tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post6846478391769006323..comments2024-03-27T22:32:02.739+01:00Comments on Beneath the Stains of Time: The Vampire Tree (1996) by Paul HalterTomCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-57719988463527872142018-02-14T07:44:36.864+01:002018-02-14T07:44:36.864+01:00Excuses, excuses! You'll never get that first ...Excuses, excuses! You'll never get that first review of 2018 out of the way with that attitude. TomCathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-83670818272244298222018-02-14T07:12:49.816+01:002018-02-14T07:12:49.816+01:00Ah, what's the point of reviewing when you hit...Ah, what's the point of reviewing when you hit most of my points, but better? :P I actually did like some of what it touched on in the end, since it was sufficiently creepy/interesting to me, but the rest was meh.<br /><br />---The Dark OneAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-27340443415172657242018-01-24T13:38:43.990+01:002018-01-24T13:38:43.990+01:00Ah, yes. You can blame Patrick for making me very ...Ah, yes. You can blame Patrick for making me very curious about <i>The Traveller from the Past</i>. <br /><br />For everyone interested, here's a <a href="http://at-scene-of-crime.blogspot.com/p/paul-halter.html" rel="nofollow">link</a> to the page with links to all of Patrick's reviews of Paul Halter. TomCathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-19799550544284044472018-01-24T11:35:55.873+01:002018-01-24T11:35:55.873+01:00Thanks TomCat for the review. :) I, too, disliked ...Thanks TomCat for the review. :) I, too, disliked the solution to the impossible crime. As a whole I found myself more tolerant of the novel, once I decided to read it as a horror story instead of a mystery. <br /><br />The Halter titles you listed sound interesting. I recall reading about some of them from Patrick's blog, and wishing LRI would release them! Jonathanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03389512470283015279noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-61719005352624455272018-01-23T07:39:22.235+01:002018-01-23T07:39:22.235+01:00There's clealry some sort of rights issue, as ...There's clealry some sort of rights issue, as you say, the determines what's up for translation -- alas, I don't even know if it's possible to establish the pool of books from which John Pugmire is able to choose. Someone else may have a better understanding of the situation than I, however. Actually, yeah, I'd say that's defintely true...JJ @ The Invisible Eventhttps://theinvisibleevent.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-20122574403992340202018-01-22T22:33:12.534+01:002018-01-22T22:33:12.534+01:00To each their own, and all that, but how anyone wh...To each their own, and all that, but how anyone who likes impossible crime fiction can like that kind of explanation is beyond me. <br /><br />Secret passageways are ancient and playing around with wires, or placing the key in room after the door is broken down, is old hat, but at least they're legitimate tricks to create an apparently impossible crime. The “trick” here, which I have seen too often, completely destroys the point of a locked room or impossible crime and consider it to be a cheat. And a lazy cheat at that! <br /><br />All of that being said, I hope the next one is going to be one of the titles I have been looking forward to for years. Pugmire always skips the ones I really want to read (e.g. <i>Barbarossa's Curse</i>, <i>Penelope's Web</i>, <i>The Traveller from the Past</i>, <i>The Twelve Crimes of Hercules</i> and <i>The Crime of Daedalus</i>). Surely, one of them has to come up for translation soon! TomCathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516189026477178777.post-89556270894255623002018-01-22T20:12:56.761+01:002018-01-22T20:12:56.761+01:00See, I really quite like the impossibility here --...See, I really quite like the impossibility here -- I know it's kind of a cheat (a bit?) in the eyes of some, but I think it'd make a superb short story. Alas, that aside, I can't entirely disagree wtih your assessment elsewhere on this one: it feels a bit like a lot of ideas that never quite gel in the way Halter's unusual narratives tend to.<br /><br />Ah, well, can't win 'em all. I remain a fully signed-up fanboy and am eager to see what comes next!JJ @ The Invisible Eventhttps://theinvisibleevent.comnoreply@blogger.com