We've set up a blog for A SEASON IN CARCOSA. We've been posting the first reviews (and there are more coming), have set up links to our contributors and places you can buy a copy. We hope you'll stop by and see the book trailers and read the glowing reviews.
PUNKTOWN creator and fan favorite, Jeff Thomas, has this to say about this Pulver fellow.
“As I study the bookstore shelves these days, I grow increasingly discouraged by the repetitive trends, the unimaginative prose voices, the general lack of literary adventurousness. That’s why I become increasingly appreciative of a writer like Joseph S. Pulver, Sr., who I think grows more important as a writer by the minute. But don’t get me wrong; the man isn't about hipper-than-thou airs, either. This is art with a capital Fun. Imagine a roller coaster ride through the Louvre, and you may get some sense of the rich and giddy rush of reading a story by Joe Pulver. So hang on tight, and enjoy the dizzying view.”-- Jeffrey Thomas, author of Punktown Here's what the endlessly-talented, Simon Strantzas, has to say--
"Fearless. Daring. Poetic prose for the unhinged. Each tale in Portraits of Ruin packs the sort of mental wallop that leaves the reader reeling. From the scorched deserts to the highest foreign towers, across plains of reality and beneath burning suns, this is no volume for the weak, for the conventional. It is a wake-up call from one of the genre's most visionary masters. A book for those who see differently, for those not afraid to know the truth no matter how terrible the cost. I envy anyone about to experience Pulver's horrors for the first time." --Simon Strantzas, author of Nightingale Songs
And Walt Hicks at "Hellbound Times" has the following to say about my new Hippocampus Press collection, Portraits of Ruin.
"I don't think I've ever read an author who is capable of blending/bending his influences quite like Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. As impacting as a violent train wreck, the resultant explosion of mellifluous ethereality onto the page is something so totally different that it's almost a completely new art form. Sure, you've got your Lovecraft, Robert W. Chambers, Ramsey Campbell, William Burroughs, Richard Brautigan, Raymond Chandler—even T. S. Eliot—but jam them all together into Pulver's psychotic centrifuge, and the resulting velvet-swathed, running-the-guts spatter pattern ends up as a collection like Portraits of Ruin." –Walt Hicks, author of Exit the Light You can read the whole rave review at this link http://hellboundtimes.blogspot.de/2012/03/portraits-of-ruin-by-joseph-s-pulver-sr.html
One hellish night - about zero sleep due to constant legs cramps... Woke up and popped a pain pill to cope. Didn't need it! !! Why? A link to the following blog post by no less a literary light [STAR!!!!!!!!!!! Wonder of the highest order!!] than, ANNA TAMBOUR (Crandolin coming from award-winning, Chomu Press in NOV!, Monterra's Deliciosa & Other Tales &), was in my inbox to offer remedy and CURE! !!
Glee seized me. Humbled, honored, privileged, all spiked my FELT to gladly;YAYyyyyyyyyy~ ~~
Here's the post, a rave review of my new collection, Portraits of Ruin (Hippocampus Press 2012) --
“Immerse yourself in the magical world of Anna Tambour’s Crandolin, a delirious journey that takes the reader through Central Asia and Russia with some fascinating strangers and a donkey, a demanding musical instrument, and delicious hints of nougat and honey.”-- Ellen Datlow
“By turns lyrical and absurdist, whimsical and elegantly true, Crandolin is unlike any novel you will ever have read. Anna Tambour is brilliant, a true original.”-- Lucius Shepard
"Let us posit that Bukowski is the sun. Or Brautigan, Burroughs and the Beats -- a solar Coney Island of the Mind where Timothy Leary’s dead and dead Cthulhu waits and sings the live long daydream believer. Then Joe Pulver’s Portraits of Ruin would be the burst of planets, Big Bang-Bang, Marquee Moons hanging on for what they got, scream of consciousness -- in Outer Space no one can hear it . . . except Coffin Joe, Monster Mash Potato that big ol’ Portraits of Ruin -- Mars needs it, you need it, so just open the lid and shake your fist -- then say: "They kill horses, horses, horses, horses." Thank you. Come again?" -- Thomas Ligotti
"All writers are influenced and inspired by other writers, and we all know writers who echo those influences, running the gamut from subtly to obviously, but I don't think I've ever read an author who is capable of blending/bending his influences quite like Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. As impacting as a violent train wreck, the resultant explosion of mellifluous ethereality onto the page is something so totally different that it's almost a completely new art form. Sure, you've got your Lovecraft, Robert W. Chambers, Ramsey Campbell, William Burroughs, Richard Brautigan, Raymond Chandler -- even T. S. Eliot -- but jam them all together into Pulver's psychotic centrifuge, and the resulting velvet-swathed, running-the-guts spatter pattern ends up as a collection like Portraits of Ruin."--Walt Hicks Hellbound Times
“Let us posit that Bukowski is the sun. Or Brautigan, Burroughs and the Beats—a solar Coney Island of the Mind where Timothy Leary’s dead and dead Cthulhu waits and sings the live long daydream believer. Then Joe Pulver’s Portraits of Ruin would be the burst of planets, Big Bang-Bang, Marquee Moons hanging on for what they got, scream of consciousness—in Outer Space no one can hear it . . . except Coffin Joe, Monster Mash Potato that big ol’ Portraits of Ruin—Mars needs it, you need it, so just open the lid and shake your fist—then say: “They kill horses, horses, horses, horses.” Thank you. Come again?”
Thomas Ligotti comments on "Blood Will Have Its Season"
"Some writers one admirers and others make one want to do as they do, or try. For me, Joe Pulver is of the latter type. His imagination is so vile so much of the time that it makes me giggle with amazement. And the prose so deadly visionary. I'm grateful that the pieces in this collection are those of a fellow horror writer who has raised the ante on what it means to be such a creature." - Thomas Ligotti
From Laird Barron's "Introduction" to my collection "SIN & ashes"
“. . . I’m gawping in amazement, shaken by Pulver’s eviscerating vision. He wields language as a scalpel, a Thompson submachine gun, an axe . . . Joe Pulver calls down the fire. Joe Pulver’s the Man. He’s got the Power.” – Laird Barron, author of Occultation and The Imago Sequence
Ellen Datlow says
"Sin & Ashes is a deliciously varied and ambitious collection... by writer who is quickly making a name for himself."
"Blood Will Have Its Season is an ambitious debut [...] obviously influenced by H.P. Lovecradt and Robert W. Chambers, for the most part Pulver uses their influences to create potent tales of his own. A writer to keep an eye on."
SIMON STRANTZAS on PoR
"Fearless. Daring. Poetic prose for the unhinged. Each tale in "Portraits of Ruin" packs the sort of mental wallop that leaves the reader reeling. From the scorched deserts to the highest foreign towers, across plains of reality and beneath burning suns, this is no volume for the weak, for the conventional. It is a wake-up call from one of the genre's most visionary masters. A book for those who see differently, for those not afraid to know the truth no matter how terrible the cost. I envy anyone about to experience Pulver's horrors for the first time." - Simon Strantzas, author of Nightingale Songs
Anna Tambour on Portraits of Ruin
"playfulness; heart-rending beauty as indissectible as a rainbow; magic; music in timbres unique to this writer, as if he'd mixed his own alloy and poured it, red-hot, to cast his own bell." Anna Tambour, author of Crandolin
S. T. Joshi says
"The prose of Joe Pulver can take its place with that of the masters of our genre-Poe, Lovecraft, Campbell, Ligotti-while his imaginative reach is something uniquely his own." -S. T. Joshi
Jeff Thomas says
"There are occasional books, movies, cds, etc. that are of such a special quality -- that resonate with people in such a perfect way -- that they seem immune to any strong negative criticism. Movies like FIGHT CLUB, TAXI DRIVER and DRIVE (I'm sure they have the rare haters), books like...oh...THE ORPHAN PALACE..." -- Jeffrey Thomas, author of PUNKTOWN
Simon Strantzas comments on "Blood Will Have Its Season"
"There's a mighty storm coming to rip up the world you know and tear a hole in all you believe. That storm's name is Joseph S. Pulver, Sr., and I pity anyone who dares stands in his way."
Matt Cardin on TOP
“Joe Pulver is like the answer to some arcane riddle: What do you get when you cross one of Plato’s Muse-maddened poets with a Lovecraftian lunatic, and then give their offspring to be raised by Raymond Chandler and a band of Beats? His work caters to a literary hunger you didn’t even know you had, and does it darkly and deliciously.”- Matt Cardin
Paul Tremblay comments on SIN & ashes
"Joe Pulver's SIN AND ASHES is a messed up (and I mean Cronenberg messed up) splicing of William S. Burroughs and Thomas Ligotti. Add a whiskey chaser. After reading these vibrant and weird stories with their assorted devils and down-and-outs, I kinda want to party with Joe. But I think I'm too scared to."--Paul Tremblay, author of The Little Sleep and In the Mean Time.
Gary McMahon comments on SIN & ashes
"Joe's SIN & ashes is surely one of the most important fiction collections of the year, and serves to remind us all that greatness is still possible in the field of weird fiction.” --Gary McMahon, author of Pretty Little Dead Things and Pieces of Midnight
Robert M. Price says
"Pulver's genius in his ability to shape-shift stylistically between Raymond Chandler and Thomas Ligotti--without your even noticing! Like the gospel demon, his name ought to be Legion, since he assumes a new voice and persona as every particular chapter or sequence requires. In the new book, Pulver's polyphonic gifts mutate to a new and even more powerful pitch. There is nothing like it! It sounds, indeed reads, like a living contradiction in terms! The result is a deep dark forest of wonders, containing both monsters and molesters, both angels and devils." -- Robert M. Price
Anna Tambour said~ ~~
"In human terms, if I had to compare him to other authors, I would say that he reminds me more of a mug of hot Lear blended with Cummings, served with a squeeze of post-enema'd Shelley."
Robin Spriggs says
"Mad, malevolent, and incantatory, The Orphan Palace reads like the hagridden fever dream of one who has not only stared the Abyss in Its black and fathomless face, but welcomed Its gaze in return . . . and become Its living embodiment. It is a journey to be taken by none but the bravest of readers, and by souls with an ardent desire to savor their own damnation." --Robin Spriggs, author of Diary of a Gentleman Diabolist
Wilum Pugmire says
"Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. -- one of today's truly original and effective artists, before whom we bow, hypnotized."--Wilum Pugmire, author of The Tangled Muse
Cody Goodfellow says
"While everybody else in horror is still aping the shallow visual palette of cinema, Joe Pulver calls down a storm of psychotronic nightmares charged with the evocative depth and relentless pulse of the Devil's music. This isn't a book that wants to be a movie. This is a drug disguised as a book. SIN & ashes is an iconoclastic revolt, and a devastating reminder of the unique, unmatchable power of well-wielded words." –Cody Goodfellow, author of Radiant Dawn
Richard Gavin says
"Pulver is a writer who takes risks with each story he fashions, which in turn makes reading them exceptionally rewarding."-- Richard Gavin, author of Omen and Charnel Wine
Pearce Hansen says
"I'm in love with this man's work. This is not for you if you prefer bland, `normal' horror writing - but IMHO he is one of the most important voices in the genre today (if you can even impose the term `genre' on a style so personal and sincere). Read him." -- Pearce Hansen, author of STREET RAISED
