Weird Fiction discussion

Nominations for a Classic Weird story (pre-1990) will be open through February 15. As always you can change your mind up until the end of that day simply by editing your previous nomination.

I wish to nominate The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson. It has been nominated here before, but didn't win the poll.

My reason for nominating it is given by VanderMeer in their introduction to The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories, page xvii: "William Hope Hodgson's novel The House on the Borderland in 1908 had a profound influence on weird science fiction and the classic weird tale but was too long to include in this volume."

I'm probably going to be nominating more mainline weird works this year than I did last year. But, of course, this group is a democracy. Others may nominate fringe Weird works. Poll winners always dictate the group read.

If you would like to get your nomination in for next month's Classic Weird group read, you still have three days to submit one. Don't be like Stop and Frisk and put your entry in too late.

I'll submit The Three Impostors by Arthur Machen. Never read it, but I want some alternative to "House on the Borderland" which I have read.

Machen always makes for an excellent choice, Ed. Unfortunately the nomination came in late. May I recommend you post it now to the May 2020 Classic nominations? I just opened the topic.

On the bright side, we do have another book we're doing in March: The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington. Maybe you'd like to get in on the discussion of these stories?

It's also not too late to get in on this month's read. Scott gave it two stars; I gave it four. It's a character-driven story that will satisfy readers who appreciate that aspect more. The plot might let you down like it did Scott. It depends on how much you demand from it, I think. It's still one of the more interesting books I've read in a while.

Dan wrote: "Machen always makes for an excellent choice, Ed. Unfortunately the nomination came in late. May I recommend you post it now to the May 2020 Classic nominations? ..."

Well, poop.

Machen would have been a March read. I can't imagine reading him in May.

The current group book does look good, but I'm doing other things.

I like character-driven stories, but there has to be a story.