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Collectives In A Forsaken Landscape Paperback – Deluxe Edition, November 30, 2004


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Paperback, Deluxe Edition, November 30, 2004
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 248 pages
  • Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (November 30, 2004)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1594577706
  • ISBN-13: 978-1594577703
  • Average Customer Review: 1.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #14,273,392 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

The book that started it all -- you can follow me on http://nickpacione.tumblr.com and grab Empryean Sky's albums on http://empyreansky.bandcamp.com. I've written six up to this point and had published nine anthologies. I am waiting for my five year memoir to be okay'd this location but the cover is touch and go. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Customer Reviews

I read the first few pages and couldn't take it anymore.
GN Braun
Some other readers commented that it takes some getting used to his style of writing.
D. Barnett
You have to read it for yourself to see just how bad it really is.
Dennis Duncan

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

123 of 124 people found the following review helpful By Napoleon Brandy on September 26, 2005
Format: Paperback
Google the table of contents, and you'll find virtually every story in this dreadful amalgamation of sequential non-sequitors somewhere online. Then again, don't and save yourself the eyestrain and nausea. Spare yourself the horror of first lines that not even the Bulwer-Lytton contest judges could stomach. Avoid the incomprehensible syntax, the superfluous verbiage, the repetitive and redundent tautologies that constitute the endless and pointless drivel that is this book. If someone gives it to you as a present, sever all contact with that person, regardless of the closeness of your former relationship, for your presenter obviously wishes you ill.
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112 of 116 people found the following review helpful By Lamp of Truth on December 23, 2005
Format: Paperback
I have known this persons writing for years. If his writing matched his opinion of himself he would be the greatest writer living or dead.

I thought it might be my personal dislike that tainted my view of his writing, so I showed samples of his work to others.

After a few paragraphs I was generally asked, was this written by a 12 year old?
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75 of 78 people found the following review helpful By D. Barnett on February 19, 2007
Format: Paperback
I found this book nearly unreadable but definitely annoying. He may be trying to capture some aspects of Chicago's south side (I live on the north side), but I think he failed miserably. Some other readers commented that it takes some getting used to his style of writing. I didn't find it engrossing or rewarding enough that I wanted to do so. I rarely review something I didn't finish, but life is too short to have spent any more time slogging through his pages. He needs a brutal editor who will make him write in English, rather than Pacionese.

I was surprised after first posting the above brief critical review to get a short curse-filled and homophobic message from the author. One might want to reconsider if you plan to post a critical review of this book or any other of his writings. Months after my last edit of this review, the author responded with several offensive emails to me. I am providing excerpts below for those who want to examine Mr. Pacione's writing style more closely. I can provide the full emails with full headers for those who desire to see them. The asterisks and elisions are mine; the spelling, punctuation, and syntax are Mr. Pacione's. I apologize in advance to those who are offended by this reposting of his emails and his choice of vocabularly:

"HELLO FAG!... I hope you get AIDS. Loser... You f**ks have too many rights anyway. It is f**ks like you that make me say FAGS ARE NOT NATURAL!... I will give you a better reason to hate my guts... I hope you choke on what I say here for awhile because yeah I am getting published in more places and I am around to piss off the faggot, you FAGGOT... I hope you burn in hell after you died of your plague. I will give you a better reason to hate my guts than my book you f**king fag...
Read more ›
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61 of 63 people found the following review helpful By RossoRaven on June 7, 2007
Format: Paperback
The book was nearly unintelligible. Aside from poor grammar and punctuation, the thoughts were disjointed. It was like reading something from a young child who ate a case of pixie sticks.

I seriously kept waiting for some sort of punchline, because the person who gave it to me was someone I considered well read.

After a nasty email from Mr. Pacione himself, I thought I should clarify I didn't pirate his book. Someone else bought a copy and GAVE it to me. And no thank you Nick, I have a boyfriend I do those things with.
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161 of 179 people found the following review helpful By Michael Rohm on February 26, 2005
Format: Paperback
This is the first book Nickolaus has had published and I sure hope it isn't the last! He has truly created a classic in the annals of Gothic and Horror literature. Following in the footsteps of great horror writers like Blackwood, Poe, Lovecraft, King, Poe, London, Irving and of course Edgar Allan Poe, this collection of short stories features the same things that made these writers so great - Africanized bees. Any book with Africanized bees is bound to be a classic. He perfectly captures Lovecraft's style, if Lovecraft were a untalented Cuban immigrant with a very tenuous grip on the English language. In short, ignore the naysayers whose opinions are influenced by Nickolaus' lack of talent and inept prose and BUY THIS BOOK!!!
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47 of 49 people found the following review helpful By Victor Voyles on June 21, 2007
Format: Paperback
in so much that Pacione considers himself a writer. Coherent? Not in the least. Frightening? Only if you're a teacher. Before you can break the rules of grammar you must first UNDERSTAND the rules of grammar. And he has shown that he doesn't. To compare him to Poe and Lovecraft is a giant slap in the face of those two men.
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33 of 35 people found the following review helpful By The Jolly Rogers on March 21, 2007
Format: Paperback
The truth is that as far as people praising his imagination go, they may have something to praise. I wasn't able to slog through enough of the tortuous and frequently repetitive sentences to verify that, though.
Of particular interest is the fact that I see a great many negative reviews of this piece have been deleted, but the few positive remain intact.
Now I can't say exactly how many were lost, but my previous one is gone and there are less than half as many reviews as when I was here before.
Isn't that interesting?
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26 of 27 people found the following review helpful By L. M. on December 22, 2007
Format: Paperback
If Pacione could muster up enough grammar to actually say something coherent, his stories might be better received. As it stands, "Collectives in A Forsaken Landscape" (which was thankfully changed from the original "Collectives in A Foresaken [sic] Landscape") is a poorly written collection with nearly incomprehensible syntax, grammar and imagery. Sentences that could be summarized in a few words go on for a paragraph or more make it a nearly impossible read. If possible, it's certainly not enjoyable. The sheer verbosity of it is enough to suggest that words were being chosen to allude to writers like Lovecraft and Poe (which the author seems to want to mimic) because the syntax, grammar and story were lacking so badly. It's not the vocabulary that is unreadable, but the way in which it is constructed. Once the story is edited it may be a good read.
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