Newcomer looking for guide

[MiguelPT]

Hello everyone,

I'll go straight to the point: I'm lost.

From Ligotti's work, I've read Teatro Grottesco (and TCAHR), and I want more. I've been investiganting, but it is a bit overwhelming to cross reference which short-stories are in which edition.

I've noticed that the Nightmare Factory had a lot of new stuff, including Teatro Grottesco itself, but it seems not easy to find a good edition for sale.

Then I noticed that Songs of a Dead Dreamer : And Grimscribe had a lot in common with Nightmare Factory, and it's easily available.

So I'm currently inclined to read the Songs of a Dead Dreamer. However, I thought I should ask first what is the general opinion over here and there were any other recommendations.

My apologies in advance if this is the wrong place to ask this or if the information is already elsewhere. I was unable to find any additional information.

Thank you very much.

[Spiral]

You should get the penguin edition of "Songs of A Dead Dreamer & Grimscribe", I'd suggest. Two absolutely excellent books in one (most of my very favourites by him are in those two books). And they are the moste recently revised versions of the text by Ligotti

Without question you should buy the Penguin Classics edition of Songs of a Dead Dreamer/Grimscribe right now. Essential reads. You're damn lucky to become a fan at a time when a widely published collection of both books is available for such insanely good value for money.

[Frater_Tsalal]

It's been out-of-print for years but I've always had a soft spot for the collection The Shadow at the Bottom of the World (Cold Spring Press, 2005). It's kind of a "greatest hits" collection. The reason I usually recommend it is simply because it's the first Ligotti book I ever purchased, so I've always been nostalgic for it. But of course, the Penguin Classics book is an ideal starting place as well.

The first Ligotti book I purchased was Teatro Grottesco. I know on here the consensus often seems to be that the first two collections are the best, but I had never read anything like the stories in that book, whilst in the early two books the tales were often a masterful high standard of the type of weird tale I was already intimately familiar with, so now I would probably list Teatro as my recommendation to seasoned weird fiction fans and the Penguin book to those new to this specific weird tale sub-genre.

Perhaps there's something in that idea of one's first Ligotti book remaining their favourite. The Frolic – strong as it obviously is – didn't rock my world in the way Purity did as a book's opening story, but perhaps I would have felt differently if I read their respective books in their original order and The Frolic was my introduction to Ligotti. I think Tom has become a progressively better writer with time, which is great as he started pretty damn amazing already.

[ramonoski]

The Nightmare Factory contained the whole Grimscribe collection, plus incomplete versions of Songs... (missing two stories) and Noctuary (missing a whole section of flash-fiction/prose poems), plus a few new stories, all of which were later collected in Teatro Grottesco.

The Penguin edition of Songs and Grimscribe contains the entirety of those two books (no missing content) so I'd recommend you get that. And maybe My Work is Not Yet Done.

[Frater_Tsalal]

Yeah, if I had to pick one individual collection as Ligotti's best I would probably say Teatro. Songs of a Dead Dreamer is, of course, a classic of the genre, but I've always felt that it was padded out a bit with perhaps too many stories. Teatro was more concise, with less filler IMO.

I think the first story that appears in Shadow at the Bottom of the World was "Last feast of the Harlequin," but in those days I would often read stories out of order (a bad habit that I've since avoided) so I started with the second story first, "Dr. Voke and Mr. Veech," which to this day I still rank as one of his ten best.

[miguel1984]

I started on The Nightmare Factory and soon hit the hardest stuff. With apologies to Bob Dylan.

[Kevin]

Welcome, MiguelPT. Your concerns are entirely understandable.

I'll vote with the 'Teatro Grottesco' folks. Probably the best over all. Then you should buy every other Ligotti publication.

[MiguelPT]

Thanks everyone for the recommendations

I've already read Teatro, and it was what got me to want to read more. So it seems the logical step is now to read the Penguin's Classic one.

So that one contains most (all?) of the Nightmare Factory ones, right? I guess I'll have to reevaluate my situation after reading Songs of a Dead Dreamer.

Thanks everyone, once again. Keep pouring the recommendations, they are most welcome