An anthology of modern horror
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darkling_talesI've recently finished Prime Evil, an anthology of modern horror edited by Douglas E Winter. Overall I enjoyed the book, which offers thrills of many different types: macabre, psychological and fantastic horror, vampires etc.
The Night Flier by Stephen King:
Though King is one of the most popular names in modern horror, I was disappointed by this tale of a tabloid journalist on the hunt for the author of a series of grisly murders which all take place under cover of night, in small airports. As usual, though King has some good ideas, his writing lacks finesse and suffers from too much repetition. As the journalist recounts his adventure, his cynicism becomes grating and his way of speaking is a little stilted and unconvincing, and King's attempt to portray a morally ambiguous character falls flat under the weight of the author's own morals. This, to my mind, is one of the quickest ways to kill the atmosphere of terror in a ghost story, though King's attempt to update an age-old myth is laudable and passes the time quite well.
Having A Woman At Lunch by Paul Hazel:
This exercise in macabre about a group of colleagues thrown into disarray when they are compelled to let a new female co-worker into their lunching clique compounds the collection's weak start. The author is obviously trying for a tone like that of Roald Dahl, but the idea is unoriginal and the whole story somehow has a distinctly outdated feel. Eminently forgettable.
The Blood Kiss by Dennis Etchison:
Things start to pick up here - this media-savvy story set in the horror film industry is composed of scenes from the life of a script-writer vying for fame with her cut-throat colleagues intercut with extracts of a gruesome script that finds its way onto her desk, courtesy of an unknown hand. The plot has no tidy conclusion, which can frustrate, but Etchison avoids Stephen King's manichean ways and manages to convey the moral torments of those working in film at the same time as he builds up unease - not a masterpiece, but an interesting story that also surprised me by its readability, given the bittiness of the format. And the fictional script has a right old sting in the tail!
Coming To Grief by Clive Barker:
This splendid story from Barker's heyday in the 80s is one of the jewels of the anthology, in my opinion. Eschewing the grotesque physical distortions that filled the pages of his Books Of Blood series, Barker examines the ways of the grieving and the rootless in a superbly atmospheric tale following a successful career woman, Miriam, who returns to Liverpool from the Far East on the death of her mother and must arrange the funeral and organize the dead woman's belongings. During her stay in Liverpool, Miriam rediscovers the physical and mental geography of her childhood, a central feature of which is a well-worn path skirting a menacing, overgrown old quarry. As the home of her early years regains its hold on Miriam, long-forgotten fears gradually come back to life...This is an effortlessly atmospheric, clear piece of writing - Barker at his absolute best, I think, and he manages to say a lot about bereavement as well as the roots and effects of lasting fears, in a way that is oddly comforting while also delivering a genuine chill.
Food by Thomas Tessier:
This story of the strange bond that develops between a solitary bachelor and his obese young neighbour was not really my cup of tea, but it is well-written and seems to make sense out of unreason, like all the best weird fiction. If body horror is your bag, check it out!
The Great God Pan by M John Harrison:
Confusingly named in homage to Arthur Machen's definitive novella of pagan horror, also called The Great God Pan, this tale of a group of young people who dabble with the hidden forces of Nature and bite off considerably more than they can chew is one of those stories that are especially upsetting if you read them while suffering from mental illness! The afflictions of the main characters, who are hounded out of jobs and relationships by the mysterious and highly unpleasant guests they so foolishly invited into their lives, could be either based in reality or simply interpreted as psychosis, but this ambiguity does nothing to detract from the horror of what I found to be a deeply unnerving and vivid story. Harrison's work has few obvious similarities with Machen's story, and is much more depressing, so make sure you're in high spirits when you start reading it :)
Orange Is For Anguish, Blue For Insanity by David Morell:
Another outstanding and original story about a picturesque little village in the French Mediterranean countryside that exerts a strange and deadly pull on young artists over the centuries. Besides being a ripping good yarn with plenty of insanity, sensuality and violence, Morell's shocker also works as a serious examination of the often thin line between artistic genius and obsession. Think Van Gogh chopping his ear off, only worse, much worse. The descriptions of the sunlit, smiling provencal landscape provide a perfect contrast to the frankly mind-boggling horrors that unfurl before the reader. A seriously impressive feat of the imagination.
The Juniper Tree by Peter Straub:
Those who know Straub as a purveyor of those gorey blockbusters where the author's name is written in a bigger font than the title on the book-cover will perhaps be surprised by the sensitivity and mystery of this account of a young cinephile's dreadful encounter with a neighbourhood child-molester (the narrator is the boy grown-up and become a successful novelist.) The abuse is described in graphic detail but its inclusion never seems gratuitous - Straub obviously took a big risk writing this and I think it paid off. The abuse, though central to the story, is not its only focus and is shown as just one of the factors that shape the boy's life, reality skilfully entwined with fantasy as the boy develops a fantasy world that appears ultimately to save him. Not an easy read, but stylishly written, psychologically realistic and thought-provoking.
Spinning Tales With The Dead by Charles L Grant:
I was less impressed by this equally meandering and sad tale of an ageing man who sits by the riverside, haunted by his past in more ways than one. Though the riverside is described well, the dappled light and shade on the water being used to slowly build an atmosphere of menace, I found the whole thing to be a bit of a damp squib, requiring a lot of concentration on the reader's part to actually work out what is going on, but offering relatively little by way of chills in return.
Alice's Last Adventure by Thomas Ligotti:
I know we have a lot of Ligotti fans in this community, so many of you probably don't need me to tell you about this story, which charts the fate of a famous authoress of macabre children's books who is forced in her old age to confront the "other Alice" inside her, the one responsible for creating her malignant but playful hero Preston. The story is effective in that disjointed, anxious way for which Ligotti is known, and Alice is an appealing character - old, but wry and still quite the vixen. There are several scenes in which Ligotti displays his talent with the half-glimpsed, blink-and-you'll-miss-it horror. I was slightly irritated by the tacit assumption that children are somehow different, more vibrant, more alive than adults, whose heartbreaks and problems are described as "conventional" several times, but fortunately this sentimental view of childhood is not allowed to impede the build-up of horror too much. And perhaps indeed we are meant to infer that the author's anguish is ultimately the result of her making too rigid a distinction between her "inner child" and her adult self.
Next Time You'll Know Me by Ramsay Campbell:
I have enjoyed many of Campbell's stories, and I think that out of all the authors in this book he is the one I am most familar with, but this story is sadly nowhere near one of Campbell's best. It is printed in a rather annoying typeface (presumably intended to stress and make real the fact that the narrative is actually a letter typed by a deranged person), and is predictable and psychologically hackneyed. Sorry!
The Pool by Whitley Strieber:
An odd little story about a fond father and the deadly allure his swimming-pool exercises on his young son when night falls. I wasn't overly keen on it, and really didn't need the scenes of animal cruelty either, though dark water has always held a fascination for me and is an interesting theme.
By Reason Of Darkness by Jack Cady:
This long story about three Vietnam veterans who meet years after their ghastly, somewhat unhinged war days in a lonely forest cabin is a cracking finale for the anthology. Though most stories about Vietnam soldiers are about men facing ghosts of some kind or other, it's unusual for a war horror story to combine genine supernatural and "real" horror this effectively (not that there's anything like a sharp distinction between the two types of terror in the story itself), so even people who generally dislike war fiction should read this, and the descriptions of the crumbling old Chinese and Indian cemeteries near Seattle are haunting.
The Night Flier by Stephen King:
Though King is one of the most popular names in modern horror, I was disappointed by this tale of a tabloid journalist on the hunt for the author of a series of grisly murders which all take place under cover of night, in small airports. As usual, though King has some good ideas, his writing lacks finesse and suffers from too much repetition. As the journalist recounts his adventure, his cynicism becomes grating and his way of speaking is a little stilted and unconvincing, and King's attempt to portray a morally ambiguous character falls flat under the weight of the author's own morals. This, to my mind, is one of the quickest ways to kill the atmosphere of terror in a ghost story, though King's attempt to update an age-old myth is laudable and passes the time quite well.
Having A Woman At Lunch by Paul Hazel:
This exercise in macabre about a group of colleagues thrown into disarray when they are compelled to let a new female co-worker into their lunching clique compounds the collection's weak start. The author is obviously trying for a tone like that of Roald Dahl, but the idea is unoriginal and the whole story somehow has a distinctly outdated feel. Eminently forgettable.
The Blood Kiss by Dennis Etchison:
Things start to pick up here - this media-savvy story set in the horror film industry is composed of scenes from the life of a script-writer vying for fame with her cut-throat colleagues intercut with extracts of a gruesome script that finds its way onto her desk, courtesy of an unknown hand. The plot has no tidy conclusion, which can frustrate, but Etchison avoids Stephen King's manichean ways and manages to convey the moral torments of those working in film at the same time as he builds up unease - not a masterpiece, but an interesting story that also surprised me by its readability, given the bittiness of the format. And the fictional script has a right old sting in the tail!
Coming To Grief by Clive Barker:
This splendid story from Barker's heyday in the 80s is one of the jewels of the anthology, in my opinion. Eschewing the grotesque physical distortions that filled the pages of his Books Of Blood series, Barker examines the ways of the grieving and the rootless in a superbly atmospheric tale following a successful career woman, Miriam, who returns to Liverpool from the Far East on the death of her mother and must arrange the funeral and organize the dead woman's belongings. During her stay in Liverpool, Miriam rediscovers the physical and mental geography of her childhood, a central feature of which is a well-worn path skirting a menacing, overgrown old quarry. As the home of her early years regains its hold on Miriam, long-forgotten fears gradually come back to life...This is an effortlessly atmospheric, clear piece of writing - Barker at his absolute best, I think, and he manages to say a lot about bereavement as well as the roots and effects of lasting fears, in a way that is oddly comforting while also delivering a genuine chill.
Food by Thomas Tessier:
This story of the strange bond that develops between a solitary bachelor and his obese young neighbour was not really my cup of tea, but it is well-written and seems to make sense out of unreason, like all the best weird fiction. If body horror is your bag, check it out!
The Great God Pan by M John Harrison:
Confusingly named in homage to Arthur Machen's definitive novella of pagan horror, also called The Great God Pan, this tale of a group of young people who dabble with the hidden forces of Nature and bite off considerably more than they can chew is one of those stories that are especially upsetting if you read them while suffering from mental illness! The afflictions of the main characters, who are hounded out of jobs and relationships by the mysterious and highly unpleasant guests they so foolishly invited into their lives, could be either based in reality or simply interpreted as psychosis, but this ambiguity does nothing to detract from the horror of what I found to be a deeply unnerving and vivid story. Harrison's work has few obvious similarities with Machen's story, and is much more depressing, so make sure you're in high spirits when you start reading it :)
Orange Is For Anguish, Blue For Insanity by David Morell:
Another outstanding and original story about a picturesque little village in the French Mediterranean countryside that exerts a strange and deadly pull on young artists over the centuries. Besides being a ripping good yarn with plenty of insanity, sensuality and violence, Morell's shocker also works as a serious examination of the often thin line between artistic genius and obsession. Think Van Gogh chopping his ear off, only worse, much worse. The descriptions of the sunlit, smiling provencal landscape provide a perfect contrast to the frankly mind-boggling horrors that unfurl before the reader. A seriously impressive feat of the imagination.
The Juniper Tree by Peter Straub:
Those who know Straub as a purveyor of those gorey blockbusters where the author's name is written in a bigger font than the title on the book-cover will perhaps be surprised by the sensitivity and mystery of this account of a young cinephile's dreadful encounter with a neighbourhood child-molester (the narrator is the boy grown-up and become a successful novelist.) The abuse is described in graphic detail but its inclusion never seems gratuitous - Straub obviously took a big risk writing this and I think it paid off. The abuse, though central to the story, is not its only focus and is shown as just one of the factors that shape the boy's life, reality skilfully entwined with fantasy as the boy develops a fantasy world that appears ultimately to save him. Not an easy read, but stylishly written, psychologically realistic and thought-provoking.
Spinning Tales With The Dead by Charles L Grant:
I was less impressed by this equally meandering and sad tale of an ageing man who sits by the riverside, haunted by his past in more ways than one. Though the riverside is described well, the dappled light and shade on the water being used to slowly build an atmosphere of menace, I found the whole thing to be a bit of a damp squib, requiring a lot of concentration on the reader's part to actually work out what is going on, but offering relatively little by way of chills in return.
Alice's Last Adventure by Thomas Ligotti:
I know we have a lot of Ligotti fans in this community, so many of you probably don't need me to tell you about this story, which charts the fate of a famous authoress of macabre children's books who is forced in her old age to confront the "other Alice" inside her, the one responsible for creating her malignant but playful hero Preston. The story is effective in that disjointed, anxious way for which Ligotti is known, and Alice is an appealing character - old, but wry and still quite the vixen. There are several scenes in which Ligotti displays his talent with the half-glimpsed, blink-and-you'll-miss-it horror. I was slightly irritated by the tacit assumption that children are somehow different, more vibrant, more alive than adults, whose heartbreaks and problems are described as "conventional" several times, but fortunately this sentimental view of childhood is not allowed to impede the build-up of horror too much. And perhaps indeed we are meant to infer that the author's anguish is ultimately the result of her making too rigid a distinction between her "inner child" and her adult self.
Next Time You'll Know Me by Ramsay Campbell:
I have enjoyed many of Campbell's stories, and I think that out of all the authors in this book he is the one I am most familar with, but this story is sadly nowhere near one of Campbell's best. It is printed in a rather annoying typeface (presumably intended to stress and make real the fact that the narrative is actually a letter typed by a deranged person), and is predictable and psychologically hackneyed. Sorry!
The Pool by Whitley Strieber:
An odd little story about a fond father and the deadly allure his swimming-pool exercises on his young son when night falls. I wasn't overly keen on it, and really didn't need the scenes of animal cruelty either, though dark water has always held a fascination for me and is an interesting theme.
By Reason Of Darkness by Jack Cady:
This long story about three Vietnam veterans who meet years after their ghastly, somewhat unhinged war days in a lonely forest cabin is a cracking finale for the anthology. Though most stories about Vietnam soldiers are about men facing ghosts of some kind or other, it's unusual for a war horror story to combine genine supernatural and "real" horror this effectively (not that there's anything like a sharp distinction between the two types of terror in the story itself), so even people who generally dislike war fiction should read this, and the descriptions of the crumbling old Chinese and Indian cemeteries near Seattle are haunting.
