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Mr. Cannyharme: A Novel of Lovecraftian Terror
Early in his career, Michael Shea wrote the Lovecraftian novel The Color out of Time (1984). He subsequently wrote some of the most scintillating and gripping tales of the Cthulhu Mythos in contemporary weird fiction, including "Fat Face" and "Copping Squid." These tales mingled Lovecraftian themes with the gritty realism of urban horror, and they often featured drug addicts, prostitutes, and others whom conventional society treats with scorn and marginalization.
Shea wrote the novel Mr. Cannyharme in the late 1970s, and it constitutes a remarkable adaptation of Lovecraft's early story "The Hound" (1922), about the depredations of an ancient Dutch vampire. In Shea's novel, Mr. Cannyharme stalks the seedy Mission District of San Francisco in the aftermath of the hippie movement of the 1960s. Holed up in a rundown hotel, the seemingly harmless Cannyharme-aged, feeble, bent almost double with a crippling disease-is the focus of the supernatural terror in the novel.
Jack Hale, who manages the hotel, is one of the few who sense the danger to society and the world that Cannyharme represents. With a motley band of young whores and drug dealers, he takes on the challenge to counteract the horrors that Mr. Cannyharme seeks to release upon an unsuspecting world.
Mr. Cannyharme, written in a vibrant prose that brings to life the multitude of characters that populate the book, is a triumph of Lovecraftian terror, but also speaks of the way in which those who are regarded as the refuse of society can assert their dignity and self-worth in a grim environment. In this sense, it proves to be a novel affirming the triumph of the human spirit over the horrors facing it.
Shea wrote the novel Mr. Cannyharme in the late 1970s, and it constitutes a remarkable adaptation of Lovecraft's early story "The Hound" (1922), about the depredations of an ancient Dutch vampire. In Shea's novel, Mr. Cannyharme stalks the seedy Mission District of San Francisco in the aftermath of the hippie movement of the 1960s. Holed up in a rundown hotel, the seemingly harmless Cannyharme-aged, feeble, bent almost double with a crippling disease-is the focus of the supernatural terror in the novel.
Jack Hale, who manages the hotel, is one of the few who sense the danger to society and the world that Cannyharme represents. With a motley band of young whores and drug dealers, he takes on the challenge to counteract the horrors that Mr. Cannyharme seeks to release upon an unsuspecting world.
Mr. Cannyharme, written in a vibrant prose that brings to life the multitude of characters that populate the book, is a triumph of Lovecraftian terror, but also speaks of the way in which those who are regarded as the refuse of society can assert their dignity and self-worth in a grim environment. In this sense, it proves to be a novel affirming the triumph of the human spirit over the horrors facing it.
294 pages, Hardcover
First published August 20, 2021
30 people are currently reading
157 people want to read
About the author
Michael Shea
73 books196 followersFor the British author of thrillers and non-fiction see Michael Shea
Michael Shea (1946-2014) was an American fantasy, horror, and science fiction author who lived in California. He was a multiple winner of the World Fantasy Award and his works include Nifft the Lean (1982) (winner of the World Fantasy Award) and The Mines of Behemoth (1997) (later republished together as The Incomplete Nifft, 2000), as well as The ARak (2000) and In Yana, the Touch of Undying (1985).
Michael Shea (1946-2014) was an American fantasy, horror, and science fiction author who lived in California. He was a multiple winner of the World Fantasy Award and his works include Nifft the Lean (1982) (winner of the World Fantasy Award) and The Mines of Behemoth (1997) (later republished together as The Incomplete Nifft, 2000), as well as The ARak (2000) and In Yana, the Touch of Undying (1985).
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August 24, 2021
It's unbelievable to me that Mr. Cannyharme wasn't published long before now. It truly is a grimy gem of Lovecraftian horror, told by a master of richly textured prose and descriptive imagery, made real by Shea's own experiences living on the seedy streets of 1970's San Francisco and rubbing shoulders with the prostitutes, pimps, addicts and drifters he encountered. Ostensibly a pastiche of Lovecraft's The Hound, I found it anything but perhaps loosely inspired by that chilling yet fairly unremarkable entry in Lovecraft's canon.
Shea perfectly captures the atmosphere of the city's lurid, seedy underbelly and its streets filled with predators and prey, users and abusers. It's "carnival" of lost and desperate souls, scratching out their fleeting existence in a cold, uncaring universe where predators lurk in dark corners. Every page here is seething with the deeply unsettling feeling of something menacing lurking just beneath the surface that's only briefly glimpsed in the shadows, seeing you as you see it. Like Shea's masterpiece, In Yana, the Touch of Undying, immortality, and it's allure to us mortals, plays a central role.
Shea melts your mind as he deftly blurs the lines between objective reality and these cosmic terrors that bleed through from vast unknowable realms. Mr. Cannyharme is ultimately a novel of victims and victim hood, of desolation and temptation. Yet Shea holds out hope in the end that the terrors can be held at bay, if not overcome, with courage and strength from those you might least expect. But not of course without taking their pound (or pounds and pounds) of flesh.
Some readers might bemoan a languid pace in the first half, where we get to know our cast of characters and all their many foibles. Some might also be less than fulfilled by a denouement that is far from conclusive. Though I don't expect that would be the case for regular readers of the genre. Still, in my eyes, a perfect gem.
If you're new to Shea and want to get a taste for him I highly recommend the much-reprinted short story "Fat Face", available in many Lovecraft/Cthulu inspired collections including Demiurge: The Complete Cthulhu Mythos Tales of Michael Shea. "Fat Face" can actually be read gratis by downloading the free sample available for Kindle.
Shea perfectly captures the atmosphere of the city's lurid, seedy underbelly and its streets filled with predators and prey, users and abusers. It's "carnival" of lost and desperate souls, scratching out their fleeting existence in a cold, uncaring universe where predators lurk in dark corners. Every page here is seething with the deeply unsettling feeling of something menacing lurking just beneath the surface that's only briefly glimpsed in the shadows, seeing you as you see it. Like Shea's masterpiece, In Yana, the Touch of Undying, immortality, and it's allure to us mortals, plays a central role.
Shea melts your mind as he deftly blurs the lines between objective reality and these cosmic terrors that bleed through from vast unknowable realms. Mr. Cannyharme is ultimately a novel of victims and victim hood, of desolation and temptation. Yet Shea holds out hope in the end that the terrors can be held at bay, if not overcome, with courage and strength from those you might least expect. But not of course without taking their pound (or pounds and pounds) of flesh.
Some readers might bemoan a languid pace in the first half, where we get to know our cast of characters and all their many foibles. Some might also be less than fulfilled by a denouement that is far from conclusive. Though I don't expect that would be the case for regular readers of the genre. Still, in my eyes, a perfect gem.
If you're new to Shea and want to get a taste for him I highly recommend the much-reprinted short story "Fat Face", available in many Lovecraft/Cthulu inspired collections including Demiurge: The Complete Cthulhu Mythos Tales of Michael Shea. "Fat Face" can actually be read gratis by downloading the free sample available for Kindle.
August 21, 2021
“It is a bitter thing that each of us must finally be blown out like a candle, and have the unique ardor of his individual flame choked off, and sucked utterly away like smoke in the dark. Do we ever accept this in our hearts, any of us?”
— Michael Shea, from Nifft the Lean
Who really wants to live forever? At what lengths would you go to attain everlasting life? For some the answer is simple...anything.
There is something dark and terrible living in the Hyperion Hotel willing to grant this boon...for a price. An initiation if you will. Few can sense this monster and are terrified of it, but most are blind to its presence. A select few know, and desperately want what is being offered.
Michael Shea wrote Mr. Cannyharme in 1981. For the novel, he drew upon his time manning the desk of a men's residence hotel in San Francisco's Mission District. You see, these hotels only rented to men to discourage prostitution on their premises. Many of the characters in this work are re-imagined and reinvented people that Shea met. One particular aged and stooped fellow with a searing blue eye became a major character in this work.
Mr. Cannyharme features a foreword by Linda Shea, Michael's wife, explaining the history of the area and of their time in the Mission District in the early 80s. This adds a nice personal touch to the work. Mr. Cannyharme also boasts a fantastic wrap-around cover by Tom Brown.
The H.P. Lovecraft's story "The Hound" was the inspiration for this story. Although, as S.T. Joshi points out, with the elaboration of the plot and the change of setting Shea has written a novel that is far more than a literary pastiche.
The cast is made up of people that live on the fringe or have fallen through the cracks in society. Few are wholly bad. Most are just ordinary people who have been shuffled off into homelessness or addiction. Jack Hale, the night manager, has dreams of being a writer and reuniting with his estranged love as he sells drugs on the side. Brittany, a young woman who hides from her past in a pill bottle. Chester, an old man with no prospects will soon find himself homeless. Razz the pimp with hidden insecurities bluffs his way through life wearing a hard facade of bravado.
Some will rise to be unsung heroes, others will fall prey to their own avarice, and a few will fall prey to a supernatural terror that only a few know exists.
Hippocampus Press is the leading publisher of H.P. Lovecraft. They specialize in classic and modern horror, poetry and literary criticism with an emphasis on the works of H.P. Lovecraft. By working closely with leading scholars they are able to provide unique, high-quality, affordable editions of these important works. Be sure to follow them on social media and visit their website.
— Michael Shea, from Nifft the Lean
Who really wants to live forever? At what lengths would you go to attain everlasting life? For some the answer is simple...anything.
There is something dark and terrible living in the Hyperion Hotel willing to grant this boon...for a price. An initiation if you will. Few can sense this monster and are terrified of it, but most are blind to its presence. A select few know, and desperately want what is being offered.
Michael Shea wrote Mr. Cannyharme in 1981. For the novel, he drew upon his time manning the desk of a men's residence hotel in San Francisco's Mission District. You see, these hotels only rented to men to discourage prostitution on their premises. Many of the characters in this work are re-imagined and reinvented people that Shea met. One particular aged and stooped fellow with a searing blue eye became a major character in this work.
Mr. Cannyharme features a foreword by Linda Shea, Michael's wife, explaining the history of the area and of their time in the Mission District in the early 80s. This adds a nice personal touch to the work. Mr. Cannyharme also boasts a fantastic wrap-around cover by Tom Brown.
The H.P. Lovecraft's story "The Hound" was the inspiration for this story. Although, as S.T. Joshi points out, with the elaboration of the plot and the change of setting Shea has written a novel that is far more than a literary pastiche.
The cast is made up of people that live on the fringe or have fallen through the cracks in society. Few are wholly bad. Most are just ordinary people who have been shuffled off into homelessness or addiction. Jack Hale, the night manager, has dreams of being a writer and reuniting with his estranged love as he sells drugs on the side. Brittany, a young woman who hides from her past in a pill bottle. Chester, an old man with no prospects will soon find himself homeless. Razz the pimp with hidden insecurities bluffs his way through life wearing a hard facade of bravado.
Some will rise to be unsung heroes, others will fall prey to their own avarice, and a few will fall prey to a supernatural terror that only a few know exists.
Hippocampus Press is the leading publisher of H.P. Lovecraft. They specialize in classic and modern horror, poetry and literary criticism with an emphasis on the works of H.P. Lovecraft. By working closely with leading scholars they are able to provide unique, high-quality, affordable editions of these important works. Be sure to follow them on social media and visit their website.
March 29, 2024
I can only remember reading two of Michael Shea's previous works, both of them short stories: "Fat Face" and "The Autopsy." Both stories have stayed in my mind for decades because they are excellent (the later was recently features in the Netflix horror anthology "Cabinet of Curiosities"). This is an unpublished novel from the very late 70s, and is a riff on H.P. Lovecraft's "The Hound." It is excellent.
I have been a reader of horror since I was a kid, so I am well-versed in the genre. I have thought for many years that, were I to write a horror novel, I know exactly who the victims would be: the least, the last, and the lost. In other words, a monster that wanted to feed on, or torment, or ensnare human beings would most likely focus on those who are the easiest to target; those who would not be missed. Those who are the least protected: the underclass (for lack of a better term). Writing about the homeless, the addicted, the mentally ill, the poor, the elderly, the disabled as victims of something supernatural is a dark, dark, dark fucking idea that--to the best of my knowledge--hasn't been done before, and quite frankly, is unlikely to be done now because of how such a story would be received.
Well...enter Mr. Cannyharme: A Novel of Lovecraftian Terror. Shea wrote this in the late 70s/early 80s, while he worked in a flop-house (for lack of a better word) in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco (as I recall, "Fat Face" had a similar setting). Shea did not pull his punches in the least: hookers, junkies, pimps, the homeless, the elderly and abandoned, they are all grist for the mill of the horrifying cosmic monstrosity he unleashes into their corrupt, violent, dank world. I don't know which was worse, the monster, or the lives of those the monster fed upon. While there are a few glimpses of goodness in this novel, for the most part, it is some truly bleak shit. I kept thinking of Thomas Ligotti as I read. "Cosmic horror" doesn't even scratch what this book is about.
If you are a fan of Lovecraft, and you have a strong stomach for an author's unflinching view of reality as he saw it up close and personal, give this one a read. It makes much of what passes for horor these days seem tremendously tame.
I have been a reader of horror since I was a kid, so I am well-versed in the genre. I have thought for many years that, were I to write a horror novel, I know exactly who the victims would be: the least, the last, and the lost. In other words, a monster that wanted to feed on, or torment, or ensnare human beings would most likely focus on those who are the easiest to target; those who would not be missed. Those who are the least protected: the underclass (for lack of a better term). Writing about the homeless, the addicted, the mentally ill, the poor, the elderly, the disabled as victims of something supernatural is a dark, dark, dark fucking idea that--to the best of my knowledge--hasn't been done before, and quite frankly, is unlikely to be done now because of how such a story would be received.
Well...enter Mr. Cannyharme: A Novel of Lovecraftian Terror. Shea wrote this in the late 70s/early 80s, while he worked in a flop-house (for lack of a better word) in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco (as I recall, "Fat Face" had a similar setting). Shea did not pull his punches in the least: hookers, junkies, pimps, the homeless, the elderly and abandoned, they are all grist for the mill of the horrifying cosmic monstrosity he unleashes into their corrupt, violent, dank world. I don't know which was worse, the monster, or the lives of those the monster fed upon. While there are a few glimpses of goodness in this novel, for the most part, it is some truly bleak shit. I kept thinking of Thomas Ligotti as I read. "Cosmic horror" doesn't even scratch what this book is about.
If you are a fan of Lovecraft, and you have a strong stomach for an author's unflinching view of reality as he saw it up close and personal, give this one a read. It makes much of what passes for horor these days seem tremendously tame.
September 20, 2021
I picked this up for the author, the quasi-Lovecraftian nature of the work, and for the depiction of the Mission District.
I'm still digesting the novel, as I tore through it in about a day. It's not a paint-by-number pastiche, as S.T. Joshi notes, and it's an excellent example of a work with several characters who think they're the protagonist but are sadly mistaken. If I do ever go anywhere with my writing, a useful element of a writer's toolkit.
Speaking of writing, this is not a novel for people who harbor romantic notions of writers and the writing life. Jack Hale is endlessly self-justifying, self-obsessed, and ultimately uninvolved with anyone or anything except his 'craft.' I suspect it's not coincidence that another character is named Cozzens, sharing his surname with a now largely-forgotten writer. The poems passed out by the antagonist are sinister, vivid and at times (intentionally?) awful.
Many of the characters are female, but Shea is unsparing in presenting their strengths and their weaknesses. A major theme is the importance of helping each other, but several characters don't want to be helped. And some of the plot is driven by chance.
I go back and forth on whether several moments are unduly sentimental.
I'm still digesting the novel, as I tore through it in about a day. It's not a paint-by-number pastiche, as S.T. Joshi notes, and it's an excellent example of a work with several characters who think they're the protagonist but are sadly mistaken. If I do ever go anywhere with my writing, a useful element of a writer's toolkit.
Speaking of writing, this is not a novel for people who harbor romantic notions of writers and the writing life. Jack Hale is endlessly self-justifying, self-obsessed, and ultimately uninvolved with anyone or anything except his 'craft.' I suspect it's not coincidence that another character is named Cozzens, sharing his surname with a now largely-forgotten writer. The poems passed out by the antagonist are sinister, vivid and at times (intentionally?) awful.
Many of the characters are female, but Shea is unsparing in presenting their strengths and their weaknesses. A major theme is the importance of helping each other, but several characters don't want to be helped. And some of the plot is driven by chance.
I go back and forth on whether several moments are unduly sentimental.
March 24, 2022
Always good to have 'new' Shea to read, but there's a reason why this went unpublished for so long...
November 23, 2024
Here you have wandered, haunted by a will
To weave from words a world more rare and bright,
Outreaching Death, to shed its radiance still,
When you have sunk to dust and endless night.
"Good verse, once achieved, is heard and remembered by the angels."
9/10
To weave from words a world more rare and bright,
Outreaching Death, to shed its radiance still,
When you have sunk to dust and endless night.
"Good verse, once achieved, is heard and remembered by the angels."
9/10
August 20, 2021
It’s the story of Jack and Brittany, DeeAnn and Razz, the Hyperion Hotel and its most baleful resident, Mr. Cannyharme. More than that though, it’s a snapshot of the Haight in 1960’s San Francisco, of hopeless fraternity, of drugs and sex, homelessness and chosen family. It’s a vision of place I simultaneously found myself wishing I could see through Shea’s eyes and yet would never visit. And that, of course, is without mentioning the grave darkness befalling our characters.
Full review at: https://miskatonicreview.wordpress.co...
Full review at: https://miskatonicreview.wordpress.co...
April 26, 2022
I read Mr. Cannyharme after just finishing a completely different type of vampire story (Red Snow by Ian R.MaCleod) and perhaps my opinion of Shea's novel suffered as a result. In fact, though Cannyharme is described as a "Dutch vampire" in press as well as an adaptation of Lovecraft's The Hound, I find both descriptions misleading.
The novel was written by Shea in the 70s and his descriptions of the Mission district and it's denizens in the San Francisco of that time were, for me, the most enjoyable parts. Unfortunately some pre-publication edits by his widow muddle the time period as here and there more modern indicators are randomly added, such a one time mention of cell phone.
The Lovecraftian horror promised is on the lowest end of the Mythos spectrum and not scary in the least bit. The creature descriptions are kind of ridiculous though there is one human character who comes across as rather frightening, and again, it's the everyday people who inhabit the scene that the author so clearly knew firsthand that stand out vs the supernatural interlopers.
In the end the narrative gets very erratic and scattered and I felt like I knew exactly why Shea never had this story published in the first place.
The novel was written by Shea in the 70s and his descriptions of the Mission district and it's denizens in the San Francisco of that time were, for me, the most enjoyable parts. Unfortunately some pre-publication edits by his widow muddle the time period as here and there more modern indicators are randomly added, such a one time mention of cell phone.
The Lovecraftian horror promised is on the lowest end of the Mythos spectrum and not scary in the least bit. The creature descriptions are kind of ridiculous though there is one human character who comes across as rather frightening, and again, it's the everyday people who inhabit the scene that the author so clearly knew firsthand that stand out vs the supernatural interlopers.
In the end the narrative gets very erratic and scattered and I felt like I knew exactly why Shea never had this story published in the first place.
October 12, 2022
While published in 2021, Mr. Cannyharme was written somewhere in the late 1970's or early 1980's. According to his widow, Linda, there was some sort of publishing issue (either an editor had left the publishing house or some such business reason) and the book was shelved (and forgotten?) by the author as he took on newer projects.
The story takes place in the 1970's San Francisco Mission District and involves Jack Hale an aspiring author who works as a hotel clerk and part-time drug dealer. The hotel has seen better days and is now a flop house for the elderly, drug addicts and sex workers.
Jack becomes involved with a biker / drug distributer named Cuzzens who has given Jack a large amount of crank (meth). Along with a pill addict, Brittney, and prostitute, DeeAnn he attempts to disentangle himself from the influence of Cuzzens and his pimp associates, and a monster he calls Mr. Cannyharme who lives in the hotel.
Shae's characters have a gritty tarnish to them that I found fascinating and disturbing. There's a thread of paranoia that winds through the story. You're continuously questioning who is a friend and who is a threat. Characters who appear to be allied to Jack and DeeAnn have dark intentions.
I found themes from Shae's work very much in line with Philip K. Dick's fiction as he addresses these questions:
Being a fan of Lovecraftian horror, I wouldn't readily classify this as "A Novel of Lovecraftian Terror" but see it as cosmic horror. If you enjoy Lovecraftian tails, you'll probably enjoy this as well, but be ready to experience some graphic horror and violence. There's a lot to this book and I'm finding it a challenge to process. It's well worth a read.
NOTE: I was lucky to have watched Lovecraft e-Zine's YouTube podcast of an interview with Linda Shea and several authors who knew Michael Shae and are proponents of his work. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xir4k...). It makes a very nice aperitif with reading this novel.
The story takes place in the 1970's San Francisco Mission District and involves Jack Hale an aspiring author who works as a hotel clerk and part-time drug dealer. The hotel has seen better days and is now a flop house for the elderly, drug addicts and sex workers.
Jack becomes involved with a biker / drug distributer named Cuzzens who has given Jack a large amount of crank (meth). Along with a pill addict, Brittney, and prostitute, DeeAnn he attempts to disentangle himself from the influence of Cuzzens and his pimp associates, and a monster he calls Mr. Cannyharme who lives in the hotel.
Shae's characters have a gritty tarnish to them that I found fascinating and disturbing. There's a thread of paranoia that winds through the story. You're continuously questioning who is a friend and who is a threat. Characters who appear to be allied to Jack and DeeAnn have dark intentions.
I found themes from Shae's work very much in line with Philip K. Dick's fiction as he addresses these questions:
What is reality?
Did this just happen or is my interpretation of experience faulty?
How much is Jack's and Brittney's experience of life twisted by their drug use?
Being a fan of Lovecraftian horror, I wouldn't readily classify this as "A Novel of Lovecraftian Terror" but see it as cosmic horror. If you enjoy Lovecraftian tails, you'll probably enjoy this as well, but be ready to experience some graphic horror and violence. There's a lot to this book and I'm finding it a challenge to process. It's well worth a read.
NOTE: I was lucky to have watched Lovecraft e-Zine's YouTube podcast of an interview with Linda Shea and several authors who knew Michael Shae and are proponents of his work. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xir4k...). It makes a very nice aperitif with reading this novel.
January 7, 2024
Not his best by a light year...
Shea's earlier original fantasy is far and away my favourite of his work. If Mr. Cannyharme had been the first of his books that I'd read, I wonder whether I'd have read any more (thankfully, my first was his wonderful NIFFT THE LEAN).
In Shea's latter books, his prose became increasingly cluttered & florid, which both is tedious and detracts from verisimilitude. His poetry is likewise florid, and in this book, the reader having to read the main character's as well as that of the monster's baroque poetries is a burdensome contrivance & filler.
The book is not as well plotted, herky-jerky, and loses focus. The dialogue often is peculiar, if not pointless. The descriptions of how characters feel is bathotic and neither engaging, nor humorous
There are glimpses of what was great in Shea's imagination & writing but this tale is derailed & stunted by tangents to nowhere & rococo embellishments, in place of his delightful story weaving.
Shea's earlier original fantasy is far and away my favourite of his work. If Mr. Cannyharme had been the first of his books that I'd read, I wonder whether I'd have read any more (thankfully, my first was his wonderful NIFFT THE LEAN).
In Shea's latter books, his prose became increasingly cluttered & florid, which both is tedious and detracts from verisimilitude. His poetry is likewise florid, and in this book, the reader having to read the main character's as well as that of the monster's baroque poetries is a burdensome contrivance & filler.
The book is not as well plotted, herky-jerky, and loses focus. The dialogue often is peculiar, if not pointless. The descriptions of how characters feel is bathotic and neither engaging, nor humorous
There are glimpses of what was great in Shea's imagination & writing but this tale is derailed & stunted by tangents to nowhere & rococo embellishments, in place of his delightful story weaving.
February 7, 2022
I am woefully unschooled when it comes to Shea’s work, and this was my first outing to explore his fiction. On the whole, I dig the grimy city setting for a cosmic horror romp and there are moments which really deliver on the cosmic horror front. The story also boasts a fairly memorable line up of characters, all misfits including hookers, pimps, and pill pushers who don’t suspect they operate in the shadow of something vast and dark.
However, the pacing is a bit stop and go, and for what it is, the story felt a little drawn out and disjointed as a result. I’m definitely interested in exploring more of the author’s backlog after this, but I get the feeling this might not be the strongest place to start with his catalogue.
However, the pacing is a bit stop and go, and for what it is, the story felt a little drawn out and disjointed as a result. I’m definitely interested in exploring more of the author’s backlog after this, but I get the feeling this might not be the strongest place to start with his catalogue.
August 16, 2022
Highly recommended! I just finished reading this and couldn't stop. Down-to-earth and visionary at the same time, Shea's take on Lovecraftian fiction in the modern world is compelling and full of twists. Also -- you may think this story's hero is the main character, Jack Hale, but I'm here to tell you that it's the women in the story who kick everything to the curb by the end of the book. A poignant, brutally honest and humanistic trip through the Carnival of San Francisco's Mission District, with the horrors of the cosmos turned flesh and nipping at your heels. The only thing to do is keep on until sunrise!
March 8, 2025
A walk on the wild side of the early 1980s Mission District in San Francisco features a large ensemble cast of drug addicts, pimps and whores, murderers and rapists, and preying on them all a sinister evil. It is a testament to Shea's skill that I rarely lost track of or confused characters. Each was a unique and memorable individual. That Shea was, in fact, a night clerk at a men's hotel where he soaked up the details of the demi monde and incorporated those sketches into his writing adds gritty authenticity and real pathos to the more outrageously lurid supernatural horrors depicted. Not for the faint of heart.
January 19, 2023
Have you ever wondered what a really good Lovecraft-inspired book feels like? This is it, Mr cannyharme draws its inspiration from Lovecraft's works and ideas, but does it in such a unique and great way that the end result doesn't feel like a pastiche at all.
Mr cannyharme is a masterpiece of weird fiction, a triumph of Lovecraftian terror, and at the same time a triumph of the human spirit over the horrors facing it.
Mr cannyharme is a masterpiece of weird fiction, a triumph of Lovecraftian terror, and at the same time a triumph of the human spirit over the horrors facing it.
October 13, 2022
A retelling of a Lovecraftian story, I struggled somewhat with this one. This novel was written early in Michael Shea's career, but has only recently been released. The typical Lovecraftian elements are there, with a strange sense of unreality to a lot of the storytelling, but I found the pacing really dragged on this. The gritty setting of a run down hotel in San Francisco in the late 70s was captured well, but the time setting this all up dragged horribly. When adding to the general ambiguity of the tale this made this a bit of a struggle to get through. There is no doubt that Michael Shea is a good writer. The quality of the prose is evident in this very early work of his, but the story craft and structure was still a work in progress.
September 20, 2021
Great fun...
This is a snappy bit of street smart horror. It has some great looping jazzy self references. Only complaint is that it drags a bit at the end.
Still I couldn’t put it down.
This is a snappy bit of street smart horror. It has some great looping jazzy self references. Only complaint is that it drags a bit at the end.
Still I couldn’t put it down.
September 8, 2022
One thing I will say about this is that it is gritty and grim. The human elements of violence are consistently more terrifying than the supernatural ones, but it’s no less of a book for it. However, it’s not for the faint of heart, and some scenes are deeply disturbing.
November 21, 2022
Just finished this after reading a few of Shea's short stories, the best of which, The Autopsy, was one of the episodes in Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities. Really ejoyed this one and will read more of Shea's stuff.
January 20, 2022
Some parts of this are excellent. But for the most part this book drags out. I think the version I had was the unedited version. It would have sang if some of the fat was trimmed.
September 5, 2021
An excellent, creepy yarn told in a compelling, atmospheric style where the daily lives of the down and outs and hustlers brush up against the creeping dread of the otherworldly beings cohabiting the mean streets and dingy tenements of their ghetto.
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