Dark Feasts by Ramsey Campbell
The last two books that I finished in 2024 had this in common: They were both collections that were chosen for inclusion in Jones & Newman’s excellent overview volume Horror: 100 Best Books (1988). I just loved Karl Edward Wagner’s In a Lonely Place (1983), as it turned out, and much enjoyed Lisa Tuttle’s A Nest of Nightmares (1986), although some of the stories in that latter volume had proven disappointing for me by dint of their ambiguity.
January 16th, 2025. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 2.5 | Ramsey Campbell | Horror, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
A Nest of Nightmares by Lisa Tuttle
And so, I have just come to the end of another lot of nine volumes from the remarkable publisher known as Valancourt Books. And what an ennead they were! In chronological order: Ernest G. Henham’s The Feast of Bacchus (1907), in which a pair of comedy and tragedy masks influences whoever comes into their orbit; L. P. Hartley’s Facial Justice (1960),
December 27th, 2024. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | Lisa Tuttle | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
In a Lonely Place by Karl Edward Wagner
In any number of my book reviews here on FanLit, I have had cause to refer to editor Karl Edward Wagner’s famous Wagner 39 List. This three-part list, which originally appeared in the June and August 1983 issues of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone Magazine, enumerated the editor’s choices for the 13 Best Supernatural Horror Novels of all time, the 13 Best Nonsupernatural Horror Novels of all time, and the 13 Best Sci-Fi Horror Novels of all time;
December 23rd, 2024. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 5 | Karl Edward Wagner | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Great White Space by Basil Copper
For those of you who have read everything written by the great H. P. Lovecraft but are still hankering for another solid dose of cosmic horror and tentacled monstrosities, hoo boy, have I got a doozy for you! Although written four decades after the so-called “Sage of Providence” dominated the field of weird fiction in the 1930s, this book – Basil Copper’s The Great White Space – is such a convincing pastiche that all fans of the genre should be left happily grinning nevertheless.
December 20th, 2024. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4.5 | Basil Copper | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
Bury Him Darkly by John Blackburn
Although it’s been almost 18 years since I last read English author John Blackburn’s first novel, A Scent of New-Mown Hay (1958), I still vividly recall several segments of the book, mainly due to the forcefulness of the writing therein. And really, with its plot conflating a female ex-Nazi scientist, deserted Russian villages, and a fungoid mutation that is slowly spreading across Europe, the book is inherently hard to forget.
December 10th, 2024. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4.5 | John Blackburn | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Pippin’s Journal by Rohan O’Grady
“A spellbinding Gothic page-tuner,” the folks at Valancourt Books tell us on the back cover of their new edition of Rohan O’Grady’s novel entitled Pippin’s Journal, and happily, this blurb tells it just the way it is. The book was one that I had never even heard of up until a few months ago, and yet it has suddenly and surprisingly become one of my favorite reads of this year. Simply stated, I just loved this one!
December 6th, 2024. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 5 | Rohan O'Grady | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Scarlet Boy by Arthur Calder-Marshall
In the mood for an offbeat haunted-house novel to keep you company during this fall season … or during any season; a beautifully written tale of supernatural horror that you have most likely never heard of before? Well, then, I have a doozy of a suggestion for you … namely The Scarlet Boy, by the British author Arthur Calder-Marshall! The book has been unfortunately neglected for over six decades now, and a quick look at its sporadic publishing history will help explain why it might be an unknown quantity for you and the general reading public today,
November 21st, 2024. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | Arthur Calder-Marshall | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Doctors Wear Scarlet by Simon Raven
The British film Bloodsuckers, from 1970, was easily one of the worst cinematic experiences I’ve sat through in recent memory; a confused and confusing mess of a movie, made even more disappointing for me by dint of the fact that the two lead actors whose participation induced me to watch the film in the first place – namely, Peter Cushing and Patrick Macnee – don’t even appear on screen together once! And yet, I thought, the central premise of the film,
November 11th, 2024. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4.5 | Simon Raven | Film / TV, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
In today’s 23rd and final Shocktober Double Feature, we will deal with an ax-wielding nutjob, Leslie Nielsen, horny camp counselors, and a relentless series of homicides! It’s Prom Night and Friday the 13th!
Take a dash of Brian de Palma’s Carrie, blend in a hint of John Carpenter’s Halloween, sprinkle in a healthy pinch of Saturday Night Fever and you may end up with a concoction very much like 1980’s Prom Night,
October 31st, 2024. Sandy Ferber | Film / TV, Horror | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
In today’s Shocktober Double Feature, we will be mesmerized by a hideous neck fetus (yes, you read that right), a levitating old biddy, a spelunking trip gone horribly wrong, and albino bat creatures! It’s The Manitou and The Descent!
My psychotronic-film guru, Rob, didn’t have to do more than give me a one-sentence summary of its storyline in order to convince me to see 1978’s The Manitou. After all, what horror fan wouldn’t be sold by a plot in which pretty Susan Strasberg develops a large tumor on her neck,
October 30th, 2024. Sandy Ferber | Film / TV, Horror | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
No doubt about it--I have to read these.
Pretty much as expected going into 2024, Nicola Griffith's Menewood was my pick for best book read in that year.…
Sounds intriguing!
[…] (Fantasy Literature): Horror authority Jack Sullivan, writing in the Jones & Newman book, tells us, regarding […]
What a dunderhead, not like the Horseclans series? I just like stories that are pure entertainment like these or Stirling's…