If you want to get into the Halloween spirit and seriously creep yourself out, then this book is for you. Alectryomancer and Other Weird Tales, is a collection of 13 (naturally) stories that are quite diverse in tone and scope. It’s called “Weird Fiction”, which I learned originated in the late 19th and early 20th century, blending the supernatural, mythical and sometimes scientific as seen in works by H. P. Lovecraft, William Hope Hodgson and Clark Ashton Smith. What I found in these stories lives up to that heady blend and I’m so glad I have dictionary apps and other resource material on my phone so I could try to keep up with Mr. Slatsky’s fantastically fertile mind.
In whip-smart and sometimes quite poetic prose, the diverse characters in these stories confront their worst nightmares, like the malevolent doll in This Fragmented Body or the Kumguwe in The Ocean is Eating Our Graves, or the inexorable dread and unease following Amy out in the desert in Intaglios.
“She incrementally inched her way higher. She was calmed by the lack of any light pollution, the early morning sky so perfect and clean it was like looking at the inside of a polished bowl flecked with pinpoints of light. Something liquid about all of it, as if space was an inverted ocean and only the weird actions of gravity kept the cosmic fountains from drowning this world.”
It became clear early on that I shouldn’t read one of these gems before bed time, otherwise I’d be right there with them in my own restless and fevered dreams. Highly recommended.
I’m pretty sure you’re the first person to ever quadruple Cannonball. Congrats! Your reading pace is insane.
Thanks a bunch!
Congratulations on your QUADRUPLE CANNONBALL! You’ve read some great books this year.
Thank you! And so many great books recommended by fellow cannonballers. Cheers, y’all!
I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that you are the first person to complete a quadruple Cannonball. I am in absolute awe of you and have no idea where you find the time to read so many and varied books, and write such good and insightful reviews. You are a true champion. Congratulations!
Thanks very much! It’s not what I intended when I started in January but dang has it been fun!
Congratulations!!!! You are a reading champion.
I can’t even believe you did a quadruple. amazing!! Congrats!
Thank you! Badkittyuno is gonna be here soon, so be on the lookout!
I will totally admit that my pace is 50% lots of great books to read, and 50% trying to catch up with you. Thanks for the motivation!
Right back at ya and you’ve done some great reviews to boot! Cheers!
CONGRATULATIONS, CONGRATULATIONS, CONGRATULATIONS, CONGRATULATIONS!!!!
Well done you! That is AWESOME!!!!
Thank you so much! What a great community we have here. Cheers!
Happy Quad Cannonball!
Thank you!
Just wow. Congrats on your Quad!!!
Thanks a bunch!