Frightfully Cosy and Mild Stories for Nervous Types - Softcover

Mains, Johnny

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0953903257 ISBN 13: 9780953903252

Verlag: Shadow Publishing, 2012

Inhaltsangabe

Páginas: 184 Géneros: 12:FM:Fantasy 12:FK:Horror & ghost stories Sinopsis: A collection of twelve very different horror stories, six original to this book. Author Reggie Oliver said that 'Johnny Mains follows in a great tradition of horror stories which he knows and respects, but his stories have a power and strangeness which is all their own'. And anthologist Stephen Jones said his fiction 'would not have been out of place in the old Pan Book of Horror Stories'. In his introduction to this volume, author Stephen Volk remarks that 'These stories absorbed and disturbed me. And confirmed to me that Johnny Mains not only carries a flame for the old horrors, but wants to cause a bit of a conflagration of his own'._,

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Críticas:

Frightfully Cosy and Mild Stories for Nervous Types is the follow up to Johnny Mains' first collection With Deepest Sympathy published by Obverse books in 2010. Indeed, the title of this collection is a direct reference to the misguided reviewer who described his previous collection as awfully cosy and mild...well rest assured this one is neither cosy nor mild.

There's a wide variety of styles and themes on display here but essentially we can break these down to three types of stories. The darkest and most emotionally powerful tales are those which focus on relationships and human frailty. Cureis one of the blackest stories you will ever read and one you will remember for a long long time as is Dead Forest Airwhich manages to take a very difficult subject (Nazi concentration camps) and treat it with respect through another powerful and visceral tale. The Tip Run, George V and The Rookeryall focus on father and son relationships and each contains pathos and passion in abundance. Finally, The Jacket is a moving tale of bullies, war and relationships.

The second type of story which Johnny Mains frequently returns to is the classic horror tale. Here we have two shining examples, I Wish which retells W. W. Jacob's classic The Monkey's Paw. Its settings in the depths of one of the rougher part of Glasgow and during the war in Afghanistan sounds like an unlikely match but it works. Aldeburgh is one of my favourite stories here; a sequel to M. R. James' A Warning To The Curious, this story introduces us to James himself and shows how he came to write that classic tale. Mains really captures something of the atmosphere of James' writing and it's a fascinating read for fans of the original.

Finally the rest are just ...well, just pure Johnny Mains. These are the stories where the traditional genre boundaries are kicked about a bit, well actually they are given a right good pummeling. So we get were-wolves but not any old were-wolf, Johnny Mains gives us The Were Dwarf. Head Soup sees a horror fan tracking down a reclusive horror author with interesting, if gory results. Mrs. Claus and The Immaculate Conception won’t be replacing The Night Before Christmas at family gatherings but it’s a wonderfully bonkers look at Christmas. Finally Prim Suspect reacquaints us with one of Mains’ finest creations, Primrose Hildebrand whose death in With Deepest Sympathy isn’t allowed to spoil her appearance here.

And so Johnny Mains gives us another procession of marvelous exhibits, his prose style may often be succinct and his themes are often basic and brutal but that is perfectly suited to the idiosyncrasy of the stories on offer. Where other writers might veil their threats in layers of obscurity Johnny Mains just tells it like it is and in doing so creates a collection which is instantly engaging yet persistently memorable. Much of Johnny Mains’ time has been spent tracking down and curating the treasures of the past through his work on The Pan Book Of Horrors and other neglected writers and writings but this collection proves that he is also part of that fine tradition. Stories which make people grimace yet compel you to read more, horror stories no less. (The Black Abyss website).

Reseña del editor:

A collection of twelve very different horror stories, six original to this book. Author Reggie Oliver said that "Johnny Mains follows in a great tradition of horror stories which he knows and respects, but his stories have a power and strangeness which is all their own". And anthologist Stephen Jones said his fiction "would not have been out of place in the old Pan Book of Horror Stories". In his introduction to this volume, author Stephen Volk remarks that "These stories absorbed and disturbed me. And confirmed to me that Johnny Mains not only carries a flame for the old horrors, but wants to cause a bit of a conflagration of his own".

Über diese Auflage

• Verlag: Shadow Publishing
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0953903257
• ISBN 13: 9780953903252
• Einband: Tapa blanda
• Anzahl der Seiten: 184
• Zeichner: Sampson Richard