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Ellen Datlow's 1995 Reviews
Freak by Mark Burnell (New English Library-UK) is about how
an ordinary man's life changes abruptly after he interrupts a vicious
attack in an underground carpark and miraculously heals the dying
victim by his touch. Terrified and confused, he tries to ignore what
happened while trying to understand it. Some want to exploit him others
want to kill him, including a fanatic who believes this reluctant healer
to be the Antichrist. Entertaining and well written novel about people
trying to cope with the miraculous. In the tradition of the novel
Cold Heaven by Brian Moore and the movie,
Resurrection, with Ellen Burstyn. Vividly drawn characters.
Waking the Moon by Elizabeth Hand (HarperPrism) is a fine literate horror novel by the author of three science fiction novels and short stories in both genres. On her first day at the strange University of the Archangels and St. John the Divine, in Washington, D.C., Katherine Sweeney becomes friends with two fellow students who will change her life -- the androgynous, fey (and possibly mad) Oliver and the unearthly beautiful and willful Angelica. The three seem untouched by ordinary worries until they become involved in a battle for the soul of the earth. Oliver crashes and burns, Angelica disappears and Sweeney is expelled. Conspiracy, goddess cults, patriarchal control, the mysteries, and ancient history make fora rich stew. The British edition, published in 1994, was nominated for the World Fantasy Award. The Priest by Thomas M. Disch (Alfred A. Knopf) is satire, but barely -- it's terrifying in its nearness to reality -- pedophile priests and decades long cover-ups by the diocese, anti-abortion extremism, irrationality and hypocrisy in the Catholic Church. It's almost a contemporary social history of the Church. Disch's most accessible and satisfying novel in awhile. Relic by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (Forge) is a well-done sf/horror thriller taking place mostly in New York's Museum of Natural History. It's not enough that the rainforest is threatening us with more and more virulent viruses but now we have to worry about monsters from the Amazon as well -- and those old bugaboos DNA splicing and genetic engineering. A dinosaur-like creature haunts the basement of the museum occasionally making forays onto higher floors and picking off a few visitors and workers just before a huge gala opening on the subject of superstition. A large cast of characters and some nice detail. But I hated that ending. Still, it's fast-moving, slick entertainment. The Weatherman by Steven Thayer (Viking) is a suspenseful serial killer novel that takes place in the Minneapolis/St Paul area. The tv weatherman may be a bit strange but he gets great ratings because of his deadly accurate, almost prescient weather forecasts. He becomes a suspect in a series of murders seemingly linked to the seasons. The Pulitzer Prize winning producer at the station -- a disfigured Vietnam War veteran, tries to prove the weatherman's innocence, despite their rivalry over the affections a beautiful and ambitious newswoman. Tornadoes, murder, politics, and the death penalty make for a highly entertaining read, despite a few loose ends. Excellent characterizations, unintrusive detail, and a non-obvious anti-capital punishment stance raise this above most serial killer novels. The Unnatural by David Prill (St. Martin's Press) is a picaresque novel about the American way of death. A young boy with a talent to create art from death aspires to break the U.S. embalming record. Unfortunately, the once honorable field of undertaking is changing rapidly and he's faced with unexpected obstacles. Although the last third of the novel loses its madcap tone and becomes too serious, on the whole it's great fun. The perfect complement to the above is William Browning Spencer's clever Resume With Monsters (The Permanent Press). Philip Kenan follows his ex-girlfriend to Austin, Texas to win her back and protect her from the Lovecraftian monsters who plague them both (he thinks).There has been some disagreement as to whether the novel is fantasy or not -- the reader can judge for herself whether or not Philip is merely crazy or a hero (or both). Not a very frightening but charming, fun, and a quick read. Highly recommended. Where Does Kissing End? By Kate Pullinger (Serpent's Tail) is wonderfully hip short novel on relationships and vampirism. Mother and daughter Lucy and Mina Savage's names are no mere coincidence. Both are born illegimate, both seem doomed to unhappy love lives. Until Mina meets Stephen Smith, who falls irrevocably in love with her despite her apparent indifference. Cool, obsessive, vampiric. Where does biting start? Where does kissing end? H.J. Stenning, reads the epigraph. Came out in the UK in 1992 and I missed it until now. The Lighthouse at the End of the World by Stephen Marlowe (E.P. Dutton) is framed by the week before the death of Edgar Allan Poe, at which time he disappears, only to turn up, dying, in a mental hospital. This ingenious and affecting novel interweaves Poe's sad life, his writings, and the possibilities of what happened to him during that missing week into a charming, tragic, mysterious fantasy. Poe's famous fictional detective, August Dupin, plays a major role. Not horror but an historical fantasy about one of the first and certainly one of the major purveyor's of the short horror tale. The Torturer by Jim Ballantyne (Victor Gollancz-UK) is a disturbing and grisly combination psycho killer/supernatural thriller. It's lucky Matt Trace has a focus for his vice. Possessing no human feeling whatsoever, for a very high price he will torture, mutilate his victims to order, and send the videotape to his employer. Then he makes a mistake, and the supernatural enters the picture. Trace, as a character, isn't all that interesting but the police detectives who hunt him are humanized and likable. Absorbing, frightening, disgusting. The book has too many loose ends to be fully satisfying, which is frustrating because with another 50 pages and some care Ballantyne (a pseudonymous novel by a "well-known London crime writer.") could have created a classic of its type. Not for the squeamish. The Trial of Elizabeth Cree by Peter Ackroyd (Doubleday/Nan A.Talese) is a another tour de force by the author of Chatterton and Hawsmoor. The novel takes place in Victorian times when the Limehouse Golem, a fiendish, possibly supernatural serial killer is at large in London. Elizabeth Cree, born in poverty and hopelessness, works her way into an uneasy respectability after a colorful life in the theatre, beautifully brought to life by Ackroyd. She marries well yet ends up on trial for her life for the poisoning of her husband. John Cree's diaries, Liz's reminiscences of her life, and third person narrative makes this fascinating and dark reading. From Potter's Field by Patricia Cornwell (Scribner) is the sixth crime novel focusing on Chief Medical Examiner of Virginia, Kay Scarpetta. A body is found in New York City's Central Park on Christmas Eve, nude and mutilated in ways that indicate the work of serial killer Temple Gault. Characterization and attention to forensic detail are Cornwell's hallmark. There's enough darkness and gore to appeal to horror readers. A pageturner. Burning Angel by James Lee Burke (Hyperion) has the atmosphere of Louisiana down so well you can feel and taste the swamps. Robicheaux is asked by an old black lady to prove that the piece of land she and her family has been living on for generations was given to her family by the family's former masters. The past is never dead; it haunts the living. Black/white relations in the deep south and the slave legacy continue to have repercussions. Burke's characters are never stuck in the same groove -- they're always learning, growing, and changing. Like Confederacy of the Dead, a ghost story. Highly recommended. In the Cut by Susanna Moore (Alfred A. Knopf) is a tense erotic N.Y.C. mystery. A young woman is murdered. Another woman, a language scholar and teacher of writing might have seen the murderer. The best thing about this novel (the third by Moore) is the protagonist (the teacher) who is a fascinating, troubling character. She reminds me of Smilla in Smilla's Sense of Snow in that she (and one gets the feeling it is her not the author) makes it difficult for the reader to understand/get her. There is something fierce about her and her relationships -- a police detective assigned to the case, an old platonic friend, and a young student. This is a novel for those who want intellectual stimulation along with the more physical kind as it's about sexual politics as much as anything else. Highly recommended. There was talk in 2001 about its being made into a movie with Meg Ryan, in an atypical turn, playing the protagonist. City of Dreadful Night by Lee Siegel (University of Chicago) is a brilliant, odd, and frightening book. Siegel, a professor or religion, traveled to India in order to research horror and the macabre and its relationship to Indian religion and culture. Siegel's seemingly futile search for a legendary itinerant storyteller becomes intertwined with the life of the storyteller, Brahm Kathuwala himself as the reality of India's past and present political and social upheavals mingle with tales within tales of ghosts, zombies, Dracula, and ghouls. A mixture of fiction and nonfiction. The Off Season by Jack Cady (St. Martin's) is an utterly charming ghost story about Point Vestal, a town in which time is fluid, a parsonage moves transports itself, a cat named Obed dances and speaks in several languages, and Victorian ghosts act out their passions and pain with great regularity. |