Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe
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Narrated by:
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Jon Padgett
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Linda Jones
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Written by:
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Thomas Ligotti
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Jeff VanderMeer - foreword
About this listen
Two terrifying classics by “the best kept secret in contemporary horror fiction” (The Washington Post)
Thomas Ligotti’s debut collection, Songs of a Dead Dreamer, and his second, Grimscribe, permanently inscribed a new name in the pantheon of horror fiction. Influenced by the strange terrors of Lovecraft and Poe and by the brutal absurdity of Kafka, Ligotti eschews cheap, gory thrills for his own brand of horror, which shocks at the deepest, existential, levels.
Ligotti’s stories take on decaying cities and lurid dreamscapes in a style ranging from rich, ornamental prose to cold, clinical detachment. His raw and experimental work lays bare the unimportance of our world and the sickening madness of the human condition. Like the greatest writers of cosmic horror, Ligotti bends reality until it cracks, opening fissures through which he invites us to gaze on the unsettling darkness of the abyss below.
For more than sixty-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. People trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
©2023 Thomas Ligotti (P)2023 Penguin AudioYou may also enjoy...
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What the critics say
"Thomas Ligotti is a master of a different order, practically a different species. He probably couldn’t fake it if he tried, and he never tries. He writes like horror incarnate.”—Terrence Rafferty, New York Times Book Review
"Mr. Ligotti, winner of three Bram Stoker Awards, is one of our finest writers of short horror, and this volume, reprinting his first two collections (1985, 1991), is an excellent introduction to the sustained storm of dread that is his universe."—New York Times Book Review
“Songs of a Dead Dreamer is full of inexplicable and alarming delights. . . . Put this volume on the shelf right between H. P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe. Where it belongs.”—The Washington Post
What listeners say about Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- Anon
- 2024-12-17
argh the narration.
I feel bad. I say that about what I feel like I have to say about what I know to be completely subjective. Simply put, I don't like the narrators, either of them...
I found the male narration a bit too giddy and expressive during his reading of Ligotti's stories. It cast a cheesy, cliched filament over what I was hoping to be an original horror experience. I'm sorry to say but I will likely be avoiding future narrations by these people.
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- Jason Cameron
- 2023-04-19
Great Narration and some fantastic stories
I especially liked songs of a dead dreamer. Grimscribe not as much but still worth the read IMO.
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