The Novel's and Stories of Raymond Walker

The Silence of Ghosts By Johnathan Aycliffe.

Another Glorious work of art from Mr Aycliffe (Danial Easterman). There are few in the world that can write a ghost story such as this man. I only aspire to write as well as he.  In this tale he follows standard routes yet even then the tale is creepy , the setting wonderful and strange. A master of the art in my opinion. 

"20th Century Ghosts” By Joe Hill.

This was terribly disappointing, I am a fan of the short story and love a good tale, well told. I opened the book to find a an introduction by Chris Golden, a good sign, to such as I, as he (even if not to my taste) is a great writer. He talks of wonderful tales and the stories held within this volume. He tells of his meeting with Joe and how much he liked him. That is where it should have stopped. There was not a tale told in this collection that I enjoyed. I could see that he (Mr Hill) had stories to tell and I could imagine liking him but this anthology would not help in any way.

“Best Served Cold” by “Joe Abercrombie”

I have only read two of this authors books before and like the other two I find him hard to pin down. The tales are all similar in style and construction, Anti hero plus anti hero and a few other anti heroes go up against a baddie and through a long slog win. The quality of the writing has improved since the first of his novels that I read but still varies between “rather good” and “pretty awful” sometimes even in the same paragraph. That said, and those were the bad points, I have enjoyed all three of the novels, this one more than the other two. 

Mr Abercrombie seems to have a knack for drawing the reader into his fantasy world and keeping them there. He reminds me, in a small way of “David Gemmell” and has similar talents and that, obviously, is a good thing. 

I always have the feeling that I should not enjoy Mr Abercrombie’s books and should tell everyone that they are terrible but that is where my reviewing process breaks down. As, despite all I have said, I have enjoyed each of those I have read and been caught up in them, reading for hours at a time needing to read the ending,that I already know, but still they hold me.

Recommended by me with a good rating of three stars from five.

Handling the Undead; By John Ajvide Lindqvist.

I am sure that you can tell from the last few reviews posted here that I have become a fan of Mr Lindqvist and upon reading this novel, no wonder.

This is an excellent take on the rather tired and overdone zombie industry. There are no rushing Zombie’s imbued with tremendous powers rushing around gobbling people up (28 days later) nor are there Romeroesque unsteady, staggering, rotting but unstoppable Zombie’s.

Mr Lindqvist has (again) changed the whole genre with style and with human understanding. He has even re-branded them from Zombies, The Walking Dead, or the undead to the re-living. Where they are loved ones that have come back to life. This is a rather beautiful tale, well told, as always, that even gives insight into our reactions to those that different from us or are unusual.

Things or people that we do not understand. In Sweden the reliving are viewed much as an autistic person maybe, different, but they have every right to life, or undeath, as every other person has. 

Yet I must say that what this novel makes up for in originality and quality is let down, only very slightly, by the usual excellence of his storytelling, imagery and wonderful descriptiveness. I thought the story as good or better than Harbor or Little Star but the telling not quite as good. None the less this is a terrific novel and a thoroughly enjoyable read  that I would recommend to everyone and anyone, not just lovers of the horror genre.

Four Stars out of five from me.

Harbor By John Ajvide Lindqvist

Another excellent novel from my favorite horror writer of the moment. His writing is often beautiful without ever going into hugely descriptive mode. Everything is clear, defined, described and easily accessible to the reader with only a few lyrical flights of fancy.
You could easily be half way through the novel assuming it to be a tragedy set on a small island of the coast of Sweden. When a young man’s daughter goes missing whilst on a family holiday to the island he is left to suffer the consequences. This is set amid the history and people of the island all of whom have a story to tell in one way or another. There are only a few minor hints that this is a horror story and a good one to boot. I believe that it could so easily not have been. But well into the book clues start to emerge, bad things start happening all leading to a fierce climax. Highly recommended.

Fires of Eden By Dan Simmons

Dan Simmons is one of my favorite writers and has been for many years now. I found his novels “Drood”, “Endymion” and “Hyperion” excellent in every way rating them five stars for each. “The Terror”, “Illium” and “The fall of Hyperion" all received four stars out of five. Yet even the best of authors such as Mr Simmons occasionally can write a novel that will not entertain as much as many of his others.

This, I am afraid, is one of those.  It is still a good novel and had it been from an author that was new to me this would have had a great review but Mr Simmons has written so many excellent novels that perhaps I just expect a little more from him.

This comedic horror novel, spans two centuries and is set in Hawaii where the gods of the mountain decide to wreak revenge upon unsuspecting Japanese businessmen on holiday.

Add into this, roiling cauldron, Mark Twain’s female companion upon another trip to the island. The story is told deftly (as you would expect from an author of such great stature) and It is certainly worth noting that Mr Simmons has conquered yet another genre in the writing of this novel. Not his best novel but still very enjoyable, well written, planned and executed. To anyone that has not read one of Mr Simmons books, you will love this, it is excellent but when you read another of his (and you will) you will realize that this novel is on one of the lower rungs of the authors lofty and impressive list of books.   

The Redemption By William Peter Blatty.

A wonderful novel in its own unusual way. This novel jumps through hoops to be what I assumed the author wished it to be. The initial story seems like something from a James bond movie. The ultimate assassin captured, imprisoned and tortured giving away nothing then killing all of his captors. At this point throw your rule book away as Mr Blatty drags you back into his normal world of religion, hope and faith.
The story is told in fragments but he gives clues and when it is dragged back together in a sack of homage he makes all of his points clear.
I wonder if the small slivers that this tale breaks down to as it starts before coming together in a realization echoes Mr Blatty’s conversion to christianity? It seems like an epiphany to me but I suspect that epiphany occurred many years before this tales inception.
As far as the novel goes this matters not a jot.
This tale seems like a spy novel or James bond outing at the start until it becomes fragmented and disparate to show (I assume dissolution) then as the case is solved and all becomes clear you will marvel at this work of great fiction.
A beautiful, well written, fantastically planned, work of great literature that is both mysterious and uplifting. Very good Indeed.

I would normally give a novel this great five stars from five but I have not rated it as this novel is above my ratings system. One of the greatest novels I have ever read and worthy of more than my humble accolade.

Heart-Shaped Box By Joe Hill.

Heart -Shaped Box by By Joe Hill

I was looking forward to reviewing this Novel. One of the people that follow my reviews elsewhere recommended it to me and I love a good Ghost story. I have always liked the atmosphere, the feeling of creeping dread from a master of the genre. So I looked this up and upon seeing the cover and the back-cover text I knew I had to order it. I am quite a nice person but like many nice people I have a Dark side and my dark side mainly consists of giving bad reviews to half baked horror and ghost stories to wannabee authors that just have not got what it takes.

This seemed to fit the bill. Aging rock star (cliche) buys a ghost over the Internet. I was already preparing my vitriolic reply when it was delivered.

There were a number of reasons for this which included the rather ordinary cover, the aging metal rock god cliche and the fact that it is rare that Americans write good ghost stories (though it has been done on occasion, rather our cousins across the Atlantic shine in horror stories) They miss the nuance, the building tension, the; show a little to gain more, mentality of most European ghost story writers.

I was therefore looking forward to venting my spleen (old Scots for telling everyone how terrible it was) yet I am unable to in this case.

Mr Hill, despite using every cliche in the book (but then in Ghost stories who does not) succeeds in creating from a very silly premise a novel that really does work. It is creepy, at times, it is easy to read and has its moments. 

I still believe that very few American authors have truly grasped the ethos of the Ghost Story but Mr Hill has come close and so I really cannot slate this the way that I thought I would.

In a way that is a recommendation.

"Dimiter" By William Peter Blatty.

A wonderful novel in its own unusual way. This novel jumps through hoops to be what I assumed the author wished it to be. The initial story seems like something from a James bond movie. The ultimate assassin captured, imprisoned and tortured giving away nothing then killing all of his captors. At this point throw your rule book away as Mr Blatty drags you back into his normal world of religion, hope and faith. The story is told in fragments but he gives clues and when it is dragged back together in a sack of homage he makes all of his points clear. I wonder if the small slivers that this tale breaks down to as it starts before coming together in a realization echoes Mr Blatty’s conversion. It seems like an epiphany to me but I suspect that epiphany occurred many years before this tales inception. As far as the novel goes this matters not a jot. This tale seems like a spy novel or James bond outing at the start until it becomes fragmented and disparate to show (I assume dissolution) then as the case is solved and all become what they always were you marvel at this work of great fiction. Beautiful, well written, fantastically planned, work of great literature that is both mysterious and uplifting. Very good Indeed.

"Pig Island" By Mo Hayder,

I seem to be reading rather strange novels at the moment for no good reason and this one very much comes into this category. Initially the writing is rather jarring and not very good but she is telling it from the point of view of her character and so is forgivable. At first the writing put me off but the novel gets into the story quickly enough to carry you on and before you know it you are intrigued and have to read on.
This is the second Of Mo Hayder’s novels that I have read the first being the rather excellent “Tokyo”. This has the same dark feel to it dealing with atrocities, murder and general mayhem, though in this case with no basis in history. After a pretty slow and unassuming start I found myself enjoying the book more and more as i read on. I would definitely recommend this for a horror reader.

Star rating Three out of five