The Return of Count Electric: & Other Stories

by William Browning Spencer

In The Return of Count Electric and Other Stories, William Browning Spencer demonstrates a wildly imaginative, non-stop narrative skill in the tradition of Roald Dahl and John Collier.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction

220 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

William Browning Spencer is an award-winning American novelist and short story writer living in Austin, Texas. His science fiction and horror stories are often darkly and surreally humorous. His novel Resume With Monsters conflates soul-destroying H. P. Lovecraftian horrors with soul-destroying lousy jobs.
His story "The Death of the Novel" was a 1995 Bram Stoker Award nominee for Best Short Story.

Reviews

[Graham P · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fine collection of random short stories that trespass genre labels and show individuals failing in life, love and profession - meandering into some obtuse viewpoint as they wallow further towards insanity. Some tales here are good, but others (like 'Wedding Photographer in Crisis') play off like crude, sublime jokes - as hilarious as they are sinister.

[Benjamin]

When I was somewhat unsatisfied with Charles Stross's Cthulhu-with-spies stories, I was referred to William Browning Spencer's Résumé with Monsters as another (and better) version of the Cthulhu-and-mundanity story. Thanks to the Chicago Public Library, that book is on its way to me, but this book got to me faster.

Now, since I expected to soon be reading his take on monsters, I was expecting these stories to be genre (or even slipstream-genre); and many of these stories have horror or gothic tonalities to them--the "my other personality is a serial killer" trope shows up a little--so I guess that counts. But what struck me when reading these is how many of them are only slightly surreal. For instance, in "The Wedding Photographer in Crisis," a heartbroken wedding photographer takes extreme measures to make sure someone else's wedding goes off. Hilarity may ensure, but it's not totally madcap hilarity. Or in "A Child's Christmas in Florida," a poorer family celebrates Christmas with ceremonial theft, a surreality that Flannery O'Connor would recognize. We could go through just about all of the stories and find the slightly strange twist given to a pretty ordinary story--so, for instance, "The Entomologists at Obala" is one of the best, but to be honest, it's "Romeo and Juliet" with wasps and spiders, and with extra POV work from the immature teens. Whatever twist he may give, Spencer keeps an eye on the humor of the underlying real, which is pretty ridiculous. (Seriously, that teen POV is killer since the teens're totally consumed with their feelings of the moment and then have to deal with walking back from those extremes.)

I was really hoping for something a little more out-and-out genre/surreal in these stories, but once I had readjusted my expectations, they did satisfy, even if some of the stories are less interesting than others. So, as a whole, I was entertained by these stories, if not set heart-afire by their brilliance.

(In a cruel irony, Spencer writes an introduction disdaining the MFA-style of short story writing for being all writing and no story, particularly singling out the use of "fine metaphors." So, naturally, I ended up being really amused at many of his metaphors.)

[Joshua · Rating 3 out of 5]

I guess I'm not the only one who expected more genre fare here, but I'm not disappointed. There are a few really strong stories in this collection, and a few that didn't really do much for me.

The title story is a solid, if predictable, horror tale.

The other standouts are:
"Haunted by the Horror King" - a love/hate letter to one of the masters of the genre;
"The Entomologists at Obala" - a comic story of two men with competing obsessions;
"A Child's Christmas in Florida" and "Looking Out for Eleanor" - are two great Southern Gothics;
and "Daughter Doom" - a short, funny, dark story that is the perfect finale for the collection.

Most of the others are what I would call "literary" fiction with a bit of plot in the mix.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I believe John Shirley would call this 'gonzo fiction'. Pretty good, if odd.

[Ryan Croke · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection of stories. Spencer is fantastic at almost every style he chooses. Great characters, great humor when you are least expecting it and overall a super fun read.

[elstaffe · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounds up to four stars. My favorite story: the Christmas in Florida one, hands down.

[SmokingMirror · Rating 4 out of 5]

These stories can be labeled horror, but they're not fantastical horror. Maybe more psychological horror, or social horror, but with Spencer's characteristic humor, which is not to say that some of them aren't quite disturbing. I'm certain I'll reread this, but next time I'll know that there are no monsters. I love monsters! Thankfully, monsters occur quite often in Spencer's later writing.

[Mark Smiley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I saw this was a collection of short stories and so snatched it from the library sale.

I enjoys the many stories and variety of them, ranging from jungles to Florida to rural towns. The themes of the stories varied greatly.

I would like to read more of this author.

[Matt Holloway · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant!