Julia; If You Could See Me
Now; Koko; Mystery; Shadowland (PB); Shadowland (HC); Floating Dragon … Peter Straub
Hellbane … Anthony Esler
John Dies at the End; This
Book is Full of Spiders … David Wong
After the experience of Peter Straub's Ghost Story I was eager to read all of his stuff. I especially enjoyed Shadowland, the tale of a boy who undergoes a fearful apprenticeship to a real-life master magician. I thought The Police's Wrapped Around Your Finger would be the perfect theme song for the book. Around Mystery my interest petered off.
Hellbane was a rather trashy novel I borrowed in a batch from one of my cousins, the tale of a Witchfinder who is seduced in the course of his circuit into rural England. I got a copy just for the memories later, but didn't reread it; heck, I hardly read it in the first place. I was rather surprised later that my cousin had become something of a pagan himself, murmuring "So mote it be" at my grandmother's funeral. Go figure.
The Stand and The Eyes of the Dragon are linked by the character of Randall Flagg. The Stand is a classic, The Eyes of the Dragon ... well, King is a great horror writer, but as an epic fantasist ... not so much.
I had completely forgotten I had the two David Wong novels until just this morning. I don't know why. There are now two other books in the series, What the Hell Did I Just Read and the upcoming If This Book Exists, You're in the Wrong Universe. Why did I forget? I even had the movie at one point.
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