Science Fiction: Area X, Jeff Vandermeer

Area X (collected volume of short novels Annihilation, Authority, and Acceptance)
Jeff Vandermeer
ISBN: 9780374261177
Read April 15, 2016

Weird book. The first of the trilogy was divisive: either it was the future of American sci-fi (weird fiction) or it was a self-congratulatory writing exercise by someone with an overactive imagination but no discipline.  The furor died down a bit as the other volumes arrived on schedule, and then built back up a bit with the release of the collected volume.

Plot summary time: (attempting to be spoiler-free)

There is a government research facility called the Southern Reach that is investigating a strange disaster that occurred along a portion of the southern coastline of the country, forming an impermeable border around that section with only a few mysterious terrifying portals.  The area inside the border is called Area X.  These three books are concerned with the people who either work for or are guinea pigs sent on "expeditions" inside Area X.  The government is attempting to understand and control whatever mysterious force is maintaining the border, the portals, and the facility (Southern Reach) is trying to figure out and stop it from doing horrific and unexplained things to all of the truly unfortunate expedition teams that are repeatedly shoved inside the place.

Thoughts on the collected edition:
The first book is absolutely the best, by a notable margin.  We are introduced to a peculiar character beginning a new expedition, with a curious background and emotional hooks to the expedition concept and to the oddly horrible and mundane natural setting of Area X.  The plot goes quickly, the horrible things are interesting and haunting and cleverly written to be evocative rather than overly helpfully descriptive.

The middle book lagged badly.  I wasn't enamored with the new characters we follow there, and thought that the slow progression towards madness was less inevitable and looming and more simply interminable and plodding.  It was also the most "obvious" of the three books, with heavy-handed symbolism and events that were painfully obvious to the reader, while the characters labor on unsuspecting.  Oddly enough, except for sections about two previously minor characters, not necessary to the progression of the story, and one could almost read only the first and last books and not miss too much substance.  In the middle book, we shadow a new director who has been sent out to run the Southern Reach facility after the previous directer was lost to Area X.  He's got problems of his own, and the Reach begins to really impact his sanity as he tries to figure out what is going on (and mostly fails, frustratingly).

The last book is the one that really ended up lighting people on fire.  We follow a set of characters (alternating sections) this time, most from the second book. They return to the actual Area X, and things get promptly weird and a lot more metaphysical and philosophical.  It has been compared to the TV series LOST, where the series appealed to two different types of audiences: the ones who like a good mystery to be solved and "figured out" and completed and put away into little tidy boxes, and the ones who like weird mysterious conspiracy-theory ideas and don't mind the world (or their fiction) to be messy and unexplained in the end.  Like LOST, this book pissed off roughly half the readership - the ones who like things to be tidy and explained.  I read it fairly quickly in a few big chunks, and so was less unhappy with the very open ending, but even I was confused by the massive shifts in tone and focus right at the end.

So.. I don't know if I recommend it or not.  If you like creepity haunting descriptions, and don't mind a meandering plot and unresolved endings, then read the first book by itself and see if it intrigues you.  If you've read Lovecraft or Hodgson's ancient The Night Land, and thought that they were a bit too linear, but nicely desciptive, you're likely going to like this.  If you really want things to be explained and "finished" in any sort of tidy way, don't even bother - you'll just frustrate yourself.

Urban Fantasy/Horror: Rolling in the Deep, Mira Grant

Short and shivery.  Lovecraftian in the good way (creepy and atmospheric, not racist and sexist).

Rolling in the Deep
Mira Grant
ISBN: 9781596067080
Novella: documentary-style horror story featuring creepy mermaids.
Read April 11, 2016

This was SOOOO GOOD!  This is another that I had been sitting on all winter, waiting to feel better and for the weather to brighten up.  I'm so glad I saved it and read it now.  The only better time would have been actually on summer vacation, when you can start worrying about what might be peeking through the ocean murk at your delectable toes in the surf.

Our book is all serious and set in the future (post 2017) and recording a documentary about 'ghost ships' and the great modern mystery of ghost ships is the 2015 vanishing of the good ship Atargatis with all hands (plus a film crew, a slew of desperate/broke scientists, a team of "professional mermaid performers," and our Felicia Day stand-in internet blogging personality) in the waters above the Mariana Trench (the official name is singular - I had to go look it up).  Since we know from the start that something killed all of them, and because the book is billed as a horror on the back, I don't feel like I'm spoiling anything to say that they're all dead by the end.

However, it's the voyage that counts, and we get a lot of mileage from just a few pages as our colorful cast assert themselves and work themselves ever deeper into the mire.  What I found interesting is that save two particularly nasty pieces of work, every character is more or less sympathetic, from the worry-wart captain to the den-mother troupe-leader, even to our dynamic if not particularly bright duo of cameraman and blogger personality.  Unlike a lot of horror, you never really get the sense that this poor crew of people deserves it (again, save two specific exceptions), but at the same time, the novella is so short that the slight glimmers of personality don't do much to quench the heady satisfaction of a good blood-bath.  Grace-notes abound, from the unfortunate attempts at communication via ASL, to the sweet morbid scene between the elder-statesman scientist and the creeping death advancing on him, to the fine line between the natural curiosity and camera-ready smile of our personality.

Really quite fun, in the most creepy way.    

The New Annotated H. P. Lovecraft, edited and annoated by Leslie S. Klinger

The New Annotated H. P. Lovecraft
Editor, annotator: Leslie S. Klinger
Norton & Co
ISBN: 9780871404534
852 pages.
Collection of most of Lovecraft's "Arkham Cycle" stories, from Dagon to the Haunter of the Dark.
Read ALL FREAKING SUMMER

Confession.  I've never actually read any Lovecraft, other than At the Mountains of Madness and The Call of Cthulhu.  This is a fantastic way to have remedied that oversight.  The collection puts them all in roughly chronological order, and only includes the stories that have major elements of what Klinger calls the "Arkham Cycle" of nebulous mythology.  (Interesting discovery that the idea of a coherent and complete "Cthulhu Mythos" was more likely the hero-worshipping tendencies of the young author who oversaw the preservation of Lovecraft's legacy.)

Anyway - if you like Lovecraft, or enjoy a good annotation (don't be ashamed to admit it - I've got my eye on that Laura Ingalls Wilder annotated autobiography Pioneer Girl next...) then this is an excellent collection.  Just be warned.  It's a freaking TOME, and it's heavy and awkward as hell.  This is a desk read if I ever saw one.


Stories: great fun, occasionally a bit overwrought.  Not actually frightening, which was a bit unexpected.  He name-dropped his own mythos and his own stories (and to be fair, the mythos, characters, and stories of other authors) with truly astounding frequency.  Not much for subtlety.

Annotations: usually very interesting, occasionally a bit too densely architectural or local-history-centric.  Really drove home the amount of research (or, alternatively, the really terrifying amount of arcane science and historical knowledge) that went into writing; setting these stories in superbly realistic, everyday, mundane surroundings, up to and including citing recent scientific discoveries and having accurate moon phases referenced ALL THE TIME (I'm giving Tolkien a dirty look here).

Author: (ie Lovecraft) blazing racist asshat with really severe anxiety about progress and "otherness."  Lots of weird fascination with the size and scope of the universe, and of our solar system, and humanity's relative un-importance in relation to that.  Lots of body horror.  Overly concerned with inhuman things coming out of the ocean or from space, from what we now know as the Kuiper Belt.


So, that's Lovecraft for me done.
Now I really want to go out and hit up Klinger's Annotated Sherlock and Annotated Sandman. I'll leave you with a lovely link to a really nice interview by Klinger and Neil Gaiman about Lovecraft and the New Annotated collection.

The Ghost Prison, Joseph Delaney, Scott Fischer

The Ghost Prison, Joseph Delaney, illus. by Scott Fischer.

ISBN: 978-1402293184

Read November 6, 2013

YA: illustrated medieval ghost story (set in same universe as The Last Apprentice, but not necessary)

Nicely illustrated short creepy about Billy's stint as a night watchman for the haunted castle dungeons.  Loved the excellent characterizations tucked into the short pages and haunting expressive pen-scribble illustrations. 

Only possible downside is the length - this one is VERY short - It's almost as tiny as a paperback book, and clocks in around 95 pages, with a fair number of those being full page illustrations.  Still, the story is fun, the creep factor is high, and it's perfect for a reluctant reader or a short car trip.

The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls, Claire Legrand

The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls, Claire Legrand.
ISBN: 9781442442917
YA: Ghost Story

Read October 21, 2013

Creepy as hell, and buggy to boot.  Needs to be made into an animated version by the Coraline crew, or the Nightmare Before Christmas people in charge of Oogie Boogie, or whoever from Anastasia did the excellently nasty sequence celebrating Rasputin.

Victoria is the perfect child, and is very aware of her perfection - works for it.  Strives for it.  Her only imperfection is Lawrence, who is decidedly imperfect, but she's decided that he's permissible as a "project," until he goes missing.  

Victoria's town is likewise perfect, the streets, the people, the school.  Until she begins hearing rumors of vanishings, and notices that so many people have the same nervous tics, or odd looks in their eyes, or weird personality changes.

Victoria's departures from perfection stem from her independent mind, and her stubborn streak.  She is about to discover that those two qualities may get her into a lot more trouble than her perfectionist streak ever prepared her to handle.  She's going to have to learn more about friendship and loyalty in order to make it out alive.

This book was DAMN CREEPY.  There are some seriously disturbing things in there - several children are turned into misshapen poppet-like creatures with just a few limbs and features remaining to them, who, (if that isn't bad enough) are cannibalized unknowingly (and then later knowingly) by the other children, and the tortures and punishments are inventive and horrid.  Also, if you don't deal well with bugs, maybe this one isn't your best bet.

However, it never QUITE goes too far over the gruesome line - just far enough to really make the reader sweat - will Victoria and Lawrence make it out?  The ending is terrific, but in true ghost-story fashion, the epilogue will bring those terrors right back for another round, and make the reader wonder if all that anguish and effort really accomplished anything after all.

Recommended for DAYTIME reading.