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Alectryomancer and Other Weird Tales
"Slatsky builds dread from page one, and is not shy about amping up the weird." - THE ARKHAM DIGEST The debut collection from Christopher Slatsky, author of NO ONE IS SLEEPING IN THIS WORLD. Loveliness Like a Shadow An Infestation of Stars Corporautolysis No One is Sleeping in this World Making Snakes The Ocean is Eating Our Graves This Fragmented Body Tellurian Façade Film Maudit A Plague of Naked Movie Stars Scarcely Have They Been Planted Intaglios Alectryomancer
185 pages, Paperback
First published July 17, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 69 reviews
September 24, 2017
This collection of uncanny tales is a cerebral treat. Hints of what might lie beyond the earthly veil are strewn like grains of sand into a void where the ocean used to lie. Reality is not what we can see, but what we can only dare to imagine. Some of the prose borders on the sublime as the liminal gives way to full transformation. Let your open mind be your guide on this innovative journey.
June 27, 2016
Let me get this out of the way: I read some superb fiction in 2015 and specifically some terrific short story collections. Slatsky's collection is my favorite and is, I firmly believe, the best of the lot. Moreover, the titular story is the most memorable and well written weird tale I've read since Laird Barron's "The Men From Porlock."
Alectryomancer is essential. Buy it. Read it. And wait with bated breath for whatever Mr. Slatsky writes next. I know I will.
Alectryomancer is essential. Buy it. Read it. And wait with bated breath for whatever Mr. Slatsky writes next. I know I will.
July 7, 2017
If you're not reading Christopher Slatsky by now, you should. If you are reading Christopher Slatsky, then you already know that he is one of the finest contemporary practitioners of the truly Weird tale.
In his deep and diverse debut collection of short fiction, Alectryomancer and Other Weird Tales, Slatsky shows us his range, in terms of themes, locations, and variance in character. California is a central touchstone, but we find ourselves transported to London, the Pacific Northwest, and many unnamed places that can be tailored to suit our own reflections, and the things we don't want to see staring back at us.
The arts and the sciences loom large in several stories, as do failed family dynamics and the dead-end nature of the modern work culture, regardless of collar color. These are literate, intelligent stories, built on foundations of pessimism, cosmicism, and the unearthed horrors of hidden history, arcane science, folklore, religious myth, and the never-tamed natural world that recall melodies of Ligotti and Blackwood. And they are unsettling, these Slatsky stories, fostering a feeling of dread, the grotesque, and the threatening in all manner of persons, places, and things. The nouns are not your friends, and will hurt you.
The collection, with perhaps one small sidestep, is uniformly excellent, starting with the initial piece, "Loveliness Like a Shadow," in which heartbreak and seclusion during the creation of art in a leaky London flat morphs into something much more inscrutable, obsessive, and sinister.
"An Infestation of Stars" is the first of several stories that deal with scientific study, pre-Christian religions, and native tribes, examined by seemingly outside interests; while "Corporautolysis" moves us to the realm of office place horror, reminding us all that our work is not yet done, and never will be, regardless of what remains of our outside lives.
"No One Is Sleeping in This World" is set in a familiar (to me) section of downtown Los Angeles that was once known for its daring, deco architecture, but has given over to time, decay, and the ravages of poverty and neglect. A couple obsessed an occult architect go in search of his last remaining building in hopes of capturing it on film for a documentary. What they find amid the filth and black plastic bags of the forgotten - and shunned - part of industrial LA is quite more than either of them could have ever imagined.
In "Making Snakes," Slatsky seems to draw from (real life?) childhood traumas and fears, bringing the horror further from the cosmos and closer to home. This is a short, powerful tale, fueled by the arrival at a vacant lot of an old jalopy driven by the powdery man. His simple question asked to the children there is chilling, and has stayed with me ever since first reading it many months back.
I felt that "The Ocean Is Eating Our Graves" could have comfortably grown into a novel, or a television series, exploring the Blood Mound found on the beach of the Coast Colony Tribes Reservation in the Pacific Northwest. "The Killing" meets "The X-Files" with a mostly Native American cast. An excellent bit of folkloric horror and PNW Noir firmly rooted in a Lovecraftian vein.
"Film Maudit" was viscerally disturbing, leaving me a bit sickened, while "A Plague of Naked Movie Stars" had a nostalgic bend, reminding me of 80s horror/sci fi films, or maybe just the 80s themselves, when kids were allowed to roam on Halloween and stir up trouble. "This Fragmented Body" brings us Ligottian doll horror in a suddenly darkening world.
In "Tellurian Facade," we find a family dealing with loss while attempting to keep hidden deeply buried secrets, sharing thematic elements in terms of lineage ties with "Scarcely Have They Been Planted," which was my least favorite of all the collected tales.
"Intaglios" brings us to the California desert, and the discarded remnants of a popular culture born and killed on the left edge of frantic nation, the bones - and skins - of carcasses left to bleach in the brutal sun. Odd things out in the desert. History, both real and fabricated. Evidence.
The collection closes with the colossal titular tale, in which a migrant worker cock fight in California farm country could bring about the end of the world, or at least alter it forever. It a big story told in small scenes, brutal and sad and monstrous, a thematic collaboration between David Lynch, Steinbeck, and Cormac McCarthy, through which Slatsky builds a beautifully bizarre, fully vetted Phainothropic mythos that I would love to see explored further in future works.
This is a true five star collection of stories, and highly recommended, taking Christopher Slatsky into the "required reading" category of modern practitioners of the contemporary Weird tale.
In his deep and diverse debut collection of short fiction, Alectryomancer and Other Weird Tales, Slatsky shows us his range, in terms of themes, locations, and variance in character. California is a central touchstone, but we find ourselves transported to London, the Pacific Northwest, and many unnamed places that can be tailored to suit our own reflections, and the things we don't want to see staring back at us.
The arts and the sciences loom large in several stories, as do failed family dynamics and the dead-end nature of the modern work culture, regardless of collar color. These are literate, intelligent stories, built on foundations of pessimism, cosmicism, and the unearthed horrors of hidden history, arcane science, folklore, religious myth, and the never-tamed natural world that recall melodies of Ligotti and Blackwood. And they are unsettling, these Slatsky stories, fostering a feeling of dread, the grotesque, and the threatening in all manner of persons, places, and things. The nouns are not your friends, and will hurt you.
The collection, with perhaps one small sidestep, is uniformly excellent, starting with the initial piece, "Loveliness Like a Shadow," in which heartbreak and seclusion during the creation of art in a leaky London flat morphs into something much more inscrutable, obsessive, and sinister.
"An Infestation of Stars" is the first of several stories that deal with scientific study, pre-Christian religions, and native tribes, examined by seemingly outside interests; while "Corporautolysis" moves us to the realm of office place horror, reminding us all that our work is not yet done, and never will be, regardless of what remains of our outside lives.
"No One Is Sleeping in This World" is set in a familiar (to me) section of downtown Los Angeles that was once known for its daring, deco architecture, but has given over to time, decay, and the ravages of poverty and neglect. A couple obsessed an occult architect go in search of his last remaining building in hopes of capturing it on film for a documentary. What they find amid the filth and black plastic bags of the forgotten - and shunned - part of industrial LA is quite more than either of them could have ever imagined.
In "Making Snakes," Slatsky seems to draw from (real life?) childhood traumas and fears, bringing the horror further from the cosmos and closer to home. This is a short, powerful tale, fueled by the arrival at a vacant lot of an old jalopy driven by the powdery man. His simple question asked to the children there is chilling, and has stayed with me ever since first reading it many months back.
I felt that "The Ocean Is Eating Our Graves" could have comfortably grown into a novel, or a television series, exploring the Blood Mound found on the beach of the Coast Colony Tribes Reservation in the Pacific Northwest. "The Killing" meets "The X-Files" with a mostly Native American cast. An excellent bit of folkloric horror and PNW Noir firmly rooted in a Lovecraftian vein.
"Film Maudit" was viscerally disturbing, leaving me a bit sickened, while "A Plague of Naked Movie Stars" had a nostalgic bend, reminding me of 80s horror/sci fi films, or maybe just the 80s themselves, when kids were allowed to roam on Halloween and stir up trouble. "This Fragmented Body" brings us Ligottian doll horror in a suddenly darkening world.
In "Tellurian Facade," we find a family dealing with loss while attempting to keep hidden deeply buried secrets, sharing thematic elements in terms of lineage ties with "Scarcely Have They Been Planted," which was my least favorite of all the collected tales.
"Intaglios" brings us to the California desert, and the discarded remnants of a popular culture born and killed on the left edge of frantic nation, the bones - and skins - of carcasses left to bleach in the brutal sun. Odd things out in the desert. History, both real and fabricated. Evidence.
The collection closes with the colossal titular tale, in which a migrant worker cock fight in California farm country could bring about the end of the world, or at least alter it forever. It a big story told in small scenes, brutal and sad and monstrous, a thematic collaboration between David Lynch, Steinbeck, and Cormac McCarthy, through which Slatsky builds a beautifully bizarre, fully vetted Phainothropic mythos that I would love to see explored further in future works.
This is a true five star collection of stories, and highly recommended, taking Christopher Slatsky into the "required reading" category of modern practitioners of the contemporary Weird tale.
Read
January 29, 2020These thirteen stories range across the weird spectrum, hitting on a few familiar tropes but usually in creative ways and always delivered with a deft use of figurative language. The collection is close to an even split between previously published stories and those original to the book. My favorites here were those hovering in a fog of disorientation and offering no way out. Slatsky is a fine writer, but I think he excels the most when he strikes out in the most original directions. Here's a brief rundown:
'Loveliness Like a Shadow' - one of my favorites. A recent divorcee leaves L.A. behind in favor of a low-rent bohemian lifestyle in London. Living in a cheap flat, Eleanor finds herself sculpting the same clay bust over and over. As the story progresses, vague sinister events transpire with no clear connections between them. At one point Eleanor goes for an evening walk and the phantasmagorical journey that Slatsky conjures up is nearly pitch-perfect. Despite the occasional banal background details I generally find superfluous in character development, the story is a good example of one of my favorite weird tale types: a character is haunted by strange occurrences with no obvious explanations or connections, and the ending yields no answers yet still somehow manages to satisfy.
'An Infestation of Stars' - a unique take on the age-old 'mysterious book' trope with bonus insect overlords. Build-up was good, but overall a bit slight in its full execution.
'Corporautolysis' - a corporate horror tale with a clear Ligottian influence, though not intrusively so. The description of the setting grows increasingly similar to how the Upside Down appears in Stranger Things. Quite uncanny.
'No One Is Sleeping in This World' - a tale of urban cosmic horror with an architectural leaning. Similar to the first story in how Slatsky effectively describes moving through a space of increasing disorientation, where it's unclear how much of the distortion is in the environment and how much is in the character's head. Lots of furtive movement just out of sight of the characters--a common occurrence in many of these stories.
'Making Snakes' - this was another favorite, and again another tale where I think Slatsky hits a high mark in generating a wholly bewildering situation with very few connections between a series of bizarre markers. Katryn is a complex and damaged (but also possibly unreliable) character, and the powdery man is easily one of the creepiest creations in this collection. I think this is the shortest story in the book, only a few pages, but was one of the most affecting for me. I would have liked it to last a little longer, but it's also possible that it was the perfect length.
'The Ocean is Eating Our Graves' - a Lovecraftian tale with a contemporary indigenous peoples' take on what dwells beneath the waves.
'This Fragmented Body' - good use of the creepy doll trope with added mirroring effect.
'Tellurian Façade' - family drama culminates in reclamation from below.
'Film Maudit' - lurid lost film trope explored amidst a Ligottian spread of urban decay, featuring a sad sack middle-aged dude yearning for escape from his abysmal existence. A fairly straightforward horror tale that does get rather trippy near the end.
'A Plague of Naked Movie Stars' - Halloween night setting, reads like a teen horror movie, utilizes the Satanic Panic experience with somewhat interesting results.
'Scarcely Have They Been Planted' - written in rural dialect from perspective of a developmentally disabled girl. A strange story of family secrets horribly exposed.
'Intaglios' - desert hitchhiker experiences hallucinations...or not?
'Alectryomancer' - a moody blur of cockfighting, migrant work camps, and ghosts of antediluvian civilizations. The illustrations add to the mysterious tone. Certainly one of the stronger stories.
Overall I enjoyed this, although a few of the stories followed a formula, typically the more obvious trope-driven ones that end with some terrible entity taking its due from the puny human race. But even these few that became predictable were done well. Slatsky is definitely a writer I will revisit.
'Loveliness Like a Shadow' - one of my favorites. A recent divorcee leaves L.A. behind in favor of a low-rent bohemian lifestyle in London. Living in a cheap flat, Eleanor finds herself sculpting the same clay bust over and over. As the story progresses, vague sinister events transpire with no clear connections between them. At one point Eleanor goes for an evening walk and the phantasmagorical journey that Slatsky conjures up is nearly pitch-perfect. Despite the occasional banal background details I generally find superfluous in character development, the story is a good example of one of my favorite weird tale types: a character is haunted by strange occurrences with no obvious explanations or connections, and the ending yields no answers yet still somehow manages to satisfy.
'An Infestation of Stars' - a unique take on the age-old 'mysterious book' trope with bonus insect overlords. Build-up was good, but overall a bit slight in its full execution.
'Corporautolysis' - a corporate horror tale with a clear Ligottian influence, though not intrusively so. The description of the setting grows increasingly similar to how the Upside Down appears in Stranger Things. Quite uncanny.
'No One Is Sleeping in This World' - a tale of urban cosmic horror with an architectural leaning. Similar to the first story in how Slatsky effectively describes moving through a space of increasing disorientation, where it's unclear how much of the distortion is in the environment and how much is in the character's head. Lots of furtive movement just out of sight of the characters--a common occurrence in many of these stories.
'Making Snakes' - this was another favorite, and again another tale where I think Slatsky hits a high mark in generating a wholly bewildering situation with very few connections between a series of bizarre markers. Katryn is a complex and damaged (but also possibly unreliable) character, and the powdery man is easily one of the creepiest creations in this collection. I think this is the shortest story in the book, only a few pages, but was one of the most affecting for me. I would have liked it to last a little longer, but it's also possible that it was the perfect length.
'The Ocean is Eating Our Graves' - a Lovecraftian tale with a contemporary indigenous peoples' take on what dwells beneath the waves.
'This Fragmented Body' - good use of the creepy doll trope with added mirroring effect.
'Tellurian Façade' - family drama culminates in reclamation from below.
'Film Maudit' - lurid lost film trope explored amidst a Ligottian spread of urban decay, featuring a sad sack middle-aged dude yearning for escape from his abysmal existence. A fairly straightforward horror tale that does get rather trippy near the end.
'A Plague of Naked Movie Stars' - Halloween night setting, reads like a teen horror movie, utilizes the Satanic Panic experience with somewhat interesting results.
'Scarcely Have They Been Planted' - written in rural dialect from perspective of a developmentally disabled girl. A strange story of family secrets horribly exposed.
'Intaglios' - desert hitchhiker experiences hallucinations...or not?
'Alectryomancer' - a moody blur of cockfighting, migrant work camps, and ghosts of antediluvian civilizations. The illustrations add to the mysterious tone. Certainly one of the stronger stories.
Overall I enjoyed this, although a few of the stories followed a formula, typically the more obvious trope-driven ones that end with some terrible entity taking its due from the puny human race. But even these few that became predictable were done well. Slatsky is definitely a writer I will revisit.
December 5, 2015
I was a Slatsky virgin until I read this collection, and now I'm in love. This has got to be one of the best collections of weird fiction (of ANY fiction) I've read, ever, let alone this year. There's such a wide variety of weirdnes and horror on display here I can't begin to encompass the terror and joy of experiencing Slatsky's perfectly calibrated words.
Okay, so, favourites. Really all thirteen of these stories are amazing, but a few stood out further than the others, left a burning impression in my brain with their wonderful, terrifying imagery.
"Corporautolysis" left me breathless with dread and practically dry-retching. It's a little reminiscent of Thomas Ligotti's work but it stands so well as its own entity with its increasing sense of unease, of reality sloughing away to reveal the squishy truth of the protagonist's workplace. And basically anything involving fungus and horror has me at fruiting bodies.
"No One is Sleeping in This World" is one of the creepiest, coolest, most original stories I've read. Its use of terror via the architecture and structure of cities, and the implications this has for the nature of reality and the universe, is nothing short of genius. I felt like I needed a scalding hot shower after reading this story, and that's about the highest compliments I can give a piece of writing.
Film Maudit is a beautiful, squelchy love letter to horror films and old cinemas, and bears what I suppose is now Slatsky's trademark of transforming the mundane into the deeply unpleasant.
Anyway, stop reading this sycophantic review and go find a copy of this collection, and don't stop reading it until you've finished. An incredible debut collection from a writer whose next work I'll be eagerly awaiting.
Okay, so, favourites. Really all thirteen of these stories are amazing, but a few stood out further than the others, left a burning impression in my brain with their wonderful, terrifying imagery.
"Corporautolysis" left me breathless with dread and practically dry-retching. It's a little reminiscent of Thomas Ligotti's work but it stands so well as its own entity with its increasing sense of unease, of reality sloughing away to reveal the squishy truth of the protagonist's workplace. And basically anything involving fungus and horror has me at fruiting bodies.
"No One is Sleeping in This World" is one of the creepiest, coolest, most original stories I've read. Its use of terror via the architecture and structure of cities, and the implications this has for the nature of reality and the universe, is nothing short of genius. I felt like I needed a scalding hot shower after reading this story, and that's about the highest compliments I can give a piece of writing.
Film Maudit is a beautiful, squelchy love letter to horror films and old cinemas, and bears what I suppose is now Slatsky's trademark of transforming the mundane into the deeply unpleasant.
Anyway, stop reading this sycophantic review and go find a copy of this collection, and don't stop reading it until you've finished. An incredible debut collection from a writer whose next work I'll be eagerly awaiting.
May 27, 2021
I'm new to this author but I've already picked up his next story collection. This was very good, very atmospheric, and very tense in a way that gave me visceral chills. Plus, he's just a very effective and smart horror writer combining philosophy, archaeology, and myth to bring the most out of a story. Definitely left me impressed.
My favorites were "No One is Sleeping in this World," "Making Snakes," "The Ocean is Eating Our Graves," "This Fragmented Body," "Tellurian Facade," "A Plague of Naked Movie Stars," and "Alectryomancer."
My favorites were "No One is Sleeping in this World," "Making Snakes," "The Ocean is Eating Our Graves," "This Fragmented Body," "Tellurian Facade," "A Plague of Naked Movie Stars," and "Alectryomancer."
January 30, 2016
My favourite surprise of 2015. Slatsky's debut collection "Alectryomancer and Other Weird Tales" will soon be considered a modern classic of the dark weird. This book should sit on every aficionado's library shelf. Each story here is VERY strong, making it hard to pick a favourite, but I'm partial to "Film Maudit", a frightening tale that works like a Gaspar Noe film scene. A follow-up should be out in 2016 from Dunhams Manor Press.
August 27, 2016
Another distinctive collection of cosmic horror and all round strangeness that I enjoyed. The title story is a very fine tale indeed.
March 2, 2018
Let me precis my longer review from elsewhere: certainly one of the best recent books of weird fiction and a remarkably accomplished debut in the field.
March 2, 2016
Well-researched, obsessive, beautifully written, and super, super dark.
Update: One month later and I have now re-read several of these stories and, if anything, they have only become more powerful. I think this might be the best collection of weird fiction I've read since The Imago Sequence.
Update: One month later and I have now re-read several of these stories and, if anything, they have only become more powerful. I think this might be the best collection of weird fiction I've read since The Imago Sequence.
March 10, 2016
This is such adventurous storytelling. The structurally complex narratives cover an impressive range of themes and are layered with literary, cultural and historical references that add depth to the action rather than weighing it down. Slatsky creates these dense, dark worlds and populates them with plausible, flesh-and-blood characters. He has a remarkable gift for marrying intellectual exploration to pace and plot, so that even his most complicated stories never feel like philosophical exercises or essays. A collection as challenging as it is fun to read.
March 19, 2023
An excellent collection, containing some of the finest works modern weird fiction has to offer.
September 14, 2017
Short stories that come straight out of the weird fiction corner. The first few stories show that Slatsky has explored the genre, many tropes appear in other of the 'bigger' authors' stories - things like urban cults, realities behind our reality, lost and forgotten humans below us, stuff like that. If you're familiar with the genre then those stories will seem very familiar.
Only in the last few stories does Slatsky depart further from the genre's tropes, and that is when he mixes the genre with modern American literature. This becomes apparent in the title story Alectryomancer, where a migratory field worker encounters the Weird (and there's cock-fights!).
Recommended for fans of Lovecraft, VanderMeer, Ligotti
---------------
LATER EDIT:
You know what makes this book interesting? I bet that these stories are sorted chronologically, and if that's true, then reading this book gives you a front row seat in watching an author find their own voice. The book develops from good and flattering imitation of the author's idols to self developed tropes and a unique voice. Fun!
Only in the last few stories does Slatsky depart further from the genre's tropes, and that is when he mixes the genre with modern American literature. This becomes apparent in the title story Alectryomancer, where a migratory field worker encounters the Weird (and there's cock-fights!).
Recommended for fans of Lovecraft, VanderMeer, Ligotti
---------------
LATER EDIT:
You know what makes this book interesting? I bet that these stories are sorted chronologically, and if that's true, then reading this book gives you a front row seat in watching an author find their own voice. The book develops from good and flattering imitation of the author's idols to self developed tropes and a unique voice. Fun!
October 16, 2015
I‘d never read anything by Christopher Slatsky until Jordan Krall's Dunhams Manor Press branch of Dynatox Ministries published a chapbook by him (they are also the publishers of this collection), “No One is Sleeping in this World.” That one wormed into my head, intrigued me in curious ways. The best fiction, as far as I care, does this. I wasn’t initially sure about the characters, then realized upon re-reading the tale a couple times, how perfectly constructed they were within the constructs of their exploration of the living city/architecture…and those who live within that dark place. Utterly fascinating. Then the title story of this collection was published…and I was stunned. Here was a tale so different from most any other I had read within the realm of Weird fiction…or any fiction. Slatsky combines Depression-era cockfights, an unusual book, UFOs, a suggestion of time-travel and more, to create, well, excuse me, I’m going to steal from my Goodreads review here: “…it’s all wrapped in a hallucinatory realm that feels, because of some peripheral elements, as though they might have been plucked from a Daliesque nightmare. There’s a sense of a dream within a dream…and I’m not sure if either thread qualifies as “reality” as we think we know it.” There’s such a breadth of ideas woven into each of the tales here it’s rather mind-boggling. Beyond that, the variety of characters and ‘voices’ for each tale are so well defined, even with a tale that had me stumbling at first—“Scarcely Have They Been Planted”—when I found my footing (I needed to find it, no fault of Slatsky’s as he knows exactly what he’s doing), I adjusted to the ‘simple’ voice of the narrator, a voice that rings so true the reader is captivated by the strangeness that unfolds.
I figure it works like this: Slatsky reads widely and whenever a subject comes up he is intrigued by (and, judging by the scope of these tales, there’s not much that doesn’t intrigue him), he writes it down on a small piece of paper and drops the paper into a hat; a magician’s hat, of course. The hat is overflowing with ideas. Slatsky reaches in and picks out two, three…maybe five ideas at a time, and then molds the disparate ideas into a single unique tale, a Slatskyian tale, a polished gem of indescribable beauty and oddness, something only he could do. The wonder of discovery for the reader is not only in the strange confluence of ideas, but the depth of diverse characters and, ultimately, the presentation, how he stitches it all together. Because Slatsky is a student of the Weird…and makes it his own. Every tale brings a dollop of magic, intelligence, and story-telling panache of the highest caliber. Because these ARE utterly Slatskyian tales, and what he does IS magic.
Either that or he’s from another planet, studying the human race, trying to figure us out while he studies every facet of our world. I’m going on a bit, wanted to get into more of the 13 thought-provoking tales in this collection (and expect to with the release of the hardcover next year, with two additional tales) but you get my gist, don’t you?
Yeah, it’s rather obvious: I am in awe.
I figure it works like this: Slatsky reads widely and whenever a subject comes up he is intrigued by (and, judging by the scope of these tales, there’s not much that doesn’t intrigue him), he writes it down on a small piece of paper and drops the paper into a hat; a magician’s hat, of course. The hat is overflowing with ideas. Slatsky reaches in and picks out two, three…maybe five ideas at a time, and then molds the disparate ideas into a single unique tale, a Slatskyian tale, a polished gem of indescribable beauty and oddness, something only he could do. The wonder of discovery for the reader is not only in the strange confluence of ideas, but the depth of diverse characters and, ultimately, the presentation, how he stitches it all together. Because Slatsky is a student of the Weird…and makes it his own. Every tale brings a dollop of magic, intelligence, and story-telling panache of the highest caliber. Because these ARE utterly Slatskyian tales, and what he does IS magic.
Either that or he’s from another planet, studying the human race, trying to figure us out while he studies every facet of our world. I’m going on a bit, wanted to get into more of the 13 thought-provoking tales in this collection (and expect to with the release of the hardcover next year, with two additional tales) but you get my gist, don’t you?
Yeah, it’s rather obvious: I am in awe.
January 6, 2016
One of the finest collections of weird stories to come out in recent years. Brimming with a sly, sinister intelligence - you'll re-read these pieces twice to squeeze every ounce of terror and bizarre action out of them. There is an air of unspoken background to each tale, and you almost wish Slatsky had provided a bibliography at the end of the book to see the roots of where some of these gems, well, germinated. Alternating between horror and weird, with a feeling of indy film to some and twilight zone bizzareness to others, these stories defy definition. That said, you'll find your heart broken more than once, as characters disappear, transform, or open doors that should be left closed.
Readers will want to take their time digesting these tales, and many of them will deserve, and warrant, a re-read. Slatsky will be a force in the field - be warned.
Readers will want to take their time digesting these tales, and many of them will deserve, and warrant, a re-read. Slatsky will be a force in the field - be warned.
November 9, 2015
A compelling and unique collection. Shrouded in mystery, occult phenomena, philosophy and otherworldly strangeness, I never knew what was coming. The protagonists often have the rug pulled vividly out from under their reality, with deja-vu taunting them as they attempt to piece together what is truly happening to them. Frightening, psychedelic and creepy, I will gladly read more from Christopher Slatsky.
April 22, 2019
Very strong collection here, definitely a strong 4, almost 5 stars. Before seeing this pop up, I'd never heard of Slatsky, so I'm assuming he's a fairly recent player on the Weird scene. All of the stories were strong. I particularly liked the atmospheres he developed, regardless of the story they were all well fleshed out. Not sure of a favorite story after this first reading, but that's because they were all great. The only one that didn't do as much for me was Scarcely Have They Been Planted, being the only story I'd call just "good" in the collection.
Can't wait for more from Slatsky!
Can't wait for more from Slatsky!
Read
January 26, 2016I have read 4 chapbooks by Slatsky before reading this book and needless to say I was super excited when I got my hands on this collection. So excited I had to bump it to the front of my TBR list. The title story I had read as one of the chapbooks and it was definitely my favorite out of the four. I read Alectryomancer again during this reading and I still liked it a lot but the "other weird tales" gave me a fuller picture of Slatsky's abilities as a writer and I definitely enjoyed them.
The collection opens up with a weird tale about an American woman going through a divorce and mid life crisis in the UK while some other weird things are happening. This book does get darker and weirder as you go along. A couple more of my favorites are The Ocean Is Eating Our Graves, which features a lot of Native anthropology and folklore, and Tellurian Facade, which is a story about a family coming together after the death of their abusive father. Both are excellent weird stories where the weird is presented in different ways. The Ocean Is Eating Our Graves presents dreadful in all aspects with elements of weird throughout while Tellurian Facade reads like a dark noir drama and it doesn't get weird until the very end. Slatsky has a beefy vocabulary and is obviously well read in the subjects he tackles throughout the book. The prose is beautiful and written with literary heft. Slatsky reminds me of Laird Barron in the fact that he can write a weird story but he can also really write in a literary form with the best of them. I am not ashamed to say that I had to reread lines at times to truly grasp the meaning and I had to check my dictionary/wiki app a few times while I read this collection. At the end I just appreciated the layers and depth of research that went into this debut collection. It was a challenging read at times but the good kind of challenge not the chore like challenge.
Even though this is Slatsky's first collection I am sold. This dude should definitely making his way up the ranks of the weird fiction realm, and hopefully getting the attention of dark fiction fans in general. Dunham's Manor press puts out some of the best weird fiction I have ever read and I am sure other publishers are trying to get at this author. I can't wait to read more by Slatsky.
The collection opens up with a weird tale about an American woman going through a divorce and mid life crisis in the UK while some other weird things are happening. This book does get darker and weirder as you go along. A couple more of my favorites are The Ocean Is Eating Our Graves, which features a lot of Native anthropology and folklore, and Tellurian Facade, which is a story about a family coming together after the death of their abusive father. Both are excellent weird stories where the weird is presented in different ways. The Ocean Is Eating Our Graves presents dreadful in all aspects with elements of weird throughout while Tellurian Facade reads like a dark noir drama and it doesn't get weird until the very end. Slatsky has a beefy vocabulary and is obviously well read in the subjects he tackles throughout the book. The prose is beautiful and written with literary heft. Slatsky reminds me of Laird Barron in the fact that he can write a weird story but he can also really write in a literary form with the best of them. I am not ashamed to say that I had to reread lines at times to truly grasp the meaning and I had to check my dictionary/wiki app a few times while I read this collection. At the end I just appreciated the layers and depth of research that went into this debut collection. It was a challenging read at times but the good kind of challenge not the chore like challenge.
Even though this is Slatsky's first collection I am sold. This dude should definitely making his way up the ranks of the weird fiction realm, and hopefully getting the attention of dark fiction fans in general. Dunham's Manor press puts out some of the best weird fiction I have ever read and I am sure other publishers are trying to get at this author. I can't wait to read more by Slatsky.
September 22, 2017
Due to a series of outside circumstances and through no fault of its own, it took me a long time to read Alectryomancer and Other Weird Tales. As a result, I find myself at a disadvantage when it comes to trying to write an accurate "review," since I'm working from memories of individual stories scattered across most of a year, and I didn't take good notes. (I guess I'll just have to read it again soon.)
There is a particular thread that runs through the current "weird renaissance" that is, without a doubt, occurring in the field. Stories that are intentionally abstract, oblique, and more focused on atmosphere and affect than on what we might typically think of as plot. This isn't a criticism. Some of the best work being done right now falls in this camp, and Christopher Slatsky is definitely among those pushing this particular envelope forward.
I know that there were times, when I was reading Alectryomancer and Other Weird Tales, that I found myself thinking that it read like exactly what it is: a debut collection, the work of an author who is still finding his footing. But if that's the case, it does less to damage the experience of enjoying this book than it does to whet the appetite for what Slatsky will turn out next. And if there is an occasional overeager roughness on display in the stories here, there is, just as often, an utterly perfect moment, turn of phrase, or weird phenomenon that upends your expectations and sets your mind spinning. The title story, in particular, which closes out the collection, is one of the most potent examples weird fiction that I've read in a while, capable of both punching you in the gut and expanding your horizons at the same time.
There is a particular thread that runs through the current "weird renaissance" that is, without a doubt, occurring in the field. Stories that are intentionally abstract, oblique, and more focused on atmosphere and affect than on what we might typically think of as plot. This isn't a criticism. Some of the best work being done right now falls in this camp, and Christopher Slatsky is definitely among those pushing this particular envelope forward.
I know that there were times, when I was reading Alectryomancer and Other Weird Tales, that I found myself thinking that it read like exactly what it is: a debut collection, the work of an author who is still finding his footing. But if that's the case, it does less to damage the experience of enjoying this book than it does to whet the appetite for what Slatsky will turn out next. And if there is an occasional overeager roughness on display in the stories here, there is, just as often, an utterly perfect moment, turn of phrase, or weird phenomenon that upends your expectations and sets your mind spinning. The title story, in particular, which closes out the collection, is one of the most potent examples weird fiction that I've read in a while, capable of both punching you in the gut and expanding your horizons at the same time.
August 17, 2015
Christopher Slatsky's collection of Weird Fiction is a monster of a debut. "Alectryomancer and Other Weird Tales" contains thirteen stories that explore a wide variety of themes and concepts, bound to make the soundest of minds crack from earthly and cosmic revelations. Slatsky writes of convoluted arrangements of matter resulting in strange beings and floating cities. Suppressed emotions manifest into a structure that engulfs a man in darkness. A man is slowly digested by the very corporation he works for. A woman treks across a desert and wonders if she is even on Earth. Two friends are subsumed by architectural integration, and a California field laborer in the 1930s is embroiled in missing workers, cosmic cockfighting, ufo sightings, and an enigmatic being known as Phainothropus. Slatsky's stories explore religion, morality, consciousness, Native American myths, conspiracy theories, and even the satanic panic that permeated the 80s. His stories are some of the most unique, original, weird, and thought-provoking I have ever read. If you dare, allow yourself to become subsumed by Slatsky's work. Become initiated, and return with new knowledge.
May 6, 2017
A top-shelf collection of dark and erudite fiction. These are a thinking mans weird tales, written with articulate and literate prose, and displaying an incredibly creative and vivid imagination. There was not one story in this collection that I didn't love, and several them haunted me for some time after reading them. Film Maudit and A Plague of Naked Movie Stars were standouts, as was Loveliness Like a Shadow, and the title story Alectryomancer. Dunhams Manor Press is definitely a small press to watch, I can only hope they continue to deliver works from talented writers like Christipher Slatsky.
July 1, 2018
I've seen Slatsky's work in other anthologies and magazines, and have been meaning to read this collection for some time now. It's hard to think of a writer so in dialog with Thomas Ligotti and yet so strikingly unique. Every story in this collection has an undercurrent of symmetry, multiple plots and feelings tugging characters towards a horrible end.
Thick, philosophic description deliberately disorients and wows the reader. Over the awe of the prose, there's the cut of the theme.
I can't recommend this enough.
Thick, philosophic description deliberately disorients and wows the reader. Over the awe of the prose, there's the cut of the theme.
I can't recommend this enough.
March 29, 2018
A collection of great weird/horror stories that demand to be re-read (which I am yet to do) before their mysteries can begin to be penetrated. As such, I don't feel able to really talk about the individual stories themselves although I might revisit this review if I do.
A clear and visceral prose style makes the collection a pleasure to read and I look forward to reading more by this author.
A clear and visceral prose style makes the collection a pleasure to read and I look forward to reading more by this author.
April 5, 2018
Anyone who knows me knows how much I love horror and strange fiction. They also know that it takes quite a lot to truly impress me. Sure, I will LIKE something, but actually have it make an impact on me? This doesn't usually happen.
With that in mind, upon finishing the title story of this collection, I silently mouthed the word 'wow' as I stared into the middle distance.
Praise indeed!
An excellent collection of tales that WILL get under your skin. Highly recommended. Strong contender for best book I've read this year so far.
With that in mind, upon finishing the title story of this collection, I silently mouthed the word 'wow' as I stared into the middle distance.
Praise indeed!
An excellent collection of tales that WILL get under your skin. Highly recommended. Strong contender for best book I've read this year so far.
February 5, 2017
If you like Brian Evenson work maybe this is for you.
But for me certainly isn`t!
I`m amazed by how many peoples haved enjoyed this collection of stories.
I`m not in the atmospheric horror writing and I really don`t like the style of this writer.
Even his stories with some Lovecraftian influences were something beyond my reach...
Mnope! It really didn`t worked for me!
But for me certainly isn`t!
I`m amazed by how many peoples haved enjoyed this collection of stories.
I`m not in the atmospheric horror writing and I really don`t like the style of this writer.
Even his stories with some Lovecraftian influences were something beyond my reach...
Mnope! It really didn`t worked for me!
July 31, 2016
There's so much great weird fiction coming out these days that I put this excellent collection on the back burner for at least 6 months before I read it. But the good reviews don't lie, this is excellent stuff. I wouldn't put this above other great collections I've read lately like Cody Goodfellow's Strategies Against Nature, or Livia Llewellyn's Furnace, but it's comfortably in their company.
Most of these stories are 3,000-5,000~ words each except for the title story, coming in around 9,000. He packs a lot into these stories and they don't need to be any longer than they are. They also linger in the mind long after they're read.
These stories venture into very dark territory. They're grim in emotional content, yes, but even more profound was the continually reinforced philosophy of human insignificance. This comes through plainly in almost all of the stories. These are also very well-crafted stories. Often I would finish one and realize how many hints were dropped early on that fall into place if you go back and re-read a bit.
I picked up on the influences of three of my favorite authors; Thomas Ligotti, Ramsey Campbell and Robert Aickman.
As I said, the philosophy is grim, but it feels influenced by Ligotti in particular. Here's an example: "Vince floated in the cesspool of space. Bobbed on foul currents past minor planets, chunks of meteoroids, flotsam and jetsam sloshing in the black currents of infinity. The universe was a septic system." ("A Plague of Naked Movie Stars")
If that doesn't make you think of Ligotti, try this on for size: "...existence was indisputably horrific—not a thinking horror that plots behind a vast curtain, but a universe of witless shadow breathing against the thin cells of reality. A cosmos guided solely by self perpetuation unburdened by conscience." ("An Invasion of Stars")
I rest my case, and I love this stuff!
The way horror is suggested in half-seen hints reminded me of Campbell. Just as an example, the horror in one story is an invasive mold, and we increasingly see it implied throughout in various ways. This doesn't happen in all of the stories, but it does in several. Finally, the ambiguity of some of the stories combined with their haunting emotional content reminded me of Aickman, although I would say this was the least-felt influence.
Yet again, a collection that impressed me early, and kept me wanting to dive back in, again and again. To me that's what makes a short story collection great.
Loveliness Like a Shadow - This was a very eerie tale and the mood and setting were pitch perfect I thought. The idea of a creepy neighbor who's window you can see into reminded me of Hans Heinz Ewers' "The Spider" or Erckmann-Chatrain's "The Invisible Eye." Definite flashes of great inspiration here and some Aickman-esque ambiguity. A sculptor recovering from a divorce takes a cheap London flat and is intrigued by her strange neighbor across the alley who she hears weeping.
An Infestation of Stars - The influence of Ligotti is deeply felt here. This is a great story, great concept and some some deeply unsettling moments. After a girls' father is murdered under mysterious circumstances, she follows his footsteps into an anthropological career, studying a peculiar insect-centric religious sect which she believes is somehow connected with it.
Corporautolysis - Nice corporate horror story, grim, this one a bit more hallucinogenic and surreal, which makes the very strange plot idea work. Ramsey Campbell's horrorific hints came to mind again here. A man's corporate office seems to be taken over by mold.
No One is Sleeping in this World - This is one of the best stories in the collection. It's also one of the scariest with many memorable moments and images. The idea of the city as a mind was used in Leiber's great short novel "Our Lady of Darkness," (at least I thought it was a great novel!) but I really liked how this story utilized that idea. A husband and wife working on a documentary about occult architecture discover some very strange goings-on in an abandoned warehouse.
Making Snakes - Short and scary, this story really leaves a lot open-ended, but gives us enough hints to suggest some truly horrific implications. An actress recovering from a recent family tragedy finds herself plagued by a childhood fear connected with an abandoned lot nearby she hasn't thought of in years.
The Ocean is Eating Our Graves - Another great story, it's hard not to see some Cthulhu inspiration here (it was published in Innsmouth Magazine) with a sea monster, dream revelations, the apocalyptic conspiracy and paranoia. A Native American brother and sister suspect a respected anthropologist is stealing bones and relics, but in fact something far more sinister is going on.
This Fragmented Body - Wow, this is an excellent story, unsettling, very deep, but what struck me here was the more emotional tone. There's much to think about here once the story is over. One of the best in the book. The inhabitants of an apartment complex reflect on their regrets in the midst of a power outage and perhaps something far worse.
Tellurian Façade - This was one of my least favorites I suppose, but it's still a great story. This one is full of anger, resentment and bitterness and has a fairly original theme. After a man's brutish father dies he reflects on the man's brutality, but also becomes fascinated by a wall that seems to be emerging from the earth nearby.
Film Maudit - One of the grimmer stories, I'm not entirely sure what exactly happened at the end, but it's still a good story with a great set up. I love creepy stories about obscure films. A man goes to a theater to see an obscure horror film where an "oscillator" is used to enhance the surreal experience.
A Plague of Naked Movie Stars - Wow, this was certainly one of the scarier stories. It starts out feeling like a good horror story set up, but turns quite cosmic and weird by the end. On Halloween night a group of teenage boys set out to explore a house where a ritual murder happened, but discover something far more horrifying.
Scarcely Have They Been Planted - One of the strangest stories in the collection, no doubt. I liked the dialect and the vagueness of what was really going on here, it's left open-ended but more eerie for that. A mentally challenged girl on a farm meets a new friend who uncovers a really strange secret about her family.
Intaglios - This was another story I didn't overly care for, although it does has a good sense of dread and mounting fear. A girl finds herself pursued in the desert by a distant figure on the horizon after her encounter with a couple of odd, burnt-out hippies.
Alectryomancer - This one is by far the weirdest and it took me a good amount of time to digest. It's surreal, beginning to end and has a great setting for a weird story -- a rural farm in Depression-era California. It's hot, dusty, the main character is constantly hallucinating and trying to remember his past while browsing a strange occult text. It's in this text however where the key to the story is held. There's themes of possible extra-dimensions, superior beings and many other things which leave much rather open-ended to say the least. A field laborer contends with memory loss, strange visions and the disappearance of fellow workers.
Most of these stories are 3,000-5,000~ words each except for the title story, coming in around 9,000. He packs a lot into these stories and they don't need to be any longer than they are. They also linger in the mind long after they're read.
These stories venture into very dark territory. They're grim in emotional content, yes, but even more profound was the continually reinforced philosophy of human insignificance. This comes through plainly in almost all of the stories. These are also very well-crafted stories. Often I would finish one and realize how many hints were dropped early on that fall into place if you go back and re-read a bit.
I picked up on the influences of three of my favorite authors; Thomas Ligotti, Ramsey Campbell and Robert Aickman.
As I said, the philosophy is grim, but it feels influenced by Ligotti in particular. Here's an example: "Vince floated in the cesspool of space. Bobbed on foul currents past minor planets, chunks of meteoroids, flotsam and jetsam sloshing in the black currents of infinity. The universe was a septic system." ("A Plague of Naked Movie Stars")
If that doesn't make you think of Ligotti, try this on for size: "...existence was indisputably horrific—not a thinking horror that plots behind a vast curtain, but a universe of witless shadow breathing against the thin cells of reality. A cosmos guided solely by self perpetuation unburdened by conscience." ("An Invasion of Stars")
I rest my case, and I love this stuff!
The way horror is suggested in half-seen hints reminded me of Campbell. Just as an example, the horror in one story is an invasive mold, and we increasingly see it implied throughout in various ways. This doesn't happen in all of the stories, but it does in several. Finally, the ambiguity of some of the stories combined with their haunting emotional content reminded me of Aickman, although I would say this was the least-felt influence.
Yet again, a collection that impressed me early, and kept me wanting to dive back in, again and again. To me that's what makes a short story collection great.
Loveliness Like a Shadow - This was a very eerie tale and the mood and setting were pitch perfect I thought. The idea of a creepy neighbor who's window you can see into reminded me of Hans Heinz Ewers' "The Spider" or Erckmann-Chatrain's "The Invisible Eye." Definite flashes of great inspiration here and some Aickman-esque ambiguity. A sculptor recovering from a divorce takes a cheap London flat and is intrigued by her strange neighbor across the alley who she hears weeping.
An Infestation of Stars - The influence of Ligotti is deeply felt here. This is a great story, great concept and some some deeply unsettling moments. After a girls' father is murdered under mysterious circumstances, she follows his footsteps into an anthropological career, studying a peculiar insect-centric religious sect which she believes is somehow connected with it.
Corporautolysis - Nice corporate horror story, grim, this one a bit more hallucinogenic and surreal, which makes the very strange plot idea work. Ramsey Campbell's horrorific hints came to mind again here. A man's corporate office seems to be taken over by mold.
No One is Sleeping in this World - This is one of the best stories in the collection. It's also one of the scariest with many memorable moments and images. The idea of the city as a mind was used in Leiber's great short novel "Our Lady of Darkness," (at least I thought it was a great novel!) but I really liked how this story utilized that idea. A husband and wife working on a documentary about occult architecture discover some very strange goings-on in an abandoned warehouse.
Making Snakes - Short and scary, this story really leaves a lot open-ended, but gives us enough hints to suggest some truly horrific implications. An actress recovering from a recent family tragedy finds herself plagued by a childhood fear connected with an abandoned lot nearby she hasn't thought of in years.
The Ocean is Eating Our Graves - Another great story, it's hard not to see some Cthulhu inspiration here (it was published in Innsmouth Magazine) with a sea monster, dream revelations, the apocalyptic conspiracy and paranoia. A Native American brother and sister suspect a respected anthropologist is stealing bones and relics, but in fact something far more sinister is going on.
This Fragmented Body - Wow, this is an excellent story, unsettling, very deep, but what struck me here was the more emotional tone. There's much to think about here once the story is over. One of the best in the book. The inhabitants of an apartment complex reflect on their regrets in the midst of a power outage and perhaps something far worse.
Tellurian Façade - This was one of my least favorites I suppose, but it's still a great story. This one is full of anger, resentment and bitterness and has a fairly original theme. After a man's brutish father dies he reflects on the man's brutality, but also becomes fascinated by a wall that seems to be emerging from the earth nearby.
Film Maudit - One of the grimmer stories, I'm not entirely sure what exactly happened at the end, but it's still a good story with a great set up. I love creepy stories about obscure films. A man goes to a theater to see an obscure horror film where an "oscillator" is used to enhance the surreal experience.
A Plague of Naked Movie Stars - Wow, this was certainly one of the scarier stories. It starts out feeling like a good horror story set up, but turns quite cosmic and weird by the end. On Halloween night a group of teenage boys set out to explore a house where a ritual murder happened, but discover something far more horrifying.
Scarcely Have They Been Planted - One of the strangest stories in the collection, no doubt. I liked the dialect and the vagueness of what was really going on here, it's left open-ended but more eerie for that. A mentally challenged girl on a farm meets a new friend who uncovers a really strange secret about her family.
Intaglios - This was another story I didn't overly care for, although it does has a good sense of dread and mounting fear. A girl finds herself pursued in the desert by a distant figure on the horizon after her encounter with a couple of odd, burnt-out hippies.
Alectryomancer - This one is by far the weirdest and it took me a good amount of time to digest. It's surreal, beginning to end and has a great setting for a weird story -- a rural farm in Depression-era California. It's hot, dusty, the main character is constantly hallucinating and trying to remember his past while browsing a strange occult text. It's in this text however where the key to the story is held. There's themes of possible extra-dimensions, superior beings and many other things which leave much rather open-ended to say the least. A field laborer contends with memory loss, strange visions and the disappearance of fellow workers.
March 26, 2023
Bardzo dobry zbiór opowiadań w stylu weird fiction. Szanuję za niesztampowe pomysły.
August 3, 2022
This would be 3.5 stars if I could rate it that way.
The collection, though filled with some great stories, is (to me) somewhat inconsistent. Yes, they all fall into the category of "the weird", but their eclecticism seems to work a bit against the book as a whole.
Definitely an author I will read some more of, though. I am expecting some great things from this guy.
The collection, though filled with some great stories, is (to me) somewhat inconsistent. Yes, they all fall into the category of "the weird", but their eclecticism seems to work a bit against the book as a whole.
Definitely an author I will read some more of, though. I am expecting some great things from this guy.
November 17, 2021
Christopher Slatsky was able to sign and send me a couple of his works and I was *really* excited to get into them. I started with this one.
Slatsky is clearly a very smart person with elevated tastes. There were many Latin and Spanish phrases I had to look up from these pages. The stories were often cosmic in their horrific nature. I found myself unable to grasp quite a few of the meanings and endings, but had an undeniably disturbed feeling upon completing them - kind of like that certain wavelength of sound that is meant to unnerve you and induce anxiety, without anything solid upon which to put the blame. Despite feeling like this was a tougher read for me, there were enough great stories in here to want to carefully push through.
The stories I enjoyed the most that left me blinking into the abyss were as follows:
An Infestation of Stars: "An existence governed by insect morality" sums up this story and its terrifying endeavours.
No One is Sleeping in This World: Dives into a new topic for me - architectural horror. I was completely upended by this story and it made me look at the buildings around me through newly terrified eyes.
Scarcely Have They Been Planted: Earthen horror. A play on the concept of "Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return" with a malignant and unnatural component.
Alectryomancer: The book's namesake was fantastic, also very cosmic in its horror. I was the most immersed in this strange tale of cockfighting, existence within a world reliant on gambling, and the strange depths it all plumbed.
Slatsky is undeniably an impeccable writer. I really want to better understand and truly grasp the larger than life concepts he presents from the same level on which he is emitting them, so I will continue to read his work unabashedly.
Slatsky is clearly a very smart person with elevated tastes. There were many Latin and Spanish phrases I had to look up from these pages. The stories were often cosmic in their horrific nature. I found myself unable to grasp quite a few of the meanings and endings, but had an undeniably disturbed feeling upon completing them - kind of like that certain wavelength of sound that is meant to unnerve you and induce anxiety, without anything solid upon which to put the blame. Despite feeling like this was a tougher read for me, there were enough great stories in here to want to carefully push through.
The stories I enjoyed the most that left me blinking into the abyss were as follows:
An Infestation of Stars: "An existence governed by insect morality" sums up this story and its terrifying endeavours.
No One is Sleeping in This World: Dives into a new topic for me - architectural horror. I was completely upended by this story and it made me look at the buildings around me through newly terrified eyes.
Scarcely Have They Been Planted: Earthen horror. A play on the concept of "Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return" with a malignant and unnatural component.
Alectryomancer: The book's namesake was fantastic, also very cosmic in its horror. I was the most immersed in this strange tale of cockfighting, existence within a world reliant on gambling, and the strange depths it all plumbed.
Slatsky is undeniably an impeccable writer. I really want to better understand and truly grasp the larger than life concepts he presents from the same level on which he is emitting them, so I will continue to read his work unabashedly.
July 14, 2016
A firm example of modern weird, high on atmosphere, low on traditional plotting.
The stories here are more about effect (and occasionally affect) than about narrative. Solid explanations are thin on the ground, characters are mostly sketched, and most of the stories have very little truly happen. Vague inscrutability is fine here and there, but as the prevailing element in a collection, it frustrates me.
The tone here is bleak and hopeless, and most of the stories blend together into a blur of gloom. There are a few standouts, where defined themes and characters pop out, and the prose is of high quality, but on the whole, this is the usual doom-saying indie horror fare. Will read a few of these again, notably "The Ocean is Eating Our Graves" and "This Fragmented Body", but mostly found this collection enjoyable, but nothing special.
The escalation of dread is well-done throughout, though, so if you're looking for mood-pieces more than actual stories, you've come to the right place.
The stories here are more about effect (and occasionally affect) than about narrative. Solid explanations are thin on the ground, characters are mostly sketched, and most of the stories have very little truly happen. Vague inscrutability is fine here and there, but as the prevailing element in a collection, it frustrates me.
The tone here is bleak and hopeless, and most of the stories blend together into a blur of gloom. There are a few standouts, where defined themes and characters pop out, and the prose is of high quality, but on the whole, this is the usual doom-saying indie horror fare. Will read a few of these again, notably "The Ocean is Eating Our Graves" and "This Fragmented Body", but mostly found this collection enjoyable, but nothing special.
The escalation of dread is well-done throughout, though, so if you're looking for mood-pieces more than actual stories, you've come to the right place.
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