Angel Down

And then this is a literary adaptation of Daniel Krause's novel.

He also wrote another great book that they should make a movie of called Angel Down.

But this is an original film.

I mean, it's obviously it's based on a novel, but it's still an original.

But you know what book I did fucking read? It's now I can go through all of his other books like monster variations and rotters and scowler and troll hunters and the death and life of Zebulon Finch.

And of course, whale fall and the Pulitzer prize winning angel down.

And also talk about our collaboration on pipe screams, which was both of our dreams come true, considering that we're both big creep show fans, but his, one of his latest books is, called Partially Devoured, which is, I would say, it's not a love letter.

It's a love Bible about Night of the Living Dead, but it's so much more than that.

So that's part of what I want to do is just relearn how to write a book every time.

And that often involves some kind of heavy research.

Obviously, if it's like Angel Down, it's historical fiction, that's sort of obvious.

If it's Whale Fall and I have to spend three or four months talking to whale experts to understand what the inside of a whale is like, that's a different thing.

What else?

Um, I've got Angel Down by Daniel Kraus.

I don't know if you've read that one.

I have.

It looked, got a little Jesusy for me.

[laughs] Sure.

Uh, but I enjoyed the book, and then Angel Down, I was like, "Get the fuck out of here."

[laughs]

I don't, uh, my, although I definitely read and watch and like sci-fi and all that, it's, I'm not a master of it.

Um, certainly not, uh, i- in, in the novel world.

I, I've, I've certainly dabbled in more than that, but I don't know, yeah, I don't know all the, the foundational texts.

So, and I certainly don't know how the writers did it or what is normal to do.

I mean, i- i- basically, Night of the Living Dead is your favorite movie.

You've seen it 500,000 times.

You worked quite closely with George Romero before he passed, and then finished, uh, y- y- he, you took his notes for his last book and developed it into a novel.

Um-

But I did check out two books from Daniel Krause.

One is Angel Down, which was a book that he wrote, I believe, last year that won the Pulitzer.

It is about a group of soldiers during World War One who encounter an angel on the battlefield.

And of course, this is the most cosmic horror.

It's a war story, but told from a dog's point of view.

But before we dig into the novel itself, I have my typical admin notes.

First, there will be spoilers in this episode, but we wanna keep this conversation accessible to all, so we'll keep the first half of the discussion spoiler light.

We'll talk about some foundational details.

Right now, we have up an article headlined, "Book Club: Read Etna by Paul Yoon with The Book Review." Readers from all over are sharing their thoughts about the book there.

Here are a few comments I loved.

JD from Charlottesville writes, "I immediately considered Etna a personal masterpiece." John from Louisville says, "Had Yoon made Etna a human protagonist, I don't think the novel would have had the same emotional impact.

As people, we've become accustomed to the cruelty we inflict on each other, but place a dog in jeopardy and we're instantly empathetic.

And it's a crazy sci-fi book, and I love it.

He won the Pulitzer for Angel Down last year, which is not sci-fi, although there are some fantastical elements to it.

It's set during the First World War.

He also wrote Whale Fall, which, uh, is a mo- major motion picture any day now.

So, um, all right.

I, I actually have some g- well, first of all, I'm just gonna say I'm halfway through Angel Down right now.

Mm-hmm.

And it, uh, it, it, it's a masterpiece.