gee whiz! this is a perfectly executed novella about two boys, age 12 (and a half!) and age 14 (and a half!), at odds with ultra-dimensional villains.gee whiz! this is a perfectly executed novella about two boys, age 12 (and a half!) and age 14 (and a half!), at odds with ultra-dimensional villains. Azathoth, so-named, and Nyarlathotep, perhaps (my guess, at least). the twist is that these two young fellows are the übermensch scions of a world-dominating clan that controls a world-dominating corporation. so, despite the reader most likely being sympathetic towards the charismatic brothers, this is basically a tale of evil versus evil. in brisk and bloody action-novel format! what's not to love?
synopsis: in 1956, while on holiday from the school for assassins known as Mountain Leopard Temple, two likely lads first engage in a bit of drinking & shagging with loose local lasses and then find themselves on the run from who knows what from where God only knows. much bloodshed occurs. the two then take part in an archeological dig and more bloodshed occurs. finally, a journey across dimensions of time and space and life and death and a big dead whale, and a little more bloodshed of course. all's well that end's well and the masters of this mortal coil shall continue to pull our puppet strings. good job and nice work, kids!
Barron's pacing is tight and his characterization is sharply etched and his tongue is so far in cheek it has bored a bloody hole right through, you can see it wagging at you, cheekily. I really, really, really, REALLY wish that this had been novel-length. gosh it went by too quickly!...more
Andres Fager reinvents the Lovecraft mythos (and in one story, the King in Yellow). the prose is telegrammatic. the perspective is first-person. the rAndres Fager reinvents the Lovecraft mythos (and in one story, the King in Yellow). the prose is telegrammatic. the perspective is first-person. the results are mixed. the first story, girls gone wild, is ingenious. the second story, two inhuman boys abroad, is brilliant. the third story, war's victims, is beautifully written and also a pointless exercise in nihilism. the fourth story, a body swap, is fine. the last story, an artist run amuck, is pretentious, self-indulgent drivel.
the collection includes four story fragments. of particular note is Fragment 2, which details a ship running into something not so nice. tense, well-executed, perfect length. the remaining fragments intrigue but do little else.
the author is certainly one to watch. full of talent. a distinctive voice. idiosyncratic, to say the least. and also, as the kids say, problematic. but that's not an actual problem, right?
"The Furies from Borås" - girls at a dancehall, girls meeting a young man, girls taking him to the woods to make his fantasies come true, girls making his nightmares come true, girls dancing and fornicating and feasting in the moonlight, girls meeting their many-eyed Mistress, girls fleeing her tentacles. the moral of the tale: don't give viagra to Shub-Niggurath, she may freak out and slaughter everyone. ...more
I forgot how fun this was! a dry kind of fun. it's been many years since I first read it and I'm surprised at how much I still retained, certain imageI forgot how fun this was! a dry kind of fun. it's been many years since I first read it and I'm surprised at how much I still retained, certain images & ideas really stuck with me. I guess once Lovecraft gets his hooks into you, those hooks stay embedded, little bits of Cthulhu shrapnel that burrow slowly in the mind, never to be pulled out. LOL how's that for a metaphor for the author's mythos; I think Cthulhu would approve. the empurpled Lovecraft style is in full effect: journalistic and full of archaic words, while also being VERY VERY EXCITABLE. well, the end of the world is nigh, a person should be excitable when sharing those facts.
the story itself is not straightforward. a lot of telling and very little showing. it works. through our narrator's eye, we meet a pretentious sculptor whose nightmares are shared by many other artists, a New Orleans detective who finds a horrible cult in the depths of a swamp, and a Norwegian sailor who lands on the very tip-top of the ancient submerged city of R'lyeh and whose shipmates meet shocking ends at the hands of Cthulhu itself. I had forgotten that Cthulhu makes an actual appearance here, literally swimming after the Norwegian's ship and then recombining after our brave sailor decides to turn his ship around and sail right into the Great Old One, cleaving the monster into pieces (temporarily). what I had not forgotten was the central concept of the story, and it's an awesome one: the "call" of Cthulhu is the call of the ancient being's own dreams, diffusing out into the world and into the minds of various cultists, madmen, and sensitive artists.
some words must be said about Lovecraft's abominable depictions of "queer and evil-looking half-castes." now, as an evil-looking (but dapper) and very queer half-caste myself, I was quite taken aback. sure, he's not wrong: half-breeds like me do possess ancient secrets and are forever in service to ancient gods; our main goal in life is to disturb the dreams of sensitive artists, sardonic detectives, brave sailors, and white people in general. but gosh, Lovecraft was just so blatant about it in this story, no subtlety whatsoever. he's totally, shamelessly blowing our cover - and that's pretty unforgiveable. he's lucky that he's long dead because otherwise someone would be sent some pretty bad dreams tonight. and maybe some other things too.
this is a sneaky, subtle, sly little novel. the Laughlins now live in an awkwardly converted mill, passed down generations to the mother in this familthis is a sneaky, subtle, sly little novel. the Laughlins now live in an awkwardly converted mill, passed down generations to the mother in this family of three. strange things are afoot: sensual yet horrible dreams featuring a beautiful woman plague and arouse father and son while the mother is figuring out her own life, and how much impact her cult-leader father has had on her. McNaughton excels in making all of them - and their neighbors, colleagues, and love interests - basically agreeable or at least very understandable people. and so it is a gradual process revealing the layers of disturbances beneath the surface, whether it's an obsession with the Lovecraft mythos displayed by the family lawyer, or a history of incest or a repressed desire for the same sex or actual powers displayed by the friendly and urbane Satanist next door, or most importantly, the subsuming of one character by his long-dead ancestor. the author's elegant but unpretentious prose makes the book move smoothly along, until we are in the middle of the novel's extended set-piece: a Halloween party that turns violent and horrific. and suddenly we are there, a light novel (in tone, at least) turned exceedingly dark, and then after the party we are suddenly in even deeper, down in the sub-cellar, in a battle taking place inside and out of the mental space, all the horror hinted at now made visceral, and all is madness and magic and murder, blood and guts and sadism, arcane books stolen and doorways smashed, bodies ripped apart, bones melting, everyone become victim or villain or both at once. and yet it still remains sneaky, subtle, and sly, as if the author always has still more tricks to play. it is like McNaughton was smiling when he wrote this, except that smile is not a very nice one.
it is a superior product and it does two things very, very well: it marries the classic noir narrative to Lovecraft; it tells the story of a femme fatit is a superior product and it does two things very, very well: it marries the classic noir narrative to Lovecraft; it tells the story of a femme fatale from the lady in question's perspective. it presents the Pair of Cops template in its first story and the Sunset Boulevard template in its second. it is not a deconstruction, it is a reconstruction, an enrichening. it has depth, empathy, sadness. its heroine is beautifully realized, as with most of its cast. it stays true to the genre while bringing new dimensions to it: new dimensions to an archetype and literal new dimensions. its use of the supernatural is supernal. its writing is superb; my first time with the hard-boiled but sensitive Brubaker and definitely not my last. its art is equally superlative, all the shades of brown, gray, dark blue, the occasional splash of deep red. it rubs the lotion on its skin. it places the lotion in the basket....more
I read the box set put out by Avatar, not this French version of the series.
Alan Moore revisits his Neonomicon with a massive prequel and sequel. ThisI read the box set put out by Avatar, not this French version of the series.
Alan Moore revisits his Neonomicon with a massive prequel and sequel. This is an ambitious undertaking: the author's goals include both the repositioning of the Lovecraft mythos as the first genuinely American mythology of the U.S.A. (differing from the Native American/Indian mythology that came before) and the encapsulation and deconstruction of what constitutes the American Character. I thought he more than succeeded in reaching both goals. Personal Bonus: slowly reading and then even more slowly rereading this from the period of last Halloween through the election, then an eerily quiet and lonesome Christmas, and finally the insurrectionist invasion of the Capitol, all of course taking place during a crazy pandemic... kinda wild. Real life impacted my reading life in an unnervingly fitting way.
Despite there being so much going on in this story, including much that is completely horrific (Moore even manages to one-up his ghastly rape scene in Neonomicon with an even more disturbing rape in Providence), despite the incredible density of the narrative, and the surplus of references and easter eggs, and the brilliant, challlenging art... for much of the tale, the tone is disarmingly light. Moore's sense of humor is mercurial, at times quite broad and at other times so subtle, so dry. For such a work of horror, I smiled and laughed frequently at the wit on display. What never got old were the bland explanations delivered with a straight face by supporting characters, or even more often, thought up by the incredibly naive protagonist himself, to gloss over or explain away the extremely bizarre and horrific experiences going on around him at every turn.
My favorite comic bits: ostensibly homoerotic banter between Hector North (a proto Herbert West, the Re-Animator), Hector's lover, and Robert Black, the bisexual hero of Providence. On the surface, this is all talk about keeping gay love on the down-low, various romantic difficulties, appreciating the male body, and the surreptitious scheduling of a hook-up date. But what is actually happening is of course Hector trying to get some time alone with Robert so he can kill and then reanimate him. Hector wants that hot bod, but not exactly for the reasons Robert assumes. Endless LOL! Much of the book does the same trick: it tells an amusing story on its faux-naif surface, only slightly concealing the appalling horror beneath. And so despite the complexity of the storyline and the overarching goals and themes of Providence, much of it was charmingly sly and ironic. Which made the emotional punch of Robert Black's ultimate fate all the more painful and sad when it arrived.
It should be mentioned that the text is just as important as the comic. Many readers have complained about the long written sequences that end nearly every issue. It is important that readers exercise some patience and be okay with actually reading! These "Commonplace Book" entries are key to understanding the story and they add so much as well. They show Robert Black's true personality beneath the friendly, bookish veneer he maintains: he is actually a snobby, shallow chauvinist who is unbearably naive, diminishes nearly everyone he meets, and is a completely terrible judge of character. Some entries function as a parallel narrative that describe what is actually happening to the narrator. Different entries encapsulate the fraught diversity of the American character, how it is in actual opposition to different parts of itself. Plus there is a hilarious send-up of a biblical sermon, delivered by the murderous and upbeat fish-men of Innsmouth.
I loved the dream cycle within Providence: a terrible journey underground, a bizarre dream in Salem that is a gateway to Robert Black's subconscious and a series of clues about the mysteries that surround him, and especially the hallucinatory and often revolting visions brought on by a witch & her familiar during his stay in a pleasant bed & breakfast. Beyond those specific dream images, Moore also visits the dream-worlds of Lord Dunsany and Lovecraft's own Dunsanian visions that make up his Randolph Carter cycle (and both of whom are actual characters in this series, along with Lovecraft himself).
As far as the art by Jacen Burrows goes, I feel like I could have written this whole review on that alone. In a word, the art is INCREDIBLE. So much going on! Burrows has always impressed me, but this time he just blew me away with how at the top of his game he is on each page, in each panel. His use of the zoom-in is like nothing I've seen before. This is art that requires close inspection and contemplation. This is also art that genuinely scared me (in the sequence of a tower slowly and inexplicably traversing material space to visit Robert in his room - or was it vice versa?) and, eventually, boggled my mind with the mastery displayed in its penultimate chapter. Chapter 11 portrays poor Robert Black's easily predictable but still tragic end, and then shifts to telegrammatically provide an entire chronology of the life of H.P. Lovecraft and his circle, an ending to each of the stories started throughout Providence, and then smoothly moves to the world of this series' origin, Neonomicon. A reference guide is useful in fully understanding this ingenious chapter:
Also, whoever created the Wikipedia entry for this series really killed it. So many references teased and some even explained (obliquely). Kudos to that anonymous wizard.
Other favorite things about my experience with the collection: the eventual understanding that the world of Providence features a range of different supernatural factions and classes in competition with each other (fascinating stuff); the realization that what I thought was a postmodern meta narrative was actually - and sneakily - an Origin Story; the horrifying and hilarious supporting character of Captain Shadrach the cheerful immortal cannibal; the protagonist's bisexuality (it is clear that he veers homosexual, but there's enough evidence that he digs the female kind as well, at times) which for me was awesome on a personal level because I don't see many people like me in my reading; and most of all - and what is probably the series' biggest selling point - the incredible reinvention of nearly all of Lovecraft's key works of fiction, alongside others like Chambers & Dunsany.
Like so (and also, here's a synopsis of each of the three volumes):
Act I: in the Cool Air the King In Yellow shall Repair various Reputations through the use of rare books and secret caves and public suicide boxes. alas, the Horror At Red Hook is but a Shadow of what takes place at Innsmouth which in turn has nothing on the Horror occuring in Dunwich.
Act II: our hero has unpleasant Dreams In The Witch House, no doubt influenced by the radioactive Colour Out Of Space next door and only encouraged by a sweet young miss who may be some terrible sort of Thing On The Doorstep. fortunately, the sexy Herbert West: Re-Animator shall provide succor, and so shall the notable artist Pickman and his mouth-breathing Model.
Act III: the poor protagonist travels to and flees from setting to setting, his reality unraveling as interlopers From Beyond manipulate his goals. he shall hook up with a surprisingly fetching Charles Dexter Ward, but sadly such exercise shall only serve to inspire the Haunter of the Dark to come a'calling. all's well that end's well as our hero ends it all and our world ends as well, as Moore concludes his Neonomicon and the history of human life itself. Happy 1st Birthday, baby Cthulhu! 'Tis the dawning of the Age of Aquarius...
10/31/20 placeholder: Stuck at home on Halloween with a toothache and loopy from pain meds, receiving strange texts every half hour demanding my vote on this or that for the upcoming apocalypse election, reading in the shade of my patio on a beautifully sunny day that promises to turn into a cold, foggy night filled with shouts from drunken revelers and drugged-out homeless, trying to ignore the strident, embittered whining from the elderly homebound woman next door, just as her silent caregivers seem to always do, the scent of grilled meat in the air, and of course living in America: what better setting to read about horrific Lovecraftian incursions? Let's do this!...more
despite all of the eerie, slowly-paced discovery that suddenly morphs into page-turning, fast-paced excitementpage turner, page turner! this was fun.
despite all of the eerie, slowly-paced discovery that suddenly morphs into page-turning, fast-paced excitement, despite the lovecraftian flourishes and the mind-bending dimension-folding strangeness and the frenetic, you-are-there-now action set pieces, despite all of the wham! bam! of it all, there's one central component to the novel that really warmed my heart: the novel's own heart, which is front and center. this is a sweetly affecting novel about people supporting other people and how humans need each other. so much time is spent on its characters realizing that they not only enjoy each other's company - they need each other's company. humans need to connect with each other on, you know, a human level. the writing itself may have reminded me of mainstream tv writing, but I came away from the book really liking the actual writer. Clines seems like a decent, kind person.
so if you are in need of a bit of a break from these trying times - but you don't want to lose sight of the lessons that are currently being learned and relearned by, oh, the whole damn world - then you may want to give this one a try....more
Kiernan's mastery of tone, setting, characterization... incredible. Some stories are like tragic biographical entries in a journal found on a desertedKiernan's mastery of tone, setting, characterization... incredible. Some stories are like tragic biographical entries in a journal found on a deserted beach, others form a tapestry illustrating a world unaware of the many hungry creatures and their various misadventures beneath the world's surface, others are like pitch-dark fairy tales told with verve and heaps of irony. All are expertly written; the prose is fabulous. The author is both dreamer and craftsman. Oh the melancholy of it all! And the ambiguity. Such strange, sinister dreams - and yet the more you read of them, the more they make a kind of strange, sinister sense.
Then I took a deep breath and stepped across the threshold, out of the shadows and into a more decided blackness, a more definitive chill, and all those mundane threats dissolved. Everything slipped from my mind...
This is very hard to acquire in its original format put out by the awesome Centipede Press, but fortunately it's also available as an e-book.
"Valentia (1994)" - troubling evidence of ancient tracks are found on Valentia Island, leading to even more troubling deaths. a excellent opening to the collection: ambiguous, atmospheric, dreamy, and finally, horrific. no doubt these will be adjectives that can be applied to many of the subsequent stories.
"So Runs the World Away" - ghosts and ghouls and vampires co-habit in a strange old house, doing their various horrid things until going their various ways, only to return the next evening. that description may sound camp or very Ray Bradbury's October Country. but it's not; Kiernan's tale is a mystery about motivation, what actually happened, when it actually happened, who it happened to and why, and what will happen next.
"From Cabinet 34, Drawer 6" - time bends forward and backward as a stubborn young paleontologist struggles with an exciting new find, competing factions with competing goals, the legend of Innsmouth, and the true nature of the classic Creature from the Black Lagoon.
"The Drowned Geologist (1898)" - Dr. Watson receives a strange letter from America, detailing a paleontologist's experience with a colleague's unusual death and a meeting with the supposedly vanished Sherlock Holmes. this was a minor piece but also an intriguing one.
"The Dead and the Moonstruck" - it's tough being a changeling among ghouls. a story set in the same world (and house) of "So Runs the World Away" and also from a child's perspective. this was lovely and affecting, despite also being about doggish corpse-eaters and stolen children and a ritual that could result in a kid's hands being eaten off. plus it has a heartwarming friendship at its core! I really liked this one.
"Houses Under the Sea" - an understandably depressed journalist reflects on his time with his dearly departed girlfriend, a cult leader. Mass suicide, an altar and what lay on it, a ghostly child, a video recording of a sigil and a face found at the bottom of the sea. Ours is not to wonder why, ours is but to do then die, or something like that. Perhaps the most perfect story of this collection.
"Pickman's Other Model" - a silent film star once did terrible things, and paid the price.
"Thousand-and-Third Tale of Scheherazade" - a sex slave tells a story to his mistress, a changeling getting ready to leave for her night's work, all about a princess who tries to protect her friend, a ghoul. another story of Ghoul World and just as fascinating as those other stories, although slight.
"The Bone's Prayer" - two women find a strange pebble, one woman goes away but remains, her body a shell for a new thing. this was haunting and creepy and dreamy and above all, melancholy. much like...
"At the Gate of Deeper Slumber" - two women find a strange box and enact a strange ritual. one woman goes... elsewhere. beautifully written and such tragedy at the heart of it. are these women and their ritual inviting in or holding off the Lovecraftian horrors that the box would like them to open? I'm not sure, but the death of a relationship due to an outside force that has changed one of them is always such a sad thing to read. but is an outside force truly responsible, if that person has welcomed it in?
"The Peril of Liberated Objects" - within a red book's pages, a lonely reader watches her secret fantasy of a meadow, a woman, and a unicorn come alive. the vile unicorn rapes and impregnates the degraded woman; the reader orgasms. this story is as dark and disturbing as it sounds.
"Fish Bride" - a creepy human loves a creepier half-breed, born of a witch and something horrible from the sea. together they contemplate the history of their broken village and imagine their eventual parting. a mood piece rather than a narrative and that works out just fine. mood: clammy.
"The Alchemist's Daughter" (fragment) - a story set in Lovecraft's Dreamlands, specifically Ulthar, city of cats. features an alchemist with many adventures behind her, her lover/servant, and a foreboding dragon's egg. it's frustrating that this enchanting story is only a fragment, when the story, character, and setting deserve a whole book! alas.
"John Four" - the biblical passage referenced by this short story's title is the one about the Samaritan woman meeting Jesus at her well. the story itself is... well, a first for me. it is set in the last human city, post-Earth invasion by Azathoth & Nyarlothotep. an exceedingly bleak, horrifying, hallucinogenic experience. unforgettable, really.
"On the Reef" - the rites of a cult worshipping Cthulhu's chthonic city are detailed. to wear the golden mask and be partnered with another mask-wearer is to be subsumed, your soul eaten, your new self an avatar for a much greater being. a happy ending for such cultists.
"The Transition of Elizabeth Haskings" - poor Ms. Hastings, a descendant of sub-mariners, prey to regular transformations, supported by her gay best friend who she imagines as her lover. a sad, tender, and moving piece punctuated by body horror.
"A Mountain Walked" - a tale of the Old West and of finding & taking things one shouldn't. this eerie and eventually awe-filled tale is especially cinematic. its ending is fantastic: a strange visitor confronting a camp of freaked-out archaeologists, as something invisible and very, very large indeed casts a gigantic shadow that blots out the stars.
"Love Is Forbidden, We Croak and Howl" - a tender romance blooms between underworld-dwelling ghoul and a seaward Innsmouth resident.
"Pushing the Sky Away" - a bold archaeologist lies dying in a strange being's arms, her use of an obliterating arcane weapon being that last temptation that she just couldn't resist. alas!
"Black Ships Seen South of Heaven" - in post-apocalyptic Chicago, after the invasion of Azathoth and the resurfacing of Cthulhu, an infected soldier betrays humanity by capitulating to Nyarlothotep's dark design. well this was bleak! and steeped in weariness and tragedy. but also a fascinating, immersive look at humanity's final convulsions after Lovecraft's gods finally break through.
"Pickman's Madonna" - the dark and horrific tale of Isaac and Isobel, twins and lovers and sadistic killers, born to rule... and so they did, conquering the great ghoul city below.
"The Peddler's Tale" - an alternate to the prior story, set in Ulthor: a fantasy of the princess Isobel, and her daughter Elspeth's battle to take back the lands claimed by her father/uncle Isaac. a surprisingly charming story.
"The Cats of River Street" - nuanced slice of life that first focuses on the quirky human inhabitants of Innsmouth, then switches to portray the life of the town's cats, brave soldiers in the ongoing war against invaders from the sea. as with the preceding story, this was entirely delightful.
"M Is for Mars" - this novella about a depressed schoolteacher on Mars, forced into a strange plot to welcome the unearthing of a Lovecraftian god that is buried there, is this collection's sole disappointment. not due to the writing - strong as usual - nor the absorbing ideas. rather, the novella should have been a novel. I finished it feeling irritated and unfulfilled. I'm a person who appreciates ambiguity, but this was a bridge too far - I needed so much more. also, the heroine was a real drag to spend time with.
"The Dandridge Cycle" - four stories detailing a human lock, set to keep the gateway between our world and another closed. the cycle comes at this idea from all angles, exploring a cult devoted to this lock, a painting of the house built above the gate (itself a palpable, eerie presence), the lure of the house & gate on a pair of lovers, and finally the tragic tale of the human lock herself, a young lady of extraordinary intelligence and bravery. this was an excellent way to close out this collection....more
Lovecraftian bad times featuring two ill-fated teens in Misty Valley, situated between Dunwich and Innsmouth, circa the Eisenhower presidency. UnfortuLovecraftian bad times featuring two ill-fated teens in Misty Valley, situated between Dunwich and Innsmouth, circa the Eisenhower presidency. Unfortunately the thing that I enjoyed the most about this story was the title. Otherwise we have several two-dimensional characters whose cardboard qualities completely annoyed me, bland prose with a distinct lack of atmosphere, a very derivative story, and quite a lot of semen - certainly well beyond my comfort level. LOL?
However the major crime that reduced this from a *shrug* 2 stars to an *ugh, horrible* 1 star is the criminal misuse of certain Lovecraftian entities. The Lovecraft story that this springs from - "The Dunwich Horror" - features the misadventures of transdimensional loverboy Yog-Sothoth's sons. Collins inexplicably misidentifies rapey lothario Yog as the slatternly Shub-Niggurath, who of course is also known as "The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young" - and is quite clearly a female. Shub doesn't roam around the woods raping girls, she's content to relax in her caverns, bubbling away, giving birth to her darling little monstrosities. It's Yogi Bear who has an eye for the ladies, and is armed with all of that cosmic semen. Good grief, what an embarrassing error! Painful to read.
This is the second story I've read by Collins; the first was the fantastic "From Hell's Heart" in the collection Classics Mutilated. I have several more stories by the author on my Kindle. Hopefully they take after my first experience rather than my second....more
a quick tour of Lovecraft's various monsters and gods - for the little ones. the story: an endearing but eventually sinister lad loses his pet shoggota quick tour of Lovecraft's various monsters and gods - for the little ones. the story: an endearing but eventually sinister lad loses his pet shoggoth and, with his cat, goes off to find it. he comes across many Lovecraftian horrors during his search. as adorable as it is horrible; suitable for children who enjoy creepy entertainments along the lines of Nightmare Before Christmas (although a wee bit darker). lots of squirmy, squishy, tentacly stuff. I know at least a couple kids who would love this, bless their black lil' hearts. also suitable for adults who enjoy these sorts of weird curiosities, like myself. the rhymes are amusing and the art is splendid.
and that's really all I have to say about this delightful trifle, so maybe some images from the book are in order:
"Violence, Child of Trust" by Michael Cisco "The Correspondence of Cameron Thaddeus Nash" by Ramsey Campbell "Lesser Demons" by Norman Partridge "Tempting Providence" by Jonathan Thomas
In "Violence, Child of Trust,"Cisco ingeniously and horribly reimagines Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury as a squirmy tale of a family of very different brothers, the kidnapped women they've forced into their backwoods cult, and the terrors that they worship. of all the stories, on the level of prose alone, "Violence" stands the tallest. it is brilliantly and challengingly written, full of ambiguity and startling changes in pespective. this would be a 5 star story if it wasn't so completely repugnant.
"The Correspondence of Cameron Thaddeus Nash" has Campbell at his most relaxed and playful. The deranged title character writes a series of letters to H.P. Lovecraft; the relationship between the two slowly degenerates. Lovecraft aficianados will find a lot of amusement in Nash's excoriations of the author's peers and stories; I found Nash's slow degradation to be eerie and eventually chilling.
Norman Partridge's "Lesser Demons" is a cthulhic take on the post-apocalyptic us versus monsters tale. this was pure rambunctious fun, sardonic and brutal and swiftly paced. Partridge creates a world that I would have happily spent a whole novel living in.
my personal favorite of the collection was Thomas' strange, melancholy and pleasingly ironic "Tempting Providence." an artist revisits his college during an art opening featuring his own work and finds himself haunted again by the ghost of Lovecraft. this set-up was not one that excited me but Thomas makes the experience unique. the story unfolds slowly, revealing layer upon layer: self-reflection and self-recrimination, mystifying changes in appetite and perspective, the present destroying the past, the past coming back to confound the present, battles of will both internal and external, and a fascinatingly oblique yet visceral threat. the story really came out of left field for me because I'm completely unfamiliar with the author. upon finishing it, I count myself a fan and plan on looking into his standalone collections. excellent story!
"Tunnels" by Philip Haldeman "Substitution" by Michael Marshall Smith "Usurped" by William Browning Spencer "The Truth about Pickman" by Brian Stableford "Pickman's Other Model" by Caitlín R. Kiernan "The Broadsword" by Laird Barron
Haldeman and Smith construct a pair of exciting page-turners featuring unusual methods of catching (human) prey. Spencer only slightly evokes Lovecraft in his thoughtful tale of a relatively happy man intrigued by a mysterious and perhaps perfect-for-him neighbor (spoiler: she's not). Barron's epic story of an apartment building invaded by sadistic horrors starts very strong but devolves into nihilistic confusion; still, quite an intriguing and often genuinely scary piece. Kiernan and Stableford offer different takes on Lovecraft's classic story: the former rooted in cinema's dark past, the latter repositioning the story as one based on genetics (and eugenics).
"An Eldritch Matter" by Adam Niswander "Susie" by Jason Van Hollander "The Dome" by Mollie L. Burleson "Desert Dreams" by Donald R. Burleson "Engravings" by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. "Passing Spirits" by Sam Gafford "Inhabitants of Wraithwood" by W.H. Pugmire "Denker's Book" by David J. Schow "Rotterdam" by Nicholas Royle "Howling in the Dark" by Darrell Schweitzer
these were all rather disappointing and often irritating, but none of them were genuinely bad. still, why go into detail about stories that either annoyed me or that I forgot almost as soon as I finished them. although I will say that I was frequently entertained by the jazzy modernist flourishes of Pulver's prose style; Burleson's metaphysical musings were at times compelling, and the Ligotti-like tension between grim atmosphere and cerebral tone in Royle's story occasionally intrigued me.
this should have been a perfect story for me. Jim Thompson- esque noir plus cthulhic horror in San Francisco! Shea is an accomplished writer and clever wordsmith who can quickly establish an interesting and relatable protagonist within an instantly recognizable setting - one that can turn weird and threatening in mere moments. the updating of Lovecraft's themes to fit the modern world felt, at first, smart and fun. the vision of the SF Bay Area being a physical manifestation of one of the Old Ones was amazing! Shea has a way with imagery and clearly thinks outside of the box.
but here's the thing: when you have an author like Lovecraft, one whose racism seeps into the occasional story like a dollop of spoiled milk in coffee or a piece of rancid meat in an otherwise delicious meal... don't reenvision that racism by updating it to a modern world of threatening low-income neighborhoods and ghoulish people of color who are ready to embrace the abyss. be aware of the context and don't ignore it - or worse, don't buy into it! because then you come across as being as racist as Lovecraft can be, when he's at his worst. and that's not a good look for a modern author.
Clever, clever. Three pieces: the first two are less about being Lovecraftian and more about exploring HP Lovecraft and his world/worldview; the thirdClever, clever. Three pieces: the first two are less about being Lovecraftian and more about exploring HP Lovecraft and his world/worldview; the third is a cute-goofy rejoinder to At the Mountains of Madness from the perspective of a cheeky lil' shoggoth. The first,"Driving to Dunwich", has a Ballardian deadpan in its depiction of an alternate reality where Lovecraft is a storied pop phenomenon. Interesting but rather dull; I did love the idea of a series of blockbuster Randolph Carter movies. The second is a play, and a highly ambitious one: it juggles Lovecraft's racism, Hamlet, communism in mid-20th century America, Nazi ideals, a zombie, and vodou mysticism straight out of a Hammer horror film. Rather ingeniously put together but eventually collapses under the weight of too many layers. The third piece was amusing; I always like the recasting of villains as heroes and this tale adds a bit of resonance by making it a coming of age story as well. Poor penguins though.
Shadow Out of Providence is impressively illustrated (including photographs) by a trio of skilled artists. Three smaller pieces of separate art are included as well: a postcard, a silk-screened bookmark, and a cute lil' card featuring a cute, scared lil' shoggoth.
The book is subtitled a ❖ M E T A T E X T ❖ ...and so I shall employ my own version of that conceit by putting portions of three reviews of this book through my Postmodern Metatextual Meat Grinding Machine (i.e. Google Translate).
Dunwich is the title of the title "text, the story has taken away his friend, a multimedia star Timothy Hutchings, and started screaming in the memoir account of Dunwich, Massachusetts, to the desert desert, Hutchings" video video created by Dunich. "According to a story This is interesting, which has lived up to Lovecraft recently in 1959 as a surprise to the right., Where did he get married to director of Archdaleom's Peter Jackson, and writing and business success with David Lynch's painting work paint. the closed should be from time to time, and most widely distributed among scientists (not) you are Lovecraft. This may be, disagree, or rely on the pages of one of them may be in prison. I have a future history that appears on Wikipedia if you see some of the "facts" I am not going to be a healer. Just watch. ,,
The second story tells us that the notary brother of HP Albert Jarmin Liechchaft, and his political player, "The information in the past was Edwin Thurston and his family." Game Hercules opens the game, turns it into theater theater with Knight Gones Night, Big Heads and Unique Bodyguard, "Friends on the Wall". Explain flight, encoding and clothing by Don Zettech.
My favorite little story about the end, which, in some ways, is part of the most raw and humorous, but which is also the most original. His story choggoth on what I think is an underwater beneath the hills of madness, said from the perspective of Shoggoths. He wrote in a democratic style, and Shoggot was somewhat psychologically similar to the feast of an abandoned colony, which should take care of itself, dealing with a small group of ignorant descendants of their great and terrible ones made in their vicinity.
the good: the art is lovely and I liked the oddness of a story that features art that looks like an homage to Boys' Adventures serials from the 20s anthe good: the art is lovely and I liked the oddness of a story that features art that looks like an homage to Boys' Adventures serials from the 20s and 30s being put in service of a dire Lovecraft plot. I always appreciate the tension that occurs when simple, often primary color-based palettes, intelligent use of shadow, and retro stylization are used to tell a story of darkness and terror. Blue Velvet, Parents, etc. so that was an interesting choice by Culbard. or maybe it's just his style?
some not-so-good things too. Culbard's occasional updating of Lovecraft's dialogue felt distinctly off. he plays around with the narrative itself in a minor way, but also in a way that I found unnecessary and often irritating. this adaptation spends too much time showing all of the preamble before getting to the exploration of the alien city, and the result is a story that ends up being surprisingly dull. and sadly the art itself fails when depicting that city - it looks like a futuristic place of jetpacks and rockets rather than something truly alien and therefore truly disturbing. that is a big, big fail.
this is a 2 star book but I feel the need to give it an extra star because I'm obsessed with the cover. so evocative yet so unreal. eerie. I'd like it to be painted on one of my walls. Culbard, can you do that for me?
a fun, brief shaggy dog story with a pretty famous last line. moral of the tale: don't great collection.
3 stars for "The Statement of Randolph Carter"
a fun, brief shaggy dog story with a pretty famous last line. moral of the tale: don't go looking for kicks inside of tombs. duh!
3 stars for "The Shunned House"
Lovecraft at his most Lovecraft. displays his strengths and weaknesses equally. a whole lot of tell and not a lot of show... but the "history" recounted in the story was really absorbing to me. I love History as Horror. a whole lot of florid prose and hysterical emotions... annoying to some, I suppose, but I love it. this story can be boiled down as such: the sadly brief adventure of two gents trying to figure out what exactly is up with a terrible house in Providence. two-thirds of the story recounts the creepy story of this house and its various doomed inhabitants and the last third is about those two curious fellows spending too long in a particularly bad room of that house. what they discover is surprisingly weird and not what I expected.
4 stars for "Dreams in the Witch-House"
this is the real find of the book as it doesn't often make its way into Lovecraft collections. young Walter Gilman is a student at Miskatonic University and a resident of one of Arkham's apparently common haunted houses. he encounters a dead witch, her rat-like familiar Brown Jenkins, and the "black man" also known as Nyarlathotep (my personal favorite of the Cthulhu bunch). many psychedelic dreams ensue in which Walter travels across multiple dimensions and sees bizarre things while slowly realizing he is being entrapped in a plan to sacrifice an infant and then be whisked away on a one-way trip to the throne of Azathoth. those dreams were fascinating and included all sorts of details that were both vividly odd and surprisingly precise. I was fascinated by the image of the witch and her familiar's dream-shapes: "a rather large congeries of iridescent, prolately spheroidal bubbles and a very much smaller polyhedron of unknown colors and rapidly shifting surface angles". the whole story has the feeling of a hysterical, escalating fever dream. I love those sorts of dreams!
5 stars for "At the Mountains of Madness"
classic novella about an ill-fated expedition into an alien city on the Antarctica Plateau. this is the make-it-or-break-it point for Lovecraft novices. if you can't deal with the hyperventilating style and all of the history as horror, best to give up because this is Lovecraft in a nutshell.
during my re-read, I realized that my favorite thing about this novella is the parallel narrative that is submerged within the story. there's the tale recounted by the expedition leader that makes up the entirety of the narrative... but within that is the story of aliens woken by this expedition, forced to cope with an entirely new world after a millennium of sleeping, their journey back to their now desolate and abandoned homeland, and their tragic battle with the monsters that have remained there. poor aliens! I really felt for them. and I was surprised at the amount of sympathy that the often offensively xenophobic Lovecraft clearly had for them as well. I guess we all have our soft spots...
awwwwwww, just look at this adorable lil' baby Cthulhu and his sweet little button-eyes that don't even recognize you as sentient:
And so we slept for a million millennia, on the edge of our great city. So close and yet so far! Why were we outside of our fair ciA TRAGIC HOMECOMING
And so we slept for a million millennia, on the edge of our great city. So close and yet so far! Why were we outside of our fair city, our families and companions mere steps away? The reasons are lost in time. And as we slumbered, our tropical paradise became a land of neverending winter, a polar graveyard.
We were woken, those of us who still lived. Four lived and four were lost. We woke in confusion and terror, our tropic city gone, the snow and wind howling around us. Strange bipedal things cried out and lay their hands upon us, intent on experimentation, their four-legged companions barking and savage... we slew them all in our panic. Odd creatures, these bipedal explorers. Were they the new masters of this world? Were they our peers? We, the Elder Race, have few of those.
We took some of their equipment, and a body each of the bipeds and their companions for further study. We buried our dead and then made haste back to our city, to see what changes a million millennia had wrought. After our leave-taking, new explorers arrived. They discovered our city.
We returned to our home. It had became an empty palace of the dead. Where were our fellows? Where were our servants, the creatures we called Shoggoths?
Only our loyal companions remained in this terrible empty city. They squawked their excitement at our return. A million millennia is a long time! But they could tell us nothing of what had become of our world.
Overcome with despair, we journeyed to a refuge that had been built by our kind, a city constructed within a subterranean sea. We followed our tunnels down. And there we found not our sought-for homecoming... but another necropolis. And so we found our doom. Shoggoths! Traitorous servants! As they had risen up against our kind in ages past, they had rebelled again - but this time they had won. They had destroyed our undersea refuge and all of our kind. And as we gazed upon our shattered city within the dark waters beneath the earth, the Shoggoths rose once more... and slew the last of us.
'Twas indeed a tragic homecoming. We that remained of the Elder Race, lost out of time, born again into a world so strange, and then so quickly slain.
The biped explorers had their own meeting with our rebel servants. The meeting did not go well.
And yet, unlike us, they managed to escape the Shoggoths, and fled our city.
In their flight, did they pass near that fearsome land next to ours, beyond our mountains? Ancient Kadath. A place out of time, home to the Old Ones. Terrible Kadath! We had lived in Kadath's shadow, in the shadow of those old slumbering gods, so long ago. What did the explorers glimpse in their flight near Kadath? Were we not the only beings the explorers had woken?
Nicknames: The Many-Tentacled One, The Dweller in the Deep Likes: dreaming, sending dreams to minions, the watery depths, water sports in general Dislikes: locked gates, being stuck at the bottom of the ocean Favorite Craft: although he enjoys the comforts of home and armchair traveling via the minds of his minions, Mr. Cthulhu also longs for freedom and adventure - and so his favorite hobby besides scrapbooking is planning fun ways to get out in the open and into the world. What He Is Looking For: someone unafraid of genuine depth in another person; strong interest in immersing themselves in different cultures is a must.
Nicknames: The Black Man, The Crawling Chaos Likes: crystals and other "New Age" curios, trying on different outfits and shapes and meat suits Dislikes: racists, close-minded people :( Favorite Craft: a natural orator, Mr. Nyarlothotep enjoys crafting motivational speeches for crowds of naive young people and various mongrel half-human races looking to take that next step into the beyond or as food for the Old Ones - wherever their hearts lie, he wants to make that happen! What He Is Looking For: someone able to cast their innate biases and humanity aside, just let those preconceptions go and try something crazy & new!
__________
and now for the review:
sad to say, this is for Cthulhu completists only. the premise is fun: various characters realize that H.P. Lovecraft wasn't writing fiction at all, he was warning the world of the many dangers of the Old Ones! and off they go around the world, getting into horrific adventures on tropical islands, in the middle of the ocean, on jets and in churches and in dusty little offices and rich bachelor pads. unfortunately the execution is middling at best. although Bloch knows pacing and how to build an intriguing narrative full of weird imagery, unfortunately his actual prose is dull as dishwater (and other cliches). he betrays a certain reactionary, old man-ish stodginess whenever the topic of Youth Culture comes up - rather amusing at first but it quickly became annoying. I didn't appreciate the inclusion of a tired rape joke (the if-you-can't-stop-it-then-sit-back-and-enjoy-it one). but the most egregious flaw runs through the novel from beginning to end: characters can't stop commenting on how this or that scary situation is just like this or that particular Lovecraft story and hey, let's just describe that story, right now in the middle of the action. this happens again and again and again. ugh, so tiresome.
but this isn't a 1 star book, it does have its virtues. a surprising change in protagonists was a strength. the narrative shifts into the future for its last quarter, and I loved that. the novel also depicts the beginning of the end of the world due to Nyarlothotep's scheming and the eventual rise of Cthulhu, and I loved that too. the images of Los Angeles going down in flames then earthquakes then floods were quite pleasing, because I have also imagined such things when trying to cheer myself up....more
this novella is the most adorable thing. it may be set within the Cthulhu mythos - which is mainly concerned with terrifying god-monsters that have bethis novella is the most adorable thing. it may be set within the Cthulhu mythos - which is mainly concerned with terrifying god-monsters that have been barred from our plane of existence because all they want to do is devour souls and they don't even care what you think - but it is undeniably cute. like so:
our hero is an English archivist who has been notified by residents of the coastal town of Gulshaw (town motto: "There's so much more to see!") that the 9 volumes of the arcane set of books known as "The Last Revelation of Gla'aki" are available for the taking; all he has to do is come on by and pick them up. it turns out that - shocker - Gulshaw is a very strange town. its residents are all quite pale (beneath the spray-on tans that some of them sport) and are either undernourished or oddly flabby. they have weirdly misshapen limbs and heads. they seem to have some sort of group-think thing going on and they find it surprisingly hard to even talk. they put on the most eccentric stage shows that involve what I suppose you would call "folk dancing" and the singing of disturbing songs and eerie acrobatics and a stand-up comedy routine that basically consists of falling down over and over again. as far as the children of Gulshaw go, those who aren't busy practicing how to walk properly are prone to crawling/dragging themselves slowly towards you to do who knows what. the adorable lil' tykes probably have something pretty cute in mind!
the Gulshaw residents put our hero through a bit of a process before he receives his books: he must visit 9 people, each who will give him one of the 9 volumes. and so he takes an extended tour of the picturesque village. there's the schoolroom, the senior center, the zoo, and many other discomfiting places. wherever he goes, people are quite polite and even cheery towards him. they clearly appreciate his interest and, perhaps less clearly, see that his future is a bright one and that he is destined to serve rather an important function for the town.
Ramsey Campbell is a modern master of horror who is known for his challenging prose and his intense, often off-putting characterization. he puts most of that idiosyncrasy to the side in service of a novella that instead means to deliver ambiguous and possibly cosmic horror in the quaintest of ways. although I missed that distinctly off quality present in past displays of Campbell-style weirdness, it was still a pleasure to be in the hands of such a capable author. he's so completely at ease with the various tropes of Cthulhu Mythos fiction that he can play around a bit: his menacing scenes are full of weird repetitions, strained banter and amusing wordplay, and always a strong dose of mordant irony. the tale is unnerving and creepy - and often delightfully funny. this is not a purely comic tale by any means, but there's a tongue planted firmly in cheek somewhere in the telling. I didn't realize Campbell had it in him to make a village of cultists appear so threatening yet also so endearing.
the goofy title is just about the only thing that doesn't work in this otherwise awesome novel. I even love that bizarre cover.
this is horror in spacethe goofy title is just about the only thing that doesn't work in this otherwise awesome novel. I even love that bizarre cover.
this is horror in space. or rather, horror on another world, in the city of Paxton (dubbed 'Punktown' by its inhabitants. which I also didn't like that much. ok, two things that don't work).
I just poured my second good-sized glass of nigori sake. I wonder why. well, it is delicious. I'm not the sort of chap who particularly enjoys getting drunk on my lonesome, but hey sometimes it happens.
so Christopher Ruby finds himself engaged in a secret war with practitioners of dark arts who want to bring the eldritch Elder Gods back into our universe. it is Cthulhu time! I wonder why I read so many books about the Cthulhu mythos. I wonder what that says about me. one of these days Cthulthu is gonna appear in front of me and ask Who's Your Daddy? and I'm pretty sure what my answer will be.
anyway, Christopher Ruby has to kill his girlfriend (not a spoiler), he has to kill this fish-mutant dude (also not a spoiler), he has to wrangle with the forces of evil, he has to make many surprising choices. he's a man with a plan. he hasn't amounted to much in his life but he has realized that he is actually a good guy who wants to do good. I really like Christopher Ruby, his mild sarcasm that doesn't veer into nihilism, his lack of sexism, his casual embrace of difference and the different, his loser-ish & loner-like attributes but also his lack of Serious & Soul Debilitating Issues That Annoy Me. really, he's my ideal protagonist. or maybe I've just been reading too much of Mortal Leap and dealing with dead soul types has wearied me. Christopher even rents a whore and it somehow doesn't make him a bad or even exploitative guy. it made me think of friends who have also had their times with prostitutes and yet I wouldn't say they are remotely bad or even particularly sexist guys. huh. oh and Christopher has guilty feelings about it, which sorta made me like him even more.
just realized that my glass of sake looks like a glass of watered-down semen.
so Christopher Ruby fights the good fight and along the way he meets an appealing alien cop who he falls in love with. I sorta fell in love with her too. her species is the author's version of extremist Islamic cultures but yet he manages to not be remotely offensive in his depiction of this repressive alien culture.
ah, time for a new cd. I think Material's Hallucination Engine would be perfect. so alien
ok back to the novel. it is FIRST PERSON YOU ARE HERE NOW OMG! but it really works. no infodumps either. it has a great central set piece in a church, a church sunk beneath the subway lines due to a questionable earthquake. an earthquake caused by Cthulhu & Company? perhaps.
wait, what's that cheesy saxophone doing on this album. next track!
the novel has a brilliant idea at its heart: a terrible, shadowy city that is a kind of extension, an avatar of sorts, of various terrible, shadowy things. a city of strange alien patterns that devours its own. nice. well maybe "nice" is the wrong word. well, you know. this city is where Christopher Ruby lives. kind of an uphill battle.
woah, William S. Burroughs is on this album! forgot about that. how fitting.
there's a lot in the book about corporatization & the meat industry & other assorted modern bugaboos, well futuristic bugaboos in this case, these bugaboos being particularly easy places for terrible, shadowy things to ensconce themselves. nothing new there, but done well here. "ensconce" - nice word. and "bugaboo" - sort of hard to believe that's an actual word.
wow, nearly done with my drink. already!
SPOILER: happy ending! for real. I totally did not expect that. nice to see a doom & gloom novel of space horror end with happy rays of love. gosh I'm a romantic.
so this novel doesn't have challenging prose and it didn't make me cry and I probably won't read it again - all the various requirements I've set up for giving a book that 4th star. but fuck it, imma give this one 4 stars anyway. it was exciting and it made me happy. there, done.
refill? why not, today was a good day, work was good, reading was good, a good talk with a few friends as well. plus I think I will watch Big Brother now and that dumbass show needs booze to be tolerable. 3rd glass, here I come!...more
Dread Island is entertaining, exceedingly original, and - despite its bizarrely disparate parts - surprisingly smooth going down. Joe Lansdale shows off his writing chops in a witty and piquant mash-up that seems like it was a lot of fun to write. it sure was fun to read....more
sorry, seekers of swift and forgettable pleasures (and I include myself in that number): this one is for advanced readers only... if you aren't able tsorry, seekers of swift and forgettable pleasures (and I include myself in that number): this one is for advanced readers only... if you aren't able to hang with that, time to move on. you may not like what you see here. or hey, maybe you will.
if you have to put a label on them, the stories in this collection would I suppose be considered Tales of Horror. they are not classic ghost stories nor are they visceral modern narratives either - some of these stories barely even have narratives. they come, if they come from anywhere, more from the tradition of 'Weird Fiction' - Blackwood, Bierce, et al. even that is an unsuccessful label. I would put this author next to Aickman and Ligotti: he has Ligotti's ability to conjure up physical landscapes of blight and decay and bizarre otherworldliness, but his focus is more on the internal, much like Aickman. and yet he is not particularly focused on the psychological, unlike Aickman. really, he is unique. his stories are often about a state of mind. spiritual transformation. mental degradation. crazed emotional highs and lows. metaphorical landscapes. terrible forms of transcendence. intellectual terrors. chthonic excavations. although the author makes good use of the Lovecraft mythos and ideas drawn from Machen and Chambers, this collection is about as far away from straightforward horror as the brilliant film Brazil is from traditional science fiction. but still, the frisson created in the reader is decidedly horrific more than anything else. profoundly ambiguous and cerebral horror. after finishing a story, my reaction was usually What the hell did I just read?
the man is a genius with the words. "literary writer" is a vaguely objectionable phrase to use when describing a genre writer because it condescendingly implies that most genre writers are tradesmen rather than artists. but I suppose the shoe fits in this case. he is highly literary and highly challenging, demonstrating complete ease in using modernist and postmodern techniques whenever he pleases and almost always refusing to allow easy interpretation of his methods and meanings. Cisco does believe in the genre - it is clear he's no dilettante - but he works against the genre as well. he toys with it. despite the rigorously intellectual take on horror, he's also quite playful - there is so much that is mordantly, perversely funny. so Cisco is the whole package: literary skills and mastery of the genre and gleeful gamesmanship, all in one. sentence by sentence, page by page, story by story... I was extremely impressed, again and again.
all that said, this collection is a hard one to recommend. I guess see the first paragraph of this review. Secret Hours is not for everyone. but it is definitely for me!
here are some of my favorite stories, in roughly ascending order:
What He Chanced to Mould in Play visits a sodden Coney Island where Azathoth & Nyarlathotep meet-cute. sorta.
Herbert West: Reincarnated has our favorite Re-Animator discovering a new frontier: time itself! oh, Dr. West, you bad boy you - always with the tricks up your sleeve. the story is narrated by a re-animated corpse, of course.
Dr. Bondi's Methods details how Dr. Bondi of The Moral Institute carries out his patriotic duty of Keeping His Country Satanic by trying to figure out the mystery of what makes a "good person". it's a tough job, requiring many subjects.
Machines of Concrete, Light and Dark's protagonist takes a day trip with an intriguing, devouring lady friend to a place beneath his skin. Co-optation. Use. Loss. "This is necessary."
City of God is a wonderfully sardonic and sinister story of the city Dusktemper, divided by the concepts of Life and Death. divided but connected, existing side by side. our young hero: a novice necrophore enrolled in the Embalmer's College.
Water Nymphs... submerge, emerge, submerge again. rinse & repeat. drain yourself out of you. there is no you at all...
Translation is set in the far-future. or another dimension. or our own, transformed. our ambitious duo of translators find a way to summon their new employer. he has a very special story to tell them. I am You and You are Me and We are All Together!
The Depradations of Mur are not "depradations" per se. they are more like invitations. invitations to a personal-cosmic memory palace where the narrator is most at home. a palace of the mind in which the mind in question exults in its slow disintegration as it becomes one with a malevolent memory decay transform rot ruin unlife lkjsfd xyxyxy jklsf vines tendrils deadmind father,ohfather youmnemosynx'uu[]
He Will Be There: Hey Brother! Let's do something! Let's go somewhere, let's make a new friend, let's force a new friend into our car. Let's show our new friend something. "Knock Knock" "Who's There?" "King In Yellow!" "King in Yellow Who?" "King in Yellow You!"
and my favorite, the brilliant novella The Dream of the Ucasunis. this is the sole traditional tale of horror and suspense in Secret Hours. I'm reminded of Robert Aickman's "Pages from a Young Girl's Journal" - an equally brilliant and atypical story from that author, one that illustrated his ability to concoct a fairly straightforward narrative, if he so chose. he chose not to, 99% of the time. and so it is with Cisco and this story. I feel guilty about this being my favorite as it is so different, almost mainstream. but love's arrow flies where it will! and I fell in love with this haunting, morbid, and appalling story of a village girl employed by a beautiful and aloof family. there are things implied in this story that are so repellent, so monstrous, I really didn't even know what to make of them. my mind blanched. and yet the creeping horror, the awful grotesquerie, the sheer nastiness... it all comes wrapped up in page after page of luscious, evocative prose in an eerie story that is subtle, sensual, a model of elegant craftsmanship ... swoon. I guess. I'm either swooning or passing out horrified, I dunno. Jesus Fuck!
to sum up: this collection really sucked me in. but where did I go to exactly?
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