of the Day)
This is a collection of novellas sent in the world of H.P. Lovecraft. Lovecraft was a master of macabre horror. His writing is often called "cosmic horror." H.P. Lovecraft was influenced by Arthur Machen a writer of macabre stories.
The stories in the novellas for the most part follow the pattern of the stories in Lovecraft's works. This collection is focused on the Cthulhu mythos, stories about strange and terrible beings from other dimensions and the far stars. The elements of fear to the point of madness, monstrous slimy octopoid things, forbidden occult tomes, shadowy places at the edges of this world, and places too horrible to imagine are in these stories.
There is a real sense of nameless dread. Brian Lumley does this well. He has written a wide variety of horror books. His main hero is the occultist Titus Crow who prevents dark things from entering our world from the dreamlands and the Cthulhu mythos. Lumley has a website at
http://www.brianlumley.com/
The first story is a story about the god of the winds who bears a son in the frozen north. The story is called Born of the Winds. This is a story where everyone even the hero dies in the chill.
The Fairground Horror is a story of greed and folly. Hamilton Thorpe acquires a collection of terrifying antiquities from his mad brother. His greed blinds him to the increasingly terrible things happening around him. He is warned but does not listen and succumbs to a gruesome death.
In many of the stories, the protagonists are given chances to quit what they are doing, but they do not due to their own personal failings or curiosities.
The opening story, The Horror at Oakdeene is about a man studying strange psychological cases in an insane asylum. He himself becomes drawn into the madness of the patients and eventually after experiencing something unspeakable becomes a patient himself.
All of these stories have the terrible guttural language of things that came before man. There are short dark poems and reminders to not name the things which dwell in the dark.
The Taint is the feature story of the volume. The Deep Ones who themselves are often fishlike monstrosities have acquired the science of genetic engineering and have learned to pass themselves off as normal men. One of their number leaves Innsmouth and has two children, one human looking and one deformed and piscine. The story is excellent.
Lord of the Worms is the story of how Titus Crow, Brian Lumley's main hero becomes a master magician and defeats a maggot infested, evil, ancient wizard.
Rising With Surtsey is the story of a man who becomes obsessed with books about old ones. He reads fiction and occult books about Cthulhu and slowly turns into one of their priests. He ends up killed by his own brother.
The final story is The House of the Temple. It is the story of an accursed family, The McGilchrist's. An inheritor goes back to destroy his old ancestral home and goes mad in the process.
This is an excellent collection of novellas. If you like horror, especially cosmic horror you will enjoy this collection. Cthulhu, an octopoid alien monstrosity features in the background of many of these stories sitting in the bottom of the ocean in sunken R'lyeh. These stories have a strong suspense element to them, they are not just go and fight the monster. They are reminders that there are things which we should not see and places and knowledge best left alone.
Bob Eggleton did the cover art for the book. He also did several small internal illustrations; most of these are about an inch and a half acros, a skull with tentactles, a winged octopuss, and a monsters eye. Bob Eggleton has an art blog here: http://bobsartdujour.blogspot.com/ / (Bob's Art of the Day)
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Classic Thoughts
Poe's Grave at Westminster There is a new collection of H. P. Lovecraft's fiction , H.P. Lovecraft: The Fiction. The tome
collects all 68 of H.P. Lovecraft's Stories. I think it is something which we should definitely get. Jonathan Carroll also has a new book, The Ghost In Love. I rather enjoy Jonathan Carroll's writing.
To start the day, I am getting a poem:
Where Once Poe Walked by H. P. Lovecraft
Eternal brood the shadows on this ground,
Dreaming of centuries that have gone before;
Great elms rise solemnly by slab and mound,
Arched high above a hidden world of yore.
Round all the scene a light of memory plays,
And dead leaves whisper of departed days,
Longing for sights and sounds that are no more.
Lonely and sad, a specter glides along
Aisles where of old his living footsteps fell;
No common glance discerns him, though his song
Peals down through time with a mysterious spell.
Only the few who sorcery's secret know,
Espy amidst these tombs the shade of Poe.
Right now, I am sitting at the computer at my local library. I took a short walk up the hill to the library. It was very cold outside. Still, I need to walk every day if I am going to lose more weight. I returned the single book I took out last time.
Today I picked up a few more books to read. The first book is a mass market paperback, Necropath, A Bengal Station Novel by Eric Brown. The book intrigued me because it on the blurb it said there is an evil alien cult. Evil alien cults in science fiction are very campy and often entertaining.
I also picked up two book on negotiating. Things have been a little sticky here and there when talking to people at work. I have to be careful. I picked up, Guerrilla Negotiating Unconventional Weapons and Tactics to Get What You Want by Jay Conrad Levinson, Mark S.A. Smith, and Orvel Ray Wilson. The Guerrilla Marketing series is very popular at our library in the business section. I also picked up Teach Yourself Negotiating by Phil Baguley. Teach Yourself Negotiating looks like a basic outline of the process of negotiating.
It is comfortable and warm in here, while it is very cold outside.
I am back this afternoon. I have finished reading The Taint and Other Novellas by Brian Lumley. One of the most interesting aspects of Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos are the occult books which drive men mad. A lot of them are purely fantastic creations with malevolent intent. This is a chart of what is real and what is false in the mythos chronicles. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cthulhu_Mythos_miscellaneous_books
Some people actually believe that some of H.P. Lovecraft's fictional horror books are true. People are quite gullible with these kinds of things. It is easy to cook up nonsense and sell it as something truly nasty. It is not particularly benevolent. A few of his fake horror books are being sold as real occult works. This is a nice article from The Straight Dope debunking the truth of his made up books. http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1934/was-h-p-lovecrafts-necronomicon-for-real
There is also a Miskatonic University Library in H.P. Lovecraft's books. Being a librarian, I find it rather fascinating. It is in the fictional town of Arkham in Massachusetts. It is headed by the heroic librarian, Dr. Henry Armitage who defeats the Dunwich Horror, a short story by Lovecraft.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Dead Friends Forever
Wanna be among the first to read it?
BUY HERE
Skater Kaylee Hensler might not be Miss Popular, but there are some friends a girl can do without. When the decaying ghost of a murdered girl decides they need to be total BFF’s, Kaylee will sacrifice the trust of her family, her swim coach’s respect, and any hope of a date for the Harvest Dance.
And oh yeah… discover that super-evil entities are nothing at all like they are on TV or in the movies Aside from seriously bad attitudes, they not only like to kill…but replay the killing again and again for all eternity. To avoid that fate, she’ll have to rely on her wheelchair-bound friend Davey, the mysterious Madame Maggie, and the surprising depth of her own power.
Will Kaylee survive, or will she become someone else's DFF: Dead Friend Forever?
Reviews:
"This book is exceptional! Turner takes a typical kid and ignites her courage to face unthinkable evil. Creepy, exciting, and totally cool, keep a light on when you read this one!" –M.K. Scott, author of Zamora's Ultimate Challenge (aka Michele Scott, The Wine Lovers Mysteries)
"Dead Friends Forever is a gripping tale of teenage turmoil taken to an extreme level. …it's more than a great story, it's a life, or shall I say, after-life event." –Matthew-Levi Kalik
"An incredible book…constantly changing and surprising me…sometimes leaving me breathless after an intense scene…one of the top books I've read…it has the power to leave anyone who reads it completely enthralled… A GREAT READ!!!!" –Skyler Byas
Bio:
During the long winters in central Wisconsin, J.R. Turner loves watching movies, doing arts and crafts and hanging out on MySpace. In the summer she can be found gardening, camping and enjoying the fresh water lakes and rivers. As a kid, her imagination got her in tons of trouble. At seven she dragged her five year old brother onto the roof of their two story home to practice for an imaginary flood, then later nearly drowned him when she imagined a five-foot tarantula in the shadows of the river bank. Many years later, she made her family proud when she won her first award for that very same talent. Today, she takes great pleasure in exploring exciting new story ideas and great characters, as well as chocolate of all kinds.
Quick Facts:
Release Date: March 2009
Title: DFF: Dead Friends Forever (Extreme Haunting #1)
Author: J.R. Turner
ISBN: 978-1-59080-625-8 (10-Digit 1-59080-625-5)
Genre: YA Horror
Pages: 272
Price: $13.99 US $16.99 CAN
Age Group: 12 +
Retail Distribution:
Echelon/Quake Direct (*45% - no minimum -returnable in sellable condition)
Ingram Book Co.
Partners Book Dist.
Follett Distribution
Brodart Co.
Amazon.com
Fictionwise (e-Formats)
*Paid pre-orders will receive a 48% discount.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Vampire Hunter D -- Hideyuki Kikuchi-- Adapted and Illustrated by Saiko Takaki
Vampire Hunter D -- Hideyuki Kikuchi-- Adapted and Illustrated by Saiko Takaki
This is a manga novel for adults. The themes and the violence give it a rating of 16+. It is quite graphic. The illustrator is translating a Japanese novel into manga form. She includes a few short comic strips on this process at the back of each manga. Despite being very action oriented, there are some interesting characteristics about the way the vampire hunter is drawn. He is physically lithe and beautiful to women. The lady monsters and vampires find him very attractive as well as the women he ends up protecting.
The setting is quite interesting. Long ago there was a nuclear war which annhilated most of civilization. Mutants and horrible things roamed the earth for thousands of years. Then out of the darkness rose the nobility vampires who ruled humanity for five thousand years. This rule collapsed eventually. Now, hunters roam the land, men, women, and others who unceasingly try to protect humanity from the dark creatures while a new civilization is being built. It has elements in it that remind of Jack Vance's the Dying Earth, gothic horror, a post apocalypse west, and classic horror novels.
Vampire Hunter D is a dhampir, half human and half vampire. He can walk during the daylight. He constantly seeks out the nobility which is what the monsters call themselves and kills them. He often draws sustenance from the nobles he has defeated. He dresses elegantly in a wide brimmed black hat, black leather armor, a dark cloak, and carries a sword. He also has a hand which is possessed by a ghost or spirit which talks to him sometimes.
When he is not fighting, he is talking to the local townspeople. He comes across as a kind of chevalier in his personal manners. He is shown riding a kind of mutant horse in the beginning of the story.
In Volume 1, D helps a young woman, Doris Lang, who has been bitten by a vampire. He must seek out and destroy the vampire lord which has bitten her. It reveals the inner tension inside him, as his hand says, you wanted to drink her blood more than you wanted to lay down with her. It seems that numerous of the local men have the hots for the woman he is supposed to protect as well. He must convince them to leaver her alone.
First D must face down the local townspeople who either want him dead or to leave very quickly. He also has to fight off a team of mutant hunters who want to kill the vampire lord themselves. There is constant fighting with lots of swordplay, monster fighting (a giant snakebodied woman, a werewolf, a golem and a few other creatures as well).
The manga is full of action sequences. The drawing uses very thick dark flowing lines. There is also a lot of jagged lettering used to show the fight sounds. During the fights, creatures use mystical powers against each other. For example when a creature sends a cloud of spiders to enwrap him, he uses his ghost hand to suck in all the spiders. The characters have big eyes and big hair, and finely drawn clothing.
There are three settings in which most of the action occurs, the farm of the girl and her little brother, the town which looks like something from the old west, and the gothic castle of the noble vampire.
The climactic battle is between the vampire lord Lee and Vampire Hunter D. Vampire Hunter D is revealed to be a possible scion of Dracula who most people never speak of the name of. D defeats the lord and all is put right again for the moment.
I really enjoyed the feel and style of this manga. I had seen the anime earlier. It is not for children. It is written for adults. If you like fantasy and vampire stories, you would probably like this manga.
This is a manga novel for adults. The themes and the violence give it a rating of 16+. It is quite graphic. The illustrator is translating a Japanese novel into manga form. She includes a few short comic strips on this process at the back of each manga. Despite being very action oriented, there are some interesting characteristics about the way the vampire hunter is drawn. He is physically lithe and beautiful to women. The lady monsters and vampires find him very attractive as well as the women he ends up protecting.
The setting is quite interesting. Long ago there was a nuclear war which annhilated most of civilization. Mutants and horrible things roamed the earth for thousands of years. Then out of the darkness rose the nobility vampires who ruled humanity for five thousand years. This rule collapsed eventually. Now, hunters roam the land, men, women, and others who unceasingly try to protect humanity from the dark creatures while a new civilization is being built. It has elements in it that remind of Jack Vance's the Dying Earth, gothic horror, a post apocalypse west, and classic horror novels.
Vampire Hunter D is a dhampir, half human and half vampire. He can walk during the daylight. He constantly seeks out the nobility which is what the monsters call themselves and kills them. He often draws sustenance from the nobles he has defeated. He dresses elegantly in a wide brimmed black hat, black leather armor, a dark cloak, and carries a sword. He also has a hand which is possessed by a ghost or spirit which talks to him sometimes.
When he is not fighting, he is talking to the local townspeople. He comes across as a kind of chevalier in his personal manners. He is shown riding a kind of mutant horse in the beginning of the story.
In Volume 1, D helps a young woman, Doris Lang, who has been bitten by a vampire. He must seek out and destroy the vampire lord which has bitten her. It reveals the inner tension inside him, as his hand says, you wanted to drink her blood more than you wanted to lay down with her. It seems that numerous of the local men have the hots for the woman he is supposed to protect as well. He must convince them to leaver her alone.
First D must face down the local townspeople who either want him dead or to leave very quickly. He also has to fight off a team of mutant hunters who want to kill the vampire lord themselves. There is constant fighting with lots of swordplay, monster fighting (a giant snakebodied woman, a werewolf, a golem and a few other creatures as well).
The manga is full of action sequences. The drawing uses very thick dark flowing lines. There is also a lot of jagged lettering used to show the fight sounds. During the fights, creatures use mystical powers against each other. For example when a creature sends a cloud of spiders to enwrap him, he uses his ghost hand to suck in all the spiders. The characters have big eyes and big hair, and finely drawn clothing.
There are three settings in which most of the action occurs, the farm of the girl and her little brother, the town which looks like something from the old west, and the gothic castle of the noble vampire.
The climactic battle is between the vampire lord Lee and Vampire Hunter D. Vampire Hunter D is revealed to be a possible scion of Dracula who most people never speak of the name of. D defeats the lord and all is put right again for the moment.
I really enjoyed the feel and style of this manga. I had seen the anime earlier. It is not for children. It is written for adults. If you like fantasy and vampire stories, you would probably like this manga.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Thoughts For Today, Conferences And Expos
The Puck Building Where the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (MOCCA) Art Festival will be held.Two books came in for me today, Steve Resnick Tem and Melanie Tem, The Man on the Ceiling. The Man on the Ceiling is a novel based on the World Fantasy Award winning Novella of the same title. I hope it is interesting. The other book that came in for me to read today is Jeffrey D. Sachs, Common Wealth, Economics For A Crowded Planet. It was on the bestseller list.
I saw two titles that seemed rather interesting to me that the library does not have. The first is The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski. It is a series of novellas set in a Polish fantasyland. It was very popular in Poland. The novel is the basis for the computer roleplaying game, The Witcher. The story is about a person who hunts monsters. I am hoping this will be a little bit different than the run of the mill fantasy stories. My understanding is that it is not written for children, it is a fairly mature story.
The other title was Cash & Carry by Tim Broderick. It is a noire graphic novel. I think it is still advertised in my Project Wonderful adspace. He is getting a bargain 4 cents a day for an ad on a website.
I was fooling around with more social networking software and I came across a rather interesting social networking site called, Upcoming, http://www.upcoming.yahoo.com/ . It is a social networking site that functions as an event listing service. The events listed reminded me of the dot com boom. It was like the dotcommies were coming out of the word work. You sometimes wonder where they are hiding.
The listings seemed to be somewhat similar to the type of thing you might see on Bernardo's List http://www.bernardoslist.com/ . I find Bernardo's List to be quite entertaining and somewhat odd. It is fun to read even if you don't go to the events.
It seems that if I really wanted to I could go on a flashback trip to the dotcom boom with its weirdly titled companies and excessive venture capital. The first week of June in New York is Internet Week. I feel like I could stand around drink beer, and have nachos in the staff lounge while watching foosball at an odd little company. There is something seriously nostalgic about this series of events. http://www.internetweekny.com/schedule/list. I haven't decided whether I want to try any of them out yet.
I feel the call of tech howling in the wind. There are a few other events which I am in the shadow of. Next Week on May 30, 2008, they are holding Enterprise Search Engine Summit. I really do like search engines. But, it costs over a thousand dollars to attend this thing. I am not even sure where I would fit in with this crowd. It has that vague feeling of somehow being mildly attached to librarianship in an outre fashion.
There are so many fascinating and odd conferences floating around New York. If you haven't found out by now, I rather like conferences and expo. I find them to be quite entertaining. There is also the Linked Data Planet Expo at the Roosevelt Hotel on June 17 and 18th. In an odd way, again, I can claim this is vaguely related to librarianship, they are after all talking about metadata, searching for things, and linking data.
Finally, there is another conference that looks rather confusing but might be entertaining, The Media Bistro Circus. I am not sure how I could justify this to my boss. Look, I am going to the circus, it doesn't have any elephants but it has plenty of clowns. Chris Andersen, Editor-in-Chief of Wired Magazine will be there. I think it looks like something I can somehow relate to librarianship. They are after all talking about how traditional media meets the new media. It is even at the Skylight Studio, tomorrow May 20 and May 21. http://www.mediabistrocircus.com/
The event costs $545 which is more than the price of a cup of coffee in New York.
New York is just a happening place, but all these things cost money and time which I don't have a whole lot of right now. Instead I am probably going to spend my $10 entrance fee and go to the MOCCA Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art Art Festival in the Puck Building on June 7. Something which is affordable and just in my price range. Internet Week might also have something in the mish mash, it is also free. Maybe someone can get me a volunteer pass for the Media Bistro Circus or let me help out at a booth. But, I doubt it.
I saw two titles that seemed rather interesting to me that the library does not have. The first is The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski. It is a series of novellas set in a Polish fantasyland. It was very popular in Poland. The novel is the basis for the computer roleplaying game, The Witcher. The story is about a person who hunts monsters. I am hoping this will be a little bit different than the run of the mill fantasy stories. My understanding is that it is not written for children, it is a fairly mature story.
The other title was Cash & Carry by Tim Broderick. It is a noire graphic novel. I think it is still advertised in my Project Wonderful adspace. He is getting a bargain 4 cents a day for an ad on a website.
I was fooling around with more social networking software and I came across a rather interesting social networking site called, Upcoming, http://www.upcoming.yahoo.com/ . It is a social networking site that functions as an event listing service. The events listed reminded me of the dot com boom. It was like the dotcommies were coming out of the word work. You sometimes wonder where they are hiding.
The listings seemed to be somewhat similar to the type of thing you might see on Bernardo's List http://www.bernardoslist.com/ . I find Bernardo's List to be quite entertaining and somewhat odd. It is fun to read even if you don't go to the events.
It seems that if I really wanted to I could go on a flashback trip to the dotcom boom with its weirdly titled companies and excessive venture capital. The first week of June in New York is Internet Week. I feel like I could stand around drink beer, and have nachos in the staff lounge while watching foosball at an odd little company. There is something seriously nostalgic about this series of events. http://www.internetweekny.com/schedule/list. I haven't decided whether I want to try any of them out yet.
I feel the call of tech howling in the wind. There are a few other events which I am in the shadow of. Next Week on May 30, 2008, they are holding Enterprise Search Engine Summit. I really do like search engines. But, it costs over a thousand dollars to attend this thing. I am not even sure where I would fit in with this crowd. It has that vague feeling of somehow being mildly attached to librarianship in an outre fashion.
There are so many fascinating and odd conferences floating around New York. If you haven't found out by now, I rather like conferences and expo. I find them to be quite entertaining. There is also the Linked Data Planet Expo at the Roosevelt Hotel on June 17 and 18th. In an odd way, again, I can claim this is vaguely related to librarianship, they are after all talking about metadata, searching for things, and linking data.
Finally, there is another conference that looks rather confusing but might be entertaining, The Media Bistro Circus. I am not sure how I could justify this to my boss. Look, I am going to the circus, it doesn't have any elephants but it has plenty of clowns. Chris Andersen, Editor-in-Chief of Wired Magazine will be there. I think it looks like something I can somehow relate to librarianship. They are after all talking about how traditional media meets the new media. It is even at the Skylight Studio, tomorrow May 20 and May 21. http://www.mediabistrocircus.com/
The event costs $545 which is more than the price of a cup of coffee in New York.
New York is just a happening place, but all these things cost money and time which I don't have a whole lot of right now. Instead I am probably going to spend my $10 entrance fee and go to the MOCCA Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art Art Festival in the Puck Building on June 7. Something which is affordable and just in my price range. Internet Week might also have something in the mish mash, it is also free. Maybe someone can get me a volunteer pass for the Media Bistro Circus or let me help out at a booth. But, I doubt it.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
I am Legend-- Richard Matheson-- Review
Count Orlock from the movie Nosferatu (1922)I am Legend by Richard Matheson is a classic vampire novel. The version I am reading is c1995, it was originally c1954, Richard Matheson renewed the copyright. There are also several short stories included with this version. I am going to focus on the story "I am Legend."
I have read it several times. It has a very different feel from when I first read the horror novel. I think the novel is really written for someone in their late twenties. It had a lot more impact for me then.
The darkness wasn't there for me this time. It was more of a description of a horrible experience for the main character, Robert Neville. The story is more about the main character than the vampires. The world has pretty much ended for the human race. A terrible plague has spread across the world turning the population of humans into the undead.
Robert Neville is the last man on earth. He survives by living in a world fortified against the vampires outside.
Every day he goes out and stakes the living dead around his property. For me this no longer scary because they are just dead bodies to be searched for. We also learn because of a plot device he is immune to the vampires bite. One time he had been bitten by a vampire bat while he was in the army. This is an entertaining gimmick more than anything else. It lalso means he can be bitten and torn at without turning into a vampire.
The dog dies in the novel, apparently, the dog doesn't die in the movie starring Wil Smith. An interesting note about the book is that the character is a tall, muscular, blue eyed, blond haired man. But, this doesn't matter because as you are reading the novel, you can see the character as an every man. The main characters physical description seems incidental.
I've also read quite a few more vampire and zombie novels. The plot by this time has spread to numerous other novels and films. World War Z by Max Brooks is another story about a horrible plague, this time it is not vampires but zombies. Also, 28 Days, the film is about a plague that turns people into raving killers. The vampire as plague story started with this novel. The novel was very original for its time.
The vampire as plague is an interesting idea. I rather like how the book ends. This is a spoiler. Survivors who have come up with a partial cure find Robert Neville and execute him. He is a legend, the last man of the old earth. I am sure this is nothing like the new Wil Smith film even if I haven't seen it. I did see the Omega Man, an earlier version of I am Legend on the screen. In the Omega Man, Robert Neville finds a cure for the plague. I like the partial cure idea, it is much scarier and more grotesque.
I like how Robert Neville survives. He listens to classical music and he drinks. If you read carefully, you realize some of the music being described is atonal classical music. It is meant to disrupt ones emotions. The liquor he drinks is strong, scotch mainly. Scotch is a pretty sophisticaed drink
The library is of course a central motif of the book. Robert Neville searches the library, now covered with dust for books on physiology and the circulatory system. The author uses the books as a plot device to explain how the plague spread.
Robert Neville ponders the plague and the classical vampire motifs, garlic, the cross, running water, stakes, immunity to bullets. The author doesn't fully explain how or why these things work completely. He does give just enough to tantalize you, but not enough to finish the complete idea.
For a vampire novel, the writing is quite complex. It has a very detailed quality to it and misses very little of what is important. It is clear when reading the novel, the author thought things through very carefully when he wrote the novel. It is detailed enough that he gives specific dates for when things happened, chemical descriptions, and percentages. These of course aren't that important because the novel could just as well have been set today as thirty years ago. Yet, they do give a finished feeling to the writing.
The darkness wasn't there for me this time. It was more of a description of a horrible experience for the main character, Robert Neville. The story is more about the main character than the vampires. The world has pretty much ended for the human race. A terrible plague has spread across the world turning the population of humans into the undead.
Robert Neville is the last man on earth. He survives by living in a world fortified against the vampires outside.
Every day he goes out and stakes the living dead around his property. For me this no longer scary because they are just dead bodies to be searched for. We also learn because of a plot device he is immune to the vampires bite. One time he had been bitten by a vampire bat while he was in the army. This is an entertaining gimmick more than anything else. It lalso means he can be bitten and torn at without turning into a vampire.
The dog dies in the novel, apparently, the dog doesn't die in the movie starring Wil Smith. An interesting note about the book is that the character is a tall, muscular, blue eyed, blond haired man. But, this doesn't matter because as you are reading the novel, you can see the character as an every man. The main characters physical description seems incidental.
I've also read quite a few more vampire and zombie novels. The plot by this time has spread to numerous other novels and films. World War Z by Max Brooks is another story about a horrible plague, this time it is not vampires but zombies. Also, 28 Days, the film is about a plague that turns people into raving killers. The vampire as plague story started with this novel. The novel was very original for its time.
The vampire as plague is an interesting idea. I rather like how the book ends. This is a spoiler. Survivors who have come up with a partial cure find Robert Neville and execute him. He is a legend, the last man of the old earth. I am sure this is nothing like the new Wil Smith film even if I haven't seen it. I did see the Omega Man, an earlier version of I am Legend on the screen. In the Omega Man, Robert Neville finds a cure for the plague. I like the partial cure idea, it is much scarier and more grotesque.
I like how Robert Neville survives. He listens to classical music and he drinks. If you read carefully, you realize some of the music being described is atonal classical music. It is meant to disrupt ones emotions. The liquor he drinks is strong, scotch mainly. Scotch is a pretty sophisticaed drink
The library is of course a central motif of the book. Robert Neville searches the library, now covered with dust for books on physiology and the circulatory system. The author uses the books as a plot device to explain how the plague spread.
Robert Neville ponders the plague and the classical vampire motifs, garlic, the cross, running water, stakes, immunity to bullets. The author doesn't fully explain how or why these things work completely. He does give just enough to tantalize you, but not enough to finish the complete idea.
For a vampire novel, the writing is quite complex. It has a very detailed quality to it and misses very little of what is important. It is clear when reading the novel, the author thought things through very carefully when he wrote the novel. It is detailed enough that he gives specific dates for when things happened, chemical descriptions, and percentages. These of course aren't that important because the novel could just as well have been set today as thirty years ago. Yet, they do give a finished feeling to the writing.
Stephen King and many horror writers consider this novel to be one of the top horror stories ever written. The novel is short only 170 pages long allowing one to read it in one sitting.
There is an element of unbelievability to the novel. The author even comments that he doesn't understand why the vampires with a tiny bit of intelligence don't just burn the main characters house down to get rid of him. They throw stones at his house. But, then the novel would end. He has to be caught as an individual for the novel to end.
There is an element of unbelievability to the novel. The author even comments that he doesn't understand why the vampires with a tiny bit of intelligence don't just burn the main characters house down to get rid of him. They throw stones at his house. But, then the novel would end. He has to be caught as an individual for the novel to end.
I am wondering what the sound track of I am Legend will be like. I hope they include some decent piano music.
I remember watching Nosferatu in the park on a summer evening at around six o'clock. You paid for your ticket and sat outside. Maybe you got a glass of beer or soda, or some popcorn. Then the piano would start playing. The film was a silent black and white with a slightly grainy texture. Nosferatu had a dreamlike quality much like animation. Everything was either very dark or very light. The whole movie was a movie of extremes.
I am reviewing this book particularly because the movie is in the theater. I am not going to go see the movie in the theater. I will wait until it comes out on DVD. When it comes to the library, I will put it on reserve. I will probably end up being number 250 in line and have to wait three months to get the movie. I am in no hurry to get movies, books, and other media. I don't feel an urge to rush out to get things. I think this is much more satisfying when you are younger. There is an excitement to be the first one to see a movie. You get wide eyed and rush out to see the latest thing, or grab the newest comic book. It is a very intense experience.
I am reviewing this book particularly because the movie is in the theater. I am not going to go see the movie in the theater. I will wait until it comes out on DVD. When it comes to the library, I will put it on reserve. I will probably end up being number 250 in line and have to wait three months to get the movie. I am in no hurry to get movies, books, and other media. I don't feel an urge to rush out to get things. I think this is much more satisfying when you are younger. There is an excitement to be the first one to see a movie. You get wide eyed and rush out to see the latest thing, or grab the newest comic book. It is a very intense experience.
I also have Spiderman 3 and Shrek The Third on hold. I rather like these kinds of films. Like, I am Legend, I am not in a hurry to get things. I follow the same habit of some of my patrons. I fill up my holds list and keep it filled. There is one patron of the library who comes in and first fills his hold list of 20 films, then he uses his mothers card to add another 20 films. He is disabled. It is what he does with his time. There are a couple others like this who fill all their holds with videos.
In a way, I am just as obsessed, however, I have a little more variety, books, dvds, and comic books. I usually get a few items every couple days.
Here is the paperback book. It has a picture of Wil Smith on the cover. Some people will buy this book only because it has a picture of Wil Smith on the cover. They collect paperbacks based on films. The clearer the shot of the film the more they will like the paperback. The paperback is currently on the Locus bestseller list for science fiction, the film has definitely revived the books.
Sunday, August 5, 2007
The Gatekeepers: Raven's Gate (Book Review)
The Gatekeepers: Raven's Gate by Anthony Horowitz
Publisher: Scholastic
ISBN: 0-439-85629-9
Publisher: Scholastic
ISBN: 0-439-85629-9
Matt isn't really a bad kid, he's just looking for someplace to belong and maybe a reason. He is however different from your average kids, and someone out there seems to know that. When he finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time, Matt's entire life is ripped apart and he is sent on a journey that is more than a little strange, and altogether terrifying.
Worse yet, when he finds himself packed off to Lesser Malling, things get even weirder. Knowing he needs to escape the nightmare he is living, Matt is faced with mortality and his true self. But everyone who tries to help Matt ends up dead or missing. Is the place he's supposed to call home filled with witches or is there a greater evil at hand?
Anthony Horowitz writes a remarkably dark tale. As an adult, I wondered if it might be too graphic for the kids, but I could not put it down. I can see where readers of the dark and gritty would high five Mr. Horowitz's talent for the creepy. A very good read and I am looking forward to Evil Star.
Reviewed by Karen Syed
See what's shakin' at Quake.
www.quakeme.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
