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Songs of a Dead Dreamer
  
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Songs of a Dead Dreamer (Hardcover)

by Thomas Ligotti (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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3 used from CDN$ 72.11

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From Publishers Weekly

A reissue of Ligotti's first horror collection, which appeared in a limited edition in 1986, this volume includes several revised stories and others new to the book. Few of them are truly horrific; the emphasis is on language--sometimes poetic, achieving the quality of a woven tapestry, sometimes merely drab. Not one is strong on plot. "Notes on the Writing of Horror" and "Professor Nobody's Little Lectures on Supernatural Horror" straddle the line between nonfiction and fiction; they contain self-descriptive essays that are evocative of mood and setting. "The Chemyst" has a new drug he shares with London's lowlife. "The Lost Art of Twilight" concerns a man trying to live down his mother's association with vampires. The cleverly titled "Drink to Me Only with Labyrinthine Eyes" has an equally clever denouement. "Masquerade of a Dead Sword" is heroic fantasy with a twist. "The Music of the Moon" reminds one of Charles Williams's supernatural thriller. The other 13 stories suffer from combinations of murky prose, meaningless events and lack of focus.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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5.0 out of 5 stars A masterpiece of cryptic dread and dementia., Oct 5 1998
By Jeffrey Osier (Chicago USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Songs of a Dead Dreamer (Paperback)
Here's the biggest compliment I can pay Thomas Ligotti: he writes as though he were completely unaware of any other horror fiction written in his lifetime. There is not a major horror writer today whose work even vaguely resembles Ligotti's. I've heard him compared to Poe and Lovecraft but even these comparisons are misleading. His prose and imagery are far more akin to those of Bruno Schulz, the great Polish fantasist who wrote "Street of Crocodiles." These stories spill over with chilling images, irrational "plots," and a sense of dread that feels less like fiction than it does the kinds of horrible dreams we have while suffering a high fever. If you don't recognize that as high praise, you probably shouldn't read this book. But I love it.

"Songs of a Dead Dreamer" is his earliest collection, and perhaps because of this, I feel it still packs the biggest wallop. But if you like these stories, I recommend "Grimscribe" and "Noctuary."

A personal note: Years ago I had the chance to illustrate Ligotti's story "The Night School" for a small press publication. The editor sent me a copy of the manuscript, full of Ligotti's own notes and corrections. Reading the story in that form, feeling that much closer to the original process that brought the story into being, was an awesome experience. I felt compelled to examine the manuscript, as though somewhere amid its wandering margins and sloppy typing I might detect a sign, however cryptic, a clue as to how to tap into the same chilling dreamworld that Ligotti described so beautifully. It didn't work, of course. But "Night School" did inspire a pretty good illustration and reading Ligotti did provide one of the high points during my own dubious ventures into the realm of horror fiction.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Ligotti is undoubtedly the only living master of terror., Jan 8 1996
By A Customer
This review is from: Songs of a Dead Dreamer (Paperback)
The truth is that Thomas Ligotti has come out of seemingly nowhere in just the last ten years and has, in that time, set a new standard in literature of the supernatural. I picked up _Songs_ in 1992, initially for the Washington Post's declaration, "Put this on the bookshelf between Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft where it belongs." My hopes were more than realized. Ligotti is not only as good as the nineteenth and twentieth century masters of the macabre. For the select few who have read his material, he is simply one of the finest authors of the terrifying and disturbing short story and novella ever to grace the English language. Do I exaggerate? Read this compilation of masterworks and ask yourself afterwards whether Ligotti will be considered the groundbreaking Poe or Lovecraft of the late twentieth century. When the likes of King and Straub are mostly forgotten in a century, it is my firm opinion that Thomas Ligotti's stories, such as the terrifying "Dr. Locrian's Asylum", will still be read by those students of the genre who will still appreciate the authors subtlety, flowing eloquence, and his chilling originality and detail of plot and character
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