Out of the mists of Victoria’s England, a diabolical evil has emerged with only one purpose - vengeance.įollowing a bloody London seance and in the aftermath of a terrifying supernatural contact, a good doctor finds himself the target of a malevolence born of the darkest nightmares.

Here’s the lurid early 90s back cover copy: The paperback, though… that’s a different story. The hardcover - simple and black, with a plain number 7 emblazoned on the cover - doesn’t have spectres, mummies, or train chases on the cover, and I eventually lost interest and filed it away two decades ago. It’s more inviting than the usual collection of blurbs on the inside cover, you have to admit (although those are here too).ĭon D’Ammassa called The List of 7 the best book of the year in his review column in Science Fiction Chronicle back in 1993, and that was enough to get me to order a copy of the hardcover twenty years ago. That’s the inside front cover above, complete with mummies, gruesome spectres, ghosts, a train chase, and - speaking of Sherlock Holmes - the words “The Game’s Afoot” scrawled on parchment (click for a bigger version). Many clamored for attention, but the one that practically jumped into my hands was The List of 7, by Mark Frost. They finally arrived today, carefully packed in tightly wrapped plastic, and I gently unwrapped them and settled in to examine my new treasures.

Except that would probably dog ear the covers. Man, I could just lay these babies down on the floor and roll around in ’em. There’s even a beautiful copy of Sherlock Holmes Through Time and Space, which I’ve lusted after ever since Violette Malan teased me with the cover in her article on science fiction mysteries last month. Lewis, Clark Ashton Smith, Ray Bradbury, Edgar Rice Burroughs, John Bellairs, and half a dozen more. Merritt’s The Moon Pool a smattering of Ursula K. Including four early volumes from Neal Barrett, Jr three vintage Lovecraft collections (one of them The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath) both Ballantine volumes of William Hope Hodgson’s The Night Land one of Lin Carter’s better fantasy collections, Imaginary Worlds A. Twenty-eight volumes in terrific shape, for less than twenty bucks. Seriously, click on that link and look at them.

Just look at at all those gorgeous vintage paperbacks. Like this one, which I found online last week.

List of 7 mark frost