What do you think?
Rate this book
Tinfoil Dossier #1
Agents of Dreamland
A government special agent known only as the Signalman gets off a train on a stunningly hot morning in Winslow, Arizona. Later that day he meets a woman in a diner to exchange information about an event that happened a week earlier for which neither has an explanation, but which haunts the Signalman.
In a ranch house near the shore of the Salton Sea a cult leader gathers up the weak and susceptible—the Children of the Next Level—and offers them something to believe in and a chance for transcendence. The future is coming and they will help to usher it in.
A day after the events at the ranch house which disturbed the Signalman so deeply that he and his government sought out help from ‘other’ sources, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory abruptly loses contact with NASA’s interplanetary probe New Horizons. Something out beyond the orbit of Pluto has made contact.
And a woman floating outside of time looks to the future and the past for answers to what can save humanity.
In a ranch house near the shore of the Salton Sea a cult leader gathers up the weak and susceptible—the Children of the Next Level—and offers them something to believe in and a chance for transcendence. The future is coming and they will help to usher it in.
A day after the events at the ranch house which disturbed the Signalman so deeply that he and his government sought out help from ‘other’ sources, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory abruptly loses contact with NASA’s interplanetary probe New Horizons. Something out beyond the orbit of Pluto has made contact.
And a woman floating outside of time looks to the future and the past for answers to what can save humanity.
128 pages, ebook
First published February 28, 2017
About the author
Caitlín R. Kiernan
400 books1,610 followersCaitlín Rebekah Kiernan is an Irish-born American published paleontologist and author of science fiction and dark fantasy works, including ten novels, series of comic books, and more than two hundred and fifty published short stories, novellas, and vignettes.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 746 reviews
February 27, 2017
A government agent called The Signalman has a meeting with a mysterious woman in Winslow, Arizona about a bizarre cult murder near the Salton Sea days earlier. But what do those events have to do with the New Horizons space probe and a black and white movie penned by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
Despite my resolve to take on as few ARCs as possible this year, I couldn't resist this one when it popped up on Netgalley. It sounded wonderfully bizarre and it was.
Much like half of the books I've read so far in 2017, Agents of Dreamland is a modern Lovecraft tale of sorts, a tale of madness, alien fungus, shady government dealings, and an apocalypse on the horizon. There are a ton of ideas and hints in this novella, enough to fuel my imagination long after I finished it.
The Signalman is just a few years from retirement and fighting for every inch in that direction. Immacolata is a mysterious woman who knows many things she shouldn't. When she gives the Signalman her briefcase, his life gets several shades worse. The Fungi from Yuggoth are one of my favorite Lovecraftian baddies and they probably don't get enough press. Agents of Dreamland pushes them to their full potential, making for a chilling read.
Since it's a novella, I don't want to say much more. Suffice to say, Agents of Dreamland is a gripping read that blends Lovecraftian lore with conspiracy theories into a slick package brimming with ideas. 4.5 out of 5 stars.
Despite my resolve to take on as few ARCs as possible this year, I couldn't resist this one when it popped up on Netgalley. It sounded wonderfully bizarre and it was.
Much like half of the books I've read so far in 2017, Agents of Dreamland is a modern Lovecraft tale of sorts, a tale of madness, alien fungus, shady government dealings, and an apocalypse on the horizon. There are a ton of ideas and hints in this novella, enough to fuel my imagination long after I finished it.
The Signalman is just a few years from retirement and fighting for every inch in that direction. Immacolata is a mysterious woman who knows many things she shouldn't. When she gives the Signalman her briefcase, his life gets several shades worse. The Fungi from Yuggoth are one of my favorite Lovecraftian baddies and they probably don't get enough press. Agents of Dreamland pushes them to their full potential, making for a chilling read.
Since it's a novella, I don't want to say much more. Suffice to say, Agents of Dreamland is a gripping read that blends Lovecraftian lore with conspiracy theories into a slick package brimming with ideas. 4.5 out of 5 stars.
July 26, 2018
Agents of Dreamland follows a slow, creepy apocalypse. No, really.
This is Lovecraftian horror, and for that I have to compliment: it is very, very disturbing. The entire book is a journey in how far your mind can take you to dark places, in how to terrify human beings without ever really being specific about what we are meant to be terrified by. It is a book that forces you to stare into the void and then beg someone to look back.
It’s excellently written, mysterious enough to be compelling, and a bit existential.
So, I’ve been super complementary of this, but I also three starred. And that’s because I am not a horror person at all. I was expecting a lot of cool worldbuilding and cool character development and then horror as one aspect of a whole. But the sheer level of horror was kind of… all I got out of this book. Especially as it’s a novella, causing existential fear is the end-all-be-all of this book.
But I will also say that as a whole, this narrative is so confusing that I ended it feeling as if I had gotten nothing out of the book as a whole. Which is not the feeling you want when you finish a book. So overall... good, but not good for me.
Blog | Goodreads | Twitter | Youtube
This is Lovecraftian horror, and for that I have to compliment: it is very, very disturbing. The entire book is a journey in how far your mind can take you to dark places, in how to terrify human beings without ever really being specific about what we are meant to be terrified by. It is a book that forces you to stare into the void and then beg someone to look back.
It’s excellently written, mysterious enough to be compelling, and a bit existential.
So, I’ve been super complementary of this, but I also three starred. And that’s because I am not a horror person at all. I was expecting a lot of cool worldbuilding and cool character development and then horror as one aspect of a whole. But the sheer level of horror was kind of… all I got out of this book. Especially as it’s a novella, causing existential fear is the end-all-be-all of this book.
But I will also say that as a whole, this narrative is so confusing that I ended it feeling as if I had gotten nothing out of the book as a whole. Which is not the feeling you want when you finish a book. So overall... good, but not good for me.
Blog | Goodreads | Twitter | Youtube
June 28, 2017
Beautifully creepy.
In this novella, Kiernan takes Lovecraftian horror elements, and transposes them into an X-Files-type setting. A government agent known as The Signalman is set to meet another operative, Immacolata, regarding the actions of a California doomsday cult. For some reason, he finds his fellow operative even more frightening than the cult; even though brutal, horrific deaths have occurred.
Meanwhile, a young woman explains how the “Children of the Next Level” gave her life the hope and meaning she'd always lacked, with its leader's promises of transcendence and transformation. Well, transformation, of a kind, there certainly will be.
The writing is non-linear and obscure; and I wanted more from the ending... but I still loved it.
Definitely recommended for fans of VanDerMeer's 'Southern Reach' trilogy, as well as anyone who's interested by cult psychology and the weirder elements of the X-Files.
Many thanks to Tor and NetGalley for the opportunity to read. As always, my opinion is unrelated to the source of the book.
In this novella, Kiernan takes Lovecraftian horror elements, and transposes them into an X-Files-type setting. A government agent known as The Signalman is set to meet another operative, Immacolata, regarding the actions of a California doomsday cult. For some reason, he finds his fellow operative even more frightening than the cult; even though brutal, horrific deaths have occurred.
Meanwhile, a young woman explains how the “Children of the Next Level” gave her life the hope and meaning she'd always lacked, with its leader's promises of transcendence and transformation. Well, transformation, of a kind, there certainly will be.
The writing is non-linear and obscure; and I wanted more from the ending... but I still loved it.
Definitely recommended for fans of VanDerMeer's 'Southern Reach' trilogy, as well as anyone who's interested by cult psychology and the weirder elements of the X-Files.
Many thanks to Tor and NetGalley for the opportunity to read. As always, my opinion is unrelated to the source of the book.
January 27, 2024
Nothing short of amazing.
Two government agents, one death cult, a lot of back and forth in time and place and a very, very unsettling vision of the future. Due to the puzzle structure of this novella I think it's only now, having finished it, that I gain awareness of its scope and I just have to re-read it tonight.
I can't believe I let this book wait for me on my bookshelf for years, who knows what other treasures I have in my own home that I'm not aware of!
Two government agents, one death cult, a lot of back and forth in time and place and a very, very unsettling vision of the future. Due to the puzzle structure of this novella I think it's only now, having finished it, that I gain awareness of its scope and I just have to re-read it tonight.
I can't believe I let this book wait for me on my bookshelf for years, who knows what other treasures I have in my own home that I'm not aware of!
June 26, 2017
Not actually about the Dreamlands, although there is plenty of other Lovecrafty stuff in use.
A four-star for quality, although not for quantity -- I feel like there was a lot of material here that could have had more done with it, especially in terms of the two agents and their agencies. Hopefully Kiernan will do more with this world.
The idea of the was pretty gross, but the book as a whole didn't feel as creepy or frightening as some of her earlier novels. Not sure if that's intentional on the author's part or just me being more jaded by the horribleness of reality overshadowing that of fiction.
A four-star for quality, although not for quantity -- I feel like there was a lot of material here that could have had more done with it, especially in terms of the two agents and their agencies. Hopefully Kiernan will do more with this world.
The idea of the was pretty gross, but the book as a whole didn't feel as creepy or frightening as some of her earlier novels. Not sure if that's intentional on the author's part or just me being more jaded by the horribleness of reality overshadowing that of fiction.
December 18, 2020
"Cuando el planeta se convierta en un vergel y el cielo esté tiznado de
nubes nacidas de los caparazones que los creyentes habrán dejado atrás, llorarán
ante la futilidad de todos sus amargos esfuerzos. Incluso ahora, mis chiquillos,
ellos continúan conspirando y pugnando, engañados, trazando planes para esa
batalla final. Todo en vano. Atravesarán la noche en furgonetas negras y
cadillacs azabache, cuatro caballos de un apocalipsis insensato. Se plantarán en
nuestra puerta. Pero llegarán demasiado tarde".
4.5
Esta obra es una carta de amor a Lovecraft, que alberga un maravilloso puzzle de historias que se entrecruzan, donde tal vez los protagonistas no son el eje principal, pero sirven de enlace entre temas como: sectas, sociedades secretas, teorías conspirativas, apocalipsis y viajes en el tiempo; todo tratado y enlazado de una forma muy inteligente por la autora en apenas 120 paginas. Entre sus capas tiene ciencia ficción y misterio pero también historia y realidad.
Si bien a mi me encantó, confieso que no es fácil recomendarla. Es para los que estén dispuestos a emprender un viaje sin rumbo determinado con el optimismo y el convencimiento de llegar a tierra firme. "En algún momento tendrás que comprender que una respuesta y
una solución no son la misma cosa, y a veces una historia no es más que una excusa(Nic Pizzolatto)"
nubes nacidas de los caparazones que los creyentes habrán dejado atrás, llorarán
ante la futilidad de todos sus amargos esfuerzos. Incluso ahora, mis chiquillos,
ellos continúan conspirando y pugnando, engañados, trazando planes para esa
batalla final. Todo en vano. Atravesarán la noche en furgonetas negras y
cadillacs azabache, cuatro caballos de un apocalipsis insensato. Se plantarán en
nuestra puerta. Pero llegarán demasiado tarde".
4.5
Esta obra es una carta de amor a Lovecraft, que alberga un maravilloso puzzle de historias que se entrecruzan, donde tal vez los protagonistas no son el eje principal, pero sirven de enlace entre temas como: sectas, sociedades secretas, teorías conspirativas, apocalipsis y viajes en el tiempo; todo tratado y enlazado de una forma muy inteligente por la autora en apenas 120 paginas. Entre sus capas tiene ciencia ficción y misterio pero también historia y realidad.
Si bien a mi me encantó, confieso que no es fácil recomendarla. Es para los que estén dispuestos a emprender un viaje sin rumbo determinado con el optimismo y el convencimiento de llegar a tierra firme. "En algún momento tendrás que comprender que una respuesta y
una solución no son la misma cosa, y a veces una historia no es más que una excusa(Nic Pizzolatto)"
February 4, 2024
4 stars
short review for busy readers: sci-fi, time-bending novella about alien fungi and other bizarre critters overtaking the Earth. Well done and inventive, but also confusing at times as very little is explained.
in detail:
One thing you notice right off about Agents of Dreamland are all the quotes and references. It’s as if the story itself were assembled like Frankenstein’s monster from umpteen different sources.
For example, we start in Winslow, AZ, a barren little town made famous by the Eagles song “Take It Easy” with a chapter called “Oddfellows Local 171” which echoes the REM song “Oddfellows Local 151”. Winnie the Pooh gets quoted (tiddly-pom!) as do any number of other songs and fictional characters.
I’ve never read Lovecraft, but I gather from other reviews that the creepy fungus is a direct steal there, too. And creepy it is. As is the creepy-cool time-hoping female alien (?) agent who seems to know a whole lot more about the fungus than the American agent, the Signalman. (I very much enjoyed her visit to Vermont in 1927!)
And of course we have to have our tinfoil hat wearers in the guise of a death cult who desire to become one with the fungi. Shades of Heaven’s Gate and other cults there, and with a nod to Charles Manson.
The opening of the novella has a distinctly hard-boiled feel about it that mutates gradually into a noir horror-thriller vibe. At first I wasn’t sure what to make of that, but the story certainly gets better as it goes along.
This one was certainly out of the scope of what I normally read, but I rather enjoyed it. Thanks to my GR friend Inciminci for the rec!
short review for busy readers: sci-fi, time-bending novella about alien fungi and other bizarre critters overtaking the Earth. Well done and inventive, but also confusing at times as very little is explained.
in detail:
One thing you notice right off about Agents of Dreamland are all the quotes and references. It’s as if the story itself were assembled like Frankenstein’s monster from umpteen different sources.
For example, we start in Winslow, AZ, a barren little town made famous by the Eagles song “Take It Easy” with a chapter called “Oddfellows Local 171” which echoes the REM song “Oddfellows Local 151”. Winnie the Pooh gets quoted (tiddly-pom!) as do any number of other songs and fictional characters.
I’ve never read Lovecraft, but I gather from other reviews that the creepy fungus is a direct steal there, too. And creepy it is. As is the creepy-cool time-hoping female alien (?) agent who seems to know a whole lot more about the fungus than the American agent, the Signalman. (I very much enjoyed her visit to Vermont in 1927!)
And of course we have to have our tinfoil hat wearers in the guise of a death cult who desire to become one with the fungi. Shades of Heaven’s Gate and other cults there, and with a nod to Charles Manson.
The opening of the novella has a distinctly hard-boiled feel about it that mutates gradually into a noir horror-thriller vibe. At first I wasn’t sure what to make of that, but the story certainly gets better as it goes along.
This one was certainly out of the scope of what I normally read, but I rather enjoyed it. Thanks to my GR friend Inciminci for the rec!
April 16, 2017
So this is yet another riff on Lovecraft, but I have to say that this has got to be the best one I've read to date. Certainly the closest to the source material in tone and it shows all the technique of the master horror writer that Caitlin is.
The story hops around in time telling the story of an apocalyptic cult in California and an investigator known only as the Signalman as he investigates and tries to stop it. This features elements from all over the Lovecraftian mythos (An agent of Y? The word Yith never gets said), and even ties in the New Horizons probe's approach to Pluto.
I've seen a lot of stuff that tries to treat Lovecraft sympathetically (Hammers on Bone, Winter Tide), or tries for setting that assumes a Lovecratian background but tells it's own style of story (The Atrocity Archives, Bitter Seeds), or goes into dialogue with the explicit racism and sexism of the author (Lovecraft Country, The Ballad of Black Tom). This one takes a much simpler tack of just taking Lovecraft's mythos and themes and bringing all the skill and power of a modern literary master and writing the hell out of it.
In a lot of ways this is far more terrifying than anything Lovecraft wrote or was even capable of writing, but in much the same way he would've done it.
Absolutely chilling and one of the best horror books I've ever read.
The story hops around in time telling the story of an apocalyptic cult in California and an investigator known only as the Signalman as he investigates and tries to stop it. This features elements from all over the Lovecraftian mythos (An agent of Y? The word Yith never gets said), and even ties in the New Horizons probe's approach to Pluto.
I've seen a lot of stuff that tries to treat Lovecraft sympathetically (Hammers on Bone, Winter Tide), or tries for setting that assumes a Lovecratian background but tells it's own style of story (The Atrocity Archives, Bitter Seeds), or goes into dialogue with the explicit racism and sexism of the author (Lovecraft Country, The Ballad of Black Tom). This one takes a much simpler tack of just taking Lovecraft's mythos and themes and bringing all the skill and power of a modern literary master and writing the hell out of it.
In a lot of ways this is far more terrifying than anything Lovecraft wrote or was even capable of writing, but in much the same way he would've done it.
Absolutely chilling and one of the best horror books I've ever read.
June 11, 2022
In every cubic centimeter of the universe there are three hundred photons from the Big Bang. And SETI? That was just some hippie scientist boondoggle, and that’s what’s really going on here, see. You got these gatekeepers not wanting us to gaze into the oldest fossil in all Creation, the very face of God.
I forgot how much I enjoy Kiernan.
Our charismatic (aren’t they always?) mini-cult leader carries a fungal-adjacent message from the stars.
Our belligerently jaded investigator is there to witness and decipher the massacre in all its eldritch glory.
Lovecraft would be proud.
I forgot how much I enjoy Kiernan.
Our charismatic (aren’t they always?) mini-cult leader carries a fungal-adjacent message from the stars.
Our belligerently jaded investigator is there to witness and decipher the massacre in all its eldritch glory.
Lovecraft would be proud.
March 20, 2017
On June 2015 at the Moonlight Ranch near Salton Sea, a cult leader Drew Standish is preparing his followers, Children Of The Next Level for the peak event of his cause. A few days later a goverment special agent called The Signalman (because of his watch) is meeting a woman in a remote town of Arizona, after a raid at the site of the cult mentioned, to exchange information and trying not to freak about what he has seen (and read) during the raid. And NASA's interplanetary probe, New Horizons*, is about to have a moment of no contact, for surprising reasons... sometime after this meeting. Something has ...
Look over your shoulder. Become the wife of Lot.
A pillar of salt. Enlightened.
The woman is Immacolata Sexton, able to travel in past and future, as well as present. This way we get glimpses of the This is a -verse world, and many familiar beings will come up. You do get a feeling that she might survive at least for a while through what's to come. The Signalman might drink himself out of seeing things future before the moment comes.
The Signalman... Too often it occurs to him that he's lived just long enough to have completely outlived the world that made sense to him, the world where he fit. He's as good as a goddamn dinosaur.
I get a feeling from this novella that it is a slight mirror of the author's present moods about the world... it's a story with open end, though the glimpses show what is likely to happen. It is a feel of your face when it's sweaty, slightly dirty from time in the sun. Dry wind. Heat. And on the other end, dark cloudy sky, wetness, grey, black and safety in darkness for . This is a moodpiece, not necessarily appealing to all, but a nice starter on this author's work, for me at least, even when lacking the positives. I don't mind that.
* this is a true project: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Hor...
**real, as seen on
Look over your shoulder. Become the wife of Lot.
A pillar of salt. Enlightened.
The woman is Immacolata Sexton, able to travel in past and future, as well as present. This way we get glimpses of the This is a -verse world, and many familiar beings will come up. You do get a feeling that she might survive at least for a while through what's to come. The Signalman might drink himself out of seeing things future before the moment comes.
The Signalman... Too often it occurs to him that he's lived just long enough to have completely outlived the world that made sense to him, the world where he fit. He's as good as a goddamn dinosaur.
I get a feeling from this novella that it is a slight mirror of the author's present moods about the world... it's a story with open end, though the glimpses show what is likely to happen. It is a feel of your face when it's sweaty, slightly dirty from time in the sun. Dry wind. Heat. And on the other end, dark cloudy sky, wetness, grey, black and safety in darkness for . This is a moodpiece, not necessarily appealing to all, but a nice starter on this author's work, for me at least, even when lacking the positives. I don't mind that.
* this is a true project: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Hor...
**real, as seen on
April 15, 2020
Another superlative Tor novella. This is actually the second in the so-called Tinfoil Dossier (something of an in-joke that), preceded by Black Helicopters, with The Tindalos Asset due in October. I actually read Black Helicopters first, which I enjoyed immensely.
It is certainly testament to the compactness of Cairlin’s world-building that these can be taken as discrete books, though in essence they are clearly elements of a larger whole. Hopefully in this regard Kiernan continues the series, or splurges on a great big novel, like Martha Wells has done following the success of Murderbot.
As I have noted before, Lovecraft is a very difficult writer to emulate. The end result is so often an empty parody that rings hollow. Paradoxically, this is the main red flag when a writer treats Lovecraft either too reverentially or too slavishly.
The secret is to develop a Lovecraftian aesthetic, which comes from taking some of the Master’s stock-in-trade symbolism and themes, and imbuing these with the writer’s own sensibility. Sounds easier said than done, of course.
But Kiernan strikes just the right balance. There is a lot going on in this slim book: “… the Signalman, an agent for a black-budget American service; a cult ranch-house at the Salton Sea that houses horrors from another world; a lost film about an alien princess; a timeless and frightening agent from another service with her own motivations; the New Horizons probe skating past the orbit of Pluto and encountering something alien. These singular events and people all feed into the start—or end—of something immense and devastating for the human species” (tor.com).
All these elements add up to a whole that is infinitely (such a grand Lovecraftian word) larger than the sum of its parts. Something inexplicable either seems to lurk in the shadows of the text, or bleeds through the pages.
It makes for an uncomfortable reading experience, but a truly indelible one. And it is also blackly funny and occasionally downright scurrilous. I can’t wait for the next instalment of noir Lovercraft that Kiernan so expertly serves up.
It is certainly testament to the compactness of Cairlin’s world-building that these can be taken as discrete books, though in essence they are clearly elements of a larger whole. Hopefully in this regard Kiernan continues the series, or splurges on a great big novel, like Martha Wells has done following the success of Murderbot.
As I have noted before, Lovecraft is a very difficult writer to emulate. The end result is so often an empty parody that rings hollow. Paradoxically, this is the main red flag when a writer treats Lovecraft either too reverentially or too slavishly.
The secret is to develop a Lovecraftian aesthetic, which comes from taking some of the Master’s stock-in-trade symbolism and themes, and imbuing these with the writer’s own sensibility. Sounds easier said than done, of course.
But Kiernan strikes just the right balance. There is a lot going on in this slim book: “… the Signalman, an agent for a black-budget American service; a cult ranch-house at the Salton Sea that houses horrors from another world; a lost film about an alien princess; a timeless and frightening agent from another service with her own motivations; the New Horizons probe skating past the orbit of Pluto and encountering something alien. These singular events and people all feed into the start—or end—of something immense and devastating for the human species” (tor.com).
All these elements add up to a whole that is infinitely (such a grand Lovecraftian word) larger than the sum of its parts. Something inexplicable either seems to lurk in the shadows of the text, or bleeds through the pages.
It makes for an uncomfortable reading experience, but a truly indelible one. And it is also blackly funny and occasionally downright scurrilous. I can’t wait for the next instalment of noir Lovercraft that Kiernan so expertly serves up.
June 7, 2018
En un rancho del suroeste americano cerca del mar de Salton, el líder de un peculiar culto ofrece a sus seguidores un futuro que se aproxima y en el que ellos van a participar activamente. Un día después de los extraños acontecimientos en el rancho, los agentes del gobierno se encuentran con una escena indescriptiblemente perturbadora. Solo unos días después, el agente especial del gobierno apodado Guardagujas se reúne en Arizona con una mujer que transita fuera del tiempo, para intercambiar información sobre el caso.
A través de 117 páginas, tres líneas temporales entrecruzadas y tres personajes muy diferentes entre sí, Kiernan construye una historia oscura llena de horrores lovecraftianos y espeluznantes imágenes. Una narración corta escrita con una prosa muy elaborada y un estilo particularmente fluido que encadena una escena tras otra, saltando de un lugar a otro tanto en el espacio como en el tiempo con particular sencillez. Capa a capa vamos desentrañando el significado oculto de los sucesos y navegando por el caos cósmico que Kiernan nos plantea.
Con ese claro homenaje a Lovecraft pero conviertiéndolo en algo propio, con ese aire taciturno a True Detective y con ese insondable contexto de investigación paranormal de Expediente X, la autora irlandesa ha creado un universo muy interesante del que espero realmente leer más. Ojala Runas se anime a traernos su continuación Black Helicopters.
Reseña en el blog: http://boywithletters.blogspot.com.es...
A través de 117 páginas, tres líneas temporales entrecruzadas y tres personajes muy diferentes entre sí, Kiernan construye una historia oscura llena de horrores lovecraftianos y espeluznantes imágenes. Una narración corta escrita con una prosa muy elaborada y un estilo particularmente fluido que encadena una escena tras otra, saltando de un lugar a otro tanto en el espacio como en el tiempo con particular sencillez. Capa a capa vamos desentrañando el significado oculto de los sucesos y navegando por el caos cósmico que Kiernan nos plantea.
Con ese claro homenaje a Lovecraft pero conviertiéndolo en algo propio, con ese aire taciturno a True Detective y con ese insondable contexto de investigación paranormal de Expediente X, la autora irlandesa ha creado un universo muy interesante del que espero realmente leer más. Ojala Runas se anime a traernos su continuación Black Helicopters.
Reseña en el blog: http://boywithletters.blogspot.com.es...
February 28, 2017
Deliberately set in the American southwest in the summer of 2015 (when the New Horizons space probe was swiftly approaching the orbit of Pluto), the narrative hops from one time period and location to another, following three characters on very different (and yet directly related) journeys. Kiernan tells their stories with equal amounts of lucidity and pathos, yet each with a distinctive voice and style.
Fans of classic weird fiction author H. P. Lovecraft will be pleased to know that this novella is something of a meditation upon his classic 1931 short story “The Whisperer In Darkness,” in which a man pieces together evidence of a terrifying alien conspiracy at work in rural Vermont, and which also has a lot to do with the then-newly-discovered Pluto.
In something of a nod to espionage fiction, an aging government operative referred to only as the Signalman meets with a strange and mysterious woman, Immacolata Sexton. Their discussion is candid and abstract; it’s a bit like listening in on strangers; only very gradually does the nature of their conversation get revealed—yet even there, it illustrates only a few fractured pieces of a much larger (and darker) picture.
“The Signalman surrenders a halfhearted smile and opens the envelope, spreading the contents out on the table between them. Ten glossy black-and-white photographs, a tarot card, a flash drive, and a very old gold coin. At first glance, the photos could be shots from any murder scene, snapped by any forensic shutterbug. But only at first glance.”
A couple of weeks before, a young woman named Chloe describes her time spent with Drew Standish, a sort of cult leader who is collecting lost and easily manipulated members to become the Children of the Next Level. Chloe’s narrative is often hazy and digressive, but it paints a frightful picture nonetheless.
“I’m barefoot up here as the day I was born, high on our hot tin roof, high on cultured spores and the words of Drew, but like Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace of wicked King Nebuchadnezzar, like Indian fakirs gifted by Allah, like an Apollo heat shield, I firewalk without burns. I bathe in the all-forgiving, all-anointing, purifying eye of Old Man Ra, and I wait for the others to join me on the roof. I’m positively zealous, says Madeline, in my devotions and my sacrifices, the holy mortification of sloughing flesh, and she tells me the others could learn from my example. Sweaty rivulets scald my eyes, and I blink away the little pain. I keep my eyes on the Chocolate Mountains. They’ll come from there, says Drew. They will come from sunrise.”
And then there is Immacolata Sexton herself, whom may exist (or follow a perception) somewhere outside of time and space, hopping from one time period and location to another, from decades of curious discovery nearly a century ago and into frightful decades yet to come. What she observes, discovers, catalogues, and cultivates in these shifts are perhaps the most disturbing hints of all in this tight, twisted novella.
There are certain scenes in Agents of Dreamland, which are reminiscent of other works by Kiernan; specifically, her novella Black Helicopters (2013, Subterranean Press) and story “Black Ships Seen South of Heaven” (printed in Black Wings of Cthulhu IV , edited by S. T. Joshi, Titan Books, 2016). Like those other works, these scenes hint at the carnivorous cosmic doom that is slowly encroaching upon our world, and make for some of the darkest and most disturbing imagery this side of a post-apocalyptic tale.
It’s a bit hard to comprehend the amount of story that is told in a little over 120 pages; this owes largely to the novella’s jigsaw puzzle-like narrative structure. Agents of Dreamland> is an exquisitely haunting read, full of mesmerizing prose, unsettling images, and profoundly disturbing implications. And after reading this novella, one may never view that dwarf planet at the edge of our solar system the same way again.
Fans of classic weird fiction author H. P. Lovecraft will be pleased to know that this novella is something of a meditation upon his classic 1931 short story “The Whisperer In Darkness,” in which a man pieces together evidence of a terrifying alien conspiracy at work in rural Vermont, and which also has a lot to do with the then-newly-discovered Pluto.
In something of a nod to espionage fiction, an aging government operative referred to only as the Signalman meets with a strange and mysterious woman, Immacolata Sexton. Their discussion is candid and abstract; it’s a bit like listening in on strangers; only very gradually does the nature of their conversation get revealed—yet even there, it illustrates only a few fractured pieces of a much larger (and darker) picture.
“The Signalman surrenders a halfhearted smile and opens the envelope, spreading the contents out on the table between them. Ten glossy black-and-white photographs, a tarot card, a flash drive, and a very old gold coin. At first glance, the photos could be shots from any murder scene, snapped by any forensic shutterbug. But only at first glance.”
A couple of weeks before, a young woman named Chloe describes her time spent with Drew Standish, a sort of cult leader who is collecting lost and easily manipulated members to become the Children of the Next Level. Chloe’s narrative is often hazy and digressive, but it paints a frightful picture nonetheless.
“I’m barefoot up here as the day I was born, high on our hot tin roof, high on cultured spores and the words of Drew, but like Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace of wicked King Nebuchadnezzar, like Indian fakirs gifted by Allah, like an Apollo heat shield, I firewalk without burns. I bathe in the all-forgiving, all-anointing, purifying eye of Old Man Ra, and I wait for the others to join me on the roof. I’m positively zealous, says Madeline, in my devotions and my sacrifices, the holy mortification of sloughing flesh, and she tells me the others could learn from my example. Sweaty rivulets scald my eyes, and I blink away the little pain. I keep my eyes on the Chocolate Mountains. They’ll come from there, says Drew. They will come from sunrise.”
And then there is Immacolata Sexton herself, whom may exist (or follow a perception) somewhere outside of time and space, hopping from one time period and location to another, from decades of curious discovery nearly a century ago and into frightful decades yet to come. What she observes, discovers, catalogues, and cultivates in these shifts are perhaps the most disturbing hints of all in this tight, twisted novella.
There are certain scenes in Agents of Dreamland, which are reminiscent of other works by Kiernan; specifically, her novella Black Helicopters (2013, Subterranean Press) and story “Black Ships Seen South of Heaven” (printed in Black Wings of Cthulhu IV , edited by S. T. Joshi, Titan Books, 2016). Like those other works, these scenes hint at the carnivorous cosmic doom that is slowly encroaching upon our world, and make for some of the darkest and most disturbing imagery this side of a post-apocalyptic tale.
It’s a bit hard to comprehend the amount of story that is told in a little over 120 pages; this owes largely to the novella’s jigsaw puzzle-like narrative structure. Agents of Dreamland> is an exquisitely haunting read, full of mesmerizing prose, unsettling images, and profoundly disturbing implications. And after reading this novella, one may never view that dwarf planet at the edge of our solar system the same way again.
December 30, 2020
I'm new to Caitlín R. Kiernan.
Came into this a Kiernan virgin and I've been impaled upon a few utterly weird notions wielded by a master wordsmith.
Someone will try to tell you that this is a Horror novel.
Don't listen to them.
There are Lovecraft references but it's more along the lines of a Suspense-Thriller skating close to the thin ice edge of Science Fiction.
Features two of the most unforgettable characters I've encountered in recent years.
"The Signalman" and sometime suspect, sometime deceitful ally and Denier of Grandfather Time his own ornery self "Immacolata Sexton".
Way out upon the fringes of the Salton Sea exists a Jim Jones-like cult of truly weird ass believers led by an enlightened madman. The actions of this cult leader & his followers have piqued the interest of at least a couple of shadowy intelligence agencies.
I've said too much already and even that's not going to entice you to buy this very inexpensive little novella even though I sincerely wish you would.
It would only be the right thing to do in these uncertain times wherein we dwell.
Exciting read and at times I got a pronounced William S. Burroughs inspired rush or (even) potentially a Billy Burroughs Jr. rush.
Came into this a Kiernan virgin and I've been impaled upon a few utterly weird notions wielded by a master wordsmith.
Someone will try to tell you that this is a Horror novel.
Don't listen to them.
There are Lovecraft references but it's more along the lines of a Suspense-Thriller skating close to the thin ice edge of Science Fiction.
Features two of the most unforgettable characters I've encountered in recent years.
"The Signalman" and sometime suspect, sometime deceitful ally and Denier of Grandfather Time his own ornery self "Immacolata Sexton".
Way out upon the fringes of the Salton Sea exists a Jim Jones-like cult of truly weird ass believers led by an enlightened madman. The actions of this cult leader & his followers have piqued the interest of at least a couple of shadowy intelligence agencies.
I've said too much already and even that's not going to entice you to buy this very inexpensive little novella even though I sincerely wish you would.
It would only be the right thing to do in these uncertain times wherein we dwell.
Exciting read and at times I got a pronounced William S. Burroughs inspired rush or (even) potentially a Billy Burroughs Jr. rush.
August 6, 2022
Me ha gustado, si es cierto que hay alguna parte un poco mas onírica que me ha gustado menos pero es muy cortito y se lee rápido, con ganas de mas.
Sinopsis: En una calurosa mañana un agente especial del gobierno llega a Winslow, Arizona, y se reúne con una mujer para intercambiar información sobre un suceso inexplicable que ha ocurrido unos días antes.
En un rancho cerca del mar de Salton el líder de un culto ofrece a sus seguidores algo en lo que creer: el futuro se aproxima y ellos van a participar en su llegada.
Un día después de los acontecimientos en el rancho que inquietaron tanto al agente del gobierno como para buscar ayuda de "otras" fuentes, el Laboratorio de Física Aplicada de la Universidad Johns Hopkins pierde contacto súbitamente con una sonda interplanetaria de la NASA, que ha encontrado algo extraño más allá de la órbita de Plutón.
Y una mujer que flota fuera del tiempo busca en el futuro y en el pasado respuestas que puedan salvar a la humanidad.
6/10
Sinopsis: En una calurosa mañana un agente especial del gobierno llega a Winslow, Arizona, y se reúne con una mujer para intercambiar información sobre un suceso inexplicable que ha ocurrido unos días antes.
En un rancho cerca del mar de Salton el líder de un culto ofrece a sus seguidores algo en lo que creer: el futuro se aproxima y ellos van a participar en su llegada.
Un día después de los acontecimientos en el rancho que inquietaron tanto al agente del gobierno como para buscar ayuda de "otras" fuentes, el Laboratorio de Física Aplicada de la Universidad Johns Hopkins pierde contacto súbitamente con una sonda interplanetaria de la NASA, que ha encontrado algo extraño más allá de la órbita de Plutón.
Y una mujer que flota fuera del tiempo busca en el futuro y en el pasado respuestas que puedan salvar a la humanidad.
6/10
March 6, 2017
This was a very trippy, non-time-consecutive-type story of seedy government agents, doomsday cults, beings that exist without being fixed to one point in time, and invading fungus monsters from beyond Pluto.....I think.
I say "I think," because you're never really 100% sure what in the EFF is going on. But the story was well-told, and I enjoyed it.
I say "I think," because you're never really 100% sure what in the EFF is going on. But the story was well-told, and I enjoyed it.
March 11, 2017
Fantastic. I can't remember seeing the spy/horror story played this straight, this well, with such vivid writing and sharp, baked sense of place. Kiernan nails the creeping doom, the long hopeless struggle, and pushes past into deeper human (and inhuman) territory of memory, jealousy, and time.
October 20, 2022
Esta es una historia inquietante de infestación de hongos, cultos apocalípticos e invasión alienígena, con una sensación claramente noir y una interesante elección de personajes. Está Signalman, el agente de Dreamland (una agencia gubernamental que maneja cosas raras); Immacolata Sexton, representante de una organización conocida solo como 'Y', que parece retroceder y avanzar en el tiempo; y Chloe, la última recluta de 'Children of the Next Level' de Drew Standish, siendo testigo de los eventos en un rancho en Salton Sea.
El único problema para mí, inicialmente, fue la larga descripción de ese cliché encasillado cansado/insomne de un agente federal adicto al alcohol/cigarrillos que odia a todo el mundo. Sí, está obsesionado por una buena razón en el libro, y tan pronto como pasas esa parte, la historia despega.En general es una lectura interesante.
El único problema para mí, inicialmente, fue la larga descripción de ese cliché encasillado cansado/insomne de un agente federal adicto al alcohol/cigarrillos que odia a todo el mundo. Sí, está obsesionado por una buena razón en el libro, y tan pronto como pasas esa parte, la historia despega.En general es una lectura interesante.
November 27, 2016
Caitlin Kiernan has done some interesting things within this novella.
We meet the Signalman, a secret agent of sorts who has just returned from a mission to sniff out an end-of-days cult, where he and his partner discover that their particular choice of "koolaid", a very unique form of fungi, may actually be heralding in the end of days.
He and a strange woman, who appears to not be tied to time the same way we are, debrief each other on his odd findings.
Meanwhile, we lose contact with one of our probes when it makes contact with something as it passes outside the orbit of Pluto.
The story bounces back and forth in time just enough to keep us off balance, ensuring it has our undivided attention, constantly tracking where and when we are. In anyone else's hands, this novella would have disintegrated into a melting pot of nonsense.
Too short to wrap up all of the events she has placed in motion, Agents of Dreamland isn't concerned with giving us all the answers. It's more determined to ask the questions...
We meet the Signalman, a secret agent of sorts who has just returned from a mission to sniff out an end-of-days cult, where he and his partner discover that their particular choice of "koolaid", a very unique form of fungi, may actually be heralding in the end of days.
He and a strange woman, who appears to not be tied to time the same way we are, debrief each other on his odd findings.
Meanwhile, we lose contact with one of our probes when it makes contact with something as it passes outside the orbit of Pluto.
The story bounces back and forth in time just enough to keep us off balance, ensuring it has our undivided attention, constantly tracking where and when we are. In anyone else's hands, this novella would have disintegrated into a melting pot of nonsense.
Too short to wrap up all of the events she has placed in motion, Agents of Dreamland isn't concerned with giving us all the answers. It's more determined to ask the questions...
February 20, 2017
Wow this is short but really powerful stuff here, my first introduction to this author and its making me want to read everything.
So, this is dark fantasy/scifi and the general plot could described as Alien Invasion with loopy time travel shenanigans and a basis in authentic scientific fact. If you can cope with the creepy try googling Zombie Fungus.
The characters are extraordinarily well drawn for a novella, Caitlin R Kiernan has the magic touch when it comes to getting across personality and depth through very few words which is important within the short story format – in fact I don’t think I’ve seen better. This is totally absorbing, scary as anything and genuinely thought provoking. I loved that it is open to interpretation – perhaps I should caution that if you like definitive answers this won’t be for you.
It really was horribly good. So beautifully written, so intensely descriptive and telling a really rocking tale of secret agents trying to save the world. Its like an episode of the Twilight Zone, one of the more excellent ones, but in novella form.
Highly Recommended.
So, this is dark fantasy/scifi and the general plot could described as Alien Invasion with loopy time travel shenanigans and a basis in authentic scientific fact. If you can cope with the creepy try googling Zombie Fungus.
The characters are extraordinarily well drawn for a novella, Caitlin R Kiernan has the magic touch when it comes to getting across personality and depth through very few words which is important within the short story format – in fact I don’t think I’ve seen better. This is totally absorbing, scary as anything and genuinely thought provoking. I loved that it is open to interpretation – perhaps I should caution that if you like definitive answers this won’t be for you.
It really was horribly good. So beautifully written, so intensely descriptive and telling a really rocking tale of secret agents trying to save the world. Its like an episode of the Twilight Zone, one of the more excellent ones, but in novella form.
Highly Recommended.
April 11, 2023
No tenía idea de que esta historia se parecería a The last of us, pero qué agradable sorpresa. Tocará leer el resto en inglés. Les recuerdo que para mí tres estrellas no es una mala valoración, es más un "sí" y un montón de "peros".
"Los presagios más reveladores nunca parecen presagios."
December 30, 2020
We dine on rattlesnakes and hot green tea, and Drew Standish, he tells us the last days are here. We camp upon the threshold, just switch on the television, that ginormous 1975 Zenith in its composite-board, wood-grain cabinet, and astroglide the picture tubes. The thing gets no stations out here, no rabbit ears needed. We don't need networks and programming; we need only noise.
I can't give an objective review to this - I love the world of black-budgets and underground government complexes filled with the weird and wonderful world of the hidden, inexplicable things they've found. All I can do is tell you how much I enjoyed it - how it packs so much into such a short length, and how the world Caitlin R. Kiernan writes into life with her gorgeous slipstream writing is vivid, wondrous, and existentially just horrifying. But with humans like the Signalman on our side, maybe humanity has a chance? Luckily there's more books - maybe we'll have the chance to find out.
I can't give an objective review to this - I love the world of black-budgets and underground government complexes filled with the weird and wonderful world of the hidden, inexplicable things they've found. All I can do is tell you how much I enjoyed it - how it packs so much into such a short length, and how the world Caitlin R. Kiernan writes into life with her gorgeous slipstream writing is vivid, wondrous, and existentially just horrifying. But with humans like the Signalman on our side, maybe humanity has a chance? Luckily there's more books - maybe we'll have the chance to find out.
August 16, 2022
Estuve pensando un rato en qué tanto me había gustado este libro. La historia propuesta por la autora resulta interesante, pero ni el desarrollo ni la forma me terminaron de gustar. Siento que todo se queda a medias, a pesar de que sea una novela corta, debería cerrar mejor, no lo sé, por ahora se queda en dos estrellas.
April 16, 2021
Original 2017 review: This needed to be so much longer. I could have read about everything here for many more pages.
2021 re-reading review: Re-read this little gem so I could understand Black Helicopters, which is unfortunately not working for me at all and probably will not get finished, but it was nice to live in this world again briefly, especially considering I've apparently forgotten how to read.
2021 re-reading review: Re-read this little gem so I could understand Black Helicopters, which is unfortunately not working for me at all and probably will not get finished, but it was nice to live in this world again briefly, especially considering I've apparently forgotten how to read.
March 17, 2018
Primer capítulo: bien.
Segundo capítulo: ¿qué coño estoy leyendo?.
A partir del tercer capítulo: Ah, voy comprendiendo. Coño, qué puñetera maravilla.
¡¡Me ha encantado!!
Segundo capítulo: ¿qué coño estoy leyendo?.
A partir del tercer capítulo: Ah, voy comprendiendo. Coño, qué puñetera maravilla.
¡¡Me ha encantado!!
February 17, 2019
Wow! This packed a solid punch. Highly recommended for anyone who loves good Lovecraftian fiction (and especially to those of you who like BAD/AWFUL Lovecraftian pastiches). This is what good contemporary Lovecraftian fiction should fell like - dark, ominous, horrific, not too long - almost as if Thomas Pynchon took a stab at Lovecraft.
BUY this book!
BUY this book!
April 11, 2017
Received to review via Netgalley; publication date 28th February 2017
Once again, not knowing my Lovecraft tripped me up. Yep, this is yet another Lovecraft-based story, although in this case it’s a rather less well-known one: the Fungi from Yuggoth. Not one I’d have known anything about even if I’d known in advance, but perhaps I might have been better prepared for the sheer bleakness and darkness of this story had I known it was based on Lovecraft’s mythos in any way.
It’s an intriguing little novella; self-contained, though it hints at a world before and after it through one character who is, to some extent, ‘unstuck in time’. The flesh-crawling horror of the fungi, a kind of invasion we’re helpless to fight, is done really well. There’s one phrase which just made me shudder, because of all the different implications stacked together: “the fruiting corpse”. Gah. Gaaah.
It’s very effective writing, and because I don’t know to what extent it takes any of the detail from Lovecraft, I can say that it’s definitely something that can stand on its own. It doesn’t rely on me realising exactly what’s going on through familiarity with Lovecraft; the creeping unease works as well or better if you’re ignorant of where things are going.
Originally reviewed here.
Once again, not knowing my Lovecraft tripped me up. Yep, this is yet another Lovecraft-based story, although in this case it’s a rather less well-known one: the Fungi from Yuggoth. Not one I’d have known anything about even if I’d known in advance, but perhaps I might have been better prepared for the sheer bleakness and darkness of this story had I known it was based on Lovecraft’s mythos in any way.
It’s an intriguing little novella; self-contained, though it hints at a world before and after it through one character who is, to some extent, ‘unstuck in time’. The flesh-crawling horror of the fungi, a kind of invasion we’re helpless to fight, is done really well. There’s one phrase which just made me shudder, because of all the different implications stacked together: “the fruiting corpse”. Gah. Gaaah.
It’s very effective writing, and because I don’t know to what extent it takes any of the detail from Lovecraft, I can say that it’s definitely something that can stand on its own. It doesn’t rely on me realising exactly what’s going on through familiarity with Lovecraft; the creeping unease works as well or better if you’re ignorant of where things are going.
Originally reviewed here.
December 5, 2018
Es una locura. Maravillosa.
Gracias a Marcheto por aconsejarme que leyera "El Que Susurra En La Oscuridad" de Lovecraft antes de empezar la novela. Hubiera sido más locura.
Gracias a Marcheto por aconsejarme que leyera "El Que Susurra En La Oscuridad" de Lovecraft antes de empezar la novela. Hubiera sido más locura.
April 21, 2017
For a short 84 pages novella, Agents of Dreamland sure felt like one long read. Long and pointless.
You are probably not used to such harsh judgements in my reviews, since I usually try to find at least something positive in the books I read. So let me explain why I'm so negative this time.
The story is about the agent of some secret government organization dealing with the unexplained and the paranormal who discovers what at first glance seems like cult mass suicide, but turns out to be the beginning of the end of humanity. Some kind of alien fungus that would destroy humanity and pave the way for a different life form. Sounds like it could be an interesting story, right? I certainly thought so when I read the blurb and picked up the book.
Well, don't get your hopes up. The story goes nowhere after that. I'm not joking. They discover the bodies of the cultist and one survivor. They take the survivor to a secured facility where she dies in an explosion of alien spores. It's implied that this is the curtain call for humanity. The End.
Even that little bit of story could have been interesting if the characters were engaging enough to empathize with or the stakes high enough to create tension. Unfortunately, we get neither. In fact, I think that by giving one of her characters the ability to cast her mind both into the past and the future, the author effectively shot herself in the foot and killed her story.
So this character can get "unstuck" from the present and let her mind travel to all the moments she lived in the past or will live in the future. She goes into the future and sees that in the year 2043, human civilization is pretty much extinct, the remaining humans infected and changed beyond recognition by the fungus, and aliens are controlling the skies. She sees all that and chooses not to say a word about it to anybody. But the author includes a detailed description of her little trip into the future before the middle of the book…
That right there killed the story for me. If the end of the world is coming anyway, nothing the Signalman or his colleagues from Albany do has any meaning. There are no stakes anymore. So what's the point of the story? Any (minimal) investment I still had in it plunged to zero on my "How much do I care about what happens next" meter. And when the novella ended with a non-ending that didn’t resolve anything, I wasn't really surprised or particularly disappointed.
I came for an interesting horror story he blurb had promised. I got lots of allegories and similes and countless references to obscure black and white movies and the Beatles sprinkled with a bit of mythology. From what I understand, the author tried to write a Lovecraftian story. In my opinion, that attempt failed.
PS. I received an advanced copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
You are probably not used to such harsh judgements in my reviews, since I usually try to find at least something positive in the books I read. So let me explain why I'm so negative this time.
The story is about the agent of some secret government organization dealing with the unexplained and the paranormal who discovers what at first glance seems like cult mass suicide, but turns out to be the beginning of the end of humanity. Some kind of alien fungus that would destroy humanity and pave the way for a different life form. Sounds like it could be an interesting story, right? I certainly thought so when I read the blurb and picked up the book.
Well, don't get your hopes up. The story goes nowhere after that. I'm not joking. They discover the bodies of the cultist and one survivor. They take the survivor to a secured facility where she dies in an explosion of alien spores. It's implied that this is the curtain call for humanity. The End.
Even that little bit of story could have been interesting if the characters were engaging enough to empathize with or the stakes high enough to create tension. Unfortunately, we get neither. In fact, I think that by giving one of her characters the ability to cast her mind both into the past and the future, the author effectively shot herself in the foot and killed her story.
So this character can get "unstuck" from the present and let her mind travel to all the moments she lived in the past or will live in the future. She goes into the future and sees that in the year 2043, human civilization is pretty much extinct, the remaining humans infected and changed beyond recognition by the fungus, and aliens are controlling the skies. She sees all that and chooses not to say a word about it to anybody. But the author includes a detailed description of her little trip into the future before the middle of the book…
That right there killed the story for me. If the end of the world is coming anyway, nothing the Signalman or his colleagues from Albany do has any meaning. There are no stakes anymore. So what's the point of the story? Any (minimal) investment I still had in it plunged to zero on my "How much do I care about what happens next" meter. And when the novella ended with a non-ending that didn’t resolve anything, I wasn't really surprised or particularly disappointed.
I came for an interesting horror story he blurb had promised. I got lots of allegories and similes and countless references to obscure black and white movies and the Beatles sprinkled with a bit of mythology. From what I understand, the author tried to write a Lovecraftian story. In my opinion, that attempt failed.
PS. I received an advanced copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 10, 2017
Big fan of Kiernan, I've really enjoyed everything I've read by her but I was just a bit let down. Probably a case of high expectations because it is a good story. But what I love about her writing is an ability to use language in a lyrical, hallucinatory/dream/fugue way and except for the few passages from the cultists POV she didn't really venture into that side of her writing. I also would have liked some more exploring of the backstory and maybe that will come if she writes more stories in this world(here's hopin'). Anyway, still a strong story that anyone who enjoys cosmic horror will find entertaining.
7/10
7/10
Displaying 1 - 30 of 746 reviews