Kalimantan

by Lucius Shepard

Collection of the title novella and two other stories not in other editions of the same title.

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

Paperback

First published October 15, 1990

About the author

Brief biographies are, like history texts, too organized to be other than orderly misrepresentations of the truth. So when it's written that Lucius Shepard was born in August of 1947 to Lucy and William Shepard in Lynchburg, Virginia, and raised thereafter in Daytona Beach, Florida, it provides a statistical hit and gives you nothing of the difficult childhood from which he frequently attempted to escape, eventually succeeding at the age of fifteen, when he traveled to Ireland aboard a freighter and thereafter spent several years in Europe, North Africa, and Asia, working in a cigarette factory in Germany, in the black market of Cairo's Khan al Khalili bazaar, as a night club bouncer in Spain, and in numerous other countries at numerous other occupations. On returning to the United States, Shepard entered the University of North Carolina, where for one semester he served as the co-editor of the Carolina Quarterly. Either he did not feel challenged by the curriculum, or else he found other pursuits more challenging. Whichever the case, he dropped out several times and traveled to Spain, Southeast Asia (at a time when tourism there was generally discouraged), and South and Central America. He ended his academic career as a tenth-semester sophomore with a heightened political sensibility, a fairly extensive knowledge of Latin American culture and some pleasant memories.

Toward the beginning of his stay at the university, Shepard met Joy Wolf, a fellow student, and they were married, a union that eventually produced one son, Gullivar, now an architect in New York City. While traveling cross-country to California, they had their car break down in Detroit and were forced to take jobs in order to pay for repairs. As fortune would have it, Shepard joined a band, and passed the better part of the 1970s playing rock and roll in the Midwest. When an opportunity presented itself, usually in the form of a band break-up, he would revisit Central America, developing a particular affection for the people of Honduras. He intermittently took odd jobs, working as a janitor, a laborer, a sealer of driveways, and, in a nearly soul-destroying few months, a correspondent for Blue Cross/Blue Shield, a position that compelled him to call the infirm and the terminally ill to inform them they had misfiled certain forms and so were being denied their benefits.

In 1980 Shepard attended the Clarion Writers’ Workshop at Michigan State University and thereafter embarked upon a writing career. He sold his first story, "Black Coral," in 1981 to New Dimensions, an anthology edited by Marta Randall. During a prolonged trip to Central America, covering a period from 1981-1982, he worked as a freelance journalist focusing on the civil war in El Salvador. Since that time he has mainly devoted himself to the writing of fiction. His novels and stories have earned numerous awards in both the genre and the mainstream.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is an odd novel that I really tried to like but just couldn't. It has too much going on: ghosts, a lost civilization, reality-altering drugs, a crashed alien spaceship, just on and on. And on. It's a relatively short book, but is very densely written with no chapter or section breaks and some of the paragraphs go on for two or three pages, for goodness' sake. My mind kept wandering, and I felt like I was wading through a very, very, very long book with no likable characters, no end is sight, and I didn't much care what happened to any of them. Shepard's description of the setting in Borneo is quite good and there were some interesting sections, but overall I felt left out.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

i first read shepard via the terry carr ace sf specials (round 2), green eyes is still THE iconic magical realist sci-fi zombie text in my opinion (not that there are many contenders)... eagle-eyed hepcat readers of that tome may have noticed that sonic youth jacked some of the veves from it for the sister inner sleeve art- but that's neither up nor down.

the fact that SF is still a marginalized genre even in the era of houellebecq, lethem, & bolano shouldn't be surprising to anyone miffed at the obscurity to which cats like shepard and delany are currently consigned. (as for delany, dhalgren allegedly outsold gravity's rainbow.... but i digress.

the book at hand is a novella set in a triad with two other short stories. since i'm one of those stupes that digs novels more than shorts (despite the relative polish & perfection of the form i prefer to live with narratives for a while, thanks), i'll forgo comments on the shorter pieces here, except to recommend them as pure crystallizations of shepard's lush & romantic jungle occultism...

the title piece, on the other hand, simultaneously echoes wells, lovecraft, and conrad (of course, there's a jungle & a river) & somehow manages to boil shepard's vision of the faceoff between western planet-suck & indigenous culture into 150 some odd pages... shepard is able to really cut to the meat of the conflict w/out buying the belief that ANY culture (indigenous or not) is immune to change, or is somehow more holy than another... if you dig this check out life during wartime which is bubbling to the top of my 're-read' list now that i've read this (again).

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bizarre dreamlike novel by Shepard with drugs that turn you into spirits, lost cities, and other events that come to you like images out of the mist.

[Terry Mulcahy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lucius Shepard is quite the writer. After this, I may well read another. This is written in the old British adventure style, even while mocking itself, but I still enjoyed it, and couldn't stop reading it until I finished it.

[Raj · Rating 3 out of 5]

Barnett is an expat Briton living in Kalimantan, in Indonesia. A momentary act of kindness from him sends Curtis MacKinnon to a trading post deep in the jungle. After a while, Barnett gets alarming correspondence from the trading post that sends him to confront MacKinnon.

I'm not familiar with Shepard and from reading this, I assumed he was a literary writer, dipping his toe into the SF genre, but Wikipedia describes him as an SF author, albeit one with "an awareness of literary antecedents." There is definitely a literary tone to this novella and the island land of Kalimantan is lovingly described.

The story straddles the line between SF and fantasy with talk of the spirit of the land, but also crashed alien spaceships on parallel worlds. The story is a bit of a character study, with MacKinnon and Barnett both being examined in some depth.

An interesting story, with a lot of pleasure to be had from the language and descriptions. While there is some action late in the story, this isn't a book to read for that. It's one for introspection and to delve into the landscape. Worth it, but be prepared to have to do a bit of work.

[Brown Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shepard is one of those writers who need no advocates. You dig his voice, or you don't. Nonetheless I want to convince people to read his work. Stylistically, Shepard is a more practical Conrad, a less offensive Lovecraft, a kind of Cormac Steinbeck, if you catch my drift. He has his fixations, and his work tends to a basic similarity. This is not the work I would start with, as life is short and there are so many things to read. I'd recommend the collection Ends of the Earth, or a slim volume Two Trains Running as a first stop.

The eponymous novel here is typical Shepard, but diffuse and underpowered, not as fine as his similar Human History or Skull City. It still contains magic, a dreamvision of futility and dissipation.

The two additional stories are early tales, one suggestive and sultry, with a kick, the other one of the most evocative and promising of Shepard's stories. The Arcevoalo is a wonderful story, and an illustration of why noone has heard of Shepard: there is within this 7000 word story the seed of a massive trilogy or series. Shepard turned his back on it, just collecting his check and moving on.

Integrity or folly?

[Tyler Knight · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story at its core is not bad at all. Far from the best book I've ever read but fair in most respects. There were many elements that seemed rather out of place in this rather short book, such as the briefly touched-upon alien spacecraft and left me searching for more. (Did I miss something, or was it simply left to the reader to fill in the blanks that Shepard left out?) Either way, the lack of any chapters whatsoever combined with the long and rambling paragraphs made it seem like a long stream of words with no breath in-between. Thus I subtracted 1 star from this otherwise almost-4-star-worthy novel.

[Antony · Rating 4 out of 5]

For some reason it took me awhile to get into this book, I'm not sure if it was the writing style our story. However, the last half of the book really picked up and it became a real page turner! Because of that the 3 stars I was going to give became 4.

[Emmalyn Renato · Rating 3 out of 5]

This long novella was nominated for the British Fantasy award in 1991. A weird mashup of science fiction, fantasy, horror, ghosts and magic realism.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just re-read this. It's been years since I read it. Since then I've been to Borneo, where the story takes place and of course that gives me a better connection to the story and particularly to the setting. This is your typical setting and approach for Shepard, if you like his other stuff you should like this one. It's one of his longer works.
He, the alternate world that Shepard often offers up is more blatantly explained; nonetheless it's still a good vehicle for his fantastic character conflicts. It's all presented by the main character as he is recalling the story.

[Mikko Saari · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite hazy little story set in a drug-addled jungle. Heart of Darkness theme is strong in this one, with some quite surprising turns. Not an excellent book by any means, but interesting enough.

[Larry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as Life During Wartime, but worth reading.

[Mas Mul · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting, mysterious story...

[Sonja · Rating 3 out of 5]

Erikoinen, mutta hyvä kirja. Jaksoi pitää otteessaan hyvin.