The Man Who Collected Machen and Other Weird Tales

by Mark Samuels

Cryptic and potent languages, bizarre cults, mysteries that span the gulf between life and death, occult influences that reverberate through history like a dying echo, irresistible cosmic decay, forces of nightmare that distort reality itself, gateways to worlds where esoteric knowledge rots the future.

Here, from Mark Samuels, the author of 'Glyphotech and Other Macabre Processes' and modern exemplar of mystical horror, is a collection of tales that forms a veritable Rosetta Stone for scholars of cosmic wonder and terror.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Weird Fiction, Fiction, Collections, 20th Century, 21st Century

178 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 1, 2010

About the author

Mark Samuels (1967-2023) was a British writer of weird and fantastic fiction in the tradition of Arthur Machen and H. P. Lovecraft. Born in deepest Clapham, South London, he was first published in 1988, and his short stories often focus on detailing a shadowy world in which his protagonists gradually discover terrifying and rapturous vistas lurking behind modernity. His work has been highly praised by the likes of Thomas Ligotti and Ramsey Campbell and has appeared in prestigious anthologies of horror and weird fiction on both sides of the Atlantic.

Reviews

[Bill Kerwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mark Samuels is a a writer of weird tales to be reckoned with. He has a fan's intimate knowledge of the masters of the genre (Poe, Machen. Lovecraft, Ligotti), a stern gift for concentration and paradox which reminds me of Kafka and Borges, and a poet's eye for choosing the images that best convey the desired tone or mood. Although he seldom plummets to the depths of horror—he is a Catholic, after all, and therefore must, like Dante, view human life as a comedy—he nevertheless does a fine job of evoking the narrow streets and dilapidated cottages that ring the edges of the pit, and vividly describes the flailing gestures and cries of the unfortunate ones as they fall.

There is one thing that I fear will keep Mark Samuels from ever entering the pantheon of terror: he is occasionally capable—at least once each story--of constructing a sentence so ineptly, of being so oblivious to the demand for balance, subordination, and effect, that it dissipates the mood and makes someone like me—who is (have you noticed?) obsessed with style--question the writer's considerable gifts.

I'll offer just one brief example, from “Xapalpa”:

On the way back from the restaurant, from which he had also taken away a couple of tortas filled with ham, cheese and jalapenos, so that he would not have to venture out for a meal later in the day, he got lost.

The effect of the word “lost” is dissipated by the elaborate detail of the prepositional clause preceding it, and “lost” is here a very important word. There are many ways to remedy this, which I won't go into, but the point is that Samuels either didn't see this as a problem, or didn't think it was important enough to fix. This inattention is one thing that separates good writers from very good writers.

I enjoyed all the stories in this book except for “Nor Unto Death Utterly by Edmond Bertrand,” an ineffective pastiche of Poe's “Ligeia.” My favorites are the Borgesian stories that deal with language and libraries, such as “The Man Who Collected Machen,” “Thyxxolqu,” “Glickman the Bibliphile” and “A Contaminated Text,” but I also enjoyed the forboding Mexican atmosphere of “Xapalpa,' the Ambrose Bierce style twist that enriches "The Importance of Obeying Orders," and the bleak conclusion of “The Losonef Express,” in which an obnoxious writer/murderer (who resembles Karl Edward Wagner) flees an Eastern European town by a very sinister train.

[Forrest · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am becoming convinced that Mark Samuels is incapable of writing a bad story. No writer is perfect, and there are a couple of "misses" in this collection, but none of the stories are bad. And while I didn't find The Man Who Collected Machen and Other Weird Tales to be as strong as The White Hands and Other Weird Tales, it is still essential reading for lovers of "weird" fiction (whatever that means).

Unfortunately, this collection got off on the wrong foot for me. Thankfully, it recovered gracefully and continued on in a remarkable manner. The opening story, "Losenof Express" is a predictable, pedestrian effort for a writer of Samuels' caliber. I expected much better. I can only give this story 3 stars. I'll be honest, this was an inauspicious start that caused me to put my guard up with repeated chantings of "please don't suck, please don't suck, please don't suck".

The title story soon resolved my concerns, and in a very powerful way. I thought that Samuels had stumbled again when I read the rather abrupt, and particularly jarring phrase: I had the bizarre notion of having entered into occult territory, a phrase that seemed to artificially "push" the story in a self-aware way that smacked of railroading the reader. But while this sentence seems to tear the narrative structure asunder, it also serves as a segue into a very different voice that ultimately resolves in a most satisfactory way. It's the closest thing I've ever seen to a literary Hegelian dialectic. I am not certain if Samuels did this with intent or not, but either way, it is extremely effective in pulling the reader down the rabbit hole, shedding disbelief the whole way down and transforming the mindscape in such a way that one feels fully immersed in strangeness. I had wondered why this story was used as the title for the collection, but after feeling the sheer muscle of this story, I now know why this 5 star tale should lend its name to the whole collection.

Of course, stories after the titular tale are always disappointments, right? Wrong. In fact, "Thyxxolqu" is a perfectly-paced story about language and its corruption. It is a dark revelation, a creepy peek into forbidden enlightenment. You speak into the abyss until the abyss speaks back and you come to a full understanding of its words. This reminds me of the game mechanic in the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game, in which a character sees dreadful things or is given unholy revelations that drive her sanity over the edge. If she sees too much at once, the game dictates that she must do what is called an "idea" roll. Usually, you want to pass your idea roll, as it gives you insights into things you might not otherwise realize. Unfortunately, when faced with cosmic horrors, you want to fail your idea roll so that you do not come to the full realization of how awful the universe and its shadowy denizens are, in reality. You want to fail that roll so that you do not come to that full realization, saving you from potentially permanent insanity. To put it in these terms, the protagonist of "Thyxxolqu" . . . well, you'll see. 5 dreadful stars.

"The Black Mould" is the most "Lovecraftian" story I've read by Mark Samuels. Or, maybe that's "Ligottian". In any case, it's a baroque non-story of existential, even nihilistic dread. Beautifully written, yet it tries so hard to be significant that it becomes insignificant. I'm still giving it 4 stars for the writing, though. The writing is amazing, and if there were a bit of plot, it would have received 5 stars.

It seems like every horror short-fiction author just has to write a scary story about Mexico and strange old cults. They can't help it. Simon Strantzas' collection Burnt Black Sons has a couple, I believe the collection The Gods of HP Lovecraft has one, and I could probably point to a few more with little effort. "Xapalpa" is Samuels', and it's very, very good. 5 stars.

Once in a while, an author seems to be trying to mimic another author's style (note I said "seems" - this is not to say that this is intentional) when the other author has already done something so perfectly as to ward off all pretenders. I got this feeling while reading "Glickman the Bibliophile". While it is a good piece of conspiracy literature with a philosophical bent, it isn't up to snuff with Brian Evenson's works (whom it seems Samuels might be imitating, though I don't really think he was intentionally doing so) in the same vein. Here, Samuels' work is a shadow of Evenson's, I am sorry to admit. Still, a good story, well written, if a little rushed and somewhat hollow. 3 stars.

"A Question of Obeying Orders" finishes with a nice O'Henry ending. And while that twist can get old, if overused, it hit all the right spots for me here. Prussian soldiers and seances, a sense of twisted cosmic justice, and abominable things-that-should-not-be. Vampyres? Fah!!! 5 stars.

"Nor Unto Death Utterly by Edmund Bertrand," despite it's somewhat overwrought prose, is an existential tale worth the read. It pulls primarily from the 19th-century decadent tradition interwoven with threads of very modern cosmic horror. If you can stomach the first few treacle-smothered instances of narrative extravagance, the read is extremely rewarding in the end. 4 stars.

"A Contaminated Text" is a simultaneous ode to and metatextual subversion of Lovecraft, Borges, and Bierce. It is a story that invades the reader's brain, but only once one is finished reading it. I think this one bears a few re-readings. It is, structurally and thematically, a labyrinth. One doesn't realize where he is in the trap until it is far too late. 5 stars and my favorite story of this collection.

"The Age of Decayed Futurity" is a pop-culture conspiracy-cum-contagious-paranoid-fantasy that provides a peek "behind the curtain," a'la The Matrix, but with an even more sinister antagonist: the spirits of the dead from the future who work through Hollywood celebrity to create a world of TV-entranced zombies. Now, I'm not a big TV watcher to begin with, as I'd much rather be reading and writing and playing games than watching TV most of the time. And I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to knowing everything about celebrity lives, who was in what movie, blah, blah, blah. Honestly, I couldn't care less, for the most part (there are exceptions). But I don't know that I've ever felt that the Illuminati have infiltrated Hollywood. But now I wonder. Suddenly, late night TV static has a much more sinister connotation. 5 stars.

While I typically love stories with strong philosophical underpinnings, particularly those of existentialism, I felt that "The Tower" might work better if stripped altogether of any pretense of "plot" or "story", rather than being a mass of philosophical muscle hung on an etiolated skeleton of prose fiction. Still, it is a solid piece with great eerie moments that warrants 4 stars.

While the average star rating of the stories, collectively, is 4.45, I have to round up based on the strength of a couple of the stories. The title story and "A Contaminated Text" alone give reason to push this one up into 5 star territory. If you haven't read Samuel's work before, I'd recommend going with the stronger collection The White Hands and Other Weird Tales first, then take in The Man Who Collected Machen and Other Weird Tales.

[Oscar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Estupenda colección de relatos de terror extraño del británico Mark Samuels. En ellos se encuentran algunas de sus temáticas favoritas, como la decrepitud por el paso del tiempo o la virulencia del lenguaje. También se pueden ver muchos de sus referentes, como H.P. Lovecraft, Thomas Ligotti, Edgar Allan Poe, Stefan Grabinski, Franz Kafka o Arthur Machen.

Losenef Express. El protagonista viaja en tren hacia Strasgol, en Europa del Este, hacia la locura y la descomposición.

The Man Who Collected Machen. El joven protagonista, experto y obsesionado con la obra de Machen, se encuentra con otro admirador, más obsesionado si cabe por la obra de este autor. Magnífico relato, escrito a la manera de Arthur Machen.

THYXXOLQU. Otro magnífico relato, donde se trata al lenguaje como una enfermedad capaz de corromperlo todo.

The Black Mould. Horror cósmico lovecraftiano. ¡Genial!

Xapalpa. Transcurre en esta ciudad mexicana, donde el protagonista será testigo de una extraña ceremonia.

Glickman the Bibliophile. Un buen día los ciudadanos destruyen los libros. Por supuesto, hay una conspiración detrás. Buen relato.

A Question of Obeying Orders. Un desertor alemán huye del frente ruso, para encontrarse con otro tipo de horror. Historia de vampiros.

Nor Unto Death Utterly by Edmund Bertrand. El protagonista cuenta lo que le sucedió al conocer a un extravagante rico que vive enclaustrado en una abadía. Buen relato.

A Contaminated Text. De nuevo en México, en una nueva biblioteca, donde un antiguo libro contamina al resto.

The Age of Decayed Futurity. Crítica feroz sobre la sociedad actual y su exceso de información. Y quien se da cuenta de que puede haber alguien detrás de esto, es eliminado despiadadamente.


The Tower. Tomando una torre como símbolo, el protagonista nos habla de manera alucinatoria y onírica. Quizás no es el mejor relato del libro.

[Maciek · Rating 3 out of 5]

An American outsider finds himself in a dusty, forgotten corner of Eastern Europe...a strange, unknown language begins to appear on London billboards... sleepy Mexican town holds a chestful of secrets...an Arthur Machen enthusiast meets the author's biggest fan, and gets what he always wanted...and more!

Mark Samuels's The Man Who Collected Machen is an entertaining collection of weird fiction and my introduction to this author. Some of the stories have been published before in horror anthologies, but most are exclusive to this volume. Since contemporary writers of weird tales can be numbered on fingers of one hand - the only one who immediately comes to mind is Thomas Ligotti - Samuels's collection is a treat for fans of this obscure and vaguely defined genre.

A common theme running throughout these stories is language, and the dangerous - often corrupting - influence it can have on the human mind From the subtle influence of Arthur Machen's stories on his devoted readers which turns into a full-blown obsession, to strange scripts literally invading our known languages and taking over. What follows the loss of language is the loss of self, as these stories illustrate, and we're again reminded of the hundreds of thousands of languages which have disappeared throughout the centuries, taking with them whole cultures and histories which became lost or intelligible.

All the stories provide for good reading, but I have to be biased in favor of one - The Age of Decayed Futurity, which tells the story of Joanna Wolski, a Polish writer who takes an unlikely holiday on the Baltic town of Sopot to concentrate and focus on her next novel. At her hotel she meets Eugeniusz Kowalski, a horribly disfigured former Hollywood actor who tells her about the Reassembly Cartel - a powerful group who he claims has absolute power over all humanity, and whom he blames for his disfigurement. Through the text is short, Samuels manages to nicely employ a story within a story and arrive at a satisfying conclusion.

No fan of weird fiction is likely to be disappointed, and although the collection is not earth-shattering it is a welcome addition to the genre which has not had the luck of becoming popular enough to guarantee a steady influx of fresh fictions, though then in this exact quality lies its allure.

[Κωνσταντίνος Κέλλης · Rating 5 out of 5]

Τον Mark Samuels τον είχα διαβάσει πριν 7,8 χρόνια σε παρουσία του σε ένα best new horror με το Destination: nihil. Είναι ένα διήγημα που δεν πρόκειται να ξεχάσω ποτέ και ο δημιουργός του ανήκει σε εκείνους τους συγγραφείς που σημάδεψαν τη δική μου -τότε πρώιμη- γραφή, απλά και μόνο από μια ιστορία. Πέρα από 1-2 ακόμη αναγνώσεις εκείνου του διηγήματος μέχρι το 2013 (όπου αναγνώρισα την επιρροή της συγκεκριμένης ιστορίας σε ένα point and click adventure και ο δημιουργός του μου το επιβεβαιώσε!), δεν έτυχε να πέσει άλλη δουλειά του στα χέρια μου.
Aυτό μέχρι και την προηγούμενη βδομάδα που μου τον θύμησε φίλος και έπιασα το συγκεκριμένο βιβλίο. Πολύ χαίρομαι που μπορώ πια όχι μόνο να ευχαριστηθώ τη δουλειά του σαν αναγνώστης, αλλά να την εκτιμήσω και σαν δημιουργός. Γιατί το The Man who collected Machen είναι ένα εξαιρετικό βιβλίο που διδάσκει γραφή, και συγχρόνως διατηρεί εκείνο το προσόν/δίκοπο μαχαίρι που κάνει κάποιες συλλογές genre διηγήματων να ξεχωρίζουν. Είναι γραμμένο ελεύθερα, δεν ενδιαφέρεται για την ευρύτητα του κοινού του, αλλά αντιθέτως μοιάζει γραμμένο για τους ταγμένους, για την προσωπική φυσαλίδα αναγνωστών του και το κάνει ΕΞΑΙΡΕΤΙΚΑ.

Και αξίζει πράγματι ένα πεντακάθαρο ατόφιο 5άρι σ΄αυτή τη συλλογή από weird horror. Ο Mark Samuels είναι ένας μοντέρνος συγγραφέας σπάνιας κοπής που αντλεί έμπνευση από τους Μεγάλους Παλαιούς του Weird κατέχοντας συγχρόνως ξεκάθαρη κι ολόδική του γραφή που δεν κουράζει ούτε δευτερόλεπτο.
Σπάνια σε μια συλλογή θα είναι όλες οι ιστορίες καλές, κι αυτή είναι μια από εκείνες όπου τα διηγήματα κυμαίνονται από "σίγουρα καλά" ως "εξαιρετικά". Παίζει με διαφορετικές αισθητικές και ύφη έχοντας πολλές φορές σαν theme την εξάπλωση μιας επιδημίας (διάφορων μορφών που δεν μπορείτε να φανταστείτε, γιατί η φαντασία του Samuels καλπάζει), κλείνοντας το μάτι σε διάφορες μορφές του είδους, από τον E.A.Poe (Ligeia) και τον HPL μέχρι το weird του σήμερα με τον Ligotti και τον Barron. Το αποτέλεσμα είναι ένα βιβλίο που καταλαβαίνεις -με πόνο καρδιάς- ότι δεν θα κάνει ποτέ εμπορική επιτυχία, όμως για όσους λατρεύουν το genre είναι MUST. Ίσως επειδή ο συγγραφέας είναι Άγγλος και όχι Αμερικάνος, το όνομά του δεν έχει την φήμη που του αξίζει, ακόμα και στους κύκλους των φίλων του είδους. Πάντως τον καταευχαριστήθηκα και πολύ σύντομα θα πιάσω το Glyphotech από τον ίδιο.

[Patrick.G.P · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Man Who Collected Machen and Other Weird Tales is the first collection I’ve read by Mark Samuels after having been recommended reading him for quite some time now. His prose is dense and to the point and yet he manages to create beautiful passages, haunting images and moments that are downright brilliant. His philosophical views and anti-materialistic thoughts were also something that resonated with me, and Samuels works these ideas well in his tales. Some stories didn’t quite have the impact on me as I would have hoped, though clear standouts for me was: The Man Who Collected Machen (of course I loved this one), THYXXOLQU, Glickman the Bibliophile, Nor Unto Death Utterly By Edmund Bertrand and The Tower. A very enjoyable collection of strange tales, I’ll definitively be reading more of Samuels in the future.

[Axolotl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I make no claim to being an expert on the state of modern horror, but I would hazard to guess that few writers working today are producing work as consistently brilliant and dynamic as that of Mark Samuels.
Though it has been proclaimed by others more knowledgeable in such matter than myself--I'm, after all, only a new initiate into the "Cult of Samuels"--or should I say The Sodality of the Black Sun?--but I must further proclaim to all who would be contaminated:

These stories are the stuff nightmares are made of!

Indeed, these stories read like the literate and lucid transcribing of the night terrors.
Themes, places and motifs are, it feels, endlessly

shifting,
advancing to the forefront one tale only to reemerge, reformulated, mutated,
[perhaps in cameo]
the next.
As in a dream, time appears insubstantial
or stuck in an endless locked groove.

If these stories had a corresponding color:

they would be slate gray or black as midnight;
the only illumination provided by the intermittent flickering of omnipresent strip lighting.

Samuels' interest in character seems only to be proportionate to how ill-prepared such individuals will be to confront the terrifying internal logic of this artist's mad dreams or the horrible realization they invariably come to.

Highly recommended!

[Orrin Grey · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading "The White Hands" in The Weird, I finally tracked down a collection by Mark Samuels, who I'd been meaning to check out for some time. I loved it. While the collection itself was maybe occasionally uneven (hence the four stars rather than five), I've rarely read other books that so accurately nailed what I'm looking for in weird fiction. My favorite piece in this volume was without a doubt "Xapalpa," but it was full of great ones, and pretty much every story had at least some element that was really excellent.

[Edit: I changed the four stars to five, because four stars, what was I thinking?]

[Sakib · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's my second dose of weird fiction and/or Lovecraftian horror after The Call of Cthulhu...

The collection contains eleven short stories, of varying disturbance, decadence and decay that engulfs the dark and sordid corners of our minds, our reality, the world that we live in and don't live in (at least not consciously)...

I might be slightly off there, as readers will find similarities between the overall shell and the inner habitats of (at least) two stories, with profoundly darker tones than all the other stories that only went so far as to weird me only momentarily, because after finishing up the majority of my brain is nudging (read "poking profusely") all the leftovers from those two stories...

I don't want to spoil anything, so read it and judge them on your own!

First of all, I loved the prose! One might call it Lovecraftian, but more fluid when you read it and it suits and delivers quite well...

The first story, Losenef Express, was a very well-put first strike for a novice reader of the genre like me. I think I'm going to be expecting such dreadful things now whenever I'm traveling by train, when it's all dark and night outside, or a gloomy rainy day that will be just around the corner in abundance...

It was a pure body horror story with a fear of the unknown and a pretty stupid and pitiful protagonist if you ask me (I do find my somewhat battered reflection in him)...

Of the second story, I'm sad to say that it mostly felt out of my grip, since it hinges on something altogether that I still haven't read and hence don't have the slightest idea; but it still aroused within me what one might call the fear that radiates from "bibliophilic" obsession and lunacy.

The third one is a short tale of a cosmic entity, much like those created by Lovecraft himself, but only more active, malignant and with a dangerous frustration-driven cause, larger than itself, and in its entirety, the cosmos...

The next one, can be dubbed as the "cosmic kind of muteness" (and the relevant deformity that follows, where I find a thin line connecting it to the first story).

And the next one is another one concerning books. One of the three stories that have left a longer impact; things here have been truly horrible...

The seventh story makes me want to say three words: witchcraft, decay and the "undead". No no no, don't worry, not zombies...

I couldn't quite dig, nor can care for, comparing to the other ones, the next story. But it does have its "charms", if you want to call it that...

The next one is another one falling in the category of the second and fourth story, and the same level of dreadful contamination and decay of the third one where I just stood behind the pages and watched with awe...

"The Age of Decayed Futurity" is the title of the tenth tale, one of the three stories that I spoke earlier. I really can't struggle with my brain and capability here to discuss this one, nor the last one...

And the last story, with the highest amount of philosophical and psychological overtones, where the phrase "the age of decayed futurity" appears again, describes something alien to God knows who or what suddenly manifests itself and swirls up one's normal living and thinking. It might be another cosmic entity, that eventually causes, as the writer has written and I have theorized, total confusion, and deviation from our usual values and morals...

Okay, I'm finished...

This could be the longest review I've ever written, or will write given that I'm such a lazy bum...

Lastly, do read this book (as per your own consideration, decision and most of all, risk), you can take it from someone like me!

[Χρυσόστομος Τσαπραΐλης · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ψάχνοντας τον τελευταίο καιρό σε λίστες και προτάσεις για μερικό μπάζωμα του κενού μου όσον αφορά την post-'00s λογοτεχνία τρόμου, συγκέντρωσα ικανό αριθμό τίτλων. Μεταξύ αυτών και μια συλλογή διηγημάτων, το όνομα της οποίας αν μη τι άλλο μου έγνεψε με πλουμιστά μανίκια, καθότι περιείχε το όνομα ενός από τους γίγαντες της χρυσής εποχής του λογοτεχνικού τρόμου, δηλαδή του Arthur Machen. Όταν είμαι πελαγωμένος εν μέσω πλειάδας λογοτεχνικών επιλογών, η πρώτη διαλογή έρχεται με τον διαχωρισμό του υλικού ανάμεσα σε μυθιστορήματα και συλλογές διηγημάτων, με τις συλλογές να μου φαίνονται σαφώς πιο ευκολοδιάβαστες. Από εκεί και πέρα, η επιλογή μεταξύ των συλλογών γίνεται με κόσκινο το οποίο περιέχει δίχτυ προτάσεων από άτομα των οποίων τη γνώμη εμπιστεύομαι, δίχτυ του γενικότερου κλίματος που επικρατεί για κάθε συλλογή στα ίντερνετς (αν επικρατεί), και τέλος ένα δίχτυ διαπερατό ��πό πράγματα που μου χτυπάνε ευχάριστα, ιδίως στον τίτλο. Έτσι το The Man who Collected Machen έφτασε εύκολα στην κορυφή της ουράς των to-be-read.

Διαβάζοντας το πρώτο διήγημα (“Losenef Express”) το πρώτο που μου έκανε εντύπωση ήταν το πόσο λειτουργική ήταν η ροή του λόγου του Mark Samuels – το πως κύλαγαν οι σελίδες μου θύμισε μια αποσταγμένη και εξιδανικευμένη εκδοχή του μίγματος των Machen, Howard, Blackwood, Lovecraft. Εκεί που σε άλλα πρόσφατα βιβλία κάποιες παράγραφοι σκάλωναν, και φαίνονταν ως είτε αχρείαστες, είτε λάθος συναρμολογημένες, εδώ είχαμε μια ονείρωξη αρχαϊκής γλαφυρότητας – και με λεξιλόγιο που βουτάει για τα καλά στις πιο σκονισμένες σελίδες του αρχετυπικού λεξικού. Η ιδέα του διηγήματος πολύ καλή, αλλά πέρναγε σε δεύτερη μοίρα μπρος στην ανάπτυξη του ίδιου του λόγου. Περνάω στο ομώνυμο, δεύτερο διήγημα, και τα προαναφερθέντα χαρακτηριστικά παραμένουν, ενώ συνολικά αποδεικνύεται ακόμη καλύτερο: νοσταλγία για ένα μαγικό παρελθόν, πολύτιμη σκόνη αιώνων πασπαλισμένη παντού, αδιαφορία για το χτίσιμο του πρωταγωνιστή με συναισθηματικά υλικά τα οποία να τον γειώνουν – ο ήρωας είναι ένα κέλυφος, μια καρικατούρα, που προσαρμόζεται άνετα στον κάθε αναγνώστη, σχεδόν όπως στα παραμύθια.

Από εκεί και πέρα το σερί συνεχιζότανε με απανωτά εργόχειρα ηδονής, σε σημείο που δεν πίστευα την τύχη μου που με έφερε μπροστά σε αυτές τις σελίδες. Εξαίρετη ιδέα στο THYXXOLQU, κοσμικός τρόμος στο The Black Mould, αγνός ορεινός τρόμος στο Xapalpa, ένα κλείσιμο ματιού στο Black Sabbath του Mario Bava. Έπρεπε να φτάσω στο τελευταίο, το The Tower, για να παρατηρήσω μια πολύ μικρή κοιλιά – που όμως, αν σκεφτείς και το αποκρυφιστικό/transcendental θέμα του, έχει μάλλον να κάνει με το concept, και όχι με την γλωσσική υφή.

Πέρα από την γλώσσα και το στήσιμο αυτής, η συλλογή αυτή με κέρδισε αφενός επειδή είναι μια ελεγειακή προσφορά στον βωμό των Μεγάλων: δεν είναι μόνο ο Machen που ανιχνεύεται στις σελίδες της, αλλά και ο Borges, ο De Quincy, ο Clark Asthon Smith. Αφετέρου, τα περισσότερα από τα διηγήματα διαδραματίζονται σε Ευρωπαϊκό έδαφος (και όχι μονάχα στην Αγγλία, παρά την Βρετανική καταγωγή του συγγραφέα). Ο Mark Samuels δεν διστάζει να μπολιάσει το ξεκάθαρα παραδοσιακό ύφος γραφής του με μεταμοντέρνες θεωρήσεις περί γλώσσας και κειμένου, καταλήγοντας στα αριστουργηματικά Glickman the Bibliophile και A Contaminated Text. Ειδικά στο πρώτο βρήκα πολλά σημεία ταύτισης όσον αφορά σκέψεις μου περί της συμβολικότητας της γλώσσας και τη φύση της (αυτό)συνείδησης.

Άκρως προτεινόμενο βιβλίο, από αυτά που πέφτουν στα χέρια σου και νιώθεις πως σου γλίστρησαν μια πλάκα αγνής Ικανοποίησης.

[Grant Wamack · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Man who Collected Machen and Other Tales is the latest short story collection by Mark Samuels. Samuels is a cosmic horror writer who has been making a name for himself in the weird fiction scene and quickly becoming an underground legend.

I decided to point out the standout stories, even though all of them are good in their own right.

“The Mould” is darkly disturbing vision of the future overrun by a conscious mould that consumes planets and makes its way across galaxies. It sort of reminded me of Galactucus. Just take away the silly purple suit and you’re left with a terrifying hunger.

Another standout tale is the one based off the title, “The Man Who Collected Machen.” The man who collects Machen is a terrifying figure who goes to any lengths to procure Arthur Machen’s written works. It’s a strange tale, but one that fits in perfectly with the others.

“Glickman the Bibliophile” is about writer who believes he is going the visit a new publisher. However, he is brainwashed and forced to join a group of men who burn books, manuscripts, and text online. This is a darker, much more hellish version of Fahrenheit 451 compressed into short story form.

“A Contaminated Text” is a about a book that is found in a Mexican library and infects all of the others books with it's infective message.

"THYXXOLQU" is very similar to the tale above. In which it tackles the idea of a word virus and Samuels deftly executes. I've read a few weird tales involving this concept, but Samuels makes it look easy.

Samuel’s prose has an archaic yet modern feel about it. His words build together to reach dizzying heights of terror and isolation.

Mark Samuels is an avid supporter of Arthur Machen so it’s no mistake that he shares some of that wonder that Machen wrote about years ago. Samuel’s stories are much darker and dismal, but there are places where one can see awe in the midst of the darkness.

[Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fine collection from who is one of the leading lights of modern weird fiction.

Mark's style really works for me. His prose is clear and concise yet evocative. He writes very consciously of the genre and has a healthy respect for the greats authors that helped shape it. Having some experience of the classic authors yourself, while not essential, will help get the most out of some of these stories here.

Some of the stories centre around writers, such as "Losenef Express" that features a weird fiction writer who is trying to lose himself in eastern Europe whilst ridden with self loathing over his loss of artistic integrity. Then there's "The Age of Decayed Futurity" in which an author looking for ideas for her fourth novel, inspired by the ravings of washed up Hollywood actor, comes to the attention of a global conspiracy to turn us all into mindless zombies.

There are stories about collectors of books such as the title story and "Glickman the Bibliophile" in which a book collecting obsessive is caught and brainwashed by an organisation trying to suck all the information out of the world.

Underlying most the stories seems to be a seething resentment of modern society, it's soulless culture and progress for it's own sake. In this sense he resembles Aickman who held the same view (but made the point more obliquely). Samuuels also seems to feature different malevolent, nihilistic forces at work seeking to undermine humanity and turn us back into the primordial slime, showing similarities with Ligotti. Although perhaps the most Littogian story in this collection (and also my favourite) was "THYXXOLQU" in which the language of the dead begins to invade our society, gradually infecting everyone.

This collection was just such a pleasure to breeze through and I can happily recommend it to any fans of weird horror.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

"As he struggled to recall which of the textbooks contained the reference, Barron caught sight of something the size of a large cat moving amidst the undergrowth of weeds between the two tombs. The thing was curiously shapeless, and a mottled grey colour. Perhaps it was just Barron's fever playing tricks, but he could have sworn the thing had been crawling with more than four limbs." --"Xapalpa."

I've been wanting to read more of this guy for some time now. For some reason his White Hands collection is not available in the U.S. Anyway, I was thrilled to find this out as an e-book.

*Update. Probably more like 3 1/2 stars. I may write a more extensive review later, but basically I often felt that parts of stories were usually greater than the whole (see above). I think Samuels is an outstanding talent, but many of these stories felt rushed or they ended too abruptly. On the other hand, I was never bored. As a reading experience, I zipped through this collection. If you like the old classics in Weird Lit., he's someone you should read.

[Vicente Ribes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probablemente de las mejores colecciónes de relatos de Samuels. Aquí conjura las influencias de todos sus escritores favoritos: Machen, Lovecraft, Grabinski, Ligotti.. Algunos relatos son homenajes claros y otros nacen de su fenomenal inventiva pero prácticamente todos son bastante originales. Algunos como el Moho negro o THYXXOLQU aparecían en la compilación de Valdemar y son de sus mejores relatos.
Entre el resto cabe destacar:

El expreso de Yonesef(*****): Angustiosa historia ambientada en un tren y que recuerda mucho a los relatos de Grabinski.

El hombre que coleccionaba a Machen.(****): Todo un homenaje a este autor y a los coleccionistas de libros de terror. Samuels era un conocedor del género que incluso conocía las editoriales de Siruela y Valdemar en España.

Glickman el bibliófilo(***): Una misteriosa editorial ficha contrata a un escritor que, horrorizado, se da cuenta de que detrás tiene un complot para destruir toda la literatura de la tierra. Muy original.

Una cuestión de desobedecer ordenes(****): Un desertor alemán en la Primera Guerra Mundial se las verá con unos vampiros en une extraño pueblo.

Un texto contaminado(***): Una misteriosa biblioteca gigante en Mexico guarda un libro prohibido que al ser descubierto amenaza con corromper y contagiar a todos los libros de la tierra.

[Dan Ust · Rating 2 out of 5]

The blurb compares him to Ligotti, but the stories weren’t as powerful for me as Ligotti’s. Also, he tends toward abstraction in a way that makes most stories in the collection like outlines or treatments.

On the plus side, he does come up with some good ideas. To be sure, they find their roots in writers like Burroughs — the language virus notion, though Samuels gives it his twist.

[Tom A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading this superb collection, you might become the bookworm Who Collected Mark Samuels.

For someone praised by snobby and hard-to-like literary critics, Mark Samuels seems to be the kind of writer I adore: literate but having an engaging and clear style free from the cloud of pretension. Reggie Oliver (another writer I love) said it best when he described Samuels’s writing as having “Hints of Machen, Poe, Lovecraft, Borges, and Ligotti are to be found in these stories, but the dominant figure is always Samuels.” To add, I also detect the influence of Roald Dahl, with Samuels’s sly commentary of some choice issues being the associated element. I could be wrong, but it’s not shameful to be associated with a great writer like Dahl anyway.

With regard to his prose, Samuels can easily switch from his relaxed and engaging style to the sweeping style of the old masters. This, however, is not a deterrent from the horror that Samuels cultivates in each tale as his storytelling skills take paramount importance, never letting the writing style be the star of the story. I also love that this collection never feels too familiar, with stories taking place all over the globe from Eastern Europe to Mexico even going as far as the farthest reaches of the universe (!).

Now that’s an imagination to kill for.

1. LONESEF EXPRESS

A whiskey-loving, burnt-out horror writer named Eddie Charles Knox (“The Berserker of Horror”) is enjoying a sabbatical from his horror writing in Eastern Europe when he is seemingly stalked by a mysterious fat man with “gnarled powerful hands”. After chasing and killing the said man in cold blood, Knox rides the titular Lonesef Express to escape his crime. He finds out that it won’t be that easy as the dead man appears to have traveled with him.

Eddie Charles Knox is an obvious stand-in for the real-life (and sadly deceased) author Karl Edward Wagner. Knox’s place of birth (Tennessee), physical description (heavy bulk, flaming mane of red hair, beard, and mirror shades), his love for whiskey (Jack Daniels Old No.7 sour mash was K. E. W.’s drink of choice), his works (Mungo the barbarian, a reference to K. E. W.’s Kane the Mystic Swordsman) as well as his hedonistic lifestyle (“educating groupie nymphs in seedy hotel rooms, the acrid tang of cocaine as it hit sinuses and the back of the throat after being snorted in toilets on first-class transatlantic flights and in stretch limos.”) all scream Karl Edward Wagner.

I bring this up since some people don’t seem to get that Samuels is trying to say something about his old acquaintance (friend?) rather than tell a horror tale. It is a horrific and atmospheric yarn, but when one fails to discern the real intention of the author the whole thing falls apart. So what is Samuels trying to communicate? That Wagner’s real-life demons are what killed him? That Wagner’s greatest enemy was himself? Perhaps, but I must admit it took guts to finally reveal what a few select authors know and what even the most vocal among them speak only in hushed tones: Karl Edward Wagner’s lust for life ended his life and his last days were probably pitiful. Samuels only needed to add a slight supernatural tinge to turn it into a full-fledged horror tale.

2. THE MAN WHO COLLECTED MACHEN

Robert Lundwick is a scholar studying the works of the great horror writer Arthur Machen. While researching at the Reading Room of the British Library, Lundwick is accosted by a man named Aloysius Condor, a calculating, amoral, and possibly criminal collector of Machen’s most obscure works. Despite their aloof first encounter, Lundwick finds himself visiting the fabled collection of Machen’s lost works of Condor, even joining Condor’s secret group “The Lost Club”. But what is the ultimate price to pay for such a glimpse?

I must admit that this is my least favorite tale in the collection because the set-up was so amazing and enthralling only to be let down by a rushed ending. Being a collector of books myself, I love stories of people risking life and limb to get unheard of special editions from whatever hellhole they can find it, as it is a kind of a wish fulfillment/ fantasy for me. I wanted this story to be more horrific and disturbing (as to be expected given the collecting mania possessing Condor) but it sadly never explores that subject again. The only missed opportunity in the book for me, but you might like it.

3. THYXXOLQU

An office worker named Barclay notices strange ads written in an unknown language. Soon the language appears to be everywhere, even in his workplace. It soon creeps into the common usage, replacing words with what seems to be gibberish. Barclay is given the name of the language by one of its new practitioners: THYXXOLQUS, which is apparently spoken in a land called THYXXOLQU. Barclay realizes that this is not just some fad but a virus that seeks to alter the world as we know it.

This tale is what other reviewers are deeming to be the homage of Samuels to the writings of Jose Luis Borges, the great Argentinian writer. I will not comment on that aspect since I have yet to read Borges. (I am reading Labyrinths now). I can say, however, that this is a great cosmic horror tale, with its invocation of a powerful and unstoppable force that slowly and creepily asserts its dominion of the world. Oh, I also need to mention that the practitioners of the language soon devolve into horrific zombie-like beings.


4. THE BLACK MOLD

No spoilers for this absolutely terrifying and nihilistic story that manages to Out-Lovecraft Lovecraft. One of the best horror short stories I have read ever. Read it and be afraid.

5. XAPALPA

An American retiree named Frank Mason decides to retire to the Mexican town of Xapalpa in the hopes of avoiding the presence of other Americans. While drinking in a local bar, he is offered a house to stay for the night but with a catch: this house is reportedly haunted. It seems that decades ago that the same house was also occupied by an American who suffered a strange fate. Upon knowing that he does not believe in ghosts, the bartender tells him the story to make Mason realize what he is getting himself into. But is it too late?

I love ghost stories, especially those of other cultures and countries. Samuels scores again with this creepy and highly atmospheric tale of ghosts, evil spirits, and unavoidable (?) fate. This actually reminds me of the stories by Thomas Tessier and Robert Aickman wherein the real meaning and explanation of the tale is expertly hidden in plain sight.

6. GLICKMAN THE BIBLIOPHILE

Henry Glickman is an author and bibliophile who is looking for a new publisher after the last one went out of business. He soon finds a publishing house in the form of Nemesis Press, managed by a man named Janus Yaanek. It becomes clear to Glickman that publishing his work would be the last thing on the minds of Yaanek and his subordinates.

This story concerns the destruction of books and the philosophy behind this bizarre act. The villains in the story believe that they are working for a good cause and throughout the story Samuels interjects his disdain for both the reading public and various book critics. I have mentioned that Dahl might have been an influence on Samuels and that is because his story reminds me of his classic short story (although they have different plots) “The Great Automatic Grammatizator”. In that story the process of making books and stories is bastardized and made mechanical resulting in homogenized trash. This story asks what if someone wanted to clear that mess along with everything else.

7. A QUESTION OF OBEYING ORDERS

Hans Kugel, a soldier of the Imperial German Army, is tired of being pushed around from one battle another. After four months of battle at the Eastern Front, he is rewarded by being redeployed to the Western Front. He decides to run away, eventually winding up in a house in a remote part of the country. He is greeted by an old man who tells him that he cannot admit him in since he and his wife have a “guest” tonight. Kugel decides to go in anyway and he realizes that he should have fought at the Western Front instead.

World War II-set horror stories are a favorite of mine (although this one is set during WWI, I think), having gobbled up stuff life Wolf’s Hour and Graham Masterton’s Descendant. This fast-paced, exciting and scary short story is a treat and filled with action-horror beats that I honestly did not expect from someone like Samuels. But this proves what an eclectic writer Samuels is.

8. NOR UNTO DEATH UTTERLY BY EDMUND BERTRAND

Mark Samuels’s take on a classic Edgar Allan Poe story. I won’t tell you what it is so you can guess it yourself. Nevertheless, I must admit that Samuels adds a lot of cosmic weight to the Poe story in question, ending it in ways you cannot have imagined.

9. A CONTAMINATED TEXT

A man named Douglas Marlow becomes the trainee librarian in the humongous Jose Vasconcelos Library. During his second week of work, the library receives a crate of English language books, among them a book called “The Abyss of Voola”. It seems that the book was written by an occultist named Wolfgang Martz who believed that he can contact an alien race of creatures named the Voolans. Marlow then notices that the books in contact with Martz’s book change their content with text inside “The Abyss of Voola” as if they were being infected by the evil within its pages. The textual fungus soon infects other books and Marlow may be the first in line to witness the cosmic madness.

Like the previous story “THYXXOLQU”, Samuels presents another tale of an unusual virus but this time the source is the text of an occult book. What makes this tale more scintillating is the maddening effect of the book on the people who chance upon its text. They regress to hysteria, leading to brain damage, sometimes even mutilation.

With regard to a message, I cannot be sure what Samuels was trying to impart. I’ll leave that to the reader.

10. THE AGE OF DECAYED FUTURITY

Famous Polish author Joanna Wolski is sent by her agent to the Grand Hotel in Sopot in order for her to be able to concentrate on her next novel. While there she meets Eugene Kowalski, a famous U.S.-based soap opera actor. Kowalski proceeds to tell her about “The Reassembly Cartel”, a “front group of billionaires with absolute power over human society”. Wolski doesn’t believe him and he reveals that the greatest evidence for their existence is himself, particularly his disfigured face. But as Kowalski’s tale of woe is being told, it is apparent that the true nature of the Cartel is more horrific than any crime syndicate’s methods.

Samuels goes on full conspiracy mode in this tale and as result makes the idea of such a sinister group seem possible in our media-obsessed age. It is obvious that Samuels hates the media and its various incarnations for peddling controlled truth and necessary lies. But before you think this is a full-on crime story, Samuels manages to insert Cosmic horror into the mix. Reading this felt as if I were watching Cronenberg’s Videodrome again. That was a great experience and so is this tale.

11. THE TOWER

The most philosophical and perhaps plotless short story in the collection. This first-person account of a man who manages to see a massive Tower that appears out of nowhere and his realization that he alone could see it is a discussion on the merits of pessimism, the battle between experience and reason and the existential horror of a man who is alone in knowing the truth about the world. Is this his response to Ligotti’s pessimistic views? I don’t know.

[Kristine Muslim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have never read anything like this. This is superb! The Man Who Collected Machen and Other Weird Tales seethes with mysticism. Mark Samuels reminds me of Algernon Blackwood and not Arthur Machen. This has all of Blackwood's handiwork, most especially that fine touch of "implied" horror.

The story, "Glickman the Bibliophile," kept me on edge the whole way through and brought to mind a completely unrelated "The Clerks of Domesday," another excellent story by another writer. I think the true measure of the greatness of any book, whether or not it will stand the test of time, is its ability to remind a reader of a snapshot of another awe-inspiring story, a thing, an event.

From "Glickman the Bibliophile"

And Yaanek told him frankly that any notion of individual identity was a lie. There is no "self" to destroy. Once Glickman had grasped the final truth that the "I" does not exist, that his past life was illusory, then he would be free.

Here's a spoiler from "A Contaminated Text," a story that will appeal deeply to Lovecraft fans.

The afflicted dreamt of their own corpses emerging from funeral parlours and from hospital morgues, to wander the streets, each one muttering the same plaintive query in accents like bubbling tar. They dreamt of descending into the caverns of the earth, down and down, hypnotised by a telepathic summons until they reached the dread torture chambers...

[Jess M · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm somewhat surprised to learn this small collection of short stories received such universal praise. While the stories are good, perhaps even above average, I feel the collection falls short of a four or five star rating. Perhaps it is the author's clear influences (Ligotti, Machen and Lovecraft) that reviewers are so inclined to praise. Namely . The influence of the aforementioned are so strong that some of the stories border on impersonation. An affliction this genre has long suffered from. As a result this small book reads more like an anthology than a collection of one single author.

[Haralambi Markov · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had no prior knowledge of Mark Samuels or his work. Picking his collection, The Man Who Collected Machen and Other Weird Tales, was the result of Samuels’ comparison to Howard P. Lovecraft, as promoted in his bio, and a very bizarre title. I admit to being frivolous in how I choose my reading materials, but so far, I have yet to see my intuition mislead me.

Mark Samuels proved to be the perfect introduction to the sort of weird horror I have been in search of these last few months. At the same time, the similarities with Lovecraft’s works help to anchor me within something familiar. The main parallel between Samuels and Lovecraft is to be found with the narrator. With the exception of “The Age of Decayed Futurity”, all of the stories feature the familiar male narrator, with a Caucasian-sounding name and inclinations of the scholarly variety, who leaves the confines of the modern and known world and enters a new, unexplained one that has been there all along.

More of Lovecraft can be discovered in Samuels’ “The Black Mould”, the story of a sentient mould that comes to be in the crater of a dead world, orbiting the rim of the universe. There is the familiar fear of the cosmos, present in Lovecraft’s fiction, as the mould evolves into one of the most frightening consumers of worlds and stars alike. As the mould grows and develops a hive-mind consciousness, it suffers from endless nightmares, which trigger its reproductive system as a means to seek release. What strikes true fear in “The Black Mould” is the mould’s complete unawareness of the apocalypse it’s ushering in. The mould is as much the victim of its nightmares as all other life forms in its path. Unlike with Lovecraft, there is no black-and white-situation, where the extraterrestrials seek out life for their own malicious purposes. In a sense, we’re even less significant to our harbinger of death; this cosmic horror is itself plagued by a pantheon of horrors.

Further similarities can be found with the Voolans, the race that lives below the surface of the world in “A Contaminated Text”, and the manner with which narrators either disappear or die or lose their sanity. At the same time, one cannot say that Samuels borrows from Lovecraft in excess. While Lovecraft opts for the sudden revelation of the Other, the alien and monstrous face of the world as a means to emphasize the horror, Samuels submerges the reader gradually. Lovecraft chooses to destroy his narrators with a sudden jolt and tremor, while Samuels has the weird and the terrifying assimilate and digest the narrator.

The opening story, “Losenef Express”, is exemplary of Samuels’ technique as the narrator, one Eddie Charles Knox, begins the tale drinking in a café, then commits murder and, upon fleeing, boards the Losenef Express, a train full of the dead that reaches the starting point rather than the ending point of the journey. Samuels provides no explanation for what’s happening. It just does and the reader has no choice but to accept the irregularities in the space-time continuum as something inherent to the world. The paradox of the tale reminded me of the impossibility of the Penrose Stairs, otherwise known as the “Impossible Staircase”.

“The Man Who Collected Machen”, the titular story of the collection, remains one of my least favourite ones, because I know nothing about Arthur Machen, which I think is a prerequisite to enjoying the story to the fullest. Samuels adopts a similar approach of submersion, having the narrator Robert Lundwick, a great Machen enthusiast, perform his research routine, but then use the introduction of Aloysius Condor as a trigger to transport Robert into the alternate city of London. To the outsider, the story is unremarkable, but to the ones already indoctrinated in the works of Machen, I assume the pleasure will be ,as there are several references to the “Lost Club”, a story by Machen that has been cut off from all archives and also the name of the “Condor’s Society of Arthur Machen”. While I cannot connect the dots, I’m positive of their significance as an important nuance in comprehending the text.

I didn’t feel confident about Samuels’ appeal, until I read “THYXXOLQU”, and the rest of his stories dealing with language and its different manifestations. Words have power. Everybody has heard this expression, and devoted readers rely on words to transport them into new worlds and replace one reality with another. Following this thought, isn’t it logical to assume that the true fabric of reality consists of words and languages, rather than atoms? In “THYXXOLQU”, Samuels presents language as a disease that alters and disfigures our dimensions. Infection of reality as a trope is also present in “A Contaminated Text”, in which a single book contaminates all others in the newly opened Megabiblioteca in Mexico. The contamination is so potent that it affects the people who have read the diseased text, and their sanity. However, while the events in “THYXXOLQU” are real, the contamination in “A Contaminated Text” appears to be all in the minds of the victims.

Language, however, is not always the culprit. In the story “Glickman the Bibliophile”, the written word is the victim as the Apocalypse of Information takes place. This story taps into the horror of all bibliophiles – the destruction and desecration of the written word. As with “A Contaminated Text”, a madness spreads through humans worldwide and they turn into savages bent on the destruction of all books. Through the eyes of the author Henry Glickman, as he’s given the grand tour of his new publisher Nemesis Press [the name of the press is a warning sign], the reader learns that the people behind Nemesis Press are, in fact, anti-thinkers who seek to eradicate culture. Apart from the hard-hitting images of books being devoured and then vomited, the true horror comes from the realization that the most passionate advocates of this apocalypse are the ones who once praised books and knowledge.

What I love about The Man Who Collected Machen and Other Weird Tales is the multiple use of themes, tropes and elements. It’s as if stories nod to each other, in appreciation of each other. For instance, both “Xapalpa” and “A Question of Obeying Orders” share the dark ritual of decapitating a corpse and staking its body in its grave as a means to prevent it from rising. I spotted Hitler as a recurring name and Mexico as the setting of “A Contaminated Text” and “Xapalpa” alike. In theory, this repetition should reflect negatively on Samuels, as he is, to a point, recycling ideas and imagery. However, Samuels is such a master wordsmith in his worlds that even repeated ideas take on a new and potent meaning. At the same time, the collection comes off as cohesive and arranged with a clear idea as to why these stories are featured.

“The Tower” serves as an excellent closing story. I think Samuels has written it to serve as an afterword and meditation on the themes present in the collection. The fact that the story has not been published prior to this anthology, unlike all the others, reinforces my suspicion. While I did nod and agree with all the opinions the narrator presented in the story about the nature of society and the state of the world, I felt as though nothing happened and that Samuels hijacked the narrative in order to deliver his personal views.

Even so, The Man Who Collected Machen and Other Weird Tales remains a dark delight. I have found all tales within these pages highly entertaining, as well as thought-provoking. You won’t make a mistake with this collection.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection came as a bit of a surprise to me, I'd never heard of Mark Samuels, but when I heard someone had written a book called "The Man Who Collected *Machen* and other *Weird* Tales" I knew I had to read it. That was a good call, this was one of the better collections of short stories I've read all year. I read this book far faster than I intended, these stories were so good I had to savor another one, and another!

These stories find influence in a variety of authors: Lovecraft, Machen, M. R. James, Poe, Ligotti, Borges, even Karl Edward Wagner. That was interesting in itself. This is a slim volume, the stories are kept short, but have a lot packed in them. These are "weird tales" but many of them seek, and succeed at inspiring horror, not from shocking the reader, but in a deeply disturbing, intellectual, "under the skin" sort of way.

I just never knew what I'd encounter next in this collection, but the stories fall into two categories: apocalyptic accounts of the destruction of the world and stories of individuals encountering the weird. These two themes were alternated throughout and the characters, human knowledge, even existence itself are attacked from totally unpredictable angles which I've never seen done before.

This book held a quote that nagged my brain for weeks afterward, "The greatest act of terrorism right now would be for the public to destroy their television sets and mobile phones..."

I'd recommend not reading the following reviews until you've read the stories.

Losenef Express - Good story, love the feel of it, creepy, moody, grimy. The main character seems to be an obvious reference to Karl Edward Wagner. I'm not sure I get the end of it entirely, but it's still a good horror tale regardless.

The Man Who Collected Machen - Pretty good tale, I didn't get quite as much out of it as the first story, but for a lover of Machen, this is quite interesting in itself. Also it makes me glad to live in our age where I can go download 99% of Machen's work off the internet in about two minutes, instead of having to fish through old bookstores, and possibly find myself a victim like the character in this story! A man who seeks rare collections of Arthur Machen's work finds a man with a vast private collection, but to see it he has to enter a strange world from which he cannot return.

THYXXOLQU - This was a pretty good tale, paranoid, weird, a little sci-fi, but certainly creepy. A man notices an ad in a strange, unknown language, and soon starts seeing it everywhere around him. It seems to start taking people over and rotting their mouths at the same time.

The Black Mould - Good little story, very brief, but I like it, an existential, sci-fi apocalyptic story, allegorical I think for the human race itself perhaps. A black mold forms in a remote place in the universe and begins to spread, taking over all civilizations, making them all like itself, driven by a supreme nightmarish fear it has. Finally it takes over earth itself, humans are unable to stop it and succumb. It even travels to other universes via black holes, until all of space and time are the black mold.

Xapalpa - I liked this story for it's atmosphere, weary, sickly, eerie, good setting as well. I felt a bit let down at the end, but still, I think this was one of the most memorable. A man travels to an isolated Mexican village and is told of a house nearby where another traveler stayed, how he felt a fever coming on him, and a vague uneasiness about the town itself.

Glickman the Bibliophile - WOW, this is a dark little tale to be sure, very disturbing and apocalyptic yet again. Samuels likes these insidious destruction's of the world that come from unplumbed places. A bibliophile is made part of a collective which has telepathically convinced people in the world to destroy all books, writers, and thus all human information and understanding.

A Question of Obeying Orders - I like this one, feels like just a good, old fashioned horror/weird story, nothing fancy, but well told and genuinely eerie. These stories are never longer than they need to be. A German soldier who deserts in WWI comes across a house with an old man, his wife, and a living corpse.

Nor Unto Death Utterly by Edmund Bertrand - Good gothic flair here. Lots of influences in this book -- Lovecraft, Machen, some sci-fi, but here it's obviously influenced by Poe. A doctor is summoned to see a dying recluse living in a crumbling abbey who talks of his previous wife Ligeia, and her will that was stronger than death.

A Contaminated Text - This is a nice little weird, and disturbing story. I detect the influence of Borges and his "Library of Babel." He takes on the theme again of the destruction of information/knowledge which is been visited before.

The Age of Decayed Futurity - This was one of the best stories in the book. Really weird, paranoid and has a really good conspiracy theory and sci-fi theme mixture. An author comes in contact with an actor who has proof that a conspiracy from the future is controlling all media to make people into celebrity-worshipping zombies. Anyone who tries to expose the conspiracy dies horribly.

The Tower - WOW, this story really hit home with me. It has a feel of Lovecraft's nostalgia for the past, the blandness of regenerating neighborhoods, the unsatisfying nature of consumerism and the invasive nature of society on the individual.

[Grady · Rating 5 out of 5]

The New King of Bizarre Fantasy

Mark Samuels is described in the dictionary as 'a London-based writer of horror and fantastic fiction in the tradition of Arthur Machen and H. P. Lovecraft. Born in 1967 in Clapham, South London, he was first published in 1988, and his short stories often focus on detailing a shadowy modern London in which the protagonists gradually discover a dark and terrifying reality behind the mundane urban world.' Unless the reader is familiar with horror and fantastic fiction outside of the works of say, Edgar Allen Poe, then this collection of stories will take some adjustment to the genre.

Doubtless that Mark Samuels is a gifted writer: he could write on almost any subject or in any format and be successful, he is that fine a wordsmith. This collection of stories deals with strange influences, outside forces that, whether historically real or created for the sake for the story, are well developed - sometimes so well developed that a bit of research on the part of the reader may be necessary to arrive at the plane on which Samuels is writing. for example, it is important to know who Arthur Machen is in order to grasp the punch of the title story. For the uninitiated Arthur Machen (1863 - 1947) was a Welsh author and mystic of the 1890s and early 20th century. He is best known for his influential supernatural, fantasy, and horror fiction. Given that added information the story 'The Man Who Collected Machen' becomes a brilliant and moody setting for thought. Many of the other works in this collection benefit form some added time with the dictionary, but that is not a bad thing; how refreshing it is to discover a writer who challenges our brains while entertaining us with some very strange tales! There are eleven stories in all, and each one is unique an engrossing.

Grady Harp

[Ronald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Contents:
1. Losenef Express
2. The Man Who Collected Machen
3. THYXXOLQU
4. The Black Mould
5. Xapalpa
6. Glickman the Bibliophile
7. A Question of Obeying Orders
8. Nor Unto Death Utterly by Edmund Bertrand
9. A Contaminated Text
10. The Age of Decayed Futurity
11. The Tower

Just like his other short story collection _The White Hands and Other Weird Tales_, the stories in this book are briskly paced and written in excellent prose.

I think contagion is a metaphor in some of these stories. For example, in the science fiction story "The Black Mould," a mould arises on a planet and travels through space, subsuming all living things in the universe. In the story "THYXXOLQU", the narrator observes disturbing changes in the way others communicate. In "A Contaminated Text" a book in a library actually changes the texts of other books in the library, with deleterious consequences for those who read these contaminated texts. "Glickman the Bibliophile" is about an ancient cult which seeks the destruction of books.

I wonder if the story "Nor Unto Death Utterly by Edmund Bertrand", written in a 'affected' style, is a parody of 19th century Gothic fiction.

A story that didn't work for me, alas, is "The Tower". The narrator observes a tower in the distance, which apparently no one else sees; but then we get the narrator's exposition of his Liggottian pessimistic philosophy.

The other stories I didn't mention here are well worth reading.

[CivilWar · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, I thought this would be cool because I was told it was similar to Thomas Ligotti, the greatest living horror writer. But all that Samuels has to offer here is at best a third-rate offer of that style of weird fiction.

I'll bring up several essential elements that mix together into making this such a boring and lame collection ("lame" is a word I'll use a lot in this review, because there is no better word for it):

-All of these stories are half-baked as fuck;

All of these stories are incredibly short - according to my e-reader (me having read an epub copy), the longest one was 13 pages. Most of them are shorter. The result is that while Samuels might spare us from more of his bland writing, all of these stories, without a single exception, feel half-baked to hell, most of them feel like story concepts that were half-developed before being published with no further working on.

Per example, from "Glickman the Bibliophile":

"For weeks the nation had been suffering from an epidemic of destruction at libraries, bookshops and publishers. Those persons who had been caught and charged with the crimes claimed afterwards to have no knowledge of their actions and acted as if in a trance. Any random individual could, it was claimed, enter this trance-state and begin to destroy books using whatever means they had at their disposal.

The action was apparently motiveless, unplanned and the consequence of a spontaneous, temporary mania. Theories concerning the possible origin of the behaviour were legion but none of them seemed to explain all of the facts. Some proposed that a new chemical had been used in book-production that altered the mental state of those in its vicinity, but this did not account for the destruction of antiquarian bookshops. Another theory advanced concerned an airborne germ released by a foreign power but this seemed unlikely, as reports came in of the same phenomenon striking across the world with no country being immune. One theory that was given credence for a time advanced the idea that some form of evolution had taken place in that area of the human brain concerned with linguistic recognition. It was believed that instead of recognition, this area of the brain now generated an intolerable fear of written signifiers, leading to acts of violence and memory-loss when the sufferer came into contact with text. But this was discredited after the corpses of those persons who perished accidentally in acts of book destruction were examined. Their brains showed no signs of abnormal development or damage. None of the theories advanced could be held with certainty."

And then it cuts to the next section. Rather than showing us anything happening, Samuels often times just... gives us a few paragraphs that just sound like concept paragraphs with a little detail.

This has the other effect of making the concepts half-baked too - per example, Glickman The Bibliophile is about an ancient conspiracy that wants to and succeeds in burning all books. The justification for this, which in a Ligotti or even a Lovecraft story would be understandable, here it's just stated:

"The organisation was of extremely ancient origin and related the legend of their descent from a papyrus-burning sect in ancient Khem. There were even outrageous hints that the destruction of the library at Alexandria had been their work: the consequence of an eager operative taking no chances after failing to locate a palimpsest he had sought within its walls. Certainly there were some parallels with freemasonry, though the book-exterminators had no leanings of an altruistic nature.

The creed: All books are exits from life. Books must be destroyed."

I don't know if Glickman learns this because of what the clerks telepathically force on his mind, or if this is just exposition, but this is fucking nothing, man. This is one paragraph, nothing is shown leading up to this. Compare this to the slow revelation(s) in, say, Lovecraft's The Shadow Over Innsmouth. Imagine that, instead of that story being as it is, he just fucking gave you a single paragraph describing the Esoteric Order of Dagon, separated from the story! It's lame as fuck.

-The writing just has no style;

You probably noticed from these excerpts, but the writing just has zero flavor whatsoever, like it's just so bland. There's no style to it at all, it is just dull, mechanical, purely utilist telling. When the author does try his hand at different styles, it's absolutely unbearable, it reads like a teenager that dresses in all black trench coats writing in hacky Victorian style:

"“Pray excuse my air of distraction,” he said, suddenly conscious of my gaze upon him, “the melancholy truth is that my thoughts seem scarcely my own. Say rather they are consumed by she who cannot be forgotten.”

“You refer again to the Lady Rowena?” I replied.

“Rowena?” He laughed, stuffing the knuckles of his left hand into his lips to arrest an unbecoming display of emotion. “Rowena, you say? Nay, I speak not of the weak-willed Rowena Trevanion of Tremaine. She, of the fair-hair and the blue eyes? No, and again I say no. I speak, rather, of my first wife. My true wife. She of the dark eyes and the hair that is raven-black as midnight! Ligeia! She, whose breadth of knowledge has no equal in our sublunary world. Aye! I speak of the Lady Ligeia, she whose origins lie in Mystery and whose goal is the ultimate wisdom. Ligeia the Undying. She, more than mere woman, she, whose Will is immortal!”"

Lame. This happens to a few of the stories and it's always downright embarrassing when it does.

-All the stories rely on cheap hacky twists;

All of these stories do the Ligotti thing where at the end there's a twist that changes the fundamentals of the story. The problem is that these twists are hacky and lame and because every single story has them they become predictable.

Not only that, but because of the half-bakedness of the stories that was already explained, often times these twists are literally a single short paragraph long. Take per example A Question of Following Orders, about a German soldier in WW1 deserting and going into a forest village where a psychic lady is attacked by an undead. The soldier is then informed by a sexton that helps him kill the zombie that the lady was not being attacked by the undead but is indeed the one to wake them up repeatedly. The story thus ends like:

"Kugel could not think straight. This whole business was confusing. He felt cold and numb. Funny that he had not noticed it before, but only now was he bothered by the fact he had long since ceased to blink. He absent-mindedly ran his fingers over the left side of his body and discovered two bullet holes in his tunic. It was then that he aimed his rifle at the sexton and pulled the trigger.

The séance was calling to him, and he could not resist the summons."

Haha, Kugel was dead all along, this is why he's here... except, what does this twist change, really? Fucking nothing, it comes out of nowhere, Kugel already had a perfectly valid reason to desert as the first part of the story explains to us in detail, there's no foreshadowing to this in Kugel's mannerisms or any events that might indicate it. It's a cheap, lame twist with no development whatsoever, coming only at the very last short sentences of the story.

-The stories are kinda pretentious.

All of these stories have an unbearable air of pretension to them, I really cannot stand some of them. The amount of times we see ranting against MODERN SOCIETY THAT ENSLAVES US WITH TV SHOWS AND CELEBRITY CULTURE, MAN in completely unironic tones is just embarrassing for any grown adult to publish, unless the point was to deliberately make us hate the narrators, which I really doubt, because nothing else in the stories indicate we should hate them nor would us hating them serve any purpose. The author page here in Goodreads state that the "protagonists gradually discover terrifying and rapturous vistas lurking behind modernity", which justifies me thinking that the author thinks there's some Ligotti-esque depth to these stories, but there just isn't, lol.

I could mention a billion other things wrong about the collection, like how the story The Black Mould is just baby's first cosmic horror and that it takes the most predictable path possible - it's about a black mould that consumes the entire universe, and so I thought "ok so he's gonna describe the black mould destroying earth and humans will be shown as insignificant" and sure enough:

"One insignificant species amongst the many millions in the universe succumbed to the mould after vain attempts to resist its advance. This species, a nearly hairless race of anthropoids, habited the third planet orbiting an undistinguished star. The mould consumed the outer gas giants and the satellites of this solar system one by one. The simians watched with mounting terror as the spores drew inexorably nearer, moving unaccountably against the solar wind and turning the red desert planet in fourth orbit as black as the other outer worlds."

But really, you get the point, the book is just lame, it lacks real emotional weight, it lacks visceral scares, it lacks striking, unforgettably disturbing imagery, it lacks intrigue and buildup - in short, it lacks everything that good horror is made of. I can't even hate it, because it's too generic to feel strongly about, which is its own form of limbo. For "weird fiction", it is unbelievable how bland and normal it is.

[Xisix · Rating 4 out of 5]

Creeping horror. Truth behind superficial appearances. Digital madness. Daemonick texts. Huzzah. Prolly favoriote out ov bunch was "Thyxxolqu" in which mysterious words appear. A Language Pandemic. A Burroughs//Cronenburg//PKD cavalcade. Although enjoyed text, I wish there was bit more variety in cosmic horror. Fits hand in claw with books by Laird Barron.

[Frederick Heimbach · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this collection of stories, but as it is psychological horror in the vein of Ligotti and, yes, Machen, I was expecting to love it. I did not; not quite.

The problem with this kind of writing is the surprise or the reveal needs to be really startling and horrifying because the setup may be dull. Sometimes, the reveal is just that, as in the stories where destruction comes by a force that, because of its dumb, impersonal nature, will not respond to reason, bribes, or pleas for mercy.

With his formal tone, long discursive passages and minimal dialog, the author has chosen to avoid lively dialog and other devices that give the reader relief from the bleak tone. (As Samuels chose mold--yes, mold--for one story's POV character, there wasn't much dialog there!) There is no wit here; whatever humor is going to come in shades of charcoal gray. Like Ligotti's narrators (although not as relentlessly) Samuels' characters are atomized loners moving in a barren, seedy, and industrialized urban landscape. Nowhere is there found the milk of human kindness; nowhere are bright petunias growing in flower boxes. Human contact is either impossible due to the prison-like design of the world or otherwise frustrated by an epidemic of insanity. People never connect in these stories--and that's the point! But as I say, the grim bluntness gets to you after a while.

Here's a example of the elevated diction that links Samuels with the great horror writers of the last two centuries:

Some terrible change hand affected not only my patient, but also the very confines in which the motley drama was being enacted, for the shadows in that phantasmagoric chamber seemed to have taken on a life of their own, flitting up and down the arabesque desings on the tapestries that shrouded the vast and lofty walls.

That writing is very Machen--but with a mad patient, not a mad doctor. That writing is very Lovecraft--as is the mention, a few sentences later, of "something I can only put into words as the geometry of the color yellow."

My favorite story takes "The Library of Babel" as its explicit starting point and goes in a more bluntly horrifying direction. In fact, the seemingly magical power of words, their power to slip the bonds of their authors' intent to act as free immoral agents, is a recurring interest of this author.

I really liked the resolutions; I didn't quite love them. For the record, I found Ligetti similarly tough to take beyond small doses. Fans of Ligotti or Machen will likely give this 5 enthusiastic stars.

[Shawn · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm going to be a dick and spoil all this mushy baby food Samuels offered up so spoilers I guess.

1. Lonesef Express - He was dead the whole time! It's an allegory for self loathing!

2. The Man Who Collected Machen - Just lays there like a turd that drops right to the bottom of the toilet bowl. Normally fake authors and their bibliographies fascinate and delight but there is not an ounce of creativity in this one. And that sudden "twist" that has no impact is weak.

3. THYXXOLQU - The best story in this collection and of course it rips off Borges but hey the narration isn't shit and the tone and ending actually work.

4. The Mould - So nihilistic man *bong rip* we are just hairless apes *long exhale* fucking scary shit you think that mold is really out there?

5. Xapalpa - Samuels must have been proud of the extensive research and detail that went into this one. Just kidding, rote xenophobic trash.

6. Glickman the Bibliophile - Really cool idea, just shit execution. The reveal and shift seem so out of fucking nowhere and no time is given to build up tension that the thing is just D.O.A.

7. A Question of Obeying Orders - Wow are we getting a narrator with a distinct personality and flavor? And a decent gothic horror twist? Better late than never I suppose.

8. Nor Unto Death Utterly by Edmund Bertrand - Yup yup your typical Poe fanboy inclusion. Doesn't even have the balls to try and doll it up as anything else. How does he keep getting away with it?

9. A Contaminated Text - Oh it was badly told for the sake of a punchline? Sure. Okay.

10. The Age of Decayed Futurity - Hey look at me I'm writing as a woman! Do you know I am a woman telling this story? Good now let's switch back to a male narration because I can't keep this up. Also, soapbox time!

11. The Tower - Dear Mr. Ligotti, I know you don't like me but sometimes I get sad and wonder if mankind was a mistake too. When I grow up I am gonna be a real horror writer just like you!

In summation, bad narration, zero tension, potluck adjectives and generic existential dread with no voice of its own plagues this collection, which may be a meta call by Samuels but I doubt it. It's a homage I understand that it couldn't be more obvious but a homage is fucking boring if you're doing nothing of your own with it and it's annoying if you can't even tell it correctly.

[John Allen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mark Samuels is an author obsessed with the horrific propensities of linguistics and it is obvious that this is a man who has spent many (or a few hours) puzzling over a word, a sentence, or a phrase, slowly coming to understand how mind rupturing it could become were it taken out of context. Or what madness can result from too prolonged meditations on consonants, vowels, phonemes...

"As he struggled to recall which of the textbooks contained the reference, Barron caught sight of something the size of a large cat moving amidst the undergrowth of weeds between the two tombs. The thing was curiously shapeless, and a mottled grey colour. Perhaps it was just Barron's fever playing tricks, but he could have sworn the thing had been crawling with more than four limbs." --"Xapalpa."

Quite obviously a fan of Machen, stories like "Glickman the Bibliophile", "THYXXOLQU" and perhaps the ugliest ("The Black Mould") Lay the Author's Heart Somewhat Bare regarding things of the cosmos. Easily some of the best weird fiction being written anywhere, by anyone.

[Barrita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Es una colección que hace tributo a muchos autores weird, con escenarios inusuales donde lo terrorífico o inquietante no son necesariamente monstruos sino lo cotidiano volviéndose inexplicable.

Encontré, inesperadamente, un par de historias ubicadas en México y aunque algunas de las escenas me parecieron originales, creo que les faltaron dos pesitos de mexicaneidad.

Al final, cumple con lo que un libro weird suele tener: desbalancear a la audiencia y generar sensaciones de extraneza, irrealidad y agitación.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Losenef Express - An American writer commits an impulse murder in a small town in eastern Europe. The character resembles Karl Edward Wagner.

[Ignotus K. · Rating 5 out of 5]

De momento, la mejor lectura del año.
Luego de leer el libro de bizarro fiction, mis ganas de volver a explorar mi ya conocida y amada weird fiction se renovaron, de modo que, buscando autores parecidos a Ballingrud (que leí el año anterior con Wounds, excelente antología), me topé con una recomendación pintoresca. "El hombre que coleccionaba a Machen y otros cuentos extraños". Qué gran título. ¡Vamos!
Mark Samuels es un autor... No, comencemos de nuevo. Mark Samuels es un fan del terror y, asimismo, un autor del género. Desde el título de la antología hasta los mismos cuentos, la obra reboza de homenajes y referencias a obras y autores clásicos de las letras oscuras, desde Poe, Lovecraft hasta el mismísimo Machen, e incluso Borges. Samuels no esconde sus raíces, por el contrario, rinde honor a sus maestros con alegría y creatividad en cada pequeño mundo de caos creado por su pluma.
Disfruté mucho cada pieza, en especial porque no se podía predecir qué vendría en el próximo cuento. Y, como anécdota, llegué a tener pesadillas con uno, el representante del horro cósmico. No me había pasado antes, ni siquiera con Lovecraft.
Si bien no todos los cuentos fueron del nivel más alto, sí la mayoría puso a la luz la destreza de Samuels como autor, incluso algunos en cuyo inicio sentí que no me llegarían a gustar. Destaco los siguientes, que representan mis favoritos: THYXXOLQU, un horror relacionado al lenguaje (que se puede leer en español, si así se quiere, en la antología Sui Generis, una compilación Weird), Glickman the Bibliophile y A Contaminated Text, dos lecturas dedicadas a los libros y su poder.
En síntesis, una entretenida recopilación que se lee rápida y fácilmente, un festejo del género y sus más influyentes temas y autores.