- Paperback: 512 pages
- Publisher: TBS The Book Service Ltd; Reprint edition (May 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0812555392
- ISBN-13: 978-0812555394
- Product Dimensions: 16.8 x 10.4 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,609,011 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
This "carnival of wonders and horrors . . . a feast for anyone who loves fantasy and language" (Ramsey Campbell) tells the macabre story of a writer literally struggling with the creatures of his own imagination. "Literate, funny, and filled with great imagery".--Rex Miller, author of The Jack Eichord series.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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First Sentence
The heat had a sound like a note plucked from a taut wire. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
The heat had a sound like a note plucked from a taut wire. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This was the first book of James Lovegrove, I have read and so far the best. The premises is startingly simple a train comes into a utopian town called Escardy Gap and sets about destroying it.
The style of writing in the book is what I adored. It has a sort of pulp horror feel i.e 'The demons of the deep come out to play' yet is written in such an intelligent and lyrical way which adds a deep layer to it. The two authors even cite this in the book with a character who writes short science fiction.
Overall they create a sense of menace which carries you through the entire book. Rackstraw the main vilain of the piece is scary officous and sadistic. Every 'passenger' in the piece is unique which keeps you turning the page and an unexpected outcome at the end which is both happy and sad.
If you are looking for a horror book which is 'different' then Escardy Gap fits the bill.
The style of writing in the book is what I adored. It has a sort of pulp horror feel i.e 'The demons of the deep come out to play' yet is written in such an intelligent and lyrical way which adds a deep layer to it. The two authors even cite this in the book with a character who writes short science fiction.
Overall they create a sense of menace which carries you through the entire book. Rackstraw the main vilain of the piece is scary officous and sadistic. Every 'passenger' in the piece is unique which keeps you turning the page and an unexpected outcome at the end which is both happy and sad.
If you are looking for a horror book which is 'different' then Escardy Gap fits the bill.
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I really wanted to like this book. I really did. Written with more than a nod to Ray Bradbury's "Something Wicked This Way Comes" -- indeed, an out and out pastiche of it right down the style of the prose -- it could have been something wonderful. Instead it's just tacky, repetitive and makes you regret the time spent reading it.
It fails, largely but not purely, because there is no rhyme or reason to the actions of the antagonists. They turn up at a tiny, idealised town out in the American hinterlands and, scarcely pausing to draw breath, start killing everyone. I'm quite aware that evil doesn't need to be rational but that's why real evil is banal. This is a story and was meant, I would guess, to entertain. It does not.
Imagine a book about some young boys killing beetles in a variety of moderately imaginative ways and you have "Escardy Gap" in a nutshell. Add a few thousand words of characterisation beforehand so you actually quite like some of the beetles and you have this book precisely.
No, it isn't quite that straightforward -- there is a story within a story here and a small point is made about the nature of fiction. Unfortunately, it really is a small point and not worth wading through most of the book to get to.
If you want admittedly well written descriptions of people being dismantled, carbonised and otherwise done to death, fine. If you want a book with a similar theme that offers a great deal more and does it with wit, read the Bradbury or perhaps James P. Blaylock's "The Land of Dreams".
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Okay, I'll admit it. I bought this book because of the cool train on the cover. So sue me. Luckily I ended up with a very unique horror novel. It starts out very much like most of Ray Bradbury's nostalgic work. Then it takes a screaming U-turn to places far darker than Bradbury would ever go. I highly recomend this book, but be warned. There's a juxtaposition of the lyrical and the brutal here that won't be for everyone.
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