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There is writing ...and then there is WRITING!
These stories felt just right for me.
One of the best books I've read in a long time
Stick to 'Broken Stones' for short fiction.
Great introduction

Lovedeath
Dan Simmons
Manufacturer: Warner Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0446600776

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The novella is an ideal length for dark fiction: short enough to sustain mood, long enough to develop interesting characters. This fine collection of five novellas shows off Simmons' range of styles: a literary tale of a man and his daughter on a scary mountainside; a Bram Stoker Award-winning horror tale about female vampires in Thailand; a semi-horrific Native American story about a young Sioux who undertakes various trials in order to become holy; a dark science fiction tale about a drug that has pernicious effects on society; and a harrowing, ambitious tale about the horrors of World War I.

Book Description

In the tradition of Michele Slung's I Shudder at Your Touch, the ard-winning author of Children of the Night explores the fascinating relationship between eroticism and horror in an original collection of psycho-sexual themes, some touched by the supernatural.

Customer Reviews:

There is writing ...and then there is WRITING!.......2006-09-26

Wow- every time I even entertain the thought of becoming a writer I read Dan Simmons and realize I am not even CLOSE to being in his league. This is an incredible collection of novellas that will resonate within you long after you have finished reading them.

The first story "Entropy's Bed at Midnight" is a roller coaster ride in which the emotions of the protagonist ( a father and the feelings he has for his daughter) are projected onto the reader. Anyone who has been or is a parent will identify with this tale about love, loss, life and learning to let go and enjoy the ride.

The second is "Dying in Bangkok" is a slam-bang powerful tale of AIDS, casual sex, war, cultural differences and the lengths and depths a person will go to in order to achieve the ultimate revenge.

The third tale and in my opinion the weakest of the set is "Sleeping with Teeth Women". This is a raw-edged and perhaps overly angry reaction to the sugary Indian stories ala "Dances with Wolves." Although I understand his (over?) reaction to these stories and his wanting to portray his Native American ancestors in a more realistic light this story is perhaps a bit too much in the other direction. It is salvaged by a wonderful ending that wraps the tale up neatly.

The fourth tale "Flashback" is a cyberpunky tale that touches on realism with its portrayal of addicts who participate in flashback experiences and become more intertwined in their past to care about or shape their present.

The fifth tale and the showcase of the book is "The Great Lover", a visceral, gut-wrenching, incredibly well-researched tale that occurs during WWI. This story is like watching a particularly grotesque auto accident in that you can not tear yourself away from it and it will leave images in your mind that will haunt you long after you have finished reading it. Good writers can transport you to a different place. Dan Simmons will take you there, drop you head-first, immerse you, and blast you on spin cycle while he is at it. Incredibly powerful tales from a truly masterful writer.

These stories felt just right for me........2006-08-13

Sometimes I think about these stories. I've actually bought a second copy when I couldn't find mine to reread. Dying in Bangkok is the most sensational and obviously sexual and sinister but The Great Lover left the strongest and most enduring impression and encouraged me to seek out the poems used in the story and I will always remember why it was so difficult for that generation to enter into a second World War. In the new Battlestar Galactica, the scenes of anguish and yearning when Gaius Balter hallucinates about his lover are strangely affecting in contrast to his self-centered ways and reminded me of The Great Lover so strongly that I immediately wondered whether the writer(s) had read THE GREAT LOVER and the character's hallucinations were a tribute.

I didn't seek out other works by the author but recently read Carrion Comfort and Song of Kali. Both books were well-written but both books made me want to throw them away after reading them. I think I wanted to process them out of me not because the books should be destroyed. Carrion Comfort is incredibly long whereas Song of Kali reads more like a novella. Both are about maintaining a moral position in the face of evil reality at great personal cost and both mention the Holocaust. There is one page near the end of Carrion Comfort that I saved for the biblical quotation because it was about how Dan Simmons understands how victims feel but I tore the rest of the book to pieces and recycled it. I wanted to do the same with Song of Kali but I haven't.

One of the best books I've read in a long time.......2002-07-15

Almost every collection of novellas is met with a preface that says something along the lines of "Novellas are great to write but impossible to sell" which might be a good thing, because when novellas get published they are some of the best work of the particular writer.

These five novellas are some of the most intense literary experiences going. The first one is a simple father-daughter outing colored by the fact that one of his children is dead. Everything in the story is tinged with the father's fear. The second story "Dying in Bangkok" is ostensibly an AIDS story, but AIDS plays a small part of it. The demonic prostitutes could be a metaphor for the dangers of unchecked sexuality or they could just be the attraction of death itself. It's a grimy story that keeps you reading.

The Teeth WOman story proves that some of the best writing is done angry. After the requisite slam on Dances with Wolves, this story gets going with Sioux legend and mythology given its due. The gee shucks romanticism of Dances with Wolves (and several other "Indian" books) cannot compare to the oft-times disturbing tale of sex and redemption. Reading this book is like reading Singer after watching romanticized crap like Fiddler on the Roof.

"Flashback" is an interesting take on memories and reliving them, but it's too cyberpunk. Making the Japanese the villains tends to date this story as well. The depressing ending is just kind of a wash.

But "The Great Lover" really makes up for it. WWI horror told with precision and gut-wrenching detail. It makes you feel like you are there in the trenches watching people die by the thousands, waiting for the machine gun blast that will turn you into a pile of rotten meat. The best war stories leave the reader shell-shocked, and this is one of the best.

The only other book by Dan Simmons I've read was SOng of Kali and I find this one to be far superior.

Stick to 'Broken Stones' for short fiction........2001-10-10

Dan Simmons is no doubt a great writer... 'Hyperion', 'Carrion Comfort', and 'Song of Kali' are all great books, but this collection of novellas is a total disappointment. I think the problem lies in the fact that Simmons is moralizing here on subjects that he cares about (like the horrors of AIDS) and it's getting in the way of his usual magical style of storytelling. With the story subservient to the moral, we the readers are left to consider Simmons' ethical point of view, which in the case of "Dying in Bangkok", is downright offensive. It's not hard to understand why this book is out of print. Stick with 'Prayers To Broken Stones' if you want to experience Simmons' shorter works of fiction.

Great introduction.......2000-08-22

For those wanting to get into the fiction of Dan Simmons without running into the science fiction of Hyperion and the like, this is just about perfect for them. It hits all his other styles in one fell swoop, and at the same time gives them to you in small digestible doses, so if you don't like one, well there's four others to choose from. This is basically five novellas with the common theme of either love or death. Now, neither are very original themes for fiction (or anything) but the way Simmons tackles them makes them infinitely memorable. Most of this stuff is probably considered horror, though only story is truly creepy, that being the sublimely frightening "Dying in Bangkok" one of the few stories that gave me a sick feeling while reading it (though the fact I was barrelling down the highway in a car didn't help, I'm sure) and if you like horror, that one alone makes the book worthwhile. However there are others. You've got a fairly authentic Native American story, told by a slightly sardonic narrator that never ceases to fascinate. The lone science fiction story is fairly touching as it shows a world where everyone keeps reliving the past for lack of anything else to do (and some people live in the past's of others . . . go read the book to find out what I mean). This one actually benefits the most from the short format, since he gives enough detail about this world, but not so much that you're bored and it overwhelms the story. You want to know more, but you know enough to be entertained. There's a small story of a father and daughter that shows off his skill with words and makes some nice points about life and love and death and where they all fit together. The centerpiece of the novel is probably the WWI story, written as a diary of a man fighting in the trenches, interspersed with poetry from the front. Simmons obviously spent the most time on this one, it's the longest and best researched and the work shows. This one shines in its poignancy and humanity, there are touches of humor and horror and everything that makes a great story. So, chances are you're going to like at least two of these stories and you'll like them enough so that it'll make the book worthwhile. Simmons deserves to be explored in other areas other than science fiction and this is by far the best place to experience that. Without a doubt.

After the Lovedeath: Sexual Violence and the Making of Culture

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After the Lovedeath: Sexual Violence and the Making of Culture
Lawrence Kramer
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

This elegantly written book is a bold attempt to reinterpret the nature of sexual violence and to imagine the possibility of overcoming it. Lawrence Kramer traces today's sexual identities to their nineteenth-century sources, drawing on the music, literature, and thought of the period to show how normal identity both promotes and rationalizes violence against women.
To make his case, Kramer uses operatic lovedeaths, Beethoven's "Kreutzer Sonata" and the Tolstoy novella named after it; the writings of Walt Whitman and Alfred Lord Tennyson, psychoanalysis, and the logic of dreams. In formal and informal reflections, he explores the self-contradictions of masculinity, the shifting alignments of femininity, authority, and desire, and the interdependency of hetero- and homosexuality. At the same time, he imagines alternatives that could allow gender to be freed from the existing system of polarities that inevitably promote sexual violence.
Kramer's writing avoids the conventional dress of intellectual authority and moves between music and literature in a style that is both intimate and effective. He combines informed scholarship with candid personal utterance and makes clear what is at stake in this crucial debate. After the Lovedeath will have a profound impact on anyone interested in new ways to think about gender.

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Lovedeath
Dan Simmons
Manufacturer: Warner
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NZS28O

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Lovedeath
Dan Simmons
Manufacturer: WARNER BOOKS INC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000PWMCVI

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Lovedeath
Dan Simmons
Manufacturer: Warner Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000MZLYZS

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Lovedeath
Dan Simmons
Manufacturer: Headline
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OPDKJ4

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