The Voice of the Air

by John Howard

Dr Cristian Luca has lived through it all. From power and influence to near destitution, from audiences at the Royal Palace to sleeping on building sites, from manipulating people to dependence on the kindness of hidden friends, from a successful and happy marriage to loneliness and regret, Luca is a survivor. But there is a continuing price to be paid.

The Voice of the Air gathers three episodes from Luca’s life. As he thinks back over his career, the people and tumultuous events he has been associated with, small tokens from this past allow him to step out of his daily concerns and observe what may really be going on – the secrets that lie behind the rapidly changing world in which he finds himself.

Now available together for the first time, “The Fatal Vision” and “The Lustre of Time” were previously only published in highly limited editions. “The Process of Fire” appears for the first time. While these novellas are loosely connected, each is also intended to stand as an independent story which can be read on its own.

Genres: Fiction

192 pages, Hardcover

First published March 7, 2020

About the author

John Howard was born in London. His fiction has appeared in several anthologies and the collections The Silver Voices (2010), Written by Daylight (2013), and Cities and Thrones and Powers (2013). The majority of his stories have central and eastern European settings; many are set in the fictional Romanian town of Steaua de Munte. The Defeat of Grief (2010) is a novella set in Steaua de Munte and the real Black Sea resort of Balcic; Numbered as Sand or the Stars (2012) attempts a 'secret history' of Hungary between the World Wars.

Between 2003 and 2007 John Howard collaborated on eight short stories with Mark Valentine, six of which featured Valentine’s long-running series character The Connoisseur, an occult detective whose real name is never revealed. All 23 tales of The Connoisseur, including the collaborations, were reprinted in The Collected Connoisseur (2010).

Secret Europe (2012) is a collection jointly written with Mark Valentine comprising 25 short stories set in a variety of real and fictional European locations. Ten of the stories are by Howard and fifteen by Valentine.

John Howard has written articles for numerous magazines including Book and Magazine Collector, Supernatural Tales, Wormwood, Studies in Australian Weird Fiction, and All Hallows. He contributed essays to the Fritz Leiber special issue of Fantasy Commentator (No. 57/58, 2004) and to the books Black Prometheus: A Critical Study of Karl Edward Wagner (2007), Fritz Leiber: Critical Essays (2008), and The Man Who Collected Psychos: Critical Essays on Robert Bloch (2009), all edited by Benjamin Szumskyj.

John Howard also wrote the introduction to the Ash-Tree Press edition of Francis Brett Young’s classic 1924 horror novel Cold Harbour (2007).

Reviews

[Forrest]

I already knew that John Howard is an amazing wordsmith. And I knew that Howard knows something about architecture, as is evidenced by a few stories in his earlier collection Buried Shadows. What I did not know, and what was proven in The Voice of the Air is that Howard can sustain that beautiful writing and demonstrate architectural acumen at the novel length. Don't be fooled, yes, these are three novellas, but all of them tie neatly together in the character of Christian Luca, a Romanian architect with a gift that I shall not reveal, but that is pivotal to the long drama that unfolds here.

Christian Luca is a complicated character made even more complex by the multiple viewpoints from which Howard examines him, not the least of which is Luca's own view of himself. Though of one voice, the narrative is kaleidoscopic, morphing through perceptual changes. One must always ask "who is speaking now?" as each perspective sheds new light, casts new shadows, and reveals new aspects of this mysterious man.

Even the simplest of constructions serve Howard's auctorial purposes here. It's amazing what a little phrase uttered by a character can do to your perception of them. The phrase I am referring to: "How much can keep on being subtracted?"

There's more weight to this than that carried by the simple words. Much more. When you read it, in context, you will know . . .

One (ironically consistent) aspect of change throughout these novellas is that of shifting political winds before, during, and after the Second World War. This brings about an intriguing double twist: regime change and the questioning of whether Lucas' greatest architectural achievement (so far) ever even existed. Eerie brought on by weird. Mark Fisher (RIP) would have loved this.

Luca himself simultaneously acknowledges and preserves the mystery of his fluctuating appearance, vaguely referenced political ambitions, and apartment building, which may or may not have existed in this reality or never existed at all. Because of this, there is a note of sustained tension that plays through all three novellas, effectively tying them all together. It's difficult to find three novellas, each published separately, that "infiltrate" each other so well. Not only is the voice consistent (though varied), but the plot(s) layer on top of one another. And this is reflective of Christian Luca's very strange "talent," which, again, I will not reveal.

Eventually we get the view from inside Luca's head. The monologue about ghosts on pages 80 - 82 is a fantastic piece of writing. Too long to quote, but the thread from poetry to postage stamps to sedition to coup to ghosts embedded in the architecture is a thing of beauty, the sort of prose that a writer will devote to study in order to glean some insight into how it was created. I'll be studying those two pages for some time to come.

Luca is haunted by his past, and yet as he pushes toward the future(s), he, in some ways, inevitably moves backward, toward it, by trying to move forward. I don't know if this was Howard's intent in writing Luca's story, but this is the impression I get: a sort of "push-me/pull-me" action of past happenings, present action, and future possibilities. Like a tempo-spatial slinky toy.

Finally, Howard intertwines Luca with his architecture throughout. The man's life is a reflection of his building(s) and vice versa, including the demolition of both. He has his "secret stairway", built in the spiral of the public stairway, both in his building and in his soul. That is not to say that Luca is merely a meek architect, always withdrawn and introspective. No, there is action in the man, a conniving, plotting side. One does not survive so long by merely being passive. But one is strengthened by passing through things, or having things pass through . . . I must stop the utterance there . . .

I may have said too much.

[Glenn Russell]

The Voice of the Air - three interlinking John Howard short novels here: The Fatal Vision, The Lustre of Time and The Process of Fire, all brought together in this exquisite Egaeus Press edition.

I will be posting separate reviews for The Lustre of Time and The Process of Fire as I move through the book. Meanwhile, I'll begin with the first -

THE FATAL VISION
We're in 1939, the time of Hitler's invasion of Poland. The tale focuses on two men, primarily Dr. Cristian Luca, Professor of Architecture and Town Planning at the University of Steaua de Munte. As for the second man, he's one of Luca's architecture students at the university.

Steaua de Munte is a fictional town influenced by memories and impressions of real towns John Howard paid visits to in central Romania. In many ways, Steaua de Munte could be among the invented cities in either Inner Europe or Secret Europe, two books John Howard co-authored with Mark Valentine.

The Fatal Vision consists of thirty mini-chapters toggling back and forth between an objective third-person reportage of Luca's life as professor, planner, family man and student Victor Petrescu's first-person account of his shadowing Luca through Steaua de Munte. In this way, the novella takes on the tone of a detective story.

So as to not spoil any of the mystery and thus leave discoveries at each stage to a reader, I'll make a quick shift to a number of Fatal Vision snapshots:

Utopian Vision
Mid-twentieth century visionary architects like Le Corbusier and Luca planned out concrete and glass cities with their clean white buildings on a linear grid as a first step in creating a transformed society of the future.

However, at the moment, under the omnipresent shadow of the German Führer sweeping across Europe, Luca looks out the window of his train and can see “shacks and caravans, lit by oil lamps with open fires outside, where some of the building workers were living.” Luca thinks there are probably gypsies among the workers. “And other undesirables, no doubt.”

Thus we have the tension between an idealized, sanitized future and the grit and grime of peoples judged repellent, troublesome and simply unwanted – with more than a touch of racism and xenophobia tossed in.

Press of History and Politics
Luca is no fool. Luca knows unfolding events propelled by Hitler place him in a dangerous position. Therefore, to maintain secrecy, especially when it comes to his most creative architectural projects, he must retreat to a secret apartment, a closely held secret from both his family and his university.

Luca designed the very building, detail by detail, where he has his secret apartment. “And Luca was especially proud of the staircase that led directly to the top floor: he had designed it to share the space originally intended to be occupied only by the service staircase – the second set of stairs interpenetrating with it but having connections to it.”

If we pay close attention, we'll appreciate things like white cubes, walls, towers, stairs, colonnades playing an important part as the tale unfolds.

Refreshing Rewind
As noted above, the chapters alternate between third-person Luca and first-person Victor. I found one of the more intriguing scenes to be where Victor and Luca meet in Luca's university office and we as readers are treated to the same conversation from both Luca focused third-person and student Victor's point of view.

Seeker/Detective, One
Victor has strong reasons to remain in his native town of Steaua de Munte to study architecture. “I'd wanted to be taught by Cristian Luca...there had been times when his designs had opened up other worlds of space, mass, proportion, and light. All I wanted was to somehow become part of it all.” Ah, but Victor, will you seek revenge if Luca disrupts your plans?

Seeker/Detective, Two
“There was nothing false or base, cheap or shoddy in any of the rooms I wandered through: the very shapes and proportions of the spaces reflected back an inner assurance like beautiful music playing too low to hear but which could be felt in the depths of the heart.”

The above are Victor's musing when he sneaks in to explore Luca's secret apartment where “every room was exposed to the changing natural light of the sun and sky.” It is as if Luca's apartment is an oasis of utopian perfection. But then Luca unexpectedly returns to his apartment during Victor's exploration. Crisis in Utopia.

One element of The Fatal Vision worth emphasizing: much in the tale goes unsaid. John Howard's understated storytelling leaves room for a reader's imagination - fill in the gaps or allow the voice of the air to remain in the air, the choice is yours.

Seeker/Detective, Three
“Some voice of the air had taught me the right moment, the moment of his life at which an act of unexpected young allegiance might most come home to him.” This quote taken from Henry James' The Death of the Lion, a quote serving as the novella's epigraph. To find out why John Howard chose this particular line, contact Egaeus Press for a copy of The Voice of the Air and read for yourself. Link: http://www.egaeuspress.com/The_Voice_...


British author John Howard, born 1961

[Karl]

This hardcover is one of 275 copies printed. three weird/fantasy novellas, While these novellas are loosely connected, each is also intended to stand as an independent story which can be read on its own.

contents:

009 - 'The Fatal Vision''
065 - 'The Lustre of Time''
141 - ''The Process of Fire''

[Mat Joiner]

Three episodes in the life of Professor Cristian Luca: architect, academic, mainpulator, survivor. War and shifting regimes throw Luca out of a happily married life and position of political influence - yet he clings on, waiting for the future to come to him. And he's not without powers still, powers that may be more than "natural"... A deft mix of mid-twentieth Mitteleuropean history and fantastical fiction. Highly highly recommended!

[Des Lewis]

But I say that is what such books are for, and only the greatest can give its reader such potential gifts of imaginative autonomy.

The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long or impractical to post here.
Above is one of my observations at the time of the review.

[Vultural]

Howard, John - The Voice Of The Air

Three novellas with architect Dr. Cristian Luca.
One set during “Greater Romania,” after the Great War with rumblings of WWII.
The second is set following the war, a nation behind the Iron Curtain.
The third, much later, finds a nation accustomed to the yoke, beginning to rebuild.

In the second work, Luca protects a time box, a battered biscuit tin, holding treasure.
Faded photos, postcards, torn maps, fragments of correspondence. Each item, carefully pulled out, examined, evokes memories.
Streams course throughout of what is lost, how one adapts, or fans new dreams into flame.
As an architect, Luca is a master of the line, and an adept of the space between the lines.
That is the powerful magic of the book. The suspension of space.

The first two novellas were originally issued in editions now impossibly rare and priced accordingly.
Egaeus offers those, and the third, in this reasonably priced edition.

[Hsu Jui-Ting]

The two first are truly immaculately chiseled - with descriptions of rich imagery and excellent formal construct. The last is a little more banal in comparison - and its conclusion serves to slightly undermine the narrative. It is overall, however, readily worth your while.