Triffids Beard 2 - The Bearded Triffid

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story is ever continued, I will be first in line to buy the book. I never can resist ERB; even when his stories are written by other people. One of my most treasured memories is of sitting on the deck of a Mississippi riverboat watching an eclipse of the moon. It was my first ever eclipse, my first ever Mississippi riverboat and my first (and so far only) time in New Orleans, the city Poppy Z. Brite has claimed for her own in her stunning horror novels. To be sure, much of the action of Drawing Blood takes place outside of New Orleans (in the North Carolina town of Missing Mile, to be exact) but the spirit of that haunted and eerie city pervades the whole book. Robert McGee, an underground comic artist who is losing his ability to draw, moves to Missing Mile with his family. He spirals down in a gloomy and all too predictable descent into drugs and drink which culminates with him murdering his wife and young son and then hanging himself. But for unknown reasons he spares one of his children. The boy Trevor, who seems to have inherited Robert's artistic skills, wakes in the morning to discover a house full of bloody corpses. Twenty years pass, and on the anniversary of the murders Trevor returns to Missing Mile. Meanwhile Zach, an erstwhile computer hacker who has attracted the unwelcome attentions of the FBI takes it on the lam from New Orleans and also ends up in Missing Mile. He and Trevor meet and fall in love and together dig deeper into the gruesome reasons behind Trevor's survival. What they discover is, to say the least, disturbing. I have never read a book which sustains its atmosphere so convincingly. It sucks you in and chums your emotions and won't let go. It contains some of the most gruesome images I have ever come across, some of the most erotic homosexual love scenes I have ever read. I am unreservedly heterosexual, but even I was turned on by them. The emotionally wrenching climax of the book is a psilocybin-induced (perhaps) hallucination of disturbing and almost traumatic intensity. This novel is not for the faint hearted -- it pulls no punches and leaves the reader emotionally drained. By no means can it be described as "entertaining"; but by God it is powerful and dramatic. If you like horror novels you will love this one, though be warned, you may find it offensive. While we are on the subject of offensive books, consider Anno Domini by Barnaby Williams, a book that is guaranteed to offend every Christian in the world (no mean feat). The novel tells the story of an early Christian sect (portrayed as the heroes) and their battle against what eventually turned into the Catholic church, an organisation determined to stamp out heresy. In many ways it is a true story (where are the Albigensians today?), but its shock value comes in the fictional assumptions, the most extreme of which is that the leader of the sect is Jesus himself (who did not die on the cross). His most bitter enemy is Peter who is portrayed as a psychopathic killer known as The Fisherman. The dichotomous Saul/Paul is beautifully painted as a Roman secret agent. Other saints and martyrs are also shown in a less than saintly light with all their human foibles exposed. If you are at all attached to your religious beliefs don't even open this book. Sir Peter Medawar was a Nobel prize winning scientist and a thoughtful essayist. Most of the essays collected in The Strange Case of the Spotted Micepick away at the philosophical boundaries of what we mean by 'science'. They make wonderfully complementary companions to shelves of science fiction books, but they are not easy reading. The points he makes are subtle but are illuminated with candour and enormous wit, particularly when he turns his mind to debunking some of the more extreme nonsenses that masquerade under the name of science. He does a wonderful hatchet job on Teilhard de Chardin and even Arthur Koestler comes in for some stick. Were Medawar alive today I am sure he would be greatly saddened by modern society's wholesale acceptance of some of the more lunatic fringes. But he isn't and we are all the poorer because of it. We need more of this kind of sense and sensibility. Larry McMurtry Cadillac Jack Pocket Books Roger Zelazny and Jane Lindskold Chronomaster Proteus
Harry Turtledove World War -- Upsetting the Balance NEL Robert Silverberg The Road to Nightfall -- The Collected Short Stories. Volume 4 Harper David Brin Brightness Reef Orbit Stephen King The Green Mile Part 6: Coffey on the Mile Penguin Edgar Rice Burroughs and Joe R. Lansdale Tarzan -- The Lost Adventures Dark Horse Poppy Z. Brite Drawing Blood Penguin Barnaby Williams Anno Domini Pocket Sir Peter Medawar The Strange Case of the Spotted Mice OUP
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Trimmings From The Triffid's Beard
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Foreword Unlike most holics, (if, a
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Buster Keaton and the lateral mind
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Movie Go Round Phlogiston Thirty-Fi
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crisps and a most revolting orange
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Lingua Frankly Phlogiston Thirty-Si
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tranquil islands of San Serif as th
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linguistic analysis. It is a theme
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up is laughable (feudalism across t
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perhaps over six feet." or "The per
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A Dozen Drabbles Phlogiston Thirty-
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This sort of thing had been going o
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In the story Jack Connie Willis cho
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(assuming the author describes them
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You should also consider whether or
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The Lesser Spotted Science Fiction
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. . . She peered at the cracked man
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stick. He hit the bed, and it was s
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Funny Business Phlogiston Forty-One
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...A large bottle. And in the bottl
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His wit and wisdom are highly prais
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16 novels, a Companion and a Mappe,
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weekends, many fine fictional works
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Zelazny brought Corwin's struggle t
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ordinary). He has also written some
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using them. Such ideas are reinforc
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that is quite frightening in the ra
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(v = velocity of aeroplane, c = spe
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press in recent years about people
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John Kilian Houston Brunner (1934-1
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In the Beginning Phoenixine Seventy
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It's Only Words Phoenixine Seventy-
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Alan Dean Foster Montezuma Strip As
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Drachenfels is absolutely brilliant
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There's a Pigeon in the Hole Phlogi
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detective story. Currently, under t
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Page 103 and 104: To Be Continued Phoenixine Seventy-
Page 105: searching out and nullifying sabote
Page 108 and 109: various acquaintances. Most of the
Page 112 and 113: The Mixture As Before Phoenixine Ei
Page 114 and 115: Paul J. McAuley's new novel Fairyla
Page 116: John Barnes Kaleidoscope Century Mi
Page 119 and 120: and move hastily on. It is also qui
Page 121: outside of these areas it is corres
Page 124 and 125: Bushell of the Royal American Mount
Page 127 and 128: Genre? Phoenixine Eighty-Two, July
Page 129: example, it is genuinely moving. On
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Page 135 and 136: Living in an SF Novel Phoenixine Ei
Page 137 and 138: Robyn Gossett is an entertaining wr
Page 140 and 141: Youthful Vices Phoenixine Eighty-Fi
Page 145 and 146: Connections Phoenixine Eighty-Six,
Page 147 and 148: have worried. She is on the top of
Page 150 and 151: New Things Phoenixine Eighty-Eight,
Page 152 and 153: novel with a lot of libertarian pre
Page 155 and 156: Oh Frabjous Day Phoenixine Eighty-N
Page 157: Falco, the detective in Vespasian's
Page 160 and 161: autobiography and several smaller a
Page 162: anyone to be proud of. But Malafren
Page 165 and 166: It sounded good and I dived into it
Page 168 and 169: Real Hols Phoenixine Ninety-One, Ma
Page 170 and 171: few months ago and complained that
Page 173 and 174: I Can't Lift up My Book Phoenixine
Page 175 and 176: There was a time, many years ago, w
Page 178 and 179: Moronicity Phoenixine Ninety-Three,
Page 180 and 181: my body opening in anticipation of
Page 183 and 184: Cats Phoenixine Ninety-Four, June 1
Page 185 and 186: With Higher Education, Sheffield an
Page 188 and 189: Food Phoenixine Ninety-Five, July 1
Page 190 and 191: through. His books pull you up with
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Snot Phoenixine Ninety-Six, August
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I have no hesitation in recommendin
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Tower Blocks and Graffiti Phoenixin
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picture had appeared on the wall an
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As I collected my luggage, the clou
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the Kay Scarpetta stories. Other th
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Ah -- so now I was having earthquak
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went back to the dentist. "Oh yes,
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Tony Phoenixine One-Hundred, Decemb
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ut when she puts her mind to it she
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Bouncy Phoenixine One-Hundred and O
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slammed shut as the wind screamed p
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A series of bizarre murders is shak
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The Universe Hates Me Phoenixine On
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humour with which this farrago of n
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Diatribe on Language Phoenixine One
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unless your school principle says s
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with large gaps in his memory and a
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Toilets Phoenixine One-Hundred and
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wall rather than recessed into it.
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Richard Matheson I am Legend Orb Ro
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almost a reprise of the war of 1812
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McConnell's book Code Complete proc
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Fiji Phoenixine One-Hundred and Six
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Every night the resident trio of mu
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The next day I flew home and the vi
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Triffids Beard 2 - The Bearded Triffid

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