Il 37° mandala

by Marc Laidlaw, Delio Zinoni (translator)

Scrittore fallito di fantascienza, Derek Crowe ha appena pubblicato un nuovo libro dell'occulto. Un manuale che insegna come evocare i Mandala, le misteriose "presenze" che gravitano intorno a ciascuno di noi. Ma chi sono i Mandala in realtà? Esseri venuti da un altro mondo? Da un altro spazio? Crowe si fida di loro, ma potrebbe essere uno sbaglio fatale. Qualcun altro ha lacerato il velo, e ha capito la potenza e l'ostilità dei Mandala. La Terra, ora, rischia un'invasione dall'Altrove.

Copertina di Jacopo Bruno

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Fantasy, Lovecraftian, Science Fiction

356 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published July 1, 1995

Reviews

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

A rather mixed bag by Laidlaw here but overall, an intriguing read for sure. Our protagonist, New-Age charlatan Derek Crowe, began his 'career' as a copywriter, tried his hand at genre fiction (science fiction, horror, etc.), flopped, and then started penning New-Age books with some success. His latest, on Mandalas, seems to be his first real success, e.g., making him some money. The book starts off with him going back and forth with his publisher and accepting a speaking engagement in North Carolina (he lives in San Francisco). The first chapter, basically a prologue, takes place in Cambodia, however, with a sleazy, aged war reporter gaining access to an old torture facility run by the Khmer Rouge which is now a museum of atrocities so to speak. The reporter wants access to the info on a prisoner who had 37 Mandalas 'tattooed' on his body; he gets copies of the tattooed Mandalas, which are promptly swiped by a young couple. Why? We learn later.

Derek's trip to North Carolina, where he speaks about his latest book in front of a New-Age crowd, goes well, and he meets a odd, local couple who give him a ride back to the airport. Michael, a hard-core New-Ager punk, really wants to believe in 'magic' and his apartment even has a shrine/alter where he casts his spells, etc. His girlfriend, however, really does not care at all about Michael's 'obsessions', but she is intrigued with the Mandalas for some reason. When they get home, she suddenly starts speaking in some strange tongue and evokes the 37th Mandala, which leaves here with a 'tattoo' of it on her forehead and all kinds of strange things happen, including the slaughter of her landlord who lives above them...

Laidlaw takes us deep into mysticism and eldritch horror here; apparently, the Mandalas are some astral 'force' or lifeform that feed on humanity's misery, etc. Derek's book, however, paints them as basically benevolent agents. Where Derek got the Mandalas from for his book remains a mystery for much of the novel. What becomes clear early on, however, is that the Mandalas have ill plans for humanity and Derek 'unleashed' them from obscurity via his book. While interesting, I can only suspend my disbelieve so far and Laidlaw stretched my limits. Some good body horror for sure, but the cosmic horror part fell a little flat for me, never mind the denouement. Plus, pretty hard to root for such flake as Derek, and the two New-Agers? Meh. 2.5 cosmic stars, rounding up for the good start, but this bogged down by the end and a lackluster end.

[Repix Pix · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dudo mucho que Stephen King piense que este libro es increíble, como dicen en la publicidad. Ni lo habrá leído, vamos.
Un aburrimiento.

[Jon Recluse · Rating 3 out of 5]

New Age nuttery unleashes an ancient evil.
The mandala mythos is interesting, with a Lovecraft on LSD feel, but the characters are generally shallow, and failed to inspire much empathy.

[Ignacio Senao f · Rating 2 out of 5]

El guionista del HL escribía un libro de terror Lovecraftiano. Que maravilla, saltaban chispas de mis ojitos. Empecé las primeras páginas con una atención digna al examen más importante de mi vida. Se esfumo rápidamente.

Uno que hace un libro sobre unos seres que nos poseen, los mandalas. Se hace famosillo. Hasta que alguien utiliza su libro y es poseída su mujer por un bicho de estos. Todo muy plano y carente de todo: terror, acción intriga… nada hay.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Genuinely creepy and scary. This is my sort of horror!

[Karin Yukimura · Rating 5 out of 5]

The three main viewpoint characters are: Derek, a hack writer who, having found his niche in New Age claptrap, unwittingly unleashes the predatory mandalas on the world by corrupting their manifesto; Michael, a dedicated occultist who is a fan of Derek's latest book (he may seem a caricature to those unfamiliar with actual occultists); and Lenore, a troubled woman who is unhappily married to Michael, and finds herself possessed by a mandala after being uncannily inspired to go along with her husband's nonsense. The couple's path disastrously intertwines with Derek's under the subtle guiding tendrils of the mandalas, who thrive on torture and atrocity.

I don't want to give the wrong impression of the book with my half-baked summary, however. It is a largely subtle kind of horror the likes of which Ramsey Campbell, according to the dust jacket on my edition, is proud of.

[Lisa (Harmonybites) · Rating 2 out of 5]

The style is smoothly competent even if not remarkable and the premise pretty original for the genre. Mandalas are symbols used for mediation in Eastern religion. When a New Age con artist, Derek Crowe, encounters some occult lore concerning them, he makes them the subject of his latest book, ignoring and twisting warnings of their nature--and when his readers, such as Michael and Leonore, use them, they tap into a destructive malign force.

I think my main problem with the book, why it never rises beyond the usual B-movie fare for me, are the characters. They're a mix of crackpots and grifters. The naivete and the minutia of New Age craziness of characters like Michael and the predatory cynicism of Derek got on my one nerve. For me to find a novel suspenseful, I have to have something at stake with the characters, and I just couldn't care for any of them.

If you love feeling creeped out, if horror appeals to you as a genre for its own sake, you might enjoy this more than I did--but for those who are looking for more--who want to be dazzled by style or be on the edge of your seat worried about characters you care for--well, I don't think this is where you'd look.

[irene ✨ · Rating 1 out of 5]

Me he llevado una decepción total porque sí esperaba que el libro tuviera más elementos de horror cósmico cuando hacen la referencia a Lovecraft desde la sinopsis. Tristemente, no fue así.

Me aburrió y me tardé en terminarlo porque no hay ningún elemento en toda la historia que me haya atrapado suficiente la atención. Además, en ningún momento pude, por más que lo intenté, ver a los mandalas como algo maligno (incluso con la portada); fue hasta divertido tratar.

En fin, no pasa nada relevante en la historia, parece más un libro introductorio con tantas explicaciones de antecedentes históricos. La vida de Derek me valió por completo. Y, el final es tan ridículo que ya casi estaba leyendo solo entre líneas del fastidio que tenía.

Michael es quizá el único que me dio un poco de tristeza (¿o lástima?) y que me preocupé ligeramente por lo que le pasaba. Lo demás, es irrelevante.

Pocas veces digo esto, pero, ojalá no hubiera perdido mi tiempo leyendo este libro.

[Luis Hernandez · Rating 3 out of 5]

La premisa y el argumento son buenos y la narrativa de Ladlaw es gráfica y deprimente, justo lo que pide este libro. La intriga está conseguida, pero la parte del terror...yo no la vi por ningún lado. Aún así es un libro que he disfrutado leyendo, aunque uno de los protagonistas tiene un bofetón bien gordo (lo tiene adrede). Si lo leéis, esperad algo de suspense pero nada terrorífico.

[William Holloway · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the 37th Mandala at the recommendation of several writers whose opinion I highly regard. I was not disappointed. It's a good read and Marc Laidlaw is a fine writer. It is very much a riff on H.P. Lovecraft's ideas, specifically From Beyond. In The 37th Mandala, however, there is not scifi agency that summons the beasts from another dimension but a kind of horrible distillation of the genocide in Cambodia, and their lore is passed from persons to person until it comes into the ownership of of a New Age hack named Derek Crowe who plagiarizes the work of the previous owner, now deceased, to turn their malevolence into a sunny happy touchy thing. He doesn't however change the utterances used to invoke these beasties… and, well, you get the idea.
I liked the book, but it does suffer from it's age of publication. It was written in the 90's and you can tell. There's a particular feel to it that evokes a William Gibson, End of History vibe. Perhaps in this it suffers from the age in which I read it. Certainly the guys who wrote back then couldn't have anticipated the ways in which the world would change and something about this era of writing reflects that. However, I would certainly recommend this to any horror reader, specifically any Lovecraftian.

[Guillermo Murúa · Rating 4 out of 5]

What hooked with this book upfront was the initial premise of the writer talking advantage of the new age movement for fame and profit and how every chapter compares passages of his book to the annotations he stole and the kind of adaptations he made to the text so it could become more palatable to feel-good-seekers-- and how the whole magic behind it all as absolutely real and dangerous.

The characters are varied, fun and carry a bit of commentary on the culture of the then-current, 90s occultism scene.

Scenes are quickly-paced and well-crafted, the author really takes one through a thrilling, vivid and at times, darkly suffocating journey surrounding the tribal Symbols of the mandalas. Years after I've read it, the imagery still comes fresh as a first read.

It pains me, thus, to say that the ending is completely botched. It's rushed and stands on a pretty unconvincing character turn, almost like the writer gave up on it completely on the final tenth.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

The general plot of the book is intriguing: an occult author takes a very damaging occult text that could wreak havoc for mankind and, assuming it might not be really all that bad, turns it into a positive new age book. Of course, havoc ensues.

The beginning of the book is very slow. The middle actually gets some character development going and then it just ends. There are too many loose ends at the finale to make this a good book but it is a worthwhile summer read an occult horror fan.

[Jesse Bullington · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very tidy page-turner, with new age mysticism running into eldritch horror from beyond space and time. An original, weird tale that is pleasantly evocative of other works but is uniquely its own beast, and a strange beast it is at that. Threw me more than a few curves, and ended on exactly the right note to creep me the hell out.

[🐴 🍖]

"it didn't seem to bother the young couple that the museum stank of blood"... how's that for an all-timer of a 1st sentence? luv2see a manipulating-forbidden-knowledge-for-personal-gain-goes-real-bad-wrong narrative that's not just more lovecraft. suitably gross too, but it felt off that derek's fate was just the cosmic equiv of "go sit in your room and think about what you've done" as opposed to sth more, yknow, unspeakable. maybe the old gods have been reading dr spock? (NB: coming back from several months' GR sabbatical so this batch of reviews is likely to be rather undernourished... soz.)

[Angus McKeogh · Rating 1 out of 5]

Straight terrible. Too metaphysical to be comprehensible. Not scary, not mysterious, and not entertaining. I’m not sure what this novel was trying to do.

[Kamil Rogiński · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovecraftian eldritch horror mixed with perversity of Clive Barker. With some New Age. Great read for every enjoyer of 90s horror, both in books and movies.

[Lawrence · Rating 3 out of 5]

Marc Laidlaw's an interesting writer. I first discovered him through his story "Leng" in Lovecraft Unbound, one of my favorite stories in that anthology, and only later discovered that he also wrote for video games. This (earlier) novel isn't as good as "Leng" for me — its explicitly sexual scenes, in particular, I found not up to par — but, the pacing is good and the book's climax is surprisingly satisfying. For a book in which the characters themselves are often unsure about which parts of their experiences represent reality, too, The 37th Mandala was remarkably not confusing to read. I found some discomfort in "mandalas" being the name of the supernatural beings, and felt (relatedly) that Laidlaw perhaps missed a big opportunity to have an Asian point-of-view character, so the cultural currency of this book is pretty much nonexistent; but, it drew me in nonetheless: I really felt like I *lived* with this book, on and off, for a year. I read somewhere that Laidlaw wrote it, in part, explicitly in order to train himself to be a better writer; as it stands, it is sort of all over the place, but, if "Leng" is any indication, The 37th Mandala did manage to accomplish its goal.

[Horatio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kept my interest the whole way through.
I liked the usage of Cambodian history and culture, because it breaks with the hegemony of supernatural stuff having to come from WW2/Medieval Europe/Ancient Egypt, as well as the character of Elias Mooney.
Maybe it's because my ability to imagine (visually) something described to me, is completely atrophied, but the "mind-bending horrors from beyond the veil" just didn't unsettle me at all.

[Sean Kimmel · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is a very interesting story here and solid characters, but unfortunately I didn't think it came together well. By the end of the book I was left wanting to know more about the mandalas and their purpose and really cared less about the final climatic scene.


For more reviews go to my blog http://fringesofhorror.blogspot.com/

[Worms · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started out great but the author lost it in the third act.

I think there is a somewhat high bar of entry to fully grasp this book - the reader must not only be knowledgeable in esoterica/occult/new age culture, but must have enough experience to have developed a jaded, detached perspective toward it. However, if this is true, than the reader will understand the subtle genius present in many parts of the book, as the author does a solid job of accurately conveying the occult "scene" for better and worse.

The first two thirds of the book are solid. It's kind of a slow burn without much action, but the overall ideas, locations, and characters are all engaging. Laidlaw excels at descriptive prose which make the grit and magic feel tangible.

I loved the gritty 90s horror feel- the descriptions of Michael & Lenore's white trash hovel, the grime of San Fransisco where Derek lives, the hallucinatory scenes, the cosmic horror, etc. are really gripping. I also loved the dark eastern spiritual overtones mixed with cosmic horror. A lot of plot threads are introduced which all grabbed my interest and make the story feel complex-- a charlatan occultist who profits off a scene he hates, dark & mysterious magic texts from a torture camp in Cambodia, weird old sages who astral project & talk to aliens, and grimy goth/punk kids who do drugs & magic rituals. A winning recipe.

One of the strongest points of the book is how Laidlaw develops the characters. When we're first introduced to each of the mains, Derek, Michael, and Lenore, they seem like they're going to be both cartoonishly terrible people and absolutely insufferable to read about. However, as we get more of their individual POV chapters we come to see them as complex and fully three-dimensional-- they have (glaring) flaws, but they also have aspirations, useful knowledge, and skills. Derek is indeed an opportunist and charlatan, but he also has charisma, needs, goals, etc. Michael initially feels like an obnoxious fanboy moron, but he is shown to be a dedicated, practiced and studied occultist who is trying his best to navigate his dismal life. Because of this, I found the characters and their stories to be engaging and was interested in seeing how everything evolved and came together.

Unfortunately, Laidlaw seems to completely lose the narrative in the third act. Once all the characters meet up, it seems like he either didn't know what to do, or had to rush to meet a deadline and didn't have the time/space to weave all the plot threads together. In this last act, despite all their development, the characters are each reduced to a single negative trait and don't utilize any of their aforementioned skills/knowledge. As such, they just get shuffled around arbitrarily until something happens to them. Derek becomes simply a a moronic conman. Michael becomes completely useless, and Lenore... exists. The mandala/esoteric stuff becomes increasing more abstract, as if the author tried to cover up the lack of direction with a steadily increasing supply of purple prose, but the result is that things get continually more hollow and confusing until the final scene which feels contrived and unearned.

Sadly, there are also a bunch of plot threads which go nowhere. Either things set up in the beginning which end up not mattering, or things introduced in the last couple chapters which had no prior set up or seem important but end up not mattering:
- There is a scene where Lilith reveals to Michael that she was also talking to Elias Mooney. This seems like a big reveal that's going to have a significant impact, but then Lilith just leaves and is absent for the rest of the story. There was no reason to even have Lilith show back up because she did nothing of significance.
- Michael is useless in the entire third act. None of his esoteric knowledge or skills matter. The fact he used to talk to Mooney doesn't matter at all. Michael stumbles around aimlessly until the very end when his only role is to help Lenore move about 5 feet to get to Derek. If Michael wasn't in the third act at all nothing would change. Awful waste of a main character.
- Lenore as an unreliable narrator leads to a lot of confusion about what's real, what's the mandala's agenda, etc. It's completely unclear how she truly feels about Michael which negates what could have been a strong narrative thread. There is some stuff about her "mysterious" past when she first meets Derek that initially seems really important, but is never explained. The weird reincarnation scene with Lenore & Derek at the end makes no sense and doesn't seem to fit with how she was initially introduced. It's also over as quick as it comes on and ends up being a big WTF moment.
- There are several scenes which are supposed to be emotional, however these hinge on the relationship between Michael and Lenore-- but they're never shown to have much, if any, relationship. From the get go they appear to be on the rocks and they're never shown to have any intimacy. So, especially in the final scenes, there is no impact to events which should have been very weighty.
- The Huon/Cambodia plot kind of just fizzles out and he really wasn't important at all as he just gets dispatched unceremoniously off-screen. If he wasn't in the story at all nothing much would have changed.

Overall some really good ideas and a ton of potential, but the weak final third and nonsensical ending kind of ruins it.

[David Erik Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shades of Laird Barron, but more narratively coherent and less dread-ful. Weak ending, but great opening and thoroughly engaging until the end. Still can't shake the feeling that something essential ties this to Watts's BLINDSIGHT, although I really can't even guess what that could be.

[Dan O'Donovan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Less sci-fi, more cult-fi.

[Hesper · Rating 1 out of 5]

Interesting enough premise, haphazard execution. The most horrific thing about this book is that I'm not getting back the hours I spent reading it.

[Chester · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't know what to expect, as I've never read any horror or adult novels before, but this is one of the best books I've ever read.

I give it a 4.5/5

[MaddThews Stuart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great bit of cosmic horror. Well worth your time.

[Andy Holmes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this, paced well and flowed through to the end.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

More of a nail-biter than horrific, this book didn't scare me, but I was wrapped up in the advancing plot. This is a VERY 90s kind of book, featuring the popular new age and wicca movements of the time, and the author clearly was in those circles, since there are a lot of offhand remarks that definitely resonate with someone who read those books at the time. :)

Kind of eldritch, but not actually indifferent to humans, the mandalas of this book are strange, unknowable entities with their own agendas. The characters in this book are deeply flawed in their own ways, and the mandalas feed on those vulnerabilities. In the same way that humans are neither good nor evil, but self-interested, the mandalas are not easily categorized.

[LUNA · Rating 1 out of 5]

Prometía demasiado y no cumple nada, y lo más grave es que se supone que es de terror y terror poco.

Si es verdad que tiene tintes lovecraftgianos, pero poco porque tiene secta y que hacen cantitos ininteligibles. Los personajes me importaban muy poco y la trama me parece tremendamente soso, y no sé cómo es un mandala, tampoco es que se esfuerce mucho explicando, en mi cabeza los ponía más desagradables a ver si así me animaba un poco más. Si es verdad que tiene cosas interesantes, alguna hay, pero se pierde en el relleno.

Quizá porque esperaba sorprenderme con cosas raras, pero es que no tiene ni atmosfera terrorífica, algo de suspense si acaso.

[Adam Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was really looking forward to reading this book. I’d heard tantalising things about it; that it was cosmic horror, lovecraftian, etc. and the title alone is intriguing.
I didn’t love it. The plot felt disjointed, and the characters didn’t feel authentic, with locational actions from them making no sense or not in keeping with what had gone before, and none of them made me root for them, so I wasn’t too bothered about their fates. There were, however, some great ideas wrapped up in the book if you’re looking for a new slant on horrors from another dimension and the frailty and irrelevance of humans.

[Andrea Cannella · Rating 1 out of 5]

Al solito, quando si legge un Urania cercando fantascienza, e non tanto per una conscenza preventiva del titolo in questione, il giudizio finisce per esserne pesantemente influenzato. Il genere, nelle intenzioni dell'autore, credo volesse essere vagamente lovecraftiano; certo il richiamo a Stephen King fatto in copertina risulta del tutto fuorviante. Il romanzo presenta un'ottima parte iniziale ma purtroppo, nel prosieguo della vicenda, finisce per perdere smalto ed incisività raggiungendo la noia. ..