READING REPORT: Sailor Tom & Reconcile

 

I had a pretty impressive - for me, anyway - weekend of reading. I finished two books (one cover-to-cover in a handful of hours) and started a third.

First up was Mark Finn's homage to Robert E Howard's Sailor Steve Costigan: The Adventures of Sailor Tom Sharkey. 

One of the big differences between Sharkey and Costigan is that Sharkey was a real professional boxer in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. Finn has simply given him, via the use of "tall tales", a pulpy life outside the ring and past his retirement.

Another big difference is that Sharkey's two-fisted adventures are much wilder and weirder than Costigan's, this collection includes weird science, ghost stories, battling robots, dinosaurs, and monsters (of several stripes). 

Because of his time in the ring, Sharkey is also a celebrity and is often recognised on his various travels, freely giving out autographs to his admirers.

Each story is short and succinct, but told with great gusto by Finn channelling Sharkey's voice.

My next read - which thankfully only took a couple of hours - was far less inspiring: Bruce Campbell's Western novella Reconcile. 

I hoped the A.I. art of the cover was just a glitch, a slight error of judgement. But the more I read of this short work the more I began to wonder if A.I. hadn't also infected the text within as well.

The adventure is set in Oregon in 1866 and within a few pages we meet a tribe of Northern Paiute Indians... playing (American) football!

If it had been kickabout proper football it wouldn't have stuck out so much like a sore thumb.

So I had to stop and check: American Football was first played between two college teams in November, 1869.

From there, it just kind of went downhill. There's no sense of place and direction for all the scenes that unfold, so when some crash into others it strains credibility.

If only there had been a map included, I might have had a better grasp of how close everyone was supposed to be, and what directions headed where. 

After his family is 'accidentally' massacred by an enraged Paiute, elderly engineer, George (who I think is who Campbell is portraying on the cover) teams up with an ex-army scout Joe (half-Paiute/half-white).

Togther, they seek to thwart the impending war between the natives and the real bad guys, the US Government forces who have just erected a new fort in Paiute land and want to corral the original inhabitants of the land into a reservation (or simply kill them).

The plot is pretty pedestrian, but I couldn't help wondering if the story (which gets quite gung-ho in its finale) wasn't recycled from an old Xena, Brisco County Jnr, or Jack Of All Trades script, because it can't decide if it's cartoon craziness or deadly serious (for instance, the brutal slaying of George's family is quite horrific, but the ultimate fate of the fort's commander almost comes with built-in Looney Tunes sound effects).

A disappointment in the wake of Campbell's excellent series of memoirs, nevertheless Reconcile was a quick read and that freed me up to start Cruise of Shadows.

This is an anthology of weird fiction by Jean Ray, an author I only recently learned about from the Strange Studies of Strange Stories podcast.

I'm two-and-a-half stories in... and it's very weird. But in a good, Lovecraftian way. 

BOOK REVIEW: The Case Against Satan (Ray Russell)

Written in 1962 before the term "exorcist" was as ubiquitous as it is today, The Case Against Satan is the story of a Catholic priest tasked with saving a young girl who claims to be possessed by the Devil himself.

In much the same way that Peter Benchley's Jaws (and Steven Spielberg's movie) brought the potential danger of sharks into the paranoid consciousness of the general public, so Ray Russell's The Case Against Satan reopened the door for the almost-forgotten Catholic practice of exorcism to become a media phenomenon.

While Russell's book shares some similarities to William Peter Blatty's 1971 novel and 1973 screenplay of The Exorcist, the parity is largely from the set-up rather than the execution.

Young priest Father Gregory Sargent - who may have a drinking problem, but definitely embraces modern, scientific ideas - is moved to a new parish in the city, where one of his first encounters is with widower Robert Garth and his oddly-behaving teenage daughter, Susan.

After a lifetime as a "clean-talking sweet little girl", she has suddenly developed an aversion to churches, a penchant for foul language, and - on one occasion - stripping in front of a priest and violently sticking her nails into his throat.

Garth refuses to take his daughter to a psychiatrist, and so Fr Sargent, aided by his superior, Bishop Conrad Crimmings, try talking to the girl instead.

Eventually, they are led to believe she may be possessed and so Crimmings instructs Sargent to conduct an exorcism on her.

Clearly The Case Against Satan lays the groundwork for The Exorcist, but unlike that game-changing movie, it is far more cerebral and less cinematic in its approach.

That's not to say there aren't horrific descriptions of the restrained Susan's contortions and pleas as the holy men try to exorcise the "demon" from within her.

But here the dynamics are delivered through dialogue, as the priest and the Bishop discuss their different takes on the situation, while verbally jousting with the "demon" (if that's even what it is).

Along the way we are introduced to a number of side characters, who all have their own input on the scenario, ultimately creating a tone more akin to a hardboiled crime novel than an out-and-out horror story.

Coming in at 140-pages, this is an engaging - and fascinating - read, like discovering a story about an island under siege from a predatory shark before Benchley's bestseller saw print.

CHAPBOOK REVIEW: Meet The Shrivelwoods (Kek-W)

 

Meet The Shrivelwoods is a 40-page Gothic horror-comedy written by fan-favourite 2000AD scribe, musician and artist Kek-W, available through his Bandcamp merchandise page.

The publication contains two text stories about the creepy Shrivelwood family, wealthy and decadent maple syrup magnates who bear a superficial similarity to The Addams Family but with the darkness dial turned up to thirteen.

Chapbooks are somewhere between a novel and a fanzine, an easily digestible booklet with an affordably low page count; a format with a rich and fascinating history.

The Old Dank Manse, the first story in Meet The Shrivelwoods, tells of a contemporary, failed romance writer seeking solace in the bosom of her rich Vermont extended family, at their "crumbling Gothic mansion", but finding something much stranger than she expects.

The second, Christmas With The Shrivelwoods, takes the form of a late 19th Century letter from Minnie Shrivelwood to her uncle, Heinie, who is currently restrained in the Hartford Retreat For The Insane. It's a bonkers - matter-of-fact - recounting of the family's preparations for the Christmas holidays.

Both tales blend surreality and slapstick with leftfield black humour, shock revelations and general absurdity, as should be expected by those who have read Kek-W's Dark Judges: Fall of Deadworld work in the universe of Judge Dredd.

I was also reminded of the Wojciech Has's very weird The Hourglass Sanitorium for the short stories' occasionally unsettling, nightmarish narrative logic and potentially disturbing imagery.

Rambling - by design - the chapbook's two stories are delightful, amusing, and quick reads that most definitely leave you wanting to hear more about the different generations of this peculiar, and freakish, inbred family of maple syrup-obsessives. 

BOOK REVIEW: In The Mouth of Madness (Sutter Cane)

John Carpenter's cosmic horror magnum opus In The Mouth of Madness came out in 1995 and almost immediately devotees were calling it the greatest Lovecraftian movie that's not based on an HP Lovecraft story.

I don't know when I first saw it, but it was almost certainly the Lovecraft vibe that drew me to it and I was immediately smitten.

In The Mouth of Madness is quite possibly my all-time favourite horror movie.

At its heart, the story concerns a hunt by insurance investigator John Trent (Sam Neill) for a missing best-selling horror author, Sutter Cane (Jürgen Prochnow), and his much sought-after final manuscript, In The Mouth of Madness.

Fans have long demanded a novelisation of the movie - which in a turn of mindbending metafiction is the novel that forms the heart of the film - and finally this year it came to pass.

Published by Echo On Publications, the novel of In The Mouth of Madness fully embraces its cinematic provenance, being authored by the fictional Sutter Cane (actually Christian Francis) and "published" by Arcane (the publisher of Sutter Cane's work in the film). It even uses the front cover artwork shown on the book when it's onscreen.

But, sadly, there my fanboyish excitement ends.

For the most part this is a very pedestrian adaptation, only really grabbing the reader in the final act when it seeks to expand the world we know from the film.

Sutter Kane is a contemporary reimagining of HP Lovecraft - in a world where his Great Old Ones were actually real - with a heavy dose of Stephen King mixed in for good measure, so I had high expectations for this book (fuelled by the several decades' wait for it to be announced).

Yet, given that - in-universe - this is supposedly a book written by an author who outsells Stephen King tenfold, it instead reads in large part like fan-fiction.

Was this actually a hurriedly released unedited first (or early) draft? 

That might explain the most frustrating thing about the novel, which can't entirely be blamed on the author (unless this was self-published and he was expected to edit it himself). 

The text is riddled with typos and missing words, which isn't a dealbreaker but is immensely frustrating for a professionally published book.

The name of Cane's publisher, Jackson Harglow (played by Charlton Heston the film) changes spelling several times within a few pages, for instance, and there are even TWO inexcusable typos in the blurb on the back cover of the dust jacket.

Did nobody proof this?

On the other hand, there are some delightful additions to the story - such as interjections in the text, often directed at the reader, from Cane himself.

Another interesting inclusion was the discussion between Trent and Cane's editor Linda Styles over Cane’s approach to writing.

For the most part the book sticks to the film script, but there are some minor tweaks to the narrative, alternative takes as it were, and one major element slipped in that, as far as I was aware from multiple viewings of the film, adds a whole new level of existential horror to the story.

Sutter Cane's In The Mouth of Madness is at its best when it captures the cosmic horror of the movie, but ultimately serves primarily as a novelty artefact to sit on your shelf and spark conversation with those 'in the know'.

It certainly isn't the Lovecraftian/Stephen King assault on sanity that we'd all been waiting for.

BOOK REVIEW: Blue Flame, Tiny Stars

An earnest love letter to the Holmes Edition of Dungeons & Dragons of the late 1970s, Stephen Wendell's self-published 30-page monograph Blue Flame, Tiny Stars details his own introduction to the wonderful world of roleplaying games.

It's a life-changing story, in many ways familiar to a lot of us, about discovering a hobby unlike any other, but told from Stephen's unique perspective as a 13-year-old in 1982.

An author of fact and fiction books, Stephen also runs the Donjon Lands blog, dedicated to old school fantasy adventures and campaigns. 

The story at the heart of Blue Flame, Tiny Stars (the title representing the lasting impact of the David Sutherland's iconic cover) probably echoes those of many of us who consider ourselves "second-generation" gamers.

It delves deeply into the importance of having learned the intricacies and lore of the world of Dungeons & Dragons second-hand, almost by osmosis; how we were taught the game by others inspired to spread the brilliance of this new, imagination-driven hobby.

Although we would pick up the books eventually, we learned first from our chosen mentors. 

Another aspect Stephen addresses in the pages of Blue Flame, Tiny Stars is that once you have embraced the simple genius at the heart of roleplaying, you will never see the world in the same light again. 

You can use ideas you've picked up in the real world to give you an advantage in the world of the game, while, simultaneously, the game can teach you about medieval history, ancient arms and armour, outdoor survival etc

Dungeons & Dragons also fostered a great deal of creativity in teenage brains. I mean, after your first session or two of D&D, who didn't go off, grab some graph paper and pens, and sketch out sprawling castles and megadungeons for our friends to explore and ransack?

A well-written booklet, oozing with nostalgia and a sense of fun, many of its short chapters are - essentially - "actual play" accounts of eerily familiar early games.

These would then provide the essential building blocks upon which all of us who have stuck with the hobby have learned to improve and expand our gaming.

Blue Flame, Tiny Stars is an account of finding that tiny acorn from which a mighty passion can grow over the decades.

At that age, we all dip our toes into a whole host of hobbies, but it takes something special for one to endure in the psyche for four decades (and counting).

Stephen has explained what it was about the blue-covered, Eric Holmes-edited, edition of Dungeons & Dragons from 1979 that compelled him to stick with the hobby, and it also reminds us what lit that fire in us as well.

I have to thank Tim Brannon of The Other Side for his comprehensive review of this little tome, which spurred me to pick it up. 

• Blue Flame, Tiny Stars is available from DriveThru in a variety of formats.

BOOK REVIEW: Thunder City by Philip Reeve

I realise I'm a bit late in getting round to Thunder City, Philip Reeve's latest book set in the World of Mortal Engines, but the wait didn't dampen my appreciation of this amazing book.

For me - and I love all the books in this world - this was the best since the 2001 original, Mortal Engines.

Thunder City is a vivid - and surprisingly violent - ensemble action-adventure about a plucky group of rebels trying to retake an usurped traction city in the far-distant future of a reshaped Earth.

A postmodern Victorian scientific romance, peppered with sly jokes (the one about a certain tourist attraction in Paris made me laugh out loud) and cinematic references, as well as the usual rich assembly of engaging and interesting characters, Thunder City was a blast from start to finish.

The ending certainly leaves the door open for more stories about the protagonists and I just hope we don't have to wait quite so long for our next visit to the World of Mortal Engines.