Well folks, we’re now just a little over one week away from this year’s FantasyCon . . .
. . . and all hell’s broken loose here at PS Towers, caused not least by an influx of reviews and books for the new titles we’re going to be launching.
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For a starter, here’s Bill Sheehan writing for the Washington Post.
“The field’s current vitality springs from a potent combination of gifted young writers and recognized masters, many of whom are writing as well and prolifically as ever. A case in point is Ramsey Campbell, now in his sixth decade as a published writer. Through the auspices of PS Publishing, which has done so much to keep Campbell’s work before the public, he has now—with THE THREE BIRTHS OF DAOLOTH—produced a late-career masterpiece.
“In three volumes spanning 60 years (THE SEARCHING DEAD, BORN TO THE DARK and THE WAY OF THE WORM), the story recounts the ongoing struggle of three lifelong friends against inimical forces from beyond the universe, forces determined to dominate and transform the mass of humanity. This is pure cosmic horror, Lovecraftian in its essence, and it brings to mind Campbell’s first published work, THE INHABITANT OF THE LAKE. No one writing today does this sort of visionary fiction more effectively. In addition, the trilogy serves as a deeply felt reflection on loss, mortality, and the harsh realities of aging."
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Tempted? You should be! We've made a limted number of all three volumes available as a bundle thereby saving you on the postage. Click on the image above to place your order. We'll be shipping out orders on our return from Fantasycon.
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"This is one of the signature horror novels of the 1980s, and it has been out of print for much too long. This lightly revised new edition tells of a young literary scholar caught up, without his knowledge, in a series of rituals designed to bring about the end of the human world. This is Klein’s only novel, and it is a gem.
“The kind of fear that Campbell and Klein evoke so effectively is primal in nature, infused with a sense of strangeness and existential threat. But the uses of horror are many and varied, and the best of today’s writers bring a wide range of approaches to their explorations of bizarre circumstances and extreme states of mind. With apologies to the laundry list of gifted folks I’m overlooking, here’s a sampling of the best new horror currently on offer.”
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And while we’re on the subject of Ramsey, here’s more well-deserved praise, this time from the British Fantasy Society, courtesy of Allen Stroud.
“Throughout THE WAY OF THE WORM there is a continual sense that Dominic is fighting against something vast and impossible to properly comprehend. This is also a Lovecraftian device. However, Campbell’s writing is more restrained than his predecessor, reserving the thick descriptions of horror for the moments that require them and making use of a different touch in the more domestic scenes. This results in a story that ebbs and flows as it blends its supernatural themes into our reality.”
Here’s the full piece.
britishfantasysociety.org/reviews
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And one more for Ramsey’s THE WAY OF THE WORM, the trilogy’s third volume, this time from Pauline Morgan at SF Crowsnest.
"It is not necessary to have read THE SEARCHING DEAD and BORN TO THE DARK as all the relevant information is included here, neatly and surreptitiously as an integral part of the stortelling. Campbell begins slowly, allowing the readers to immerse themselves in the ordinariness of life before gradually ramping up the tension. The horror creeps in.
"This approach is something Campbell is extremely skilled at and uses to great effect. It isn’t necessary to fully understand the mechanisms behind the events, the characters haven’t that clarity neither, to appreciate this novel. It is important to remember that this is a Ramsay Campbell novel. Don’t expect everything to turn out well.
"His aficionados will love it."
Here’s the full review.
www.sfcrowsnest/book-review
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“Ramsey Campbell has been one of our essential voices in horror fiction for over fifty years now, and his admirably prolific stream of novels and short stories shows no signs of drying up. BY THE LIGHT OF MY SKULL, his latest short story collection from PS Publishing, helpfully collects together highlights of his short fiction from the past six years. Whilst Campbell has released iconic short story collections in the past like Alone With The Horrors, this new collection easily reaches the heights of quality and consistency of his previous ones, whilst showing off again just how in control of his craft Campbell is. Wide-ranging in approach, yet uniformly chilling and beautifully written, the stories in BY THE LIGHT OF MY SKULL are essential for long-time fans of Campbell’s work and newcomers alike."
You can read the full review here:
gingernutsofhorror.com/fiction-reviews
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OCTOBERLAND by Thana Niveau
"A wide variety of stories guaranteed to unsettle . . . You might not want to read this collection in one sitting (as events dictated that I had to)… since you might want to sleep that night. Needle-sharp horror. 8/10."
Read the full review here:
https://scifibulletin.com/books/horror/review-octoberland/
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RIME by Tim Lebbon
“Tim Lebbon’s inspired reworking of the themes of Samuel Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a thought-provoking short read. It resituates the Mariner in deep space, on board an ark heading for a new world after the Earth has been devastated . . . An enthralling tale. 9/10”
Read the full review here:
https://scifibulletin.com/books/science-fiction/review-rime/
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THE SMALLEST OF THINGS by Ian Whates
“If you’ve watched or been intrigued by the idea of Counterpart, the new Starz series about a parallel world whose occupants can step between dimensions, then you’ll definitely want to pick up The Smallest of Things . . . An enjoyable take on the parallel world idea with an engaging hero.”
Read full review here:
https://scifibulletin.com/books/science-fiction/review-the-smallest-of-things/
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Plus this review for Ian Whates' THE SMALLEST OF THINGS from Matt Johns at BFS . . .
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“This is an entertaining and easy to read book – the action flows thick and fast and Chris and Claire’s adventures make for a rollicking good romp through the streets of different Londons as they race against time to escape from their shadowy pursuers . . . I’ll certainly be keeping an eye out for the further adventures of Chris, and suggest that you do too!”
Read the full review here: http://www.britishfantasysociety.org/reviews/the-smallest-of-things-by-ian-whates-book-review/
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THE DARK MASTERS TRILOGY by Stephen Volk
“Each book in the trilogy is a masterpiece. Combined, they produce a kind of synergy, creating an outstanding reading experience. Perhaps their greatest achievement is to provide convincing portrayals of their protagonists despite being fictional accounts, all done through the skill and craftsmanship of the writing. Now that’s real magick.”
Read full review here: https://anthony-watson.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-dark-masters-trilogy.html
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Here’s this from Interzone, which we ran in the Newsletter a couple of weeks back . . . but something this good needs maximum plugging.
"If Julie C. Day was a singer she’d have a five-octave range. This is a collection of astonishing variety and power. She is one of those alchemists of the short story who offers uncomplicated engagement, while provoking knotty thoughts and mutable responses. This is not merely a promising debut, it is simply astonishing."
And now she has another one, from Laura Nicoara, at NECESSARY FICTION. Here’s a clip followed by a link to the full review.
necessaryfiction.com/reviews
“In Julie C. Day’s UNCOMMON MIRACLES, some stories take place in fantastic settings or in anonymous spaces that may well be any place or none at all; in others, the fantastic seeps through realistic and identifiable locations, blending effortlessly with them. Flying creatures inhabit swampy, half-abandoned, once-prosperous cities in Florida; the dry, dusty stretches of Oregonian desert are traversed by long empty roads, from the side of which ghosts hidden in stones silently watch; the fetid heat of Arizona is where the decay of organic matter can be turned into a portal to the heavens. Regardless, it is always the intimate inner lives of characters that are the focus. Towards the end of ‘Florida Miracles’, the 15 year-old protagonist summarises this general approach as she meditates on Mrs. Henry, the supernatural being who has been inhabiting her for all of her life: “God, I missed so many things. Despite her fifteen, or fifty, or eight thousand years, Mrs. Henry is no miracle. This entire time, it’s our lives […] that have been miraculous.”
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We had a fantastic response to last week’s nutty movie sequence competition
Here are the ones we considered the best ones though they were all good.
Here’s this winning offer from Alan Saul:
“For me of the Hitchcock films is the scene in THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH when the agent staggers out to Jimmy Stewart while trying to get the knife out of his back.”
And from Sven (AtomSmasher):
“The look on Jeffrey Jones´ face when he realizes he´s not talking to Ferris.
For best phone call in a movie ever, this takes the cake”
youtube.com/Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Meanwhile Hans Curtis’s number one favorite scene that he can watch anytime is from Sergio Leone’s Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cativo [The Good, The Bad and the Ugly].
Blondie left Tuco in the desert, and Tuco has walked over 70 miles and arrives at a town. First he drinks water from a trough then enters the local store which is about to close for the day. Inside Tuco puts together a gun made from the best parts of what he can find from all the guns in the store and tests the gun in a shooting range behind the store. Satisfied, he asks the store clerk 'how much?', the clerk replies '20 dollars!', Tuco asks again in a different tone, the clerk replies '50 dollars.'. Tuco points the gun at the clerk, '100 dollars!', Tuco cocks the gun, '200 dollars its all that I have!'
youtube.com/tucoatthegunshop
Well done guys and to the other folks who let us have their fave movie sequence ideas. Let us have your mailing addresses and we’ll send your books next week.
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Launching next week at Fantasy Con . . .
Electric Dreamhouse Midnight Movie Monographs; SPIRITS OF THE DEAD by Tim Lucas, LES VAMPIRES by Tim Major, and HORROR EXPRESS by John Connolly. Here's a brief reminder, but if you want ALL the juicy gossip on forthcoming titles, check out editor Neil Snowdon's official website: https://www.electricdreamhouse.co.uk/
OR, you can follow Electric Dreamhouse Press on Facebook or Twitter.
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Dismissed as a ‘gloomy and sentimental hack’ by American and British critics in his day, Edgar Allan Poe was nonetheless revered in France as a ‘poete maudit’ and ‘master of the short story’ by Charles Baudelaire, praised as a ‘sublime poet’ by Mallarme, celebrated as a ‘lucid theoretician of poet effects’ by Valery. The difference could not have been more stark.
And yet, when the filmic poets of European Cinema came together to adapt Poe’s stories for SPIRITS OF THE DEAD (Histoires Extraordinaires) they were largely derided, with only Fellini’s ‘Toby Dammit’ segment receiving unanimous praise, while the American adaptations of Poe’s stories, by Roger Corman and AIP, received both popular and critical acclaim.
Fitting then, that the wheel should come full circle, as US author and Critic Tim Lucas mounts this compelling re-examination of a film which he has long defended as a Classic of the genre, and which in his own words ‘changed his life’.
Embracing the poetic and the sublime, Lucas takes to task the common misconception that this is a film of parts, to look at it as a richly imagined, sensual, cohesive, and poetic whole. A film which aims for something ‘other’ than straight forward scares, that eschews the clinical Freudianism of the Corman movies, for something more deeply felt.
Poe himself claimed that “a poem deserves its title only inasmuch as it excites, by elevating the soul.” For Tim Lucas, SPIRITS OF THE DEAD does just that.
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UK novelist Tim Major, author of YOU DON’T BELONG HERE, has written a monograph on the sublime silent serial LES VAMPIRES, and in the process reignited my own obsession with its director Louis Feuillade, and Paris in that period. One of the reasons I always wanted to approach authors as well as critics for this series was precisely the hope that they'd bring a different angle to that we might expect and Tim has delivered in spades. His book is part commentary and exploration of his own fascination with the film, and part metatextual fiction that responds to, and evokes, the uncanny texture of the dreamlike world of the film itself. — Neil Snowdon
1915, and in America D.W. Griffith is breaking new ground with his BIRTH OF A NATION, charting a path for the next century of US Cinema, as an art dedicated to narrative clarity and cohesion/certainty. Meanwhile, in France, the absinthe dream of the Belle Epoque was coming to an end in the nightmare of the First World War, and yet in the midst of it all, films were still being made.
Already famous for his amoral crime serial FANTOMAS (1913), Louis Feuillade embarked upon LES VAMPIRES on location in Paris, even as the War came close enough that German guns could shell the city. It was to be his masterpiece, and—in a way—the antithesis to D.W. Griffith. Feuillade’s was a cinema of uncertainty, of ambiguity and unease, even as it embraced comedy, metatextuality, breaking the fourth wall to wink at the audience/make us complicit. It is oneiric, poetic, sensual, and uncanny.
Born of the French literary and artistic heritage of the ‘fantastique’ it would, in it’s own way, set the course for the future of French film as a cinema in which ambiguity remains a defining characteristic, and a central pleasure to be embraced.
Join novelist Tim Major as he explores the dreamlike underworld of Louis Feuillade, the original femme fatale, Musidora, and her gang ‘The Vampires’...anything can happen, nothing is certain, in LES VAMPIRES.
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Remember watching Horror movies late at night, alone, in secret, when you you were just a child? The special thrill of forbidden fruit, the delightful dread that this one might cause nightmares . . .
Is there one film that stands out for you? One film in particular that defines that experience? For author John Connolly, it's HORROR EXPRESS. But why? Why this one? What was it about this slightly ramshackle, British/Spanish co-production that, despite obvious flaws, made it such an effective, entertaining, and memorable Horror movie?
A British producer, a Spanish director; a star in mourning, another in debt; a script written around leftover sets from a previous film . . . it could have been forgettable trash, but it wasn't.
And, during a late night screening on Irish television, it would make an indelible impression on the young boy who would grow up to become best selling crime author, John Connolly. 30 years after that first viewing John Connolly goes back to the source to find out why it stayed with him, and if it still works...
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Okay, that’s about it for this week—lots to do in preparation for FantasyCon.
If you’re thinking of going it would be great to see you. Call by the PS tables and say hi . . . the main team will be there—Nicky and me, Sheryl and Mike, and Tamsin, too. But if you can’t make it then maybe another time. We’ve got lots of new projects coming up so stay prepared. Have a great weekend, look after each other, and happy reading.
Best
Pete
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