Two Envelopes And A Phone > Recent Status Updates

Loving it. One character already seems doomed, so I worry more about all those around him.

So I think I’ll finish up the few stories I have left in that book Moonrise (it’s always fun setting up a new short story collection, for dipping into between longer works), and then I’ll really be primed for this. Vampires, of some sort, right? I’m in the mood for vampires, so it was either this or The Traveling Vampire Show, and new blood has won out over the reliability of - but also the familiarity of - Laymon.

Riveting. Disturbing. Not a street I want to get lost on.

I think this is hard Goodis novel to get, compared to some others, but suddenly I have it and am eager to read it. The Goodis that most affected me thus far is called Of Tender Sin. Street of the Lost is a great title, the cover art on my edition is terrific - am hoping for a cracking good noir tale on top of all this!

This should be…decadent.

A lot has happened, as of 52 pages - and I like it.

A sad but effective story from Gordon R. Dickson.

Enjoying this re-read. I remember the gist of the ending, and so I'm watching Brown set everything up for the surprise.

I feel like I need a shower almost per paragraph.

Okay, I'm gonna re-read this - I guess it's almost 40 years later! This was the first Fredric Brown book I ever read. I loved it, and shortly after that picked up His Name Was Death, which I suppose has held its ground as my favourite Fred Brown. Anyway, I recall the twist ending of The Far Cry - it sent a Roger Ackroyd level shiver down my spine- so this time around I'll just watch the build-up.

I've hit the really nightmarish part.

Creepy, gory and gross, hard to put down. Vaguely - just very vaguely a Nazareth Hill vibe…and that ‘s for a specific reason. Supporting characters, and how they are at the mercy of a haunted or cursed environment, are being used in a similar way in The Shaft, as compared to what I recall from Nazareth Hill; any main conflicts and main character plotlines are buttressed by supporting characters creepy fates…

I like it; Schow is definitely not for everyone - the splatterpunk label applies - but I had read The Kill Riff and enjoyed it, even though it was very disturbing, especially at the end.

Going from a Raoul Whitfield story to a Frank Gruber story - now this is kind of a chunk of paradise for me; Green Ice by Whitfield and The Whispering Master by Gruber we’re both great novels, and I’ll take short fiction from them any day of the week.

I’ve decided I’m not up for the tiny print and big ideas of Insatiability right now, and just want some less cerebral, less demanding reading in the middle of hot July. So I’ve bounced that one back to the Want to Read pile, and given myself The Shaft at the same time Insatiability gets the shaft (for the time being).

Lots of characters, lots of maps - these are not really my thing, and yet I think I’ve got everything sorted, and I love this one. Eerie and unpredictable.

Well, now...this is apparently pretty nifty Radium Age SF from Poland. It's fairly long, and the print in my edition is teeny tiny - smaller than I like - but I'll do my best, even if this takes a while. I would say 1 page equals 2 normal pages!