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2007 is over. A good year?
For horror literature I’d say yes, it was.
It was also my first year writing about books: January of ’08 marks
the twelve month anniversary of my Paper Cuts review page, which I hope has
been entertaining and informative to both my readers.
The following represents my overview of 2007--the good, the bad and
the indifferent. Obviously I was
unable to read to read every horror-themed book published in ’07 (and
regrettably missed some biggies, like Jeff Long’s DEEPER, David
Wellington’s 13 BULLETS and Chuck Palahniuk’s RANT) but feel the 20+
short reviews herein represent a solid and eclectic sampling.
Thinking back over the past year, I’ll have to say my reception by
the literary community was gratifyingly positive--my thanks to all the
authors and publishers who provided me with review copies of their
books--but there was one point of
contention.
That would be the first-time writer(s).
Yes, I’ve had a couple bad experiences with first-timers upset that
I gave their alleged masterpieces something other than unqualified raves.
I can understand that attitude (and can’t say I don’t share it
myself, at least partially), and nor can I really complain about their
criticism (if one is going to give it, after all, one has to be able to take
it). What has
gotten to me is the charge that I might be destroying these writers’
careers before they properly begin.
Now I strongly disbelieve I have enough clout to influence anyone’s
career, but the thought of inadvertently curtailing an author’s oeuvre
with a single middling-to-negative review (as, believe it or not, one
beginning writer has claimed) is troubling enough to give me pause.
For this reason I’ve refrained from writing about some first time
novels that have crossed my desk, and may continue to do so in the future.
We’ll see.
That’s not to say I’ve been keeping mum about all debut novels.
Far from it; you’ll find several such books critiqued in the
following list. First, though,
I’d like to get one VERY important category out of the way.
Ladies
and gentlemen, let’s give it up for... The
Book of the Year My
pick is the astonishing DARK HARVEST
by NORMAN PARTRIDGE, a short
novel that provides ample doses of grue, breakneck action and touching
introspection, often within a single sentence.
Some of you might have gotten a hold of this must-have book back in
2006, when it was first published as a limited edition hardcover by Dark
Harvest. Now, though, it’s
available in a trade paperback printing courtesy of Tor, in which guise I’m guessing it will reach the large
readership it so ardently deserves. The
novel is quite simply a small classic, related from a completely absorbing,
smart aleckey first person perspective (although we don’t actually find
out who the narrator is until halfway into the book) that manages to be
highly stylish and individual without ever compromising or reducing the
events of the narrative in any way. The
author also deserves kudos for turning out such a focused and compact piece
of work, which at 169 pages manages to relate a tale as rich and satisfying
as nearly any 500-page epic. First
Timers, Pro and Con I’ll
continue this overview with a look at a first-time novel I really liked.
Matter of fact, I’d say it’s one of the most powerful and
original--and, unfortunately, obscure--books of the year.
It’s I WILL RISE by MICHAEL
LOUIS CALVILLO (Lachesis Publishing), one of the most promising debuts
I’ve encountered in some time. Told
in a stream-of-consciousness style vaguely reminiscent of authors like Chuck
Palahniuk and Kathe Koja, this novel relates the warped tale of Charles, a
severely alienated, ugly, misanthropic virgin who’s prone to seizures and
suffers from a weird birth defect: a hole in his left palm.
When we first meet Charles he’s working in a restaurant he plans to
sabotage by spiking its flour supply with Other
bizarre characters include a five-year-old genius with ESP who accompanies
Charles through the early stages of his odyssey, a gaggle of crazies who
learn of Charles’ mission through shared dreams, and Allen Michael, a
slimy TV personality who becomes the focus of Charles’ rampage, especially
after Charles discovers Annabelle may have been psychically two-timing him
with Mike. These characters’
interactions make for a wild ride, written with real assurance and a slip-streamy,
pop-inflected vernacular that often imparts the feel of a psychotic
nightmare, or perhaps a near-death hallucination.
If you like originality and feverish imagination, track down a copy
of I WILL RISE--and then hang on! At
the opposite end of the debut novel spectrum we have CROOKED LITTLE VEIN
by WARREN ELLIS (William Morrow).
I guess this “frighteningly clever” book isn’t entirely
bad, just misguided. It left me
cold in any event, being a too-hip-for-the-room black humored account of a
depraved future world where a disaffected private dick searches for an
alternate constitution. This
first person narrator has a cynical, wise-ass prose style and a pop culture
reference for every occasion. Seemingly
everyone he meets is sex-mad in some way, and they do things like inject our
hero’s balls with salt water. The
book has its moments, and might well have seemed pretty cool, oh, thirteen
years ago--despite the author’s up-to-date political conscience (with
references to the war in Iraq, the California Governator, etc.), it’s a
very nineties concoction, the kind of thing that back then would have been
labeled grunge, post-punk or Tarantino-esque.
These days I’d call it, simply, dated.
Not that author Warren Ellis has anything to worry about, being a
well-established graphic novelist and scriptwriter.
As a non-graphic novel writer, though, he’s clearly got a ways to
go. Back
to the good stuff, in particular the
stunningly ambitious GOD’S
DEMON, the first novel by the
famed artist WAYNE BARLOWE (Tor).
After wading through so many uninspired modern horror novels
I’ve been longing for something with a bit more scope--I was more than
pleased, then, to discover this book, a panoramic, multi-faceted epic set in
Hell. The
inferno of GOD’S DEMON is composed of far-flung cities run by various
fallen angels. Two such cities
are singled out: Dis, the infernal capital built by Lucifer himself, and
Adamantinarx, a more advanced metropolis run by Lord Sargatanas, who has
never entirely forgotten his time in Heaven--and, as the book opens,
secretly longs to go back. There’s
also Lucifer’s consort Lilith, who develops an attraction to Sargatanas,
and Beelzebub, the Lord of the Flies. The
latter was Lucifer’s right hand man but now rules Hell, his master having
mysteriously disappeared. The
result is an all-out war--or a rebellion to be exact, not unlike that which
got the onetime angles booted from Heaven.
Only this time the rebels are demons, led by Sargatanas, going up
against their own kind, in the form of Beelzebub and his minions, in an
effort to be let back into the overworld. Barlowe’s
many larger-than-life protagonists are all well developed, three-dimensional
individuals tormented by doubts and misgivings about their longed-for
redemption. That’s in addition
to Barlowe’s considerable descriptive powers, every bit as vivid and
grandiose as I’d expect from an artist-turned-writer, yet still succinct
and to the point. But there’s
one thing that bothers me. Not
to give anything away, but a certain two personages pivotal to any account
of Heaven and Hell never make an appearance outside a few scattered
flashbacks. I’m assuming a
sequel is in the works wherein these characters finally turn up, because
their absence frankly leaves a bit of a void.
Terrific novel nonetheless! By
contrast, I’ll confess I wasn’t as impressed by HEART-SHAPED
BOX (William Morrow), the first novel by author JOE HILL, as I know many of you are.
Hill of course is the author of the stunning ’05 collection 20th
CENTURY GHOSTS, which I’ve been pushing for some time.
His facility with horror isn’t surprising, seeing as how he’s the
son of Stephen King (a secret, I might add, that’s been out for some time,
so don’t blame me for blowing Hill’s cover!).
HEART-SHAPED BOX has a riveting premise involving Judas Coyne, an
ageing death metal icon who purchases a ghost over the internet.
Actually he buys a suit belonging to a deceased man that arrives in a
heart-shaped box; but the suit does indeed contain its previous owner’s
unquiet spirit, who takes to harassing Judas to no end.
This inspires a road trip together with his goth GF Georgia, during
which Judas is forced to confront the specter of his abusive father and his
own past sins, which it turns out inspired the sale of the ghost in the
first place. A solid, up-to-date
tale that’s never particularly horrific, although the author makes a
half-hearted nod to the type of all-stops-out terror practiced by his father
in the mystical climax. The book
may ultimately be a bit too long, with an overabundance of character
development in place of incident, though it is damn good--but still far from
great. (Here
I should add that I strongly
recommend grabbing Hill’s masterful 20th
CENTURY GHOSTS. I’ve
already written about this must-read collection, initially published in a
limited edition by PS Publishing, at some length on this site, and so will
spare you any further raves. Suffice
it to say that the book is now out in a more readily available edition
courtesy of William Morrow, so you no longer have any excuse not to read it!) My
final debut novel selection is A GOOD
AND HAPPY CHILD by JUSTIN EVANS.
Publisher Shaye Areheart was clearly shooting for a best seller, putting the
novel out in a glossy hardback edition whose packaging suggests a highbrow
literary thriller. Don’t be
fooled, though: this is very much a horror story with all the
trimmings--I’m just not sure it’s all that great a novel, whatever its
category. The
first-person hero George Davies is a seemingly contented man who at the
urging of a psychiatrist takes to writing down experiences from his
childhood. They include a series
of hallucinatory visits from a spectral doppelganger and young George’s
subsequent incarceration in a mental hospital.
George’s deceased father is somehow responsible for his son’s
childhood problems, it seems, which are spilling over into George’s adult
relationships with his wife and infant child.
I say seems because the author never satisfactorily explains his
protagonist’s visions. The
book is well written and psychologically astute, but it’s also overly long
at 336 pages (of which I feel it could stand to comfortably loose about
fifty) and ultimately unsatisfying. Justin
Evans was apparently of the same mind as his publisher, intentionally
playing down the genre elements in his inconclusive ending, which for me
simply didn’t
work. New
Books, Good and Not-So, by Old Masters ROBERT
McCAMMON, formerly one of What
follows is suspenseful and satisfying, with Matthew making the acquaintance
of many suspicious characters and eventually finding his way to the
eponymous insane asylum. There
the “Queen”, a near-catatonic woman who in place of speech repeats a few
seemingly nonsensical phrases, is interred, who holds the key to unraveling
the mystery of the Masker. This
book, like its predecessor, represents prime McCammon: it boasts the type of
breakneck action set pieces and virtuoso plotting that distinguished his
earlier books, with a superbly paced, incident-packed 645-page count.
But THE QUEEN OF BEDLAM also contains a maturity and sophistication
that place Robert McCammon among the front-ranks of American novelists.
The The
book begins in relaxed and amiable fashion, but the tension steadily
mounts--and all-but explodes during the final hundred or so pages, which
contain some of the most unnerving prose
The prolific DAN SIMMONS, who’s come under fire recently for alleged racist
sentiments, turned out the massive THE
TERROR (Little, Brown), one of his best novels in years.
If you were put off reading this book because of the racial furor (as
many otherwise-intelligent people I know say they were), here’s some
unsolicited advice: kick yourself and grab a copy already!
It tells the fact-based tale of the 1845 Franklin Expedition to
search for the Norwest Passage, as experienced by the crews of the HMS Erebus and the HMS Terror.
The ships disembark in May of 1845, but upon reaching the
THE TERROR is a damn good book, though far from an easy read.
Its 766 pages are extremely detailed, the product of a voluminous,
near-obsessive amount of research. There’s
also the fact that the narrative is often agonizingly slow-moving, with
every plot point relentlessly drawn out.
But what THE TERROR lacks in thrills it more than makes up for in
color and atmosphere. It’s a
definite you-are-there account that’ll likely have you shivering along
with its doomed protagonists, and nervously glancing over your shoulder for
monsters in the shadows. There
was also STEPHEN KING, who gave us BLAZE (Scribner), a
rediscovered manuscript--credited to King’s longtime pseudonym Richard
Bachman--that hails from back before CARRIE (King’s “first” novel) was
published. King claims in a
newly written forward that he dusted BLAZE off in 2006 and redrafted it
substantially, but was careful to keep the book’s pulpy core intact.
The result is a compelling piece of crime fiction that reads like OF
MICE AND MEN reimagined by Jim Thompson.
The central character is Clayton Blaisdell, Jr., or Blaze, a
near-retarded career criminal looking to pull off one last big job together
with his miscreant buddy George. The
only thing is, George is killed before the crime--the kidnapping of a rich
man’s baby--can commence. Blaze
goes through with it anyway however, guided by George’s specter. The
story isn’t exactly original or unpredictable.
As you might guess, Blaze botches the crime spectacularly,
inadvertently alerting the FBI to his trail, and develops a soft spot for
his infant kidnapee in the process. I
enjoyed the exchanges between Blaze and George’s increasingly bloodthirsty
specter, who wants Blaze to kill the child, thus adding a horrific tinge to
the proceedings. As for Blaze
himself, he’s a compelling character, both menacing and sympathetic.
His final stand is grim (again, no surprises there) but also deeply
memorable and even touching. Do
by all means check out LOST ECHOES by JOE R. LANSDALE (Vintage), one of the author’s best novels in
some time. LOST ECHOES was
marketed as a crime novel, but for the most part it’s a leisurely,
contemplative account of Harry Wilkes, a modest It’s
only in the final hundred pages that the crime business really kicks in,
with a childhood crush who’s now a police officer contacting Harry about
using his talents to solve her father’s murder.
He follows through on her request, which sets in motion a
particularly nasty chain of events. After
the languidness of so much of the novel, it’s a bit disconcerting when the
author’s gift for bloody suspense emerges with a vengeance in the final
chapters, which close the book out with much over-the-top action and
carnage. Somehow it all works,
making for a soulful yet hard-edged account from one of the most distinctive
writers currently active in any genre.
Another of my favorite authors, the one and only CLIVE
BARKER, reignited his stalled literary career with MISTER
B. GONE (HarperCollins). This
slim novel was dubbed “Twisted” and “Fucked-up” by its own author,
who also claimed it “wants to kill you”.
Barker is referring to the frequent pleas made to the reader by the
story’s first person narrator to burn the book or die.
That narrator is Jakob Botch, a Hell-spawned demon loose in The
story’s a good one, fast, readable and containing some potent
grotesquerie. It is, however, a
slight work, reading like nothing so much as a novel-length BOOKS OF BLOOD
tale. Nothing wrong with that,
but I think it’s fair to expect a bit more from a writer who’s become
extremely unprolific in recent
years. Consider it a warm-up for
Barker’s long-in-the-works epic THE SCARLET GOSPELS, which will hopefully
be completed soon! SCAVENGER
(Vanguard Press) is another
offering from a longtime master, the legendary DAVID MORRELL. It
recounts the further adventures of Frank Balenger, the hero of Morrell’s
previous novel CREEPERS. That
book represented a welcome return to the horror/suspense genre of
Morrell’s early novels FIRST BLOOD, TESTAMENT and THE TOTEM, which he
largely abandoned in later, more mainstream efforts like THE BROTHERHOOD OF
THE ROSE and DESPERATE MEASURES. SCAVENGER
for the most part follows CREEPERS’ lead, with a grim, cliff-hanger packed
account of a maniacal “Game Master” who leads several unwitting folks,
including Frank Balenger and his girlfriend Amanda (another holdover from
CREEPERS) into a New Jersey waste land as part of an insanely complicated
game whose players must follow the Game Master’s instructions or get blown
up. This of course was nearly
the plot of THE CRIMSON
LABYRINTH by Yusuke Kishi (released in the 2
Two-For-Ones
Looking for a stellar read? Try
THE
LONG LAST CALL by
JOHN SKIPP. This is a
must-have package from the good folk at Leisure,
who’ve put out the terrific short novel THE LONG LAST CALL (originally
published by Cemetery Dance back in ’06), together with the ’04 novella
CONSCIENCE. John Skipp, formerly
of Skipp and Spector (THE LIGHT AT THE END, THE SCREAM and THE BRIDGE) was
one of the forerunners of the splatterpunk movement, and has a taut,
gripping style and cinematic narrative skills.
Speaking of which, THE LONG LAST CALL apparently began life as a
screenplay but was refashioned into a novel when Skipp couldn’t find
financing for the film. The
set-up is this: around 2 AM at a secluded titty bar called Sweet Thangs, a
dark stranger shows up with an apparently limitless supply of hundred dollar
bills. But these aren’t
ordinary bills by any means, as they affect the people they come into
contact with in various disturbing ways--most notably, they seem to increase
whatever innately vile, evil traits those people may possess.
The stranger is there to witness a show of his own--a horror show, to
be exact--with Sweet Thangs’ nasty, brutish clientele of whores, rednecks
and assorted no-hopers the unwitting performers.
The proceedings, you can be sure, are fast, wet and meaty, with a
goodly amount of gore and a flawlessly sustained intensity.
Call it literary speed metal, a noisy, headbanging,
can’t-put-it-down splatfest that’s positively irresistible. CONSCIENCE,
by contrast, is a brooding look into the fractured psyche of a tortured
hitman in
Let’s continue with another Leisure two-for, WICKED
THINGS by
THOMAS TESSIER, which was paired with Tessier’s 2001 novella So
what the Hell happened with WICKED THINGS, a clunker in every respect?
It has an insurance investigator entering a secluded upstate SCRAMBURG,
USA at least has a riveting build-up involving a rebellious teen declaring
war on the corrupt residents of a small town, and contains some startling
scenes of torture and bloodletting (no surprise: the tale is dedicated to
Dallas Mayr, a.k.a. Jack Ketchum). The
ill-conceived supernatural finale, however, is inexcusable.
Tessier remains an uncommonly gifted author; I can only hope these
two bummers represent a blip on his radar! A
“Funny” Book It’s
time here for a funny book, or at least one that was supposed
to be funny: YOU
SUCK by CHRISTOPHER MOORE (William
Morrow). It’s the first
novel I’ve read by Moore, who for years has specialized in goofy
horror-themed stories. I’m
told YOU SUCK is pretty typical of his work; if that’s actually the case
then it’s a damn good thing I’ve avoided it for so long!
It’s
a vampire love story set in Oddities THE
OTHER END was a daring and
controversial release from Cemetery
Dance, in which the insanely
prolific JOHN SHIRLEY returned to
the type of tripped-out weirdness that in my view characterizes his best
work, but with a disconcertingly cheerful, wish-fulfillment air.
It’s an unabashedly left-leaning reaction to those annoying
fundamentalist End Times books by the likes of Tim LaHaye.
THE OTHER END, like LaHaye’s books, postulates that just before the
world ends a Rapture will whisk all the True Believers away to a better
place...only here that Rapture takes away progressive-minded people while
the so-called chosen ones of LaHaye’s fiction, namely right-wing
Christians, get left behind, together with hard-lined and inflexible people
of every stripe. While
I prefer my Shirley novels tough and nasty (as was the case in essentials
like CELLERS and THE VIEW FROM HELL), this book is a lot of fun to read. Quite
simply, it’s a blast witnessing the real
bad guys of our world--corrupt CEO’s, religious fundamentalists,
gangbangers, etc.--getting their just desserts in scenes where, prior to the
alterna-Rapture, a scattering of “consciousness lamps” appear that force
these assholes to view the world and their place in it as it actually is.
The novel has a panoramic scope and epic flow, but is a fast, easy
read nonetheless--and, if you ask me, exactly what we need right now! Cemetery
Dance continued their winning streak with another highly eccentric
publication, THE
STORY OF NOICHI THE BLIND by
CHET WILLIAMSON, a fascinating novella written in the style of the late
Lafcadio Hearn, who specialized in ghost stories inspired by Japanese
folklore. In NOICHI THE BLIND a
Japan-based woodcutter takes in a young servant woman on the run from
avenging samurai. The two fall
madly in love, but their happiness is threatened when the woman becomes
deathly ill. Noichi desperately
wants to believe his lover will get better and willfully blinds himself to
the fact that she’s wasting away before his eyes...and that the baby
she’s pregnant with is scarcely human.
This leads to much 21st Century grotesquerie in an
otherwise impeccably rendered late-19th Century Japanese setting, with
decidedly up-to-date depictions of necrophilia, cannibalism and
dismemberment. But
the book is also surprisingly deep and absorbing, with the feel of an
authentic folk tale and a deeply relevant message about the dangers of
self-delusion. The text is
bookended by an introduction explaining how this story came into
Williamson’s possession, and an afterward by “Alan Drew, Ph.D.”, a
(completely imaginary) scholar who fills us in on the details of Lafcadio
Hearn’s fiction, and how it relates to the tale at hand.
It’s one of Williamson’s most interesting works, and certainly
his most unique. NOW
YOU’RE ONE OF US [ANKI] is the
newest publication by Vertical,
who specialize in translating worthy Japanese genre fare like Koji
Suzuki’s RING novels and Hideake Sena’s PARASITE EVE.
NOW YOU’RE ONE OF US, originally published in 1993 and written by
the popular Japanese novelist ASA
NONAMI, is a stellar addition to Vertical’s already formidable
line-up. I
was unimpressed with the opening chapters, which have the newly-wed Noriko
becoming suspicious of the Shitos, the wealthy family she’s married into,
in the wake of a suspicious killing. It’s
very ROSEMARY’S BABY-ish, with an easy-to-predict arc.
As you might guess, Noriko’s new family, an unnaturally tightly-nit
eight person clan, harbor some unsavory secrets.
But
the book is ultimately far stranger and more sinister than such a
description implies. Plied with
hallucinogenic drugs and subjected to extended sleep deprivation, Noriko is
drawn inexorably into the Shitos’ orbit; throughout, we’re privy to her
ever-fluctuating mental state, veering inexorably from suspicion to an odd
acceptance, with the latter sentiment eventually winning out as the Shitos
tighten their hold. For much of
its length the novel plays like a darkly-hued psychological drama, although
it eventually reveals itself as an out-and-out horror story--and a
particularly depraved one at that! I’m
guessing the author intended this disturbing tale as a critique of
contemporary Short
Stories A
fine short story collection appeared in 2007 (actually, it was published in
the final weeks of ’06) called APPLE
OF MY EYE by AMY GRECH (Two-Backed Books), representing a good sampling of
its author’s
considerable talent. If nothing
else, APPLE OF MY EYE proves Grech has a mean streak,
as evinced by the title story, a seriously twisted account of father-daughter
love. It’s followed by
“Prevention”, about a son’s nasty revenge on his neglectful mother, and
“Snubbed”, an even nastier account of bloody vengeance.
Yet the succeeding story is “Raven’s Revenge”, a
(comparatively) subdued piece graced
by a supernatural twist, and then comes “Rampart”, about a man
suffering from, and eventually done in by, hallucinations--and
“Damp Wind and Leaves”, an honest-to-goodness love story.
But don’t get too comfortable, as “Cold Comfort”,
one of the book’s meanest stories, falls in this
portion. So does “Initiation
Day”, which dispassionately
describes how a dorky kid gets his just desserts in profoundly
uncomfortable fashion. Another
stand-out is the final story “EV
2000”, which with its science fictionish
setting provides more evidence of Grech’s considerable
range. Obviously those wanting
grossness will be sated, but readers in the
mood for solidly written, varied and
thoughtful genre fare will also be
pleased. For
a full dose of old time scares, go directly to FREAKS
AND FANTASIES by the late TOD
ROBBINS (Ramble House). During
the early 1900’s Robbins was one of the foremost horror writers on the
scene, with several well received novels, poems and short stories to his
credit. These days Robbins’s
work has been largely forgotten but for his 1923 novella “Spurs”, which
inspired Tod Browning’s notorious FREAKS (1932).
The story has much in common with the flick but parts ways in its
final third, wherein the spurs of the title come into play in shocking
fashion, leading to a finale even more hopeless and grotesque than
Browning’s. “Spurs” is
easily the most resonant tale of this collection, and very likely of
Robbins’ entire oeuvre.
Not that this lessens the overall effect, as the fourteen stories
collected here are (mostly) solid, above-average examples of old school
horror--and by old school I don’t
mean the type of stately, suggestive blather that allegedly typified the
genre back in olden days. This
book is something of a testimonial to the fact that scary stories of old
were in their own way every bit as twisted as those of today.
Take
the unforgettable “Who Wants a Green Bottle?” containing one of the more
original conceptions of Hell I’ve encountered: a region of a deceased
person’s house the soul enters by literally climbing out of its host body
and passing through a tiny hole in the nearest wall.
In “Wild Wullie the Waster” two warring men make peace in the
afterlife, only to continue their rivalry by possessing the bodies of a pair
of rosy-cheeked billiard players. And
in the marrow-chilling “The Confession” we’re privy to the thoughts of
a condemned murderer who recounts his meeting with a killer even more
deranged and methodical than himself: a judge! Lesser
pieces include the novella-length “The Whimpus,” wherein Robbins tries
for a more-or-less straightforward adventure narrative, a form that
doesn’t suit him. Ditto the
lighthearted whimsy of the interrelated Irish-flavored fantasies “A Bit of
a Banshee” and “The Son of Shaemas O’Shea”, which came off stilted
and self-indulgent. But for the
most part these are terrific stories, penned by a writer of real skill.
The best of them--“Who Wants A Green Bottle?”, “The
Confession” and of course “Spurs”--can stand with most modern horror
tales, as can the collection overall.
On the anthology circuit, the stand-out for me was WAITING FOR OCTOBER, edited by
BILL BREEDLOVE (Dark Arts Books). This
consistently unpredictable, genre busting book is a follow-up to Dark
Arts’ well received 2006 release CANDY ON THE DUMPSTER.
Like that publication, WAITING FOR OCTOBER features four authors each
contributing three stories: Jeff Strand, Adam Pepper (of MEMORIA), Sarah
Pinborough and DEADSTOCK’S brilliant Jeffrey Thomas (see below).
The opening story, “Gramma’s Corpse” by Jeff Strand, is what
you might call a grabber. It
concerns a kid who as punishment for getting bad grades is
forced to sleep with his grandmother’s rotting cadaver!
I also got a kick out of Adam Pepper’s “Old Maid Syndrome”, an
intense, stomach-churning horror tale that somehow doesn’t announce itself
as such until the final third--the very last page, in fact!
And how ‘bout Sarah Pinborough’s sci fi-tinged “Express
Delivery”, in which the concept of cloning is given a disturbing workout?
It’s a definite mind-bender. However,
it’s Jeffrey Thomas’s stories that really elevate this collection to
classic status. All three tales
are small masterworks, with spot-on characterizations, page-turning
narratives and a real understanding of the inner workings of fear and
apprehension. “The Hosts”,
about worm-like creatures loose in kids’ heads, is at once repellant, sad
and unnervingly true to life. “Adoration”
twists the traditional zombie tale in an entirely new direction in its
demented account of a lonely man who pays money to have sex with the
reanimated corpse of Marilyn Monroe. And
the head-scratching “Star Est Control” takes the Philip K. Dick-inspired
idea of living, breathing advertisements to wildly surreal heights.
For me the magic of WAITING FOR OCTOBER is in its incredibly
wide-ranging, consistently unpredictable contents.
Those who claim there’s nothing new in the horror story universe (i.e. me) need to read this book--as, in my view, does everyone else! Series
Novels We
mustn’t forget DAYWATCH by
SERGEI LUKYANENKO (Miramax Books). It’s
the second volume of Russian author Sergei Lukyanenko’s WATCH trilogy, and
retains all the wit, imagination and rapid-fire action of NIGHTWATCH, which
made its English language debut last year.
Quintessentially Russian in conception and execution, these books
concern the “Others”, supernaturally-endowed humans who divide
themselves into light and dark factions, with the former holding a night
watch and the latter a day watch to keep each other in line.
The previous book was told from the vantage point of the
Nightwatchers, while this one views things from the side of the Daywatchers.
The Dark Others were portrayed as slimy, scheming assholes in volume
one, but here they seem fairly reasonable, with the Light Others seen as
self-important hypocrites. Like
NIGHTWATCH, this book has an epic canvas divided into three more-or-less
self-contained portions. Part
one concerns a witch, a Dark Other, who while working at a Daywatch-sponsored
summer camp falls in love with a dashing man, unaware he’s an agent of the
Light Others; the consequences for this illicit affair are far-reaching and
catastrophic for both. In part
two a man with no memory of who he is or what he’s done inadvertently
becomes involved in a series of gruesome murders.
Part three introduces us to the Inquisitioners, whose task it is to
keep watch over the Light and Dark Others and mete out punishments for those
who disobey the rules. It’s
all incredibly complex, with an extremely involved series of regulations and
a supporting cast that numbers in the dozens--although I’m told this is
all reflective of life in modern-day Russia, where these books are a
cultural phenomenon. FYI, the
movie version of DAYWATCH was released in the DEADSTOCK
(Solaris) marked the
long-time-coming mass market debut of JEFFREY
THOMAS. It’s the latest
entry in Thomas’ popular Punktown series, and while it isn’t the best of
the saga (that in my view would be 2003’s MONSTROCITY), it is fascinating
and gruesome in a manner unique to this author.
Punktown is a crime-ridden city located on a distant planet inhabited
by an unruly mix of Earth-born humans and various mutant races.
Both factions are amply represented in this sprawling novel, which
contains a dozen or so major characters, including several foot soldiers in
an interstellar gang war, a couple down-and-outers, millionaires, porn
impresarios and one Jeremy Stake, a private dick who happens to be a
shape-shifting mutant. Stake
is contracted by a wealthy CEO to track down a one-of-a-kind robot doll
that’s been stolen from the CEO’s teenage daughter.
The doll turns out to be a malevolent entity that furthers itself by
consuming everything in sight, growing into a literal monster and attracting
a horde of mutant followers, eventually coming to threaten the entirety of
Punktown--and by extension the rest of the world.
Nobody else combines sci fi and horror quite like Jeffrey Thomas;
here he’s crafted a memorable melding of Philip K. Dick-ian speculation
and Lovecraftian grotesquerie. There
may perhaps be a few too many extraneous characters and subplots (and the
400-plus page count may be a mite excessive), but it’s refreshing to find
a novel this dense and multi-faceted, presenting a richly imagined world
with uncommon skill and panache. Books
about Movies
In
the nonfiction sphere, I strongly urge you film buffs out there to check out
PHALLIC FRENZY: KEN RUSSELL AND HIS
FILMS by JOSEPH LANZA ( Author
Joseph Lanza provides a terrific overview of his subject’s life and
career, relating how Ken Russell grew up in the seaside town of Lanza
is careful to mention all his subject’s subsequent films, operas, TV
projects and novels, and also fills us in on many Ken Russell projects that
never came to fruition, such as a Sarah Bernhardt biopic that was to star
Barbara Streisand and a Bob Guccione produced adaptation of MOLL FLANDERS.
Lanza can’t help but close the book out on a depressing note, with
the now-eightyish Russell finding himself persona
non grata in There’s
also ANARCHY AND ALCHEMY: THE FILMS
OF ALEJANDRO JODOROWSKY by BEN
COBB (Creation Books). This
is a long overdue volume, and if you ask me an essential one, a thorough
study of the films of Alejandro Jodorowsky, arguably the
premiere wild man of the cinema. Jodorowsky
is of course the creator of the midnight movie classic EL TOPO, as well as
the mind-roasting HOLY MOUNTAIN, the scandalous FANDO Y LIS (which caused
riots upon its premiere in Mexico) and the surreal carny-themed horror fest
SANTA SANGRE. Author Ben Cobb
covers the production, reception and narrative of each film in depth.
Alas, he also devotes an equal amount of time to lesser Jodorowsky
projects like his unimpressive debut short LA CRAVATE, his misguided
children’s film TUSK, and his thoroughly uninspired Hollyweird production
THE RAINBOW THIEF, which is unfortunately Jodorowsky’s most recent film.
EL
TOPO, THE HOLY MOUNTAIN and SANTA SANGRE are filled with an
encyclopedia-worth of arcane symbolism and literary references, and any
serious study of them must take those symbols and portents into account.
Ben Cobb is up to the task, providing voluminous footnotes
referencing the many, many mystical and alchemical elements Jodorowsky packs
into his films. You may find the
author’s exhaustiveness in this regard dull or even off-putting, but
it’s necessary in dealing with films like these.
Cobb
is also careful to let Jodorowsky’s insanely colorful, almost
schizophrenic personality shine through, with innumerable quotes from a
plethora of sources and a lengthy concluding interview.
Jodorowsky’s charmingly clipped English (“What
you need to do...you need to do it because maybe tomorrow you die”),
decidedly idiosyncratic worldview and wild recollections (such as a
childhood “memory” of floating into the air and encountering a ghost
plane filled with vampires) add up to a mighty unique man, one of the VERY
small handful of filmmakers who’s every bit as interesting as the films he
makes.
Another recommended movie-related tome is GRINDHOUSE:
THE SLEAZE-FILLED SAGA OF AN EXPLOITAITON DOUBLE FEATURE by
QUENTIN TARANTINO and ROBERT
RODRIGUEZ (and edited by KURT
VOLK; Weinstein Books).
I know I’m certain to get shit for recommending a movie promo
book, especially since the
flick in question was a huge flop. I’ll
have to say, though, that the two-part GRINDHOUSE, consisting of
exploitation mini-features by Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, was
one of my absolute favorite films of ’07, and I find this large format
hardcover a terrific companion piece. It’s
lovingly designed and executed, with a wealth of colorful stills, production
sketches, promo art and storyboards. It
is in most respects a traditional making-of piece, complete with
junket-worthy blurbs from the cast and crew of GRINDHOUSE about how
dedicated everyone was and how great everything turned out.
But the book excels in the way it communicates just how much skill
and hard work went into this production, which if you ask me is fully
evident in the finished product. Highlights
include a gallery of the flamboyant wardrobes sported by the cast of the
Rodriguez segment (with many mouth-watering views of the skimpy outfits worn
by actress Rose McGowan), as well as a chapter of fun recollections by the
stunt men on Tarantino’s portion, and brief looks at the making of two of
GRINDHOUSE’S fake trailers. I’d
have liked more info on the grindhouse moviegoing experience to which
Tarantino and Rodriguez were paying homage, because as it is that’s only
covered in a brief conversation between the two that opens the book.
This of course brings up a prime reason GRINDHOUSE lost money: a
large portion of its intended audience had no idea of the title’s meaning
or significance, and the publicity failed to educate them.
Thus this book is significant on two counts--it illuminates how the
movie succeeded artistically and why it failed financially. A
Book with Words and Pictures
Now it’s time for the graphic novel part of the list, and a
particularly strong entry you more than likely passed over: THE NIGTHMARE FACTORY,
a graphic anthology from the incomparable THOMAS
LIGOTTI [et al] (Fox Atomic). Quite
honestly, I don’t see any way this book could not
be great! It contains four
Ligotti tales, each illustrated by a different and distinct artist.
This ensures a wide range of styles, from the old-fashioned paneled
illustrations of SPIDERMAN’S Colleen Doran to the dark, dimly glimpsed
evocations of 30 DAYS OF NIGHT’S Ben Templesmith.
Such a multi-faceted approach works well with Ligotti’s elegant,
dreamy tales, which, undeniably brilliant though they are, tend to suffer
from a slight case of sameness. Masks
are a favorite theme of Ligotti’s, as are dolls and/or mannequins, and the
idea of an individual or entire community sucked into a Lovecratian
nightmare. All those things turn
up in this collection. The
opening tale, “The Last Feast of Harlequin”, is a vaguely Lovecraftian
story about a festival held by masked revelers in an accursed town--and the
dark secrets that underlie it all. “Dream
of a Mannikin” follows, being a short account of a man whose sense of
reality is unraveled by his scheming girlfriend.
“Dr. Locrain’s Asylum” concerns a malady of madness that
spreads forth from an upper room of the titular residence.
Finally there’s “Teatro Grottesco”, a downright puzzling piece
about a trouble-making acting troupe that assaults creative types (an
oblique commentary on the age-old battle of art vs. commerce).
The
stories form a good sampling of Ligotti’s output; “The Last Feast of
Harlequin” is about as commercial as this author gets, while “Teatro
Grottesco” represents Ligotti at his quirkiest.
All the artists do stand-out work, particularly Ted McKeever in his
impressionistic rendering of “Dr. Locrian’s Asylum”, and Michael
Gaydos, who provided the gorgeous watercolors of “Teatro Grottesco”.
Credit must also go to Stuart Moore and Joe Harris, who scripted the
comic versions of Ligotti’s stories and did so in a manner that allows the
words and visuals to (mostly) harmonize. Old
Books Given New Life
We mustn’t forget the reprints, of which there were three worthy
examples in 2007 (far less than the dozen or so we got last year, but still
better than none!). First and
foremost was
Speaking of rough novels, WRATH
JAMES WHITE and EDWARD LEE’S
2003 gross-out favorite TERATOLOGIST
was given a new printing by Overlook
Connection. It has a young
multi-millionaire and all-around lunatic looking to lure God onto our plane
and capture him. This nut packs
a secluded mansion with an assortment of human oddities and influential
leaders, and injects them all with an illegal drug that jacks up peoples’
sex drives. In this way he hopes
to get God so pissed off that He’ll have to show up on Earth and
personally put a stop to the madness. Sound
like fun? If so than this is the
book for you, and it’s now available in a newly revised, semi-affordable
edition (with the original Medium Rare publication now a rare collector’s
item). Still, I wish someone
would reprint POISONING EROS, another Wrath James White collaboration, and
in my eyes an even better book than this one.
THE GOD OF THE RAZOR
(Subterranean Press) was a twentieth anniversary hardcover edition of JOE
LANSDALE’S blistering novel THE NIGHTRUNNERS, together with six
related short stories. The
novel’s a toughie, relating, in profoundly harsh, graphic fashion, what
happens when a young woman is viciously gang-raped by a pack of psychotic
teenagers, leading to an arrest, a suicide and a final showdown of wrenching
intensity. The book, a
straightforward suspensor, has a perplexingly choppy flow (the likely
consequence of its having been constructed around three short stories), but
does its job nonetheless. Although
first published in 1987, it was actually written seven years earlier (as
Lansdale claims in a newly written intro), making it one of its author’s
very first novels; he may not have quite found his footing yet, but
Lansdale, even at such an early stage of his career, really knew how to kick
ass!
The short stories included center mostly on the God of The Razor, who
has what amounts to an extended cameo in THE NIGHTRUNNERS.
This personage is helpfully fleshed out in tales like “God of the
Razor” and the newly written “Janet Finds the Razor”.
There’s also “Not from A
Little off Topic, But...
I’ll venture a bit outside the horror genre for my final selection (it’s
my list and I’ll write about
what I like, thank you very much!), POSTSINGULAR
by RUDY RUCKER (Tor).
It’s a typically wild and crazy cyberpunk extravaganza by one of
the sci fi genre’s most distinctive talents, which I feel compelled to
mention because a). it’s a
terrific novel, and b). the author
made it available as a free online download, with the stipulation that we
help him out by spreading the word. Right-o!
It’d be unfair to give too much away, as the book’s pleasure is
in its consistently unpredictable, lightning-paced contents, which include a
brand of self-replicating “nanobots” that take over the universe, and an
apparently improved nanobot model that’s actually even more destructive
than the old one. Only Rudy
Rucker, who possess one of the planet’s most unique minds, could possibly
have concocted a story like this one. It’s
totally bonkers yet staunchly logical, with a streak of anarchic comedy
that’s among Rucker’s trademarks. If
you’ve read any of Rudy Rucker’s early novels (WHITE LIGHT, SOFTWARE,
THE SEX SPHERE) you’ll find POSTSINGULAR a welcome return to form, whereas
if you’re unfamiliar with his work it’ll be a great place to start. Adios
2007!
On that note I’ll bid the year 2007 a fond adieu.
Again, it was a good year for genre literature, and I can only hope
the books of 2008 are as strong. Luckily
the indicators are promising, with upcoming titles by the likes of Stephen
King, Ramsey Campbell, J.G. Ballard, Jack Ketchum, Ray Garton and many
others. In short, it doesn’t
look as if there will be any shortage of good reading in ‘08, and I
promise to cover as much of it as I possibly can.
See
you next year--same time, same place! --1/18/08
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