Search results for ""author gary hoppenstand""

Slithering from these pages are never-before-collected tales of suspense and wonder by the woman who invented modern-day dark fantasy: A man goes quietly to bed aboard the doomed Lusitania and awakens on a magical South Pacific Island just as the passenger liner is torpedoed. In a future where women rule the world, a sentient island becomes murderously jealous of a shipwrecked couple. Dire consequences await a human swept into the dark, magical world of elves. A deadly labyrinth coils around the dark heart of a picturesque landscape garden. Within an Egyptian sarcophagus lies the horrifying price of infidelity. Swirling unseen around us are loathsome creatures giving form to our basest desires and fears. A beautiful, veiled medium may hold the key to preventing unspeakable evil from slipping through the borderlands between life and death. On a lost island a woman pipe player and her monstrous dancing partner bring death and terror to five adventurers. The stories in this collection have played an integral role in the development of modern dark fantasy, greatly influencing such writers as H. P. Lovecraft and A. Merritt.

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Born into poverty with an abusive home life, Dean Koontz found a respite in books. As he began a writing career in the late 1960s, Koontz began injecting the dark experiences of his own life into his literature, and autobiography became a central thematic element of his thrillers, science fiction and horror stories. Even Koontz's earliest pieces, like Star Quest and Demon Seed, are tapestries of raw, varied and energetic storylines equally as worthy of examination as his later popular novels.This compilation of essays examines the fiction of Dean Koontz, from his earliest literary efforts in the 1960s and '70s to his emergence as a bestselling author of suspense. Written by some of the top experts in popular culture studies, these essays will appeal to the many fans of Dean Koontz's work, as well as to general readers of popular thrillers. It is the first study to approach the evolution of major themes and intricacies in Koontz's early career as a bestselling author.

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