Tuesday, 24 June 2014

Spooks on Kindle

As I mentioned the other day, Adam Golaski's collection Worse Than Myself is available on Kindle at a nice price. This inspired me to look for other books that might be good value for the Kindle generation. So here are a few thoughts.

1. Algernon Blackwood. The Willows, if you've still to read this classic, is available to download for a few pence. At a quite reasonable £5.50 is the E.F. Bleiler edited Best Ghost Stories, containing AB's greatest hits. There's also a very cheap edition of the John Silence stories. The latter are variable but fun - 'Secret Worship' is a particular favourite of mine.

2. Arthur Machen. A similar situation to Blackwood, with The Great God Pan and several other tales available for pennies. Check out this page. But it always makes sense to check out the reviews, as these sometimes reveal problems with editing etc.

3. Robert W. Chambers. Fans of True Detective might like to read the book that partly inspired the cult series. Chambers was a very variable writer, but The King in Yellow is a collection worth having at this price.

4. M.R. James. There are several freebies, but it might be worth paying a couple of quid for something better.

5. ST Authors Aplenty.

Gemma Farrow's novella Beneath the Willow is a good read at a nice price.

There's a lot on offer, including individual short stories, from Steve Rasnic Tem.

David G. Rowlands, whose story 'Lord of the Flies' appeared in the very first ST, has two collections on Kindle. They are both excellent - I can't recommend them highly enough for lovers of traditional ghost stories. The link will also take you to Hauntings, by Vernon Lee, a classic that David edited for Ash-Tree Press.

The late Joel Lane's highly-praised collection The Earth Wire is available for Kindle.

Chico Kidd's Da Silva tales are available on Kindle, but I would also recommend her outstanding novel The Printer's Devil. Fans of Hodgson's Carnacki might also like to check out No, 472 Cheyne Walk.

 And those are just a few titles. Lots of good stuff out there.



2 comments:

Aonghus Fallon said...

Re 'The King in Yellow': 36p does seem very reasonable! You can also get it for free on Amazon kindle, but without Lovecraft's introduction. The choice is yours!

valdemar said...

Indeed it is. I've bought a few freebies, but they sometimes have major problems with formatting i.e. footnotes in the middle of the page.

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