Book recommendation(July)

I've bought a ton of books this month(13 to be exact) and I would just like to take this time to recommend some of them and tell you why I bought them.

Hyperion by Dan Simmons

I bought this one for full price online when it was recommended to me based upon what I was searching.  Every now and then I buy a book I've never heard of by an author I've never heard of because the synopsis and reviews arouse my curiosity.  I went to a secondhand store before the package arrived and bought the second book in the series without knowing if the first was any good.  I'd be lying if I said I wasn't pulled in by the scary looking Borg creature on the cover

On the eve of Armageddon, with the entire galaxy at war, seven pilgrims set forth on a final voyage to Hyperion seeking the answers to the unsolved riddles of their lives. Each carries a desperate hope--and a terrible secret. And one may hold the fate of humanity in his hands. 

From what I found out on wikipedia the story is told in parts by the point of view of each of these pilgrims. I think the clincher was reading that these Shrike creatures impale their victims on metal spiked trees, also I'm curious as to what these Shrike are and what their role is in the story and why these seven people are so eager to reach them.

Who Fears the Devil?  by Manly Wade Wellman

This collection of Manly Wade Wellman's Silver John stories has been on my wishlist for a while now and I finally decided to give it a shot and buy it.  I've read a few of Wellman's stories in the various anthologies I have but have never read any of the Silver John stories or novels.  I'm a huge fan of Pulp and Weird Tales and Who Fears the Devil seems to fit in both those categories.  Silver John is a wandering adventured accompanied by his silver stringed guitar.  He travels around Appalachia encountering supernatural creatures.  From what little I've read of Wellman I always wanted to read more and that's why I ordered this book.  Had I known it had an introduction by the late Karl Edward Wagner that would have been an even bigger selling point.

 There's a traveling man the Carolina mountain folk call Silver John for the silver strings strung on his guitar. In his wanderings John encounters a parade of benighted forest creatures, mountain spirits, and shapeless horrors from the void of history with only his enduring spirit, playful wit, and the magic of his guitar to preserve him. Manly Wade Wellman's Silver John is one of the most beloved figures in fantasy, a true American folk hero of the literary age. For the first time the Planet Stories edition of Who Fears the Devil? collects all of John's adventures published throughout Wellman's life, including two stories about John before he got his silver-stringed guitar that have never previously appeared in a Silver John collection. Lost, out of print, or buried in expensive hardcover editions, the seminal, unforgettable tales of Who Fears the Devil? stand ready for a new generation ready to continue the folk tradition of Silver John!

The Complete Drive-In by Joe R. Lansdale

This is another book that has been on my wishlist for a while now and I can't remember exactly why I put in on there in the first place.  I can tell you after reading some of Lansdale's short stories and a couple of the Hap and Leonard series I always wanted to read some of his longer fiction.  Bizarre, original, vivid, imaginative, all describe Joe R. Lansdale and if you've seen Bubba Ho-Tep or Incident On and Off a Mountain Road you probably agree with that statement.  What most likely attracted me to this book was the title and plot of the book.  I've always liked b movies and grindhouse exploitation and by the time I was old enough to see movies Drive-Ins were long gone.  It's unfortunate but I've always wanted to see a movie at a drive-in.

Friday night at the Orbit Drive-in: a circus of noise, sex, teenage hormones, B-movie blood, and popcorn. On a cool, crisp summer night, with the Texas stars shining down like rattlesnake eyes, movie-goers for the All-Night Horror Show are trapped in the drive-in by a demonic-looking comet. Then the fun begins. If the movie-goers try to leave, their bodies dissolve into goo. Cowboys are reduced to tears. Lovers quarrel. Bikini-clad women let their stomachs’ sag, having lost the ambition to hold them in. The world outside the six monstrous screens fades to black while the movie-goers spiral into base humanity, resorting to fighting, murdering, crucifying, and cannibalizing to survive. Part dark comedy part horror show, Lansdale's cult Drive-In books are as shocking and entertaining today as they were 20 years ago.

If that doesn't sound like something that would be shown at a drive-in I don't know what does.  It also reminds me of an Italian movie written by Dario Argento and directed by Lamberto Bava Dèmoni and that movie was pretty damn good.  In the same order I got the fourth book in the Hap and Leonard series and after reading the first two I'd highly recommend those as well.

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

I'll admit I haven't read much Ray Bradbury but after reading Fahrenheit 451 I've always wanted to.  Like Orwell's 1984 I wasn't particularly impressed with the writing but I felt the ideas in both books were the most culturally relevant things I'd ever read(in fiction) and that did impress me.  After hearing about his death a few weeks ago I felt it was the perfect time to gain interest in his other works.  I honestly don't know much about this book but a lot of people I know said it was good so that was enough for me.  I also found that Bradbury wrote more short stories than novels and seeing as I have a ton of short story anthologies that I just chip away at from time to time I wanted something I could get more involved in.

A masterpiece of modern Gothic literature, Something Wicked This Way Comes is the memorable story of two boys, James Nightshade and William Halloway, and the evil that grips their small Midwestern town with the arrival of a "dark carnival" one Autumn midnight. How these two innocents, both age 13, save the souls of the town (as well as their own), makes for compelling reading on timeless themes. What would you do if your secret wishes could be granted by the mysterious ringmaster Mr. Dark?

If you liked Fahrenheit 451 and 1984 I'd also recommend Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.  It expresses similar social issues but I felt more involved with the story and characters than the other two.

***ACHTUNG!*** The paragraphs in yellow italics are descriptions I got off amazon.  I don't take the credit for writing them.  Everything else I wrote though.