Month: March 2021

Week 163 – Weekly Horror Short Story Reviews: Ellison, Lumley, Stableford, and Schwader

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Welcome to Week 163 of my horror short fiction review project! Some absolutely great stories this week–literally all four are worth your time to read–but for its sheer weirdness, I will have to award the best story of the week prize to Brian Stableford for his “The Holocaust of Ecstasy.” This one suggest a really horrific possibility for life after death. Really great stuff.

The Mammoth Book of Nightmare Stories, edited by Stephen Jones (Skyhorse, 2019)

“In the Fourth Year of the War” by Harlan Ellison

A lonely man fights for control of his own mind with a consciousness, a voice, that calls itself Jerry Olander. He eventually loses the war, of course, and Jerry makes him kill people, starting with those who have wronged him. Very, very chilling. Wonderful characterization. Ellison’s work tends to be hit or miss for me, and while I find the man himself abhorrent, it’s stories like this that remind me why he won so many awards over the decades.

Haggopian and Other Stories, by Brian Lumley (Solaris, 2009)

“Aunt Hester”

Our narrator is Peter, a teenager who befriends his Aunt Hester, the black sheep of the family. The reason behind this is, initially, a deep family secret, though it is commonly understood that her twin brother George moved to escape her. When Peter turns twenty, he once again visits his aunt and learns that she is a dabbler in magic and member of a small occult group. It all seems pretty harmless until Hester describes several occasions during her childhood in which she discovered that she could swap minds with her twin brother. This understandably disconcerted George, and he turned against her. Now an older woman, she tells Peter that she wants to see George’s children once, so she plans to swap minds with George once again. Hester doesn’t understand that George had died a few weeks previously—word had not yet traveled to the family—and her mind becomes trapped in George’s mouldering, now-buried corpse. There’s a wonderful finale to the story in which Peter realizes that Hester is now attempting to swap minds with him. The horror of that realization could have been played up a bit more. But this was a fun one.

Cthulhu’s Reign, edited by Darrell Schweitzer (DAW, 2010)

“The Holocaust of Ecstasy” by Brian Stableford

Richard Tremeloe is a professor of biology at Miskatonic University who awakens to find himself “reborn” with some/most of his memories and consciousness intact as a kind of head-fruit on a tree in a distant, post-Cthulhu future, being preyed upon by predatory animals that are, presumably, other “reborn” humans. From talking with a Yithian (see HPL’s “The Shadow Out of Time”) who has also been reborn as a head-fruit, Tremeloe learns what has been going on. This all probably sounds more nonsensical than I intend it to, but it’s such a strange set-up that you sort of have to read it for yourself—and you should. Some interesting bits of philosophizing mixed in with what is mostly a truly horrific vignette about the possibility of monstrous life after death.

Dark Equinox and Other Tales of Lovecraftian Horror, by Ann K. Schwader (Hippocampus Press, 2015)

“Desert Mystery! Gas & Go!”

A rare(-ish) second person perspective story. A roadside gas station in a remote part of the American Southwest advertises a Mystery in the building next door. You buy a ticket and are taken through a building designed to bilk tourists with phony junk but are shown the true Mystery. You are led down a ramp into the underground. Hints of Yoth and lightless N’Kai, which will resonate with readers of HPL’s wonderful “The Mound.” (This is one of my favorite HPL stories in part because I think it has so much unused potential that has yet to be exploited by later writers.) Wonderfully evocative, though brief.


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Week 162 – Weekly Horror Short Story Reviews: Copper, Lumley, Frost, and Schwader

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Welcome to Week 162 of my horror short fiction review project! It is essentially impossible for me to select a favorite story this week because three of them were so strong. It’s my blog, so I’ll award an extremely rare three-way tie to “The Gossips” by Basil Copper, which is just a classic weird tale about three statues that has a wonderfully creepy atmosphere; Brian Lumley’s “Curse of the Golden Guardians,” which shows just how effective mixing a Conan-esque sword-and-sorcery tale with Lovecraftian elements can be; and Ann K. Schwader’s “Custom Order,” about a nanny to a very special child that is far, far more than he initially appears. All are very much worth your time.

The Mammoth Book of Nightmare Stories, edited by Stephen Jones (Skyhorse, 2019)

“The Gossips” by Basil Copper

A novelette that presents a classic weird tale. Here’s the premise: three large, marble statues of young women—known collectively as “the Gossips”—are renowned as sinister artifacts that bring tragedies to those who come in contact with them. So of course the British want to bring them from Sicily to London for a major exhibition. What could go wrong? Lots, of course. I won’t go into detail on the deaths that occur, but these statues exude a wonderful creepy menace. I could picture this as an excellent black & white horror film. Wonderful tone and mood—very effectively done.

Haggopian and Other Stories, by Brian Lumley (Solaris, 2009)

“Curse of the Golden Guardians”

A sword and sorcery novelette of Tarra Khosh the Hrossak, an adventurer in the mold of Conan in Lumley original fantasy setting that contains numerous Lovecraftian or Cthulhu Mythos elements. This was my first experience with Tarra Khosh and I must say that I enjoyed it thoroughly—I will certainly seek out his other adventures. After escaping a desert, Tarra Khosh comes upon Hadj Dyzm, who promptly enlists him in a scheme to rob an ancient tomb and recover wealth beyond avarice. Perhaps Tarra Khosh should have been more cautious about why a mysterious stranger would offer him such an opportunity, but he follows Dyzm into a deep cave/tunnel network and becomes trapped there; all part of Dyzm’s plan unfortunately. I would actually draw some parallels here to Jack Vance’s adventurer Cugel the Clever, who is also perpetually tricked into participating in various schemes before turning the tables on his unscrupulous partners. I won’t spoil the resolution here except to say that the eponymous tomb guardians are fascinating and well-crafted—these are not your run-of-the-mill mummies or sorcerous beasts guarding most similar treasures—and have a wonderful Lovecraftian origin. This story was an excellent reminder to me of just how much fun sword and sorcery tales can be, and how well they mix with some horror elements.

Cthulhu’s Reign, edited by Darrell Schweitzer (DAW, 2010)

“The Seals of New R’lyeh” by Gregory Frost

Mostly incoherent; I didn’t like this one. Two thieves were part of a cult that accidentally summoned Cthulhu and unleashed destruction upon the Earth. Oops. There are apparently six magical seals (the artifacts, not the marine mammals) that hold back all of the Great Old Ones from returning and Cthulhu has only broken the first. They plan a heist to steal the remaining five. That right there could be a decent premise—a post-apocalyptic heist story has a lot of potential. But the tone is all wrong here, and the perspective and chronology are bizarre, and it was just extremely unsatisfying. This one just didn’t work for me, but someone else might enjoy it more than I.

Dark Equinox and Other Tales of Lovecraftian Horror, by Ann K. Schwader (Hippocampus Press, 2015)

“Custom Order”

Very, very good. Caitlyn Reilly, an Irish immigrant who has overstayed her work visa in the United States, is the Blaines’ new nanny, hired by the wealthy (but unhappy) couple to care for their infant son Alex. Alex is a peculiar child who was created as an in vitro fertilized baby in Dr. Merelli’s—a sinister European woman—laboratory. Mr. Blaine is cruel, emotionally unavailable, and manipulative; Mrs. Blaine is a drug-addicted depressive who wants nothing to do with her son, and seems to hate and fear both the boy and her husband. At first, Caitlyn thinks that Alex is possessed: he spews hellbugs from his mouth on one occasion, and once he seems to speak in her dead brother’s voice. Plus, he’s repulsed by her rosary and freaks out when she tries to take him to a church. Seems like a classic case of possession, but the local priest won’t take the case. Caitlyn is beside herself and all alone in trying to solve the problem. There are intimations that the child may be the literal spawn of Satan, or perhaps Old Scratch himself. This is a truly wonderful Catholic horror story in the mold of Blatty. Really good stuff.


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Week 161 – Weekly Horror Short Story Reviews: Smith, Lumley, Lake, and Schwader

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Welcome to Week 161 of my horror short fiction review project! A couple of especially excellent stories to note this week: “Dear Alison” by Michael Marshall Smith, which is a really good character study of a man who has been vampirized and is embarking on his new life, and “Such Bright and Risen Madness in Our Names” by Jay Lake, which is about a small group of humans holding out in the ruins of their civilization, fighting on, even after the Great Old Ones have arisen to remake the world in their image. I’m always a sucker for doomed people who fight on in the face of impossible odds.

The Mammoth Book of Nightmare Stories, edited by Stephen Jones (Skyhorse, 2019)

“Dear Alison” by Michael Marshall Smith

A brilliant character study that is extremely well done. A man is writing a letter to his letter before he leaves her and their children forever. You see, he has been turned into a vampire by a woman he encountered at a party, and this transformation has made him a stranger in his own home who has grown apart from his family. One of the fascinating elements is that he never once seems to have considered also turning his wife into a vampire, which speaks volumes about the nature of his feelings for her and the nature of their relationship. Really good stuff.

Haggopian and Other Stories, by Brian Lumley (Solaris, 2009)

“Recognition”

A British nobleman has hired two mediums and a retired clergyman to identify the spectral beings inhabiting his apparently haunted house and exorcize them. (In the place’s backstory there is a very nice reference to the De la Poers and Exham Priory from HPL’s “The Rats in the Walls.”)  The horror at the heart of the story is an allusion to the infamous spider-god Atlach-Nacha (which first appeared in Clark Ashton Smith’s “The Seven Geases”), but the exact connection is left unstated—that’s a significant weakness here, in my view; if we knew more about why Atlach-Nacha and its minions were connected to the house, this could have been a much more powerful story. There is a nicely horrific fate for the final investigator who doesn’t flee the house in time. Good stuff, the story just needed more development to really come alive.

Cthulhu’s Reign, edited by Darrell Schweitzer (DAW, 2010)

[previously reviewed] “The Shallows” by John Langan

“Such Bright and Risen Madness in Our Names” by Jay Lake

The brief but poignantly melancholic tale of a small resistance cells of humans—some of whom are experiencing physical transformations—who are holding out against Cthulhu and the Great Old Ones and their minions after civilization has been destroyed and most of humanity has been wiped out. They know they’re doomed, but they continue to fight back because that’s what people do. This is also a tale of personal loss and trying to find/hang onto meaning even after all hope is lost. Their sacrifices may be doomed to failure, and ultimately meaningless in a cosmic sense, but are still important in an individual sense. And maybe that’s all that matters. Well done.

Dark Equinox and Other Tales of Lovecraftian Horror, by Ann K. Schwader (Hippocampus Press, 2015)

“Her Beloved Son”

This is a short but interesting interlude in the life of Lavinia Whateley (from HPL’s “The Dunwich Horror”) just prior to her death/disappearance. Canonically, Lavinia has used her father’s partial copy of the Necronomicon to summon Yog-Sothoth, who impregnated her with twins, her misshapen son Wilbur (who kills her) and the utterly monstrous and inhuman (eponymous) Dunwich Horror. Details Lavinia’s love for her truly monstrous son and her hatred for Wilbur, who is unspeakably cruel to her. An interesting piece that fleshes out the Whateley family a bit, though I doubt you will get much out of it if you aren’t conversant in HPL’s tale.


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Week 160 – Weekly Horror Short Story Reviews: Newman, Lumley, Fultz, and Schwader

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Welcome to Week 160 of my horror short fiction review project! All of this week’s stories were good to excellent. I’ll award an honorable mention to Ann Schwader for her story, but my favorite of the week was Kim Newman’s “Is There Anybody There?” I’m always a sucker for stories about old school spirit mediums, and this one brings that into the present via a very cool (and dark) twist. Lots of good stuff to check out this week.

The Mammoth Book of Nightmare Stories, edited by Stephen Jones (Skyhorse, 2019)

“Is There Anybody There?” by Kim Newman

What a wonderful and clever story! I have to spoil this one a bit to describe it, but that’s okay, it’s still well worth reading. Irene Dobson is a spiritual medium who accidentally makes contact with a predatory computer hacker living in 2001 via her Ouija board. Irene, of course, doesn’t initially understand who/what is communicating with her, but because the guy is so malicious, she believes him to be a capricious demon with knowledge of the future and, well, magically traps him in his apartment and forces him to give her knowledge of future events. Really well done.

Haggopian and Other Stories, by Brian Lumley (Solaris, 2009)

“Name and Number”

This is a Titus Crow tale, as told by the occult detective to his friend, Henri-Laurent de Marigny. Crow has discerned that a sinister albino defense contractor recently hired by the British Ministry of Defense to develop a system that will render atomic weapons obsolete is actually working to bring about the end of the world. Not a bad plot for a James Bond film, maybe in the Roger Moore era, if Bond was really into numerology. Because numerology is essentially how Crow has figured this all out. It seems thin evidence to me, and when he confesses to his friend that he’s murdered a man because the numbers associated with his name connote evil, well, I’m not sure I’d have gone along with it as easily as de Marigny did. A bit too long for the payoff, and too much of the action happens offscreen as it were, but still interesting enough.

Cthulhu’s Reign, edited by Darrell Schweitzer (DAW, 2010)

“This Is How the World Ends” by John R. Fultz

The narrator is an Iraq vet who escapes the destruction of human civilization by Cthulhu and its spawn by fleeing into an abandoned mine in Nevada with a pregnant woman. Excellent imagery of the world being transformed into something more to these beings’ liking. Some nice bits of body horror and transformation here, as well as a very nice call back to the iconic “call of Cthulhu,” with its very name being a trigger for additional transformation. Pretty good stuff.

Dark Equinox and Other Tales of Lovecraftian Horror, by Ann K. Schwader (Hippocampus Press, 2015)

“Wings of Memory”

Edie is an elderly widow living in a rural area with her no-good great nephew Jase after the death of her beloved husband Walt. Walt and Edie’s lives revolved around feeding the local birds and catering to the birds’ needs. Jase becomes an unwanted guest, increasingly cruel and abusive toward Edie. The final straw is when Jase locks all the birdseed Edie has ordered in a shed, demanding that she return it and use the money to feed him. The birds—clearly as devoted to Edie as she is to them—led by a massive raven have had enough and intervene on Edie’s behalf. Really good stuff.


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Story Review: The Grey Berserker by Mark N. Drake

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“The Grey Berserker”

Mark N. Drake

2021

Reviewed by Andrew Byers

“The Grey Berserker” is Mark N. Drake’s latest short story set on the fictional Darkisle, a foreboding place inhabited by Lovecraftian horrors and cultists, and the setting of Drake’s previous collection Hobb’s Top and Other Horrors (reviewed here) and his novel The Gathering of Shadows (reviewed here).

While most of the Darkisle stories have been set in the genteel 1920s—always a favorite decade for those of us who enjoy Lovecraft’s work—this time around, Drake takes us all the way back to 875 A.D., when a Viking raiding force first encountered that demon-haunted isle. Doesn’t everyone love Vikings? There’s just something about those Valhalla-loving, freewheeling marauders, sacking monasteries and establishing colonies throughout Northern Europe and beyond, that really appeals to me. Despite that, I haven’t actually read all that much fiction about them—there’s undoubtedly a lot of good material out there, I simply haven’t run across it—C.J. Henderson’s tale “The Laughing Man” (reviewed here) is a notable exception.

Here we have a crew of young Vikings, exiled from their homeland, seeking to establish a name for themselves and some booty. So they do what any self-respecting Viking would do: they raid a monastery for gold and slaves. They also encounter some berserkers and a dark sorcerer that, well, let’s just say that he is in contact with elder beings and things from beyond the stars. The raid doesn’t quite go as planned. A nice mix of sword and sorcery here. Wonderful atmosphere and action, fast paced, breezily written, and solid characterization. A thoroughly enjoyable story.

As with previous Darkisle tales, you don’t have to be steeped in the Cthulhu Mythos—or even like it much—to enjoy these stories. You can read them as being in an explicitly non-Cthulhoid universe and they would work just find. This is a world in which young, dissatisfied Viking warriors sail off to make their fortunes in the world, and occasionally encounter strange things that they can’t quite explain. A fun one that is certainly worth checking out, and the price (free) can’t be beat. This 10,000-word novelette is available for FREE here. I have it on good authority that a new Darkisle novel, Those Under the Hill (an excellently creepy title) should be published in April.