I took some time choosing the last three stories that I read in the past year or so to recommend, because I wanted to select tales I thought about after reading them. They may not be the best but they did standout to me for one reason or other. Two involve Lovecraft's Dreamland cycle. Lovecraft's Dunsany inspired work is not as significant to the genre as his Cthulhu mythos. Possibly because these works lean more to fantasy than gothic or cosmic horror. I am particularly fond of The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath and I enjoy seeing what people can do with this theme.
Black Wings cover by Gregory Nemec and Jason Van Hollander.
That said, I never expected anything like Mark Howard Jones' short story "Red Walls" in Black Wings of Cthulhu 5 . It is definitely horrific. I may come back to this story in another post but for now a quick overview.
It is a short and very effective story, we are propelled into the story and the traumatic events that befall the narrator with no build up.
"The air was too thick to breath. Or there was too much of it, and coming at him too fast. He has woken far too suddenly., Yet he doesn't remember even falling asleep.
To his horror , he is in mid-air. Flying along at an enormous speed, his mind races to match his velocity. He must have been in an air crash, he reasons. No, he hates flying. He has never flown-not until this moment. "
And he is not alone, rather he is part of a storm of people shooting along in the air in the same direction, all crying and flailing around. Wow I will leave you there but this one struck with me especially, once I figured out how this fit into the Lovecraft universe.
Nightmare Realm is a collection of original nightmares edited by S.T. Joshi, cover by Samuel Araya. I have just begun delving into the stories but may of my favourite mythos authors are represented, including Ramsey Campbell, Caitlin R. Kieran, John Langan, and Darrell Schweitzer.
But the story I want to discuss is "In the City of Sharp Edges" by Stephen Woolworth. Alan our narrator is on his first visit to Dr. Ingalls a psychiatrist, to discuss a recurring nightmare. In this nightmare, Alan is lost in a strange Escher-like city constructed of obsidian-like glass. Alan does not think it is a place people have visited before.
" Because it makes no sense. Doorways that end in stone walls, hallways that seem to go on forever and lead nowhere. vast rooms with no floor."
and he is not alone in this nightmare city.
" Can you describe this being?" "It changes. Sometimes it's so cold, it burns, like dry ice. Sometimes it crackles and sparks. hot and stinging, like static on clothes fresh from the dryer. Sometimes it has skin: sometimes, scales."
If Alan description seems a bit vague, it is because he is blind, experiencing both city and creature by sound, touch and especially smell. Woolworth has really provided us with a thought provoking tale. Even the details of Alan everyday life, like the fact he uses origami to distinguish the denomination of the bills in his wallet or his strategy for searching the internet are new to me and I think add to the otherness of his experience for me. And the story itself is great, well written, nicely paced and imaginative. And when Dr. Ingalls states that dreams cannot kill anyone, it is Alan's reply that seems spot on.
"How do you know that if all the people who've died from dreams never wake up.?"
I have had the last story for years in my collection Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, Arkham House 1990, but did not read it until I noticed it in this 1977 World's Best, cover by Richard Corben.
"My Boat" by Joanna Russ is another Dreamland inspired tale. I am unsure if she has contributed any other Lovecraftean stories but this one is excellent. Russ is considered one of the top science fiction writers and you can certainly see her reputation is deserved. It is nice to see a really competent writer handle a pastiche, "A Study in Emerald" by Neil Gaiman is another story, where high level skill and imagination combine to create an outstanding tale. I love the history of both science fiction and the weird tale and "My Boat" while very much a modern story has a bit of an old fashioned feel, for me. The idea of passages between realities, reminds me of stories like The Blind Spot by Flint and Hall or "Through the Dragon Glass" by A. Merritt.
The story is narrated by Jim a writer who is trying to sell his agent on ideas for a tv script. Desperate, he beings to tell him of something that actually happened when he was a teenager, something he now needs to tell someone, because something else happened recently that brought it to mind. It is 1952 and Jim and his friend Al Coppolino are seniors in a school on Long Island. Integration is just beginning and Cissie Jackson a small, very withdrawn black girl is placed in their drama class. Initially they object feeling that she has too many emotional problems, but the principle explains that her father was killed by the police in her presence, that she is a genus and that she is not going anywhere. Indeed both eventually befriend Cissie and she and Al become quite close, Al even lends Cissie his Lovecraft books, wow, that's love. Cissie eventually tells the boys that she and a cousin rent a marina slip and have a boat. When pressed, she describes it was a yacht. When they finally visit, Jim however see it is anything but "It is an old leaky rowboat with only one oar, and there were three inches of bilge in the bottom," Or was it, for Jim sees, but has trouble believing, that things and people seem to have changed.
"I said. ''Cissie, you look like the Queen of Sheba,"
She smiled. She said to me. "Jim, Iss not Shee-bah as in thee Bible, but Shaba. Sha-bah. You mus' remember when we meet her.""
But Jim never does at least as far as we know. I was really impressed when I read this, the central concept, as I mentioned earlier is not new. But Russ takes it farther adding layer upon layer, creating a rich, visually complex story that enchanted me. The plotting is excellent and even Jim, with his doubts and regrets grows and changes and becomes a more rounded character that we can root for.
I am convinced that I need to read more by Joanna Russ.
So that was 2018, if anyone has read or reads the stories I have discussed, please leave a comment.
Guy
Cover by Jeffery K. Potter
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