Recent Reads From HELL Part IV

 Here's a quick rundown on a few books I recently read.

Spawn of Hell by William Schoell

What can I say about this one? Not much, unfortunately. Kind of an interesting premise...kind of. Plagued by uninteresting characters, more typos than you typically see in mass market paperbacks, and just kind of typical in every way. I read this one a few weeks ago and I can't really remember much about it. It just wasn't all that remarkable. Creatures living under an abandoned building in a small town, devouring those unfortunate enough to get in their way. They get a taste for human flesh and become more bold. This was Schoell's debut. It's not a bad book, but it's not very good at all. I will try another of his novels some day. I know I'd hate to be judged by my first two books. They're not very good either.

The Silent Enemy by Ernest T. Jahn

This book had a fascinating premise, and being set in Hawaii was a plus, considering I've only read a few books set in the Aloha State. Unfortunately that where's anything good ends. It was readable, but in a pulp sort of way. The back cover copy promises mutated seaweed, and though there are hints of that, I felt it was a missed opportunity. Most of the story is bad character development and terrible dialogue. It felt like the book was written by whoever wrote old episodes of Scooby Doo Where Are You? That's not a knock on Scooby Doo (I'm a fan), but I expect more out of a novel. A lot more. A quick read, there are a few things to like, but I felt like this story could have been so much more.

Fright Night by John Skipp and Craig Spector

This is officially the first movie novelization I've ever read, and it didn't disappoint! I've seen the film several times, but not in a while. The book brought it all back in vivid detail. It was well written, as you would expect from Skipp and Spector, but clearly it wasn't their own original work. It has their fingerprints all over it, but I felt it was far more stripped down than their other books. I'm very interested in reading novelizations of movies I'm even more familiar with just to see the differences. This one was a hell of a lot of fun.

Toplin by Michael McDowell

Despite my adoration of McDowell's work, this one just didn't do it for me. I DNF'd it (to those in the back, that means Did Not Finish). The writing was solid, and very unlike McDowell's southern gothic style prose that I'm used to. I wanted to like the story, but I just didn't find it very engaging. It was almost dream-like, which made it very confusing. What turned out to be the final straw was when the narrator continued to detail the six or seven suits he has in his closet. I'm sure his obsession with those suits was indicative of some kind of
mental illness he was dealing with, but I just couldn't take it any more. This book was originally published around '85 in a special limited edition, but wasn't published in a mass market edition until the 90's when the Dell Abyss line picked it up. Dell Abyss published some amazing books, and also some that were a bit too experimental for me. Toplin fits in the latter category.

That's all for now. I'm currently working through the wonderful stories in Ronald Kelly's collection The Essential Sick Stuff, Prophecy by David Seltzer, and...I really want to read One For the Road by Wesley Southard,
but I can't remember where I put the book!!!

New Review of SALPSAN

My modern gothic novella SALPSAN was reviewed over at Confessions of a Reviewer recently. They gave the book three out of five stars. Though it's not the most positive review, it's an honest one, and I can appreciate that. It's so difficult to get a book reviewed these days with the glut of material out there (especially a self published book like SALPSAN!), so I am grateful that Confessions of a Reviewer took the time to read my work and review. Though the book didn't fulfill the reviewer, he did make some positive comments concerning the prose and atmosphere I created. This review is definitely worth a read, so please follow the link and see what they have to say. And then, if you feel so inclined, head on over to Amazon and buy a copy. If you subscribe to Kindle Unlimited you can borrow it for free.

Here's the review. Here's the Amazon link.

Salpsan NOW AVAILABLE!

Yes, folks, the day is here. My novella Salpsan is now available exclusively for kindle, and it's only $1.99, or FREE if you are a Kindle Unlimited customer.

She lives to help the sick, but will she help a monster?

Marion Fleicher has been stripped of her nursing license and ostracized in her homeland for an act of sheer compassion. Desperate to help the sick and infirmed, and struggling on a fixed income, she takes a job as a private nurse. She finds herself in the Spanish countryside at the door to a dilapidated old house wondering if she’s made a mistake. Behind the door is a motley trio: a servant-man who is as shady as a shadow and sneaky as an imp, Terrance Adler, Marion’s ambiguous employer, and her patient, who is in desperate need of a doctor. Will she be able to help her patient or will she die trying?

"Robert Essig has crafted one creepy-as-hell tale of modern gothic horror that sets an ominous tone from the first few words and never lets up. Told from the POV of an unconventional narrator with secrets of her own, Salpsan is a dark, dark story that will prove you wrong several times when you think you know where it's going. I enjoyed it immensely, and can't wait to read more from this writer!"

-- James Newman (author of Odd Man Out, Animosity, and Ugly As Sin)

"With Salspan, Essig takes you on a twisted journey through the Spanish hillside;
one full of intrigue, memorable characters and hellish encounters. This is a story that will stick with you, long after turning the last page.

--K. Trap Jones, author of The Charm Hunter, The Sinner and The Harvester

Available in the US HERE

Available in the UK HERE

Cover Art for Salpsan

The cover art has been finished for Salpsan, my forthcoming novella from Damnation Books. Gotta say I like it. Captures the tone of this gothic story quite nicely. I will post more information as the publication date nears.

Marion Fleicher has been stripped of her nursing license and ostracized in her homeland for an act of sheer compassion. Desperate to help the sick and needy, and struggling on a fixed income, she takes a job as a private nurse. She finds herself in the Spanish countryside at the door to a dilapidated old house wondering if she’s made a mistake. Behind the door is a motley trio: a servant-man who is as shady as a shadow and sneaky as an imp, Terrance Adler, Marion’s ambiguous employer, and her patient, who is in desperate need of a doctor. Will she be able to help her patient or will she die trying?

"...You're a Sick Bastard..."

"...And I hope you get what's coming to you. Preferably near the black, undulating pool."

Why would someone say something like that about me? Are you kidding? Jeez!

All jesting aside, those are words from Rish Outfield, the dude who did a masterful job reading the audio version of my novel THROUGH THE IN BETWEEN, HELL AWAITS. I was blown away when I heard it. I listen to a lot of audio books (two to three a month at least), and I know how important the reader is. My favorite is Phil Gigante who, to me, is best known for his brilliant reading of Joe R. Lansdale's Hap and Leonard books. Rish is that good. If you dig audio books, you'll dig this one. I'm not just saying this because it's my own book. Well, maybe a little bit, but really, Rish did a damn good job and I couldn't be more proud of the production. If you decide to give it a shot, I hope you dig it and I know you will.

Don't be afraid. I may be a sick bastard, but that just means you'll enjoy the fruits of my twisted mind. Check out the audio book HERE.

If you listen to it I'd love to hear what you think.

Cheers!

Is It Horror? Dark Fantasy? Urban Fantasy?

Seems that some stories cannot be labeled with a simple tag as clearly cut as other stories. What I call horror someone else will call dark fantasy, but where is the dividing line? I suppose a horrific story without supernatural elements could be classified as straight horror, whereas the same story with an element of the supernatural could be classified as dark fantasy. Some people use those very classifications (I recall someone referring to Stephen King's non-supernatural stories as his only horror stories--everything else being labeled Dark fantasy--which is ridiculous), but that doesn't sit well with me. Not at all. King's Pet Sematary is a horror story. Bentley Little's The House is horror. To label dark supernatural stories as dark fantasy would be to put all ghost stories under that label,
which would pretty much be a crime by my standards.

I've been wary of labels, however, to a certain degree, I like them. My issue is that micro-labeling the genres becomes confusing. This is something seen heavily in music. You have rap, hip-hop, gangsta rap, crunk, freestyle, yadda yadda. On the other hand you have heavy metal, groove metal, grindcore, nu metal, black metal, death metal, yadda yadda yabba dabba doo. It's just too goddamned much, and I wonder if the world of speculative fiction is on its way to having so many ridiculous labels. In trying to find out exactly what slipstream is, I ran across a website that defines a number of spec-fic labels, one of which was "paranormal". I've heard of paranormal romance (a label I'm perfectly comfortable with considering that I have absolutely no interest in that type of fiction), but I had never considered that a "paranormal" story was worthy of a category all its own. For me, that's cutting the deck to thin.

So that brings me to my own books. I've always called them horror, though in a blurb for my novel THROUGH THE IN BETWEEN, HELL AWAITS, Daniel I. Russel calls the novel "...a fat slice of urban horror." When I read that I thought, "Yeah, that sounds about right. I kinda like that." And the more I thought about it the more I realized that HELL AWAITS could be just as easily classified a dark fantasy as it could a horror story, perhaps even an urban fantasy, though a considerable hunk of the story takes place in an unearthly realm. It certainly starts out as an urban fantasy. Or perhaps a dark urban fantasy.

Take my second novel PEOPLE OF THE ETHEREAL REALM. It's a horror story, maybe even a ghost story, or perhaps it could be classified as a paranormal story. Well now, let's hold on a second. Let's think this through. It's a very urban story, much more so that HELL AWAITS, so maybe it could be labeled a dark paranormal urban horror story.

I have a love-hate relationship with labels. They're necessary, but can be over examined. I certainly
wish my local Barnes & Noble would do a little more categorizing, maybe bring back the damn horror section. Buuuut, that's another rant for another blog.

On a final note, the two novels above can be purchased from all major online retailers. I've noticed quite a jump in visitors to this blog from all around the world, so, in addition to the amazon links embedded above, here is a link to my books on smashwords, where you can find formats for a variety of e-readers including kobo and Sony. Why not give them a read and let me know how you would categorize 'em.

-- Robert