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The Secret History of the World #34
The Peabody-Ozymandias Traveling Circus and Oddity Emporium
The revised, expanded, definitive version of F. Paul Wilson's fiction from the FREAK SHOW anthology. The events here take place a year after the Oddity Emporium's encounter with Repairman Jack in ALL THE RAGE, with an extra ten-thousand words of new characters and new subplots that weave the story into the Adversary Cycle.
Description:
"It will be a long trip, brothers and sisters," Oz said as he walked among the members of his troupe. "Long in distance and in days.
"And perhaps it is good that we make a full circuit of this country - better yet if we could make a circuit of the globe - for it will allow us a chance to see it and remember it as it was - if we care to."
He let his gaze range over them as he allowed the words to sink in.
All the important ones were here. The special ones, the ones like him. Three-eyed Carmella sat with melon-headed Leshane Burns, flashing sidelong glances at George Swenson who sat alone; the bovine Clementine also sat alone, but not necessarily by choice; woody-skinned Bramble sat near green-skinned Haman who appeared to be staring at the closed tent flap while the eyeless Gerald Gaines stared at nothing yet saw everything; Delta Reid coiled around her chair as Janusch waved his stalked eyes. Others sat scattered about. The troupe had no unity yet. They were not yet a team. But by the end of this tour they would be. They'd be family. The troupe. The freak show. People with green skin, white skin, furry skin, reptile hide, no eyes, extra eyes, no digits, extra digits, people with visions, with no vision, with one face, with two faces. A gathering to give many a towner nightmares for life. But to Oz they were beautiful. Because they were kin. Brother and sister were not forms of address he took lightly. Truly kin. For they shared a common parent, a third parent that had left an indelible imprint on their genes.
The Otherness. Each had been touched by the Otherness.
And so begins a hunt . . . for the pieces of a Device, a Contraption, a Thing-a-ma-jig. Call it what you will, it has power . . . it straddles the worlds - the one we know and another we cannot see.
Description:
"It will be a long trip, brothers and sisters," Oz said as he walked among the members of his troupe. "Long in distance and in days.
"And perhaps it is good that we make a full circuit of this country - better yet if we could make a circuit of the globe - for it will allow us a chance to see it and remember it as it was - if we care to."
He let his gaze range over them as he allowed the words to sink in.
All the important ones were here. The special ones, the ones like him. Three-eyed Carmella sat with melon-headed Leshane Burns, flashing sidelong glances at George Swenson who sat alone; the bovine Clementine also sat alone, but not necessarily by choice; woody-skinned Bramble sat near green-skinned Haman who appeared to be staring at the closed tent flap while the eyeless Gerald Gaines stared at nothing yet saw everything; Delta Reid coiled around her chair as Janusch waved his stalked eyes. Others sat scattered about. The troupe had no unity yet. They were not yet a team. But by the end of this tour they would be. They'd be family. The troupe. The freak show. People with green skin, white skin, furry skin, reptile hide, no eyes, extra eyes, no digits, extra digits, people with visions, with no vision, with one face, with two faces. A gathering to give many a towner nightmares for life. But to Oz they were beautiful. Because they were kin. Brother and sister were not forms of address he took lightly. Truly kin. For they shared a common parent, a third parent that had left an indelible imprint on their genes.
The Otherness. Each had been touched by the Otherness.
And so begins a hunt . . . for the pieces of a Device, a Contraption, a Thing-a-ma-jig. Call it what you will, it has power . . . it straddles the worlds - the one we know and another we cannot see.
132 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2008
23 people are currently reading
298 people want to read
About the author
F. Paul Wilson
423 books2,002 followersFrancis Paul Wilson is an author, born in Jersey City, New Jersey. He writes novels and short stories primarily in the science fiction and horror genres. His debut novel was Healer (1976). Wilson is also a part-time practicing family physician. He made his first sales in 1970 to Analog and continued to write science fiction throughout the seventies. In 1981 he ventured into the horror genre with the international bestseller, The Keep, and helped define the field throughout the rest of the decade. In the 1990s he became a true genre hopper, moving from science fiction to horror to medical thrillers and branching into interactive scripting for Disney Interactive and other multimedia companies. He, along with Matthew J. Costello, created and scripted FTL Newsfeed which ran daily on the Sci-Fi Channel from 1992-1996.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/fpaulw...
http://us.macmillan.com/author/fpaulw...
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
November 26, 2010
This work is taken out from a collection of stories horror writers wrote named freak show which Wilson edited. Based around a circus group which consists of unique people that have a connection to the Otherness another dimension. I have the signed limited edition with all authors signature and did not want to open up the pages and ruin them, a kindle version was released so was great opportunity to check it out. Was not disappointed great stuff interesting reading it's important reading before the other book of his All The Rage a RepairmanJack novel which is also full of good thrill and excitement. I really need to get reading the first in the Jack series The Tomb, that had been sitting there for that special time. Wilson is really good writer I recommend highly a vampire story of his The Keep that was really good.
" Jacob did not quite understand what the Otherness was, but he learned that it existed on the far side of "the Veil" and that the Device was a gateway to the Otherness"
" Jacob's search through unorthodox sources revealed that the Device, as his curio was called, was one of the "Seven Infernals" and could provide a link to "the Otherness."
" Look, almost all of us in the Emporium are a special kind of freak. Our deformities are the result of exposure as fetuses to the Otherness that leaked through the Device. This Otherness is a much older, more dominant, more powerful reality than ours. It changes any of our reality it touches"
"The Device will change the way the world sees us. When our day comes we will no longer be considered freaks. We will be accepted. We will get our due."
" Jacob did not quite understand what the Otherness was, but he learned that it existed on the far side of "the Veil" and that the Device was a gateway to the Otherness"
" Jacob's search through unorthodox sources revealed that the Device, as his curio was called, was one of the "Seven Infernals" and could provide a link to "the Otherness."
" Look, almost all of us in the Emporium are a special kind of freak. Our deformities are the result of exposure as fetuses to the Otherness that leaked through the Device. This Otherness is a much older, more dominant, more powerful reality than ours. It changes any of our reality it touches"
"The Device will change the way the world sees us. When our day comes we will no longer be considered freaks. We will be accepted. We will get our due."
January 15, 2019
More grist for the mill in the unfolding Secret History.
November 8, 2019
I should have read this sooner, as I always wondered what happened to Oz and his troupe. Fantastic.
February 28, 2009
A slim novella, beautifully produced by Necessary Evil Press, following the assembly of freaks put together by Ozymandias Prather as they tour the US, secretly hunting down the scattered parts of a device that once constructed, will change the world. Readers of Wilson's Repairman Jack series will already have met some of these characters in the novel All the Rage, and here they have their own tale. It's an entertaining yarn, diverting enough, and probably essential reading for followers of Wilson's Secret History of the World (which include the Jack books). This lovely edition sold out from the publisher before the official release date, but in order to make it more widely (and cheaply) available, Wilson has self-published a paperback edition, which can be picked up on Amazon and the like.
October 21, 2014
A character and troupe introduced in a previous Repairman Jack book (All the Rage) is given a back story as well as a continuation in what could be an important story in the long-running Secret History of the World from F. Paul Wilson. It's novella length, and very good. Some shoddy research is apparent as he says that one character went to Florida State University and identified that school as being in Gainesville (FSU is in Tallahassee, and University of Florida is in Gainesville), but otherwise is a solid read.
August 22, 2015
This book is amazing! It is a freak show/horror mix that has serious legs. The characters are very strange and unique and give rise to many thoughts about who they are and what they are, and in many cases what they will become. Lush background information with yet small tidbits of the unknown spur the reader to burn through the book, and yet there is so much to ponder on. I have never read anything like this, though there is another review to come based on this book, because the writer got some help. If you can find this book, get it. Rare as hen's teeth in print form now, I'm told.
Danny
Danny
June 9, 2010
Really enjoyed this one. My only gripe is that it seemed to end suddenly. I knew this was going to be a fairly quick story, but there were things that I thought could have been given more time to explore. Tarantello and the formula were two things that could have been given more exploration. I guess that is the sign of a good book. I am left wanting more.
October 7, 2010
I worked for a carnival one summer, and even though we didn't "tour" as extensively as a circus, a lot of the slang was used. (Porta-potties were "donnikers".) Reading this brought me back to that summer, when, if we had extra money, we'd rent a motel room; sleeping in the back of trucks on the floor...yes, good times.
January 21, 2011
I just finished reading this tale and I really enjoyed the atmospheric backdrop of the traveling circus - it felt like HBO's Carnivale to me as I was reading it, or the final season of TV's HEROES. F. Paul Wilson never disappoints.
May 28, 2016
Keeps You Guessing
A good yarn, this novella. A veeeerry strange tale, indeed. Don't ask too many logical questions. Relax and let your critical faculties take a short nap.
Not for the squeamish or those whose fairytales must be politically correct.
A good yarn, this novella. A veeeerry strange tale, indeed. Don't ask too many logical questions. Relax and let your critical faculties take a short nap.
Not for the squeamish or those whose fairytales must be politically correct.
June 16, 2011
Short but sweet.
November 2, 2011
Fun, quick, entertaining read.
February 24, 2012
I loved this book.Very creative and unique. I really wished it would have been developed into a series. Once I started it I couldnt put it down.
January 7, 2016
Very well written spooky tale full of memorable weirdness and entertaining characters
Want to read
November 27, 2010How 'bout that cover? It's nightmare-enducing even without reading this yet.
December 30, 2011
A nice, tidy little side-chapter in the Repairman Jack mythos....
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews