Ever wanted to talk with someone about a book you just read? You could just join a book group and talk about it, drink a little, veer off on tangents, work back around to the book again, and finally wrap it up by picking the next book.
But what happens when the book you just read is about about hungry zombies or a haunted house, and your Eat, Pray, Love–reading friends aren’t really into reading it, much less discussing its finer points? That’s what we’re here for. We Two Mikes will be your virtual book group for discussing new and interesting and old and half-forgotten horror books.
If you want to follow along with us, look at the next forbidden book on the table and start reading.
Episode 48, Brian Keene's The Conqueror Worms
click here to listen We didn't like it. Can't recommended it. You can compost it for worm food. Here have a cocktail.The Wormy Apple1/2 shot mezcal (with or without the worm)shot apple schnappsshot apple brandy (or calvados)Shake with ice, strain into glass. Enjoy.
Closing music: "Worms" by the Pogues
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4 comments:
I remember being a kid and tuning in to Conqueror Worm playing on TV, and being crushed to find it was just a cobwebby costume drama. Not a monster in sight.
Since then, I've read it (under the original title, "Witchfinder General") is actually a vivid horror flick, directed by died-young wunderkind Michael Reeves. One day I'll have to Netflix it.
Have you seen Briankeene.com? Lively site. I wish I had such energy and ambition.
I had to restrain myself from notifying him of your audio review, perhaps precipitating an online feud.
But you guys had so little fun dismembering this worm novel that it would just be mean to the poor sap.
In court! Please enlighten us when you can! One of our heroes in peril!
Does Silverberg's The Book of Skulls qualify as horror/dark fantasy?
Hey there, Emphyrio,
Thanks for not pointing Mr. Keene to our ill-tempered evisceration of his book. Like I said, I actually have met the guy and found him to be, as you say, lively and fun. His flavor of horror, I guess, is just not for us. I've been thinking more about our reaction, and I think that the book read more like a padded script for a good horror comic. If I'd read it in comic form, perhaps my expectations would have been lowered (which isn't fair to graphic novels, I know, but it's the truth about me) and my enjoyment would have been greater.
In court: Mike M has been wrangling allegedly unscrupulous developers over alleged unscrupulous development of a property he part-owns. YEARS this has been going on, with little progress. It's a sordid, meticulous, and thoroughly exhausting tale you may thank him for not getting into. (Thank you, Mike).
RE: Silverberg's Book of Skulls. I read it in the early 80s and it quite blew my 15-year-old mind. Like I said in the 'cast, I've been rereading some of his stuff from the late sixties/early seventies, and have been quite pleased to find it is even better than I thought it was back then. Just finished Son of Man, which I didn't get at all when I was younger, but now can recognized as a thoughtful engagement with and extension of ideas first put forth by David Lindsay in Voyage to Arcturus and Olaf Stapledon in his Last and First Men and Starmaker. I think that BOS is what was once known as an "occult" novel, which seem to me to not really be horror or SF. Still, I'm gonna make a serious pitch to Herr Moncada that we read it after the Straub, so we can discuss its border status at length.
Thanks, Emphyrio, for your dedicated listening and participation in this vanishingly small community of ours. You are our ideal listener.
Best,
Mike S.
Flattering!
Your podcast is so enjoyable I bet you could drive a lot of traffic here if you cared to -- posting links on horror and lit sites, chat boards. But it's clear you guys do it because it's fun, rather than to feed your egos.
Augh. Land issues. I divided an inherited parcel with my niece, no acrimony, no disagreements. Split it down the middle.
When surveyors, filing fees and (especially) lawyers were paid, it came to seventeen thousand bucks! Criminey.
Good news: I got Lost Boy, Lost Girl at the library today -- I may actually read one of your books before listening to the podcast!
Looks like Peter read The Devil and the White City and got some inspiration.
I'm a little worried about the horror novelist protagonist. He seems affable and untortured.
Everybody knows those guys are seriously effed up.
The good ones, anyway.
Sad to hear you guys didn't like "The Conqueror Worms". There's a serialized sequel in progress on Brian's site, if you're interested in seeing how he's continuing the story. I'm reading "The Road" right now, and I'd like to hear what you guys think of it, if you've read it. I'm having a hard time finishing it, because it gets so depressing that I keep putting it down, then picking it back up a week or so later. And I agree with you that "Necroscope" is fun. I'm up to Necroscope Four, and it's still holding my interest. Love the show, and good luck in court.
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