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J. Malcolm Stewart

Teoksen The Last Words of Robert Johnson and Other Tales tekijä

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An interesting collection of stories, three of them told from a distinctly southern point of view. The one I liked best was The Red Lord, an account of a little girl's escape from slavery at the end of the Civil War. The tale involves her mother's using rituals from the old days to ask for help from the Red Lord, and the unexpected ways in which that aid is given to her. The story is fraught with moral questions, and asks us to think about what the right thing is, in these circumstances. The voice used here is totally authentic. I was also much impressed by the title story, The Last Words of Robert Johnson, concerning the famous bluesman's efforts to sidestep the deal he made with...well, some sort of devil. It has a truly creepy and horrific ending that lingered in my mind for days. Beyond the Realms of Death is a fable of sorts, and has a trickster aspect to it that I enjoyed. The Seventh Wave did not work as well for me, being set on an alien planet of some kind (never made clear) but with too little meat on the bones. It centers on alien overlords and matters of faith, but it never gets into the heart of the conflict, since we never get any sense of what the aliens believe. Even their gods are nameless. I think this story would work better at greater length, and greater depth. I would also suggest a proofreader give the book a good going over. A great many words were apparently left out here and there and typos need fixing.… (lisätietoja)
 
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pat_macewen | Jul 26, 2018 |
If you like horror movies then this is a great book about some of the classic movies of all time. The list brought back memories of movies I forgot about. I really enjoyed the list of top 50 female screamers.

One bad thing is this was a completed version of the book and there were so many errors it was hard to read. I'm wondering if anyone actually proofed it. If they did, it needs to be looked at again. I almost got my red pen out. I would give it a higher ranking if there weren't so many errors.

Thank you to the author for my signed copy. I won this through Goodreads.
… (lisätietoja)
 
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MHanover10 | Jul 10, 2016 |
Everyone who loves horror probably saw a horror movie at a young age that left an impression and started them on a life long love affair with the genre. Look Back In Horror: A Personal History of Horror Film by J Malcolm Stewart is one writer’s love letter to his favorite genre. Some of the things this book touches on is the films that managed to scare J. Malcolm as he was growing up, top 50 scream queens and the movies of Mario Bava.

Look Back in Horror starts with J. Malcom explaining why he loves horror. He mentions how he has spent many nights watching movies that we were told were bad for us and then goes on to say that he finds horror fans to be the most even-tempered, honest and nicest people to be around. He goes on to say that horror fans prefer to acknowledge and confront the darkness that is in us and then points out that you have to go through the darkness to get to the light. After reading his intro I realized that J. Malcom felt the same way about horror that I did and I was really looking forward to reading the rest of the book.

There is a lot I learned from this book, its like an encyclopedia of knowledge on scream queens. It also gave a good retrospect on the career of Mario Bava. I didn’t know a lot about the work of Bava with the exception of Black Sunday and Black Sabbath which every horror fan should see. I have to say here Black Sunday is a movie that I would love to see remade, many directors have copied it, but I wonder if the mood of the original can be recaptured in an updated movie. This book also brings up movies I never knew about called The Whip And The Body and Planet Of The Vampires. Mario Bava is a director that gets his due in Look Back In Horror.

I love the fact that J. Malcom brings up the movie Equinox. Equinox is a lost gem from 1970, that most horror fans probably haven’t seen. J. Malcom mentions seeing this movie on Creature Feature many years ago and it stuck with him. As he described the movie I realized that I saw it once on late night tv years ago and I agree it is a classic. The movie deals with a bunch of hippies in the sixties running away from a devil like creature in the woods. This movie is a great example of why horror is a great genre. Its creepy and campy at the same time. I was happy to see it mentioned here as J. Malcom’s gateway to the world of horror.

There are a lot of movies mentioned in this book that some horror fans might not be aware of which shows how big of a horror fan that J. Malcom is. I loved the fact that Vampira gets mentioned in the top 50 scream queens since she doesn’t get the attention she deserves. Also liked that Felissa Rose from Sleepaway Camp gets a mention even though I think the movie is one of the worst horror films ever, I liked parts 2 and 3 though. Look Back In Horror is a celebration on what makes horror a fun genre.
… (lisätietoja)
 
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dwatson2 | Jan 15, 2015 |
The Eyes Of the Stars by Malcolm J Stewart combines mystery and horror while taking a look at a secret society and ancient religion. The story follows Chicago homicide detective Paul Gminski who is haunted by dark dreams of his mother’s death. Unable to rest, Paul and his partner Ivey are called to The Field Museum to investigate the brutal murder of one of the museum’s employees. The employee is a member of The Council of Six whose members are being viciously slaughtered by something that is not human. The only clue they have is the word Amuz written in blood on a wall at two of the crime scenes.

Each council member possesses a piece of an ancient collection of relics called The Eyes of the Stars. Paul finds himself in a desperate race against time as he battles to unravel the mystery of the Eyes of the Stars. But doing so will pit him and Chicago against an ancient, forbidden evil awaiting rebirth under the city’s streets.

I thought The Eyes Of The Stars got off to a slow start and I was confused at first because the religious aspects of the book and the secret society were not explained until later on, so you have to get past the beginning to get into it. Also there were some typos in the version I read which did take away from the story a little.

On the bright side I like how the mystery unfolds. Little by little you find out about the Council of six’s motivations and you learn about the zealots and Nephilim and what they have to do with the murder spree. My favorite part in the book was when a character named Sulya describes what the bible is really all about. Also the villains in the story are great. I don’t want to give anything away but I loved how The forbidden One is revealed.

I also like how its shown what side of the fence another one of the characters is on. When the other villain finds out that bringing The Forbidden One back to Earth is not in their best interest, its great watching them get there just desserts. I guess the point here is, it doesn’t pay to be evil. The scene where The Forbidden One rises and you see what makes up this creature is an extremely creepy scene.

My favorite character was Paul. I like how his past was presented and seeing how an event from his childhood managed to destroy his relationship with his wife and daughter and effect every aspect of his life. There is one scene where two of the heroes in the story are having a romantic moment and he wonders if he has ever had a love like the one they share and then he remembers he has had that with his ex-wife.

Paul doesn’t want to be the person he is but he can’t get over his past and it effects everything. I think the theme Malcolm J Stewart is trying to get across here is how one person making a bad decision and not being able to get over it effects everyone. There is also a good point made about how religion is created and the true difference of good and evil.

The Eyes Of The Stars works on several different levels. It is a character driven piece, a horror story, a mystery and a story about philosophy. I think its a book that everyone can get something out of.
… (lisätietoja)
 
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dwatson2 | Jul 21, 2012 |

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Teokset
4
Jäseniä
12
Suosituimmuussija
#813,248
Arvio (tähdet)
4.0
Kirja-arvosteluja
4
ISBN:t
3