#4 on Karl Edward Wagner's list of Thirteen Best Supernatural Horror Novels
it's the Left Hand Path versus the Right Hand Path, the ambitions of Satani#4 on Karl Edward Wagner's list of Thirteen Best Supernatural Horror Novels
it's the Left Hand Path versus the Right Hand Path, the ambitions of Satanism versus the embrace of Christianity. purposeless social butterfly Lord Anthony Lovell is summoned back to his ancestral island castle Kestrel after his father falls into raving fits. home is where the heart is, as well as the family curse, and there the young lord certainly finds a purpose in life, one would say. turns out his charming new friend, a psychiatrist, is also the grandmaster of a Satanic cult determined to bring about the end of the world. there's a special role for Kestrel's heir in his nefarious schemes. fortunately for Anthony, and the world, he has an old friend who makes it his business to stop these diabolical shenanigans. the book is full of dark magic, psychic powers including astral projection, a shapeless monster in the dungeon that gains strength from fear, and even some Satanist on Satanist violence. it also features an almost-literal deus ex machina. all in all, a lot of fun. H.B. Gregory's writing is surprisingly calm and polished, lacking the hysteria I'm used to in this genre. his sophisticated, seemingly empathetic villain and that gentleman's turncoat assistant are wonderfully ripe creations. the author's Anglo-Catholic faith is placed front and center; I was pleasantly reminded of C.S. Lewis in how that faith doesn't come across as hectoring but rather as both compassionate and visionary....more
the stories here that aren't repeats from The Hounds of Tindalos were... somewhat more enjoyable? I guess? 2.5 stars, rounded down. because although tthe stories here that aren't repeats from The Hounds of Tindalos were... somewhat more enjoyable? I guess? 2.5 stars, rounded down. because although the ideas were admirably bizarre, the writing is often eyerolling.
"The Ocean Leech" - a monstrosity from the sea devours various unlucky sailors, including our narrator. despite the poor quality of the prose, there's something very original about a story told by a ship's captain who is being devoured by a giant ocean leech. apparently due to various ocean leech excretions, being digested feels kinda great - color me surprised! although it does make our narrator rather forgetful of various details - interesting side effect.
"It Will Come to You" - similar to "The Ocean Leech" this story features a forgetful narrator. in this case, he's forgetful of who he is and why he's been given various jobs, including food-taster. this results in some deadly food poisoning for those whom he's supposed to be tasting food because BIG SPOILER NOW our narrator has forgotten that he's an undead ghoul, disguised as a human by Satan, and so what tastes "good" to him should be marked as inedible to humans. a surprising story, to say the least.
"Step Into My Garden" - a traveling salesman comes home to find his house & garden overtaken by cloying smells, invisible pests, some sort of disappearing gnome, and the maybe-undead criminal who was shot in his garden. this is one of the most bizarre stories I've ever read and that's saying something. even though I just gave sort of a synopsis, I still have no idea what this story was about, what happened and didn't happen, and that ending was very ?!?!?!
"The Flame Midget" - tiny evil gnome from space hangs out in a slide in a microscope and telepathically says Hello, My People Are About To Invade Earth And Kill You All. it also emits lethal needle-thin rays of burning heat and hides its spaceship in one character's kidneys. I don't even know what to say about this story other than it is certainly different.
"Death-Waters" - the narrator tells the tale of his dead friend, bitten to death by swarms of snakes summoned by an evil black fellow. this is one of those stories that could either be about racist characters or could itself be as racist as its characters. I tend to want to think the best of folks, even authors, but I'm going to have go with the latter in this case. check out this description, where apparently the very body of the black character inspires certain kinds of feelings:
"He sat hunched in the bow, with his back towards me, with his hands on his knees and his eyes turned towards the shore. He was naked to the waist and his dark, oily skin glistened with perspiration. There was something tremendously impressive about the rigidity of this animal-like body, and I didn't like the lethal growth of crisp black hair on his chest and arms. The upper portion of his body was hideously tattooed.
I wish I could make you perceive the deadly horror of the man. I couldn't look at him without an inevitable shudder, and I felt that I could never really know him, never break through his crust of reserve, never fathom the murky depths of his abominable soul. I knew that he had a soul, but every decent instinct in me revolted at the thought of coming into contact with it.
this character is literally just the native guide these two assholes have hired to row them to the center of a lake in Central America, where one of the pair forces him to drink what looks and smells like toxic lake water.
and then there's this line, which is just so funny yet dumb:
"There is no understanding the psychology of a black man in the centre of a black lake."
hard to understand the psychology of someone forced to drink "yellow, sulfurous" lake water and is now mad about it?? I mean, if I had the ability to curse someone to death by snakebite who had forced me to guzzle down foul, parasite-ridden lake water, that curse is 100% happening.
also "lethal" chest & arm hair... that's a new one for me!...more
I forgot how fun this was! a dry kind of fun. it's been many years since I first read it and I'm surprised at how much I still retained, certain imageI forgot how fun this was! a dry kind of fun. it's been many years since I first read it and I'm surprised at how much I still retained, certain images & ideas really stuck with me. I guess once Lovecraft gets his hooks into you, those hooks stay embedded, little bits of Cthulhu shrapnel that burrow slowly in the mind, never to be pulled out. LOL how's that for a metaphor for the author's mythos; I think Cthulhu would approve. the empurpled Lovecraft style is in full effect: journalistic and full of archaic words, while also being VERY VERY EXCITABLE. well, the end of the world is nigh, a person should be excitable when sharing those facts.
the story itself is not straightforward. a lot of telling and very little showing. it works. through our narrator's eye, we meet a pretentious sculptor whose nightmares are shared by many other artists, a New Orleans detective who finds a horrible cult in the depths of a swamp, and a Norwegian sailor who lands on the very tip-top of the ancient submerged city of R'lyeh and whose shipmates meet shocking ends at the hands of Cthulhu itself. I had forgotten that Cthulhu makes an actual appearance here, literally swimming after the Norwegian's ship and then recombining after our brave sailor decides to turn his ship around and sail right into the Great Old One, cleaving the monster into pieces (temporarily). what I had not forgotten was the central concept of the story, and it's an awesome one: the "call" of Cthulhu is the call of the ancient being's own dreams, diffusing out into the world and into the minds of various cultists, madmen, and sensitive artists.
some words must be said about Lovecraft's abominable depictions of "queer and evil-looking half-castes." now, as an evil-looking (but dapper) and very queer half-caste myself, I was quite taken aback. sure, he's not wrong: half-breeds like me do possess ancient secrets and are forever in service to ancient gods; our main goal in life is to disturb the dreams of sensitive artists, sardonic detectives, brave sailors, and white people in general. but gosh, Lovecraft was just so blatant about it in this story, no subtlety whatsoever. he's totally, shamelessly blowing our cover - and that's pretty unforgiveable. he's lucky that he's long dead because otherwise someone would be sent some pretty bad dreams tonight. and maybe some other things too.
3 perspectives: the son, the husband, the murdered wife. Bierce's irony and cruelty is in full effect. the mediocre and depressing "lives" of ghosts i3 perspectives: the son, the husband, the murdered wife. Bierce's irony and cruelty is in full effect. the mediocre and depressing "lives" of ghosts is discussed. in the end, love shall conquer death but shall bring death as well.
and who was that intruder on the stairs, the man in the night? surely not Nemesis; these fools have done nothing to deserve a nemesis. except to be born, to live, and then to die, as foolish humans.
synopsis: a little girl is haunted but is she really?
When is a haunted house story not a haunted house story? When it is a Weird Fiction™ haunted houssynopsis: a little girl is haunted but is she really?
When is a haunted house story not a haunted house story? When it is a Weird Fiction™ haunted house story, of course. The old Weird Fiction Masters blood runs through Walton's veins: some Arthur Machen, a little bit of Lord Dunsany, and a lot of Algernon Blackwood. That blood is not interested in classical ghost stories; it doesn't particularly want to scare you, except perhaps on an existential level. It is fascinated by the extradimensional spaces between and beyond, psychic residues and psychic attacks, the natural world's transcendent qualities, the Lessons of the Ancients, the right-hand path and the left.
This will be a difficult and probably very annoying book for some. Hard to recommend. It is eerie and disturbing but it is far from a traditional tale of horror. The poor reviewer Dan was appalled at the lengthy middle section, which is basically conversation and interrogation. I get it; for someone who doesn't love the in-depth yet strangely stylized, chapters-long conversations that dominate many of Algernon Blackwood's books, this will be a slog. But that and so much else delighted me. I love those sorts of things, the reading and often rereading of multi-level conversations, the thought put into each query and response, the respect for the reader who is expected to be just as interested in such contemplative sequences, one who takes their time and is not reading the book simply to turn pages rapidly.
I also love the characters. The four supporting characters (two brothers, a wife, and a child) are all well-characterized, portrayed in varying shades of villainy and victimization. Best of all, the protagonist and the mother who employs him. Dr. Carew comes from a long line of "psychic investigators" like John Silence (Blackwood again) and there is something so compelling about how these types of characters radiate both a calming ease with transcendental mysticism and an innate decency and quiet strength that I suppose can only be called "goodness" if that word didn't come across as so corny. Elizabeth Stone is just as interesting and admirable: an heiress who escaped from a controlling evil and who is forced to return to it, a student of the occult absorbed by the supernatural but never taken over by it, and in the end, a woman whose struggle is basically about not allowing her own will and independent thought to be taken over by any dominating force, whether by an evil aunt's will or a cousin who loves her. Elizabeth resists being subsumed; being her own individual is key to who she is. These are two very attractive characters.
Walton's prose shines. So many surprising phrases and sentences stuck in my mind; she's both a perfectionist and someone who wants to describe things in new and unusual ways. A complex and nuanced writer who trusts her audience. And much like Blackwood (yet again), she has no interest in viewing non-Western spiritual practices with anything approaching condescension. I really appreciated the depth and sympathy in which she portrayed the mystical traditions of other cultures and her ease in imagining some sort of afterlife. As well as how the present world is affected, sometimes infected, by the past.
[image]
looks like a ghost messed with that hair a bit
also there is a creepy apparition that takes the form of a hare and who doesn't love that?
#7 on Karl Edward Wagner's list of Best Science Fiction Horror Novels
this frenetically paced slice of pulp fiction is like a kid who doesn't know what#7 on Karl Edward Wagner's list of Best Science Fiction Horror Novels
this frenetically paced slice of pulp fiction is like a kid who doesn't know what they want to be when they grow up, so they try on a bunch of identities and discard those identities whenever they see fit (including when they get bored).
and so The Flying Beast has creepy & atmospheric horror, a murder mystery, a bit of comedy o' manner, international espionage & financial skullduggery, a harrowing trip through an African desert, a Lost City, and a couple action sequences featuring humans with guns versus a subhuman, subterranean horde. (let's not think too deeply about that last one.) this all happens sequentially, in roughly the order presented. I should also make clear that the berserk narrative and the throwing of multiple things at the wall made this a fun, certainly never boring experience. Masterman is an enjoyable writer, can definitely create an atmosphere (multiple ones), quite dramatic at times but not eye-rollingly melodramatic. there's a fairly saccharine romance happening throughout the book, but fortunately nothing too nauseating.
synyposis: an old recluse is found hanged in a spooky mansion. and then things really start to happen....more
Clark Ashton Smith, one of my favorite classic writers of ornate science fantasy, closes out his career with less of a bang and more of a... well, I'mClark Ashton Smith, one of my favorite classic writers of ornate science fantasy, closes out his career with less of a bang and more of a... well, I'm not going to say "whimper" because I'm not going to insult him. He closes out his career with a whisper. A whisper of his former skills, I suppose, rather than the more full-throated confidence and command of effects that he had in his heyday. There are certainly some of the worst stories I've ever read by him in here. Happily, there are plenty of perfectly fine stories, and handful of excellent ones that are just as wonderfully written and magically malevolent as his prior classics.
I loved his return to the Atlantean land of Poseidonis: "The Death of Malygris" features a cabal of understandably anxious second-level wizards who seek to plunder the fortunes of their apparently-dead superior. They should have known better.
CAS revisits his classic (and shared) setting of sword & sorcery, Hyperborea, in three treats. One about the robbery of a temple, another about an arrogant king bespelled by a grouchy enchanter to offer himself up to a range of underworld monstrosities, all who find the offering rather lacking (the delightful and macabre "The Seven Geases"), and a somewhat Lovecraftian story of an alien being intent on bringing death by ice to the world (the atypically somber "The Coming of the White Worm").
The Vancean far-future continent of Zothique is featured the most heavily in this collection. I was disappointed by a number of these stories, but there were some standouts. (All of my favorites are bolded below.) The best tales of Zothique, as with Poseidonis, are the ones suffused with a bleak melancholy. Just as Poseidonis is doomed to drown, Zothique exists at the end of days. "Morthylla" and "Necromancy in Naat" in particular exude the kind of luscious romanticism and literally necrophilic love affairs that are perfect for undead readers like myself.
It's sort of funny to describe these different worlds of Poseidonis and Zothique and Hyperborea, because they often feel like very similar places. Same goes for his setting in the provincial French countryside, Averoigne. All include dark wizardry, dying or dead civilizations, horribly ironic endings, and all portrayed with the deepest shades of purple prose.
A standout that felt quite different is the scabrous and unusually graphic "Schizo Creator" - starting with that fun title. The jumping points are Manichaeism and Gnosticism: the binary of a Good God of Order and the Dark God of Chaos, the right-hand path and the left. But what if, wonders a very modern psychoanalyst with some surprising sorcerous skills, there is only one being, and this God is schizophrenic. I mean seriously, LOL! And so our resourceful brain-panner manages to trap a high-level demon that he mistakes for Satan and then provides that very modern treatment, electroshock therapy. The results are pretty amusing, to the reader and to the high-level demon. And the whole experiment - dutifully reported back by that demon - is certainly of interest to the High Devil himself. Or should it be... Himself? No spoilers! Or blasphemy!
☥
INANE SYNOPSES
The Dark Age - post-apocalyptic caveboy learns that last living elitists still elitist The Chain of Aforgomon - fuck around with Father Time and find out The Primal City - cloud monsters don't like climbers Treader of the Dust - ashy book leads to ashy skin leads to ashy death The Great God Awto - hear them sing their paeans to this god Strange Shadows - drunk dude sees clearly Double Cosmos - druggie dude sees other self and other self is an asshole Nemesis of the Unfinished - writer needs to write more and drink less Symposium of the Gorgon - drunkard meets Gorgon, Pegasus, cannibals Schizoid Creator - psychiatrist needs to rethink his thesis Monsters in the Night - werewolf feeding time Phoenix - boyfriend not returning from trip to reignite sun The Dart of Rasafa - makes me sad that this was author's last story cause it sucked
Poseidonis
The Death of Malygris - oh he ain't that dead
Averoigne
Mother of Toads - nasty, horny sorceress + toads = bad news for handsome apprentice The Enchantress of Sylaire - who cares how she really looks, she fucks
Hyperborea
The Coming of the White Worm - disgusting slug sorcerer wants the world to just chill Seven Geases - hypnotized human sacrifice: "Eat me, I'm yours." 7 entities: "Sorry, just not into you." Theft of the Thirty-Nine Girdles - Ocean's 11 - 3 + fake ghosts
Zothique
The Tomb-Spawn - escape from cannibals leads to discovery of something pretty gross The Witchcraft of Ulua - entitled temptress mad she can't get it on with new cup-bearer Xeethra - Ozymandias called, wants kingdom and name back The Last Hieroglyph - astrologer gets on Fate's last nerve Necromancy in Naat - dead people make great servants but not great lovers The Black Abbot of Puthuum - racist travelers don't want to provide lonely, hungry monk with sustenance or sex The Death of Ilalotha - after the funeral orgies, it's jealous queen vs. living dead girl The Garden of Alompha - bored king not so bored anymore when being torn apart by vengeful veggies The Master of the Crabs - crabs make unreliable friends Morthylla - "After his death, he forgot that he had died..."...more
Fecund fructuous luscious decadent dissolute immoral empurpled grandiose theatrical refined cultivated stylized mordant acidulous barbed sanguinary neFecund fructuous luscious decadent dissolute immoral empurpled grandiose theatrical refined cultivated stylized mordant acidulous barbed sanguinary necromantic, and to me at least, salubrious Clark Ashton Smith! He's a lot!
There is also a lot of fabulous Zothique, dire and sorcerous world of our future, in this dense collection. Cause for celebration. All of the Zothique stories are wonderful. I particularly appreciated the strange, sad adventure of a poor prince of a dead kingdom, stranded on "The Isle of the Torturers" (trigger warning: torture, lol) and the evil wit in "Voyage of King Euvoron" especially the King of Birds' collection of human taxidermy, and most of all the fantastic showdown between evil wizard and evil king - plus an evil concubine turned into a sacrifice, and also an evil god of hell just biding his time - of the enchanting "Dark Eidolon" - swoon! So much evil and they all get what's coming to them. Except for the evil god of hell of course, he always wins.
The very disdainful, very bored, and - wait for it - very evil sorcerer supreme Maal Dweb is featured in the two stories about a weird world called Xiccarph that exists in a weird solar system with a bunch of other weird planets and in which weird adventures are apparently occurring around the clock. After dispatching some dull, lovelorn interlopers on some kind of rescue mission who dare to intrude on his peace of mind in "The Maze of the Enchanter" (I totally sympathized with his irritation), he decides to have some adventures of his own in "The Flower-Women" and those adventures are very, very weird. Both stories delighted.
Two more standouts are the rousing and rather less decadent adventure stories set in the deep caverns of Mars. One was exceedingly creepy (as eyeless undead slug people who want you to be One Of Us are always fated to be, the poor things) and the other was just a lot of fast-paced fun, as it features two losers who have to match their rather dull wits against an ambitious, sweet-voiced, manipulative god of - wait for it - evil who wants to branch out and conquer another planet... our planet Earth, egads!! The latter story also includes a holographic PR rep who floats around dispensing a lot of inane bullshit, which felt like this story was set in 2021.
Also quite pleased that a teen favorite has remained a favorite: "Genius Loci" which is about, well, an evil meadow. I remember excitedly reading this one to my girlfriend at the time, on a road trip. I also remember her wondering if maybe she and I were really the right fit for each other. :(
I think this period of CAS's writing career may be his peak, but I do still have 1 more volume of his stories to go. I want I want I want to give this one 5 stars because he's a favorite author but I'm miserly and am just going to hold out until I finish them all. Not all of the stories gave that pure-pleasure feeling, but if you like his overripe & overheated & often overly-written style, each and every story here is a winner.
STUPID SYNOPSES AHEAD
A Star-Change - grass is always greener on the other planet Dimensions of Chance - Americans rescued by racist aliens 3rd Episode of Vathek - CAS finishes Beckford's ode to twincest Genius Loci - "the presiding spirit of a place" Secret of the Cairn - eating a pear from an alien Tree of Life
Averoigne The Mandrakes - bury the wife & dig up the mini-wives Beast of Averoigne - hark! the demon comet approaches! Disinterment of Venus - sexy statue inspires priapic monks
Hyperborea The White Sybil - like a moth to a white flame goes the poet The Ice-Demon - don't mess with a malevolent glacier
Zothique Isle of the Torturers - out of the frying pan and into... The Charnel God - only dead offerings allowed Dark Eidolon - evil, evil everywhere & so many souls to drink Voyage of King Euvoran - both fool & fowl shall the king become The Weaver in the Vaults - lil' floating globe seeks nourishment
Mars Dweller in the Gulf - "Out, vile jelly! Where is thy lustre now?" Vulthoom - the lovely Martian god of evil wants to visit Earth
Xiccarph Maze of the Enchanter - change or stasis await all who enter The Flower-Women - bored sorcerer befriends vampire veggies...more
"Francis Stevens" was Gertrude Barrows, one of the very few female writers of strange fiction to catch the public's eye in the early 20th century. Kud"Francis Stevens" was Gertrude Barrows, one of the very few female writers of strange fiction to catch the public's eye in the early 20th century. Kudos, Ms. Barrows!
This was a lot of fun. The author weaves in elements of various genres that I haven't previously seen put together: bold adventures in a lost world, the unknowable forces of weird fiction, Aztec mythology, off-kilter suburban horror, a gothic landscape right outside of that suburbia, and a rather Götterdämmerung-esque scene of gods at battle. Definitely some points awarded for the sheer creativity on display. I didn't love one of the heroines (too submissive) but she redeems herself with a display of forthright bloodthirstiness. The other heroine was great - strong and clever and quite capable of forcing a conservative husband to finally do something active besides get on the phone to complain to the police. And the protagonist is one of those oversized lunks with a brash, naive manner but of course a heart of gold, which is one of my favorite archetypes. Best of all is a key horror set that appears twice, first in a strange forgotten land and then in the outskirts of a bedroom community: a foggy, murky marsh full of horrible beasts that somehow exists indoors. Like in a building and accessed through a doorway! Fascinating imagery.
I see that reviewers have complained about the abrupt shift from King Solomon's Mines type adventures to creeping dread in a middle class environment. I get it, it was pretty damn abrupt. But purposely so. I liked it - the shift made the whole experience all the more disorienting and original.
I love that sneaky smile. She knows something you don't.
UPDATE: according to a recent blog post on Wormwoodiana, the above photo is actually not the author. I love that photo, so that makes me a wee bit sad. However, I have to say that I love the photo included in the Wormwoodiana article of "the real Francis Stevens" just as much:
What is she looking at? Certainly not at you or me or any other insignificant human. Perhaps she has spied a portal between worlds, and the etheric beings floating through that can only be seen by her third eye. Or some such faintly interesting vista....more
I liked this one rather more than the preceding collection and rather less than the first volume. here are the mid-career stories in which the weird mI liked this one rather more than the preceding collection and rather less than the first volume. here are the mid-career stories in which the weird master's idiosyncratic style has reached its peak. two more collections to go, so hopefully this peak will be a plateau. the occasional amateurishness that marred some prior stories is nowhere to be found in this book. same goes, mainly, for the love stories; he's just not that into them at this point. this is CAS at his most polished, although "polished" does little to describe his marvelous combination of disdainful irony and bleak humor, hysteria and grotesquerie, bizarre flights of fancy, dense walls of prose delivered in an extravagantly purple style, and of course the fulsome harvest of obscure words in each and every story. nobody does it better.
I had a bunch of favorites. the frequently anthologized Seed from the Sepulcher was wonderfully grim and disgusting and did body horror decades before anyone else. Plutonium Drug puts forth a nifty twist on seeing the future and also details a range of interesting new drugs and poisons imported from various planets. Empire of the Necromancers is the first in the Zothique story cycle - stories which feel like they were written by a death-mad Jack Vance from another dimension. Double Shadow is about the doom that befell two sorcerers and their pet mummy due to some poorly thought-out trips to the very distant past - to crib the spells of a long-vanished serpent race, of all things. also featuring astral trips to archaic times, Ubbo-Sathla is a mindbending take on reincarnation. mindbending to this reader and unfortunately for the protagonist(s) as well. always remember: you can't go home again, especially if that first home is an oozing primordial mother-mass that is probably from outer space. The Holiness of Azédarac, set in that always interesting (and made-up) French province of Averoigne, starts off the collection on a fun note and spryly pivots from being about the murderous mage of the title to a tale of a well-meaning monk and an equally well-meaning enchantress falling quickly in lust and love. And The Demon of the Flower is as gorgeous, strange, and vicious as its titular monster; that CAS purple prose is at its most opulent.
my favorite of faves was Colossus of Ylourgne. this fabulous adventure is CAS at his most ripe, full of ghoulishness and aiming to please with an exciting narrative. basically it is about a sorcerer who has constructed a giant out of corpses; he'll inhabit that giant and use it to lay bloody waste on the various villages, churches, and judgmental monks of unlucky Averoigne. nice. maybe clerical types should stop finger-pointing so much. fortunately for them, there is a helpful young novice wizard who'll try and save the day. this story was super fun from beginning to end.
and now for some ridiculous synopses:
Averoigne "Holiness of Azédarac" forget that wizard - a witch loves you! "The Maker of Gargoyles" resentment & desire come alive! "The Colossus of Ylourgne" attack on undead titan!
Poseidonis "A Vintage from Atlantis" pirates shouldn't drink so much! "Double Shadow" some serpent-spells shouldn't be cast!
Hyperborea "The Weird of Avoosl Wuthoqqquan" don't be a greedy pig! "Ubbo-Sathla" AKA Shub-Niggurath? maybe!
Zothique "Empire of the Necromancers" the dead make poor servants!
science fantasy "The Demon of the Flower" don't assassinate a plant-god!
science fiction sequel: "Beyond the Singing Flame" alas for the end of things! "Seedling of Mars" Martian vegetable wants to help you evolve! "The Eternal World" don't mess with the Gods of the Galaxy! "The Invisible City" don't go looking for things you can't see! "Immortals of Mercury" human protoplasm is required! "The Plutonian Drug" future is now - unless you're dead! "The God of the Asteroid" Mars is hell but asteroids are worse!
science fiction horror "The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis" that black turban ain't no turban!
horror "The Nameless Offspring" nobody loves a step-ghoul! "Seed from the Sepulcher" that head's a flower-pot! "The Second Interment" uh oh, premature burial! "The Supernumerary Corpse" two bodies for the price of one!...more
#13 on Karl Edward Wagner's list of Thirteen Best Non-Supernatural Horror Novels.
"Morbid pyschology," he observed in his toneless way, "is interest
#13 on Karl Edward Wagner's list of Thirteen Best Non-Supernatural Horror Novels.
"Morbid pyschology," he observed in his toneless way, "is interesting even the average man more and more, day by day. Once academic alone, it now enters into the daily affairs of life. However, care should be taken not to confuse psychiatry with psychopathology. The first is the classification of effects; the second the cause of effects."
Synopsis: A diet of raw meat and a program of hypnotherapy slowly transforms a kindly wife into something less than kindly. Her brilliant and psychotic husband carefully studies the effects he has created. Their niece attempts to intervene, much to her misfortune.
"R.R. Ryan" was apparently Denice Jeanette Bradley-Ryan, a writer of much talent who produced at least a couple books that stayed with horror and fantasy legend Karl Edward Wagner, enough to be added to his triple list of Best Horror Novels. She is sadly forgotten today.
The feminist perspective is not even subtext here, it is out in the open, appalled and disgusted by the ability and willingness of men to control women. The deliberate pace of the story, its empathetic and independent young heroine, and the frustratingly familiar roles enacted by controlling husband and submissive wife compel the reader to see the story as both horror and horrific analogy.
The novel is compelling, but queasily. A moody atmosphere, well-conveyed across two spectacularly grim settings: a dirty mansion in London and an equally derelict manse in Wales built above a giant buried wheel of some sort. Except for its prologue providing eventually relevant historical information and one odd rather out of place section that hints at the supernatural, the story unfolds through the eyes of smart and newly motherless Kyrle (nicknamed "Curl") as she decides to live with uncle and aunt due to strange stipulations in a will and a strong desire to support an aunt who is clearly having certain difficulties at home. The realism and shifting opinions of Curl's first person perspective made the book a real page turner, as much as I often dreaded turning the page. Strong stuff, particularly knowing it was written in 1938....more
A rather awe-inspiring piece of sacrilege. Had to ignore my status as a God-lover to enjoy it, but hey Beware of Lazarus, he does not bring Good News!
A rather awe-inspiring piece of sacrilege. Had to ignore my status as a God-lover to enjoy it, but hey these are godless times so that didn't turn out to be so difficult. Sorry, God. I will make it up to You later.
The author posits the raising of the dead man Lazarus by Jesus as a return of the living dead. But more than that: the returned Lazarus is not just dead-alive, he deadens those he casts his gaze upon. This Lazarus emits a field of entropy. To meet Lazarus is to be consumed by the realization that life is futile and meaningless; to meet Lazarus is not to meet Death, it is to meet the emptiness of Life, of existence itself.
Profoundly pessimistic and chilling in its disillusionment. A refutation of Christian ideals and goals. All your joys become ashes in the mouth, dust in the wind. There is no escape because there is nothing to escape to. And yet its nihilism does not bore, it excites. This is horror, gorgeously written and beautifully challenging horror.
Examining the often bitter and ultimately sad life of its Russian author, the once highly-praised Leonid Andreyez, considered the father of Expressionism in Russia (thank you, Wikipedia)... one realizes that the man was not simply a fiery or embittered radical, he was an idealist. One who empathized powerfully with humanity's struggles. As are many of the atheists that I know.
“I want to be the apostle of self destruction. I want my book to affect man’s reason, his emotions, his nerves, his whole animal nature. I should like my book to make people turn pale with horror as they read it, to affect them like a drug, like a terrifying dream, to drive them mad, to make them curse and hate me but still to read me and… to kill themselves.”
Oh, Leonid. I know you don't mean that last part....more
this collection was first published in 1921, so keep that in mind when considering the word "modern" in its title.
two classics I enjoyed revisiting, othis collection was first published in 1921, so keep that in mind when considering the word "modern" in its title.
two classics I enjoyed revisiting, one excellent find, a handful of okay, a handful of uninteresting, one execrable, and one superlative find.
☀
"The Willows" by Algernon Blackwood. 4 stars. reviewed elsewhere.
"The Shadows on the Wall" by Mary Wilkins Freeman. 2 stars. except for how it is primarily dialogue, this is an uninteresting story of, well, shadows on a wall. if that's the best haunting a ghost of a recently dead brother can come up with, he really should turn in his ghost card.
"The Messenger" by Robert W. Chambers. 4 stars. the Black Priest's skull is unearthed - a signal of his return. set in 1896 Finistere. the narrative itself is nothing remarkable, however I just find Chambers' writing style to be enchanting. whether he's describing passionate love, condescension towards a cowardly bulldog, a death's head moth squirming on a carpet, or a masked priest slipping through a window... his touch is so light and charming, his prose so elegant. I must read more by him! apparently the story is drawn from a collection of tales featuring the same characters in this Breton setting, The Mystery of Choice.
"Lazarus" by Leonid Andreyev 5 stars. reviewed elsewhere.
"The Beast with Five Fingers" by W.F. Harvey 3 stars. amusing, well-written, utterly absurd. a hand removed from a recently deceased old man stalks and torments that man's nephew. the first half, detailing the extraordinary old man and then the messages his right hand writes as he sleeps unawares... quite absorbing and not a little chilling. but when the old man dies and the hand becomes a little monster, hurtling around a mansion, killing a parrot, etc, all of which the nephew and his secretary react to with dry amusement and then increasing anxiety... a little too farcical for my tastes.
"The Mass of Shadows" by Anatole France 2 stars. rather lovely but very, very slight story of an elderly woman meeting her first love at a spectral mass, and the judgmental spirits in attendance.
"What Was It?" by Fitz-James O'Brien 3 stars. odd and fun. residents of a boarding house move into a haunted house as a lark, two of them poetical opium-smokers, one of thse two encountering a ghost - maybe? encountering a something. a small, man-shaped something, dropping from the ceiling to grapple and throttle. an invisible something, captured. what was it? the light of day reveals nothing; it remains invisible. this presents... difficulties. O'Brien's story was a minor but still unique experience for me. nicely descriptive, light in tone, and a unique creature. I also enjoyed our protagonist's open delight about being in an opium daze - that was unusual.
"The Middle Toe of the Right Foot" by Ambrose Bierce 1 star. cranky Bierce puts together an off-kilter story of vengeance from beyond the grave. unfortunately, I just don't enjoy it when rich young assholes get away with being rich young assholes. and the long description of the murderer was weird, as if Bierce was agreeing with the assholes that a misshapen appearance means something is wrong inside too. I'm surprised at you Bierce, you're better than that.
"The Shell of Sense" by Olivia Howard Dunbar 3 stars. another unique experience for me. Dunbar's tale is told from the perspective of a freshly dead ghost, watching aghast as her mourning husband and quiet sister find solace in each other's arms. the ghost turns jealous, then contrite. rather overwritten but still enjoyable. nice bits about how Mrs. Ghost finds she no longer appreciates the strong sunlight of daytime.
"The Woman at Seven Brothers" by Wilbur Daniel Steele 2 stars. a bored young bride of a boring old lighthouse keeper imagines, in her boredom, the deaths of others on the rocks below. once dead, she returns to flirt and to moan and to act quite sinister. a minor tale told with unbecoming hysteria by the lighthouse keeper's assistant. off to the madhouse with you, young man! maybe you shouldn't be so judgy about a bored young bride's plight.
"At the Gate" by Myla Jo Closser 3 stars. probably deserves a lower rating, but I am a soft-hearted fool when it comes to animals, especially dogs (and I suppose cats). anyway, this cute little bit of treacle is about dogs waiting for their masters at the Pearly Gates. aww.
"Ligeia" by Edgar Allan Poe 5 stars, of course. it was pure pleasure rereading this gorgeous, necrophilic classic.
"The Haunted Orchard" by Richard Le Gallienne 2 stars. lovely but extremely mawkish tale of a man briefly haunted by the ghost of a lovelorn teenage girl. the most interesting part of the story - the idea that the girl was possibly a reincarnated Frenchwoman, thus explaining her wayward interests (lol?) - was unfortunately only briefly touched upon. prose was quite pleasant though.
"The Bowmen" by Arthur Machen 2 stars. apparently Machen himself was embarrassed by this sentimental war fantasy, in which knights of St. George come to the rescue of English soldiers during the Great War, harried as they are by the "heathen" German army. he was right to be embarrassed.
"A Ghost" by Guy De Maupassant 2 stars. man meets old friend and is given assignment. assignment involves going to old mansion. in old mansion is found a ghostly lady. the lady needs her hair to be combed. not exactly the most compelling story to round out this collection.
the first half of this longish story is eerily affecting: a pristine countryside during a golden summer; a long path ending at a rustic rental, surprithe first half of this longish story is eerily affecting: a pristine countryside during a golden summer; a long path ending at a rustic rental, surprisingly occupied by an old acquaintance; an unhealthily dark and oily pool nearby; a girl's voice tormenting that acquaintance, reminding him of past misdeeds. Machen's prose charms, the descriptions are elegantly wrought, and his voice is pleasant, wry, and thoughtful. what is this dark pool, hidden away; what children does it spawn?
hark! spoilers ahead!
the second half is interesting, but unfortunately the magic evaporates as Machen literally explains how the unconscious will absorb many unsettling memories of long-past misbehavior and humiliation - but those memories remain, and may resurface when least expected. um... duh! the dark pool is that deep well of unconscious: a slimy place and an abyss of apprehension and fear and past regrets, a dreadful landscape whose dreadfulness preys on its observer; its "children" being those distant memories coming home to roost, and torment. I would have preferred less analysis and more eeriness....more
stray out on the streets of Banwick after dark, on the eve of Holy Innocents, and you may discover certain surprises. children playing, singing, and dstray out on the streets of Banwick after dark, on the eve of Holy Innocents, and you may discover certain surprises. children playing, singing, and dancing... but why at such a late hour? and why do they bear such ghastly wounds? no need to be nervous: they are merely celebrating a relevant holiday; as all good Christians know, "Holy Innocents" commemorates "The Massacre of the Innocents" by King Herod - first of the Christian martyrs.
Grandfather lit his pipe and had us all take a seat around him; he was in a tale-telling mood. We've heard a lot of his stories over the years - mainlGrandfather lit his pipe and had us all take a seat around him; he was in a tale-telling mood. We've heard a lot of his stories over the years - mainly ones about his time in space. But it being Halloween season, we knew this time we were in store for something different. Horror! Not exactly a subject that was in his regular wheelhouse, so we weren't quite sure what to expect.
He told us three stories. The first was about a young asshole who finds himself trapped by a redneck witch. Grandfather didn't shy away from showing us just how assholish this young asshole was, and our modern ears appreciated that. But those same ears didn't much appreciate how he described the witch. Did she really have to be the sort of witch whose sole desire was to be with a man? We loved the second half of the story, where she ceaselessly tormented the jerk, that was exciting and fun. But it was hard to get past the basic thing that annoyed us about Grandfather's storytelling - he was direly sexist. Ah well, it was another age when he was younger, we told ourselves. At least he wasn't a misogynist. There's a difference.
The second story was about beer, which Grandfather loves of course, and about a beer nymph. It ended with the story's hero finding his one true love with that beer-loving and almost excruciatingly devoted nymph. We rolled our eyes at that one a lot. How does Grandmother put up with him, some of us thought.
The third story had us smiling again. We liked this rollicking tale of modern-day magicians and scientific magic versus satanic magic. It surprised us. It was ingenious - but that was no surprise, as we know that Grandfather is quite ingenious himself. But again, the female character... her interests, the way she acted towards the hero, the love story.... oh, Grandfather. Such a classic chauvinist. A little tiring, honestly. We love Grandfather, but sometimes these old-timers can be a bit much!...more
a bit less quality than the prior volume. still fairly entertaining, with a handful of excellent stories and only one that was laughable drek.
with tha bit less quality than the prior volume. still fairly entertaining, with a handful of excellent stories and only one that was laughable drek.
with this second stage in his career, story-wise it appears that CAS became less interested in yearning tales of love, alien and otherwise, and refocused on contes cruel. the majority of the pieces in this collection are short ones describing unfortunate and disturbing endings for a range of deserving or undeserving characters. unfortunately, that particular offshoot of short horror fiction has little interest for me. they usually lack the depth, resonance, and ambiguity that I often crave in my Weird Fiction. alas!
however that handful of excellent stories truly shined. "Door to Saturn" is a lot of droll fun as two enemy wizards find themselves within the bizarre landscape of Saturn, and at the mercy of its various bizarre residents. "The Testament of Athammaus" features an absorbingly repulsive villain/monster. both have the feel of classic sword & sorcery high fantasy, except with a thick red vein of CAS darkness. "A Rendezvous in Averoigne" takes place in one of the author's more underrated locales: the imaginary French countrysides and castles of Averoigne, circa the 12th century, I assume. this one features two lovers and their servants encountering a dismal castle in the countryside, and its hungry residents. "The Letter from Mohaun Los" is an amusing science fictional tale of space travel to a couple very off-kilter and threatening planets. featuring a giant tentacled robot, of all things! and the bonafide classic of the the collection, "City of the Singing Flame" details the haunting lure of a flame of extermination, captivating all sorts of alien creatures - as well as our protagonist and his buddy - to their potential doom.
CAS' prose throughout all of the stories is lushly descriptive and gorgeously purple, per usual.
Hyperborea The Door to Saturn The Testament of Athammaus
Averoigne A Rendezvous in Averoigne
- love - Told in the Desert The Willow Landscape
- death - The Gorgon An Offering to the Moon The Kiss of Zoraida The Face by the River The Ghoul The Kingdom of the Worm The Justice of the Elephant The Return of the Sorcerer A Good Embalmer
- strange adventures - The Red World of Polaris & A Captivity in Serpens An Adventure in Futurity The City of the Singing Flame The Letter from Mohaun Los
- drek - The Hunters from Beyond (although it did introduce me to the word "nympholepsy" for which I suppose I'm grateful?)...more
Stefan Grabiński, Polish author of strange stories, had a resurgence a few years back, his bleak and surreal tales receiving the acclaim that the authStefan Grabiński, Polish author of strange stories, had a resurgence a few years back, his bleak and surreal tales receiving the acclaim that the author lacked during his lifetime. The stories in this collection are rather different than most classic weird fiction. As the introduction notes, their difference appears to come from why they were written in the first place: these are the author's explorations of his own state of mind, projected onto the page. He analyzes his own perspective, his flaws, his engagement with the world; constructing a satisfactory narrative or creating feelings of horror or transcendence are minor, secondary concerns. There is a certain abstractness to each of these tales, an internal quality that creates distance between reader and author. Despite the experimental design of some, the conte cruel twists in others, these often felt less like stories and more like ruminations on the nature of the mind, disguised as fiction. And so I was left both cold and fascinated.
"On the Hill of Roses": a man with outstanding olfactory powers is led to a lovely home and a less than lovely smell.
"Frenzied Farmhouse": a father who is definitely not insane does something for which he is definitely not to blame.
"On a Tangent": a deranged man obsessed with patterns and logic finds the logical end of his own peculiar pattern.
"Strabismus": scratch a cynic, scratch his damn eyes... and you'll find he has the ability to enter your chest cavity.
"Shadow": an unfortunate configuration of random objects casts an old man into dejection, night after night.
"At the Villa by the Sea": projected memories may overtake a man or boy, creating an unpleasant frisson for a murderer.
"Projections": beware those strange, fetching images cast upon your walls, when their source lies beyond those walls...
There are overarching motifs and themes that are threaded through the stories. In particular the idea that both past and future moments of disturbance can leave their physical mark on the present, a sort of stain, taking the shape of shadows or marks on walls or an odd scent or even bizarre actions that somehow feel inevitable. And by using the phrase 'moments of disturbance' I am certainly understating the cause of these effects, as these moments include murder, suicide, accidental death, and the slaughter of one's children.
The writing moves from unnervingly prosaic when introducing the troubled mind of each story's protagonist to an often lush descriptive power when depicting scenes and settings where a transformation or discovery will take place. The author withholds much information from the reader, rarely straying into the visceral while still carefully portraying various manic and depressive emotions only barely hidden beneath placid surfaces.
Of the stories, I was most impressed by "Frenzied Farmhouse" and "At the Villa by the Sea". I was also amused by "Projections" but mainly because who isn't amused by nasty nuns who reappear from beyond the grave in order to lead foolish introverts to a nasty death. Très amusant!
"Farmhouse" is utterly horrifying in its implacability: the father will abuse and then kill his children that he adores, as all parents kill their children in the farmhouse where he has chosen to live - against all local advice. The images of a stain on the wall depicting the slaughter to come and the descriptions of the surrounding garden, where various fauna and flora glory in the destruction of their young, gave me genuine chills. A perfectly told story that I will never reread.
"Villa" is almost a murder mystery, one in which the reader and probably the protagonist know exactly who the murderer is. The mystery is in what exactly is occurring: is the murderer projecting the personalities of his victims onto his friend, his stepson? Is this psychic projection a manifestation of his own guilt, or of karmic justice, or are the victims themselves returning to haunt all three? Of course there are no answers in this very elegantly told tale. But at least there is some welcome schadenfreude!...more
The Fulham Road Murder, so called from the fact that it took place in Redcliffe Road, was discovered early on the morning of April 17th. The Shepherd Market Murder came to light early on the morning of May 10th. Both victims were young men, the one a shop assistant and the other a bank clerk, who lived alone in lodgings. In each case the youth was discovered naked on his bed, naturally much disarranged, and with the head almost severed from the body by an inhuman slash across the throat from ear to ear. There were other mutilations of a fanciful nature which it will serve no purpose to describe. No weapon was found in either lodging. There were further similarities: a faint perfume, agreeable rather than sickly, much to the surprise of the detectives, who had been brought up to believe that all perfumes were sickly; and cigarette ends with the clearly-defined marks of lip rouge.
a dryly amusing but also often dizzy delight. Michael Arlen is a very entertaining writer and his ironic sense of humor just drips off of the page. part police procedural/murder mystery, part sophisticated satire sending up the beautiful people of the fabled Lost Generation.
and then at the end, the story moves to an idyllic country cottage and promptly turns into an over the top, gender-bending, and very hallucinatory horror nightmare featuring an ancient evil. like a fanciful tiered wedding cake with a severed, satanic ram's head hidden in its center. good times!
5 Stars for the wonderful opening story "The Repairer of Reputations".
although i wonder if 'wonderful' is the correct word. after all, this is aƸ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ
5 Stars for the wonderful opening story "The Repairer of Reputations".
although i wonder if 'wonderful' is the correct word. after all, this is a story that opens with a bizarre, sometimes dire alterna-history leading up to a 1920s America where on-lookers gather to contemplate terminally dispirited disportment within suicide-abetting "Lethal Chambers." and after this bit of surprising strangeness, the reader is plunged right into the mind of a classic Unreliable Narrator (the poor lad struck his head after a fall from a horse and was never quite the same again), complete with insanely grandiose ambitions and malicious thoughts of revenge and devious yet doltish plans for his enemies - who are everywhere, simply everywhere! with the added bonuses of various books of ill repute, some surreal shenanigans starring a peculiarly malevolent cat, and the creepy Repairer himself. all in all, it is a bracing and imaginative bit of darkness on the page. and, to me at least, quite wonderful. the style is so breezy, the pacing so brisk, the imagination so fertile and so oddly modern, the experience was pure pleasure. it is hard to believe that this story was written over a 100 years ago.
i also enjoyed the three tales of weird horror that followed, chock-full of dread and formless despair. good stories. interesting and off-kilter and pleasingly sinister. the big take-away is the idea of a monstrous play ("The King in Yellow") that horribly impacts anyone who dares read it, and which is a key element in each of the first four stories.
here's an excerpt from said monstrous play (please don't kill yourself or anyone else after reading):
Camilla: You, sir, should unmask. Stranger: Indeed? Cassilda: Indeed it's time. We have all laid aside disguise but you. Stranger: I wear no mask. Camilla: (Terrified, aside to Cassilda.) No mask? No mask!
if you are at all familiar with this author or classic Weird Fiction in general, then you know the drill. those first four stories (along with Ambrose Bierce's "An Inhabitant of Carcosa") set the template for much Weird Fiction to come, from H.P. Lovecraft to Clark Ashton Smith to Karl Edward Wagner and beyond. the names, the places, the idea of fell books of unhealthy influence, creeping dread, hysterical romanticism, humans viewed as repulsive insects... this story-cycle's place at the beginning of it all is well-known.
it is also a well-known disappointment. only those first four could be classified as Weird Fiction. a fifth, "The Demoiselle d'Ys", is an elegant, wispy ghost story/romance - and is also quite traditional. following that is "The Prophet's Paradise" - a collection of bits of ambiguous prose poetry, or impenetrable fable, or snatches from a larger tapestry never completed, or something.
the remaining four tales (each fancifully titled after certain streets) have barely a whiff of horror about them and so have met a chilly reception over the years from Weird Fiction enthusiasts. they are all about living the lifestyle of a bohemian art student abroad in bohemian Paris' bohemian Latin Quarter. think Trilby minus Svengali. they are about romance, art, naive americans, lack of money, enticing but sometimes tragic whores, some bloodshed (at least in one story), a sad and lonely ending (in another story), some unbearable lightness of being... what it feels like to be young and artistic and ready to enjoy life in a bustling and sometimes violent big city. these stories were slim, rather quaint, rather witty, and quite vibrant. i particularly enjoyed "The Street of the First Shell", which plunges the reader into a you-are-there-now account of the milieu itself and then what it feels like to suddenly find yourself in the middle of a bloody, confusing battle full of heretofore-unexperienced chaos, terror, and death.
overall this is an unusual and surprisingly quirky collection of stories. all of them were interesting and a couple really sang....more
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