Garton's "Live Girls" was awesome; too bad it's out of print. I'd forgotten the author, but now I see the resemblance. The only thing that didn't ring quite true in "Lot Lizards" was how completely just ONE vampire retained his humanity. The characterizations are good, mystery is sometimes left along to remain mysterious (as it should be), and in general there's not a dull moment.

The first time I heard of Ray Garton was through a special offer on his legendary book, Live Girls. That signed book was set for $45 and before I decided to buy it, I had just heard that the price has shot up to $145 (I hear it's even more expensive today than that).

I thought to myself, how can a book, about vampires to say the most be that expensive. What exactly was that book about to even that much critically acclaimed. All I had in mind was that I had to get my hands on it... and fast...

My search for Live Girls brought me upon this book, Lot Lizards and if it's any indication to what Garton's style is, he is by far the most underrated author of all time. The book not only makes you sense that you're in the pages with the characters, it makes you smell, taste and live the lives of each one of them. The setting changes are so subtle, yet so dramatic. Garton moves in with his storytelling using a very cinematic approach, and finds great success in it. He has some experiences in the field of movie novelization and that clearly takes things through and fires up his characterization. The book does read like a movie. In fact, if someone ever reads it to you out loud and you just listen to the words spoken, you feel that you are truly watching a movie with your eyes closed. Even the ending is very much cinematic, relying on the same gimmick of "what then?" and "where now?" Which in fact is not as bad as one might think it is.

The style is astounding. Not for a minute do you feel bored or the need to let the book down. It would seem that the book itself is like a vampire sucking away your essence as you continue with each page. For the very first time, in a long time, a relatively unknown author strikes such a chord in me.

This book should be put back into circulation and should receive better publicity that what it has already received. Ray Garton takes you there and he just won't let go until he drains you clean with the last page.

I guess now I know why his books are relatively expensive. They're collector's item and they are truly worth the time and the experience.

Ray Garton's _Lot Lizards_ grinds like a big deisel. He hauls you into a truck stop, sets the air brakes and locks you into the setting. You hear a hundred truck engines idling, you smell the fuel oil and the greasy food from the truck stop diner.

Ray Garton shows you the trucker's lifestyle, and not all of it is romantic open roads. Passion? Yes, but usually bought, in the form of young prostitutes --lot lizards-- that frequent truck stops, roaming between the aisles of parked rigs.

The lot lizards at this particular truck stop, however, are strange: they're a little trashier than usual, a little bolder, and they seem to be hanging around two black Peterbilts loaded with coffins. And they have fangs.

Those who look for sympathetic vampire protagonists are not going to find any here. Ray Garton's vampires are *not* your friends. You don't want to sit in a room with them and ask them questions about their immortality. You want to get out your crucifix, smear yourself with garlic oil, and start sharpening your wooden stakes.

_Lot Lizards_ is vampire fiction for those who are tired of the bitterweet tales called "dark fiction" that have been at the forefront of the bookstores lately. If you like *horror* then these are the vampires you want.

After reading _Lot Lizards_, you'll never see a truck stop the same way again.

I enjoyed Ray Garton's books in the past, but I fell out of favor with this one. Why? you ask. Well, to start, it seems like a trendy move. Frank E. Peretti comes to mind. There exists many novels of Xian suspense/thrillers on the market, and to be frank, this book seems to fall in line with the rest of them. Ray Garton is a good writer, no doubt about it . . . but Dark Channel is too lengthy and riddled with misconceptions on the New Age movement. I'm not a fan of New Age Fluff myself, but I can't imagine that Bael or the Dark One himself is behind it all. True, some the characters are well-written, but with names like "Jordan Cross" I felt I was reading a publication by Zondervan. Where's the fire? The macabre satire? The irreligious sentiment? The depth and religious turmoil? Not much can be found here. The whole effort seems to be half-hearted and exhausting.

I read this book about 3 years ago, and I am myself an aspiring writer/novelist, and the way that Ray Garton writes, his technique, his use of words, the vivid imagery, it is exactly the kind of writer that I want to become. I hope one day that I will be able to meet Mr Garton and have him sign a copy of "Dark Channel".

I got this book when it was first out. I have now found that it will transcend time and be a classic. It is so real that it will keep you riveted until the very end. I read this book over at least once a year, you will be hooked too.

Ghost stories, in spite of their association with tales of terror (almost any scary tale told around a campfire is referred to as a "ghost story"), have lost much of their luster in the days since Poe and LeFanu. With the occasional exception of a work like Shirley Jackson's The Haunting or Stephen King's The Shining , few modern ghost and haunting stories are scary, and even fewer, frankly, are good. Peter Crowther, in his latest anthology, Taps and Sighs , has assembled a host of top-notch authors to reinvent the ghost story, and for the most part, he has succeeded.

Most of the authors in this anthology recognize that ghosts aren't that frightening in this day and age, so instead of an anthology of half-rate horror, this is actually a mixture of subtle horror and mythic fiction. Richard Christian Matheson and Michael Marshall Smith set the tone with the opening tales. Matheson's "City of Dreams" is a tale of horror, not because anything nasty happens to the protagonist, but because the best of intentions lead to true tragedy. And Smith's "Charms" is a touching (but not sentimental) tale of urban fantasy that could fit well among Charles de Lint's Newford tales.

Speaking of de Lint, he provides one of the two most pleasant surprises in the collection, as his "The Words that Remain," a twist on a classic urban legend, not only is sweet, but is a rare Newford tale that doesn't require the reader to be familiar with ten years of backstory. Setting the tale outside of Newford, and getting rid of the alternating first and third-person narration that had bogged down so many previous Newford tales has led to the most enjoyable de Lint story in ages.

The other surprise is Ray Garton's "The Homeless Couple," quite possibly the best piece of fiction Garton has ever written. Like de Lint, Garton's ending is utterly predictable, but the road he takes in getting there, and the parallel tragic lives of the protagonist (who morphs, over the course of 20 pages, from an unsympathetic archetype into a truly sympathetic hero). Garton, normally one of the best at telling novels of terror, makes a wonderful shift this time.

The actual tales of terror in this collection are no less impressive. The always-amazing Graham Joyce, in "Candia," provides his own nasty little tale of folks trapped in their own personal hells. Ian McDonald and Mark Morris take the same twist in two different, but equally horrific, directions. And Terry Lamsley's "His Very Own Spatchen" is a fun little tribute to the classic DC House of Mystery comics.

The cream of the horror crop is Gene Wolfe's "The Walking Sticks," a tale that presents as untrustworthy a narrator as in any Edgar Allan Poe tale. Wolfe's tale nicely mixes personal madness with ancient hauntings. Like Garton's story, expect to find this one reprinted in any number of "Year's Best" collections next year.

There are a few stumbling blocks. The McDonald and Morris stories, given their similarities, really should have been placed far apart, not next to each other. Ramsey Campbell's "Return Journey" is almost deliberately bad (the only horror being the reading experience itself), and Poppy Z. Brite's "Nailed," although completely readable, simply fails to break any new ground (a bit of a disappointment from such a consistently groundbreaking author). Still, Crowther (who contributes a very nice story with Tracy Knight) has assembled some great authors, and Taps and Sighs , added to his earlier Touch Wood and Dante's Disciples , establishes Crowther as one of today's top editors.

In Douglas E. Winter's introduction, he qoutes a poem about the sounds a ghost makes...tappin and sighing, hence the title. Like nearly all anthologies their are some good stories, some bad stories, some horrible stories and, gratefully, some top of the line stories. This collection is about 25% of each. The bad and horrible stories, however are outweighed by the good and great ones.

I found that I championed the more Twilight Zone/trick ending stories over the more experimental ones. An example of this is Thomas F. Monteleone's contribution, "The Prisoner's Tale, versus Graham Joyce's "Candia". Monteleone excellently delivers a straight ahead tale of one prisoner's chance at freedom. Joyce just delivers a confusing nonlateral tale of deja vu.

Poppy Z. Brite shows why she is a favorite among the horror sect in "Nailed". A revenge tale with some voodoo thrown in is precise and perfectly laid out and ended. In Ramsey Campbell's "Return Journey", we get a time travelling train that is convuluted and unclear.

Graham Masterton gives us a look at what happens to the past if you dare forget it in the terrific, "Spirits of the Age". ; scary as well as thought-provoking is Ray Garton's "The Homeless Couple" where a man who ignores cries for help from people in need in turns needs help. Ed Gorman's "Ghosts" is a tale of caution about reprucussions.

All in all a recommended collection of differring takes on ghost mythology.

The only reason this book didn't get 5 stars is because it's not that long of a book and I wanted more. This is a fun and creepy tale of halloween and moutain folk, incest and inbreeding.I didn't want it to end. Cemetery Dance did a wonderful job on the book and it is a great add to any collection. Ray Garton gives us a simple tale that will stick with you long after your done reading it.A good buy and good read.

This was an interesting story, and I always enjoy the inclusion of Ethan Rayne, but as with some of the other more recent books in this line, this author was really off the mark on the characters. Buffy lacked fire, Giles often came across as childish, and Angel was - very simply - an afterthought. This book was probably better than Obsidian Fate, but aside from that the weakest in the series (to date).

I used to buy all the Buffy novels, but as of late, some of them seem to be lacking. A friend told me how great 'Resurrecting Ravana' was and I decided to try it out. This is the first book I've read by Ray Garton (dunno if he's written others) and I was shocked by how amazing this book was.

The characters are deep and the author shows a great understanding of them. The pace is always fast and keeps you reading. And whenever evil lurks, you never have the automatic feeling Buffy has to win because she's the good guy. If you like Buffy, or just like any stories about the supernatural, PICK THIS ONE UP!

This was a very well written book! Iliked how Garton explained& described everything so well! I think it had a very goodplot.. and seemed like it would be a nice Buffy episode. I iwsh they would convert the books into epsiodes.. especially the Gatekeeper books which i reccomend! But... this is a very good book and i recommend anyone thats a fan of Buffy to read it.

This book is worse than the film.The book goes on to long!

Ray Garton is best known for his cult classic, LIVE GIRLS. But as a long time fan of his work, DARKLINGS has always been my favorite novel. It's the story of a parasite that slithers from a serial killer's body and wreaks havoc in a hospital and small town. The parasite unleashes monstrous behavior in it's victims, making for some of the most ghoulish scenes in horror history. The tension builds and builds as the protagonists track down the creatures horrific origin and the climax is one of the creepiest I've ever read... In a less talented author's hands, this storyline could have failed and seemed hokey, but Garton handles it with expert skill and wild enthusiasm. (Also, keep in mind, this was written before-- and quite possibly was the inspiration for-- movies such as THE HIDDEN, that came along later.) DARKLINGS was also written during the golden years of horror, back when authors worked hard to scare readers and had fun with their work. There was none of today's pretentious crap, where content and story take a backseat to "style" and the same old themes are beaten like a dead horse. Back then horror novels were designed first and foremost to entertain and scare the hell out of readers. DARKLINGS is a perfect example of that. Do yourself a favor and find this book. If you're a horror fan, your collection has a big gaping hole in it until you own a copy of this book! (And by the way, please disregard the previous reviewer. Garton's DARKLINGS has never been made into a movie nor does it go on "too long". The reviewer has obviously confused Garton's book with something else...)

First of all, I liked this book because it shows us that our stars may not be what we think they are, and plus I liked most Alex Mack books. Anyway, Raymond's fave star comes to town. Alex and her friends audition for extras in the movie, and they all get some parts!! Of course they realize that even the smallest movie roles takes a lot of hard work. And then problems arise off the set. Raymond discovers his role model is definately not all he cracked up to be, Louis is making a total idiot of himself, and the director's daughter, Kaya, is very unhappy that her father barely notices her. Can Alex cheer up Ray, give Louis advice and help Kaya get noticed without exposing her powers? You'll just have to see!!

A high school teacher, plagued by grisly dreams that begin to haunt his daytime hours, teams up with a telepathic woman to solve the dark enigma surrounding a series of gruesome murders . . . one of which involves a close friend. However, they might not like what they find beyond the nightmarish visions and mysterious killings. Ray Garton's Seductions is not his best work, but the highly visual, cinematic-like plot is involving. Likeable characters, tight yet fluid prose, and disturbing scenes are part of his forte, and Seductions contains them all. Those with weak stomachs should be forewarned.