MeeJ

Wanna see what I did last night?

( Of course I'd gotten a mosquito bite in the center the night before, WAUGH )

I have always loved the old fairy tales - the horrible things we tell to children that warn them against the dark, the grim tales told by the Brothers Grimm (who were, apparently, also super hot). Tanith Lee does this well (I am thinking principally of her Tales from the Flat Earth, although she also does actual vampyr novels and some hella dark fairy tale retellings, like I don't even know what to tell you about her Snow White story), and China Miéville, for all his faults, totally kicked my ass with the moths of Perdido Street Station. (I can never decide if I like Miéville or not; I know that I liked The Scar a lot more than PSS, but really what I like are tiny things buried in the middle of the muck and grit and grime and slime of his world. Also. The mosquito-women. Oh my GOD.) George RR Martin has some fantastic terrible fairy tales, although I want it noted that he, like Blizzard, totally ripped me off when I ripped off Tolkien.

I like the horror that patiently waits for you to notice it. Stephen King is excellent with this. So is Cordwainer Smith. The horror in pastels, the blood on the flower, the fairy tales with gorgeous prose that kisses you to sleep with poison fangs.

One of my very favorites is given to me by Tolkien.

( Your mileage may vary for given values of Do I Like Tolkien's Prose Or Poesy. )