Ray Bradbury

 One of my favorite writers of all time, Ray Bradbury spanned the limits of the imagination in his books and often wrote of distopian societies in his dim predictions of what the future held for mankind. I have read just about everything that Ray Bradbury wrote and spent several hours as a kid watching Ray Bradbury theater where his talents were showcased by film-makers attempting to capture the realities expressed by Bradbury and hosted by the author. 1984 and  fahrenheit 451 are probably two of his most famous works. 1984 was a story about a big brother society in which two people fall in love during the apex of a big brother society where the government watches everything that people do, and in Fahrenheit 451 he writes of a culture that is forbidden to read books because of the terrible power that information has on society. though the accuracy of of Bradbury's books in relation to our own timeline is off the books are well written enough that the art definately imitates life in its ability to re-write history into the present and future effectively. definately was my favorite author as a kid and inspired me to read science fiction often. Bradbury for sure left behind a legacy of storytelling that is rarely paralleled and often imitated. his foresight on technological advances and their effects upon mankind are uncanny and sometimes terrifying. I enjoyed this series quite a bit and I will contnue to read and re-read it over and over again.

The best of HP. Lovecraft

   Lovecraft is and has been one of my favorite authors for a very long time.  It is no suprise to me that he made the reading list because his stories have quite a reputation. Stories like "The call of Cthulu" and "The Dunwich Horror " have inspired movie makers two or three times over to attempt to capture the magnitude of supernatural horror and fantasy that is Lovecraft. If you have ever read any of his books then you know that in the world he creates for us that gigantic elder gods from space once controlled the earth and seek to take it back, consume it and enslave anything on it. Here was a man that was sitting in Victorian America writing about the horrors that can be found in outer space which is pretty amazing because no-one at that point had ever been there, and no-one was writing about monster gods from space and no-one did again until Dianetics. His writing was said to be inspired by his nightmares which he feverishly wrote down constantly, as well getting inspiration from he writings and illustrations by Lord Dunsany. His books consistently go into archaic histories of cultists, scientists and conjurers and almost never have happy endings leaving the reader to assume that all is still not right with the world even after  the tale has been told. I have to say  that I recommend these stories to anyone looking for cult classic horror that captures both the fantastic and the horrible all in one package.

Labyrinth

                        Labyrinth is definitely Jim Henson and David Bowie both at the top of their game. A story that brings the real world to fantasy, while telling a tale of selflessness and selfishness. after seeing this the first time when I was a kid I thought it was great. though its a bit dated now, the amount of work that went into both the story and visuals was incredible for its time. Kate Moss plays Sarah, who is a teenager that winds up babysitting her baby brother. whilst babysitting she accidentally summons the Goblin King who kidnaps her brother and will turn him into a member of his goblin horde. With the afore mentioned theme there are many scenes which are super awesome vignettes performed by fantasy creatures of many varieties. there is something here for just about everyone and the display of artistic prowess involved with the making this movie  make it a classic. overall this movie is really fun to watch  even with the eighties datedness. there is alot offered in the way of visual elements, music and colorful costumes and well designed characters & environments that kept me watching.

interview with a vampire

Anne Rice writes about vampires in a way that I think has a universal appeal and keeps the story moving. The story of Louis The 200 year old indigo farmer-turned vampire and his distaste to exist whether alive or undead is one that I found hard to put down. the way that the book essentially runs in a timeline from the past forward as told by Louis was an interesting and effective element in the storytelling. Louis while in the story is very reserved made fun of and eventually pursued by his counterpart Lestat, who is his polar opposite in every way imaginable. The dynamic between these two vampires is really what makes this story interesting to me. also the point in the story where Louis goes to Paris and discovers the vampire acting troupe was pretty cool twist. Louis was out having a vampire identity crisis seeking vampires like himself to no avail except to find some wrong turn-esque vampires.
when he finally meets some vampires of equal caliber, they turn out to be killing kidnap victims en-masse en stage in an avant-garde theater show. Alot of questions are raised within the story line about the morality of the vampire which I think is a good way to kind of keep the human element within the characters. Our protagonist is a complete pacifist so he's pretty much everything that a Vampire shouldn't be.
Pacifism  can be somewhat of an issue when it keeps you from being able to eat to survive. another issue of morality is raised when Lestat reanimates a little girl for his own amusement to pull on the heartstrings of Louie's altruism. The problem is that the little girl no matter how old she gets will never be anything but a little girl. This leads to the eventual demise of Lestat when both Louis and  the little girl Claudia whom had been made vampires by lestat decided to kill him for his recklessness.
 Avery entertaining read that kept me involved, and removed my skepticism of reading Anne Rices novels, after hearing of her overly harlequin book style of story-telling . I will continue reading more in her vampire series when I get a chance!