The Manor of the Devil (1896)
Dec16

The Manor of the Devil (1896)

Silent Memories: The Manor of the Devil (1896) A bloody great tome, it was; at least, as I remember it.  And that memory is possibly faulty, because it was around 1970 and I was only eleven/twelve.  I had just started secondary school and had been exploring the library of Queen Margaret Academy in Ayr, Scotland. And there it was. The title is lost to me now — something like ‘Silent Film Greats’, perhaps – but my abiding...

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Robert E Howard – Black Hounds of Death
Nov16

Robert E Howard – Black Hounds of Death

Black Hounds of Death The Weird Works of Robert E. Howard, Volume 9 Edited by Paul Herman Part Two   These ongoing pieces are overviews rather than reviews and therefore contain spoilers galore.     “Many of us sometimes wonder what Howard would have done if he had continued to write for the rest of his life, whether he would have continued writing pulp stories – westerns, boxing yarns, oriental tales, and supernatural adventure – or...

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Dan Simmons’s Hyperion
Nov16

Dan Simmons’s Hyperion

Dan Simmons’s Hyperion   I’m going to open here by repeating the sentiments of another of this novel’s reviewers:  I don’t know how on Earth I have missed reading this purely astonishing novel for all of these years. It’s been around since 1989 and I’ve picked it up several times; but I’m not always in the mood for ‘hard’ science-fiction and my last big encounter hardly had me rushing off to read more.  (Peter F. Hamilton’s The...

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Arthur Machen’s The Green Round
Nov01

Arthur Machen’s The Green Round

Arthur Machen’s The Green Round   It seems odd that, despite sending these little missives out into the world for over five years now, I’ve never touched on one of my favourite writers – Arthur Machen (1863 – 1947). Well, it’s going to seem even odder that now I get to it, I choose what is considered to be his worst novel, The Green Round. And I don’t mean simply considered his worst by a handful of critics — or even a majority....

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Looking Back At… The Dead Zone
Oct25

Looking Back At… The Dead Zone

Looking Back At… The Dead Zone   The Dead Zone was published in 1979, the sixth of Stephen King’s books to appear under his own name.  It is one of the earliest of his that I read, loving it as much as I did everything he wrote during that early period. It’s somewhat odd, coming back to it at this remove.  For one thing, I would now be infinitely more familiar with David Cronenberg’s quite brilliant and utterly moving film adaptation...

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Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001:  A Space Odyssey
Oct25

Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey

Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001:  A Space Odyssey Based on the screenplay by Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick   I watched Kubrick’s 2001:  A Space Odyssey a few months back; and, despite having lost count of how many times I’ve seen it since its release in 1968, I don’t think that I ever found it as deeply satisfying as I did this time around.  There is just always something new to pore over.  And it changes with age, just as the viewer’s...

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