Book Talk discussion
What Are You Reading?
I've tried reading Coben twice.Doesn't click with me at all.
Pollock's THE DEVIL ALL THE TIME is spectacular. Kealan, if you've ever visited any of the little hole in the wall towns that fill in the gaps in Ohio, you'll dig it.
BERSERK by Tim Lebbon.EMBEDDED by Dan Abnett.
I have Beserk but haven't gotten to it yet.
Kealan wrote: "Keith wrote: "I'm currently reading Let The Old Dreams Die by John Ajvide Lindquvist. A collection of short stories which includes an up date of Eli from Let the Right One In. The first two stori..."I think you would be very happy with his work. He does give a new spin on the classic horror and for the most part he is very successful at it. If you like European horror, you will probably be able to appreciate his work.
Here in the UK, everything Nordic seems to be in vogue, hell even the BBC are showing Danish, Swedish and Norweign crime series at the moment. They are even topping the best seller fiction lists as well.
Let the Right One In - is very well done and an excellent read.
Handling the Undead - was very interesting though some people were not that impressed. I really enjoyed it.
The Harbour - took me a bit to get into but once I got into the swing of the piece, I really enjoyed it. Very haunting.
Little Star - I loved but I have a thing about fiction and odd children. I used to be a big fan of John Saul so it might have something to do with that. Excellent read.
The current one is a collection of short stories and so far I find them quite successful.
As stated above, they are very Nordic and European with very Swedish characters but makes an interesting read.
Keith, what other Norwegian horror writers are big at the moment?
I thought Berserk was pretty good. Not quiet horror by any means. Very much an over the top action type of novel sort of like Maberry's stuff. I think I gave it 4 stars. The girl in there is creepy as hell. I read another one by Lebbon called Desolation and found it very confusing.
Jon Recluse wrote: "Keith, what other Norwegian horror writers are big at the moment?"At the moment, we have:
Camilla Läckberg
Alice Haro
Jussi Adler-Olsen
Maj Sjöwall
Per Wahlöö
Jorn Lier Horst
Asa Larson
Håkan Nesser
Don Barlett
Jo Nesbo
Arnaldur Indridason
Karin Fossum
To be fair - it seems to be Scandinavian crime fiction riding the wave of Steig Larson's books but they seem to be doing hot business.
Thanks.I've read Nesbo. More mystery than horror, I thought.
Didn't know there was anything wrong with your mom, Charlene. Good luck to you both.
Jon Recluse wrote: "Thanks.I've read Nesbo. More mystery than horror, I thought."
Sorry Jon, I think I misinterpreted your question. There is only one Scandinavian horror writer with is Lindqvist. The rest are crime writers. Sorry about the confusion on that one.
Keith wrote: "Jon Recluse wrote: "Thanks.I've read Nesbo. More mystery than horror, I thought."
Sorry Jon, I think I misinterpreted your question. There is only one Scandinavian horror writer with is Lindqvi..."
No problem, Keith.
Just picked up THE DEVIL ALL THE TIME at the library today.
Kealan wrote: "Jon Recluse wrote: "Thanks.I've read Nesbo. More mystery than horror, I thought."
I haven't read Nesbo, but the film HEADHUNTERS, based on his novel, was superb, and made me want to try his work."
I read his THE SNOWMAN. Good stuff, once you get used to Nordic noir.
Glad your mom is better, Charlene.Stick with The Woods, Kealan. It gets better.
Alcoholism, Death Metal, Suicide and Elves.A fun people.
I just got my hands on a copy of Walk on the Wild Side: The Best Horror Stories of Karl Edward Wagner, Volume 2
I think Harlan Coben writes really good
Gatorman wrote: "Glad your mom is better, Charlene.Stick with The Woods, Kealan. It gets better."
Gator, thanks.
I've liked quite a few Coben books, but I haven't read anything by him in a while now.
Jon, nice! How's your hand?
Charlene wrote: "Gatorman wrote: "Glad your mom is better, Charlene.Stick with The Woods, Kealan. It gets better."
Gator, thanks.
I've liked quite a few Coben books, but I haven't read anything by him in a wh..."
Doing okay, Charlene.
Hurts some, but not as bad.
Burns suck. : (Yay for Kealan and the DT series! I would like to reread it in its entirety, but I don't see that happening.
Yeah.I never liked the Dark Tower series.
I loved it. But there was a bit of time in between each book, so what I remember of it is sort of disjointed.
I like the first DARK TOWER for its McCarthy-like style, but couldn't get into the others. I intend to try them again someday.
Kealan wrote: "I thought the first one read more like a parable than anything else. The second was superb. So far this one is off to a great start. I'm hoping I can stick with it. Would love to be able to read th..."The thing that really put me off was the Blane the Mono, and the "Thanki sai, Blane," thing.
Jon Recluse wrote: "I just got my hands on a copy of Walk on the Wild Side: The Best Horror Stories of Karl Edward Wagner, Volume 2"I used to have one of his "best of's." Some of the great names like him and Beaumont can be surprisingly hard to find. Even Matheson has drifted in and out of availability.
Marc wrote: "Jon Recluse wrote: "I just got my hands on a copy of Walk on the Wild Side: The Best Horror Stories of Karl Edward Wagner, Volume 2"I used to have one of his "best of's." Some of the great names..."
Ain't that the truth.
I got real lucky and have a copy of Where the Summer Ends: The Best Horror Stories of Karl Edward Wagner, Volume 1 on it's way, too.
I do, too.I've had a copy of In a Lonely Place for years. Saw a great illustration done by Lee Brown Coye, for "Sticks" in a collection somewhere.
Kealan wrote: "I'd love to see that. Envious of your acquisition of the Wagner collection. I have WHY NOT YOU AND I? in paperback, but that's it."Trying to remember where I saw it....must have been one of Stuart David Schiff's "Whispers" collections. It mentioned that those sticks are real, and Coye had seen them somewhere in New England, I think.
I don't own them, Kealan. I found them thru inter-library loan. Whether or not they get them back, however..... ;)
It's got to be where those sticks in "The Blair Witch Project" came from....
That movie gets no love, but I liked it.
Kealan wrote: "Wagner's story has been mentioned quite a bit as inspiration for THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT. If it's true, I think he'd have greatly approved."I think he would, too.
Charlene wrote: "That movie gets no love, but I liked it."Ditto. ;)
I liked The Blair Witch Project. This was mean but I scared the crap out of my mother-in-law. She speaks good English but prefers to watch her Spanish channels and hadn't heard about the movie really at all. I told her that it was actually "found footage" that someone discovered in the woods after some kids disappeared and they put it together for Sundance and it was making the rounds. I told her it wasn't really a movie---it was actually someone's home movie and that they were still missing.She was very curious. As the movie continued she got very uncomfortable and asked if I was sure that the kids were still missing. We played along with it. When she got to the end she was horrified, saying something like "oh no...they are gone..."
We finally told her that it was actually a movie and THEN it actually took a little time to convince her that it was a movie since it looked so real to her. I had to tell her that I saw the actors on a TV interview later and she laughed. She told me that she thought it was very clever.
I really liked it and I liked Paranormal Activity, especially the second one.
I loved Paranormal Activity, but I hated the second one. We did see it in a theater, and there was a baby crying, so maybe that ruined my experience. I felt like if I saw that pool cleaner thing again I would scream.I think that prank was pretty funny. : )
Good thing she wasn't p/o at you.
My mom and sisters would have dented my skull with a cast iron fry pan for a stunt like that.....again.
I liked the second one better because with multiple cameras you could see what was going on in another part of the house and see the character oblivious to it, or maybe hearing it but not knowing what is going on. It made me tense. I liked them both--especially the way the stories fit together. She is much too much a good sport to get mad, but it would have been worth it even if she did. Watching her squirm during the movie was really fun in an evil sort of way. The horrified look on her face at the end was priceless.
It might have been worth getting hit by a frying pan.
Charlene wrote: "LOL That sucks for you, Jon. : )"I do have a track record for stuff like that. ;)
Kealan wrote: "Wagner's story has been mentioned quite a bit as inspiration for THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT. If it's true, I think he'd have greatly approved."So did I. Goes to show the flip side of worship -- and that movie was all but worshipped for a while -- in that whatever people praise out of all proportion they just as often build an equal amount of mindless resentment toward and can't wait to tear down. That movie has been so pooped on it's ridiculous.
Me, I hated the idiocy of throwing away the map when you're lost. I just didn't buy it. But the atmospherics were great, some of the acting was damned good, the basic set-up was fun and ingenious, and the ending was fantastic.
Charlene wrote: "I loved Paranormal Activity, but I hated the second one. We did see it in a theater, and there was a baby crying, so maybe that ruined my experience. I felt like if I saw that pool cleaner thing ag..."I liked Paranormal Activity more for the concept than the execution. I didn't like the couple, and the idea that you'd always be filming (but then at odd times the camera did disappear?) was pushed to a ludicrous extreme. But the tension was great, because. What you had was basically a classic internet "screamer" hoax, of the type you inflict on your buddies or some innocent stepchild whose single mother you married pretty much only so you could abuse her kids, expanded into a full movie, so you're constantly waiting for the "jump" all the time. It's a very neat trick, but not a difficult one or one that's good enough to spawn interesting imitators.
And the ending was egregiously standard.
I remember every moment of seeing THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT in the theater, particularly goosebumps they show the hand prints, then my stomach dropping for the final scene. I *think* I would have really loved PARANORMAL ACTIVITY if not for one fatal flaw: the time stamp in the corner of the screen. It would go by very quickly (while they fast forwarded the tape), then would switch to real time every time something "scary" was about to happen. They might as well have had a voice over say, "Get ready for the scare!"
I quite enjoyed the camcorder films but now they are becoming so fast and furiously released that they are losing their spark. I do wonder though that if something horrible was happening whilst I was filming, I would probably drop the camera and run away and that is one of the things that bothers me. They would rather film than run for safety.Saying that, most of the footage of the Tsunami in the Philippines was shot by camcorders whilst the wave was almost on top of them. The people were not running, they were filming.
I did enjoy Chronicle alot.
Kealan, I found the illustration. It was in Whispers. However, Coye's piece was for the story "Dark Winner" by William F. Nolan.
And Coye did see these sticks, in the Mann Brook region of upstate New York in 1938. Wagner says he based the story on what Coye told him.
Keith wrote: "Whereabouts in upstate NY?"It says the Mann Brook region, southeast of DeRuyter.
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I find him a real interesting author but very Nordic (which makes sense). So far so good.
John Ajvide Lindqvist