Ligotti is one of the giants of American horror (the others being Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. The Nightmare Factory collects most of Ligotti's previously published stories as well as some that were new to the book. In an interview Ligotti described his style as an attempt to read like awkwardly translated East-European literature. The Nightmare Factory is a 2007 comics anthology from Fox Atomic Comics adapting individual short stories by Thomas Ligotti. The second book in the series, The Nightmare Factory – Volume 2, was published in September 2008. It features new short essays by Ligotti. Both of the stories I have quoted at length in this essay were among six that appeared originally in the Ligotti omnibus The Nightmare Factory as the only pieces original to that volume. These stories have a number of common features, some of which have been discussed above.

The Nightmare Factory

This collection, bringing together the contents of several of Ligotti's short story collections, is a hefty volume that shows what an incredible body of work Ligotti has built up over the years. He is a master of the short form, writing prose that is uncomfortable and subtle, unfolding events that often appear off the page but whose resonances continue to run all through the collection. The opening tale, The Frolic, throws you straight into the deep end of Ligotti's unique form of terror. At first a seemingly harmless tale with a man talking of his work with a confined psychotic, it finishes with a far more personal and chilling flourish. It progresses with an assorted collection of tales that move in the shadows, sometimes bordering on the surreal, that slowly insinuate themselves into the reader. Sometimes there will be a shocking twist, or a satisfying final dénouement, but always it comes back to that sense of growing unease. The final tale The Red Tower is a surreal masterpiece about a strange manufacturing plant and it closes the collection with a perfect, unnerving chill.

Some of the other highlights in the collection are: Drink to Me Only with Labyrinthine Eyes, a story about a hypnotist and his rather special assistant; The Last Feast of Harlequin, a long story about a man's investigation into a strange festival; Teatro Grottesco, a story about a strange afflication striking down artists. These are merely the tip of the iceburg though, a small part of the multitude of great works in this collection. Nanodrop nd 1000 software mac.

Don't let the length put you off, it is a book to be savoured in pieces, to be read when the mood takes you; though more often than not, the act of putting it down after reading a tale is followed by the act of picking it up again.

The Frolic
Les Fleurs
Alice's Last Adventure
Dream of a Mannikin
The Chymist
Drink to Me Only with Labyrinthine Eyes
Eye of the Lynx
The Christmas Eve of Aunt Elise
The Lost Art of Twilight
The Troubles of Dr. Thoss
Masquerade of a Dead Sword
Dr. Voke and Mr. Veech
Dr. Locrian's Asylum
The Sect of the Idiot
The Greater Festival of Masks
The Music of the Moon
The Journal of J.P. Drapeau
Vastarien
The Last Feast of Harlequin
The Spectacles in the Drawer
Flowers of the Abyss
Nethescurial
The Dreaming in Nortown
The Mystics of Muelenburg
In the Shadow of Another World
The Cocoons
The Night School
The Glamour
The Library of Byzantium
Miss Plarr
The Shadow at the Bottom of the World
The Medusa
Conversations in a Dead Language
The Prodigy of Dreams
Mrs Rinaldi's Angel
The Tsalal
Mad Night of Atonement
The Strange Design of Master Rignolo
The Voice in the Bones
Teatro Grottesco
Severini
Gas Station Carnivals
The Bungalow House
The Clown Puppet
The Red Tower

Bibliographic Information

UK P/B - Raven 1996, 1-85487-436-5
US P/B - Carroll & Graf Publishers 1996, 0786703024

The Nightmare Factory Thomas Ligotti

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