**spoiler alert** Obsessively detailed, devoid of plot development, and lacking in dramatic tension - his shorter stories like The Colour Out of Time,**spoiler alert** Obsessively detailed, devoid of plot development, and lacking in dramatic tension - his shorter stories like The Colour Out of Time, The Call of Cthulhu, The Whisperer in Darkness are much better It's interesting that this story is probably Lovecraft's best known and often considered his best. Unlike the far more concise but equally creepy and imaginative stories, this story basically spends it's entire excessive length in obsessively repeating the same descriptions of eldritch Elder Ones and nameless horrors, using the same set of a dozen or so adjectives, especially the following:
And rather than create any dramatic tension with the question of whether the narrator and his companions survive their encounter with the ruins of an impossibly ancient and sinister alien civilization in the antarctic, Lovecraft frames the story as a diary so we know full well they survive, and despite repeating endlessly of how horrifying the events are, much more time is spent on a completely tension-destroying final section that describes every last detail of his Elder Ones and their evil Shoggoth creations in impossible detail, based on their perusal of hundreds of detailed wall carvings and sculptures. Any anthropologist or paleontologist would burst out laughing at the preposterousness of being able to deduce such details from such scant sources, it puts Sherlock Holmes to shame!
The only thing that makes the story memorable is the obsessive details of the sinister and harsh and forbidding conditions of the antarctic mountains and his details about the aliens, but creating an amazing set design (like HR Giger's paintings for Alien(s) still doesn't make it a terrifying and propulsive story until the directing skills of Ridley Scott and James Cameron and acting performance of Sigourney Weaver are added to the mix. That's why it's quite surprising that this story was the inspiration of John Carpenter's The Thing. If he had done a faithful rendition, it would have been the dullest film of all time, so well done to take such liberties....more
One of the Greatest Gothic/Romanticist American Writers, Dark and Macabre and Ironic by Turns Other than a few stories of required reading in English cOne of the Greatest Gothic/Romanticist American Writers, Dark and Macabre and Ironic by Turns Other than a few stories of required reading in English class in middle or high school, this is the first time I have properly listening to a large number of Poe's more famous stories, and they did not disappoint. A real range of styles, topics, themes, and all written with great verse and skill, though clearly products of a troubled soul, the tortured artist. Anyone knowing his biography would not be surprised on its influence on his work. Still, his influence on generations of horror/suspense/mystery writers is enormous, and it was a pleasure to sample his works in audio format, brilliant stuff....more
Strange, darkly sardonic, compact and tricky short stories Though I knew the name of Ambrose Bierce and the name of his most famous book The Devil's DiStrange, darkly sardonic, compact and tricky short stories Though I knew the name of Ambrose Bierce and the name of his most famous book The Devil's Dictionary, that was about it. Never read anything by him, just knew his name was associated with other early practitioners of creepy tales of the supernatural and the bizarre like Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft, but what I didn't know what his very adventurous real life as a Civil War veteran and extremely sharp-tongued journalist and all-around critic of human affairs.
So these stories really took me by surprise - they are very terse, spare, bizzare, disorienting, sardonic, darkly humour, and often end with a sudden one-liner that demands the reader actually think back to the stories events to understand what has gone before. Because I was listening to them in audiobook while fighting jet lag in bed at 3am in Japan, I don't think I could really give them their fair due of reflection, which is not the fault of the author. He expects you to untangle the puzzle after reading the final line, so be prepared to do that if you want to get the full effect.
I think I'll have to revisit these in print someday, but I can certainly tell he was a skilled and very unique and unusual stylist, and that's no mean feat....more
The Most Eccentric, Baroque, Sinister, and Occult of Storytellers, on Par with Lovecraft The Big Three of Weird Tales in the 1930s were HP Lovecraft, RThe Most Eccentric, Baroque, Sinister, and Occult of Storytellers, on Par with Lovecraft The Big Three of Weird Tales in the 1930s were HP Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, and Clark Ashton Smith. Lovecraft is of course the most famous for his Cthulhu stories, Howard for his Conan stories, and Smith less well-known among readers for a lack of iconic stories or characters, but my goodness his prose puts Lovecraft to shame in terms of sheer baroque verbosity and lurking occult evil. Some may love it, others may find it purple and over the top, but I guarantee nobody will be left unaffected by the eccentric genius of a reclusive writer who read whole dictionaries front to back and taught himself several languages on his own, through an obsessive love of words and poetry (actually his first passion). Once I got used to his dark themes and doomed tales, I found them incredibly compelling. A one-of-a-kind writer who most undoubtedly influenced many generations of horror writers that came after....more
Absolutely Classic Tales of Occult Horror - Lovecraft Created His Own Cthulhu Mythos, A True Original Lovecraft's name is synonymous with creepy, occulAbsolutely Classic Tales of Occult Horror - Lovecraft Created His Own Cthulhu Mythos, A True Original Lovecraft's name is synonymous with creepy, occult tales of horror, one of several legendary writers who made the Weird Tales pulp magazines famous in the 1920s and 30s: H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert Bloch, etc. But I had ever actually read any of his work, and when I found a large collection of his stories available from the Audible Plus Catalogue (free for members), it seemed a perfect opportunity to finally give this legendary writer a chance.
The first story featuring Cthulhu is "The Call of Cthulhu" was published in Weird Tales in 1928, and it really does capture all the great aspects of Lovecraft's fertile and dark imagination, as well as his undeniable racism against the "darker, primitive " races. It's an inescapable part of his writing and personal beliefs that he firmly believed in the superiority of white Europeans over other races and cultures, so if this will prevent you from appreciating his other achievements, it's understandable but unfortunate. Basically that same attitude was widespread throughout Western societies in the Victorian age of England and early centuries of the colonial period (and long afterward as well). But to judge those authors from a current perspective is a bit unfair, as we have come so far since then. It's still quite overt at times, but it's just a part of his legacy.
These stories really blew me away with the relentless fertility of grotesque images and compelling stories, each a self-contained and skillfully written tale, though again the purple, over-the-top prose may not be to everyone's taste. It's like a very, very rich dessert of grotesqueries, quite impressive but a bit overwhelming at times. Still, his unique Cthulhu melting of a huge range of dark Elder Gods mythology is a truly unique experience, and I found myself really drawn into his world, and found these stories just as vivid now after almost a century, which cannot be said of many older authors.
Just for a little taste, feast on this:
"Shrieking, slithering, torrential shadows of red viscous madness chasing one another through endless, ensanguined corridors of purple fulgurous sky . . . formless phantasms and kaleidoscopic mutations of a ghoulish, remembered scene; forests of monstrous overnourished oaks with serpent roots twisting and sucking unnamable juices from an earth verminous with millions of cannibal devils; mound-like tentacles groping from underground nuclei of polypous perversion . . . insane lightning over malignant ivied walls and daemon arcades choked with fungous vegetation. . . . Heaven be thanked for the instinct which led me unconscious to places where men dwell; to the peaceful village that slept under the calm stars of clearing skies."
It: Childhood is Scary, but Adulthood is Terrifying This is the doorstopper that set the standard for sprawling, character-driven Stephen King horror bIt: Childhood is Scary, but Adulthood is Terrifying This is the doorstopper that set the standard for sprawling, character-driven Stephen King horror bestsellers. When I was around the young age of the main characters in the earlier story set in 1958 in Derry, Maine, I used to see this book in the book stands at the supermarket, at Waldenbooks, and airport kiosks. It's sheer weight and two-word title exerted a sinister allure, much like Pennywise the Clown lurking in the sewers, waiting to pounce and feed on child-like innocence.
Much to Pennywise's disappointment, though I was a voracious SF/fantasy reader back then, I always drew a line at horror novels, given my easily-scared personality and the dangers of reading a book late at night in a quiet house, where the shadows have eyes. I knew I'd freak myself out if I read his books, so I stayed clear. I also felt he was so damn popular that he hardly needed any more readers, so I gave my time to authors who would appreciate it more.
So I managed to live 45 years before IT finally got me, and it's fun to think of the parallels of the story that is all about the innocence and terror of childhood, which is later replaced by the tribulations of adulthood that erode both that wonder and innocence and replace it with a more resigned acceptance of the disappointments of everyday life and also the legacy of past traumas. It's a great theme to explore and King has found a perfect narrative structure to explore both in great detail, in fact an avalanche and tsumani and flood and gale-force winds of details, enough to crush any story under their weight at 1,100+ pages. That was another reason to avoid this back in high school.
But the advent of Audiobooks had given me a new silver bullet to stay slay formerly unbeatable doorstopper monsters like King's It, The Stand, Under the Dome, or 11/22/63. Rather than slog through a giant pulp brick over months, my weapon of choice was two earbuds and a daily train commute. And so I dipped into and out of the stories of the Loser's Club as they grew up in tiny Derry, main in 1958 and faced down evil personified as a killer clown (perfect image), and then later when they reunited in 1987 to take on It for a final showdown as damaged and worn-down adults.
I'd have to say that if you bite off bits each day, rather than trying to sit down and plow through 100 pages at a sitting, you probably won't experience reading fatigue, so that worked well for me and I'm glad I waited till I was an adult to give it a go. Lately most of the books I read are the "late to the party" variety, filling in the gaps in my reading from childhood, but this book really is meant for adults reflecting back on childhood horrors and friendships and growing up, so it's better that way.
Now my daughter, who turned 17 this year, was very excited to see the new film with her friends and has become a huge Stranger Things fan, which is very much inspired by this story, so it's interesting to read this story of nostalgia for a lost childhood while hearing a young person's take on growing up in the 1980s, a time she never experienced, but she said it's all about the characters and their friendships. I have to give her props, as she's not as scared of clowns as I am......more
This series just gets better with each installment. I gave City of Stairs and City of Blades 4 stars each, but I think having listened to all three, tThis series just gets better with each installment. I gave City of Stairs and City of Blades 4 stars each, but I think having listened to all three, the trilogy as a whole deserves 5 stars for incredible world-building, complex mystery plots, and above all its damaged and conflicted characters.
City of Miracles is centered on fan-favorite Sigrid, the Nordic berserker assassin and all-around badass, but much of the plot revolves around the secret machinations of Prime Minister Shara Komayd, who starts off the book in explosive fashion. It's a very cinematic opening sequence worthy of Luc Besson or Michael Mann, and its alternative Eastern European urban flavor is perfectly evoked. Though Bennett adopts the same structure of a murder mystery that unfolds into a much more complex tapestry of dead gods who never fully stay dead, diabolical plots to harness divine powers for various political ends, and in this book the numerous offspring of the gods, carefully hidden away in society as mortals, often with the children themselves unaware of their heritage.
What Bennett does best though is refuse to let his characters stay the same. They undergo traumatic adventures that leave physical and psychological scars that DO NOT GO AWAY. It's a direct refutation of the usual pattern of indomitable heroes who decimate their enemies, feel a twinge of remorse, and then move on to the next adventure with a jaunty swagger. Not so in THE DIVINE CITIES - Shara, Turiyan, and especially Sigrud carry the baggage of all the killings and schemes they have been involved in throughout their lives, and all the loved ones they were unable to protect from harm. Not only that, but their harrowing life journeys age them, so that we see characters that not so much grow in stature as get worn down, like weathered stones being battered by the sea, shaped by events into fantastically contorted patterns, yet still recognizable.
The themes of colonialism and its legacy remain front and center, and this time the theme of children and how they are often exploited for the purposes of adults is a key plot element, particularly as it pertains to the children of the gods and one particularly damaged godling that uses his own abusive past and takes a terrible revenge on his brethren and the world, seeking to envelop everything in everlasting darkness. He is both pathetic and terrifying, a man-child who is lashing out at those he feels wronged him.
The plot is as intricate as the previous books, and suffice to say that Bennett is adept at mixing intense action, complex intrigues, emotionally-charged relationships, and speculations on divinity, war, and oppression in a completely unique and organic way that I haven't seen done before in the genre. That's saying quite a lot considering how much derivative product is churned out year after year. This series deserves plenty of accolades and book sales, as the author has created something quite special and worthy of repeat readings. Though each book can stand on its own, the three form an integrated whole that is one of the most impressive works of the last decade, on par with N.K. Jemisin's BROKEN EARTH trilogy....more
This is an excellent follow-up to the genre-mixing City of Stairs, this time focusing on the legacy of war and violence in both the victims and perpetThis is an excellent follow-up to the genre-mixing City of Stairs, this time focusing on the legacy of war and violence in both the victims and perpetrators, from the perspective of generals, rank-and-file soldiers, spies, commoners, rebels, and then centering its mystery plot on Voortyashtan, the city formerly ruled by the goddess of war, Voorya, whose Sentinels are armored killing machines that guard a divine afterlife open only to soldiers who have slain enough enemies in battle to be worthy.
Once again the setting is a city in the conquered land of the Continent, its Saypuri occupiers, and this time it is foul-mouthed and embittered General Turyin Mulagesh, who is dragged out of retirement to investigate the disappearance of a Saypuri operative, some mysterious murders, a strange mining operation, and rumors that some of the divine objects of the dead goddess Voorya still seem to retain some power.
This time Bennett delves even more into the difficult territory of why humanity seems so intent on repeating the legacy of past violence and subjugation, with or without divine assistance, and so the story is far more emotionally raw than the first book, and the final third of the book is filled with pain, tragedy, and death. But it done is such a gripping way that it is hard to not be carried on by the relentless momentum of the various parties involved. It is hard to identify the "good" and "bad" characters, as all of them have their light and dark elements.
And unlike "grim dark fantasy", they are not mostly just ruthless and cynically-motivated, this is rather the book that questions that mindset and puts a spotlight on how even when we try to do right, our military actions inevitably result in victims, including those just carrying out orders. Its a tough perspective to embrace, even in a fantasy context, but it flows naturally from the world that Bennett has created in such vivid and careful detail. He has put a great deal of thought into making this world believable, and is not afraid to tackle difficult subjects and put his characters, whom we come to care for, through some very harrowing experiences that will leave them scarred forever afterward.
So while it was quite a challenging book, it raises intriguing possibilities for the final book in the trilogy, City of Miracles, as it is clear that Bennett is not afraid to challenge both genre conventions and limitations in both his characters' emotional depths and the socio-political worlds they inhabit. I might a bit a of a break first, but I am looking forward to the final installment in his Divine Cities series....more
An amazing and fresh mix of genres and themes, I loved the murder investigation, political scheming, and competing divinities in a fantasy about the cAn amazing and fresh mix of genres and themes, I loved the murder investigation, political scheming, and competing divinities in a fantasy about the city of Bulakov in the conquered land of the Continent, its Saypuri occupiers, the tough-as-nails investigator Shara, her Nordic bodyguard Sigurd, the various administrators of Bulikov, and the incredibly-detailed and exotic world-building that evoked China Mieville's The City and The City with its impoverished Eastern European Soviet-bloc political background, and much more fantastical latter half filled with not-so-dead divinities, iron flying ships, powerful magic, and bizarre sea monsters. In terms of tone, the story reminded me of N.K. Jemisin's Broken Earth series, with its strong female characters, complex and exotic societies, dark emotional undercurrents, and exploration of dominance and submission, the weight of history that divides peoples, all the prejudices that come with competing religions, and some very unique magic systems as well. All in all, it's a unique and enticing world and well worth continuing to the next two books in the series, City of Blades and City of Miracles....more
The Stone Sky: An Earth-shattering finale Originally posted as Fantasy Literature The climactic conclusion to N.K. Jemisin’s THE BROKEN EARTH trilogy, TThe Stone Sky: An Earth-shattering finale Originally posted as Fantasy Literature The climactic conclusion to N.K. Jemisin’s THE BROKEN EARTH trilogy, The Stone Sky (2017), has expectations erupting into the stratosphere since both the previous books, The Fifth Season (2015) and The Obelisk Gate (2016), captured the Hugo Awards for Best SF Novels of 2015 and 2016, and these wins were well deserved. Having just finished it, I think THE BROKEN EARTH trilogy is one of the most intelligent, emotionally-wrenching, and relevant SF epics in the last few decades. So any accolades it gets from fans, reviewers, and fellow authors would be fully justified. If you have not read those books yet, read no further as this review contains some spoilers — instead, go out and read them as soon as you can. I say read, but I listened to the expert audio narration of Robin Miles, whose steady and knowing delivery are so perfectly suited to the characters and second-hand POV structure. She complements the story so well that I consider her a co-creator.
The Stone Sky is the kind of book the illuminates and enriches the story that has come before, and makes you want to go back and read them immediately to immerse yourself in the tale once again and delve further into the subterranean depths and undercurrents that explore the bonds of parent and child, exploitation and abuse of power, and to what lengths people will go to protect their child or fight against such exploitation.
The Stone Sky resumes the story of Essun, seeking her daughter Nassun, who in turn has been kidnapped by Essun’s murderous and intolerant husband. Like her mother, Nassun is a rogga, an untrained orogene who can manipulate the geological and kinetic forces of the earth with devastating effect. For that reason, rogga are viewed as deadly threats by stills (those without such powers) and are frequently killed as soon as they display these abilities or are sent to the Fulcrum where they can be trained and controlled by a strict and cruel regimen of servitude. The alternative is death.
The story is also about Hoa, the mysterious Stone Eater that has formed a close bond with Essun, even as she battles against her body turning slowly to stone due to the events of the previous book’s finale. In the second book we learned some of the back story of the Stone Eaters and their competing factions, but in The Stone Sky Jemisin reveals in very dense and mind-boggling backstory chapters how the world of the Stillness came into being, how the Yumenes Rifting occurred, and what role the secretive and powerful Guardians and Stone Eaters played in this incredibly complex, harsh and engrossing world.
It will literally make your head spin — I had to listen to Chapter 19 several times to get my head around it, but it was worth the effort. As many other readers have noted, the grim post-apocalyptic fantasy feel of the The Fifth Season starts to shift into dense SF mode in The Obelisk Gate to explain the inner workings of orogeny, the silvery currents of magic that course through the world, and the ominous obelisks that float in the sky. In The Stone Sky, all the references to evil Father Earth and his lost child, the Moon, become clear in unexpected fashion and shed much light on why the world of the Stillness is so beset with earthquakes, choking ashes, flame, and other calamities.
Lastly, the story is about Shaffa, the ruthless yet protective Guardian of Nassun, whose agendas for his young ward set the stage for a climactic, earth-shattering confrontation in the final chapters between Nassun and her mother Essun, a powerful and emotional conflict between parent and child with the fate of the world hanging in the balance. Just as in the previous books, Jemisin is ingenious in how she overlays the emotional struggles of the characters onto the violent geological landscape of the Stillness, which is anything but. This story is a volcanic journey into the depths of human struggle and oppression, but finally soars in its final act. The Stone Sky, and the entire BROKEN EARTH series, is a fantastic experience and well worth a revisit....more
The Library of Mount Char: Way Better than American Gods Originally posted at Fantasy Literature The Library of Mount Char has gotten heaps of praise foThe Library of Mount Char: Way Better than American Gods Originally posted at Fantasy Literature The Library of Mount Char has gotten heaps of praise for from a vast number readers and reviewers, and the plot has been discussed in detail by many already (too much, in some cases). This is exactly the type of book where the enjoyment comes from the careful reveals that make you think back to earlier, seemingly-innocuous details. So when I hear so much praise for a SFF book (or movie, for that matter), the first thing I do is try to avoid finding out anything else about the book and try to read it without any spoilers sneaking past my defenses. It’s a lot like when I record the Super Bowl here in Japan on Monday morning and try to get through the whole day without finding out the score so I can watch that evening without knowing the result.
I was able to do this with The Library of Mount Char, and I’m glad I pulled it off. All I knew was that it was about some powerful beings, a library of mysterious knowledge, a sinister character named Father who was missing, and a lot of creepy stuff that happens to them. Perfect! Because Scott Hawkins has thought through this book carefully and lays out his breadcrumbs very carefully, with great glee. You can imagine him smiling as he sets out scene after shocking scene, laced with both blood, guts, and ironic humor.
Because both the powerful super-humans and regular people caught up in the events are generally in the dark as all sorts of lethal enemies come after them. I like it best when both readers are characters are kept in suspense, it makes for a much more enjoyable read. Have you ever read a story (or seen a horror movie) thinking, “How could that character be so colossally thick-headed as to not realize who’s behind…”. Well, this book is structured as a series of flashbacks with the various powerful beings growing up with the frighteningly-unpredictable Father and his bizarre love of his BBQ grill shaped like a giant bull. He is truly inscrutable, at times kindly and nurturing, then suddenly turning cruel and vindictive in the blink of an eye.
As promised, I will reveal no further details of the story so you can enjoy it as I did, with an open mind (though some scenes may well may you cringe - it’s not for the faint of heart). I did repeatedly think to myself that the overarching storyline has many parallels with Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, but I was frankly unimpressed with that book despite all the awards and popularity. The Library of Mount Char is a much better book, both in pacing, characters, intensity, and mystery. In particular, the ending ties things up elegantly but also prompts the reader to reinterpret the events of the story to the point where I’m sure some will be eager to re-read it with foreknowledge of what will happen. It’s that kind of book. I have high expectations for Mr. Hawkins’ future work....more
The Ends of the Earth: Luminous, powerful stories of war, exotic locales, and supernatural horror Originally posted at Fantasy Literature
Lucius ShepardThe Ends of the Earth: Luminous, powerful stories of war, exotic locales, and supernatural horror Originally posted at Fantasy Literature
Lucius Shepard had already created one of the best short story collections in the genre, The Jaguar Hunter, which won the 1988 World Fantasy Award and Locus Award for Best Collection, with “Salvador” winning the Locus Award in 1985 and “R&R” winning the Nebula Award in 1987. His work is steeped in magical realism, supernatural horror, Central America and other exotic locales, and hallucinatory depictions of futuristic warfare. In my opinion, Shepard is one of the best stylists to ever work in the genre. That’s why I can’t help including a writing sample from some stories in The Ends of the Earth — they’re just so good.
It’s always tough to come up with a sophomore effort that lives up to the hype of the original. Fortunately, when you’ve lived as dramatic and eclectic life as Lucius Shepard, working a host of random jobs to support years of exploring obscure corners of the planet, that makes for fertile ground for great, memorable, and frightening stories. I’m always amazed by authors who can come up with fantastic tales just living in a quiet house in the suburbs, where the biggest event is when a squirrel sneaks onto the bird feeder or the neighbors’ dog gets loose.
It’s a testament to the power of the human imagination, but nothing beats having BEEN to Central America and the Carribean, drinking rum at a beach-side shack with the locals late at night, and hanging out with the burned-out expats trying to escape our modern materialist society. And when you actually have the writing skills to craft stories that fascinate, repulse, and entertain, then you’ve got it made. And like The Jaguar Hunter, The Ends of the Earth also won the World Fantasy Award for Best Collection in 1992.
“The Ends of the Earth” (1989): This is a classic story that is immediately recognizable as a Shepard story. A successful writer named Ray has a failed affair with a married art gallery owner in New York and decided he needs to flee his life and civilization, and chooses an obscure town called Livingston in Guatemala. Being an author, he is fully aware of the artistic pretentious of seeking to escape to the ends of the earth to find inspiration in his own emotional pain along with the new environment so different from the busy streets of Manhattan.
The bar — Café Pluto — was set in the lee of a rocky point: a thatched hut with a sand floor and picnic-style tables, lit with black lights that emitted an evil purple radiance and made all the gringos glow like sunburned corpses … I was giddy with the dope, with the wildness of the night, the vast blue-dark sky and its trillion watts of stars, silver glitters that appeared to be slipping around like sequins on a dancer’s gown. Behind us the Café Pluto had the look of an eerie cave lit by seams of gleaming purple ore.
There he discovers the expected mixture of disillusioned ex-pats, impoverished locals, and drug-taking bohemian would-be artists. It’s all according to script, until he meets a rather unpleasant Brit named Carl who has set himself up as the top dog in the bohemian community, claiming to be writing an obscure academic work on local folklore and black magic, but supporting himself by selling drugs to other foreigners. Ray takes an instant dislike to Carl, not least because one Carl’s followers is an alluring young French woman named Odille, whom Ray is attracted to and who has her own emotional issues she is fleeing from. The scene is set for a classic love triangle in a tiny Guatemalan village, until one night Ray discovers a set of strange dolls that Carl has acquired from a local shaman. Supposedly they are part of an ancient game that Carl is studying, but he is very reticent to reveal more details, and when they all decide to get high on hashish and play the game, things quickly take a sinister turn…
“Delta Sly Honey” (1987): Here is another Shepard story set in a war setting, this time behind the front lines in Vietnam. Randall J. Williams is a skinny and shy young Southern guy who transforms into the “High Priest of the Soulful Truth and the Holy Ghost of the Sixty-Cycle Hum.” Randall’s job is mainly to handle the bodies of dead soldiers, but one day a lifetime sergeant named Andrew Moon decides to make meek Randall his target of bullying. One day someone using the tag line Delta Sly Honey answers Randall’s broadcast, and he freaks out and goes AWOL. As the narrator investigates, things get more bizarre and horrific…
“Bound for Glory” (1989): This is definitely a strange and memorable tale of a nightmarish train trip to Glory, a town in a post-apocalyptic Wild-West type of landscape where desperation triumphs over hope. The train passes through a strange series of border towns but the biggest danger is when it goes through the Patch, an area where the laws of physics, mysterious fauna, and behavior of the passengers all change unpredictably. Anybody who has read Jeff VanderMeer’s SOUTHERN REACH trilogy will recognize the eerie echoes of that occult sense of dread.
The train guard Roy Cole patrols up and down the train cars, looking into the eyes of each passengers for the telltale signs of madness, and doesn’t hesitate to use his shotgun if he feels it is justified. When the narrator and his female companion Tracy go through the Patch and Tracy starts to transform, he is torn between protecting her from herself and Roy Cole, but he should really be more concerned about the changes that are happening to himself. The ending of the story truly turns things on their head, but you’ll have to read it to find out why.
“The Exercise of Faith” (1987): Here’s a story that doesn’t resemble other Shepard stories I’ve read. The protagonist is a priest that heads a small group of parishioners. But he has an ability not generally available to men of the cloth. The opening paragraph describes it well: From my pulpit, carved of ebony into a long-snouted griffin’s head, I can see the sins of my parishioners. It’s as if a current is flowing from face to face, illuminating the secret meaning of every wrinkle and line and nuance of expression. They — like their sins — are an ordinary lot. Children as fidgety as gnats. Ruddy-cheeked men possessed by the demons of real estate, solid citizens with weak hearts and brutal arguments for wives. Women whose thoughts slide like swaths of gingham through their minds, married every one to lechers and layabouts.
Knowing the innermost thoughts and sinful urges of his flock leads the priest to pursue some very deviant paths and deliver possibly the most perverse sermon of all time. Depending on your temperament, you may find it either hilarious or blasphemous. A very unusual story.
“Nomans Land” (1988): This is the story of several sailors who get caught in vicious storm off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard (which also features in Shepard’s story “How the Wind Spoke at Madaket”) and who find themselves stranded on a tiny deserted island appropriated named “Nomans Land”. The only survivors are Bert Cisneros, a mean-spirited Portuguese man, and the Irish cook Jack Tyrell.
There is little friendship between the two, but they take shelter in an ominous bunker overnight. The next morning, Jack encounters a strange, haunted-seeming woman named Astrid who sees to be living alone on the island, an entomologist studying the ubiquitous tiny white spiders that seem to make their webs in every corner of the island. Jack and Astrid develop a lonely and desperate relationship that suddenly takes a turn to horror (Shepard’s favorite technique), and then goes far beyond, bringing our tenuous understanding of reality into question, as the little white spiders swarm over the island.
“Life of Buddha” (1988): This is the first story in this collection that I just didn’t like. It’s the story of a heroin addict nicknamed Buddha that basically spends much of his time in a drugged-out stupor in a shooting gallery, ostensibly serving as security for his dealer. He has decided to shut out the painful memories of his family by losing himself in drugs, and encounters another lost soul who is also living in the margins and struggling with gender issues. There are some fantasy/horror elements, but I couldn’t care about the characters or the story much.
“Shades” (1987): Here is a return to form for Shepard, as a Vietnamese man named Tom Puleo returns to Vietnam to cover a story about a young soldier named Stoner who died in a village called Cam Le. A Marxist mystic has invented a device that can summon ghosts, and Stoner’s ghost has come back to haunt the village, scaring the residents away and attracting foreign attention. As a fellow soldier with Stoner, the machine inventor wants to see if Stoner’s ghost will respond more to Tom. The story is filled with intense paranormal confrontations between Tom and Stoner’s ghost, and the ending is poignant.
“Aymara” (1986): This was one of my favorite stories of the collection, another seamlessly-crafted take of revolution in Central America and the take of a gringo named Captain Lee Christmas who becomes deeply embroiled in Honduran politics at the turn of the century. The framing narrative is told by a political journalist named William who is fascinated by the story of Christmas and also looking to write a story about a mysterious US military facility and the growing presence of CIA agents around the town. As always, Shepard captures the details of the steamy daily life in the city, and when William begins a torrid love affair with an exotic dark-haired local woman named Ivie. The mystery behind the military facility involves scientists, exotic experiments, revolutionaries, and the two lovers in the middle of it all. The ending is wonderfully enigmatic, a great story.
“A Wooden Tiger” (1988): Another classic Shepard tale of supernatural horror, embittered CIA agents, incarnations of the goddess Kumari, and sordid goings on in Katmandu. An ex-CIA chief named Clement decides to track down the most recent incarnation of the dark goddess Kumari, who regularly inhabits the bodies of young girls who are treated like goddesses until the spirit moves to the next one, at which point they are discarded and shunned. Clement tries to track down a former incarnation, now a mere mortal, and encounters his former mentor D’allesandro, who taught him all the dirty tricks in the book, but who was now gone rogue Lieutenant Kurtz-style. It’s all very murky and intriguing, exactly the type of story Shepard excels in without repeating himself.
“The Black Clay Boy” (1987): This is a short and creepy story set in small-town Ohio, narrated by an old woman named Willa Selkie. She is a recluse, harassed by neighborhood boys with petty pranks. Then she reminisces back to hear early days as a beautiful young woman forced to marry a wealthy older man when she was just 18. Turns out Willa has a very intense libido that cannot be satisfied by her distant and old husband. When he discovers her pleasuring herself, he basically has a heart attack and curses her with his dying breath. She goes on to remarry, but again can’t get no satisfaction, turning to part-time prostitution just to get her fix, eventually setting her sights on a sexually-frustrated Reverend. As we flash back to the present, Willa turns now eyes on her Black Clay Boy, a type of voodoo doll, hoping for one last moment of pleasure…
“Fire Zone Emerald” (1985): Another atmospheric and intense Shepard tale of high-tech soldiers in a Central American war zone, this time in the Guatemalan rain forest. The story begins with Quinn, a soldier injured and separated from his unit after an attack and explosion, finds himself alone in Fire Zone Emerald. He is hardly able to move, and when he gets an unexpected call on his com unit from someone named Mathis of Special Forces who seems sympathetic but may have gone rogue, Quinn is suspicious. The story becomes a cat-and-mouse game as Quinn tries to evade Mathis, with some very tense action sequences. What’s that you say? Where is the trademark dark supernatural element that distinguishes Shepard’s stories? Well, you should discuss that with the queen, who takes the shape of a tiger and can place thoughts in your mind…
“On the Border” (1987): This was one of my favorite stories — a desert-based tale of desperate and marginalized hoodlums who try to rise above their origins, the classic pursuit of a reward for the kidnapping of the beautiful daughter of a rich man, and some magical realism in a surreal brujo in the desert and a bizarre mountain village that may be a total head trip into a psychedelic and violent denouement. It’s a taught tale with a lean and mean James Ellroy feel, but with the empathy of Shepard’s love of outcasts and the glimpses of sublime spiritual mysteries hiding in the sordid corners of our world.
“The Scalehunter’s Beautiful Daughter” (1988): This is one of the longest stories in the collection and is part of Shepard’s ongoing series of fantasy stories about Griaule, the giant dormant dragon who has been trapped by a magician’s spell and has become a part of the local geography, but still exerts a subtle and sinister influence on the human communities that surround it. This story is about Catherine, the daughter of a scalehunter in Hangtown who makes his living chipping away loose scales to sell in the nearby town. She is beautiful, as the title states, but also vain and selfish, toying with the hearts of the young men and stealing them away from their girlfriends just for the malicious fun of it. One day she is resting alone and is assaulting by a village thug, and in the struggle to resist his attempted rape, she accidently kills him with her scaling hook. She is then forced to flee into the dragon’s mouth as his vengeful brothers try to kill her.
Thus begins a very surreal odyssey inside the body of Griaule, which turns out to be inhabited by all sorts of bizarre and disturbing creatures much like something from Jack Vance’s The Dying Earth or Michael Shea’s Nifft the Lean, and more importantly a lost colony of humans called feelies, descended from a pair of retarded villagers many generations past. They have formed a strange and degenerate society that seems to be swayed by the inscrutable and dark influence of Griaule’s thoughts. Catherine is taken into this society and gradually falls into the rhythms of this subterranean world, a prisoner of both the feelies and the dragon’s pervasive presence. Then one day a young scientist enters her world, changing everything.
This is one of those tales with metaphorical overtones that dares you to interpret both the situation and events and discover the hidden themes and messages. However, much like his award-winning story “The Man Who Painted the Dragon Griaule,” while the story is fraught with meaning, the exact interpretation of what the dragon represents is elusive and will vary from reader to reader. Is the dragon a dormant god, exerting a sinister influence on human affairs for his own unknowable reasons, or an embodiment of a more subtle evil that is not divine in nature? Themes of free will, self-determination, and imprisonment are also explored, and the will to adapt to captivity. Guilt, revenge, love, escape, freedom, and good/evil; it’s all there in a fairytale format that also reminded me of Ursula K. LeGuin’s short stories.
“Surrender” (1989): The final story is a confluence of all Shepard’s favorite elements: a dismal Central American military conflict, corrupt militia groups involved in nefarious scientific experiments, jaded journalists who discover things are even more screwed-up than their cynical outlooks were prepared to handle, and dark gun battles against subhuman creatures in dark and dangerous jungles and caves. The narrator gives the story its sarcastic attitude and challenges the reader to have an opinion of the endless miseries of US involvement in Central American wars and state-building, its failures and hypocrisy, and what we think of it while kicking back with a cold one from the comfort of our sofas in front of the TV watching ABC news and Monday Night Football....more
The Haunted House Story That Set the Standard This was another book selected by David Pringle in his Modern Fantasy: The Hundred Best Novels: in EnglisThe Haunted House Story That Set the Standard This was another book selected by David Pringle in his Modern Fantasy: The Hundred Best Novels: in English Language Selection, 1946-1987. Normally I am not a fan of horror novels, especially when I was younger as I was far too easily spooked, especially reading alone at night. But this seemed like a classic of the genre, harking back to an earlier generation, and focused more on psychological fears and anxiety rather than ax murderers or horrific monsters - the real demons are inside us all....more
Sinister, Darkly Humourous Gothic Tale of Ostracism, Madness, and Fear of Others What a brilliant narrator MerryCat is. How clear she speaks of the magSinister, Darkly Humourous Gothic Tale of Ostracism, Madness, and Fear of Others What a brilliant narrator MerryCat is. How clear she speaks of the magical world she lives in, and the evil townpeople who surround and threaten her cozy existence in the big house with her older sister Constance, Uncle Julian, and her cat. She's a perky young lady who just wants them left along and happily imagines everyone in the town dead or dying of poison. Speaking of which, six years previously almost her whole family was poisoned to death at dinner by arsenic, but surely that was just an accident? This is a perfectly told, deceptively simple but utterly chilling tale of the ultimate outcasts from society, hidden away in their house, until greedy a greedy cousin shows up to try and extract the family fortune, with disastrous consequences. A brilliantly-told story, with a charmingly psychotic lead character of disarming charm....more
The Broken Kingdoms: Liked this better than the first book Originally posted at Fantasy Literature Based on The Fifth Season and The Obelisk Gate (the fThe Broken Kingdoms: Liked this better than the first book Originally posted at Fantasy Literature Based on The Fifth Season and The Obelisk Gate (the first two books in her BROKEN EARTH trilogy), N.K. Jemisin immediately became my favorite SFF author of this decade. Her DREAMBLOOD series was also very good, an original fantasy based on Egyptian and Nubian themes. However, as I was working backwards, I got to her earliest series last, the INHERITANCE trilogy. And in comparison, I thought The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms was not as amazing as her BROKEN EARTH books. In particular, the YA mortal-girl-falls-for-sexy-but-troubled-immortal-guy aspect really didn’t interest me.
So I was pleasantly surprised by The Broken Kingdoms, her follow-up to The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. It dialed back on the romance elements somewhat, and I really liked the heroine Oree Shoth, a young blind woman who sells art to religious pilgrims who come to Shadow, the city below the World Tree that grew following the climactic events of the previous book. The reign of Bright Itempas came to an end, the Gray Lady was born (or reborn, perhaps), and Nahadoth the Night Lord was freed, along with a host of ‘godlings’ who made their new homes in Shadow. It is a fascinating milieu, and one I much preferred to the palace intrigues of the first book. In addition, we see the lives of more commoners and street merchants.
What is really great about this book is that we see the events and characters of the first book from a completely different perspective, that of Oree. She is special for two reasons - she is blind, but she also has an ability to to see the magical auras projected by goslings and scriveners. So in her world of darkness, these beings glow with bright auras. And when one day she stumbles over the dead body of a murdered godling and then takes in a strange man who glows very brightly, (she names him “Shiny” since he doesn’t offer his name or any other information), her life will never be the same.
Oree is a great heroine, one who refuses to let her blindness become a disability or excuse to give up on life. She has a circle of friends who help her, and she makes a precarious living by selling her art. In fact, despite her blindness, she has an uncanny knack for creating incredible paintings that have real power. However, she knows that revealing this ability may attract the unwanted attention of the Order Keepers of Itempas.
Since the godlings have been released unto the world once again, the political and religious climate has been thrown into flux. Several religious orders still revere Itempas, and the Arameri still hold political power in Sky, but beneath the surface many factions seek to leverage the situation to their advantage. As it turns out, one group in particular wants to completely upset the hierarchy of the gods, and is murdering godlings as a means to this end. They decide that Oree’s abilities may be of use to them and come in pursuit.
Oree, Shiny, and their allies find themselves entangled in a series of intrigues that will reveal unexpected strengths and powers. However, their enemies are ruthless and powerful. Finally, the gods themselves will get involved, and we will see new sides to them as things come to a head in the finale. There is even a coda that adds a more bittersweet note to the lives of the two main characters.
In hindsight I thought the characters, plot, pacing, and world-building of The Broken Kingdoms was superior to the first book. Sure, there were still mortal-god romance elements that I could live without, but it didn’t overwhelm the story here. Jemisin also revealed a lot more backstory about the War of the Gods and the religious and political ramifications of events of the first book. More than anything, the descriptions of Oree’s world, in many ways a hyper-reality informed by her unique visualizations, was something fresh and intriguing. Casaundra Freeman remained the narrator for this book, and she does an exemplary job with the characters and story - she tells the story with relish and enthusiasm. So I would be willing to give the third book Kingdom of the Gods a try, but for some inexplicable reason Brilliance Audio has not produced an audio version....more
Death: The Deluxe Edition: That perky goth-punk girl named Death Originally posted at Fantasy Literature I’ve loved rediscovering the world of mature coDeath: The Deluxe Edition: That perky goth-punk girl named Death Originally posted at Fantasy Literature I’ve loved rediscovering the world of mature comics thanks to one of its most beloved and well-respected series, Neil Gaiman’s 75-volume SANDMAN epic. What to do when done, though? When I first picked up Sandman: Overture in Deluxe Hardcover last Christmas, I noticed an understated volume next to it simply called Death. Sounds fairly grim, I thought. But the cover artwork (by Dave McKean) was intriguing, muted colors, a dark-haired women in profile, with the hint of a dark wing behind her, some blue roses superimposed, and other unidentifiable but haunting images. On the back it simply said “You’ll See Her Again,” with a white ankh symbol floating in darkness. Since there was a 3-for-2 sale going on, I grabbed this just to make 3 (the other one was Alan Moore’s Watchmen), knowing only that Gaiman wrote it and guessing it had some relation to the SANDMAN series.
I’m really glad I got it. It turns out to be a collection of stories that focus on perhaps the most popular member of the Endless other than Dream. Normally people think Grim Reaper, black cloak and hood, skeleton face, and sickle in hand. Well, hand it to Gaiman to come up with something more original, and much more fun. After all, Death is generally a serious subject and we shouldn’t be flippant about it. Most people don’t want to think about or confront death, other than the cheap thrills of horror films or the guilty relief that we feel hearing news reports of car accidents, terrorist attacks, and natural disasters. How tragic, we think. How terrible for the victims’ friends and families. And thank goodness it wasn’t us or anyone we know. That last thought is rarely vocalized, but I think it’s generally there.
In any case, Death of the Endless is hardly what any of us expect to meet when our time comes. First off, she is a woman. Second, she is young, spiky-haired, attractive in a punk/goth way, and has a knowing and wistful smile. Initially those she encounters try to pretend they don’t recognize her, but they know. And despite having an extremely busy schedule, she doesn’t seem to be rushing at all. Just a gentle insistence, given with a glance, that your time is up, as you look at your prone body, and her outstretched hand. She will listen to the usual questions, like “Why now?”, “Can’t I have more time?”, “What Happens Next?”, “Am I going to Heaven or Hell?”, etc. But don’t expect a detailed answer. You have to punch your ticket to find that out, folks.
This collection contains a number of well-known stories about Death that have previously appeared in the main SANDMAN series, such as “The Sound of Her Wings” (from Volume One: Preludes and Nocturnes), “Facade” (from Volume Four: Dream Country), and “Death and Venice” (from Sandman: Endless Nights). But it also includes two major independent story arcs, “The High Cost of Living” and “The Time of Your Life” that feature characters from SANDMAN. They are definitely of interest to anyone who is a fan of either Death or SANDMAN. It even contains a very extensive gallery of different artists’ renditions of Death — she sure is popular! And last but not least, a little sex education from Death with a cameo by Constantine. A bit awkward, but better safe than sorry!
Read as a whole, our cute goth-punk goddess represents a very different philosophical view of Death. After all, all living things die at some point, and most of us do not control the timing or circumstances of our death. But Gaiman is keen to explore the varied responses of people, both mortal and slightly more, when their number is called. Some are upset, some accepting, most anxious and uncertain, but what unites them all is that, deep down, although they think they know what is coming, actually they don’t.
Sure, all the religions of the world claim to know about the afterlife (if there is one), and generally teach that your behavior and beliefs during life will determine if you get a deluxe room for eternity or perhaps something a bit less comfy. Some people live their lives in trepidation of this, many millions have been terrorized with images of burning hell-fires and tortures for the sinners and damned. Others believe they will re-enter the cycle of reincarnation, with karma from the most recent life determining your position in the next. And yet others think that’s end of the line. Finito. Done.
I don’t pretend to have the faintest idea, but I certainly wouldn’t have pictured such a sweet and understanding escort to the Sunless Lands. Because it seems that Lady Death is mainly in charge of coming to fetch you and escorting you there, but after that it’s still a big question mark. The 60 million dollar question. And the answer is probably not 42, I’m afraid. You’ll have to read this volume to draw your own conclusions, but all I will say is that maybe we’re asking the wrong question. Instead of worrying about death and what happens afterward, perhaps we should spend more time thinking about living a meaningful life instead. I’m just sayin’....more
Sandman: Overture: Stunning artwork enhances an excellent story I re-entered the world of comics after a 30-year hiatus thanks to fellow FanLit review Sandman: Overture: Stunning artwork enhances an excellent story I re-entered the world of comics after a 30-year hiatus thanks to fellow FanLit reviewer Brad Hawley’s impassioned Why You Should Read Comics: A Manifesto! and his 10-part essay on Reading Comics. It was clear that Neil Gaiman’s SANDMAN series was the gold standard for sophisticated, intelligent comics for adults. Having read Brad’s review of the entire series, Welcome to The Dreaming: An Introduction to THE SANDMAN, I embarked on the 76-volume epic.
At that time, my only dilemma was whether to read it in hardcopy or digital. There are plenty of purists who would insist that comics must be read in physical form as originally intended. But having discovered Comixology, I learned that comics could be enjoyed anytime and anyplace on an iPad or iPhone, whether on lunch break or even while clothing shopping with the family (it saved my sanity many times over), with the ability to focus on each panel separately using Guided View. In the end, convenience won out.
But last Christmas in Hawaii, my daughter and I were enjoying the rare privilege of shopping at Barnes & Noble, the only English bookstore still surviving in Hawaii, which we can visit once a year since we live in Tokyo. We spent much of our time in the comics section, and when my eyes lit on the Deluxe Hardcover Edition of Sandman: Overture and opened it to a few random pages, the artwork just stunned me with its incredible richness and detail. I wanted to read more, but at the same time I didn’t want to spoil the story. In the end I bought this beautiful volume but carefully saved it until I had finished the entire 76-volume series, because I knew that I would appreciate the story more if I knew all about Morpheus before reading this prequel. I’m glad I waited - this comic is an amazing achievement, one of the most impressive stories I’ve read in a long time.
The story centers on why Morpheus found himself so weakened at the beginning of Volume 1: Preludes & Nocturnes that he could be captured by mere humans casting ancient spells. What takes shape is an epic adventure that goes well beyond anything that occurs in the 10 volumes that come afterward. The scope is huge, ranging throughout the universe, time, space, and numerous dimensions. There are very few mortal characters other than a little girl named Hope Beautiful Lost Nebula. The majority consist of immortals like Morpheus (quite a few of him, in fact), his siblings, various alien beings, and even stars themselves. Most interestingly, we meet the parents of the Endless - it didn’t even occur to me that was possible. But these parents are fairly distant from their children - the disfunctionality runs deep here.
The plot gets going properly as we learn that a star has gone mad and is disrupting the balance of the universe. Furthermore, the reasons for this have to do with Morpheus and the decisions that he did and did not make. Once again the theme of duties and responsibilities take center stage. It also sheds much light on Morpheus’ dogged insistence on doing his duty later in the series. Decisions, consequences, and sacrifices - these ideas drive the characters of this big-canvas morality play.
The artwork is so luxurious and hypnotic that it may overshadow the story somewhat, or make it seem better than it really is. I would prefer to think that Gaiman crafted his story to take full advantage of the amazing skills of J.H. Williams III and Dave Stewart. There are so many fantastic things that happen in the story, it’s clear that Gaiman wanted to push them to their artistic limits, and the results are truly awesome. I don’t think I’ve ever spent so much time simply poring over each page and panel of any comic before. It’s a visual feast with a color palette so rich it can be overwhelming.
This could not have been done without advanced digital software like Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. In fact, the Deluxe Edition includes a treasure-trove of extras at the back of the book in which the artistic process is discussed in detail by J.H. Williams III, Dave Stewart, Todd Klein, and Neil Gaiman. It’s like magicians revealing their secrets, and is really fascinating for anyone who may be considering a career in comic book illustration and design. It’s truly a collaborative effort, much more than novel writing.
In writing this review, I thought I would just page through the chapters to choose particular parts worth noting, but the pictures and story were so enthralling that I actually ended up reading the entire book again. In fact, this is one comic I can see myself reading again and again since the artwork and story complement each other so well. It might be my favorite Christmas book purchase ever....more
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