NPR's Summer Reader Poll 2018: Horror!

     Well, today had a bright spot in the wake of Aretha Franklin's passing:  NPR's Summer Reader Poll's results were announced- and since 2018 is the bicentennial of the publication of Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, the topic was the top 100 horror novels of all time.

This is a topic near and dear to my heart, of course, just... because.  So imagine my joy when I see Abyss related items on the list.

First was Kathe Koja's The Cipher, the book that inaugurated the line.  Perhaps this new attention, coming on the heels of Paperbacks from Hell, will result in a new paperback edition.

Even though they didn't have an Abyss book on the list, Abyss authors Poppy Z Brite (Billy Martin) and Michael McDowell are there.  Brite's serial killer novel Exquisite Corpse is there and the write up namechecks Lost Souls and Drawing Blood.  Toplin's Michael McDowell is on the list for his ghost story novel The Elementals, back in print from Valancourt Books.

Always glad to see Abyss Books getting the attention they deserve.

The List 2.0 (Updated 8.19.18)

UPDATE: Let's make that 2.1, shall we?  I've added two titles to the list. (One I somehow missed, despite having a copy on my shelf!)

Well.  Reddit has discovered me.  There was a thread devoted to the Abyss imprint and they were wondering about the list- and they had a link to this page for me!

Unfortunately, the list had... issues.

I've fixed them.  Using the Internet Speculative Fiction Database , one for the regular paperbacks and a ones for the hardcovers and the book club editions, and The Locus Index servatto Science Fiction as well as just observations from a full bookcase, I've redone the list.  HC means hard cover.  BCE means Book Club Edition.  Unless noted, everything else is a paperback.

So here we go- please pardon formatting errors, I did my list in "word pad."


The Cipher Kathe Koja 02.91
Dusk Ron Dee         04.91
Nightlife        Brian Hodge 05.91
Spectres        JM Dillard 05.91
Prodigal        Melanie Tem 06.91
Obsessed         Rick R Reed 07.91
Toplin M. Mcdowell 08.91
Mastery         Kelley Wilde 09.91
Descent         Ron Dee         10.91
Tunnelvision R. Patrick Gates 11.91
Shadow Twin Dale Hoover 12.91
Post-Mortem ed. P. Olson 01.92
The Orpheus Process Daniel Gower 02.92
Bad Brains Kathe Koja 03.92
Whipping Boy John Byrne 03.92
Lost Futures Lisa Tuttle 05.92
Death Grip Brian Hodge 06.92
Meta-Horror ed. D. Etchison07.92
Stitch Mark Morris 08.92
Anthony Shriek J. Salmonson 09.92
Death's Door Wolly & Wolfe10.92
Lost Souls HC Poppy Z. Brite10.92
Wilding         Melanie Tem 11.92
Dark Dance Tanith Lee 12.92
Pemance         Rick R Reed 01.93
Lost Souls BCE Poppy Z Brite 01.93
Skin HC Kathe Koja 02.93
Shadowman D. Etchison 02.93
Shadowman BCE D. Etchison 03.93
Facade K, Rusch         03.93
Rapid Growth Mary Hanner 04.93
Dark Dance BCE Tanith Lee 04.93
Angel Kiss Kelley Wilde 05.93
The Making of a Monster Gail Peterson 06.93
The Darker Saints Brian Hodge 07.93
Making Love Tem & Holder 08.93
Heart Beast Tanith Lee 09.93
Lost Souls Poppy Brite 10.93
X,Y         M. Blumlien 11.93
Drawing Blood HC Poppy Brite 11.93
Harrowgate Daniel Gower 12.93
Heart-Beast BCE Tanith Lee 12.93
Deadweight R Devereaux 03.94
65mm Dale Hoover 04.94
Dead in the Water Nancy Holder 06.94
Revenant         Melanie Tem 09.94
Grave Markings Michael Arnzen 10.94
Covenant w/the Vampire HC J. Kalogridis 10.94
Sins of the Blood K. Rusch 12.94
Language of Fear Del James 02.95
Deathwalker R. Patrick Gates 03.95
California Gothic D. Etchison 06.95
Little Deaths ed. Ellen Datlow 09.95

Paperbacks From Hell: The Twisted History of '70s and '80s Horror Fiction

Skipping my weekly Abyss review for a special book I've been hearing about on the internet, it's been burning up the forums and Facebook groups ever since it came out: Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of '70s and '80s Horror Fiction by Grady Hendrix.

It's a magnificent volume, with hundreds of  examples of classic, and not so classic, vintage horror paperback covers.

But it's not just pretty pictures (which are GORGEOUS,  by they way,) but it's a subtle cultural history as well, the trends in publishing that reflect the moods and attitudes of the country,  from the Satanic boom in the early seventies, through eco-horror, to splatterpunks and serial killers.

Hendrix not only gives an exhaustive look at the genre, but he spotlights major artists as well, giving credit where credit is due.

There's a nice amount of back matter at the end where he lists the players, authors, publishers and artists, a suggested reading list from Will Errickson at Too Much Horror Fiction, and a impressive listing of  cover credits for the book covers used in this.

Of course, the part I'm really there for is at the end: four pages about thle Dell Abyss imprint.  Four sweet glorious pages, one of which is NOTHING but covers!  Hendrix gives a TV Guide synopsis of the founding  of the line, explaining that the market was in such that "the coroner had called it and the medical examiner was zipping up horror's body bag."  But then came Jeanne Cavelos.  I will be indirectly singing her praises a couple of times a month with this blog, because she was the motivating force behind the imprint.

(Final note:  I've subscribed to Audible.com and they're offering an audiobook version of this.  Seriously.  What The Hell?  I'm sure all the discussion about the books will sound GREAT but the strength of the book is the pictures.  Hell, the first two times I "read" this, I was just looking at covers- the first time was just out of sheer joy; the second time I was in full covet mode.  This book is the Sears Christmas Wishbook for horror fans.)

Nightlife

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Part way through the early section of Brian Hodge's novel Nightlife, I get an idea in my head and I can't shake it and it impacts the way I read the rest of the book: specifically that it's "Bright Lights, Big City" meets "Scarface" meets "Altered States".

It isn't really, and there's a South American native warrior in the mix.  The yuppie is a former ad-man who has left the Mid-West because of his cocaine problems.  Coming to Tampa, he encounters the local friendly drug lord who's giving out a sample of a new exotic product straight out of the jungles of South America, Venezuelan marching powder, called skullflush.  This powder is sacred to the people of the native warrior, who's there to reclaim it with whatever body count it takes to do so.  Skullflush allows the user to get in touch with their inner essence, transforming them into beasts- alligator people, big cats, wolfgirls and most magnificently, a Were-Piranha.

Yes, seriously, a Were-Piranha.  Who sleeps IN, not on, a water bed.

It's glorious.

Read enough Horror or Weird Fiction, and you sort of become jaded.  There wasn't any horror here for me- just a strange delight at how progressively complicated the character's lives become. 

Which ends up being pretty fucking complicated.

Because Were-Piranha.

Oiginal publication date: March 1991

Availability: There's a German version from 2004, but other than that, the hard copy is out of print.  Used copies are available on the secondary market.  An e-book edition is available from Crossroads Press, for $3.99.

 

Cover image snagged from Brian Hodge's website, linked to above.

The Cipher

Fun fact: I'd planned this weeks ago, penciling in The Cipher on the calendar, the top of a list of the first eight books from Dell Abyss, that this post would go up January 6; as it happens, today, the sixth is Kathe Koja's birthday. That's some pretty cool synchronicity there.
Now, on with the post:

I've tried this before, but I'm going to give it another go for 2018. 

This time I have a plan and structure and God knows I need that. One book a week. Post goes up on Saturday. And I've started at the beginning: Kathe Koja's The Cipher. The Cipher was the novel chosen to lead off the imprint, and it does with a bang.

Dell Abyss liner editor  Jeanne Cavelos said "We'd had too many stories about haunted houses and evil children and ancient Indian burial grounds.”

What was needed was something different. Different it is.

Nicholas and his not girlfriend Nakota have discovered a spot, a hole in a store room in his apartment building. They call it “The Funhole.” Like a vantablack puddle, the hole doesn't go to the floor below, but somewhere else. Nakota experiments by lowering things into it. Bugs. A mouse. None of them come back alive, or unchanged. This drives Nakota to up the stakes by lowering a corpse's hand into it. The results from that grisly attempt inspire her to put a video camera into The Funhole. The resulting footage is different for Nicholas, and what Nakota and everyone else see changes relative to the viewer. Nicholas eventually ends up putting one of his hands into The Funhole, and everything pretty much goes to Hell from there.

Nicholas and Nakota aren't particularly likable people. But I knew them. The poet working at the video store. The bar waitress- artist. The smell of stale beer and cigarettes. Re-reading this reminded me just how awesomely fucked up the nineties were. This time, I wasn't seeing the horror of what Nicholas becomes because of The Funhole, who Nakota becomes because of it. This was Nostalgia. Not just for the first time I'd encountered The Funhole, but for who I was when I did. Stale beer. Clove cigarettes. My old leather jacket. The poets and painters and actors and madmen who occupied my world.
I don't miss any of that.  Not really. 
Except maybe at 3am, when the cats have woke me up for a snack and I think there was a time when I'd be getting home at that hour.

Original publication date: February 1991.
Awards: 1992 Bram Stoker Award for Best First Horror Novel. Locus Award Best First Novel.

Availability: Paperback was reprinted with a different cover, but both editions are currently out of print and commanding pretty good prices on the secondary market. Roadswell Editions released an affordable ($3.99) e-book, available in several platforms. I actually have the Android edition that I read on my phone when I'm in the mood and away from my bookshelf. When they released the ebook, they made a trailer style commercial for it:

This is probably the closest we'll ever get to The Cipher: The Movie.