The deadly art of seduction

books:


	• Scared Stiff: Tales of Sex and Death Ramsey Campbell Tor Books, 2003 - 240 pages average customer review:based on 7 reviews view larger image
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Not Free SF Reader

A short selection of Campbell's story wherein he is dealing more explicitly with
sexuality, from the disturbed and the alone kind, to the volunteer for group ritual with bad end variety. They are pretty decent, overall, with a 3.45 average.

Scared Stiff : Dolls - Ramsey Campbell
Scared Stiff : The Other Woman - Ramsey Campbell
Scared Stiff : Lilith's - Ramsey Campbell
Scared Stiff : The Seductress - Ramsey Campbell
Scared Stiff : Stages - Ramsey Campbell
Scared Stiff : Loveman's Comeback - Ramsey Campbell
Scared Stiff : Merry May - Ramsey Campbell
Scared Stiff : The Limits of Fantasy - Ramsey Campbell
Scared Stiff : The Body in the Window - Ramsey Campbell
Scared Stiff : Kill Me Hideously - Ramsey Campbell

Coven lubrication.

3 out of 5

Throat art.

3.5 out of 5

Artificial Love Mate.

3 out of 5

Must satisfy.

3.5 out of 5

It's a trip to not do it by myself.

3.5 out of 5

Sexual summoning.

4 out of 5

Ritual ending.

4 out of 5

New scenes.

3 out of 5

Spin show recognition.

3.5 out of 5

Like to be a victim, please.

3.5 out of 5

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The deadly art of seduction

Clive Barker's introduction is as good as the stories themselves, stating in regards to the melding of horror and erotica that "In an age when characters in all manner of fiction have forsaken their blushes to fornicate, horror fiction clings to its underwear with a nunnish zeal." Since Scared Stiff was first published in 1988, this was one of the influential books that led to the production of more erotica in horror, such as the Hot Blood series.

There are only seven tales in this collection, making it a wonderful traveling companion or vacation book. Starting with `Dolls', we visit a quiet village and the witch's coven that conjures the devil during orgies, leading to `The Other Woman', a tale of an artist's obsession with his work bleeding over onto the canvas of his own life.

Next is `Liliths', probably my favorite story in the compilation. A strange shop appears out of nowhere, and a man makes a purchase that changes his life. A life sized doll that fills him with compulsive behavior.
`The Seductress' is a low-key suspense tale, of obsessive love and a mother's revenge. `Stages' tells of us a deadly combination of $ex, drugs, and voyeurism. `Loveman's Comeback' speaks of possession, and the lengths one will go to in order to break out of a bad relationship. And finally, `Merry May' is about wandering into a strange town, and finding their odd celebration a little more than you can handle.

While in comparison to today's erotic horror, Scared Stiff is a bit tame for this blossoming genre, but Ramsey Campbell's early foray into this forbidden realm truly opened doors for those of us who enjoy peeking into the bloody rooms to find titillating delights within. If you are really a fan of visceral lust run amok, then you should own a copy of Scared Stiff. Enjoy!

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Essential Ramsey Campbell

If you bought this book expecting a lot of sexual action, then you'll be sorely disappointed. Eroticism is *not* hot sex. Try your local adult bookstore, instead. That said, *real* Ramsey Campbell and/or *real* fans of the horror genre will appreciate this collection. To be fair, the first three titles aren't all that. They are, in fact, rather dull. However, the shudders and shivers pick up in "The Seductress" and increase from there. Hot sex seekers should look elsewhere for their carnal fixation(s).

A keeper!!!

Not as much hot sex as title impresses, but by far my best collection of Ramsey Campbell's stories. I only like about half of his book, but this one's a keeper!

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reviews: page 1, 2

Ramsey Campbell has won four World Fantasy Awards, ten British Fantasy Awards, and the Horror Writers' Association's Lifetime Achievement Award. Publishers Weekly calls Campbell "a horror writer's horror writer," adding, "His control of mood and atmosphere is unsurpassed." The Cleveland Plain Dealer says his horror fiction is "of consistently high quality," and The Washington Post praises Campbell for continuing "to break new ground, advancing the style and thematic content of horror fiction far beyond the works of his contemporaries."

The original publication of Scared Stiff almost created the sub-genre of erotic horror. Never had sex and death been so mesmerizingly entwined. Clive Barker, in his Introduction, says, "One of the delightfully unsettling things about these tales is the way Ramsey's brooding, utterly unique vision renders an act so familiar to us all so fretful, so strange, so chilling. Sex . . . is the perfect stuff for the horror writer, and there can be few artists working in the genre as capable of analyzing and dramatizing [this] as Campbell."

For this edition, Campbell has added three new stories which have never before appeared in book form.

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