Oddly enough, my decision to read floating dragon was not born out of my love of all things draconic, but. Listen to unlimited audiobooks on the web, ipad, iphone and android. Observer the terrors afflicting the sleepy town of. Floating dragon is notable for containing not one but two nonhuman antagonists, both of them too indistinct to make a full impression. We were so out of touch with american realities that to us cape cod, long island, and connecticuts fairfield county seemed within a hour or two drive of each other and more or less identical. Listen to floating dragon audiobook by peter straub and. Looping back, i caught up with his first two horror novels.
Listen to floating dragon by peter straub,fritz weaver for free with a 30 day free trial. After three years, peter straub discreetly went to dublin, ireland in 1969 to pursue a phd so that he could take writing as an important profession. Ghost story is widely considered to be peter straub s best novel and i can confirm its fantastic. Spoilers ahead in 1979 peter straub wrote ghost story, arguably the greatest modern horror novel. Floating dragon is a horror novel by american writer peter straub, originally published by underwoodmiller in november 1982 and g. When i read it the first time i was very young and i just didnt absorb some of the nuances but having read it now i got so much more out of the story.
Praise for peter straub and floating dragon here is a novel guaranteed to double the national nightmare quotient, so watch out. From what i can gather via the admittedly limited amount of research i have done on the subject. X, in the night room, and two collaborations with stephen king, the talisman and black house. Floating dragon floating dragon peter straub the berkley publishing group published by the penguin group penguin group usa inc. Floating dragon was the first straub novel that i read. Floating dragon by peter straub 1983, hardcover for sale. Normally peter straub has a distinct style from stephen king, but in the case of floating dragon, i feel peter straub outdoes stehpen king in a stephen king like novel. Download for offline reading, highlight, bookmark or take notes while you read floating dragon. I good story that takes you to the heart of a small town gone crazy. By the time i finally got around to reading floating dragon by peter straub, the book was a beaten and torn library copy that needed to have some of the pages taped back inside to keep it together. About the author 1993 author peter straub was born in milwaukee, wisconsin in 1943. Im so disappointed and feel completely scammed 11 people found this helpful. By the time i finally got around to reading floating dragon by peter straub, the.
Floating dragon by peter straub signed limited first. After reading king for years and only king floating dragon was a revelatory experience. After reading a couple of thin, unsubstantial, craptastic pulp horror. How can they release a title with the same name that is nothing like the book.
As a novel, floating dragon operates on the ever familiar canvas of horror in a small town, popularized in the 70s by. After the success of ghost story and shadowland, peter straub wanted to try his strenght in tales that do not involve anything supernatural. Within this crazed, hyperbolic, fatally excessive monstrosity, a horror novel which proved too much even for horrors undemanding and starstruck readership, there exists the teasing little ghost of a tale about the intersection of an industrial accident and an accursed village. This is a great novel by peter straub though my favorites are ghost story, shadowland and koko. Straub is a master at having whole communities rocked by the forces of wickedness. Floating dragon by peter straub author fritz weaver narrator. Floating dragon by peter straub, revisited this is. It might theoretically be a coincidence, but on page 30 of floating dragon, there is a reference to a lawyer named phil sawyer. It stands tall above everything else ive read from him, except perhaps floating dragon.
Floating dragon is a typical example of straub s talents and thematic concerns, a long novel filled with ghostly or perhaps not ghostly doings, upper middleclass marital strife, vaguely malevolent children, somewhat experimental narrative disjointedness, the disorienting conflation of place and time, and a selfconsciously literary. All of this couldnt make author peter straub happier. With an overdrive account, you can save your favorite libraries for ataglance information about availability. Last january, bob pastorella and i started a retrospective of peter straub s most important work that would sprawl over the entire year. If you want to get at the heart of that peter straub thing, his novel floating dragon is a one way ticket. Please read our short guide how to send a book to kindle. Floating dragon one of the few books ive read more than once.
A lot of other commenters have discussed the plot pretty accurately, if anyone in this thread reads it, just remember the seeming chaos of the events is. Floating dragon is an incredible book, one of my favorites. Floating dragon is a whole other feel from ghost story more violence, gore, and mayhem. Peter straub is the author of eighteen novels, which have been translated into more than twenty languages. Observer the terrors afflicting the sleepy town of hampstead, connecticut, were beyond. Anything by straub is worth several thousand john sauls and a million v. Like many another genre novelist who hasnt been able to come up with a fresh twist, occulthorrorman straub has instead thrown a little bit of everything into this massive mess of a book. Floating dragon, published in 1983, was to be his final horror novel for a long time till the 1999 return to the genre with mr x. Philadelphia inquirer a book that positively bubbles with invention, jammed with characters, color. The combination of dark fantasy elements and outright horror were new to me and i never quite looked at king in the same light again. He worked with thomas tessier who was a poem writer and produced two poet books, ishamel and open air. Floating dragon by straub, peter, 1943publication date 1982 publisher new york.
Even then, its more ambiguous, nuanced and cohesive than the latter. He has written two volumes of poetry and three collections of short fiction, and he edited the library of americas edition of h. Straub s next novel was the talisman, his first collaboration with king. The author has described this book as an exuberant valentine to the horror genre and to fans who had devoured his supernaturalthemed novels up to that point, but also acknowledges that he was distancing himself from. Harpercollins publishers limited, 1993 connecticut 655 pages. I hadnt previously read straub and was earnestly excited at digging into the legacy of such an iconic author. If so, thats just another reason to dig floating dragon, as far as im concerned. Like many another genre novelist who hasnt been able to come up with a fresh twist. Straub has received such literary honors as the bram stoker award, world fantasy award, and international horror guild award. Buy a cheap copy of floating dragon book by peter straub. With peter straub s writing, my early visits to the village began with shadowland, ghost story, and floating dragon. The populace of affluent hampstead, connecticut, and its outlying regions are unknowingly facing the fallout of.
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