Richard Laymon Kills!
 

Any other fans of the late great Richard Laymon?

I am just re reading Darkness Tell Us after deciding to revisit my favourite genre writer. I grew up with these seriously screwed up books and have probably somewhere in the region of 20 - 25 of his novels.

I think he was far better than Stephen King and I particularly loved his no nonsense approach to storytelling.

I always avoided him as I thought his stuff was just more identikit badly written American horror á la Stephen King or Dean Koontz, but my mother passed me a copy of The Glory Bus and I was delighted to discover that he was in a different league of writing quality, character generation and storytelling -more like Jack Ketchum in intensity and skill.

I still have not read any more of his stuff, but will do after the pleasant surprise of The Glory Bus.

I like Laymon's writing. Decent storytelling, not too wordy and the power to repulse with his depictions of horror, terror.

Don't know why his stories haven't been made into films. Possibly as the violence would have to be minimised.

I've long been a fan of Laymon's work. The best of his that I've read have been The Island, Funland, Beware!, Endless Night and Quake. In fact, I'd have to say that I've enjoyed everything he's written. I've still got a few here to get through yet.

It's also interesting to note that Laymon was big friends with Dean Koontz and Koontz has posthumously finished up a couple of Laymon's unpublished and unfinished works. This explains why a few novels appeared after Laymon's untimely death.

and that is also the reason why there not as good :eek:

I knew he has had some novels released since he died, however i didn't realise Koontz was the author working on them.

When he does straight horror he's a fine writer.

I also find Shaun Hutson a decent read for gory fun.

I don't think I'd put Laymon above King's early work, Cujo, Carrie etc. But on level ground in later works, but alas neither comes close to Ramsey Campbell, a bit trippy at first, but after a couple of his books you're hooked on his Uk based horror tales.

[namedrop] Lovely, lovely bloke too. [/namedrop]

Hutson tells a good, gory story and seems to have picked up where Guy N. Smith left off. I'm a huge fan of GNS, so my taste in books is just as bad as my taste in films. Gotta love those trashy pulp horror novels of the 70's and early 80's. :lol:

How are your crabs?

Set my Slugs on em:lol:

My crabs are fine. :lol:

I only need one more to complete the set.

I'm sure there's plenty of people who are wondering what the hell we're on about. :lol:

Saw Hutson on tv years ago, he seemed funny and down to earth, tho his Brian may 'do raised a smile, not that I can dis someones hair:lol:

The Crabs books used to amuse me when I was a kid, but Guy N Smith's "finest" hour was surely the inept and hilarious The Sucking Pit, a novel once described as "the only book ever to rhyme with its review". :lol:

Bet James Herbert is cowering somewhere waiting for his name to come up.

James Herbert rules.

Yes even his mystical fairy porn novel.

I read The Sucking Pit recently and, yes, it's bad. But I enjoyed it nevertheless, mainly by virtue of its crappiness. It was endearing to read some crap after wading through yet another Anne Rice vampire yawnfest. It was a breath of fresh air. Short, to the point, crammed full of sex and violence. Come on, a pit where you can dispose of all your murder victims, you can't fault it. Gypsies, occult practices, sex, blood, gore. Loved it. :D

And as for the Sabat series, those books have to be read to be believed. A 'hero' who has to keep taking time out for a wank. I mean....wow. What kind of a central concept is that? Genius. :lol:

Richard laymon was a gifted writer, Guy n smith clearly wasn't.

Laymon had apparently been an english teacher, it shows in his books they are very well-written. I have them all in paperback form (aside from a 1st edition of flesh)

I find myself wondering how much of guy n smith was used as the basis for garth merenghi. If you have no idea what i'm talking about here buy garth merenghi's dark place and enjoy, it even has a night of the crabs reference in it.

Garth Marenghi's Darkplace [DVD] [2004]: Amazon.co.uk: Matt Holness, Richard Ayoade, Matt Berry, Martin Hawkins, Stephen Abrahams: Film & TV

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Still waiting for a war of the wasps movie!

I agree that Smith's earlier novels aren't literary masterpieces, but it's unfair to dismiss his entire body of work as rubbish. Books like Doomflight, Satan's Snowdrop and Warhead are quite good. Not everything he wrote was poor, he did write some very good stuff. But, at the end of the day, it's pulp horror. It was never going to win any awards. They're cheap and tacky and very gory. In other words, I find them very enjoyable. Not everything Laymon has written has been good either. I found Blood Games and Dark Mountain very dull and uninspired - nothing actually happens and so end up being boring.

I think it's down to the individual reader as to what they enjoy and what they don't.

Nevertheless, I'll always consider Eat Them Alive! by Pierce Nace an unsung genre classic. :lol:

Laymon was one of the greats.

Recently picked up "In Laymon's Terms" and trying to ration out the chapters so it lasts.

Dont get me wrong, I ENJOY guy n smiths books, I just think garth marenghi was spot on as a parody of him though. From an objective point of view he was not as skilled with words or ideas as Laymon. But still enjoyable as pulp horror.

I got his very rare autobiography 'A Writers Tale' sent to me via email in PDF form recently. Fascinating and typical of Laymons no nonsense approach to writing. He offers great advice and wisdom to any wannabe writers out there as well.

It has made me want to purchase more of his back catalogue but it's nigh on impossible to find his works on the high street these days, unlike the 90's when he seemed to be up there with Stephen King and Dean Koontz.

Go on Amazon, they still sell tons of his books on there. I'm still picking up a few now and then. There's only a handful left to catch up with. Just finiashed Body Rides which was pretty good. Next up to read is Alarums, Travelling Vampire Show, The Lake and The Glory Bus.

Without fail, every charity shop I have ever been to has at least one of his books. I've got loads bought this way.

Now I wonder if any film maker is brave enough to adapt one of his books?

Just read Island.

Really enjoyed it until the action shifted to the mansion and it seemed to lose all the tension and just become run of the mill porn. Well fetish porn anyway.

I don't think I'd want to see a film of one of his books to be honest. Can you imagine how watered down it would have to be? A book like 'Endless Night' if adapted would have to be cut to shreds. Though there has apparently already been a film made from his book 'In the Dark' which was never released but can be found on ebay as a bootleg. Not seen it myself to judge it.

I agree totally with that. It was moving along nicely up until that point. He can get a bit carried away with his sexual content sometimes.

That was my main issue with Body Rides. He seemed to waste a really great concept by focusing almost totally on sexual situations when there was this great idea to hand.

Saying that, when he's on form, he's brilliant. Resurrection Dreams, Beware!, Flesh and Endless Night were all superb. As were The Stake, Come Out Tonight, Funland and Savage. I'd recommend all of those.

might have to seek it out. I certainly doubt we'll be seeing any movies of the cellar or any other beast house books. Done properly they would be immediately banned!

The Beast House series are quite subversive in their themes of sex and death. And the sex is very bestial, which would immediately be problematic for any prospective filmmaker.

I think, maybe, some books should be left as books. There's no need to turn everything into a film and I think most of Laymon's stuff works better as the written word. It would be very hard to translate his work into film as so much of his writing is focused on the internal dialogue of the characters and their thoughts and feelings and responses to the situations they find themselves in.

This is a very interesting subject. As I remember Vaginia Andrews wrote dozens of books. Then I heard she died. Then more books came. Firstly they were unfinished stories like you mentioned. Then another writer wrote books in her style based on some ideas. Then it keeps going. Writing in her style yet using her name. I think the Koontz story is fine but writing a book and using a writers name as a brand is wrong. How do they get away with it. By calling it 'The New Vaginia Andrews.' I heard a rumour a long time ago that same might be true for Tom Clancy's books.