Coven

Rating:
Summary: My favorite Lee novel
Review: Of all of Lee's many fine horror novels, Coven is far and away my favorite. It is gruesome, horrifying, demented, perverse, and, very often, hysterically funny. As another reviewer indicated, the cover of the old mass-market edition is quite misleading and not indicative of what awaits the reader. Scenes of depravity are written with gleeful gusto. This is gonzo horror writing, sort of a mad synthesis of 70's and 80's b-horror movies, the sensibility of a Hunter Thompson or Douglas Adams, Animal House, and more. I also enjoyed the references to many of Lee's favorite imported beers of the time. Mr. Lee published three novels before Coven (two under the pseudonym Philip Straker), but I consider this the true beginning to his career--this is where his reputation as the king of "extreme" horror began. Used copies can be costly, but it's worth seeking out. Or you could hold out for the new limited edition hardback due from Necro Publications in 2003.

Rating:
Summary: My favorite Lee novel
Review: Of all of Lee's many fine horror novels, Coven is far and away my favorite. It is gruesome, horrifying, demented, perverse, and, very often, hysterically funny. As another reviewer indicated, the cover of the old mass-market edition is quite misleading and not indicative of what awaits the reader. Scenes of depravity are written with gleeful gusto. This is gonzo horror writing, sort of a mad synthesis of 70's and 80's b-horror movies, the sensibility of a Hunter Thompson or Douglas Adams, Animal House, and more. I also enjoyed the references to many of Lee's favorite imported beers of the time. Mr. Lee published three novels before Coven (two under the pseudonym Philip Straker), but I consider this the true beginning to his career--this is where his reputation as the king of "extreme" horror began. Used copies can be costly, but it's worth seeking out. Or you could hold out for the new limited edition hardback due from Necro Publications in 2003.

Rating:
Summary: VERY good, scary story
Review: This is a VERY good, scary story, and I am amazed that it is out of print. I absolutely adore books by Edward Lee and hope that he comes out with many more, soon.

Rating:
Summary: Not really a COVEN, but....
Review: Together with Patrick Gates, Edward Lee is -- for me -- the ultimate gore/ extreme horrorwriter. His stories ooze with nasty sexscenes and brutality, and COVEN is no exception.

Don't let the cover fool you. It shows a woman in a black cape with a pentagram on her chest and holding an axe, but this book isn't about witches. An evil force is trying to take over the world and it's up to a slacker student and an ambitious female deputy to stop them, and they do fall in love halfway through! Without spoiling to much; Lee pulls no punches, from people who get sliced in half by a enormously large axe, to gruesome alien experiments and a zombie that can't be killed, COVEN has it all. Also worth mentioning is Lee's quirky sense of humor and his knack to create characters, which are most of the times stereotypical, but also make you laugh out loud because of their human traits. An example is the way he sends up rich, spoiled collegestudents, with their expensive cars and their taste in foreign beer.

This book is very hard to find (like most of Lee's older books) and I myself paid a ridicously large amount of money for it. But it was totally worth it and if you can find it I recommend it to any fan of extreme horror!