Tales that examine notions of death with buoyancy and endless wit.
The afterlife and otherworldly landscapes are breeding grounds for comic antics in this short story collection.
Perper and Cornog (Mangatopia, 2011, etc.) set the framework for this group of bizarre stories with the opening, “The Tale of Lady Ptish and the Marvelous Organ.” In it, Lady Ptish is imprisoned by priests, who likewise slay her husband, Lord Ptu. Fortunately, Lord Ptu’s severed phallus escapes its alabaster-jar confinement and returns to Lady Ptish, battling priests and monsters along the way. There’s an unmistakable theme running throughout this book of life beyond death, but always with a winking eye. It may be Judgement Day, for example, in “Twilight of the Gods,” but angels, saints, and gods of all creeds don’t leave one another much elbow room. Likewise, in “Hereafterburn,” the late Aunt Rhoda comes back, but that might not necessarily be a good thing, depending on which “Other Side” she’s returning from. The collection tackles a number of sensitive issues, from sex to religion, but never treats them cynically or derogatorily. Jesus, for one, makes at least a couple of amusing appearances but remains an upstanding guy each time. The authors also draw humor from supernatural beings by zeroing in on their human qualities. “The Ghost of Sula Turog” just wants to tell her story; aliens arriving on Earth would be divine for half-alien Elisa Rossi in “Of Certain Paternity” because she could finally meet her father; and in “Uncle Farkas and the Communists,” a vampire reveals that the world’s biggest threat is likely communism. The best of the bunch, however, is “Job Search,” in which Lucifer walks the Earth to tempt people into sinning. It’s an uproarious tale, portraying the devil as perhaps a bit antiquated: he’s miserable up here, unable to find a virgin and unaware of what today’s humans would consider a sin. Most of the stories are decidedly short, but even “And to All a Good Night,” featuring a distraught Santa Claus, manages a twist in a mere five pages. This is a posthumous publication for Perper, and his wife/co-author, Cornog, ends the book with some insight into each story, including recurring themes or characters from earlier writings.
Pub Date: June 2, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5077-8061-9
Page Count: 144
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic about an orphan girl with visionary powers in plague-devastated France.
The year is 1348. The conflict between France and England is nothing compared to the all-out war building between good angels and fallen ones for control of heaven (though a scene in which soldiers are massacred by a rainbow of arrows is pretty horrific). Among mortals, only the girl, Delphine, knows of the cataclysm to come. Angels speak to her, issuing warnings—and a command to run. A pack of thieves is about to carry her off and rape her when she is saved by a disgraced knight, Thomas, with whom she teams on a march across the parched landscape. Survivors desperate for food have made donkey a delicacy and don't mind eating human flesh. The few healthy people left lock themselves in, not wanting to risk contact with strangers, no matter how dire the strangers' needs. To venture out at night is suicidal: Horrific forces swirl about, ravaging living forms. Lethal black clouds, tentacled water creatures and assorted monsters are comfortable in the daylight hours as well. The knight and a third fellow journeyer, a priest, have difficulty believing Delphine's visions are real, but with oblivion lurking in every shadow, they don't have any choice but to trust her. The question becomes, can she trust herself? Buehlman, who drew upon his love of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in his acclaimed Southern horror novel, Those Across the River (2011), slips effortlessly into a different kind of literary sensibility, one that doesn't scrimp on earthy humor and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors. The power of suggestion is the author's strong suit, along with first-rate storytelling talent.
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-937007-86-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
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