MAIN INFORMATION

Stop Press (2/Sep/11): Grim Blogger /StarrySothoth: http://www.ligotti.net/showthread.php?p=69679#post69679

WEIRDMONGER: THE NEMONICON: SYNCHRONISED SHARDS OF RANDOM TRUTH AND FICTION

by DF Lewis (PRIME BOOKS 2003/2004)

PAPERBACK
 

 HARDBACK

  

This link shows the current used prices of this book:

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/l/d-f-lewis/weirdmonger.htm

The prices for new editions shown are not applicable as the book is out of print (2010).

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STOP PRESS (Feb 2010): Now officially out of print

(Apr 2010) Competition to win the increasingly rare editions of ‘Weirdmonger’ still in existence:http://www.britishfantasysociety.org/forum/index.php?topic=2338.msg14914#msg14914

If you have been clever enough to spot the existence of this competition, and refer to its advert above and then enter the competition on the forum, you will definitely win the valuable first five historic Nemonymous editions (signed by DFL) if you don’t win the Weirdmonger book.

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DFL’s Real-Time Review of this book started May 2009: HERE.

 
‘Weirdmonger’ was a word invented by DFL in 1988 (in Back Brain Recluse 11) and, today, still with no hits on Google except for those referencing DFL’s work.

“…this book is a modern dark fantasy classic, and a must-read.”

How this book prevented murder:

LINK (click on text): When I got home I paced up and down trembling for a while. Then there was a rattle and a thump from the letterbox. A parcel from D F Lewis, the Weirdmonger himself, and the book was… Weirdmonger. The book that I think he’s described as the most definitive or representative of his writing. It’s a hefty volume. And at that time and in that mood, I didn’t think I’d be up to glancing over more than a few pages. Surprisingly enough, I read a number of its short stories straight away, and as I read, it was a bit like relaxing in a warm bath and the frustrations of the day seemed to melt away.

JANUARY 2009 (STOP PRESS): Four views on the book here: http://www.knibbworld.com/campbell-cgi/discus/show.cgi?tpc=1&post=21041#POST21041

“Every book has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it. Every time a book changes hands, every time someone runs his eyes down its pages, its spirit grows and strengthens.”
‘The Shadow Of The Wind’ by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

The amazing Weirdmonger Wheel HERE

Never Heard of DFL? That’s the point!

Trade Paperback details:

Fantastic Fiction

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.com

Special Hardback edition following demand:
Cold Tonnage

Two Printed Reviews so far:

“… a legend among readers of fantasy and horror fiction … when you wake up, you won’t be sure if what’s running through your head are the remains of your dreams or fragmented memories of the story you read before drifting off to sleep.”
from TIME OUT

“…each image a dazzling gem to beguile and enchant, disturb or alarm … the arch weirdness of ‘Eraserhead’ sliced up and fricasseed by Lord Dunsany.”
from THE 3RD ALTERNATIVE 2004 (www.ttapress.com)

On-line reviews so far:

THEAKER : since these sixty-seven “Synchronised Shards of Random Truth & Fiction” barely scratch the surface of this remarkable writer’s literary output, and so, when I do gain the courage to read his work, I will never have to stop.

Amazon.com: “…this book is a modern dark fantasy classic, and a must-read.”
Anon: “…a wonderful, if rather over-fattened collection.”

Amazon.co.uk: “One thing I can guarantee is that you will never have read any writer quite like DFL before.”

THE ZONE
“In his field he’s close to being unique: although his antecedents and his influence on other writers can be discerned, there’s ultimately no-one quite like him writing in the horror genre today.”

NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL
“…here is a book to enjoy and live with for several months, maybe even years.”

INFINITY PLUS
“…his ability to create that dreamlike quality in his fiction is flawless; he makes it seem so effortless, which only adds to the effect.”

QUICKSILVER EQUATIONS
“Could it get any better than this?”

FRAGMENT MAGAZINE – link now defunct:
“…prose shimmers; he has a gift for turning what in many writers’ hands could be the most awkward of phrasings into delightful lyrical achievements … I recommend this book wholeheartedly.”

DEAD ANGEL
“… definitely has a unique vision … should be required reading for all fans of dark, atmospheric fiction. “

“If the scene is more often of rotting than of blooming flowers, it accords well with the grotesque beauty of this withered wreath. DFL’s imagination and use of language are unique.” — Tamar Yellin (“The Nemonicon’ as a favourite read of 2004) HERE

“This collection is dense, labyrinthine, eerie, and utterly unique.” — Neddal Ayad (‘The Nemonicon’ as a favourite read of 2004) HERE

See if you can descry any code in the book.

a woven fire-wall of words

<< ORDER OF STORIES SHOULD NOT BE ALPHABETICAL:

Some people have contacted me over the months saying that they find the book too difficult to dissect for reading and they either are about to spend (possibly pleasurable) years reading it or have given up trying!

Some say there is a hidden built-in novel.

Others say that the stories are not separate nor a whole, a fact that is seen by some as off-putting.

***
My advice, for what is worth, is to try the most accessible stories first and work outwards, and these are:
Bloodbone, Bobtail, Dear Mum, Digory Smalls, Find Mine, Gongoozler, The Jack-in-the-Box, Queuing Behind Crazy People, Scaredy and Whitemouth, The Scar Museum, Season of Lost Will, Sponge and China Tea, The Swing, The Tallest King, The Terror of the Tomb, Uncle Absolutely, Welsh Pepper.

***
The next set to tackle: are those not listed above or below (i.e. the bulk of the book).

***
The best stories of all, but not to be read until the above have been read:
Back Doubles, Benoko, Big Ship Little Ship & Brown, A Brief Visit To Bonnyville, The Chaise Longue, The Dead, Egnis, The II King, The Merest Tilt, Small Fry (the best of them all), Small Talk.

***
Those not to be attempted at all (seriously off-the-wall or dubious):
Salustrade, Shades of Emptiness (the worst of all), The Stories of Murkales, Tentacles Across The Atlantic, Todger’s Town, Tom Rose, The Weird-monger.
Hope that’s helpful. >>

“Highly sophisticated and wonderfully nightmarish imagination, an expertly controlled and sardonic vision that reminds me as much of avant-gardists like William Burroughs as it does the best traditions of horror literature” — Thomas Ligotti about DFL in Dagon #26 (DFL Special) 1989

*******
GENERAL DISCUSSION FORUM
Eclectic discussion for nine years so far:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/weirdmonger/

Prime Books (USA) published this book, where its overall visual design (by Garry Nurrish) and production quality are unquestionably second to none. Its contents (by DFL) push fiction towards previously unconsidered areas of genre, acquired taste, vexed texture of text, humour, horror, fantasy, SF, eschatology, scatology, poetry and philosophy — and back again! Including some humorously grotesque poetic fables in a Swiftian mode.

Story history

 

>The Abacus

Whispers From The Dark #14 (1995)

>Always in Dim Shadow

Exuberance #3 (1991)

Frisson Vol 1 No 2 (1996)

Sackcloth & Ashes #6 (1999)

>Angel Of The Agony

Necropolis #18 (1994)

Nasty Snips (MT Book) (1999)

>Apple Turnover

Dead of Night #9 (1994)

>Back Doubles

Black Tears #2 (1993)

Black Moon #4 (1995)

>Benoko

Gothic Light #7 (1993)

New Dawn Fades #14 (1995)

Hadrosaur Tales #8 (2000)

>Big Ship, Little Ship and Brown

Substance #2 (1995)

Stygian Articles #6 (1996)

At’mos faer (Kadath) (1997)

>Bloodbone

Deathrealm #13 (1991)

Best of DF Lewis (Tal Publications) (1993)

>Bobtail

Dementia 13 #10 (1993)

Elder Signs #1 (1997)

Dark Legacy Vol 3, i (2001)

>A Brief Visit to Bonnyville

The Third Alternative #7 (1995)

>Caretaker

Atsatrohn vol 3 no 6 (1993)

Contortions #1 (1996)

Nasty Piece of Work #11 (1999)

>The Chaise Longue

Gravity’s Angels (The T Party) (1998)

>The Christmas Angel

Grotesque #6 (1995)

Parasol Post #18 (2000)

>Dark They Were and Empty-Eyed

Nyx-Obscura #1 (1995)

Visionary Tongue #3 (1996)

At’mos faer (Kadath) (1997)

>The Dead

Elegia vol 2 no 3 (1995)

>Dear Mum

Dream #26 (1990)

Parlour Papers #1 (1993)

>Digory Smalls

Dagon #24 (1989)

Twisted #1 (1996)

>Dognahnyi

Flicker ‘n’ Frames #12 (1991)

Best of DF Lewis (Tal Publications) (1993)

Earwig Flesh Factory #3/4 (2000)

>Effervescent

Palace Corbie (1995)

>Egnis

Scheherazade #8 (1993)

Palace Corbie (1997)

>Encounters with Terror

Weirdbook #29 (1995)

Dark Horizons #34 (1993)

>Find Mine

The Vampire’s Crypt #14 (1998)

Peeping Tom #29 (1998)

>First Sight

Dark Regions Vol 3 No 1 (1995)

Lathered In Crimson #4/5 (1998)

>Gongoozler

Heliocentric Net vol 2 No 1 (1993)

Psychotrope #3 (1995)

>The Hungerers

Imelod #17 (2000)

>The II King

Ocular #18 (1998)

>In Unison

Stygian Articles #3 (1995)

Black Rose #2 (1998)

>The Jack-in-the-Box

Exuberance #3 (1992)

Best of DF Lewis (Tal Publns) (1993)

>The Last Prize

Albedo One #5 (1994)

>The Merest Tilt

Mystic Fiction Vol 2 No 4 (1994)

Beyond The Brink #9 (1995)

>Migrations of the Heart

Dreams and Nightmares #39 (1993)

>A Mind’s Kidney

Severin’ #4 (1993)

Footsteps #2 (1996)

>Padgett Weggs

Tales After Dark #2 (1986)

Fantasy Macabre #15 (1993)

>Queuing Behind Crazy People

Night Dreams #7 (1997)

>Rosewolf

Eldritch Tales #26 (1992)

Roadworks #6 (1999)

>Salustrade

Alternaties #13 (1993)

Year’s Best Horror Stories (Daw) (1994)

>Scaredy & White Mouth

Chills #8 (1994)

>The Scar Museum

Palace Corbie (1996)

Strix #17 (1999)

>Season of Lost Will

Hobgoblin #2 (1991)

Dark Horizons #33 (1992)

>Second Best

Vicious Circle #2 (1993)

Eclipse #6 (1998)

>A Selfish Strain

Scar Tissue #13 (1998)

Drift #96 (1998)

>The Sun Setting

Never printed before

>Shades of Emptiness

Never printed before

>The Shiftlings

The White Rose #16 (1990)

Dreams & Nightmares #37 (1992)

>Small Fry

Never printed before

>Small Talk

Alternaties #16 (1994)

>The Spigot & The SpeechMark

Deathrealm #28 (1996)

>Sponge and China Tea

Dagon #26 (DF Lewis Special) (1989)

Year’s Best Horror Stories XVIII (1990)

>The Stories of Murkales: Twelve Zodiacal Tales

Dagon #20 & #21 (1987, 1988)

>Stricken with Glee

After Hours #16 (1992)

End Of The Millennium #11 (1999)

>The Swing

Visionary Tongue #9 (1997)

Dread #4 (1998)

>The Tallest King

Cerebretron #6 (1988)

Sierra Heaven #1 (1995)

>Tentacles Across the Atlantic (The Story)

Stygian Articles #7 (1996)

>The Terror of the Tomb

Heart Attack #2 (1992)

>Todger’s Town

Cthulhu Cultus #15 (1999)

>Tom Rose

‘Signals’ anthology from ‘London Magazine’ (Constable Books) (1991)

>Top of an Angel’s Head

Barfly #2 (1996)

The Fractal #6 (1997)

>Uncle Absolutely

Foolscap #12 (1992)

Visionary Tongue #11 (1998)

>Valedictory

Gateways #6 (1993)

>The Walking Mat

Sugar Sleep (Barrington) (1993)

After (2000)

>Wall Pack

Dagon#26 (DF Lewis Special) (1989)

>Waning

Oasis #62;63 (1993)

>Watch the Whiskers Sprout

Cthulhu’s Heirs (Chaosium) (1994)

>The Weirdmonger

Back Brain Recluse #11 (1988)

The Dream Zone #8 (2001)

>Welsh Pepper

Vandeloecht’s Fiction Magazine #5 (1992)

Year’s Best Horror Stories XXI (1993)

>Wild Honey

The Stylus #1 (1993)

>Wiles

Dagon #26 (DF Lewis Special) (1989)