Penguin’s annotated edition of Count Magnus and Other Ghost Stories, representing approximately half the entries of the more comprehensive Collected Ghost Stories, is a fitting introduction to one of the most famous British ghost storytellers.  This comes as a bit of a shock when reading the actual stories, however, for their perspective and narrative stylings are almost alien to what you’d find in more contemporary collections, whether these subscribe to the gory cult of horror or the more restrained evocation of suspense.… Read the rest

The Ghost Pirates is an interesting early case of polished, ambitious, evocative literature hiding in the guise of pulp horror. Some reviewers have likened William Hope Hodgson to both Joseph Conrad and H.P. Lovecraft, and both comparisons are apt. With titles like Heart of Darkness and The Secret Sharer, Conrad expressed the confusion and peril of a hostile environment, the mystery, the potential for exploitation, and the psychic toll of a life lived in marginal, undelineated spaces.… Read the rest

There are a lot of nice things I could say about The Mosquito Song, written by fellow-U of Cer and Mathewsnik M.L. Kennedy.  It’s short and fast, which will make it nice for plains and trains and brief reprieves from wrestling a squirming toddler.  … Read the rest