Classic Tales of Horror - Canterbury Classics

Classic Tales of Horror is a collection of gothic tales, dealing with ghosts, vampires, psychological fears among other popular themes of the nineteenth century horror literature. This is a beautiful edition by Canterbury Classics. Here the list of contents:

1. The Tell-tale heart by Edgar Allan Poe: the narrator tries to convince the reader of his sanity by recounting a murder he committed. - a masterpiece
2. Dracula's Guest by Bram Stoker: an unnamed man goes for a walk, against all advice, in a forbidden village on Walpurgis Night (Saint Walpurga was known for battling fatal illnesses and witchcraft). He is confident nothing will happen to him until it starts to snow and wolves come. - another favourite, dark and mysterious.
3. The Devil and Tom Walker by Washington Irving: a man sells his soul to the devil to get rich. - liked it.
4. An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce: a condemned man is about to be hanged on a bridge during the USA Civil War. - liked it.
5. Kerfol by Edith Wharton -  a man who is looking to buy a house following the adivice of his friend, Lanrivain, gets to know the story of Kenfol, a house with dog ghosts. - a ghost story with hints on gender roles in late 1800s. Liked it!
6. The Elixir of Life by Honore de Balzac: a dying rich man asks his son to use “the elixir of life” on him once he is death. The son is sceptical but decides to apply one drop of the elixir on the body’s eye. After a few seconds the body opens its eye …. Loved it!!
7. The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe - a man visits and old friend at his house. The house is in a bad state and the friend and his sister are ill. The narrator tries to help but the situation gets worse.
8. The Case of Lady Sannox by Arthur Conan Doyle - a doctor, who is having an illicit affair with a married woman is called to attend another woman who has been poisoned with a dagger. - liked it. I liked the writing style a lot.
9. Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorn - a man leaves his wife to attend a secret meeting. The meeting is a kind of initiation into a cult. - didn't like much the writing style but the story is good.

The Temporal Void - Peter F. Hamilton (4🌟)

The Temporal Void is the second book in The Void trilogy. I read the first book, The Dreaming Void, only a few weeks ago and I couldn’t wait to read this one. This is a science fiction with space opera and fantasy-like elements. I say fantasy-like because the narrative in Inigo’s dreams (please read my previous post about the Dreaming Void) takes place in a strange world in a medieval setting. However, I was happy to read in this second novel that some scientific explanations are starting to emerge on the nature of The Void and Querencia, one the planet inside it.

I will not say much about this novel here as it is a sequel and I don’t want to spoil the first novel to anyone. Things I would like to highlight are the political conflicts and the turmoil caused across the whole galaxy by the Living Dream (a cult who believes the future of humanity is inside the Void) planning a pilgrimage to the Void. Really engaging political and social criticism, providing some food for thought. In terms of characters not much to say here. The plot progressed with little character development, except perhaps Edeard, the Waterwalker, the guy who lives in a planet in the Void who is the protagonist of the fantasy-like chapters.

My edition was published in 2014 by Pan Macmillan. It has 746 pages.

Catarsis - Moto Hagio (4.5🌟)

Catarsis (Catharsis) is a collection of manga short stories some of which appeared in "A Drunken Dream and other stories" (which is out of print and impossible to get.) This is the Spanish translation and it contains 12 short stories and here I will leave my impressions on each of them:

1. Mitad (Hanshin: half god): this is the story of conjoined female twins. One is beautiful but doesn't speak. The other one is intelligent but ugly. Her body is giving up as her sister takes all her nutrients from her. - Excellent, shocking,  loved it.
2. La chica iguana (iguana girl): a baby girl is born. Everybody likes her except her mother who thinks she is an iguana.  When her little sister is born, the "iguana girl" is relegated, ridiculed and despied by the mother. - Brilliant, moving, loved it.
3, Camuflaje de Angel (Angel Mimic): a girl is rescued by a man when she tries to comit suicide. She later realises that the man is her new biology teacher. - thought provoking, loved it.
4. Las Pildoras de ir a la escuela (School pills): a boy at school sees appliances instead of people's heads. He is always tired always do lacks motivation. The girl he secretly loves gives him special pills to give him more energy. However as they get  to know each other they discover there are other things that connect them.
 - nice, liked it.
5. Al Sol de la tarde (Evening Sun): a story about married life, family and routine. A married woman questions herself on the traditions and sexist behaviour she's been a victim off. However at the same time she is also exercises the same kind of behaviour with her own family. - thought provoking, liked it.
6. El Falso Rey ( The Fake King): a beggar follows a man across the desert, on his way home. - a story about vengeance. I liked it.
7. El Invernadero (The Greenhouse): the story of a teenager  and his younger brother. They became family when their parents married but they went to New York and left the children in their country house.  Feelings develop between the two of them until they find a strange greenhouse which seems haunted. - twisted, dark, liked it.
8. Marine: a 6 year old boy works hard to support her sick mother. One day she meets a young woman who helps him with a gang of boys. Years pass, the boy's mom dies and he moves in with a rich man's family who offers to help. He keeps seeing that young woman who seems not to age. Life is hard and he has to endure the abuse of the rich man's daughter. After a few years he moves out of the house to become a professional tennis player. His only motivation is the young woman he meet when he was a kid. - engaging, interesting,  loved it.
9. Catarsis (Catharsis): a teenager is struggling with his studies, the loss of a friend and life at home. He's got possessive, intransigent and intrusive parents. - this story hit close to home. I can definitely sympathise with the protagonist. Loved it!
10. El Niño que volvía a casa (the child who comes home): a teenage boys and her mother can see her lost son. - grieve, acceptance, family life.
11. Sayo se cose un yukata: Sayo is a beautiful fourteen year old girl. She is making a Yukata for three Odon festivities. She is using the fabric her mother bought her 2 years ago. In her mind she talked to her mother and remembers how she use to make her yukatas when she was little. - kind of cute. I liked it.
12. Amigo X: a young man remembers the time when he bullied a boy at school who got better grades than him. - it was OK.