The author of the award-winning ghost story Night Relics spins a chilling tale of greed and the powers of darkness in which tanned, laid-back Californians come under the influence of black magic.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
This is a homey fantasy, almost excessively so. Doughnuts, family tensions, relatives who arrive in a Winnebago, Christmas decorations, business worries, Uncle Henry's womanizing, and pyramid schemes wrap Walt Stebbins in layers of detail and distraction. Walt runs a small catalog business out of his garage, and he has no notion of a demonic presence in his town until a package is mistakenly delivered to him. The contents are not the inexpensive Chinese toys and novelties he deals in. The nasty-looking pickled bluebird of happiness ("Best thing come to you. Speak any wish.") piques Walt's interest, and he keeps it when he rewraps the box and passes it on to the addressee: the one person in the world Walt loathes, his former friend Robert Argyle. But Walt's keeping back the bluebird of happiness is the best thing that could have happened to Argyle--and the worst thing that could happen to Walt. What price happiness? If you have to ask ...
From Publishers Weekly
With acrobatic grace, Blaylock (Night Relics), winner of two World Fantasy Awards, once again walks the dividing line between fantasy and horror?this time, as he relates a deal-with-the-devil story set in suburban Southern California. Two decades ago, a clergyman masquerading as a satanic emissary duped three businessmen from the small town of Orange into selling him their souls. As soon as one of them spontaneously combusts during the current Christmas season, however, the others scurry to break the deal. It turns out that there exists a good luck charm that can save the soul of one, millionaire malefactor Robert Argyle, but when that charm is accidentally delivered to Walt Stebbins, Argyle's unsuccessful rival in the mail-order business, a chain of misadventures begins in which Walt, his wife, her uncle and an unlikely pair of clergymen all recognize the taint of the devilish deal in their daily lives. Blaylock's gentle satire on "capitalism gone rancid" is supported by his authentic rendering of a small town where the economic reality of having to pay the bills occupies much of people's time. While the author probes the dark side of small-town life, he ultimately celebrates the virtues of simple living, yielding the sort of homey moral one finds in a Garrison Keillor monologue.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
More mundane yet still fascinating,
This review is from: All The Bells on Earth (Paperback)
To me this one marks a small yet noticable difference between the earlier "classic" Blaylock (Paper Grail, Last Coin) and the rest of his stuff. The elements are all here, the regular people going about their lives in a quirky fashion, the fingers of evil magic cloaked in mundanity at the edges of everyone's awareness, it's all here. Something is just . . . different. I don't know what. There seems to be more of an emphasis on the horror aspects of the plot, it's more gruesome than many of his other books had been and a bit more downbeat as well. Walt is a typical Blaylock character, but he lacks just a tiny bit of the quirky charm that makes the others so memorable, you stand up and cheer for him through the story but more because you want the good guys to win. Blaylock has to stop the daffy older relatives thing though, it's getting a bit repetitive, this is the third book in a row I've read that features a weird uncle of some sort who is either an inventor or a dreamer or something else (Uncle Arthur in the Last Coin was by far the most original, though Uncle Roy from the Paper Grail was more enjoyable). The "regular life" stuff seems a bit more forced now, Maggie Biggs has to be the most annoying character I've encountered in a long time (which might be the point) and the rest of the stuff has a been there, done that feeling (except for the addition of the kids, which is handled realistically and face it, they're just darn cute). That said, Blaylock figured out how to make a compromise between poetic prose and a tight plotting, this is indeed a page turner, with brief short chapters advancing the plot almost constantly, there may be a lot of annoying subplots but they shift back and forth so quick that by the time it comes back around again you're almost looking forward to it. His prose is as good as ever and the book is overall really well crafted, I'm not ashamed to say that I finished it in a manner of hours and was quite satisified with the package I got. Yes, it's not "classic" Blaylock and I can't agree with some of the changes he's made in his style but it shows him attempting to do some stuff that's slightly different and if at first you don't succeed perfectly, we all know he'll try again. And I know I'll give him a chance.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beware the bluebird of happiness,
By Félszemű Farkaskutya (Call me Wolfie) (Lexington, VA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: All The Bells on Earth (Paperback)
This is one of Blaylock's best and it would be an excellent place to start if you're not familiar with this author. The plotting is tighter than in most of Blaylock's books, so the story is intricate and intriguing enough to keep you turning the pages, and the ending is particularly nice. It is a fantasy tale in a contemporary setting, with somewhat of a monkey's paw concept driving the plot(you'll never think of the Bluebird of Happiness quite the same way), but the real magic is in Blaylock's joyously eccentric characters and his ability to make very ordinary people and places seem totally fantastic.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing Page Turner,
By
This review is from: All The Bells on Earth (Hardcover)
I think some of these other reviewers are harboring expectations and agendas. When I read this book I had none. I had not read any Blaylock yet. I literally was up until 3am+ 3 nights in a row to finish it! It may not be his scariest but as I read it the hairs on the back of my neck wouldn't settle for days. Great characterization. Strange, compelling plot(s).(Stephen King could take a lesson here on how to juggle multiple subplots!)I can't say enough about it. Truly one of my all-time favorites.
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