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Splatter Punks II Review

Splatter Punks II Over the Edge: softcover, 416 pages. TOR 1995, edited by Paul M. Sammon.

This book came out in 1995, toward the end of the first generation of Splatterpunk. I wrote a few stories in that movement back in the day, Razor White (which appeared in Dark Voices 4 The Pan Book of Horror), Splatter of Black (which appeared in Dark Terrors), and Wall of Love (which appeared in Agony in Black). I haven’t done anything like those stories since, and I haven’t read a lot of this kind of material since then either. Even at age sixty-four, though, in 2023, I found myself wincing emotionally and viscerally at a few of these tales. There’s still power in these older stories. Below is the TOC, with a little description. My primary comments follow. 

Personal Acknowledgments, by Paul M. Sammon

Introduction, Essay by Paul M. Sammon

Accident d'Amour, story by Wildy Petoud, Translated from French

Impermanent Mercies, story by Kathe Koja

One Flesh: A Cautionary Tale, story by Robert Devereaux

Rant, story by Nancy A Collins

Lacunae, story by Karl Edward Wagner

Heels, story by Lucy Taylor

Brian De Palma: The Movie Brute, essay by Martin Amis

I Walk Alone, story by Roberta Lannes

Scape-Goats, story by Clive Barker

Cannibal Cats Come Out Tonight, story by Nancy Holder

All Flesh is Clay, story by John J Ordover

Imprint, story by Nina Kiriki Hoffman

Twenty-two and Absolutely Free, story by John Piwarski

Hooked on Buzzer, story by Elizabeth Massie

Pig, story by Gorman Bechard

Rockin' the Midnight Hour, essay by Anya Martin 

Embers, story by Brian Hodge

Headturner, story by Kevin Andrew Murphy and Thomas S. Roche

Nothing But Enemies, story by Debbie Goad

Boxer, story by Steve Rasnic Tem

Xenophobia, story by Poppy Z. Brite

Dripping Crackers, story by Michael Ryan Zimmerman

Intimates, story by Melanie Tem

For You, the Living, long story by Wayne Allen Sallee

Calling Dr Satan, interview with Anton Szandor Lavey by Jim Goad

Red Shift, story by Shira Daemon

Within You, Without You, story by Paul M. Sammon

Epiphany, story by Christa Faust

Note on the Splat II Soundtrack, essay by Paul M. Sammon

This is a big book with a lot of material. I didn’t read it quickly but typically read a story or two each day, depending on length. Some of these tales are long enough to be called Novellettes. None of them are weak tales. All are professional, although some resonated with me more than others for various personal reasons. 

I bought the collection primarily for the works of certain authors whose careers I’ve followed. These would be Karl Edward Wagner, Clive Barker, Poppy Z. Brite (here), and Wayne Allen Sallee. I’ve actually met all four of these authors at various cons, though could only consider Sallee to be a friend. Wagner, of course, is gone now, a great tragedy.  

I love the Kane stories by Karl Edward Wagner, most of which are set in a primitive Sword & Sorcery/Dark Gothic type of universe (ancient Earth). This is a rarity in that it’s set in the modern world. Not one of my favorite Kane stories but it still has that touch and I enjoyed it. 

Clive Barker wrote some of the best horror stories in history in his Books of Blood. This one, “Scape-Goats,” fits right into that legacy. Very compelling and one of the strongest stories in the collection.

Poppy Z. Brite’s entry here is Xenophobia. Brite definitely had a finger on the pulse of a generation with the excellent novel, “Lost Souls.” This tale has many of those same kinds of touches. 

Wayne Allen Sallee is in my top five favorite horror authors. He’s really created a unique and oftentimes grotesque body of work. I’d read this tale, “For You, The Living,” in another setting so it was no surprise for me. It still had the power to make me both viscerally and emotionally uncomfortable, and embodies (For me) a lot of what the Splatterpunk movement was about. Do yourself a favor if you like horror and give Sallee's work a read.

Like I said, I’m enjoyed all these tales. I’m only going to mention a couple more that hit me particularly hard. “Boxer,” by Steve Rasnic Tem was absolutely brutal. Nancy Holder’s “Cannibal Cats Come Out Tonight” was very well written. 

My favorite story in the collection was the last one, by Christa Faust, “Epiphany.” Beautiful prose and a distinctly discomfiting subject matter for me. This one inspired some ideas for tales of my own. 

As for the nonfiction, interesting material. I rather enjoyed the interview with Anton Lavey. I’ve not paid much attention to his philosophical thoughts previously but he had some interesting things to say, and not what one might typically expect. 

All in all, I’m happy to add this anthology to my burgeoning collection. 

The Woods are Dark

Not my favorite Laymon. His works are always readable, although I can generally find what seem like flaws to me. This is a quick paced novel in which some tourists make a "wrong turn" into a small community with a big secret. There's something in the woods. I might describe the work as The Last of the Mohicans means Heart of Darkness as channeled through Apocalypse Now.

It is a "restoration" version of a novel that was published originally in 1981. Apparently, from the opening notes by Richard Laymon's daughter, Kelly, this was the original submitted version of the novel, which had many changes forced upon it by the publisher before it was printed. As a result it certainly has some historical interest to folks interested in Laymon's career and development. 

This is not a flaw, but I didn't personally find it scary. I don't find most things that are described as horror to be frightening. I certainly found it gory and brutal. There is also, as is a signature with Laymon, a lot of sex and sexual descriptions of body parts. I'd say it reaches the level of pornography in that regard, although the sex is so mixed with gore that it is certainly not a turn-on. 

I also see where several reviewers refer to this as a "comic" horror novel. Some of the descriptions are so over the top as to evoke an eye-roll, but I don't really think of that as humor. Any humor you found here would be very dark indeed. 

My main critique of the book would be that the characters don't seem quite real to me in their reactions to the events, although never having (thank goodness) experienced anything like this I don't really know how I'd react either. 

So, as is my want, I've nitpicked some things here, which I typically do in reviews because I enjoy it. But I can certainly say I was entertained. As always, every reader has to decide for themselves how the story works or does not work for them. 

Wyoming Thunder: A Larry & Streak Western

 

Wyoming Thunder: A Larry & Streak Western, by MarshallMcCoy, Bantam, 86 pages, 1968.

So, Marshall McCoy is Marshall Grover is Leonard Meares. LeonardMeares (1921-1993) was an Australian writer who is listed as the author of 700+ novels, although—to be clear—most of these are generally of novella length.As you can see, Wyoming Thunder clocked in at 86 pages. In addition to McCoyand Grover, Meares also used the names Ward Brennan and Glenn Murrell, and occasionallyBrett Waring and Shad Denver, as well as writing works under his own name. He apparentlywrote over 400 in the Larry & Stretch series. It looks like many werewritten for a western magazine, thus explaining the shorter length. He alsowrote about 60 in another series called Big Jim, although there could be more.He also did standalones. To add to the confusion, his books have been reprintedin other countries and languages, and sometimes with different author names andeven character names.

So why is the title of this particular book called “Larry& Streak” instead of Larry and Stretch? Therein lies a short tale. InAustralia, the original characters were Larry Valentine and Stretch Emerson. Whensome of these books were reprinted by Bantam in the United States, the nameswere changed to Larry Vance and Streak Everett. I don’t know why, although itmight possibly have to do with different copyright laws and publishing houserules in the two countries. (In Sweden, the character names were Bill and Ben.)

Under any names, Larry and Stretch are a couple of charmingrogues. They are variously referred to as the Texas Hellions and the TornadoTwins. They stumble into trouble despite their best intentions, which they thengenerally handle with aplomb. They make a good team.

How did I like the book? Well, I’m giving it 3 stars, which isnot a bad rating. I enjoyed the book. It was leisurely paced by today’sstandards, without a whole lot of action except at the beginning and end. Larryand Streak take on the job of finding a doctor for a woman about to have ababy, and they end up having to break said doctor out of jail where he’s beingheld on a murder charge. Definitely an interesting plot.

I’d previously read another book by Meares, one of his BigJim books. I liked the Larry and Streak characters better and the overallpackage was more fun for me. I’ve also discovered that there are some verydedicated fans out there for Meares work and there’s a facebook page dedicatedto his Larry and Stretch series. His books are not easy to find, and the copiesof the ones I have are beaten up pretty badly from time and reading. I’mhearing that there aren’t any digital copies available. I’m sure someone willcorrect me if I’m wrong.

Overall, I can see the charm in this series and am glad Igave one a try.

Swords & Heroes

 

Swords& Heroes. Edited by Lyndon Perry. Tule Fog Press, 2023. 201 pages.

TuleFog Press is a relative newcomer in the publishing field. A small press that isprimarily the work of author and editor Lyndon Perry. Perry is a fan of heroicfantasy and has written a fair amount of it himself, most notably his TheSword of Otrim. Perry is positioned nicely for what currently seems to be asmall renaissance in heroic fantasy/sword & sorcery publishing. Thisanthology brings together twelve short heroic fantasy stories and a couple ofinteresting nonfiction pieces. One of the stories is mine, but I’ll onlybriefly mention it and focus mainly on the other pieces in the book.

Theforeword is by Jason M. Waltz, a publisher in his own right. He focusesprimarily on  “sword and sorcery,” whichis a subfield in the greater field of heroic fantasy. He offers a couple ofsurprising insights, including an evaluation of Batman as a sword & sorcerycharacter.

Nextup is a preface by Lyndon Perry, which I found interesting because it discussedthe origins of the anthology. If you’re in it for the stories alone you canleap over this directly to the first tale. I like this sort of thing, though.

Next up is “Keeper of Souls” by me. As Perrypoints out, it’s a sort of a buddy tale, but with a twist that I thought waspretty unusual. I won’t say more about it here.

Storytwo is “The Path One Doesn’t Choose” by Gustavo Bondoni. Bondoni has beentearing it up recently. I’ve seen numerous short story publications by him inall kinds of genres. His character is Yella, who has to deal with a tribe ofvillains called the “Wanderers,” with some interesting traits. Enjoyable tale.

Storythree is “Lord of the Blood” by Michael T. Burk. Ahanu is the hero here, andhis opponent is a demon. But there’s a neat twist to this and it has a strongending. I don’t believe I’ve read anything by Burk before but this wasengrossingly written.

Story four is by Teel James Glenn, a namequite a few will likely recognize. I’m familiar with his work and I believewe’ve shared a TOC before. He is also a fellow member of the Horror WritersAssociation. Glenn’s story is “The Price of Rescue.” It’s a buddy story withAda (warrior) and Donal (Bard). After helping to defend a traveling coachagainst attackers, they are the only survivors and are tasked with taking ayoung girl to a local government official. Things are not what they seem,however. The characters have some nice interactions here.

Storyfive is “The Vault of Bezalel” by Tom Doolan. I’m also familiar with Doolan’swork and we’ve shared a TOC before as well. I’ve reviewed several of hisstories and always find them enjoyable. Here, a young but deposed king namedLiam must now make his way in the world. He runs into a childhood friend whooffers him a quick quest with a potentially large reward at the end. Doolan isan action writer and there’s quite a bit of action in this interesting story.

Storysix is “On Neutral Ground” by Nancy Hansen.” Serilda is the hero here, achieftain of her people who are at war with the “Ivari,” a race that strikes meas similar to the concept of Frost Giants. The human war with the Ivari is abattle to the death, with extinction the fate of the loser. There are elementshere of the mythic human war in ancient times against the “fey,” which wasmined so beautifully by Poul Anderson in his “Broken Sword.” Very well written.

Storyseven is by Tim Hanlon, another name I recognize, although I don’t believe he’sbeen writing very long. The title here is “The Swordsman and the Sea Witch.”Harkan the Swordsman takes passage aboard a ship, which is soon attacked bypirates. The pirates win the battle but their ship is sunk, and now the winddies way, leaving the survivors becalmed, including Harkan. Death soon comes slithering from the waves. The SeaWitch of the story is not the monster, however, but the pirate captain, and sheand Harkan must work together to find a way to survive. A very fine tale.

FrankSawielijew is the author of story eight, which has the longish title of “TheNecromancer and the Long-Dead King.” This is certainly a candidate for myfavorite story in the collection. It features an unusual main character andpairs her with a combination hero/villain against a true evil. Well written andintriguing.

Storynine is “Lady in Stone” by Cliff Hamrick. I’ve known Cliff a while but this isthe first story I’ve read by him. I’m sure it won’t be the last. Jarek isanother unusual hero, and the story has touches of mystery to season the actionand sorcerous horror. A well done piece.

Storyten is by J. Thomas Howard and is called “O Sapphire, O Kambria.” The settinghere is pretty unique and I’m curious to learn more about this world, whichseems to be a kind of future earth in which dinosaurs have been brought backand taken over. Shades of Jurassic World, perhaps. Great setting for plenty ofinteresting tales, I should think. Enjoyed this one.

Storyeleven is by David A. Riley and is called “Welgar the Cursed.” Riley is aprofessional editor and publisher who has done much to revitalize heroicfantasy with his “Sword & Sorceries” series of anthologies. He has alsoproduced plenty of good tales himself. Welgar is “god-ridden,” a trope that hasbeen used to great effect by several writers, including Janet Morris with herTempus tales. I’ll definitely be seeking out more Welgar tales.

AdrianCole closes the anthology with his “Ride the Fire Steed.” I remember readingCole’s awesome Dream Lord trilogy published in the 1970s so to share a TOC withhim is a pleasure and an honor. (It’s the second time it’s happened.) And Coleis still knocking stories out of the park. This is an exciting and actionfilled piece to end the anthology on.

Butwait, there’s more: There are some brief bios of the authors, and a reallyinteresting round table discussion about Sword & Sorcery, moderated byLyndon Perry and involving Adrian Cole, Cora Buhlert, Curtis Ellet, D. M.Ritzlin, an old pal from REHupa named Morgan Holmes, P. Alexander, RichardFisher, and William Miller. Some fun discussion.

Inclosing, I much enjoyed this anthology and believe it makes an importantcontribution to the revival of the heroic fantasy genre that we’ve been experiencingof late. See if you don’t feel the same.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Horseshoes & Hand Grenades: John Corabi

Written by John Corabi, with Paul Miles. I imagine Miles did the heavy lifting with the prose and based it on Corabi's stories. Not completely sure. I really liked it. One of the better rock biographies I've read. Corabi comes across as a down to earth sort of fellow, a decent sort who is not afraid to tell the stories that make him look like a flawed human.

I'll admit I bought it primarily for the connection with Motley Crue, but I enjoyed the whole thing. Corabi was in Crue for five years and they did their self-titled album with him as the singer. That's a really good album, although not my favorite by the Crue. Corabi has also been in many, many other bands. I had no idea how many until I read this. He's mostly been a singer but also a guitar player.

One thing I particularly liked is there's a real focus on the music and his experiences on the road without dwelling on groupies and drugs. In fact, he says he never did hard drugs, although he apparently drank quite a lot. And he wasn't the kind of person to try to sleep with as many groupies as possible. Overall, a good book.

#1: Donovan���s Devils

#1: Donovan���s Devils: The Assassination is Set for July 4������,by Lee Parker. 1974. Award Books.

This is the first in a series that only went to three books.Book #2 is Blueprint for Execution, and #3 is The Guns of Mazatlan.The author is Lee Parker for all three books, although ���Glorious Trash���suggests that the author is either Larry Powell or Robert H. Turner. It���s a ���DirtyDozen��� kind of book in which a group of hardcases and misfits are put togetherfor a mission that no one else wants���to rescue some hostages from a localstrongman/rebel in Paraguay.

I actually liked the writing here. The book read smoothly.My main issue was that over three-quarters of the book is just putting the teamtogether. We get to meet James Donovan first, an Army captain getting ready toleave the military, who is recruited by his former commander���Brigadier General LucasBlaine���to take a very special assignment for the POTUS. Rescue an ambassador, afamous doctor, and the ambassador���s daughter from a Guatemalan strongman calledEl Tigre. The team he puts together, and with whom he has worked before inVietnam, contains Oliver Bogan (tough black guy), Nathan Carey (sociopath wholearns the meaning of friendship), Arthur "Houdini" Gibbs (good naturedconman), Francis Quinn (deadly warrior), Irvin "The Bear" Randolph(muscle and dumb jock), and Joseph Teal (Mechanic and chick magnet).

Gibbs, Bogan, and Quinn get a full introduction of theirback story and skill sets. I���m guessing book 2 might do the same for the otherthree. And by the time we get to Paraguay and the actual rescue, there���s only alittle over 30 pages of this 154 page book to describe it. It really got theshort shrift, and the death of El Tigre was pretty anticlimactic.

I liked the writing well enough that I might try book #2 ifI can find it cheap, but I hope we get a little more story and action in thatbook and a little less background.

#1: Donovan’s Devils

#1: Donovan’s Devils: The Assassination is Set for July 4…”,by Lee Parker. 1974. Award Books.

This is the first in a series that only went to three books.Book #2 is Blueprint for Execution, and #3 is The Guns of Mazatlan.The author is Lee Parker for all three books, although “Glorious Trash”suggests that the author is either Larry Powell or Robert H. Turner. It’s a “DirtyDozen” kind of book in which a group of hardcases and misfits are put togetherfor a mission that no one else wants—to rescue some hostages from a localstrongman/rebel in Paraguay.

I actually liked the writing here. The book read smoothly.My main issue was that over three-quarters of the book is just putting the teamtogether. We get to meet James Donovan first, an Army captain getting ready toleave the military, who is recruited by his former commander—Brigadier General LucasBlaine—to take a very special assignment for the POTUS. Rescue an ambassador, afamous doctor, and the ambassador’s daughter from a Guatemalan strongman calledEl Tigre. The team he puts together, and with whom he has worked before inVietnam, contains Oliver Bogan (tough black guy), Nathan Carey (sociopath wholearns the meaning of friendship), Arthur "Houdini" Gibbs (good naturedconman), Francis Quinn (deadly warrior), Irvin "The Bear" Randolph(muscle and dumb jock), and Joseph Teal (Mechanic and chick magnet).

Gibbs, Bogan, and Quinn get a full introduction of theirback story and skill sets. I’m guessing book 2 might do the same for the otherthree. And by the time we get to Paraguay and the actual rescue, there’s only alittle over 30 pages of this 154 page book to describe it. It really got theshort shrift, and the death of El Tigre was pretty anticlimactic.

I liked the writing well enough that I might try book #2 ifI can find it cheap, but I hope we get a little more story and action in thatbook and a little less background.

Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers

With a title like Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers(SSGR), you might assume this book is space opera. It’s not. It’s a parody ofspace opera, which is horse of a different color. Specifically, it seemed toparody most the work of E.E. Doc Smith in his “Lensman” series, which,admittedly, is not the best space opera ever written.

To me, Space Opera and Sword & Planet fiction (like JohnCarter of Mars) are the purest forms of sheer entertainment out there. They do,however, contain certain tropes that invite some writers to lampoon them. Thatdoesn’t mean the lampooning works.

Harry Harrison (born Henry Maxwell Dempsey, 1925-2012), whowrote SSGR, was a talented writer. He’s best known for his “Stainless SteelRat” stories but I’ve generally preferred other works of his, including “MakeRoom, Make Room,” which became the basis for the movie Soylent Green,and the Deathworld stories.

However, humor is difficult to write for even the most talentedauthor. In my opinion it’s the most difficult emotion to create inwriting. And I, personally, am pretty difficult to please on the humor front. Ilike humor in my fiction. Just not all humor all the time. I prefer dark humor,and humor when it comes out of the circumstances and the characters. I don’tgenerally like it when it’s layered on with a spatula and drowns every line.

While I chuckled here and there through SSGR, I didn’t getany belly laughs and I pretty quickly became bored. I mostly sped-read the last100 pages. Too often, humor turns characters into caricatures. It defusestension in order to get in a zinger. It becomes predictable because you knowthe writer is going to choose the most ridiculous option in any situation. Italso makes it difficult to maintain any suspension of disbelief in the actualstory. And primarily, it is the “story” that I want when I read.  The story in SSGR was weighed down by so manystabs at humor that I just couldn’t get into it.

SSGR is a well written parody. If you like such piecesyou’ll probably like this one. I didn’t care much for it and was rather happywhen I was done so I could move on to a different book. Of course, pleaseremember that these are my opinions and your own might differ.

Violet Rising

Violet Rising is the first in a new comic book series fromthe pen of Tony Petry. I’ve known Tony for a while on Facebook and we’vecarried on a voluminous correspondence. He’s been sending me an image here andthere of the comic but now I’ve got the whole first issue. And I read it.

Most comics seem to make the “action packed” claim, but thisone lives up to that. It’s crammed full of information and some backstory butdoesn’t sacrifice the action to accomplish those goals. The story flowsnaturally and there are revelations about the character on every page. The endpacks a wallop and sets up a big mystery for issue #2.

I believe that Jean-Etienne Nnabuchi and Ekes Momodu handlethe drawing work here but the story is Tony’s. (He’s been telling me about itfor quite a while.) I’m glad to see it come to fruition. If you’d like to pickup a copy, you can email Tony at: petry_tony (at) yahoo (dot) com

I heartily recommend it.

 

Alan E. Nourse

Alan E. Nourse was barely on my radar as a writer until fairly recently. I'd read one book by him, Raiders from the Rings, and liked it quite a lot. It was young adult SF, and so I picked up another YA SF book by him called Trouble on Titan. This one was even better. An exciting story and really well written. There's a fair amount of poetry in Nourse's work. 

After this book, I checked Nourse out. He was a medical doctor in addition to writing. He wrote fiction and nonfiction and had a medical column in Good Housekeeping apparently. He was born in the USA in 1928 and died in 1992. The two books I've read have a space operish feel to them and that's a good thing from my standpoint. Excitement and adventure. They are also YA mainly because his protagonists are on the youngish side, essentially teenagers. But the concepts are big. His science is a little dated--Trouble on Titan was published in 1954--but that scarcely detracts from the fun. 

If I'd known who Nourse was as a teenager he might have become one of my favorite SF writers, right up there with Anderson, Heinlein, Norton, and Silverberg (at that time). Now I'm going to check online for some more of his books. Maybe you should too.