Carlson’s work grapples with larger themes of historical pressures without resorting to the easy relief of societal approved scapegoats and ready made bogeymen. Carlson’s use of separation, be it of time, subject matter, or genre expectations allows him to tread Huysmans’ second highway with ease while engrossing the reader in a compelling narrative.
From the introduction by Laird Barron: “When you open this collection, you’re headed down a dark alley within the precincts of the Twilight Zone. It’s the kind of place where the wrong people get hurt; hazard is everywhere and it doesn’t play favorites. The complacent won’t find refuge here on the threshold of the void. Nobody is safe and nothing is sacred. Enjoy the ride.”
Avalon Brantley’s work is addictive because it is the combined result of a profound knowledge of humanity’s past, an exquisite prose style and a deep love for the act of storytelling. More than anything it is an all-consuming love of writing that lends its luminosity to DESCENDED SUNS RESUSCITATE.
To read The Searching Dead is to relax comfortably in the knowledge you are in the presence of a master storyteller at the apex of their craft, one who has studied and absorbed the works of past masters and brings those insights to bear with a thoughtful dignity.
THE SCARLET SOUL is a testament to the love and dedication Swan River Press put into their craft and they should be applauded for the physical allure alone. This is a book one can see becoming an heirloom object. My advice would be to snap up a copy of The Scarlet Soul while they are still available and keep an eye out for future releases by Swan River Press, while their price range is affordable their books are imminently collectible.
I closed THE HOUSE OF SILENCE with a grateful sigh, knowing I would pull it from my shelves again and again with the eagerness I greet a long-lost friend.
VASTARIEN is a source of critical study and creative response to the corpus of Thomas Ligotti as well as associated authors and ideas. The inaugural issue is going to be something unusually special, filled with in-depth essays, interviews, original visual art pieces, weird fiction, terrific poetry, and fascinating hybrid pieces. An interview with Thomas Ligotti and an introduction by him, neither of which have ever been presented in English, are included.
It is often a shopworn and tired cliché to say in the wake of one’s passing, “there will never be another like him,” yet in the case of Mark E. Smith there is indeed a perilous chance this statement will bear true. In this milieu it is not hard to imagine the loss of yet another long-standing English tradition.
With WILLIAM HOPE HODGSON: VOICES FROM THE BORDERLAND Hippocampus Press once again proves why they hold such an esteemed position within the world of weird fiction. As I continue through their Library of Criticism I am continuously impressed with the rigorous standards of scholarship, craft and dedication evident within each volume.
I recently had a conversation with a friend where we discussed the idea that terror is the emotion one feels preceding an event and horror is the emotion one feels witnessing the effects of that event. Gafford employs both to devastating effect within Whitechapel, building a foreboding sense of malaise and then, most importantly, delivering when called upon.
Read Dead Corpse for the wonderful fiction and let its deeper truths settle into your soul.
Jac Jemc’s writing conveys the easy grace and simplicity achieved through years of work, sweat and toil that causes onlookers everywhere to say, “Well that looks easy, I bet I could do that,” after watching a championship athlete or performer at work.
UNIVERSAL HARVESTER makes one understand prey animals that stand absolutely still as their doom descends — yet all the while as you are experiencing that slow sense of mounting dread and menace you cannot identify, there is still that all pervading wise and reassuring voice.
The pleasure of watching both a stylistic and an intellectual force emerge and take shape provides its own enjoyment. However the jouissance one derives from reading Barlow’s later tales, where he mastered the alchemical marriage of fascination and dread in such exquisite proportions that a single tale keeps his name alive…
“Calls for Submission” is more than a collection of short stories. It is the showcase of a writer with a deliberate and considered world view, intensely honed craft, and a calculated message.
