Customer Reviews

Brian Lumley's Freaks

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If you are a Brian Lumley fan then this book is a must have. It is numbered and signed by both the author and artist who did the artwork on the cover and throughout the book. The book contains a few interesting short stories with the central theme being freaks, though Lumley will leave you wondering who truly are the freaks.

If you are not a big Brian Lumley fan looking for a collector's item then this book is probably not for you. The stories are great in true Lumley fashion, but at 82 pages the price of this book it is probably not worth it for someone just looking for something to read.

Table Of Contents:

1. Foreword
2. In The Glow Zone
3. Problem Child
4. The Ugly Act
5. Mother Love
6. Somebody Calling

In 'In The Glow Zone', an abandoned child(ren) is hungry. The illustration by Allen Koslowski clears up the tangled meaning of the child(ren).
In 'Problem Child', if you grow up mutant, you dream of going after the parents that made you that way.
In 'The Ugly Act', Hesch Blarzt was born just before the Ugly Act was enacted, leaving him to grow up in a world that tolerated, and kept alive, only those who were beautiful. He's forced to wear a "handsome mask" when appearing in public, until he learns how to "zoop".
In 'Mother Love', a mutant baby is protected from the killings by a determined young mother.
In 'Somebody Calling' (my favorite), a doctor must find his mutated Siamese twin sister (separated shortly after birth) after she's been kidnapped by a horrible beast of a man.

Considering the rarity of the book and the price attached to used copies, I thought it prudent to include in my review a full description of the product. This clearly isn't the matured Brian Lumley we all know and love; the book is very much a freshman effort. I suspect the stories are all early works regardless of the publication date of 2003. It's like a child's book, slim, only 82 pages, using a large font, and with illustrations. A child's book for adults that is, because the content would be unsuitable for children.

I expected a lot more out of this book other than some tired radiation stories. The only one that really grabbed me, and contained a real mutant, was 'Somebody Calling'. The writing isn't worthy of Brian Lumley's mature works, either his later collections or his Necroscope series. I suggest, especially since the price of the used books is high, that you take into consideration how much of a Lumley fan you are. A better anthology of Lumley's for creepy things is 'Fruiting Bodies And Other Fungi'. Try that collection first. See if your library has a copy of Freaks before buying. Enjoy!

If you're as unfamiliar with Brian Lumley's work as I am (No, I haven't read Necroscope), this collection of five short stories doesn't exactly make me want to run out and read more. Lumley's writing is skillful, but the stories themselves are ho-hum. Only one is what I would consider a gem. One is mildly entertaining and the other three are largely forgettable.

"Problem Child" is an okay monologue by a confused...thing. "In the Glow Zone" and "Mother Love" are post-apocalyptic tales involving the freakish results of too much radiation. A third, "Somebody Calling," is the only story not previously published and while pre-apocalypse, also involves a getting exposed to a tad too much nuclear good stuff. Of the lot, it's the fastest-paced and most exciting. However, the most interesting is the one right in the middle, "The Ugly Act." It's a tale of future Earth and government legislation taken to the extreme. Earth has been so polluted, so dirtied and soiled, that in an effort to put a band-aid on an axe wound, they want to do away with anything unpretty...including people.

This is a collectible hardcover book, signed by the author and artist Allen Koslowski. 750 numbered hardcovers were printed along with 26 lettered leatherbound & traycased editions. At 85 pages, FREAKS is a quick read that may leave you underwhelmed. At least each story is given a one-page Koslowski treatment. That certainly helps.