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deimosremus's reviews
109 reviews
Replay by Ken Grimwood
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Falling Angel by William Hjortsberg
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
4.0
The Day After Judgment by James Blish
challenging
dark
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe by Thomas Ligotti
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Thomas Ligotti is an author who has piqued my interest over the past few years, as I’ve been a fan of the concepts behind cosmic horror, but rarely one of the writing or ability on the authors’ part to capture the qualities associated with it. As the most well-known example, Lovecraft is someone who I can appreciate, but only to an extent, as I find his writing often betrays the brand of horror he’s shooting for. Ligotti on the other hand, is a writer with much more subtle sensibilities and a more acute sense of capturing not only the pessimism and nihilism associated with man’s cosmic insignificance, and of the primal quality of mankind’s fears, but also of its stranger and more esoteric qualities.
Songs a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe is a collection I’ve read a handful of stories from in the past, but seeing as though I’ve taken it upon myself to make October a month of nothing but horror-reads, I read the collection in full, and… there’s a handful of shorts in here that might be my favorite short stories ever written. The Sect of the Idiot, The Last Feast of Harlequin and Masquerade of a Dead Sword particularly captured qualities and moments that I just absolutely adore about horror and dark fantasy… and with phenomenal and confident prose.
For someone who hasn’t read nearly as much horror as I’ve read fantasy and sci-fi, It might be jumping the gun a bit to make a statement like this, but I might go so far as to call Ligotti the greatest writer in the horror genre of the latter half of the 20th century. His writing perfectly tows like the line between obtuse and clear, and he’s not willing to distill the genre down to its most common and overused tropes. All his stories feel like reading a nightmare, in all of its disorienting logic, environments and characters that never feel like they have a full grasp on reality, tapping into that fear of the unknown and of the obscured. Beautifully realized with the right amount of ambiguity.
Songs a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe is a collection I’ve read a handful of stories from in the past, but seeing as though I’ve taken it upon myself to make October a month of nothing but horror-reads, I read the collection in full, and… there’s a handful of shorts in here that might be my favorite short stories ever written. The Sect of the Idiot, The Last Feast of Harlequin and Masquerade of a Dead Sword particularly captured qualities and moments that I just absolutely adore about horror and dark fantasy… and with phenomenal and confident prose.
For someone who hasn’t read nearly as much horror as I’ve read fantasy and sci-fi, It might be jumping the gun a bit to make a statement like this, but I might go so far as to call Ligotti the greatest writer in the horror genre of the latter half of the 20th century. His writing perfectly tows like the line between obtuse and clear, and he’s not willing to distill the genre down to its most common and overused tropes. All his stories feel like reading a nightmare, in all of its disorienting logic, environments and characters that never feel like they have a full grasp on reality, tapping into that fear of the unknown and of the obscured. Beautifully realized with the right amount of ambiguity.
The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Sexual content, Torture, and Violence
Fevre Dream by George R.R. Martin
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism and Racial slurs
The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Watchtower by Elizabeth A. Lynn
adventurous
dark
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
World Fantasy Award Winners— read #8:
With reading all the WFA winners, I’m starting to get less overwhelmed by the first couple of decades. I obviously still have a ways to go, but I only have a couple left in the 70s, and I have the 80s half done with now.
Watchtower was one of the books that was lower on my priority list, if only because the premise sounded as if I wouldn’t be excited by it as much as some others have. But, I found this and The Forgotten Beasts of Eld at a used bookstore for very cheap, and decided to bump it up on the basis that I actually have a physical copy of it. There’s not *a lot* to tie Watchtower to Fantasy in the sense that there’s not much of a presence of supernatural elements to the world that the characters inhabit. It has more in common with the feudalism and politics/tactical discussion that goes on in a novel like Game of Thrones than the epic plotting, creatures and magic of Lord of the Rings. The book’s main mystical element rather comes from a fighting style that is derived of eastern practices, of mixing martial arts with dancing. There’ also a minor element of Tarot influencing the narrative.
The prose is lean and efficient, but not ‘simplistic’. The characters and the world they inhabit are well developed without being too detailed. Perhaps the biggest point of notoriety and acclaim that Watchtower has received however, is that a handful of prominent characters in the book are gay, but the plot is not concerned with this, it’s simply not drawn attention to— instead, it features characters whose sexuality is something that is accepted within this world’s culture, and in essence, features a positive portrayal that neither panders nor condemns. This all said, the plotting is pretty bare, and the latter ⅔ of the novel becomes quite dull and padded, ending on a battle sequence that fails to be intense or terribly exciting.
It’s a fine enough book, but ultimately doesn’t have the lasting power that other WFA reads have possessed.
With reading all the WFA winners, I’m starting to get less overwhelmed by the first couple of decades. I obviously still have a ways to go, but I only have a couple left in the 70s, and I have the 80s half done with now.
Watchtower was one of the books that was lower on my priority list, if only because the premise sounded as if I wouldn’t be excited by it as much as some others have. But, I found this and The Forgotten Beasts of Eld at a used bookstore for very cheap, and decided to bump it up on the basis that I actually have a physical copy of it. There’s not *a lot* to tie Watchtower to Fantasy in the sense that there’s not much of a presence of supernatural elements to the world that the characters inhabit. It has more in common with the feudalism and politics/tactical discussion that goes on in a novel like Game of Thrones than the epic plotting, creatures and magic of Lord of the Rings. The book’s main mystical element rather comes from a fighting style that is derived of eastern practices, of mixing martial arts with dancing. There’ also a minor element of Tarot influencing the narrative.
The prose is lean and efficient, but not ‘simplistic’. The characters and the world they inhabit are well developed without being too detailed. Perhaps the biggest point of notoriety and acclaim that Watchtower has received however, is that a handful of prominent characters in the book are gay, but the plot is not concerned with this, it’s simply not drawn attention to— instead, it features characters whose sexuality is something that is accepted within this world’s culture, and in essence, features a positive portrayal that neither panders nor condemns. This all said, the plotting is pretty bare, and the latter ⅔ of the novel becomes quite dull and padded, ending on a battle sequence that fails to be intense or terribly exciting.
It’s a fine enough book, but ultimately doesn’t have the lasting power that other WFA reads have possessed.
The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia A. McKillip
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75