The Infidel’s Daughter
by E. Hoffman Price
R. Anthony – Arthur J. Burks – Edmund Hamilton
Bassett Morgan – Maurice Rothman – Everil Worrel
dark culture, movies, books, toys, papercraft.
Monthly Archive for January, 2011
Factotum by D.M. Cornish is the third (and final?) book in a series which was called “The Monster Blood Tattoo” series, but which is now being called “The Foundling’s Tale.” I personally like the title change. The first two books in the series are Foundling and Lamplighter (review here).
Ah, books in series. I have to admit that they are much more my speed. Although I like a good short story if it’s really really good, give me a novel and I’ll be more satisfied. A good series, though, is a happy investment. The only problem is that sometimes a series can suffer from quality issues. For example, sometimes the author changes styles and themes wildly like Anne Rice did with her famous Vampire Chronicle novels. Sometimes things get really really weird, like in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series. Other times the more you read, the less patience you have with the author, which is what happened to me while reading through all of James Ellroy’s “LA Quartet” (although I still really highly recommend Black Dahlia). It seems like, inevitably, simply because of the time and effort involved in writing something so massive, there are going to be some inconsistencies, and the reader is going to prefer one book over another.
Wow, it almost sounds like I’m winding up to deliver some bad news. Actually, the books are very consistent well-written. To me, they don’t have any of the problems associated with novels in series that I mentioned above. There is a little bad news: The first quarter of Factotum is a kind of dry and stiff. I ended up getting kind of annoyed with the hero of the series, Rosamund himself. The kid is earnest and he means well. He just keeps getting into trouble. I guess that there has to be conflict, otherwise there wouldn’t be any plot and most books would feature people who just sort of float along through the landscape. But at the same time, the main conflict of this book seemed manufactured to me, and I think that it got in the way of what should have been the real adventure. That being Rosamund working for Europe and the fallout from the events of the second novel. Maybe with some Threnody thrown in for good measure.
What happens? Rosamund and Europe travel to Europe’s home after the events of the second book. They’re kind of dazed and looking to get back to “normal”, whatever that would be in this situation. As mentioned above, Rosamund manages to stir up some new trouble, and a little old trouble comes looking for them. Then they leave town on a monster-hunting trip with the hope that things back home will cool down. Rosamund and Europe go to slay monsters for pay, but find themselves on an adventure of discovery.
On to the good news. The book is at least as imaginative as the other two in the series, and once the adventure starts the book is extremely entertaining. I had a hard time putting it down. Fans of the first two books will be happy to find that some of the loose ends of the series get a little better tied up. I also think Cornish did a great job of adding depth and explanation to what was happening in the background of the series without spelling it out for the readers. We get a lot more of Europe, which is good news. However, there is no Threnody, which I guess shouldn’t be a big surprise, but I was still disappointed.
Creepy Factor: 3 out of 5
Suspense Factor: 4 out of 5
Weird Erotic Tension Factor: 0 out of 5 (it’s about a boy, so…)
Funny and/or Strange Factor: 3 out of 5
Final result: I didn’t think this was as amazingly great as the first two books, but I still loved it. Great adventure, deep characterizations, cool illustrations, hard lessons, strange monsters, and enormous suspense all in one place.
Foundling by D.M. Cornish – Speak – 2007
Lamplighter by D.M. Cornish – Putnam – 2008
Factotum by D.M. Cornish – Putnam – 2010
Get Foundling on Amazon
Get Lamplighter on Amazon
Get Factotum on Amazon
THE SWAMP THING
A Novelet of Weird Heritage
By JOE ARCHIBALD
CITY OF
DREADFUL NIGHT
A Complete Novelet of
Hollywood Terror
By JOHN CLEMONS
Recorded in 1995 and finally released in 2001, the album Welt is another gem I recently discovered via Pandora. Regular readers will remember that I’ve been really depressed about the sad state of my music collection. I’ve listened to about everything a million times. Welt isn’t exactly new. In fact, it sounds a lot like it was recorded in the mid-nineties. For example, it sounds a lot like Prodigy’s The Fat of the Land or Pigface’s remix album Below the Belt. So yes, it sounds a lot like hard Electronica from the mid-nineties. Seeing as how the band was co-formed by Skinny Puppy’s Nevik Ogre, it also has the other foot very firmly in goth-industrial music.
I’m actually kind of amazed that I hadn’t heard of this album or band before. It’s not like I wasn’t listening to music at that time. I’m actually trying to remember what I was up to in 2001. Let’s see… Zero 7, Radiohead (Amnesiac)… Marilyn Manson’s Holy Wood came out in 2001, and so did The Knife’s debut album. Mmmmmm. The Knife. Finally, Jill Tracy’s awesome and amazing score for F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu, Into the Land of Phantoms, came out in 2001. If you haven’t checked that album out, I suggest you go give it a listen right now. NOW!
So you see, it wasn’t like I slept through 2001. At the same time, Welt definitely does sound like something kind of old, so maybe I missed it because my attention was focused elsewhere. Music fans whose tastes run on the dark side will find the album almost too comfortable. In particular the first track, wAteR, could have been played in any goth/industrial nightclub from any time in the last 30 years. It is dark and rather danceable. The second and last tracks of Welt are also strong. The beats are compelling. The electronics get into that delicious Pigface realm of borderline unlistenable. The lyrics are mostly delivered in Gary Numan deadpan sing-song. And yes, they have that Skinny Puppy paint-a-picture thing going on with the lyrics.
Sadly, the album isn’t particularly solid. Out of the eleven tracks, I think that three are really awesome. Four are aiming at something specific but not really hitting the mark, and to me the remaining four feel a lot like filler. I still think that Welt is a good effort and I’m not sad to have it in my collection. I’m also grateful to have something new to listen to, even if it’s old-new. I’m planning to check out Ohgr’s other two releases, Sunnypsyop
(2003) and Devils In My Details
I feel bad. I feel bad. You know, I try not to post anything after 1939, and 1942 is really far out of the charter, but look! It’s got a trap door with a slide, a redhead who also happens to be in a nurse uniform, AND… AND… a mad surgeon. As if the redhead isn’t enough. OK on to the regularly-scheduled typed-out cover blurbs. Why do I do this?
FOUR COMPLETE
CRIME NOVELETTES
MR. BINGLER’S
PET CORPSE
by WILBUR S. PEACOCK
DIPLOMAS
FOR KILLERS
by EDWARD S. WILLIAMS
FEAR HOUSE
BY NORBERT DAVIS
JOHN WADE -
DR. OF MURDER
by WILLIAM R. COX
Fhtagn Spoken Here.
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