GAYA PHONE

   

 I will be buying the e-book. Ive really come to hate reading physical books for review. Being able to make my notes on the Kindle as opposed to post-its and scraps of paper is a joy.

To keep things light for a little longer, I read and reviewed James P. Blaylocks The Elfin Ship. Unlike his contemporary fantasies, this one, his first published book, has elfs, dwarves, cheesemakers, and goblins. Good stuff. The sequel, The Disappearing Dwarf, and prequel, The Stone Giant, are equally good.

For those not familiar with him, Laird Barron is one of the best horror writers to come along in years. Ive only started reading him over the past year, thanks to James McGlothlins reviews of his work over at Black Gate. From the very first collection of his stories I read, The Imago Sequence, I was caught like a fish with a hook in its gills. 

The Croning is his first novel. Hes a master of short stories and the book reads a little like a interwoven series of stories but thats alright by me. Each one, particularly a nightmarish encounter in Mexico and the telling of a ghost story, is a gem of a spook story.

Don Miller is an aged geologist suffering from a faltering memory. The novel weaves back and forth through time, from the fifties to the present, and the reader slowly learns how hes arrived at his final state. With each tale, Don falls in to deeper danger and closer to the blackness that underlies reality.

His stories are wonderfully bleak excursions into existential dread and worthy successors to HPLs work. Here, though, I feel like hes taking a bit of the piss out of those sorts of stories. Theres a wonderful confrontation with a representative of the forces of darkness that calls them out for being nothing more than sadists who want to torture and eat humanity. After all the creepy events and character preceding it, the encounters pretty funny. Until the end, and then Barron smacks you across the head with the two-by-four of despair.

I wont write more as much of the pleasure I find in The Croning comes from the skillful ways Barron tells it. Like with most such stories, you know where its headed before you crack the cover: despair, and quite likely death, upon encountering the terrors inhabiting the meaningless heart of the universe. Its how its all put together and told that matters, and at that, the authors a master.

On other fronts, Im continuing my way through the Captain Blood books. Cleaning out my late aunts house ate up some valuable reading time but Im back at it and loving it. As to the house cleaning, let me just say, the answer to that problem is: estate sale! Woo hoo!

Im also reading a few pages of Miami Blues every couple of days. I hope to reread the rest of the series before the years out.