The Nightmare Factory
This collection, bringing together the contents of several of Ligotti's short story collections, is a hefty volume that shows what an incredible body of work Ligotti has built up over the years. He is a master of the short form, writing prose that is uncomfortable and subtle, unfolding events that often appear off the page but whose resonances continue to run all through the collection. The opening tale, The Frolic, throws you straight into the deep end of Ligotti's unique form of terror. At first a seemingly harmless tale with a man talking of his work with a confined psychotic, it finishes with a far more personal and chilling flourish. It progresses with an assorted collection of tales that move in the shadows, sometimes bordering on the surreal, that slowly insinuate themselves into the reader. Sometimes there will be a shocking twist, or a satisfying final dénouement, but always it comes back to that sense of growing unease. The final tale The Red Tower is a surreal masterpiece about a strange manufacturing plant and it closes the collection with a perfect, unnerving chill.
Sub-Forums: THE NIGHTMARE FACTORY Graphic Novel Contest, Studies in Modern Horror - Thomas Ligotti Contest 7 Book King in Yellow Giveaway by teguififthzeal 12:34 AM. Get this from a library! The nightmare factory. Thomas Ligotti - A collection of horror stories, including The Consolation of Horror, an essay in which the writer reflects on what sort of reader enjoys horror stories and why. By the author of Songs of a Dead. A large and generally very impressive gathering of imaginative and stylish horror fiction, adding several new stories to those culled from Ligotti's previous collections Songs of a Dead Dreamer (1990), Grimscribe (1991), and Noctuary (1993). Poe and Lovecraft are the obvious influences in these richly atmospheric (and often funny) tales of introversion blossoming into obsession, and of. The Nightmare Factory is a massive best-of album compiling Ligotti’s stories from his first collection, Songs of a Dead Dreamer up to the first half of Teatro Grottesco. There are no bad or even very mediocre stories in the entire lot, period. I shan’t even bother to review each section specifically, as they are all horrifically brilliant.
Some of the other highlights in the collection are: Drink to Me Only with Labyrinthine Eyes, a story about a hypnotist and his rather special assistant; The Last Feast of Harlequin, a long story about a man's investigation into a strange festival; Teatro Grottesco, a story about a strange afflication striking down artists. These are merely the tip of the iceburg though, a small part of the multitude of great works in this collection.
Don't let the length put you off, it is a book to be savoured in pieces, to be read when the mood takes you; though more often than not, the act of putting it down after reading a tale is followed by the act of picking it up again.
Contents
- The Frolic
- Les Fleurs
- Alice's Last Adventure
- Dream of a Mannikin
- The Chymist
- Drink to Me Only with Labyrinthine Eyes
- Eye of the Lynx
- The Christmas Eve of Aunt Elise
- The Lost Art of Twilight
- The Troubles of Dr. Thoss
- Masquerade of a Dead Sword
- Dr. Voke and Mr. Veech
- Dr. Locrian's Asylum
- The Sect of the Idiot
- The Greater Festival of Masks
- The Music of the Moon
- The Journal of J.P. Drapeau
- Vastarien
- The Last Feast of Harlequin
- The Spectacles in the Drawer
- Flowers of the Abyss
- Nethescurial
- The Dreaming in Nortown
- The Mystics of Muelenburg
- In the Shadow of Another World
- The Cocoons
- The Night School
- The Glamour
- The Library of Byzantium
- Miss Plarr
- The Shadow at the Bottom of the World
- The Medusa
- Conversations in a Dead Language
- The Prodigy of Dreams
- Mrs Rinaldi's Angel
- The Tsalal
- Mad Night of Atonement
- The Strange Design of Master Rignolo
- The Voice in the Bones
- Teatro Grottesco
- Severini
- Gas Station Carnivals
- The Bungalow House
- The Clown Puppet
- The Red Tower
Bibliographic Information
- UK P/B - Raven 1996, 1-85487-436-5
- US P/B - Carroll & Graf Publishers 1996, 0786703024
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