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Murmur reviews short stories

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Murmur
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Re: Murmur reviews short stories

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The Best Of Roald Dahl

http://www.powells.com/book/best-of-roa ... 0679729914

Roald Dahl is spectacularly overrated. His plot twists are great and all, but good lord, his storytelling style is slow. Ungodly slow. Slooooooooooow. Painfully slow. Excruciatingly slow. In other words, he fills his stories with pointless fiddly little details that make the reader angry (specifically me), asking aloud "Aw god, get to the point! Some point, any point! Do something!"

There were only two or three stories that I liked despite the torturous storytelling.

One positive reviewer described his stories as "wicked". I'll grant him that. The plot twists were wicked and imaginative and well done. The majority of the stories are like "light horror" and that's perfectly fine. Light horror works.

Recommendation: Don't bother.
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Roald Dahl's Book of Ghost Stories

https://www.amazon.com/Roald-Dahls-Book ... 68&sr=1-12

I mentioned in my previous post that Roald Dahl is extremely overrated. Fortunately, he didn't write any of the stories in this book. He just chose them and put them in a book.

The stories in this book are creepy and spectacularly well done. The book is unusually short for a collection of short stories.

Recommendation: It's a must if you like creepy ghost stories.
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Re: Murmur reviews short stories

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As I am currently reading a collection of science-fiction stories, "The Eighth Science Fiction Megapack" (borrowed it on-line form our regional e-library), you might want to check it out. Has some very good stories, and a few (so far) questionable ones.

I have to disagree with you bout Frederic Brown being "little known." He is a standout from the "Golden Age of Science Fiction." But since I have been reading this genre since I was a kid (60 years ago),I guess I know a bit about the history.

Must comment on some of the stories you mention. Brown's "Arena" was adapted to an episode of "Star Trek" (the original series). "Nightfall" by Isaac Asimov (another legend) was later expanded by him into a novel. You might want to check it out. They also made a movie, which wasn't that good.

Keep reading, and keep writing. I will try to keep up with your posts.
Love what you do, and do what you love. Don't listen to anyone else who tells you not to do it. -Ray Bradbury

Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done, and why. Then do it. -Robert A. Heinlein
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Gods, Men and Ghosts: The Best Supernatural Fiction of Lord Dunsany

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1469 ... and_Ghosts

I'd heard of Lord Dunsany from Robert M. Price, while he was discussing Lovecraft. He said that Lovecraft was influenced by Lord Dunsany's work. And a buddy of mine who's a Lovecraft fan told me about him. So I got this book.

This is an exquisite book. Most of the stories in this book are remarkably short and could be said to be in the genre of "fantasy". The stories in the book are categorized in four sections. Men, Heroes and Wonders, Jorkens, and Gods. Men is a few stories about humans and ghosts. Heroes and Wonders are about various heroes, as you would read in myth stories. Jorkens is about some guy who goes to a bar and tells tall tales. Gods is about mythical gods. I like the Heroes section the most.

I particularly liked the stories:
  • The Fortress Unvanquishable, Save for Sacnoth
  • A Narrow Escape
  • The Gods of Pegana
  • The Hoard of the Gibbelins
Lovecraft's story The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath extremely strongly resembles Lord Dunsany's stories in style and content. It seems very clear that that particular Lovecraft story was inspired by Lord Dunsany's stuff. Lord Dunsany has a few stories about dreams too, like Lovecraft.

Most of the illustrations in the book aren't that great, sadly. I do like the cover though, which is from The Gods of Pegana.

Recommendation: If you like Lovecraft, read it.
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Murmer, you have brought back a lot of memories to this fan of the short story. I remember reading so many of them. And the authors, a trip down memory lane. When I was a teen-ager my A, B, C's were (Isaa) Asimov, (Ray) Bradbury, and (Arthur C.) Clarke.

BTW, my personal favorite story by Lord Dunsany was "The Two Bottles of Relish."
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Cattleman wrote:Murmer, you have brought back a lot of memories to this fan of the short story. I remember reading so many of them. And the authors, a trip down memory lane. When I was a teen-ager my A, B, C's were (Isaa) Asimov, (Ray) Bradbury, and (Arthur C.) Clarke.

BTW, my personal favorite story by Lord Dunsany was "The Two Bottles of Relish."
I think if I had read that one as an adult, I would have liked it more than I do. I had to read that one as a teenager in high school, and the entire high school experience spoiled that story for me.
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Re: Murmur reviews short stories

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Murmur wrote:Roald Dahl's Book of Ghost Stories

https://www.amazon.com/Roald-Dahls-Book ... 68&sr=1-12

I mentioned in my previous post that Roald Dahl is extremely overrated. Fortunately, he didn't write any of the stories in this book. He just chose them and put them in a book.

The stories in this book are creepy and spectacularly well done. The book is unusually short for a collection of short stories.

Recommendation: It's a must if you like creepy ghost stories.
I agree, this is a great collection of ghost stories, one of my favorites. By the way, one of Edith Wharton's stories is included in Dahl's collection (Afterward), but she has many more ghost tales as well. Anything by M.R. James is always recommended as well.
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Great Irish Tales of Horror

https://www.amazon.com/Great-Irish-Tale ... 0760703795

Years ago, I read this book. Sadly, I was very disappointed. Most of the stories were a bore.

However, one of the stories stood out. That is, The Miraculous Revenge by George Bernard Shaw. It's an ingenious story. It's more like a humor story than a horror story, but it involves death, so it got put into a collection of horror stories.

Here is a link to read The Miraculous Revenge.

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0606441h.html

Recommendation: Don't bother with the book. Just read The Miraculous Revenge at the link.
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Best Ghost Stories of Algernon Blackwood

https://www.amazon.com/Stories-Algernon ... 486229777/

My Lovecraft-enthusiast buddy told me about this book. I loved this book.

Here's a table of contents I found online.
The willows.
Secret worship.
Ancient sorceries.
The glamour of the snow.
The Wendigo.
The other wing.
The transfer.
Ancient lights.
The listener.
The empty house.
Accessory before the fact.
Keeping his promise.
Max Hensig.
The first two stories are jewels of literature. All of the rest are still enjoyable, but not as good as the first two. Actually, I can barely remember any of the others. I heard The Wendigo as a radio show, recently, and it's not particularly great. It's definitely a weird and enjoyable story, but it's just not as strong as the others. The Empty House is pretty good.

I'm putting this in a spoiler so it won't spoil your enjoyment of the book if you decide to read it. If you decide to read this book, read the Introduction to the book last.
Spoiler
The author of the introduction mentions that Blackwood padded some of his stories to meet a certain length. That definitely shows in some of the stories; they just seem unnecessarily long.
Recommendation: Read it.
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I remember reading both "The willows" and "The Wendigo" many years ago. I also remember seeing an adaptation of "The Wendigo" on a television anothology show (it was fairly old; in black and white).
Love what you do, and do what you love. Don't listen to anyone else who tells you not to do it. -Ray Bradbury

Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done, and why. Then do it. -Robert A. Heinlein
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