The Elf Of The Perverse

On This Day In History
2004: Tsunami devestates Indian Ocean coast

Quote Of The Day
""Everybody has an idea of the tsunami of being a big wave. It's not a big wave. It's a huge amount of water that comes to land."!
(Juan Andrew Bayona)

Although I am certainly far from over my sickness, I am happy to say I am feeling a lot better than yesterday. More energy, less coughing and nose blowing, the disgusting taste in my mouth almost gone, constipation ended. Still, I'm not silly enough to risk going outside so it's been another quiet day at home enjoying my new book and enjoying the opportunity to be far more sociable with K, V and A than in the past couple of days.

Absolutely loving this book. I can see Kim Newman quickly becoming a favourite author for me. This collection of short stories reminds me somewhat of Alan Moore's The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and I was not suprised to learn that Newman is a good friend of Neil Gaiman and that they have collaborated on a book called Ghastly Beyond Belief which I shall certainly try to find and read.

So far, I have read Famous Monsters, about a B-movie Martian film star, A Drug On The Market, in which a group of entrepreneurs gain access to Dr. Jekyll's infamous formula and successfully (if briefly) market it, Illimitable Dominion, in which Roger Corman tries to expand his cinematic oeovre but, despite his noblest efforts, finds himself continually remaking The Fall Of The House Of Usher, Just Like Eddy, written in the voice of Edgar Allen Poe explaining how the worst of his deeds were committed by his doppelganger, Edgar Allen Poe, while he, the genius Edgar Poe, was a saint, and Amerikanski Dead At The Moscow Morgue, a zombie apocalypse tale with American tourist zombies, Amerikans, overwhelming Russia. Brilliant stuff!

So far, I think A Drug On The Market is my favourite; it is hilarious, and captures the style of H.G. Wells perfectly. Illimitable Dominion was also fun because of all the Roger Corman film references; I love schlock '50's S.F./Horror movies; Ed Wood rocks! My only minor quibble was the too frequent quips about the wonderful Vincent Prince; it began to sound suspiciously homophobic, although I'm sure that was unintended.

Monster Mash

Update: after a brief search on Amazon, I think I will be quite unlikely to find or read Ghastly Beyond Belief. No wonder Gaiman gives a heavy sigh when he is occasionally asked to sign copies of this book.