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darkling_talesThe other day I got my copy of Issue 12 of Supernatural Tales, the quarterly supernatural fiction and reviews magazine edited by David Longhorn. Sadly, Longhorn reports that financial problems are forcing him to stop publishing the Tales in the form of a small paperback book and revert to the old format of a hefty stapled pamphlet (sold at a lower price.) While the change doesn't bother me too much it's a shame to see Longhorn getting so little return on his efforts to shine a spotlight on new and obscure ghost story writers, some of whom have never had their work published before. But what of Issue 12?
Well, I don't think it as good as the previous two issues, simply because there are no stories that stand out as being truly brilliant. Some of the tales are also tinged with amateurism in a way that can be endearing though sometimes irritating, but several are easily worthy of appearing in your common-or-garden horror anthology. Gary McMahon's The Wrong Town is a short but hard-hitting tale on the theme of urban 'redevelopment', while Duncan Barford's The Sofa achieves the well-nigh impossible task of writing a chilling horror story about paedophilia that is neither clumsy nor exploitative.
It's interesting to note that the less polished stories in the collection stand up fairly well against the more professional stuff despite their obvious flaws. For instance, Guided Tour by John L Probert gave me the biggest fright by far, skilfully exploiting the innate menace of statues, paintings and other objects found in a country house. The tour in question shares the surreal nightmare feel of Aickman's The Fully Conducted Tour or Nabokov's At The Museum, but has its own distinctive flavour. Probert unfortunately blows it with an ending that could have worked if handled with more subtlety, but which as it stands conveys a perfect warning of the damage modish buzzwords like 'relationship' and 'letting go' can wreak on a story dealing with the distant past.
William I.I. Read's Jamesian homage Final Warning has more than a touch of fanfic about it, but nevertheless will provide fellow fans of M R James with half an hour's fun. As the title suggests, the tale serves as an up-to-date sequel to the story A Warning To The Curious, and follows a trio of students on their hunt for the original's buried 'Crown Of East Anglia' while staying at a B&B in Seaburgh, the town in which James' curious scholar is punished for his excess of zeal when he manages to dig up the Crown and offend its sinister 'guardian'. The little seaside town is along with Burnstow my favourite of James' settings (and is evoked wonderfully in Lawrence Gordon Clark's BBC film), so it was a pleasure to visit it once more. I was also spared the stuffy, conservative views that mar many Jamesian pastiches, and Read clearly has a lot of time for young people and their world, something that can hardly be said of the great man himself! A ridiculous love-interest paragraph is inserted mid-way with very little reason, but the ending is devilishly good, making great use of very real dangers, and there is a rather nasty explanation for the way the victim of James' 'guardian' is found with his mouth packed full of gravel and sand...
Overall though, I think the most consistently good story has got to be Gary Fry's Figure Of Fun, about the murderous ghost of a court jester which is said to roam the grounds of a stately home that a gang of builders are working on. King Lear is my favourite Shakespeare play, and this is partly due to the character of the clever Fool, who hovers forever on the cusp of cruel, truthful humour and real savagery, so I was delighted to find the play used as the basis for the tale! Fry has the invaluable knack of blending ills past and present in an unending loop of evil, and the play between the builders is very well done. I especially liked the teenage builder's mate, a fragile, dreamy recovering junkie who turns out to be far less meek than he looks! Incidentally, Fry also runs the intriguing Gray Friar Press, with Simon Strantzas as web designer, and gives a decent interview here.
Overall I enjoyed the issue and I will certainly be renewing my subscription, especially as the renewal form that came with my copy is randomly illustrated with a fluffy kitten playing in a basket. Longhorn has a personal journal here for those wishing to indulge in a little light stalking.
And while I'm on the topic of periodicals, I should mention that the 3rd issue of the Irish Journal Of Gothic and Horror Studies is now online! I was a bit disappointed with it this time around, since there is relatively little by way of literary criticism, with authors centring almost exclusively on reviews of film and television. I did enjoy Jenny McDonnell's acerbic piece on Tarantino and Rodriguez' diastrous Grindhouse double bill and the horror movie culture that allows such mediocre movies to see the light. The Lost Souls section is always a pleasure, this time shedding light on the life of the little-known Gregory of Tours.
Unfortunately, most of the criticism in this issue is merely average, more reminiscent of a personal fansite than any kind of scholarly effort, and any pretensions to literary status are hampered by the inclusion of some real stinkers. John Exshaw's piece on the recent BBC series Jekyll has to take the cake for sheer, foul-mouthed Daily Mail reader lunacy. Don't let his bigoted views put you off finishing this howler of a 'review' though, else you'll miss the side-splitting finale where the frothing Exshaw rages that "state, church, and women do their best to curb, control and suppress...That which is natural to man" and that the harmless series is the tool of a nationwide conspiracy to oppress white males. He really does think that, and I quite agree with him: things have come to a pretty pass when a man can't even smoke, cheat on his wife and, erm, carve up passers-by in his spare time without those damned lesbians and Indians asking him to stop!
This stuff is beyond pastiche, and the Journal needs to get a grip on itself pronto unless it wants to blow its credibility forever. I'd much rather have a shorter journal than plough through this kind of maniacal filler. And no, none of it's 'controversial', unless controversial has just become a synonym for 'shit on a shingle'. And on that note of sweetness and light, I bid you all good evening :)
Well, I don't think it as good as the previous two issues, simply because there are no stories that stand out as being truly brilliant. Some of the tales are also tinged with amateurism in a way that can be endearing though sometimes irritating, but several are easily worthy of appearing in your common-or-garden horror anthology. Gary McMahon's The Wrong Town is a short but hard-hitting tale on the theme of urban 'redevelopment', while Duncan Barford's The Sofa achieves the well-nigh impossible task of writing a chilling horror story about paedophilia that is neither clumsy nor exploitative.
It's interesting to note that the less polished stories in the collection stand up fairly well against the more professional stuff despite their obvious flaws. For instance, Guided Tour by John L Probert gave me the biggest fright by far, skilfully exploiting the innate menace of statues, paintings and other objects found in a country house. The tour in question shares the surreal nightmare feel of Aickman's The Fully Conducted Tour or Nabokov's At The Museum, but has its own distinctive flavour. Probert unfortunately blows it with an ending that could have worked if handled with more subtlety, but which as it stands conveys a perfect warning of the damage modish buzzwords like 'relationship' and 'letting go' can wreak on a story dealing with the distant past.
William I.I. Read's Jamesian homage Final Warning has more than a touch of fanfic about it, but nevertheless will provide fellow fans of M R James with half an hour's fun. As the title suggests, the tale serves as an up-to-date sequel to the story A Warning To The Curious, and follows a trio of students on their hunt for the original's buried 'Crown Of East Anglia' while staying at a B&B in Seaburgh, the town in which James' curious scholar is punished for his excess of zeal when he manages to dig up the Crown and offend its sinister 'guardian'. The little seaside town is along with Burnstow my favourite of James' settings (and is evoked wonderfully in Lawrence Gordon Clark's BBC film), so it was a pleasure to visit it once more. I was also spared the stuffy, conservative views that mar many Jamesian pastiches, and Read clearly has a lot of time for young people and their world, something that can hardly be said of the great man himself! A ridiculous love-interest paragraph is inserted mid-way with very little reason, but the ending is devilishly good, making great use of very real dangers, and there is a rather nasty explanation for the way the victim of James' 'guardian' is found with his mouth packed full of gravel and sand...
Overall though, I think the most consistently good story has got to be Gary Fry's Figure Of Fun, about the murderous ghost of a court jester which is said to roam the grounds of a stately home that a gang of builders are working on. King Lear is my favourite Shakespeare play, and this is partly due to the character of the clever Fool, who hovers forever on the cusp of cruel, truthful humour and real savagery, so I was delighted to find the play used as the basis for the tale! Fry has the invaluable knack of blending ills past and present in an unending loop of evil, and the play between the builders is very well done. I especially liked the teenage builder's mate, a fragile, dreamy recovering junkie who turns out to be far less meek than he looks! Incidentally, Fry also runs the intriguing Gray Friar Press, with Simon Strantzas as web designer, and gives a decent interview here.
Overall I enjoyed the issue and I will certainly be renewing my subscription, especially as the renewal form that came with my copy is randomly illustrated with a fluffy kitten playing in a basket. Longhorn has a personal journal here for those wishing to indulge in a little light stalking.
And while I'm on the topic of periodicals, I should mention that the 3rd issue of the Irish Journal Of Gothic and Horror Studies is now online! I was a bit disappointed with it this time around, since there is relatively little by way of literary criticism, with authors centring almost exclusively on reviews of film and television. I did enjoy Jenny McDonnell's acerbic piece on Tarantino and Rodriguez' diastrous Grindhouse double bill and the horror movie culture that allows such mediocre movies to see the light. The Lost Souls section is always a pleasure, this time shedding light on the life of the little-known Gregory of Tours.
Unfortunately, most of the criticism in this issue is merely average, more reminiscent of a personal fansite than any kind of scholarly effort, and any pretensions to literary status are hampered by the inclusion of some real stinkers. John Exshaw's piece on the recent BBC series Jekyll has to take the cake for sheer, foul-mouthed Daily Mail reader lunacy. Don't let his bigoted views put you off finishing this howler of a 'review' though, else you'll miss the side-splitting finale where the frothing Exshaw rages that "state, church, and women do their best to curb, control and suppress...That which is natural to man" and that the harmless series is the tool of a nationwide conspiracy to oppress white males. He really does think that, and I quite agree with him: things have come to a pretty pass when a man can't even smoke, cheat on his wife and, erm, carve up passers-by in his spare time without those damned lesbians and Indians asking him to stop!
This stuff is beyond pastiche, and the Journal needs to get a grip on itself pronto unless it wants to blow its credibility forever. I'd much rather have a shorter journal than plough through this kind of maniacal filler. And no, none of it's 'controversial', unless controversial has just become a synonym for 'shit on a shingle'. And on that note of sweetness and light, I bid you all good evening :)
