Tim Curran

[Francisco]

An absolutely unknown in Spain, can you suggest me some tittles by him? what about his style?

[Char]

Love me some Tim Curran!
His style is wildly imaginative and varies from stories with a Lovecraftian bent, to American history/western-type horror. A few of my favorite Curran stories are:

Skin Medicine Western Horror
Blood, Bones and Bullets This is a collection of 3 novellas and I thought they all kicked ass.
Dead Sea Maybe a little over descriptive, but a wild, creative ride on the sea, in the fog.
Deadlock A haunted ship.

[Francisco]

His weird western stories could be interesting for me, but I prefer to read first the true master of genre Joe R Lansdale

[Char]

Joe Lansdale's westerns are great. At least what I've read of them so far. Most of them I would not deem "western horror" though, just plain westerns with some horrific aspects.

[Kenneth]

Charlene wrote: "Joe Lansdale's westerns are great. At least what I've read of them so far. Most of them I would not deem "western horror" though, just plain westerns with some horrific aspects."

I agree completely. Curran has the ability to go from western horror to Lovecraftian to Twilight Zone to straight up horror. The best thing about Curran is his storytelling and characters. His characters are a straight up slice of middle-America. He makes their voices easy to connect with and effortless to buy into.

[Char]

Ken wrote: "Charlene wrote: "Joe Lansdale's westerns are great. At least what I've read of them so far. Most of them I would not deem "western horror" though, just plain westerns with some horrific aspects."

..."

Well said, Ken!

[Eric]

Really amazing talent! Some of my favorite Curran works are:

'Puppet Graveyard' - absolutely disturbing and effective chiller!
'Fear Me' - a bit of a creature feature with a prison setting
'The Underdwelling' - Cave horror!

Note you can get all three of these in one digital collection called 'Blood, Bones and Bullets' for $4. That's a steal!

I was a little torn on 'Blackout' and 'Worm' just because the subject material has been done to death.

[Char]

I loved those three novellas and they are my favorite Currans along with Dead Sea. Even though Dead Sea went a little too long on the descriptions at times, the imaginative creativity that went into it still boggles my mind. Top. Notch. Story. :)

[Eric]

Charlene, I haven't tried 'Dead Sea' yet. The 500+ pages was a little intimidating when he has so many novellas to snack on. The next novel I start on next year should be that one!

[Char]

Eric wrote: "Charlene, I haven't tried 'Dead Sea' yet. The 500+ pages was a little intimidating when he has so many novellas to snack on. The next novel I start on next year should be that one!"

One other of my favorite Currans is Skin Medicine. Very cool western horror type story. It's not quite as long as Dead Sea, but it's almost as excellent.

[Eric]

Charlene wrote: "Eric wrote: "Charlene, I haven't tried 'Dead Sea' yet. The 500+ pages was a little intimidating when he has so many novellas to snack on. The next novel I start on next year should be that one!"

O..."

Not a whole lot of western horror out there. That one sounds rather unique.

[Shaun]

I really liked 'Worm'. It's just a plain fun horror read. Not much in depth, no explanations, just a terrifying situation and a suburb's reactions to it.

I've tried to get into 'Dead Sea', and I just got lost among all the characters and the massive paragraphs of description.

Looking forward to 'Blackout' though, it's up next on my to-read list barring something especially juicy jumping out at me.

[Char]

Shaun wrote: "I really liked 'Worm'. It's just a plain fun horror read. Not much in depth, no explanations, just a terrifying situation and a suburb's reactions to it.

I've tried to get into 'Dead Sea', and I ..."

If you liked Worm, you'll probably enjoy Blackout. I thought Worm was a blast.

[Tressa]

I just finished Blackout and really enjoyed it. I am going to try to rectify not reading Curran's other books in 2016. 2015 was a dud year for me with my reading, and I am liking how I'm off to a better start this year. Reading Curran right out of the gate helped a lot.

I loved every word of Dead Sea and the descriptive text didn't bother me. The book at the beginning does seem to go in circles, but it mirrors the lost confusion of the characters on the dead sea. Still have not forgotten that one "for all eternity" scene. *shudder*

[Char]

I was a beta reader for Blackout, so I'm a bit biased. I thought it was a blast. :)

Good luck with your reading goals in 2016, Tressa. :)

[Tressa]

Thanks, Charlene. I feel that I'm back on track. It's hard to put aside my passion for reading because of other things going on in my life.

[Char]

Tressa wrote: "Thanks, Charlene. I feel that I'm back on track. It's hard to put aside my passion for reading because of other things going on in my life."

At this point in my life, I find that when I have to set aside my reading I get very grouchy.
When my son was younger, I didn't read much for a number of years, because we were just so busy with everything. I didn't mind giving it up back then. Now though, I need to read at least a little bit every day.

[Tressa]

A lot of it was my fault. I spend too much time in the evening wasted on stupid social media. Now I may scroll through social media while watching TV, but am now devoting more evening time to reading BOOKS.

[Char]

Tressa wrote: "A lot of it was my fault. I spend too much time in the evening wasted on stupid social media. Now I may scroll through social media while watching TV, but am now devoting more evening time to readi..."

Good for you! Do you have anything lined up?

[Tressa]

I'm currently reading the new King, and a nonfiction. I just picked 10 books from the 2015 horror challenge to read, and will attempt to read 15 more from various genres.

I am hoping to read Ink and Bone and The Last American Vampire soon.

[Char]

Tressa wrote: "I'm currently reading the new King, and a nonfiction. I just picked 10 books from the 2015 horror challenge to read, and will attempt to read 15 more from various genres.

I am hoping to read [boo..."

I'm reading the new King too. Slowly, but I'm reading it. :)
The group read of [book:The Bazaar of Bad Dreams|23512999] seems to be going well.

I enjoyed The Last American Vampire when I listened to it on audio. I hope you enjoy it too. You were the one that convinced me to read the first one.

[Tressa]

Well, I adore Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. so I hope the sequel is just as good.

I'll join the King thread when I finish.

[Laurie (barksbooks)]

Tressa wrote: "A lot of it was my fault. I spend too much time in the evening wasted on stupid social media. .."

I've missed you around here. I try my best to stay away from Facebook. It is a huge time suck and usually leaves me feeling pissed off. I slacked off on reading in 2015 too (too much time on tv) and have made a promise to myself to read at least 50 pages a day. At the very least, I'll get through a book a week in addition to audios. Like Char, I get very grouchy when I don't read for too long stretches of time.

[Tressa]

I missed GR too. Just had to take a break since all the discussions became so familiar after being on it daily for so many years. But taking a break will always make me want to come back home.

I am a news junkie and the phone only makes my addiction worse. But I am finding myself using my phone to turn to the books I have waiting on me, so I think I am on the road to recovery.

[[deleted user]]

I started Blackout this evening. If you like the idea of a town enshrouded in darkness, you should try Brian Keene's Darkness on the Edge of Town, too.

[Char]

Ekel wrote: "I started Blackout this evening. If you like the idea of a town enshrouded in darkness, you should try Brian Keene's Darkness on the Edge of Town, too."

That's good to hear, because when I met Brian Keene last October that was one of the books I bought and had him sign. :)
I haven't read it just yet.

[[deleted user]]

There's a new collection with short stories that came out on March 29th:

Here There Be Monsters

Lovecraftian horror, written by Tim Curran? Had to download it immediately :-).

[Alissa]

I started Dead Sea, but it was lost on me for whatever reason. I'm going to tackle it again soon.

[Daniel]

Dead Sea was enough to convince me he's a brilliant author, though I do think that it would have benefited from a solid trimming. I also loved his novella collection. The first third or so of Puppet Graveyard was absolutely chilling. Just perfect.