Number 20 - Ahmed and the Oblivion Machines - a Fable - Ray Bradbury

A quick cheat read to get the numbers up.  This means I've now started book 21 and still in March...

Ray Bradbury is - as any regular readers I may have will know - one of my all time favourite writers.  I've been reading him since I was 12 and have very few of his published works left before I have a complete set.

This is one of the more obscure titles.  An illustrated fable published in 1998.  Its a very slim edition since it's basically one short story in large print with illustrations to pad the page count a bit further.

It's described on the dustcover as "a wondrous fable for children of all ages".

It certainly does evoke a sense of wonder.  The prose sings and soars but I find this to be a rather forgettable and lightweight story.  It almost seems to be trying too hard.

A boy, Ahmed, falls off his camel and is separated from his family. He unearths a god from the desert and wakes it with his tears.  The God, Gonn, then grants him the power of flight and takes him on a trip across time and the world.

The Oblivion machines are flying machines and Ahmed witnesses many unsuccessful early attempts at flight, including poor old Icarus and a guy who sews butterfly wings together to make his own wings (a remarkable image that I don't recognise if it's from another ancient myth or not - if it's original to Bradbury then it's a fabulous image even by his standards).

He learns lessons about his life and is returned to his family.  And that's pretty much the entire story.  As luscious as the prose is, there's no drama.  It makes for a pleasant read, but not a great one.

The imagination on display is amazing.  The prose is gorgeous.  It's not a bad book, and there is a sense of magic in the storytelling. But as Bradbury stories go, this is a lesser attempt - and I dont know for certain why I don't really rate this... 

Number 19 - From Hell to Eternity - Thana Niveau

My first short story collection of the year and it's a belter.

Before I found this in Waterstones, I'd read a couple of Thana's short stories and found them positively Bradburyesque.  That's a major compliment in my eyes. I was actually priveleged to land a story of mine in the same collection as Thana - 9th Black Book of Horror Stories.  Her's is possibly my favourite in that book.

There are no real stand out stories in this collection.  I say that for the best possible reason.  Out of the 16 stories in this book, there's not a bad or even a mediocre one in there.  This is a consistently excellent collection.

The Curtain - This feels like the opening chapter of an amazing underwater creaturee novel. I really wanted to read more, wanted to read about the beast turning against the small village cut off from civilisation by the storms.  Unfortunately, this  is only a short story.  Maybe the novel could happen in time - hint hint Thana

The Coal Man - A rather unique childhood bogeyman returns to haunt our central character.  The source of the bogey and the revelation of the deeply hidden family secrets are as shocking and scary as the presence itself.

Antlers - This has some truly nightmarish imagery.  This is no longer Bradburyesque and has become much more visceral and unpleasant than Bradbury ever went.  And that's a good thing. House hunting turns into a terrifying ordeal for a young woman.  This story really creeped me out. My only objection would be that I find it difficult to sympathise with characters who say they don't like cats.

The Cutting Room Floor - Things take a serious turn into gore terrirtory in this story. A kink/fetish model accepts a job that goes further than she's ever gone before.  But it's not blood and guts for the sake of it.  Thana puts us dead centre in the mind of our lead character, making this a truly nightmarish read.

Ultrasond Shadow - My jaw literally dropped when I reached the end of this story. We hear the account of a pregnancy gone about as horribly wrong as you could imagine.  The iages at the end of this are truly insane and a fantastic take on a hoary old idea.

The Death of Dreams - this one takes a sci/fi fantasy turn.  A machine that can read people's dreams makes life for a living nightmare when their nighttime thoughts are made public.  The ending is grtim indeed.

The Pier - I certainly don't want to take a trip down this pier at any time of day or night.  Thana shows us she can give us as cionvincing a male protagonist as she has done with the ladies who've been front and centre for the rest of the book so far.

The Scouring - some more impressively grim imagery in this one.  A woman takes her young son to see the white horse carved in the hillside.  It's a decision she soon regrets.  The local legends tell strange tales about this white horse.  But they couldn't possibly be true could they?

 A Time of Choice - Is it giving too much away to compare this to a particularly famous Angela Carter story - in theme at least?  An unusual coming of age story, that probably has the closest thing to a happy ending in the entire book.  Still impressively nasty.

Pigs - A pair of illicit lovers taking a walk in the hills take shelter in an old shack when they're caught in a freak rainstorm. This is probably the most unpleasant story in the book.  Good stuff. Almost enough to put me off my bacon sandwich later,  But not quite.

Strange Games - This one is much more subtle and psychological than the preceding stories and demonstrates that Thana has an impressive range  to the fears she can evoke.

Bruised Fruit - another dose of body horror.  A woman begins starving herself after she thinks she's been infected/infested with something by her sister in law.  The whole process of starvation feels very very real. This is an incredibly intense bit of writing.

White Roses, Bloody Silk - and now it's time for some period horror of a diferent variety from one of the earlier stories.  The style switches to a Victorian comedy, but with a grim edge that becomes grimmer as the story moves on.  The image on the front of the book does not do this story justice.

Stolen To Time - We're almost in Jonathan Carroll territory in this story.  A model finds herself losing her memories the more she's photographed.  Eerie and wonderful storytelling.

And finally - the title story - From Hell to Eternity  - a modern take on the Jack the Ripper tale.  gory and fun with a pretty good twist to the tale.  A fine way to finish the book - almost.

We also have some fascinating story notes on the origin of each of these stories.

One of the best single author collections I've read in a long while.  I hear she has a novel coming out soon so I will certainly be getting my grubby hands on that. The only complaint I have about this book is that the font choice on the ToC is too big and looks a bit amateurish. 

An easy 8/10 for this collection.

Number 18 - the Walking dead vol 1 days Gone Bye - Robert Kirkman/Tony Moore

The Walking Dead is one of my all time favourite TV shows.  However, I've never got round to reading the original source material. 

I figured it may well be an instruction manual for times to come and picked up a copy of book one when I found it at a local comics fair about three weeks ago.

The artwork is fairly crude to be honest.  But the characters are well delineated.  And the differences between the books and the TV series are really quite fascinating.

There's no sign of Daryl or Merle yet, despite their promonence in season one - which this seems to be the first half of.

There are some plot holes which become horribly obvious in this. 

Rick wakes from a coma in a hospital ward, apparently he's been there a few weeks without medical attention.  He can walk, he can fight off the walking dead, he has no muscle wastaghe or pressure sores from 4 weeks in the same position on the bed. He's not been fed in three weeks, I'm guessing his drip that was keeping him hydrated hasn't been changed in a while.  How is he even still alive?

He can't get petrol from a petrol station, the tv series is 6 years into the apocalypse, yet they all still manage to drive everywhere.... where do they get their petrol?

However, I love the pun in the subtitle - Days gone Bye.  A good punny title will convince me to overlook many many plot holes.

Also, it manages to generate some genuine tension. The differences between the tv and this mean that I'm still likely to be surprised on a semi-regular basis. I've already ordered parts two, three and four from Amazon.  Expect several more of these this year. 

Number 17 - The Curse - CL (Charles) Grant

I've been reading Charles Grant since I was about 15 years old and found a copy of The Pet in my local library (or it may have been a second hand book shop) and, being the completist I am, have been collecting as many of his books as I possibly can ever since. 

In those 30 odd years that I've been reading him, I never even knew that this one existed - mainly because of that C.L. Grant on the cover which hid it from an Amazon search.

This was his first published novel.  The front cover promises us something as terrifying as the Exorcist and the Omen.  In his later books, I would agree that he could hit those heights.  But in his first published book, would that actually be possible?

According to his wife, a very talented writer herself - Kathy Ptacek, Charlie himself did not list this book as one of his favorites.

I have to say I agree with him.  This is not my favourite Grant novel either.  His talent is evident but the usual style of writing is conspicuous by it's absence.  I don't know if recent happenings are affecting my ability to concentrate, but I struggled with this one to be honest. It's certainly not a bad book but it certainly has its flaws. 

A young couple move into a new house out in the suburbs.  While they're viewing the house they witness a man deliberately run over a dog being walked by its owner in the street .  For some reason, they still buy the house. The Amerindian neighbours tell them about a massacre of several tribes that apparently once happened in the land where this estate was built.  Strange events start happening and there's a steady build of "is-she-mad-or-is-something-really-weird-really-happening" up until the OTT final chapters where her fears seem to be real after all.

I actually found Kathy Ptacek's novel about the Indian ritual at the heart of this novel to be a better take on  the particular subject matter.  I can't actually name the novel because - spoilers.

The names of the characters were distracting.  The couple are called Terry and Syd.  Syd is the husband and Terry is actually Theresa. I have never seen Syd with the Y refer to a man before.  I know this is a silly quibble to have with the book but it did bug me. 

Terry's sister Pegeen makes an appearance about a third of the way into the book.  Pegeen?  I have never encountered that name before ever. Meanwhile, the Amerindians all have totally normal US names, William and Denver and so on.

The book felt like an attempt to ape Shirley Jackson, with the way it followed only Terry's disintegrating mental state and never changed viewpoint at any time.  At this point in his career though, I'm not sure Charlie had the subtlety to pull it off. Her fear when her husband wasn't home yet in the middle of a horrendous storm felt very real. In other places, her level of terror because the phone was ringing for example, it didn't quite ring true. 

All this criticism aside, I did enjoy the book.  The finale, although it's OTT was probably the most effectively scary sequence in the book. I'm not entirely sure the explanations made all that much sense, but it was certainly the point in the book where a mood of dread suddenly appeared. 

I'd give it about a 6.5 out of 10.  Not the book to read if you want to introduce yourself to his work, but, if you're a completist like me, an important one to get under your belt. I will probably reread at some point when my mental state is not quite as distracted by current events as it is now.

And I do like that cover.

Number 16 - The Reparateur of Strasbourg - Ian R Macleod

My great Grandmother on my mother's side is a MacLeod - straight from the central line of the heads of the clan.  Therefore there's a chance that I could well be some kind of distant cousin to this writer.  Probably not though, but I will not let possible family ties skew my review.

PS Publishing have a second website PS2 where they sell off bargain stock.  They frequently sell bundles of 10 mystery books for dirt cheap prices - and that was where I got hold of this little gem of a cheat read.

First off - check out that cover.  It's gorgeous.  The book itself is signed and limited edition so culd well prove to be a good investment one day.

The story follows a Reparateur in the city of Strasbourg up to and during the French revolution.  A reparateur is a painter who repairs other people's art.

One day, a beautiful woman visits his workshop and requests a portrait, not as she is at that moment, but as she will be in 20 years. Although his work strictly speaking prevents him legally from taking commissions for original artwork, he takes her up on the deal. Thus begins a tale of love, obsession and the supernatural, spannning several decades of his life.

 The prose is very formal but this suits the story perfectly.  It's thoroughly engaging and, even though the ending was a tad predictable, engrossing and enjoyable throughout. At only 44 pages it manages to pack in a hell of a lot of detail and a fair sized supporting cast outside of the artist and his occasional model.

The brutality of the period is very well done and lends the book a superbly doom laden atmosphere.  When violence kicks in it's gruesome and well rendered - just enough decription to provide the mental picture, not so much description that it feels superfluous.

All in all this is an interesting take on one of the hoariest old tropes in horror fiction.  One that manages to feel fresh and new, whilst the prose style feels appropriate for the french revolutionary setting.  A difficult feat to pull off.

I will definitely be seeking out more books by this writer.  I may even pay full price for the next one.

7.5/10

Number 15 - It Sustains - Mark Morris

I've been reading Mark Morris's books since my university days - too long ago to think about now.  Recently he announced on facebook that he was clearing some of his duplicate copies of his books and so I managed to snag this one at a very reasonable price.

First off, check that cover.  How bloody lovely is that?

The inside of the book matches the out.  This is possibly my favourite read by Mark Morris to date.

It tells the story of Adam, a 15 year old boy who, shortly after the violent death of his mother, moves to a new town with his father, where he finds that as low as his life feels now, it can get worse. Something is wrong in this town. Strange visions and events lead to a terrifying conclusion.

The portrait of grief feels so real, the numbness of the narrator. and his inability to deal with his new life and "friends" because of this, add an extra layer of tragedy to the narrative.

All the central and supporting characters feel like real people.  We can't help but feel sorry for Adam as he stumbles through his new existence, making mistake after mistake. He knows his actions won't lead anywhere good, but he is unable because of his grief to try a course correction until it's way too late.

Morris creates and sustains an ever growing sense of dread.  What are the strange visions Adam keeps glimpsing? What is the dark secret in the heart of the town?

The ending is one of the most disturbing and satisfying I've seen on a Mark Morris story. I had to kick myself for not working it out from the clues scattered liberally throughout the story.  This is a story that's going to stick with me for a long while.

Easy 8/10 maybe more.

It should be available online somewhere.  If you can find it, buy it.

Number 14 - The Underground Railroad - Colson Whitehead

This month's book group read. It won a Pulitzer prize, so it must have something going for it.

It certainly does, but I'm still in two minds on this one. 

The story foillows Cora, a slave in pre-civil-war USA.  She escapes via the Underground Railroad of the title - here reimagined as an actual railroad. The conducter on the first train she catches tells her that if she looks out of the window while she's travelling, she'll see the real face of America.  Being an underground train, all there is is darkness when she looks.

This is a book that needs to be read in long stretches.  Picking it up for twenty minutes at a time (like I tend to on my lunch break) isn't good enough on this.

I found it always took me a few pages to tune into the style of writing and grasp the rhythms of it. This meant the more fragmented the read, the less satisfying the book. And unfortunately, my reading has been fragmented this last two weeks.

When I did manage a few good long hour plus reading sessions, this was an excellent read that flowed nicely and truly had me absorbed into the story.

It has a matter of fact feel to the prose which I thought put too much distance between the characters and myself and some places where I should have found myself quite upset or shocked at the fate of the characters felt a little flat.

That's not to say I didn't enjoy it.  The section set in South Carolina, which feels like paradise for the runaway slaves was brilliantly done, steadily peeling back the layers and revealing possibly the darkest underside in any section of the book. I won't say more about that sequence because of spoilers, but it was certainly the most shocking sequence.

Cora was a good protagonist, intelligent, likeable and capable.  She never ceases to be a believable character. When bad things are happening, she reacts accordingly.

The story is extremely episodic. Each new stop on the railroad leads to a different set of problems, with racism sometimes buried deep beneath a layer of superficial acceptance, and sometimes signified by dead slaves strung up on every pole for a mile.

However, Whitehead chooses most of the time to jump into each new episode a few weeks after the characters' arrival and jump back and forwards in the timeline to explain how they got to the situation they're currently in.  This was occasionally confusing, particularly when dozens of characters are introduced in a mater of three pages. He also isn't the best at foreshadowing which is a technique he uses in a few sections to not great effect.

So overall this is a mixed bag.  It has a lot to recommend it, but also has some distinct flaws.  I actually think this felt like a more real depiction of slave life than Uncle Tom's cabin which I read last year (and which of course was contemporaneous to the slave trade).

It may be just that I didn't get enough long stretches to read this in, that might be the reason I can't decide on this.  It certainly feels like an important book. But why wasn't I more moved by the tragedies that occured - with the exception of one near the end of the book (no spoilers)?

If book group actually happens next week, I may expand on my comments.