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Nightingale Songs
In the dead of night, there are footsteps in the hall . . .
In the dead of night, your past mistakes will haunt you . . .
In the dead of night, you hear a discordant tune . . .
In the dead of night, the nightingale sings . . .
Simon Strantzas, master of the subtle and the bizarre, returns with a dozen strange tales and eerie mysteries. From the shores of a remote oil-stained sound to deep within the familiar heart of suburbia, these are the songs of broken people who cannot find a way to fix themselves, who must search the dark for salvation. Like a siren, the nightingale sings them onward to face their end. But it sings for you too. A requiem in your honor. Because, for you, it is already too late.
Table of Contents
In the Nightingale, Waiting for the Curtain to Rise, an Introduction by John Langan
Out of Touch
Her Father’s Daughter
The Deafening Sound of Slumber
Unreasonable Doubt
Tend Your Own Garden
The Nightingale
Pale Light in the Jungle
An Indelible Stain upon the Sky
Something New
Mr. Kneale
Everything Floats
When Sorrows Come
Afterword
In the dead of night, your past mistakes will haunt you . . .
In the dead of night, you hear a discordant tune . . .
In the dead of night, the nightingale sings . . .
Simon Strantzas, master of the subtle and the bizarre, returns with a dozen strange tales and eerie mysteries. From the shores of a remote oil-stained sound to deep within the familiar heart of suburbia, these are the songs of broken people who cannot find a way to fix themselves, who must search the dark for salvation. Like a siren, the nightingale sings them onward to face their end. But it sings for you too. A requiem in your honor. Because, for you, it is already too late.
Table of Contents
In the Nightingale, Waiting for the Curtain to Rise, an Introduction by John Langan
Out of Touch
Her Father’s Daughter
The Deafening Sound of Slumber
Unreasonable Doubt
Tend Your Own Garden
The Nightingale
Pale Light in the Jungle
An Indelible Stain upon the Sky
Something New
Mr. Kneale
Everything Floats
When Sorrows Come
Afterword
178 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2011
7 people are currently reading
500 people want to read
About the author
Simon Strantzas
96 books283 followersSimon Strantzas is the author of Nothing is Everything, Burnt Black Suns, Nightingale Songs, Cold to the Touch and Beneath the Surface and has been nominated for the British Fantasy and Shirley Jackson Awards. His work has been appeared in The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror (ed. Stephen Jones), The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror (ed. by Paula Guran), Best Horror of the Year (ed. by Ellen Datlow), Cemetery Dance, and Nightmare. He lives in Toronto, Canada.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
October 22, 2020
In a 2014 interview with "The Arkham Digest" blog Simon Strantzas characterized his first short story collection Beneath the Surface as Ligottian and Lovecraftian, his second Cold to the Touch as Aickmanesque, and this third collection as a "hybrid" of the two where he came into his own.
This is the fourth collection by Strantzas I've read, but it has been years since I read anything by him and this reminded me what a great writer he is. I thought "Her Father’s Daughter" was one of the best short stories I've read all year, and others like "An Indelible Stain Upon The Sky" and "When Sorrows Come" had such pitch perfect atmosphere, you become so wrapped in the setting and mood, it lingers in the mind long afterward. It's hard to say since I read his other collections years ago, but I think I enjoyed this one the most of the four -- even more than his later collection Burnt Black Suns.
In the introduction John Langan mentions a third influence on Strantzas' work -- that of Ramsey Campbell. We can see this in almost all of these stories which are full of subtle little creepy hints and suggestions, often backed up by effectively built suspense and sustained tension. Although I enjoyed all of the stories I will admit that in some of them like "The Nightingale" or "Mr. Kneale" the horror elements weren't as subtle as in the best stories here, and didn't feel as effective to me, but there's too many other treasures here to complain too much.
Out Of Touch - This is a good story, but sits somewhere toward the middle of the pack I thought. It has a feel of Aickman-inspired ambiguity, especially at the end. I liked seemingly bland suburb of cookie-cutter houses as a setting for a weird tale that contains some tangibly creepy moments. A boy dealing with family problems becomes frightened, yet fascinated by an unoccupied house across the street.
Her Father’s Daughter - Wow, this is amazing, one of Strantzas best I'd say. We have a familiar theme, someone stranded on a country road seeks shelter for the night -- but there's so many delightfully eerie moments and an effective emotional backdrop on top of it, the effect is stunning and original.
The Deafening Sound Of Slumber - I love the setting for this story, very original -- a sleep lab. This one is far more Ligotti than Aickman, also with its share of creepy moments, albeit they're more shouted than whispered. A man conducting an experiment in a sleep lab with an absentee director is becoming concerned about the health of the participants.
Unreasonable Doubt - This isn't a bad story, but it was one of my least favorites here. This is a ghost tale, but what I liked most was the almost supernatural, Shirley Jackson-esque sense of assumed guilt and the power of community gossip. A doctor tries to help an old friend who is haunted by an event from his past that no one lets him live down.
Tend Your Own Garden - Ramsey Campbell's work comes to mind in the first half in this one in particular; the disorientating details, and the way the horror creeps up on us through suggestion. A man returns to his old home, taken from him by his cheating ex-wife. While searching for a box of documents in the basement he discovers the house seems to taken on a new character since his departure.
The Nightingale - I liked this one a lot although the ending wasn't quite to my taste. I also liked the little humorous winks Strantzas throws in (the "owlish" Mr. Pellet, srsly?). A man becomes obsessed with a nightclub singer who seems to hold a supernatural influence over him.
Pale Light In The Jungle - I'm really not sure what the heck this story is ultimately about, but it is full of great, creepy moments and growing dread. Seems to be a commentary on the numbing effect of television and technology, but in its absence, what does the silence invite in?
An Indelible Stain Upon The Sky - This one has a deliciously oppressive atmosphere, it's so evocative and impactful I thought it was among the best. There's enough unanswered questions left to effectively add to the mood. A man returns to a seaside village which was ruined by a oil spill and is tainted with painful memories.
Something New - This one begins with one of the most conventional sort of settings, but then throws in a surprise I never saw coming. This wasn't among my favorites but I did appreciate the chances it takes, which pay off. All I will say of the plot is it's about a young woman reluctantly attending a wedding reception.
Mr. Kneale - This is a story of horror conventions, authors and audiences. It reminded me a bit of Karl Edward Wagner's "Neither Brute Nor Human" which has a similar setting/theme. I liked the overall story more than the horror elements which I thought came off a bit too obvious. A man attending a horror fiction convention notices creepy changes in a longtime friend.
Everything Floats - Whew, this story is a master class is building suspense. The tension never flags, there's subtly placed hints and the end delivers quite a punch. After a couple move into a new home with their first child they begin to sense a presence in the place.
When Sorrows Come - A wonderful story to end on, a similar haunting mood as "An Indelible Stain Upon The Sky" and similar in some respects but with an even more devastating ending. This one is full of plenty of weird little details to wonder about. I won't describe the plot, so as to not ruin it.
This is the fourth collection by Strantzas I've read, but it has been years since I read anything by him and this reminded me what a great writer he is. I thought "Her Father’s Daughter" was one of the best short stories I've read all year, and others like "An Indelible Stain Upon The Sky" and "When Sorrows Come" had such pitch perfect atmosphere, you become so wrapped in the setting and mood, it lingers in the mind long afterward. It's hard to say since I read his other collections years ago, but I think I enjoyed this one the most of the four -- even more than his later collection Burnt Black Suns.
In the introduction John Langan mentions a third influence on Strantzas' work -- that of Ramsey Campbell. We can see this in almost all of these stories which are full of subtle little creepy hints and suggestions, often backed up by effectively built suspense and sustained tension. Although I enjoyed all of the stories I will admit that in some of them like "The Nightingale" or "Mr. Kneale" the horror elements weren't as subtle as in the best stories here, and didn't feel as effective to me, but there's too many other treasures here to complain too much.
Out Of Touch - This is a good story, but sits somewhere toward the middle of the pack I thought. It has a feel of Aickman-inspired ambiguity, especially at the end. I liked seemingly bland suburb of cookie-cutter houses as a setting for a weird tale that contains some tangibly creepy moments. A boy dealing with family problems becomes frightened, yet fascinated by an unoccupied house across the street.
Her Father’s Daughter - Wow, this is amazing, one of Strantzas best I'd say. We have a familiar theme, someone stranded on a country road seeks shelter for the night -- but there's so many delightfully eerie moments and an effective emotional backdrop on top of it, the effect is stunning and original.
The Deafening Sound Of Slumber - I love the setting for this story, very original -- a sleep lab. This one is far more Ligotti than Aickman, also with its share of creepy moments, albeit they're more shouted than whispered. A man conducting an experiment in a sleep lab with an absentee director is becoming concerned about the health of the participants.
Unreasonable Doubt - This isn't a bad story, but it was one of my least favorites here. This is a ghost tale, but what I liked most was the almost supernatural, Shirley Jackson-esque sense of assumed guilt and the power of community gossip. A doctor tries to help an old friend who is haunted by an event from his past that no one lets him live down.
Tend Your Own Garden - Ramsey Campbell's work comes to mind in the first half in this one in particular; the disorientating details, and the way the horror creeps up on us through suggestion. A man returns to his old home, taken from him by his cheating ex-wife. While searching for a box of documents in the basement he discovers the house seems to taken on a new character since his departure.
The Nightingale - I liked this one a lot although the ending wasn't quite to my taste. I also liked the little humorous winks Strantzas throws in (the "owlish" Mr. Pellet, srsly?). A man becomes obsessed with a nightclub singer who seems to hold a supernatural influence over him.
Pale Light In The Jungle - I'm really not sure what the heck this story is ultimately about, but it is full of great, creepy moments and growing dread. Seems to be a commentary on the numbing effect of television and technology, but in its absence, what does the silence invite in?
An Indelible Stain Upon The Sky - This one has a deliciously oppressive atmosphere, it's so evocative and impactful I thought it was among the best. There's enough unanswered questions left to effectively add to the mood. A man returns to a seaside village which was ruined by a oil spill and is tainted with painful memories.
Something New - This one begins with one of the most conventional sort of settings, but then throws in a surprise I never saw coming. This wasn't among my favorites but I did appreciate the chances it takes, which pay off. All I will say of the plot is it's about a young woman reluctantly attending a wedding reception.
Mr. Kneale - This is a story of horror conventions, authors and audiences. It reminded me a bit of Karl Edward Wagner's "Neither Brute Nor Human" which has a similar setting/theme. I liked the overall story more than the horror elements which I thought came off a bit too obvious. A man attending a horror fiction convention notices creepy changes in a longtime friend.
Everything Floats - Whew, this story is a master class is building suspense. The tension never flags, there's subtly placed hints and the end delivers quite a punch. After a couple move into a new home with their first child they begin to sense a presence in the place.
When Sorrows Come - A wonderful story to end on, a similar haunting mood as "An Indelible Stain Upon The Sky" and similar in some respects but with an even more devastating ending. This one is full of plenty of weird little details to wonder about. I won't describe the plot, so as to not ruin it.
January 19, 2015
Another fine collection of weird fiction from one of the most original voices in the field. Strantzas has been carving his own niche in the world of horror and dark fantasy for several years now, and he just gets better and better. Deeply influenced by Robert Aickman, Strantzas writes stories where the everyday is interrupted, often to devastating effect, by something beyond human understanding or explanation. This could leave readers who are looking for narrative cohesion, or indeed any sort of explanation for the supernatural horrors that befall Strantzas's characters, feeling at a loss. Yet if you look closer you'll see in those horrors the characters' deep fears and long-repressed emotions made real. Strantzas's fiction is routinely dark and rarely offers a happy ending -- even rarer is any kind of return to the status quo of the everyday -- but the imagination on display in his work is its own reward. This collection, like all his others, is well worth your time.
July 23, 2013
The genre of popular literature commonly known as Supernatural or Horror Fiction is going through somewhat of a Renaissance these days, and in doing so, its practitioners, consumers, and overall celebrants threaten to unknowingly abandon part of Horror Fiction's past in favor of a seemingly new incarnation that is really just the same creature dressed in a different set of clothing. Smaller hats and longer sleeves, to hide the scars and the rad tattoos purchased back in more classic yet looser time. A time before irony and paralyzing self consciousness.
Slasher cinema and the "YA-ing" of centuries-old supernatural creatures and tropes seems to be one of the biggest culprits in this unspoken yet readily apparent re-branding, but so too are the pop culture success stories of certain writers of "horror books" that sometimes cut as deep as a Bic razor, with scars that last about as long. In an unrelated artistic field, it brings to mind so many modern/hipster bands fleeing the sexy, dangerous roots of rock 'n roll, so as not to be associated with the embarrassing lipstick and Aqua Net years of super popular hair metal. The sad part of this is that rock music will always be rock music, and the swagger and smoke of its founding should never be fully forgotten, even if it eventually wore spandex.
Put it simply (and with far less digression): Horror is out. The Weird is in.
Indeed, Horror or Supernatural Fiction is now better known to fledgling readers as Weird Fiction. I, too, am guilty of aiding this re-christening of that tasty miasma of Dark Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Horror Fiction as a monolithic product better known as The Weird, for reasons that have as much to do with interpretation as they do with a lazy sort of short hand (Speculative Fiction is also an increasingly popular catch-all phrase, also liberally employed by yours truly... I'm nothing if not honest).
With that clumsily rendered primer expressed, I'd like to announce Simon Strantzas as an unabashed champion of straight up Horror Fiction, and for that, he should be applauded. He should also be applauded for his own unsettling tales and contributions to the above, which are meditative explorations of the dark and chilling, which touch on diverse foundational points that make up the creaking yet sturdy skeleton of Horror past, present, and future. He kicks stereotypes in the nuts with his clean, confident carving of the subtle bizarre that doesn't dance on the horizon, but does a jerky, beady-eyed soft shoe through your living room during Sunday family dinner. He isn't a barking merchant of swirling, universal doom. He's whispered death amongst the hydrangeas in your own goddamn backyard. He's a '57 Chevy, a Colt six shooter. He's a Horror writer.
Strantzas, the Toronto-based, British Fantasy Award-nominated author of the critically hailed Cold to the Touch (currently out of print and selling privately for upwards of $170) and Beneath the Surface, recently released his anticipated third collection, Nightingale Songs, which explores all those great themes that make up great Horror Fiction - madness, ghosts, hauntings, misshapen freaks, deadly creatures, old houses that are a threat by their very lean and aspect. Strantzas' horror unspools in the bedroom, the musty basement, the decrepit hotel room, that claustrophobic cabin in the woods, in the backstage area of that poorly lit nightclub, around that piano that always sits empty. He has an introspective, sometimes existential style, deeply exploring the mental and physical breakdown that often manifest before or because of some jarring, unexplainable event. The outside world rarely invades these intimate scenes, nor is it effected by the terrible things that occur... at least not yet. What is effected are those few, intertwined individuals caught in this strange, terrifying nightmare without end or rational resolution other than oblivion.
In Nightingale Songs, Strantzas' horror can be nameless, but rarely is it from the stars. Insanity lurks, but it comes not from ageless, whispering gods from another dimension. These terrors creep from someplace far closer - from the nearby wilderness, from across the street, or even from within. His monsters are those that lurk in the dark, ignored places, both inside us and out. Danger to ourselves and those we love - which, for my money, is the heart of all Horror - has no one single origination, nor any real solution, creating a frustration of dread, of the grinding inevitable that the protagonist is powerless to change. Much like Alfred Hitchcock took great relish in horrorizing those mundane, often comforting things we deal with every day (a bathroom shower, a flock of birds, an innocuous chat with an old friend), so too does Strantzas inject the bizarre into the commonplace, with devastating results.
He bends supernaturality (if I may coin a word) to its breaking point, but doesn't snap it, allowing the Horror he writes - no matter how fantastic or shocking the outcome - to assume the trappings of reality. This stuff could happen, he'll have us believe, and MUST, to people who seem familiar enough to be glaring back at us in the mirror each day. This isn't fantasy casting, folks. This is the PTA, the corner table of muttering hipsters, the person sleeping next to you. Strantzas' characters have deep, meaningful, loving relationships (a rarity in Horror, it seems), steady jobs, friends and family. They are us, which makes what happens to them/us all the more visceral. These twelve tales place horror on our lap, daggers wrapped in velvet.
To again parallel Hitchcock, Strantzas creates a thinking person's style of Horror and Weird (sorry) Fiction that is patient and trusting enough to let the audience connect the pattern in the wood grain, and write the coda in their own mind long after the nightingale's song has ended. That is the essence of Horror - that personal, insidious presentation that inspires an unsettling mindfuck created unconsciously but no less powerfully by the mind of the readers themselves. Once the door is opened, we always scare ourselves best. Simon Strantzas, bless him, opens many doors.
In Nightingale Songs, Strantzas' stories run the dusky gamut, drawing in varied notes and thematic flourishes from around the creepy spectrum like jaunty, oddly grinning pianist working the ivories (as an aside: pianos feature in two of the stories in this collection, and somehow Strantzas has permanently knocked the docile instrument out of alignment and left it forever latently menacing). In "Pale Light in the Jungle," Strantzas comments on the stultifying power of television and other technological noise, the eeriness of new quiet, and how boredom and apathetic rot masked by electronic media can have dire consequences. "The Nightingale" and "Something New", while differing greatly plot-wise, both share veins of longing turned to unexpected obsession, and are just as unnerving and Weird as anything you'll read today. These are two grisly, Lynchian nightmares bolstered by a Ligottian backbeat, set in Midtown of Anytown and yet No Town where I'd want to live, but probably do. "Her Father's Daughter" embraces classic Horror themes and situations from both the page and screen (car breakdown on abandoned road, cell phone trouble, creepy-ass farm house) with a dash of the supernatural, and while the setting is chilling, I wanted a bit more out of the ending.
I don't think I'm alone in saying that Strantzas is at his best when constructing his tales atop the relationship scaffolding built between a man and a woman, which are often quite powerful and surprisingly passionate. This is refreshing, as one doesn't tend to see that in a lot of modern Horror of Weird Fiction (and next to never in Lovecraftian fiction), which often cavort with anti-heroes and outcasts, loners and four-time losers at love. Strantzas, on the other hand, seems to almost be a "Big R" Romantic, celebrating the power of real, abiding love, and showing you what can happen because of it, or due to a sudden lack of it. "An Indelible Stain Upon the Sky" (recently selected for inclusion in The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 23, edited by the renowned Stephen Jones) and "When Sorrows Come" truly hum on the page, creating a duet of profound heartache that echo long after like a dirge. The protagonists are gutted by lost love, allowing the noxious blackness to seep into the empty spaces between the cracks. "Tend Your Own Garden" takes a different angle on relationships, and crafts a bold, frightening metaphor of bitter breakup and betrayal embodied by a once shared house. These three tales anchor Nightingale Songs, and provide a thematic melody present throughout the collection.
In addition to the Romantic, Strantzas work can also get close to you through nostalgia. "Out of Touch", which starts out the collection, brings to mind an era familiar to me, when children still explored their suburban neighborhoods and the wilder places just beyond on bikes that could have been chariots. The critically acclaimed "Mr. Kneale," another stand-out, allows Strantzas to comment on the Horror Fiction industry in general - and inspiration in particular - by setting his story in the realm of the horror convention. It's a truly spooky tale, with plenty of multilevel bite.
In short, Simon Strantzas is a writer in full bloom, and Nightingale Songs shows all of his varied foliage. These are powerful stories, adroitly told, which serve to stack him up favorably with anyone writing Horror/Weird fiction today.
Slasher cinema and the "YA-ing" of centuries-old supernatural creatures and tropes seems to be one of the biggest culprits in this unspoken yet readily apparent re-branding, but so too are the pop culture success stories of certain writers of "horror books" that sometimes cut as deep as a Bic razor, with scars that last about as long. In an unrelated artistic field, it brings to mind so many modern/hipster bands fleeing the sexy, dangerous roots of rock 'n roll, so as not to be associated with the embarrassing lipstick and Aqua Net years of super popular hair metal. The sad part of this is that rock music will always be rock music, and the swagger and smoke of its founding should never be fully forgotten, even if it eventually wore spandex.
Put it simply (and with far less digression): Horror is out. The Weird is in.
Indeed, Horror or Supernatural Fiction is now better known to fledgling readers as Weird Fiction. I, too, am guilty of aiding this re-christening of that tasty miasma of Dark Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Horror Fiction as a monolithic product better known as The Weird, for reasons that have as much to do with interpretation as they do with a lazy sort of short hand (Speculative Fiction is also an increasingly popular catch-all phrase, also liberally employed by yours truly... I'm nothing if not honest).
With that clumsily rendered primer expressed, I'd like to announce Simon Strantzas as an unabashed champion of straight up Horror Fiction, and for that, he should be applauded. He should also be applauded for his own unsettling tales and contributions to the above, which are meditative explorations of the dark and chilling, which touch on diverse foundational points that make up the creaking yet sturdy skeleton of Horror past, present, and future. He kicks stereotypes in the nuts with his clean, confident carving of the subtle bizarre that doesn't dance on the horizon, but does a jerky, beady-eyed soft shoe through your living room during Sunday family dinner. He isn't a barking merchant of swirling, universal doom. He's whispered death amongst the hydrangeas in your own goddamn backyard. He's a '57 Chevy, a Colt six shooter. He's a Horror writer.
Strantzas, the Toronto-based, British Fantasy Award-nominated author of the critically hailed Cold to the Touch (currently out of print and selling privately for upwards of $170) and Beneath the Surface, recently released his anticipated third collection, Nightingale Songs, which explores all those great themes that make up great Horror Fiction - madness, ghosts, hauntings, misshapen freaks, deadly creatures, old houses that are a threat by their very lean and aspect. Strantzas' horror unspools in the bedroom, the musty basement, the decrepit hotel room, that claustrophobic cabin in the woods, in the backstage area of that poorly lit nightclub, around that piano that always sits empty. He has an introspective, sometimes existential style, deeply exploring the mental and physical breakdown that often manifest before or because of some jarring, unexplainable event. The outside world rarely invades these intimate scenes, nor is it effected by the terrible things that occur... at least not yet. What is effected are those few, intertwined individuals caught in this strange, terrifying nightmare without end or rational resolution other than oblivion.
In Nightingale Songs, Strantzas' horror can be nameless, but rarely is it from the stars. Insanity lurks, but it comes not from ageless, whispering gods from another dimension. These terrors creep from someplace far closer - from the nearby wilderness, from across the street, or even from within. His monsters are those that lurk in the dark, ignored places, both inside us and out. Danger to ourselves and those we love - which, for my money, is the heart of all Horror - has no one single origination, nor any real solution, creating a frustration of dread, of the grinding inevitable that the protagonist is powerless to change. Much like Alfred Hitchcock took great relish in horrorizing those mundane, often comforting things we deal with every day (a bathroom shower, a flock of birds, an innocuous chat with an old friend), so too does Strantzas inject the bizarre into the commonplace, with devastating results.
He bends supernaturality (if I may coin a word) to its breaking point, but doesn't snap it, allowing the Horror he writes - no matter how fantastic or shocking the outcome - to assume the trappings of reality. This stuff could happen, he'll have us believe, and MUST, to people who seem familiar enough to be glaring back at us in the mirror each day. This isn't fantasy casting, folks. This is the PTA, the corner table of muttering hipsters, the person sleeping next to you. Strantzas' characters have deep, meaningful, loving relationships (a rarity in Horror, it seems), steady jobs, friends and family. They are us, which makes what happens to them/us all the more visceral. These twelve tales place horror on our lap, daggers wrapped in velvet.
To again parallel Hitchcock, Strantzas creates a thinking person's style of Horror and Weird (sorry) Fiction that is patient and trusting enough to let the audience connect the pattern in the wood grain, and write the coda in their own mind long after the nightingale's song has ended. That is the essence of Horror - that personal, insidious presentation that inspires an unsettling mindfuck created unconsciously but no less powerfully by the mind of the readers themselves. Once the door is opened, we always scare ourselves best. Simon Strantzas, bless him, opens many doors.
In Nightingale Songs, Strantzas' stories run the dusky gamut, drawing in varied notes and thematic flourishes from around the creepy spectrum like jaunty, oddly grinning pianist working the ivories (as an aside: pianos feature in two of the stories in this collection, and somehow Strantzas has permanently knocked the docile instrument out of alignment and left it forever latently menacing). In "Pale Light in the Jungle," Strantzas comments on the stultifying power of television and other technological noise, the eeriness of new quiet, and how boredom and apathetic rot masked by electronic media can have dire consequences. "The Nightingale" and "Something New", while differing greatly plot-wise, both share veins of longing turned to unexpected obsession, and are just as unnerving and Weird as anything you'll read today. These are two grisly, Lynchian nightmares bolstered by a Ligottian backbeat, set in Midtown of Anytown and yet No Town where I'd want to live, but probably do. "Her Father's Daughter" embraces classic Horror themes and situations from both the page and screen (car breakdown on abandoned road, cell phone trouble, creepy-ass farm house) with a dash of the supernatural, and while the setting is chilling, I wanted a bit more out of the ending.
I don't think I'm alone in saying that Strantzas is at his best when constructing his tales atop the relationship scaffolding built between a man and a woman, which are often quite powerful and surprisingly passionate. This is refreshing, as one doesn't tend to see that in a lot of modern Horror of Weird Fiction (and next to never in Lovecraftian fiction), which often cavort with anti-heroes and outcasts, loners and four-time losers at love. Strantzas, on the other hand, seems to almost be a "Big R" Romantic, celebrating the power of real, abiding love, and showing you what can happen because of it, or due to a sudden lack of it. "An Indelible Stain Upon the Sky" (recently selected for inclusion in The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 23, edited by the renowned Stephen Jones) and "When Sorrows Come" truly hum on the page, creating a duet of profound heartache that echo long after like a dirge. The protagonists are gutted by lost love, allowing the noxious blackness to seep into the empty spaces between the cracks. "Tend Your Own Garden" takes a different angle on relationships, and crafts a bold, frightening metaphor of bitter breakup and betrayal embodied by a once shared house. These three tales anchor Nightingale Songs, and provide a thematic melody present throughout the collection.
In addition to the Romantic, Strantzas work can also get close to you through nostalgia. "Out of Touch", which starts out the collection, brings to mind an era familiar to me, when children still explored their suburban neighborhoods and the wilder places just beyond on bikes that could have been chariots. The critically acclaimed "Mr. Kneale," another stand-out, allows Strantzas to comment on the Horror Fiction industry in general - and inspiration in particular - by setting his story in the realm of the horror convention. It's a truly spooky tale, with plenty of multilevel bite.
In short, Simon Strantzas is a writer in full bloom, and Nightingale Songs shows all of his varied foliage. These are powerful stories, adroitly told, which serve to stack him up favorably with anyone writing Horror/Weird fiction today.
January 16, 2012
Well, this is now my second collection of short stories by Strantzas (unfortunately I have not gotten my hands on his first collection BENEATH THE SURFACE). Based on the afterward, I understand that this third collection is supposed to be an amalgam of the various influences that pressed upon collections one and two... that of Lovecraft, Ligotti, and Aickman.
However those influences come to bare, clearly we have a highly original and innovative voice from this outstanding author who is really mastering the modern weird tale.
As I certainly do enjoy the more literary type of weird/horror/uncanny kind of tale, I of course can count myself as a Ligotti fan. Coincidentally, one of my favorite stories in this collection, "Deafening Sound of Slumber", probably had the most Ligottian feel to it than any other story in this collection. The oppressive atmosphere really kept you enthralled by this tale, and Strantzas' exploration of the unknown cosmic darkness was masterful. While this one was probably the least subtle tale in this collection, it was incredibly satisfying in its ability to harrow the reader through and through , with a similar ending (a complete falling into the void) as another one of his outstanding cosmic tales, "Pinholes in Black Muslin" (found in COLD TO THE TOUCH).
In addition to this dark gem, I found a few other stories that really stood out for me:
"Mr Kneale": I wonder if this one was semi-biographical. Strantzas does a wonderful job presenting us with the two sided argument of art versus commercial success and transporting us the the world of writers and Weird Conventions. While I certainly don't claim allegiance to either side, as it relates to horror fiction, this tale really hit home for me. I liked that Strantzas was able to take jabs at the pretentious and at the same time defend the artist's ideal. Thematics aside, Strantzas paints us a picture of a particularly grotesque and unnerving antagonist, in Mr Kneale. The imagery was incredibly well done and easily made him a very unlikeable character (which was clearly the point). He reminded me a little of Reggie Oliver's dwarf protagonist, Mr. Pignsy. Both characters being thoroughly disquieting to the reader.
"An Indelible Stain upon the Sky": This one was very reminiscent to Leiber's "Black Gondolier", in its thematic treatment of ecological disaster and corruption by the ugliness and horror of an oil spill. Unlike, the "Black Gondolier", Strantzas chooses to explore the corruption of a loving relationship by this inky blackness. By the end of this exploration we are left with a viscous taint of depression, as felt through the regrets of the main character.
"When Sorrows Come": This one was very similar to "And Indelible Stain" (they felt a bit like brother and sister stories), in that we have a similarly elliptical plot that explores a previous event that led to the destruction of relationship between loved ones and the fallout and search for answers by the main character. And similar to the previous story, we see the main character return to the previous locale to relive his regrets and retrace his steps in search for an answer that he may not want to find.
While these three stories stood out for me, the rest of the stories were wonderfully done... not a single dud in this collection. And while, heavy on the atmospherics for each of these stories, there is a variety of themes, characters, and plots woven into each tale that make them all unique and enjoyable to read.
Strantzas is becoming one of those authors that upon notification by the publisher, I will automatically place an order. I'm really looking forward to Strantzas' future works.
Highly recommended!!
However those influences come to bare, clearly we have a highly original and innovative voice from this outstanding author who is really mastering the modern weird tale.
As I certainly do enjoy the more literary type of weird/horror/uncanny kind of tale, I of course can count myself as a Ligotti fan. Coincidentally, one of my favorite stories in this collection, "Deafening Sound of Slumber", probably had the most Ligottian feel to it than any other story in this collection. The oppressive atmosphere really kept you enthralled by this tale, and Strantzas' exploration of the unknown cosmic darkness was masterful. While this one was probably the least subtle tale in this collection, it was incredibly satisfying in its ability to harrow the reader through and through , with a similar ending (a complete falling into the void) as another one of his outstanding cosmic tales, "Pinholes in Black Muslin" (found in COLD TO THE TOUCH).
In addition to this dark gem, I found a few other stories that really stood out for me:
"Mr Kneale": I wonder if this one was semi-biographical. Strantzas does a wonderful job presenting us with the two sided argument of art versus commercial success and transporting us the the world of writers and Weird Conventions. While I certainly don't claim allegiance to either side, as it relates to horror fiction, this tale really hit home for me. I liked that Strantzas was able to take jabs at the pretentious and at the same time defend the artist's ideal. Thematics aside, Strantzas paints us a picture of a particularly grotesque and unnerving antagonist, in Mr Kneale. The imagery was incredibly well done and easily made him a very unlikeable character (which was clearly the point). He reminded me a little of Reggie Oliver's dwarf protagonist, Mr. Pignsy. Both characters being thoroughly disquieting to the reader.
"An Indelible Stain upon the Sky": This one was very reminiscent to Leiber's "Black Gondolier", in its thematic treatment of ecological disaster and corruption by the ugliness and horror of an oil spill. Unlike, the "Black Gondolier", Strantzas chooses to explore the corruption of a loving relationship by this inky blackness. By the end of this exploration we are left with a viscous taint of depression, as felt through the regrets of the main character.
"When Sorrows Come": This one was very similar to "And Indelible Stain" (they felt a bit like brother and sister stories), in that we have a similarly elliptical plot that explores a previous event that led to the destruction of relationship between loved ones and the fallout and search for answers by the main character. And similar to the previous story, we see the main character return to the previous locale to relive his regrets and retrace his steps in search for an answer that he may not want to find.
While these three stories stood out for me, the rest of the stories were wonderfully done... not a single dud in this collection. And while, heavy on the atmospherics for each of these stories, there is a variety of themes, characters, and plots woven into each tale that make them all unique and enjoyable to read.
Strantzas is becoming one of those authors that upon notification by the publisher, I will automatically place an order. I'm really looking forward to Strantzas' future works.
Highly recommended!!
March 28, 2022
I'm working my way backwards in time through the Simon Strantzas oeuvre. It hasn't always been this way. I started with Burnt Black Suns and worked forward from there. But then I ran out of new works. I wanted...no, needed more. So I've been seeking out his earlier works, and slowly but surely finding them. This collection was good, if pretty different from what I recall the later works being like. Still very much him, still weird fiction/horror. Looking forward to getting into the other early collections, but I must spread them out to savor them!
May 24, 2012
Everybody’s talking about Simon Strantzas. Okay, not everybody, but plenty of writers and editors are talking about Nightingale Songs, released this month. After years of publication in fine magazines and anthologies–earning that rare reputation among his peers as a writer’s writer, an artist whose desire for popularity has not tainted his aesthetic principles–Strantzas has suddenly hit the ground running with his third collection of short fiction.
Delightfully somber and full of doomed characters making dreadful decisions (in other words, painfully true to human experience) Nightingale Songs does not overshadow the author’s subtle and quietly disruptive previous collections, Beneath the Surface and Cold to the Touch. Instead it represents a natural evolution in the voice and preoccupations of a unique talent in modern fiction.
Beneath the Surface suffered from the unexpected demise of its first publisher, but was recently republished by Dark Regions. The second collection, beautiful in every respect, is now out of print and difficult to find. I hope Tartarus Press makes Cold to the Touch available as an ebook in the near future.
I want more readers to get their hands on Strantzas, but he’s one of those writers you can’t sell with a tag line, or even a review. You have to read his prose and allow yourself to be swept away by the obsessions of his characters, to appreciate his art. The devil is in the details, in the nuances, in the perfect choice of words and the illuminating juxtaposition of images. Like Nabokov, he doesn’t give you a theme and a cookie and a pat on the head. You have to read and think for yourself, and then you get it or you don’t. These days, how many writers have the nerve to send their work out into the world without explaining it to death?
In that spirit, I will not attempt to explicate these stories. It’s enough to know that they range in setting from a universally recognizable suburbia to the remote and ruined beaches of an oil disaster site to some strangely malevolent back roads at night. These landscapes are a projection of the characters’ state of mind but also a catalyst, provoking irrational and often desperate acts.
Sometimes the action of a Strantzas story is inaction, or a character’s inability to move from condition to action. The results range from a dreamy or hallucinatory tone to a sense of impermanence that all but overwhelms the reader. Nothing is certain, and nature is not on our side. Our most important plans are feeble against the vast, mysterious cosmos. Our purpose, if we serve one, is either unknowable or constantly changing. The message may be bleak, but the writing is thrilling.
Influenced by H.P. Lovecraft, Robert Aickman, and Ramsey Campbell, the author has been moving for some time toward a thoroughly independent worldview. With Nightingale Songs he offers that view without apology. Yes, it is dark, but it is recognizable too, containing the black-edged beauty of life as well as unavoidable horrors and intimations of mortality. If you love good writing that challenges, enthralls, and offers no easy escape, read Simon Strantzas.
Delightfully somber and full of doomed characters making dreadful decisions (in other words, painfully true to human experience) Nightingale Songs does not overshadow the author’s subtle and quietly disruptive previous collections, Beneath the Surface and Cold to the Touch. Instead it represents a natural evolution in the voice and preoccupations of a unique talent in modern fiction.
Beneath the Surface suffered from the unexpected demise of its first publisher, but was recently republished by Dark Regions. The second collection, beautiful in every respect, is now out of print and difficult to find. I hope Tartarus Press makes Cold to the Touch available as an ebook in the near future.
I want more readers to get their hands on Strantzas, but he’s one of those writers you can’t sell with a tag line, or even a review. You have to read his prose and allow yourself to be swept away by the obsessions of his characters, to appreciate his art. The devil is in the details, in the nuances, in the perfect choice of words and the illuminating juxtaposition of images. Like Nabokov, he doesn’t give you a theme and a cookie and a pat on the head. You have to read and think for yourself, and then you get it or you don’t. These days, how many writers have the nerve to send their work out into the world without explaining it to death?
In that spirit, I will not attempt to explicate these stories. It’s enough to know that they range in setting from a universally recognizable suburbia to the remote and ruined beaches of an oil disaster site to some strangely malevolent back roads at night. These landscapes are a projection of the characters’ state of mind but also a catalyst, provoking irrational and often desperate acts.
Sometimes the action of a Strantzas story is inaction, or a character’s inability to move from condition to action. The results range from a dreamy or hallucinatory tone to a sense of impermanence that all but overwhelms the reader. Nothing is certain, and nature is not on our side. Our most important plans are feeble against the vast, mysterious cosmos. Our purpose, if we serve one, is either unknowable or constantly changing. The message may be bleak, but the writing is thrilling.
Influenced by H.P. Lovecraft, Robert Aickman, and Ramsey Campbell, the author has been moving for some time toward a thoroughly independent worldview. With Nightingale Songs he offers that view without apology. Yes, it is dark, but it is recognizable too, containing the black-edged beauty of life as well as unavoidable horrors and intimations of mortality. If you love good writing that challenges, enthralls, and offers no easy escape, read Simon Strantzas.
February 23, 2012
Nightingale Songs is the third story collection from Canadian writer Simon Strantzas, following Beneath the Surface and Cold to the Touch. While these earlier collections might be characterized by more of a Ligotti or Lovecraft vibe, Nightingale Songs takes the reader into quieter, more restrained territory. The influences underlying these stories are acknowledged up-front, in John Langan's introduction, which mentions Ramsay Campbell and Robert Aickman. I perceive more of an Aickman feel here. Robert Aickman is a favorite of many readers of horror fiction, but some consider his work too vague or low-key. The same quality is true of Strantzas's work. His work is so accomplished, so cleanly polished, that he's quickly acquired a devoted following. At the same time, the style and the mood of these stories may not satisfy those readers seeking a more visceral or dynamic experience. This collection is most suited to those who enjoy a subtle, introspective read in which the reader's imagination is called upon to enrich and enliven the experience.
One word that comes to mind, as an overall descriptor for these stories as a group, is restrained. The emotions at play here aren't terror, rage or mania. The characters in Nightingale Songs worry. They suffer anxiety or hesitation. In some cases they doubt, or wonder if they saw what they think they saw, if they can trust their memory. When they obsess, their focus is directed inward. When they act, they do so quietly.
The writing is transparent in style. The simplicity and clarity of the prose is its strength, though some readers will consider this its weakness. Sentences are stripped-down and polished, and convey the sense that a lot more craft and care goes into this almost Zen-like level of straightforwardness than is immediately apparent to the reader. Much writing in the horror community is concerned with splashy set pieces and gotcha moments, so a writer who cares so much about subtler, slower effects stands out from the crowd.
At the same time, I'd argue most of the stories could benefit from a bit more sensory detail. Descriptive passages seem intentionally vague. I'd like to see how a Strantzas story worked, with all the same tension and disquiet, but with greater fleshing-out of the sensory world of the story. The inner world of the character is described with subtlety and nuance, and I think these stories could be improved by giving the reader a more vivid sense (mostly visual) of the characters and their surroundings. This may be completely my own bias, and doesn't indicate Strantzas has failed to achieve his aim with these stories. My impression is that the author has rendered characters and settings in an intentionally elliptical way, leaving many details blank, to be filled-in by the reader's imagination.
There is much to respect here in terms of writerly craft and care. These stories all have a distinctive clarity, a sort of crystalline straightforwardness. I enjoyed this collection and will definitely keep an eye on Strantzas in the future.
One word that comes to mind, as an overall descriptor for these stories as a group, is restrained. The emotions at play here aren't terror, rage or mania. The characters in Nightingale Songs worry. They suffer anxiety or hesitation. In some cases they doubt, or wonder if they saw what they think they saw, if they can trust their memory. When they obsess, their focus is directed inward. When they act, they do so quietly.
The writing is transparent in style. The simplicity and clarity of the prose is its strength, though some readers will consider this its weakness. Sentences are stripped-down and polished, and convey the sense that a lot more craft and care goes into this almost Zen-like level of straightforwardness than is immediately apparent to the reader. Much writing in the horror community is concerned with splashy set pieces and gotcha moments, so a writer who cares so much about subtler, slower effects stands out from the crowd.
At the same time, I'd argue most of the stories could benefit from a bit more sensory detail. Descriptive passages seem intentionally vague. I'd like to see how a Strantzas story worked, with all the same tension and disquiet, but with greater fleshing-out of the sensory world of the story. The inner world of the character is described with subtlety and nuance, and I think these stories could be improved by giving the reader a more vivid sense (mostly visual) of the characters and their surroundings. This may be completely my own bias, and doesn't indicate Strantzas has failed to achieve his aim with these stories. My impression is that the author has rendered characters and settings in an intentionally elliptical way, leaving many details blank, to be filled-in by the reader's imagination.
There is much to respect here in terms of writerly craft and care. These stories all have a distinctive clarity, a sort of crystalline straightforwardness. I enjoyed this collection and will definitely keep an eye on Strantzas in the future.
July 7, 2016
What follows is my opinion. It will probably be different than your's and that's alright.
Strantzas has improved vastly since his self-described 'oily' works in Beneath the Surface. Characters are more developed, themes and plotlines more varied, and things generally just feel more professional.
Instead, Strantzas appears to have developed an inability to complete: each story builds up with characters and oddities. Then, just as it all comes to a crescendo of chaos, the story is over - roll the credits. Every time. No resolution, no meaning, no take away.
I don't want an explanation of events, but it is no end of frustration that I spend page after page reading about pathetic people's dull lives and just as they get interesting, it ends. I understand that in short stories you are limited by word counts, but it is still possible to work within those confines.
My favorite piece in this collection really shines as an example of his overall growth: Everything Floats. New parents, ill-prepared for a baby, cope with the joy and misery that comes with having a newborn. A loving father and a disinterested mother living in dark, malevolent world with the horrors waiting just outside their field of vision. It was a very good piece of writing.
Conversely, the story that preceded this one almost made me put down the entire collection: Mr. Kneale. What should have been a clever send-off of the different schools of thought on horror and weird fiction, the diverse writers that populate it, and the ravening hordes of fans on the sidelines, instead turned into a pretentious ham-fest with Strantzas himself making an appearance as the protagonist.
I suspect this was intended to be an inside joke among the 'horror insiders' but such works should be reserved for private circulation and not padding a book. The distaste he showed for fans of horror was really off-putting.
Nightingale Songs was an interesting read overall and show's Strantzas growth. That said, I'm not sure I would pick up another collection of his works in the future. But that is just my opinion. ;)
Strantzas has improved vastly since his self-described 'oily' works in Beneath the Surface. Characters are more developed, themes and plotlines more varied, and things generally just feel more professional.
Instead, Strantzas appears to have developed an inability to complete: each story builds up with characters and oddities. Then, just as it all comes to a crescendo of chaos, the story is over - roll the credits. Every time. No resolution, no meaning, no take away.
I don't want an explanation of events, but it is no end of frustration that I spend page after page reading about pathetic people's dull lives and just as they get interesting, it ends. I understand that in short stories you are limited by word counts, but it is still possible to work within those confines.
My favorite piece in this collection really shines as an example of his overall growth: Everything Floats. New parents, ill-prepared for a baby, cope with the joy and misery that comes with having a newborn. A loving father and a disinterested mother living in dark, malevolent world with the horrors waiting just outside their field of vision. It was a very good piece of writing.
Conversely, the story that preceded this one almost made me put down the entire collection: Mr. Kneale. What should have been a clever send-off of the different schools of thought on horror and weird fiction, the diverse writers that populate it, and the ravening hordes of fans on the sidelines, instead turned into a pretentious ham-fest with Strantzas himself making an appearance as the protagonist.
I suspect this was intended to be an inside joke among the 'horror insiders' but such works should be reserved for private circulation and not padding a book. The distaste he showed for fans of horror was really off-putting.
Nightingale Songs was an interesting read overall and show's Strantzas growth. That said, I'm not sure I would pick up another collection of his works in the future. But that is just my opinion. ;)
February 3, 2013
_Nightingale Songs_ is a collection of weird fiction stories by Simon Strantzas, an important figure in our current Golden Age of weird fiction. This book, along with other books by Simon Strantzas, are now available as ebooks.
Strantzas has an interesting approach. These well written stories usually start with a normal situation, for instance a wedding reception, but the story progresses with uncanny events, with the climax being the direct encounter with the supernatural menace. This is not splatterpunk, though there is gruesome stuff here; Strantzas has been compared to Robert Aickman.
I found myself, after reading one story, looking forward to reading the next story. It was interesting to see the direction a story took, and what would be the supernatural climax.
Strantzas has an interesting approach. These well written stories usually start with a normal situation, for instance a wedding reception, but the story progresses with uncanny events, with the climax being the direct encounter with the supernatural menace. This is not splatterpunk, though there is gruesome stuff here; Strantzas has been compared to Robert Aickman.
I found myself, after reading one story, looking forward to reading the next story. It was interesting to see the direction a story took, and what would be the supernatural climax.
October 2, 2016
Sometimes I think it's a mistake to read everything in a short story collection back to back. It tends to dilute the power of each individual story, especially if--as in Nightingale Songs--they are variations on a single theme. One by one, the stories are, for the most part, well-written and compelling. In the afterward, the author states that he only writes stories about relationships. I would add that they are stories of relationships gone disastrously wrong. In several of these tales, the relationship is inchoate, more of a desire for connection than a fulfillment.
These tales are definitely in the genre of weird fiction, almost horror (apparently similar to Robert Aickman, whom I've never read but now I want to), and also--from the somewhat pretentious introduction by John Langan onwards--almost self-consciously literary. They each present a rather depressing moment of the character's life, in which they are lonely or jilted or stressed out, and then progress to a surreal moment of breakdown--that is, a breakdown of reality as we know it, as if something noxious is bleeding through from the world of horror--and then they end. This pattern worked for me as a reader a few times, and then I became impatient, because it started to feel like a trick, as if I were being shown a realistic photograph and then a painting by Salvador Dali and then the words "the end" over and over. The first few times, I was like, "Wow, that's interesting" but by the last few stories, I really wanted to point out that eventually, something else has to happen, or you're a one-trick pony. Therefore my observation that I probably shouldn't have read them back to back.
My favorites in the collection include "The Nightingale," "Everything Floats" and "Out of Touch." Least favorites were "Pale Light in the Jungle"--what relationship was that about, man and television?--and "An Indelible Stain Upon the Sky," which, at the risk of appearing dense, I will admit I couldn't make heads nor tails of.
In sum: worth a read, definitely a bit different. Kind of put me in mind of Harlan Ellison's Deathbird Stories, if only because cumulatively, they became rather depressing.
These tales are definitely in the genre of weird fiction, almost horror (apparently similar to Robert Aickman, whom I've never read but now I want to), and also--from the somewhat pretentious introduction by John Langan onwards--almost self-consciously literary. They each present a rather depressing moment of the character's life, in which they are lonely or jilted or stressed out, and then progress to a surreal moment of breakdown--that is, a breakdown of reality as we know it, as if something noxious is bleeding through from the world of horror--and then they end. This pattern worked for me as a reader a few times, and then I became impatient, because it started to feel like a trick, as if I were being shown a realistic photograph and then a painting by Salvador Dali and then the words "the end" over and over. The first few times, I was like, "Wow, that's interesting" but by the last few stories, I really wanted to point out that eventually, something else has to happen, or you're a one-trick pony. Therefore my observation that I probably shouldn't have read them back to back.
My favorites in the collection include "The Nightingale," "Everything Floats" and "Out of Touch." Least favorites were "Pale Light in the Jungle"--what relationship was that about, man and television?--and "An Indelible Stain Upon the Sky," which, at the risk of appearing dense, I will admit I couldn't make heads nor tails of.
In sum: worth a read, definitely a bit different. Kind of put me in mind of Harlan Ellison's Deathbird Stories, if only because cumulatively, they became rather depressing.
November 13, 2014
Strantzas excels at using the weird as a vehicle to discuss more everyday issues -family, relationships, and the dissolution of both- and it's a testament to his skill as a writer that neither element feels overshadowed by the other. Horror is ever present at the margins of his narratives, slipping in slowly as the fabric of his characters' relationships begin to come undone. "The Nightingale" seems the most classic example of the weird in this collection, calling back to the frequent concept of loss of self, the blurred lines between sexuality and death, but even here there's a remarkable originality and nowhere does it seem that Strantzas is content to tread old ground. There are no tentacles to be found here, no great old deities. The monsters are waiting in our homes, just outside our windows, just behind the closed door.
March 11, 2017
New weird - quite popular term nowadays with Ligotti as the most recognizable "undiscovered" (as much as it can be said for someone who got published by Penguin) name.
I got introduced to Strantzas through Goodreads recommendation and this collection is the first thing I read from him. Though it had a promising start - first two stories were quite atmospheric, though revisiting more than familiar ground of car breaking in the middle of nowhere or the haunted house across the street, it soon got rather banal in getting weird for the sake of weirdness. I haven't felt drawn into the stories or touched by the characters. Writing stays on the edge of uninspiring, though never crossing it. Haven't got bored either, so I will give Strantzas a second chance wih another book.
I got introduced to Strantzas through Goodreads recommendation and this collection is the first thing I read from him. Though it had a promising start - first two stories were quite atmospheric, though revisiting more than familiar ground of car breaking in the middle of nowhere or the haunted house across the street, it soon got rather banal in getting weird for the sake of weirdness. I haven't felt drawn into the stories or touched by the characters. Writing stays on the edge of uninspiring, though never crossing it. Haven't got bored either, so I will give Strantzas a second chance wih another book.
January 22, 2018
It is impossible to read Simon Strantzas and not think of Franz Kafka. There is always a desperate sense of not understanding the surroundings or the behavior of others that I find in Kafkas work as well. My first book by Strantzas was ”Burnt Black Suns”, and I have loved his work ever since. The books before ”Burnt Black Suns” are more subtle and slow, yet gives you a terrifying sensation of alienation just the same.
This collection is really good, even though I miss som of the more action based stories in ”Burnt Black Suns”. There are some slow stories that I didn’t appreciate as much as others (”The Deafening Sound of Slumber” being the absolute best). This is over all one of the best books of wierd fiction I’ve read and is a must-read for all lovers of horror and wierd fiction.
This collection is really good, even though I miss som of the more action based stories in ”Burnt Black Suns”. There are some slow stories that I didn’t appreciate as much as others (”The Deafening Sound of Slumber” being the absolute best). This is over all one of the best books of wierd fiction I’ve read and is a must-read for all lovers of horror and wierd fiction.
January 17, 2021
Stories of nagging shapes and anxieties, shadows and shuttling swarms, relationships and nightmares, closed boxes and empty despairs, some of which are close to genuine classics of their kind.
The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long or impractical to post here.
Above is one of its observations at the time of the review.
The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long or impractical to post here.
Above is one of its observations at the time of the review.
August 16, 2018
Another excellent collection of creepy and thought-provoking stories from Simon Strantzas. Good stuff. Read this.
May 4, 2012
Free firstreads giveaway book. Great set of short stories! All are horror stories that start out quite normally, hiding the awfulness that's to come, and all are about very normal situations that we readers could easily find ourselves in. However, a couple of the stories were full of telling readers the narrator's emotions, instead of having them feel it. That certainly removed some of the horror.
June 23, 2014
Brief flashes of something interesting, but overall I found this rather plain.
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