J.S. Breukelaar ~ American Monster
Just finished reading American Monster by J.S. Breukelaar, a sci-fi novel of sentient stars, a cyborg samurai post-apocalyptic quest with a rich and multi-layered cosmology and a lot of fine and romantically visceral writing all along the way. One Horn to Rule Them All thanks to the coterie of FB sci-fi writers and artists from…
Philip K. Dick ~ Beyond Lies The Wub (The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick, Vol. V)
Having made my way through all of Philip K. Dick‘s novels last summer, and having finally obtained all five volumes of the comprehensive and beautifully archived Gollancz Edition (not in print anymore, Amazon associate outlets had them fairly cheap), i’m reading the whole lot of PKD’s short stories. i’d already read Vol. 5, which had…
Glenn Gray ~ The Little Boy Inside and Other Stories
Just finished reading a fantastic collection from Ann and Stona Fitch‘s imprint, Concord Free Press‘s Concord ePress, The Little Boy Inside and Other Stories by radiologist and writer, Glenn Gray. lots of anomalous physiological horror stories, like if Oliver Sacks was a surgeon with macabre case histories collaborated with Thomas Ligotti or Stephen Graham Jones….
Kathryn Davis ~ Duplex
Just finished reading (in a day) Kathryn Davis’ surreal novel of one residential block and the stories and histories of the girls who grow old there amidst robots, floating scows in the sky, sense ports and post-apocalyptica. really a whole style and flavour i’ve never encountered before. lucky for all of us, she’s written another…
John Eliot Gardiner ~ Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven
just finished reading John Eliot Gardiner’s impassioned retelling of J. S. BACH‘s life (mainly by an appreciation, deeply interpreted and inhabited, of a comprehensive knowledge of his liturgical music), Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven. what an incredible experience. especially hearing, as soundtrack for my two-week traversal of this epochal biography, Nikolaus Harnoncourt’s supple,…
Ken Bruen ~ Headstone
missed one. just finished reading the only one of the Jack Taylor novels i’d inadvertently missed by Ken Bruen, Headstone. people spend a lot of time comparing Ken to every other recognizable master of noir, darker than, more violent than, etc. but they’ve not had the honor to read his short works, as collected in…
Stephen Graham Jones ~ The Gospel Of Z
just finished re-reading (i’d the privilege of reading an earlier version) Stephen Graham Jones’ now published perfect novel of the undead, The Gospel of Z. most of them strive for the anthropomorphic and lose entirely the meditative, intensely personal and shockingly intimate shades of potential in this genre; resurrection over reanimation. SGJ nails it, as…
Ken Bruen ~ Purgatory
just finished reading the latest and greatest from Ken Bruen, Purgatory, in his Jack Taylor series. Ken is the master of the noir koan. No one writes with more acid humour cut to the bone, no one approaches him in his cynicism. I’ve read all of him (hey, i did miss one, the prior to…
Philip K. Dick ~ We Can Remember It For You Wholesale (The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick, Vol IV)
just finished reading Volume Five of the Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick, We Can Remember It For You Wholesale, title taken from the story that eventually became Total Recall. I went through all PKD’s sci-fi novels (and a couple of his domestics) this summer, so it was inevitable I go through all the shorts….
Stephen Graham Jones ~ Zombie Sharks With Metal Teeth
proud that the last book i finished reading in 2013 was Stephen Graham Jones‘ collection, Zombie Sharks with Metal Teeth. horror haiku/fireside scary story-length tales, for the most part, but of a scope and breadth of subject and genre to take your breath away: a tony noir w/space lobsters, rodents w/super brains, TV trivia and…