Score!

Today, on a whim, I went to The Book Nook. I haven't been there in a while, so I figured it would be a good time to scope for any new books.

One great thing about The Book Nook is it actually has a horror section. Most book stores either lop in horror with the science fiction/fantasy or just puts them in fiction all together (with a shelf devoted to King and Koontz). But not the Nook. A Horror section all to its glorious self. In addition, it has sections devoted to particular authors. They have the standard King and Koontz section, but they also have Rice (ugh), Wilson (F. Paul) and Lumley.

Apparently, the store has had a run on traded in horror books. A good run.

35 bucks netted...

Wetbones - John Shirley
Dark Universe - William F. Nolan
Atmosphere - Michael Laimo
The Haunting of Hill House - Shirley Jackson
Exquisite Corpse and Wormwood - Poppy Z. Brite
Resurrection Dreams and Bite - Richard Laymon
Desolation - Tim Lebbon
The Wyrm - Stephen Laws

and one non-horror

The Day Before Midnight - Stephen Hunter

God, I am a dork.

Oogie Boogie thoughts

After finishing a Oogie Boogie Central, I had an immediate thought--I hope there's a sequel.

Stephen Lukac did a helluva job with his first novel. It was entertaining as hell and he has a solid voice. But the biggest beef I had with the book is he had characters (known as gatherers)that were key to the book, but he never really developed on them until the last chapter or so, and by then it was too late.

He did a great job fleshing out his main characters and, even though I was getting frustrated by not knowing very much about the gatherers, the book was well written enough to hold my attention to the end.

I hope there is a sequel to this book so the gatheres are fleshed out more, as I would like to know their histories and find out more about what they are.

And, while this post is vague, if I were to go further into detail, I would be spoiling the book.

Either way, it was an enjoyable read--a strong first book that shows a lot of promise for Lukac. Shocklines carries it for under 20 bucks.

Yesssssssss

I picked up The Walking Dead Vol. 3 today.

Everything else gets put off until this is done.

Fucking 'a.

I finished Oogie Boogie Central

But I'll post my thoughts later (they actually may be detailed and fluent!).

I grabbed Michael Laimo's Deep in the Darkness. I have a funny story about Laimo, but I'm going to read this book before I post it.

I've read the first 3 chapters already and the story thus far is a a man moves his wife, kid and dog from the big city to the country where he will become the local doctor. Soon after arriving to his house, he is befriended by his neighbor and invited to eat lunch with him.

And the woods are creepy.

Sounds like the beginning of Pet Sematary, but I'm pretty sure it won't go that way, and even if it does, I'll still read it. I've read a short story or two of Laimo's and I dig his style.



I also knocked out Kolchak The Night Stalker. It was surprisingly ho-hum. Good art, good story, but missing something. Pretty blah.

The Walking Dead

Yeah, I should have been finished my book by now, but nope.

I read volume 2 of The Walking Dead trade paperback (or whatever the hell big books of comics are called.

Wow.

Volume 1 was great, but volume 2 was amazing. While I'm not a big fan of black & white comics, the writing MORE than makes up for it.

The premise is easy enough, zombies have taken over and the remaining humans must survive.

This is easily one of the best horror comics I've read in a while.



Quite simply, buy it if you like zombies.

Bigfoot, small series

Oh yeah, and I also managed to read the 4 issue run of Bigfoot.

That whole damn series was damn good, but it ended too quickly.



And, yes, that it Rob Zombie's name on the cover.

Music, movies and comics. Zombie fucking rocks.

Supreme Power

I'm damn close to finishing Central, but once again I was completely sidetracked.

First Fangoria, then Rue Morgue, the Monster series (which I still haven't finished) and, sometimes, that stupid card game on my cellphone.

More recently, however, it's been the comic Supreme Power.

Look, I've never been a fan of superhero comics. I've only liked three heroes enough to collect back in the day: Batman (Dark Knight), Daredevil and The Punisher. That's it. No Superman. No Fantastic 4. No Silver Surfer. A little Ghost Rider, but no Avengers.

But this Supreme Power. It's different. The best way I can describe it is what if Superman was a government project. In our reality. It's a kick ass spin on the whole superhero genre and the storyline hits a little closer to home (i.e. Hyperion doing some jobs in the Gulf War).

And what makes it even more interesting is the "heroes" involved in the novel are much, much darker versions of Superman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Aquaman (or, in this case, woman), Batman and, from my limited knowledge of superheroes, I'm guessing the Green Lantern.

The art is afuckingmazing and the writing is just the same.



Not your father's Superman.

Two unscheduled stops

The first slip was for the latest issue of Rue Morgue magazine. That damn rag covers horror like nobody's business.

The second thing I just got into is Monster Nation, an online novel I downloaded to my iPod. It's supposed to be about zombies, but I haven't gotten to them yet. So far, it's been a very quick and very enjoyable read. Depending on how good it is, I'll either jump to Monster Island, Monster Planet or go back to Oogie Boogie (which is very good, but I get distracted easily).

I'm thinking now I should have read Monster Island first, as it looks like it was the first one written.

Oh well, wouldn't be the first time I did something like that.

Havana is done, next stop Oogie Boogie Central

Well I knocked out Havana today.

Um.

It was a good book, but definitely not one of my favorites of the series. It started off strong and, up until about halfway through, it kind of ran out of steam.

I wasn't disappointed, because it was still solid, but it wasn't the non-stop ride I was used to from Hunter. It's kind of like if you have a favorite director who is usually consistently solid, but puts out a film that, while you enjoy it, just didn't quite reach your expectations (for me it would be Kevin Smith's Jersey Girl).

It won't, by any means, stop me from eagerly buying and plowing through his next one. I'm actually already looking forward to it--but I am hoping it's a Bob Lee book.

I'll probably jump back into Oogie Boogie tomorrow. And I'll give a little blurb on what it's about, as well.

Pushed off again for Fangoria

Newest issue of Fangoria came in yesterday, so Havana gets bumped again (although I only have about 30 or so pages left).

I honestly don't know why I read Fangoria anymore.

Well, I do know. I get a great rate on the subscription (20 bucks a year, thanks Ebay), and they have great pictures.

But, damn, they are the Ain't It Cool News of the horror magazine world.

If there is a dick out there, they will suck it.

But they do have a lot of cool pictures and, on occasion, some decent scoops.

However, if you want to read the best horror mag out there, get yourself a script to Rue Morgue. It's well worth the 60 bucks or so a year.