British horror novelist
Robert Arthur Smith, born on this date in 1944, produced these paperback originals between 1977 and 1991. He lives in Toronto today but other than that I could find out no real biographical info about him. I own copies of
The Prey and
Vampire Notes but have not read them; the latter book notes "by the author of
The Leopard" but I could find no cover image for that title. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction says
Vampire Notes is "an unusually intricate take on Vampire topoi" and I thought "topoi" was a typo of "topics" till I
looked it up and learned it is the plural of a new-to-me, and quite relevant, word! Weird, don't know how that escaped me all these years...
man oh man that PREY cover speaks to me on a visceral level. the others have a certain charm, but I could easily force myself to slog through anything with typography as ridiculous as the Prey cover. and the olde-fashioned typeface used for the blurb and author name lend an irresistible air of 80s fantastique. glorious stuff!
ReplyDeleteThe Prey and The Toymaker are the only two here that I might be interested in perusing.Who can resist such hackneyed tropes as "creatures from Hell haunting the living?", or when evil toys become sentient and attack-er -uh, if that is indeed what transpires therein-I have no idea. The other titles look rather ho hum though.
ReplyDeleteI read The Prey a few years ago and it's quite the goth shocker saga. It's not bad at all!
ReplyDeleteThat typography really is stunning.
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