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"Dark Matters" by Terry Lamsley
Mar. 13th, 2007 08:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
joysilenceFor my birthday I persuaded my mother to foot the bill for Dark Matters, Terry Lamsley's first collection of ghost stories (an Ash Tree edition which I acquired second-hand from Cold Tonnage Books.) I have to put a word in for Douglas Walters' splendid jacket artwork, done in the style of an etching and depicting sinister scenes from the book. Sadly Walters has no internet presence, but his creepy art makes up for the book's poor editing (I counted five obvious spelling mistakes, which is jolly bad going for a posh publishing house...) Anyway, on to the stories themselves!
If you could take an A-level in writing scary tales, Lamsley would be damn close to a straight-A student - there are a couple of 'B's in there (the predictable Back In The Dunes and The Stunted House, which comes across as a bit lazy, always a risk with the cryptic type of story.) But when writing at his best, Lamsley really delivers. Though he freely admits that he owes a lot to M R James, with half-glimpsed shadows, ill-advised archaeological hunts and oblique hints at horrific supernatural violence, he's about more than just chills.
Lamsley tackles such modern topics as the disintegration of families following the loss of loved ones (the achingly sad The Lost Boy Found), and the almost unbelievable greed and sloth of local government (in the politically sharp and witty Suburban Blight). Real-life fears such as the onset of old age and the ease with which a person can slip through the net of society unnoticed also add to his stories, and these subplots are not just there to provide background tension, but have a real purpose within the plot. Lamsley seems to know human suffering inside out, and his characters even come equipped with sex drives...
Writing the previous paragraph has made me realize how hard it is to pin down Lamsley's writing, and to compare him with other modern authors - he doesn't have an obvious 'tone' (though a certain irony pervades most of his stories) and eludes pigeonholing where the subjects of his stories are concerned. You can read lots of his stories in one sitting without them cloying your palate. That said, the author's stylish writing and blend of 'Jamesian' and psychological themes reminded me of Steve Duffy and his half-answered questions and riddles posed by the subconscious bring to mind Don Tumasonis - though Tumasonis has never put out an anthology, and Duffy's first collection is currently retailing for a trillion million godzillion pounds stateside...However, if you want to sample either of these authors, Steve Duffy's brilliant fusion of Welsh mythological horror and revenge, Our Lady Of The Flowers, is online here, and Tumasonis' What Goes Down is here. Hurray for Ghosts And Scholars!
If you could take an A-level in writing scary tales, Lamsley would be damn close to a straight-A student - there are a couple of 'B's in there (the predictable Back In The Dunes and The Stunted House, which comes across as a bit lazy, always a risk with the cryptic type of story.) But when writing at his best, Lamsley really delivers. Though he freely admits that he owes a lot to M R James, with half-glimpsed shadows, ill-advised archaeological hunts and oblique hints at horrific supernatural violence, he's about more than just chills.
Lamsley tackles such modern topics as the disintegration of families following the loss of loved ones (the achingly sad The Lost Boy Found), and the almost unbelievable greed and sloth of local government (in the politically sharp and witty Suburban Blight). Real-life fears such as the onset of old age and the ease with which a person can slip through the net of society unnoticed also add to his stories, and these subplots are not just there to provide background tension, but have a real purpose within the plot. Lamsley seems to know human suffering inside out, and his characters even come equipped with sex drives...
Writing the previous paragraph has made me realize how hard it is to pin down Lamsley's writing, and to compare him with other modern authors - he doesn't have an obvious 'tone' (though a certain irony pervades most of his stories) and eludes pigeonholing where the subjects of his stories are concerned. You can read lots of his stories in one sitting without them cloying your palate. That said, the author's stylish writing and blend of 'Jamesian' and psychological themes reminded me of Steve Duffy and his half-answered questions and riddles posed by the subconscious bring to mind Don Tumasonis - though Tumasonis has never put out an anthology, and Duffy's first collection is currently retailing for a trillion million godzillion pounds stateside...However, if you want to sample either of these authors, Steve Duffy's brilliant fusion of Welsh mythological horror and revenge, Our Lady Of The Flowers, is online here, and Tumasonis' What Goes Down is here. Hurray for Ghosts And Scholars!
