![]() I write short stories and screenplays mostly in the horror genre. Several of my short stories have been published including one about a Kumiho (Korean Werefox). I regularly blog about writing, the horror genre and reviews at https://www.facebook.com/davidjenkinswriter ![]() Review of The Derelict by Neil Williams Blurb- Bound for England, the schooner AlbinGrau is curtailed by a storm ravaged ship. With no crew nor sail, and as night descends, something creeps forth from the shadows . . . Best bit: The final battle. Worst Bit: The reveal of the vampire like creature. Favourite quote: How about this tattoo? Isn’t she magnificent? I move my arm like so and look, it’s like she’s dancing for you. Almost like the real thing. Hah! Better than the real thing you might say; she won’t slap your face. This is the first small press book I have ever read and I must admit I was impressed not just by the writing but by the whole book layout. I would also like to point out I didn’t really want to read another vampire story but found myself enjoying this story because of the uniqueness of the setting. The isolation of the sea is an underused location and one, which is well described here. The introduction is one of the most intriguing I have read for a long time. The storyline is fast and tense with all the horror elements you would expect from the abandoned ship with scratches on the door to the mysterious assailant. These genre conventions although bordering on cliché may it easy to visualise and I would have put up with them if not for the vampire like creature. The assailant is presented as menacing enough but he seems a very simple vampire who adds nothing to the myth. Apart from the assailant, the only other problem I found was that the sailors could be more developed but the length probably limits this more than anything else. In conclusion, I really enjoyed this book due to its setting and description although I wish it was a different monster attacking them.
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Jacob M. Lambert has published with Flame Tree Publishing, Third Flatiron, and Midnight Echo Magazine. He lives in Montgomery, Alabama, where he teaches English composition and is an assistant editor for THAT Literary Review. When not writing, he enjoys time with his wife, Stephanie, and daughter, Annabelle. The Rise, Fall, and Rise of the Cthulhu Mythos: A Review S.T. Joshi’s critical analysis of Howard Phillips (H.P.) Lovecraft offers a thorough examination of the 1930s fantasy/horror author’s work. Joshi seeks to prove that Lovecraft’s “Cthulhu Mythos”—unlike his contemporary’s later usage of his mythology—was something of unique design, invoking an idea of cosmic fear or, as some have proposed, a setting of dread, bereft of good and evil. All other incarnations, according to Joshi, are carbon copies unfit for public consumption, undeserving of the “Lovecraftian” title. The secondary purpose of Joshi’s criticism involves a discussion of those inspired by the mythos—those worthy. Most of this latter portion, Joshi states, had close correspondences with Lovecraft, and thus provided a “purer” form of imitation. Joshi’s book contains three sections: the Lovecraftian, Cthulhu, and Derleth Mythos. As for the first, Joshi states that Lovecraft’s own work—his mythos concerning Cthulhu, the sleeping god beneath the sea—is the central piece, the template, for all other fiction like it. Here, Joshi provides a long discussion of Lovecraft’s work (dates, editors, etc.) and sources, oftentimes back-to-back. The second, the Cthulhu Mythos, is the attempt of other authors, ones that Joshi mostly condemns, to replicate the foreboding mood, bleak outlook of the characters, and overall sense of man’s nothingness in the universe. Joshi mentions authors Lovecraft corresponded with (like Robert Bloch) and the late author’s impact on their future writing. Finally, the Derleth Mythos, named after August Derleth—a contemporary and similar horror author—is, according to Joshi, the equivalent of blasphemy. Derleth, Joshi argues, uses the mythos in an uncharacteristic way: he implements the ideas of good and evil—whereupon he then writes about the monsters or gods. Lovecraft, again according to Joshi, never wrote directly about the gods, as much as he focused on their animosity toward man. In other words, Lovecraft’s stories focus on man’s inability to comprehend the gods—causing madness—whereas Derleth leans more toward the gods themselves: their descriptions and tendency for destruction. In the final chapters, Joshi finishes with a short discussion on recent works and their relevance, praising author Ramsey Campbell (“Chasing the Unknown” 1993), a modern horror writer, for his early works, which often used elements of the mythos. He closes, stating, “Either you feel the “cosmic quality” or you do not; and we have seen how a number of writers have attempted to duplicate Lovecraft’s cosmism but failed” (369). In essence, this previous quote sums up the rhetoric of Joshi’s criticism. So, Joshi’s viewpoint is predominately pessimistic. He delves into lengthy descriptions of Lovecraft’s work—as in the beginning three chapters—but offers mostly equally overstated quotations, sources, and the more than occasional digression into nonessential history. Joshi spends the first half of the book alluding to his later attack of Derleth, but the majority of his claims reveal a biased attitude, offering circular reasoning as fact. The injection of opinion here (especially concerning Derleth) undermines his attempt at true scholarly objectivity and invalidates the notion of his expertise. There are, however, some redemptive qualities to Joshi’s work: his fluid writing, coherency, and deep knowledge of Lovecraft’s mythos. The book as a whole feels complete—having a detailed map of Lovecraft’s progress as a writer, in addition to his many correspondences with other, well known authors, such as Robert Blotch (Mysteries of the Worm 1993) and Henry Kuttner, another contributor to the magazine, Weird Tales (the publication where Lovecraft got his start). Finally, in the later chapters, Joshi names several writers who—much later—wrote tales inspired by the Cthulhu Mythos, such as Neil Gaiman (American Gods 2001), Stephen King (IT 1990). Joshi speaks highly of Gaiman and King, commending their work as successful—good representations of Lovecraft’s mythos. Overall, while Joshi’s work certainly encompasses the nature, metaphor, and importance of Lovecraft’s mythos, as it pertains to Cthulhu Mythos, he fails to provide an objective direction, and therefore discounts the work of many successful, well-established authors who, in their own right, deserve recognition for their labors. However, if one needs a detailed history of the mythos, Joshi’s tome provides the best insight, but his biased attitude toward writers of the mythos (the undeserving) could deter readers from accepting his overall criticism. ![]() I write short stories and screenplays mostly in the horror genre. Several of my short stories have been published including one about a Kumiho (Korean Werefox). I regularly blog about writing, the horror genre and reviews at https://www.facebook.com/davidjenkinswriter ![]() Review of Death House by Sarah Pinborough (2015) Plot summary- Toby's life was perfectly normal . . . until it was unravelled by something as simple as a blood test. Taken from his family, Toby now lives in the Death House; an out-of-time existence far from the modern world, where he, and the others who live there, are studied by Matron and her team of nurses. They're looking for any sign of sickness. Any sign of their wards changing. Any sign that it's time to take them to the sanatorium. No one returns from the sanatorium. Withdrawn from his house-mates and living in his memories of the past, Toby spends his days fighting his fear. But then a new arrival in the house shatters the fragile peace, and everything changes. Because everybody dies. It's how you choose to live that counts. This book is realistic both in its subject matter a house for ill children separated isolated form elsewhere and in the characters not only their actions but their voice. There were occasions were the dialogue was slightly incorrect to me saying shit pile instead of pile of shit for e.g. but it captures how children speak even amongst there different ages from 11 year olds (simple, naïve speech) to 17 (more aggressive and swearing). The character development of the narrator Toby from withdrawn and aggressive to kind and daring is never rushed despite the novella length. This build-up of character enables us to sympathise with the narrator more over time and has the added bonus in giving us different perspectives whilst still using the same person. From a writer's viewpoint I could see the structure of the book both in plot terms and character however this never hampered the story. For instance when Toby first discovers that somebody else isn’t taking the sleeping pills you can tell it’s only a matter of time before he falls for her and that it will involve fighting the other lads. But the language used to describe Toby falling in love and the hints are well executed. The horror of the story is subtle but omnipresent, the children look for signs of the illness and talk about the symptoms with the repeated ‘I hear it makes your eyes bleed’ quote being my favourite. The house they stay in with its nurses and teachers conveys a dreaded sense of an old style asylum which adds to the realism as this was how mental health patients were probably treated in the 60s and in some places today. Matron in particularly comes across not so much as evil till near the end but indifferent, authoritative, inhuman. There are several twists in the story where everything seems to be going well for e.g. When Toby and Clara find an injured bird but you know it’s going to end bad. The story is slow in places to build up the false hope that everything is getting better but then several events including another blood test for Toby, Matron killing of a nurse because she knew the result and the death of one of his friends make the book a real page-turner. This book is very economical in both its description and its side characters each of which shows an important viewpoint including religious, bully, naïve etc. so are necessary to a well-balanced story. Lastly on the positive side this book should appeal to romance and horror readers, perhaps even people who liked Stand By Me with its portrayal of kids struggling to come to turns with a big event. My main critique is the over use of showing Toby’s memories (presented in italics to differentiate between the main story). At first it helps build a picture of Toby and makes us more sympathetic with him but once we like him and the story progresses rapidly most of the memories get in the way (apart from the mermaid ones). I also would have liked more description on what this disease actually is that the kids suffer from and why it’s now rare, not knowing doesn’t detract from the fear. Overall this is the best book I have read this year, even though parts of it were predictable and the memory sections occasionally dragged it was well told, realistic and emotional. ![]() Rick Hartwell is a retired middle school teacher (remember the hormonally-challenged?) living in Southern California. He believes in the succinct, that the small becomes large; and, like the Transcendentalists and William Blake, that the instant contains eternity. Given his “druthers,” if he’s not writing, Rick would rather still be tailing plywood in a mill in Oregon. He can be reached at [email protected]. Intuitive Education I guess I believe more in fostering intellectual growth than in dispensing the random flotsam of content standards. Part of the difficulty encountered in secondary education is our compartmentalized approach to acquiring information. It is no wonder that so many of our students do not make connections from one course to another or from one domain to another or that many of those same students cannot make even an extension from one concept to another within the same course. For some time now I have been thinking about a concept to which I have given the name intuitive education, or education-by-intuition if you prefer. By this I mean to indicate that much of what is to be valued in education, and from those who are to be valued for their manner of imparting knowledge, is not necessarily supportable by quantifiable data nor is it necessarily amenable to normal research methodologies. If we take the premise that Howard Gardner, Thomas Armstrong, and others are correct and that there are multiple paths to learning that which is valued by society, then it is a supportable corollary that there must be multiple roadmaps to those destinations of learning and guidance may be provided by some very disparate mapmakers and gatekeepers who provide access. If a given percentage, something above the fiftieth percentile, of a student population is best instructed using some specific and delineated technique, that merely reflects that a given majority or majority-plus is most amenable to that particular teaching technique. It does not follow as a matter of course that any, or all, other techniques are of lesser benefit, but merely that they may be of benefit to a lesser percentage of the student population. Those very students who did not learn successfully through the majority technique may, in fact, learn best or even only through someminority technique. If a teacher insists on delivering instruction only by means of a technique shown to be successful to the dominant population of students, then that teacher colludes in excluding the remaining minority percentage of students from the knowledge base being transmitted. To rely only or exclusively on teaching methodologies which are shown to be the most effective for the widest audience may be statistically viable in theory, but it is humanistic arrogance in practice. I fear for those students, exposed as they are, year after year, to the most well-intentioned and data-driven teachers who have succumbed to the pressures of instruction designed and delivered on the premise of “the most for the best to attain the highest.” By such criteria the less will always be condemned to receive the least, confirmed by their remaining the lowest. What I am arguing for is the overt recognition of the multiplicity of nuanced decisions of delivery made moment to moment by the professional classroom educator. Not all students learn or can learn from any one specific teacher nor can any one teacher be successful in delivering material across all domains of learning. This is one of the most compelling arguments for diversifying instruction and instructors, as found at the secondary level - of the flawed yet focused teacher striving to make a difference. If there should be “no child left behind,” a lofty but perhaps ultimately unattainable goal, there should at least be no child overlooked nor teaching strategy too easily slighted. What, if anything, is logical about the methods and manner of teaching currently employed in public education? Little is left to the daily imaginations of the recipients and virtually nothing is allowed as an aberration to the expected norms of the transmitters. Teachers and taught, both comprise the captive audience on a symbiotic merry-go-round. Only those who are spun off by the centrifugal force of behavioral values outside the acceptable range seem placed in such positions to adequately assess the effectiveness of what is actually learned. Obviously, I continue to question the adequacy of our current school environment and standards. What strikes me most unacceptably is the demand for formulaic regimentation. Such teaching is self-inflicted perversity. |
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