I recently read the Serenity Falls trilogy and decided to check out author James A. Moore's website afterwards (http://www.jimshorror.com/). It was a truly nice surprise to see James talk about his favorite authors, including FPW.
(If this has been posted before, I apologize in advance.)
-Luthie
F. Paul Wilson
You're likely to find a trend running through a lot of my featured author lists. Aside from the fact that each of the writers listed is, in my opinion an excellent writer, many of them are also really, really nice people. I know this, because in many cases I've had the distinct honor of meeting the writers in person. That's a bonus in my book, a pleasant side effect of being in the industry.
F. Paul Wilson is no exception to the list when it comes to being a genuinely likable person. He's "good people" as my mother is fond of saying. And, of course, he's disgustingly talented. As I have said before and will say again, I am jaded. I've been reading horror for years, and I have been STUDYING horror for almost my entire life. Be it movies, television shows, comic books, novels, short stories or just plain a gathering of people recalling fond ghost stories and legends they've heard in the past, I have been on a constant diet of horror for as long as I can remember.
My mother raised me to be a gentleman, while my brothers (Thank you Kurt and Steve) fostered within me a passionate love of the macabre. The end result is that I can admire even the worst attempts at horror, but very few of them ever give me a genuine chill.
What, exactly is my point here? My point is simply this: F. Paul Wilson managed to scare the crap out of me on a couple of occasions. He actually had me physically shuddering, and pausing in the middle of an intensely satisfying read to give serious contemplation to the full ramifications of the scene I'd just finished reading. I read it again and the same thing happened again. It wasn't a fluke, it was a moment of true fear and honest to God terror. It almost never happens to me, not when I'm reading and not when I'm watching a movie. But Paul did it, he scared the hell out of me.
That, ladies and gentleman, is a rare accomplishment. I forgot that I was reading a collection of words on paper, and was swallowed whole by the images and intensity generated by those words. What an absolute delight!
Which book? Well, I did say twice, didn't I? Both of the books are in The Adversary Cycle: Six books long, and I find myself wanting to read them again, despite the lengthening list of books I still have to read. The books, just for the record are as follows: The Keep, The Tomb, The Touch, Reborn, Reprisal and Nightworld. Find them, read them, and savor them. They are a treat of absolutely epic proportions. Hollywood couldn't touch 'em on a bet, and the one time they tried with The Keep, they made an excellent movie that was still an extremely pale reflection of the depth and power of the original material.
F. Paul Wilson has the almost unnatural ability to make a reader sink into the story and forget that there's a world waiting beyond the pages of a book. And The Adversary Cycle is just one (or six, depending on your opinion) example of his talent. Every character he writes is ALIVE, and that is a rare and precious gift. His medical thrillers like Implant and The Touch (Though Paul might disagree with me on that last one), his science fiction novels, like Dydeetown World and Masques (With Matthew Costello another future featured author) and his short stories are all just as richly embroidered as his supernatural horror novels. Simply put: He's one of the best writers around right now.
Oh, and before I forget, he's also the creator of my all time favorite hero in any book, Repairman Jack. Repairman Jack is everything a hero should be. He's fast, he's intelligent, he's seriously capable of causing massive injuries to his foes and he's human. I'm in the process of finishing Legacies, where we FINALLY get to run across Jack again. (He's also shown up in The Adversary Cycle, along with a cast of equally human and wonderful characters.) And I have once again found myself in a world that is just slightly richer than the real one, just a touch more real than most writers ever manage to create.
A reviewer who recently reviewed my forthcoming novel Under The Overtree gave me what is, to date, one of the finest compliments I have ever received. He told me he's love to see Jonathan Crowley (One of the main characters in the novel) teamed up with Repairman Jack. I had a grin for hours afterwards. That anyone in one of my novels could even be mentioned in the same breath as my all time favorite hero in a novel is enough to give me hope that I'll get the hang of his writing thing one of these days. If you haven't read F. Paul Wilson, you should. If you HAVE read his works, then nothing I've told you here is likely to come as a surprise.
Did I mention, by the way, that Paul is a really nice guy? He is. I wouldn't lie about a thing like that.
(If this has been posted before, I apologize in advance.)
-Luthie
F. Paul Wilson
You're likely to find a trend running through a lot of my featured author lists. Aside from the fact that each of the writers listed is, in my opinion an excellent writer, many of them are also really, really nice people. I know this, because in many cases I've had the distinct honor of meeting the writers in person. That's a bonus in my book, a pleasant side effect of being in the industry.
F. Paul Wilson is no exception to the list when it comes to being a genuinely likable person. He's "good people" as my mother is fond of saying. And, of course, he's disgustingly talented. As I have said before and will say again, I am jaded. I've been reading horror for years, and I have been STUDYING horror for almost my entire life. Be it movies, television shows, comic books, novels, short stories or just plain a gathering of people recalling fond ghost stories and legends they've heard in the past, I have been on a constant diet of horror for as long as I can remember.
My mother raised me to be a gentleman, while my brothers (Thank you Kurt and Steve) fostered within me a passionate love of the macabre. The end result is that I can admire even the worst attempts at horror, but very few of them ever give me a genuine chill.
What, exactly is my point here? My point is simply this: F. Paul Wilson managed to scare the crap out of me on a couple of occasions. He actually had me physically shuddering, and pausing in the middle of an intensely satisfying read to give serious contemplation to the full ramifications of the scene I'd just finished reading. I read it again and the same thing happened again. It wasn't a fluke, it was a moment of true fear and honest to God terror. It almost never happens to me, not when I'm reading and not when I'm watching a movie. But Paul did it, he scared the hell out of me.
That, ladies and gentleman, is a rare accomplishment. I forgot that I was reading a collection of words on paper, and was swallowed whole by the images and intensity generated by those words. What an absolute delight!
Which book? Well, I did say twice, didn't I? Both of the books are in The Adversary Cycle: Six books long, and I find myself wanting to read them again, despite the lengthening list of books I still have to read. The books, just for the record are as follows: The Keep, The Tomb, The Touch, Reborn, Reprisal and Nightworld. Find them, read them, and savor them. They are a treat of absolutely epic proportions. Hollywood couldn't touch 'em on a bet, and the one time they tried with The Keep, they made an excellent movie that was still an extremely pale reflection of the depth and power of the original material.
F. Paul Wilson has the almost unnatural ability to make a reader sink into the story and forget that there's a world waiting beyond the pages of a book. And The Adversary Cycle is just one (or six, depending on your opinion) example of his talent. Every character he writes is ALIVE, and that is a rare and precious gift. His medical thrillers like Implant and The Touch (Though Paul might disagree with me on that last one), his science fiction novels, like Dydeetown World and Masques (With Matthew Costello another future featured author) and his short stories are all just as richly embroidered as his supernatural horror novels. Simply put: He's one of the best writers around right now.
Oh, and before I forget, he's also the creator of my all time favorite hero in any book, Repairman Jack. Repairman Jack is everything a hero should be. He's fast, he's intelligent, he's seriously capable of causing massive injuries to his foes and he's human. I'm in the process of finishing Legacies, where we FINALLY get to run across Jack again. (He's also shown up in The Adversary Cycle, along with a cast of equally human and wonderful characters.) And I have once again found myself in a world that is just slightly richer than the real one, just a touch more real than most writers ever manage to create.
A reviewer who recently reviewed my forthcoming novel Under The Overtree gave me what is, to date, one of the finest compliments I have ever received. He told me he's love to see Jonathan Crowley (One of the main characters in the novel) teamed up with Repairman Jack. I had a grin for hours afterwards. That anyone in one of my novels could even be mentioned in the same breath as my all time favorite hero in a novel is enough to give me hope that I'll get the hang of his writing thing one of these days. If you haven't read F. Paul Wilson, you should. If you HAVE read his works, then nothing I've told you here is likely to come as a surprise.
Did I mention, by the way, that Paul is a really nice guy? He is. I wouldn't lie about a thing like that.
Oh, that's awesome. Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I bet FPW is grinnig right now. I am.
Stephanie
Stephanie
Abe's raised eyebrows caused furrows in his extended forehead. "Five in twelve hours?"
"Oh, and like you've never had a cranky day?"
I wonder what the two scenes were. I bet one of them was the Danny Gordon scene in Reprisal. That scene still wigs me out. (No further comments on that for those of you who haven't read it yet....)
Blake
Blake
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Man, I'd totally forgotten about that! Even just thinking about it, and I start shivering. Talk about creepy!
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
cobalt79 Wrote:Okay that brought a shiver of memory.....it must have been that Danny Gordon scene. But I wonder what was the other?
My guess would be Carol's nightmares in Reborn, particularly the one with Vlad the impaler or I was creeped out by the dead Nazis searching for the sword hilt in The Keep.
But if we include short stories, "Foet" was incredibly disturbing and I think "Pelts" is FPW's bloodiest piece of writing.
Scott
Jesus died for your sins, get your money's worth. Chad Daniels
cobalt79 Wrote:Or Carol's husband down in the sewer, being "lunch" for breeding bugs! UGGGH!
SPOILER ahead.
I wonder if FPW had a rival named Hank in his early days. Not only does Hank serve as dinner in Nightworld, but Hank Sorenson in "Part of the Game" also meets a grisly demise.
Scott
Jesus died for your sins, get your money's worth. Chad Daniels
Scott Miller Wrote:My guess would be Carol's nightmares in Reborn, particularly the one with Vlad the impaler or I was creeped out by the dead Nazis searching for the sword hilt in The Keep.
My guess would be Reborn, but I think it would be one of the end scenes: either the "abortion" scene or the church scene. The phrase "sucking noise" is indelibly etched into my brain in reference to the former. Wild, creepy stuff.
Blake
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