Bran the Blessed

15 hours ago, dogpoet said:

I need a copy of this book.

Thanks for the tip, Dave.

Please quote me so I can see when you respond XD I don't comb this place through nearly enough to get it when you don't

Also thanks but....why ? It's not exactly very good I'd say. The writting style which refuses to differentiate between sentences and narration makes it really a chore to read sometimes.

Also also finished read The Nightcharmer collection by Claude Seignolle. Wonderfully classical stuff, reminded me a bit of the sort of writting M. R. James did not necessarily due to being as nasty sometimes but with the general tone and style of writting. It's all pleasantly narrated and you don't get the writer trying to fit modernist trappings and modern language and slang and forced excess or crudeness onto his stories to try and be "relevant".

Finished Soul of Wood by Jakov Lind. This one took a bit too long....mostly because most of these stories were overly long.

The title story has an interesting premise: a paralysed jew hidden away to die in the forest suddenly gains the ability to walk and he runs around with the deer. Too bad most of the story is taken up by the blatherings of his former caretaker and about how he got himself commited into an asylum. The whole wild man thing comes into it only a few pages before the end, barely any time is spent on it and the story just sort of ends.

The Pious Brother is kind of a pointless and lengthy diatribe about a priest and former SS man trying to cocktease women and then killing himself while dressing up as the jew he killed.....I think.

The Judgement is about a mass murderer getting strangled by his father in prison a few days before his scheduled execution. The idea is workable but ironically enough this story never develops it's characters properly to let any of that sink in....which is the opposite flaw of the previous two stories.

The Window is....a really odd thing. So apparently this one guy who lives in an apartment complex lives next door to Jesus and he shows him a woman without an ass and demands the dude's penis be chopped off in return but then changes his mind ? I think ?

Hurrah for Freedom is....even stranger. A guy runs into a family of Lithuanian nudists who live in a house without rooms under the suspended corpse of a horse and eat their own children.....and then just goes away. Not sure if you'd call this surreal, it's mostly played oddly straight.

Resurrection is the story about two Jews hiding until they're discovered and sent to die in a camp. It's got more characterisation than most of these stories and works, more or less.

And Journey Through the Night, second tale in the book but singled out by me as the best. It's a simple, short story of a man getting locked in with a cannibal on the train to Paris, who tries to convince the man how much better off he'd be when dead. It's short, sweet and the confusing editing where sentences aren't separated from descriptions or narration by any means works better here given the nightmarish, insane atmosphere of the story. Whereas everywhere else it just makes the text bleed together into a hard to read mess.

Not the worst I've read but definitely not worth the high praises some people shower on it.

Didn't he have those megapack collections ? I got one digitally, either way.

So I just finished Nightmare Jack and Other stories by John Metcalfe. Overall I liked the odd sort of stories written by Metcalfe, though the Renegade has the most outa-nowhere last-paragraph drive-by werewolves I've ever experienced. The whole thing is about how this one dude gets to posses a rhinoceros after his death....and then literally the last paragraph in "oh btw we're a respectable werewolf family, and my cousin was doing her thing at Balsworth until someone staked her through in her coffin, the end".

The Feasting Dead was a good novella too, but maybe not as grim as some of his other stories. Plus you kinda expect a bit of a more decadent, find de siecle sorta nastiness with that title.

To chronicle the stuff I read in the past two or three months that I kinda forgot to post:

The Nightmare and her Foal by Dahlov Ipcar. I have her fantasy novel A Dark Horn Blowing but haven't gotten to that yet. Thing is this collection was advertised as containing fantasy pieces, but there's two, maaaaybe three if you stretch an allegorical pre death dream symbolising mortal struggle as one. Most of the stories were kind of realistic stories alá "two people borrow a horse from an old guy whose wife died, the end". The illustrations by Ipcar are fairly nice.

The Grasshoppers Come by David Garnett. I like the idea of a man getting stranded in a desert wilderness beset by grasshoppers, but it takes a long time to get to it, the thing is rather short and you'd expect to see a lot of more of it.

Norodom, King of Cambodia by Frank McGloin is an interesting little story, moving between narrating a pseudo hystorical account and a supernatural story full of demons, magic and the evil King getting shot to the Moon. It does begin a bit dryly with lengthy disputations on Buddhism. Also it has an obnoxious grand standing moment saying how Christianity is so much better than the "religion of Selfishness" that is Buddhism and how Buddhists by default only care about their own merrit.

The First Two Lives of Lukas-Kasha by Lloyd Alexander is a competent little fantastical story of a perpetual mischief maker getting dumped into a medieval arabian/persian ish world where he becomes king. There's lots of intrigues and a lot of danger and fighting, though the sour ending was kinda unnecessary.

The Heads of Cerberus by Francis Stevens. It's an early Dystopian future story. Think of Florida under a nepotistic dictatorship organised more along the lines of a social club. That aspect doesn't make it as intensive with it's dystopian tones but it's still an interesting little thing. The scientific nonsense explanation at the end to try and claim how none of this actually happened with real people but with some kind of vague pseudo-timeless thought-dimension was unnecessary and a bit rubish so I preffer to assume the person saying that was full of it.

German's not that hard to learn but there are people in the Scandinavian countries writting genre fiction and that probably gets very little circulation unless it gets maybe translated into German.

Polish sf might be in a similar situation, to be fair.

20 hours ago, dogpoet said:

What are you using it in? If it's storage for your phone, you might be better off getting a connecting cable for your computer and just zapping stuff into it without removing the card first. You've probably got one with the charger for it.

Yeah that's what I am using and I did find a usable cable.

8 hours ago, dogpoet said:

Got you. The way you were talking, it sounded like the adaptor had broken the connectors off the card itself. It's easy enough to find another adaptor, though.

Trouble is this is the second one this has happened with and I didn't even use it that often.

6 hours ago, dogpoet said:

Anything irreplaceable lost on that?

I hope it wasn't your coursework...

No it's just the adapter. Plus I can use a cable.

3 hours ago, Christian said:

It's not like it matters what they do with John Constantine anymore, after three failed series that featured watered down or kid friendly versions of our John. I think that the creators have more control over what they include in these "Black Label" books, because (as far as I understand) the books are "Elseworlds" and won't be part of continuity*. So, I would assume that Azzarello had a free-hand in getting to choose JC. Plus, it says a lot that this one page reads more like Constantine than the past five years worth of Hellblazer-lite comics. Not because Azzarello is a trusted name to write John (he's obviously not), but just because of how badly handled the character has been since the Vertigo series ended.

Eh I still think Seeley did a better jab in his slightly lackluster run than Azzarello in his entire American shitfest.

Sorry but fuck off with this DC. Azzarello's Hellblazer run was one of the worst and most un-Hellblazer run in the entire series' history and you decide to give him another miniseries where his inacurrate Hellblazer-without the Hell or the blazing is going to get exposure with unfamiliar readers due to the Batman connection ?

Also this line

" and with John Constantine soon to be followed by other masters of the occult - Zatanna, Etrigan, Deadman - even Batman is heading into uncharted territory. Luckily "

Does this mean John is just gonna be in the one issue or whatever and then have at least three other characters besides Batman to focus on ?

Micro SD Card adapers where putting them in scrapes the metal off the contacts so you can't use them anymore.

Okay, finished the stupid Bardo Score thing. Yet another damp squib I feel, where Seeley just starts setting things up but then doesn't have much actual substance so everything gets undone almost immediately. The ease with which the bad guy was taken down and his rather shallow plan were very disappointing to say the least.

Edit: welp did not realise this had already ended. Honestly I would not mind if this continued if they: A got some quality writers and B made it for mature readers again. Cause I fee a lot of this writting attitude is down to that mentality of having to be appropriate.

The Good Old Days wasn't perfect but well, it was the only storyline in this entire run that both felt like a Hellblazer story and that also didn't feel like stuff just ended without much happening. It's kinda sad in that respect, really. 300 issues the original's lasted and since then they can't break 30 no matter what they do.

Finished with the whole dwarf thing. That was kinda abrupt and unsatisfying but I guess it at least had some ending ?

Still a waste of potential.

17 minutes ago, Christian said:

Did you really want to see more plots about the Djinn after Oliver just wasted twelve issues moving the story by an incremental inch? I, personally, was pretty relieved that we were finally moving on from what Oliver was doing on the title. Seeing what followed upon Oliver's story-arc ending, I wasn't any happier about where the book ended up, but I was still somewhat relieved that it wasn't going to continue being about the Djinn.

Really, the book had no excuse for existing other than that DC wanted a Hellblazer comic book.

I'd have at least liked to have gotten some resolution to literally any of this.

I just got there.

12 issues of blathering on about Abby Arcane and she never even shows up. 10 issues in they suddenly bring up King Solomon and some sort of machine and that never gets explained. Six issues devoted to finding a damn book to find the way to a city we never get to see.

If they had to boot Oliver off the book, couldn't the next guy at least try and wrap that up instead of making the previous 12 issues a complete and utter waste and just starting off something else ?

On 15. 3. 2018 at 7:22 PM, dogpoet said:

George RR Martin, Dave. Neil Gaiman informed a fan who was bemoaning the failure of any further GOT books to emerge for a decade that Martin isn't his bitch and isn't there to write what he wants when he wants it. Gaiman's line has since become one of those meme things that the kids are into.

And I noticed your response now because you didn't quote me : P

And well, true but I don't think Gaiman can seriously expect the fans to be happy that a series that used to take 2 years between books has now taken 6 and as of yet 7 years between books. It's already been the longest time ever since an inslament, the TV show has long since passed the end of the books making them less important by far, and the soon-to-turn-70 author still plans yet another instalment after the one that's already taking 7 years.

I don't think it's unfair to bemoan the fact that there have so far been 2 instlaments in the last 18 years. ; P

So I started reading this newest series just so I could complain along with you guys : P

First of all, just finished issue 10 and the damned Djin crap is still going. Worse, the first 6 issues were a wasteland of repeated scenes and absolutely nothing happening, the main villain is only starting to look like less of a ponce around issue 9, what little happened in issues 7 and 8 was rather drawn out and boring and it's not until issue 9 that we got any scene that I'd even classify as Hellblazer-like, what with the angel dismemberment scene.

Also this is shaping up to at best be a shitty rip off of Fear Machine.

Also alsor eally glad Philip Tan got the boot as the artist after two issues. His wanna be manga art style is so shit it looks like something farted out by Nick Simmons. Yes that one.

24 minutes ago, dogpoet said:

That's the story with the House of Mystery burning down, isn't it?

Thanks Dom

I haven't finished yet : D

On 27. 7. 2018 at 7:31 PM, Christian said:

There's a lesson to be learned from the Tower of Babel parable in all of this.

The continued lesson of God being scared shitless of humans actually doing things he can't control just like with the whole apple business ?

Mind you the whole flood thing was caused by everyone doing exactly that so....did he just go for a really long nap or something ? XD

Also you'd think that God could have prevented this by a number of other means instead of mindfucking everyone and separating families and loved ones and causing complete collapse of all organised society because those filthy peasants might step on his petunias ; )

Started reading The Dreaming again. At Issue 27 right now.

Sometimes not but even if one consider the other option, it's not recent enough for that I guess.

I'm looking for "Mister Da V." but there doesn't appear to be a place where one can obtain or borrow it online legally. Harumph.

Read the following since posting last:

The Hatanee by Arthur Egar. What starts off as an amusing tale of rural colonial Burma intertwined with a were-tiger story, with only the most token presence for the shoehorned in English characters and much more of a focus on the locals ends up with an annoyingly clichéd Scooby Doo plot of a villainous priest dressed in a monster costume. A character which by the way never shows up in the book, is only refferences about twice in passing, and is only ever seen dead.

The Gypsy Christ by and Other Tales by William Sharp. The title story is an amusing, gothic, grim story narrating how the descendants of a gypsy who mocked Christ tent to die horribly, including many of them actually ending up crucified, and about how they are to one day bring forth the Gypsy Christ which will actually mean the end of the Gypsies somehow ? Sometimes you may feel like Sharp is pushing the grimness a bit but it is still good. The other stories are melodramatic, sometimes tragic but honestly none are as creative or atmospheric as the title story.

A Strange Discovery by Charles Romyn Dake. I had wanted to get to read this one for years, especially since well over a decade ago I suffered through Jules Verne's own attempt at writting a sequel/conclusion to Arthur Gordon Pym. I remarked at the time that tale was a long, boring travellogue spending most of it's time detailing petty triffles related to sailing out at sea, while the entire plot was based on the great grandmother of all coincidences.

So you'd think there's no way to go but up from there but....no. Dake somehow manages to make Verne the prefferable choice. First he blathers on about politics, the economy and poetry for way too long before begining to approach his point. Second, he includes constant digressions on these topics to interrupt the narrative. And third, he does what all writers of bad Lost Race stories do: he doesn't describe events, he summarises them. Before you know it Pym and Peters are already apparently on very good, speaking terms with the locals of a far away lost island in the middle of the polar ocean, and Pym gets himself a love interest. I say apparently because Dake decides to skip the entire process of discovery, location-building and development of local characters, and instead just skups to after all that's done.

But even then he doesn't bother with trying to write characters, but simply briefly summarising what his characters do. Pym who is granted about five whole sentences in the entire book, remains as undeveloped as everyone else. Indeed, as the entire plot. The constant digressions and the fact the main character has to discuss the story after the fact with two to three people on separate occasions each time means that there are only a handful of short incidents that can even be related, most of them in a very sparse summary form, almost without dialogue, before the book simply ends.

Davy by Edgar Pangborn. Those paying attention may know that I love post apocalyptic medievalism. This story is good, but leaves you wanting more, in that not much of the setting is propperly explored. I assume then that it is good news more stories and books are set in it, but as far as this book goes it also relates to the plot. Namely, the book is being narrated to us, with constant disturbing intermissions "spoiling" events many years in the future not yet reached in the story, sort of spoiling a bit of the fun at times, and then, after constantly hinting at the time spent at the Nuin court and the revolution and civil war and flight from the continent, Pangborn ends the novel when the main part of the in universe retelling has barely reached several years prior to the beginning of those events. As many short stories and novelletes he may have set at various parts of this world's past (and thus our future ?) I would still have preffered to have gotten the rest of this story.

16 hours ago, dogpoet said:

Is it possible that with this being a German novel from the '50s, there could be a subtext there about people willingly consenting to doing things that are not at all in their best interests and that they have trouble grasping why they went along with it afterwards?

I'm not at all sure. It was just so bizarre.

Also read Death, the Knight and the Lady by Henry De Vere Stacpoole. A reincarnation/ghost story which involves a boy being brought up completely ignorant of the world or that he isn't a girl. Certainly odd, but it's over a bit too soon I think. Still one has to wonder, seeing Stacpoole wrote this and Pierrot, why he isn't more well known in the genre.

Just finished Renate Rasp's A Family Failure. It's.....this weird book where a step father tries to groom his step son into making him into a tree, so he plants him in the garden, fills up his ears with wax, and then proceeds to cut off his hands with a pair of garden shears.

In the end the kid falls over so they let him out so now he has to live without hands, still controlled by the tightwad dominating uncle/stepfather that dominates and manipulates him and his mother.

It was certainly weird. The way everyone, including the kid, acted as if being planted in a pot and having your hands cut off to become a tree is a desirable goal to work towards, to spend a good decade to accomplish even. It's not terrible, but it does leave me confused.