HuckleBuck411
This book is for those who enjoy location-based horror centered around a strange, isolated village. Withered Hill is such an English village, encircled by a dense forest in which ancient supernatural forces reside. The residents within Withered Hill follow pagan practices and commune with what resides in the forest forming a bond that provides them with natural bounty as long as they follow certain practices. The chapters in the book weave back and forth as we follow the main character Sophie Wickham's life before and after she enters Withered Hill. Thirty-two-year-old Sophie prior to Withered Hill leads a feckless life, her parents dead from a car accident and having lost her partying girlfriends to marriage, jobs and location changes. She could be considered an alcoholic, consuming two bottles of wine a night, low on money and having just broken up with an abusive boyfriend. Unsettling occurrences at different points throughout Sophie's life are related as the book progresses and increase after Sophie is offered a job as a data entry worker for an odd company. Eventually Sophie finds herself waking up within Withered Hill's forest naked, covered in mud and scratches and with no memory of how she got there and of her life before entering Withered Hill. The villagers are friendly and help her but let her know that while she is not a prisoner, she cannot leave the village until she realizes how she can leave. Often trying to escape, Sophie soon learns that she cannot pass the village's boundaries and so begins her life among the pagan residents of Withered Hill.
Do not think this synopsis gives away much of the story that is filled with sexual overtones, many strange and horrific events and with twists and turns leaving the reader guessing until the end what is truly going on.
This is not a fun science fiction read. It's a story told and then retold by Cormac Easton, a reporter sent as part of the crew of the Ishiguro on a doomed deep space mission. On the surface the reason for the DARPA mission is to try and reignite interest in manned space missions by sending the ship and its crew farther into space than anyone had gone before. It was to be a go out there and turn around and come back mission. The reader learns from the beginning that Easton is the only member of the seven-person crew to survive. The first telling of the story goes through the tragic mission and the unfortunate deaths of each of the other crew members one by one, but something strange occurs that allows Easton to relive the mission and secrets about what happened to the crew and the real goal of the mission are slowly revealed. This is a grim and depressing read in which the reader follows Easton as he goes through every step of the doomed mission twice but also follows the details around the destruction of his marriage.
Dark mystery surrounds London's Barrington House, an exclusive residential building where tenants pay up to a million dollars to reside in one of the building's apartments. American Apryl has arrived in London to take possession of and liquidate the contents of one of the apartments left to her family as part of her deceased great aunt Lillian's estate. Lillian and her sister had separated when they were young and there had been no communication with Lillian for almost 50 years. For the same amount of time Apartment 16 has been unoccupied and barred from anyone entering. Night porter Seth on his rounds hears strange noises coming from the apartment and unfortunately is exposed to something malevolent when opening the mail flap to peer into the dark apartment. Soon reality will begin to bend into a macabre nightmare world for Seth both asleep and awake and he is soon stalked by a sinister young boy in a hooded coat; a boy no one else sees. And the boy begins making dark demands of Seth in connection with apartment 16. Apryl will find Lillian's apartment in a rundown condition, learning that Lillian had never gone farther from the building by more than a few blocks since her husband died many years before. She finds it curious that no artwork or mirrors are found anywhere in the apartment, although there are signs on the walls that these items had been there at one time. When Apryl finds and reads Lillian's journals telling a story of fear and entrapment her curiosity is piqued and she begins to investigate. Her investigations soon connect to an artist, Felix Hessen, who after WWII had moved into apartment 16. A loner who had been ostracized for his pro fascist beliefs before the war and his following of the dark arts of Aleister Crowley, the subject matter of his paintings of tortured grotesque figures trapped within a dark limitless void called the Vortex were lost and never found; only some of his grotesque preliminary sketches remain. Danger escalates for Apryl as she becomes obsessed to learn the fate of Felix Hessen and his connection to macabre events that occurred long ago and still may be manifesting within Barrington House and apartment 16.
Nevill has for the most part portrayed a grim London where often buildings or rooms are dark, dirty and garbage filled. Most of the characters are grotesque in some way, grimy and smelly. As Seth spirals into insanity, everything and everyone he sees is rotting, deformed and monstrous. Apryl is the exception as she is always described as beautiful and sexually desirable. An appropriate canvas on which this story of horror is painted.
This book is another angle on the "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" theme. Greg Garrett is the newly promoted regional director of a Midwest hotel chain. A job that has caused friction with his wife Janie, since it involves major travel and takes him away from his wife, his eight-year-old daughter Becky and six-month-old son Matthew for long periods of time. The story kicks off as Greg returns from his latest business trip to find his house empty. What is strange is that the family car is still in the garage and his wife's purse is still in the house. The local sheriff is not much help when Greg attempts to obtain help finding his missing family, passing it off as a domestic dispute issue. Soon more people in the town of Engles, IN start to go missing and Greg seems to be the only one noticing strange events around the disappearances until he joins up with Susan whose brother has also gone missing and eventually Zeke an overweight independent investigator who makes a hobby out of looking into fringe events for his blog. Their investigations turn up strange environmental phenomenon associated with the disappearances and soon the three will be in more danger than they ever could have imagined when the missing begin to return. The story is a well-written fast paced read, comparable to something written by Dean Koontz and with an ending the reader might not expect.
The story revolves around a thirteen-story residential building, Banyan Court, built in one of the poorest areas of central London, Tower Hamlets, and thirteen people either residents of the building or in some way connected to it. The building itself, built upon the remains of a dark past, is a central character in the tale having been commissioned by Tobias Fell, a shady, reclusive billionaire found horribly murdered in his penthouse on the top floor of the building. Even though twelve specific characters to the story, along with some other miscellaneous characters were present in the penthouse when Tobias was murdered, five years later no evidence has ever been found to connect any of them with the murder and likewise evidence of who actually committed the murder was never found, leading to much speculation about the unsolved mystery. The reader will learn the answer to this mystery as one by one the "Twilight Zone-like" horror experiences within Banyan Court for each of the other twelve characters is revealed in a specific chapter of the book. Each tale is creepy and unique and yet the author subtly weaves them together as the story reaches its horrific inevitable conclusion.
The author's bio states that Scott Conditt writes science fiction and tactical thrillers combining authenticity with cinematic storytelling. That describes the essence of Cataclysm, a science fiction horror story with plenty of action and gore (if you are sensitive to animal abuse, you might pass on this one). The story involves an 'Arbiter' or 'Ref' working for an agency called the Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) housed deep under the Pentagon. An Arbiter's job is to observe, report and advise with a high degree of outcome probability accuracy for the "controllers" of the world. The subject matter observed involves strange, shocking and anomalous events that take place around the world, and SCIF for the most part, provides mundane explanations for the public or covers up the events completely. The story unwinds as the Arbiter views video footage from many sources what took place within and outside the Advanced Research and Development Site DD1525 built deep within an abandoned copper mine 15 miles outside the town of Springerville, AZ. The town itself is a long-forgotten mining town, almost turned ghost town after the collapse of the local copper mine in the 1980s. Only a few hundred residents still reside in the town, surviving on government handouts due to the cover the town provides the nearby secret facility. Through the video footage the horror of a top-secret DOD project gone wrong is told. This tale could definitely be turned into a movie.
The two stories, written in the 1930s by William Sloane, are more subtle cosmic horror as compared to stories by H. P. Lovecraft. The stories unwind slowly and the reader must be patient as they build toward the reveal at the end. However, both stories leave the reader to ponder outcomes and the mysteries that lie within the realities created by Sloane. In the first story "To Walk the Night" the idea of invasion by outside forces takes a different tack than the usual "aliens from outer space" idea and hits upon questions that many of today's indie researchers are asking about unusual behaviors exhibited by those within "elite communities." Perhaps the better of the two stories, "The Edge of Running Water," is more within the realm of cosmic horror. When a scientist's obsession to regain contact with his dead wife leads to the construction of a device to do just that, the outcome cannot be good. Sloane's prose and character development in both tales are always top-notch, and he even adds romance to the second story. Though several differences, "The Edge of Running Water" reminds me of an Outer Limits episode from the 60s, "The Borderland." But, if you haven't already seen it, don't watch it until you've read Sloane's tale.
I read this science fiction/horror book made up of the novels Blindsight and Echopraxia based on all the high ratings and praise it received. It turned out to be quite a slog. I won't go into a synopsis of the overall story, since it would be very difficult to attempt and there are many four and five-star rating reviewers that have done this already. My main problems with the story are its choppiness, its overuse of scientific jargon and its underdeveloped characters. What makes a story worth reading is the pleasure it gives the reader. Whatever the fictional genre, whether it be science fiction, horror, classical, mystery, thriller, etc. a good story draws the reader in and keeps them wanting to turn pages. It should not read like a textbook covering several areas of scientific theory with some action thrown in here and there; action that comes out of nowhere and leaves the reader perplexed over what just happened. The author has created a dystopian future where genetic manipulation has gone far beyond reason, and so the main characters in the story are every bit as alien as the entity they encounter in deep space. There are no stakes for the reader to care about any of them. Finally, I found this YouTube video of someone giving a much better deeper critique of Blindsight than I can. https://youtu.be/m1TL0xO9AkM?si=45xhzx-dc38QqKY0
After reading the original trilogy I was burnt out on the repetitive nature of the plot line in this book. There are too many characters with their Roman-Latin confusing names. I had the same problem with the original trilogy, but the plot was new and more refreshing making it easier to finish. After a while the gore just gets to be mind numbing. I made it through, but it took a lot longer to finish, and I kept thinking I wanted to move on to something different. I don't plan on finishing the other books in this series; it would be too much of a slog.
Contains spoilers
I found this often-recommended vampire horror story to be way too long. It would have been better just to tell the story of the two main characters, the American Indian vampire and the German pastor and leave out the front and end parts dealing with the modern-day cat-lady ancestor of the pastor. The ending just got silly. Even with those changes the story could have been pared down quite a bit. The blood libel premise of a vampire seeking revenge on the family of a man who caused an American Indian massacre is just another of those white guilt tropes that have been over-hyped. Add to that the ever-present pushed white guilt over the killing off of the buffalo herds. It just seems hypocritical that while the vampire can't let go of his grudge, at the same time the death toll from his feeding to survive will continue ad infinitum. Maybe I'm missing something and that is the author's point, but it didn't come across to me that way. So, like in so many cases, a praised and recommended book I found to be a personal disappointment.
It's very hard to explain this rambling tale with a very Lovecraftian feel. Possibly it's a fictional version of a possible outcome if one or more of the “Old Ones” finally comes back to take back control of the Earth and the nightmarish consequences for humankind. In such a case would there be an organization of specialists that comprehended what was taking place and try to fight back in a mostly futile attempt to save humanity? That appears to be the premise of this book.
An intense read where two women from a ship on a mission to begin exploiting the planet Shroud are forced down in a specialized exploration pod to the surface of the planet when an explosive accident occurs aboard ship. Shroud, with a crushing gravity, has a thick, poisonous atmosphere creating a completely corrosive and lightless environment on the surface. However, there is a form of monstrous intelligent life in the dark on Shroud. The long-shot chance for the women's survival requires that they walk their pod across half the planet to a space elevator that the exposition had driven down into the polar region of Shroud. Needless to say, their journey is a harrowing one constantly dogged/escorted by some of the strange lifeforms on the planet. Though the women are unable to communicate in any meaningful way with the aliens, the aliens, on the other hand are learning much as they study the pod on its long journey. This was an entertaining read about a very emotionless, unprincipled human future where the species' main goal is to continue to move out into the galaxy stripping planets of resources and setting up colonies and outposts, even when other lifeforms exist on the worlds they exploit, and where individual humans are also nothing more than resources that are kept on ice if and until they are needed. My only criticism of the story is toward the ending where the human crews above Shroud seem to have no clue what is going on and make some very obvious mistakes even after observing what has been happening on the surface of Shroud.
Another seat-of-the-pants adventure story in the Academy series. The planet, unofficially called Deep Six, is about to be destroyed and ships, both scientific and in the media and tourist trade, are there to witness the collision of the planet with a gas giant. It was believed only primitive life existed on the planet, but when scans reveal signs of a past civilization, an Academy ship is rerouted so a small landing party can spend a week investigating before the planet's destruction. Unfortunately, the approach of the gas giant begins to destabilize the planet leading to the destruction of the only landing craft available to the small landing party now marooned on the doomed planet. With time running out and the conditions on the planet rapidly deteriorating, the landing party and those in orbit in space must brainstorm to come up with a rescue plan. The tension and action never let up as the small group crosses a land teaming with dangerous flora and fauna to reach one possible solution. This is a well-written tale with great character development.
This is a very upsetting read told from the vantage point of a little girl. A monstrous entity has latched on to little Bela, calling itself other mommy, and always asking for permission to enter Bela's heart. Soon the horrific entity makes itself known to Bela's parents and others. The tale becomes a non-stop horror ride as Bela's parents desperately search for a way to rid themselves of the monster that may appear at anytime and anywhere. As possible solutions reach dead ends, one after another, a final desperate attempt is made that will reveal dark family secrets, but will this final act be the family's salvation? This is one story that will stay with you long after finishing the book.
Barker has written a character, though not a literal blood-drinking vampire, as evil as Bram Stoker's Dracula, using up victims to maintain an eternal existence. However, the author has also added dark Lovecraftian aspects to this horror story as well; a story that spans hundreds of years (and even eons) and global locations, although the main part of the story covers the period from the 70s up to present time. A chance meeting at an airport in Japan between two people who lost someone close to this long-lived woman sets off a search across time and world locations to find her and end her path of human destruction. Along the way the reader is exposed to the stories of people who lost a friend or a family member to the woman in her many incarnations. Included in this montage is one strange love story that will play a major part in the horrific conclusion as the now decaying woman stalks her latest victim. This is a uniquely blended horror tale.
A curse that originated in 1635 at the British estate called The Bridge returns in the year 1866 to haunt, Elsie, the newly married, newly widowed pregnant lady of the The Bridge. The curse comes in the form of lifelike painted wooden characters bought as a lark by the then lady of the estate in 1635 and called companions. In 1866 the companions have now come to resemble persons from 1635 that were involved in the original story that created the curse; a story written down in two journals by the then lady of the estate, Anne, and locked away in a shuttered room of the great house. At the opening of the book, the reader finds a badly burned Elsie confined to a mental ward in a hospital retelling the tale of the horrible supernatural events that occurred at The Bridge to an attending physician. How he interprets her story may decide whether she will be convicted of crimes, be sent to an insane asylum or least likely freed. This is a tale that starts out strange and builds to horrible with a nasty twist at the end.
The author takes the reader back to the early 70s at the tail-end of the “free love” drug and booze-soaked days of folk-rock when music was innovative and meant something, produced on vinyl, and album covers were wonderful art expressions. This story is specifically about an English band made up of four young male musicians and a talented teenage American girl singer who are set the task of creating a second album after their mildly successful first release. Their manager rents the very old Wylding Hall for the summer so the band will be isolated and focus on creating the music for the new album. While a large part of the band's experience at the Hall is idyllic, but with the inevitable sexual tension, there is something else dark that exists within the Hall and around the wooded grounds, especially at the mysterious ancient barrow within the woods. A place the locals warn them to stay clear of. The chapters of the book are broken into the narratives of each individual group member, their manager, a girlfriend, a reporter and a photo taker present day looking back at their experiences, some very strange, from that long-ago summer, as the group wrote and practiced the songs that eventually would end up on their second and last album. The only member not present is the main writing and singing musical talent of the group who is deceased and it may have something to do with a girl who showed up on the scene that summer and with whom he became infatuated with. As the story unwinds, the strangeness grows and moves towards its mysteriously horrific conclusion. This reader found it to be one of the better, creepily satisfying tales within the horror genre.
Very tense gothic horror story that switches back and forth between timelines and the viewpoints of two young pregnant unwed women, Mabel and Pearl, sent to the creepy, accursed Lichen Hall in the Scottish Borders, centered near the Ghost Woods, to have their babies and give them away to couples seeking to pay for obtaining children outside of the main channels of adoption. The proprietor of Lichen Hall, Mrs. Whitlock, is a cold manipulative taskmaster, who coerces some of the women, who have no lives outside of Lichen Hall, to remain as captives and servants. Her weak and ailing husband has a macabre collection of the flora and fauna that surrounds the Hall, concentrating mainly on the abundant species of fungi that are found everywhere around the location. The Whitlock's grandson is an uneducated, slothful character who ambles in and out of the Hall and around the grounds occasionally causing problems. And there appears to be a dangerous someone or something that lurks in the fungi-filled Ghost Woods that threatens women who dare to enter the woods at night.
The timeline of the two main characters centers around the end of the 1950s thru the mid 1960s, a time when unwed pregnant women were shunned by society at large. It is around this theme that stems some criticism I have of the story. The author makes sure that all adult males in the story are shown in a poor light and the injection of lesbianism in several instances pushes the typical LGBQT victimhood memes. I am not sure why these meta terms were not included in the Goodreads listing for the book. Except for the traumas of unwed pregnant women during the time period, the queer additions add nothing to the overall story and could have been left out. Otherwise, the story is well-written and very creepy.
This was an oddly enjoyable read. It's a modern-day action fantasy road trip adventure. A newly widowed middle-aged man who has angrily quit his job at an accounting firm attempts to come to the rescue of a beautiful young woman being mugged by three men on the street. He soon learns that the woman can take care of herself and that she has led a cloistered life training and is on a quest to save a small town in Arizona from a marauding cyclops. One problem is that they are in Florida, and she plans on walking the entire distance to Arizona. Not believing her story makes any rational sense, the man, with nothing to lose, eventually decides to help her by driving her to the destination. Along the way the duo will take side trips to pick up acolytes that the woman is drawn to for them to join them on the quest. Needless to say, nothing goes smoothly, and much violence and death ensues, as forces attempt to impede them from reaching their goal. But what faces them at the end of their journey will test the small group to the limit of their abilities. Though violent, the story is told with wit and humor.
Heart pounding horror action from beginning to end. A zombie-like tale without the zombies. After a spectacular auroral event across the lower forty-eight of the United States in the wee hours of the morning, those who witnessed the event soon turn into homicidal maniacs destroying all those who did not view the nighttime display. The tale is told from the perspective of one family as the father, mother, teenage daughter and small son attempt to travel from their home in Albuquerque, New Mexico to rumored safety across the Canadian border in the North. Their journey will become a waking nightmare as they attempt to flee from the murderous hordes.
