penchant for offing vampires with a selection of heavy weaponry; from there, he launches into a roller-coaster biographical narrative laced with (suitably adapted) extracts from the journals them- selves. Rather than using the predatory nature of vampires as a complex and overwrought metaphor for
I BRIGHTON SHOCK: WORLD HORROR 2010 CON REPORT
f you just flipped the page and expected to find another book review, I apologize – actually, no, I don’t. Instead, I’d
like to welcome you to my very own musty, dusty corner of the magazine – my library of strange and forgotten tomes, if you will. It’s a place where I’ll unearth treasures old and new. To begin, allow me to recap this year’s World Horror Conven-
tion in Brighton, England – a first for the con, which had never left North America until now. If you love scary stories as much as I do, there was no better place to be from March 25 to 28. WHC is many things to many people; for me it is a place to
meet authors, network for the mag, pimp my micro-press and – like many of you reading this – learn some tricks of the trade that will hopefully help me pen my first horror novel. That said, the con’s numerous panels are always of interest, with subjects ranging from “No Royalties: Should You Ever Sign a ‘Work for Hire’ Contract?” to “Deal or No Deal: How Do I Get an Agent?” Of course, there is just as much to be learned from the intimate and interactive Q&As; this year saw horror heavyweights Tanith Lee, Brian Lumley, James Herbert and Dennis Etchison partici- pate in candid discussions about their work and careers. In addition – because there is simply never any opportunity to
be bored at WHC – there were also author readings, an art show and auction, a mass autograph session with dozens of scribes and a dealer’s room. In the evenings, attendees could drop by any number of parties, or do what I did and take in a theatrical performance. On Friday night, Robert Lloyd Parry slipped into the role of M.R. James for a dramatic telling of James’ 1925 tale “A Warning to the Curious,” while Saturday saw two origi- nal one-man shows put on by Reggie Oliver (Puss-Cat and The Copper Wig, respectively), which wove horror into the fabric of life in the theatre. Both nights featured hilarious horror-comedy interludes by online podcast troupe In The Gloaming (see Road- kill, p.10). Other highlights of the event included the annual Bram Stoker
Awards dinner and ceremony, and a Q&A and autograph sign- ing session with actress Ingrid Pitt. For me personally, however, nothing topped the surprise arrival of Neil Gaiman, who I’ve been trying to meet for the better part of the last ten years. He was the final genre author on my dying-to-meet list, so although I snagged a mere two minutes of his time to talk about Rue Morgue, it was still dead cool to meet this down-to-earth icon. While admittedly ticket prices for WHC tend to be a little steep
(in the $90-150 range), if you’re a genuine horror lit nerd like me, the event is well worth yanking open your purse strings for. Hell, I’m already psyched for next year’s installment, which will take place in Austin, Texas from April 28 to May 1 and has Joe Hill, Joe R. Lansdale, Steve Niles, Brian Keene and many others already on the bill. (Visit
whc2011.org for more details.) Hope to see you there, and in the meantime, back here for more late- night trips to the library!
MONICA S. KUEBLER
slavery in America, Grahame-Smith goes for the jugular and takes it literally: the vampires have come to the New World after being hunted and hounded out of Eu- rope, and are now in league with slave owners and politicians in a bid to keep themselves in a steady supply of human blood. After los- ing his mother to a vampire attack at the age of ten, young Abe de- votes himself to stopping the monsters by any means necessary. With the help of a mysterious stranger named Henry Sturges, Abe sets out to learn as much as possible about the network of blood- suckers, and destroy them. The 19th-century setting affords plenty of opportunity to explore
the gruesome nature of everyday frontier life in a time before an- tibiotics and municipal sewers. Furthermore, the relentless (and non- fictional) losses suffered by Abe, as Grahame-Smith weaves in actual historical events, give an extra sense of urgency to his mission. Grahame-Smith is a solid storyteller, and Abraham Lincoln: Vam-
pire Hunter is much lighter on the comedy than Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, but despite some thoroughly enjoyable moments of splatter, it’s unlikely to chill you to the bone. It’s really more of an adventure story than a brooding vampire novel. It seems likely that, much as with PaPaZ, the bet- ter you know the source material, the more you’ll dig it. But even if your knowledge of the Civil War doesn’t extend beyond a vague memory of Vivian Leigh in a crinoline, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is still a blood-drenched, fast-paced read.
JUSTINE WARWICK BOOK OF SHADOWS My question for the goth set: are you sick of being portrayed in the media as a bunch of morose,
Satan-worshipping murderers? You are? Well, I hate to rain on your parade, but the opening chap- ters of Alexandra Sokoloff’s Book of Shadows indicates that we’re bound for West Memphis Three territory here, as a Beantown-based goth singer is accused of the ritualistic murder of a wealthy college girl. The evidence is overwhelming and it’s case closed until the beautiful and mysterious Wiccan Tanith Cabarrus informs tough-as-nails homicide detective Adam Garret that the real killer is still at large and, with Samhain approaching, is ready to strike again. Naturally, he calls bullshit, but then more bodies turn up and he witnesses things that defy logical explanation. So, he becomes Scully to Tanith’s Mulder as she leads him into a twilight land where Otherworldly Forces™ are ravenously trying to enter our dimension and so forth. I’m a wash-and-wear, cash-and-carry type of guy, so proto-goth fiction is
not my bag, and Sokoloff does a damn fine job of trying my patience, as she hungrily embraces and dry-humps almost every horror cliché in the book. This frustration grows when she seems unwill- ing to commit to her premise – a fatal move for any writer in any genre. For instance, is Tanith a gen- uine witch or a con artist? Is this real magic or all a drug-induced hallucination? While this ambiguity gives us some dramatic momentum and the requisite hot witch-on-manly-cop sex scenes, it con- tinually defies believability. Would Garrett really remain the steadfast skeptic after everything he witnesses, right up to the definitely supernatural climax? Seems completely implausible. Yet, what Sokoloff lacks in the originality department is more than adequately made up for in
mood. Her portrayal of Boston, Salem and the surrounding environs is spot on, and she takes great delight in detailing every brutal injustice done to the bodies of her hapless victims. So while it’s all very silly and far-fetched, if you (unlike me) are into this kind of thing and can suspend your disbelief at the door, there’s still enough here to make Book of Shadows entertaining, if ultimately forgettable.
BRAD ABRAHAM
R 82M
T H E N I N T H C I R C L E
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100