Customer Reviews

Claremont Tales

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Reviewer Joe Slater from Melbourne, Australia is really off-base with his review of CLAREMONT TALES. Dick Lupoff is a talented and neglected author, and especially in his short fiction whose length lets his talents shine. It is quite amazing that Lupoff, whether writing about eldritch Lovecraftian doom or four-color comic heroes or obscure scientifiction (yes, that is the original Hugo Gernsback term!) referential fiction, always manages to deliver thoughtful and creative work. CLAREMONT TALES is an excellent follow-up to his earlier anthology, BEFORE 12.01 AM... AND AFTER.

Author of more than fifty novels and a hundred short stories, Richard Lupoff is very well known to mystery and science fiction fans. Claremont Tales showcases a master storyteller's talent ranging from Sherlockian mysteries to alternate universes, Cthulhu mythos tales, and storybook worlds that fully engages and literarily transport readers to other places, times, and events populated by memorable characters and unexpected plot twists. "Must" reading for all Lupoff fans, the stories comprising this impressive anthology include: Black Mist; The Second Drug; At Vega's Taqueria; I Don't Tell Lies; Mr. Greene And The Monster; The Monster And Mr. Greene; Lux Was Dead Right; The Child's Story; The Tootsie Roll Factor; Documents In The Case Of Elizabeth Akeley; The Adventures Of Mr. Tindle; and Discovery Of The Ghoorie Zone.

I'll say this up front. Previous to this collection, I'd never heard of Richard Lupoff. This can be attributed to many factors, mainly that I've only been paying attention to the science fiction and fantasy genres for the last few years. But also is the fact that Richard Lupoff is an unjustly neglected talent.

Lupoff belongs to an earlier generation of writing. He was featured in Harlan Ellison's celebrated 'Dangerous Visions' series. He was an accomplished talent. But somehow he became a neglected author.

I love Golden Gryphon press. They bring serious collections to light by authors that otherwise may be forgotten or undiscovered. In recent memory I've discovered authors, Richard Paul Russo, Andy Duncan, Neal Barrett, and Tony Daniel through Golden Gryphon press. Now I can add Richard Lupoff to the list.

Lupoff's stories don't stay in any one genre or style. His incredible versatility means that this is a collection that can appeal to many different readers. Hard-SF readers will enjoy 'Black Mist' and 'The Child's Story'. Mystery readers will love the 'The Second Day' and it's Holmes-like investigator. Lovecraft aficionados will find pleasure in 'Discovery in the Ghooric Zone' and 'Documents in the Case of Elizabeth Akeley', both of which are superb examples of the late master's style. Fantasy fans will love the fantastic universe changing action in 'At Vega's Taqueria' or the Walter Mittyesque 'Mr. Tindle'.

As a previous reviewer noted, only a handful of those stories were published in prominent genre publications. Unlike the reviewer I see this as a good thing. I see it as hope that a prolific author such as Lupoff will be able to find his audience through unknown means. (Also this collection is one of several Lupoff has released in recent years and collects several of his stories from the less-traveled mediums. His stories from the main magazines were collected years earlier).

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this collection and discovering yet another talented author who has, until now, escaped my attention. I look forward to reading more of his works, but as another reviewer noted, they're very difficult to come by. Check out Lupoff (and for that matter all of the Golden Gryphon releases. They're fabulous!). You won't be sorry.

Some people buy short story collections because they are familiar with the author's work, are impressed by the summary on the jacket, or believe the favourable comments of critics that are sometimes put on the cover. I bought this book for none of these reasons. I bought it because on the cover is a picture of a well dressed gentleman displaying to his motley collection of dinner guests a casserole dish on which is balanced something resembling a giant blood-sucking tick, while various Lovecraftian monsters vie for attention outside the window. Yes it's true that sometimes the cover sells the book, and so I'm really glad that Nicholas Jainschigg did an excellent cover painting as this is an excellent book that I may not otherwise have picked up. Claremont Tales is an impressive collection of weird stories ranging from science-fiction detective story to out-and-out weird Lovecraftian pastiche by someone who has been practising in the genre for years but has never managed to achieve much more than `mid-list' recognition. This is a great shame because now that I've read some of Dick Lupoff's stories I want to read more, but they're not that easy to get hold of. Fortunately I've discovered through Amazon that Golden Gryphon are planning a Claremont Tales II. Good thing too, as this is an author who deserves wider exposure among fans of the fantastic. Standouts in this collection include `At Vega's Taqueria', with its initially subtle shifts in reality which gradually build to a suitably strange conclusion, `Lux was Dead Right', which will appeal to anyone who collects books, `The Tootsie Roll Factor', if only for its satisfying change of pace, and two Lovecraft pastiches. Lupoff is a fine author, much deserving of fan support, and hopefully this book will help to spread his reputation.

I'm a big fan of short stories, but this collection was disappointing. I didn't care for the book, and left some stories uncompleted.

The first story is _Black Mist_, a thriller/whodunnit set on Phobos. It's already been overtaken by events (we now have close-up photographs of the "Face on Mars") and the description of the Phobos environment sounded implausible.

This is followed by _The Second Drug_. It's a mystery involving a fictional detective whose description is frankly self-indulgent. The author seems unclear as to whether the story is parody or meant as a serious mystery with fantastic elements. I wasn't able to finish it.

_I Don't Tell Lies_ is a throwaway piece with a single idea. It's impossible to say much more about it.

_Mr Greene and the Monster_ and _The Monster and Mr Greene_ are, once again, self-indulgent pieces that shouldn't have appeared in the collection. The former is a piece of juvenalia; the latter is a sequel. They're eminently forgettable.

Few of the other stories are worth noting except perhaps _The Adventures of Mr Tindle_. It's at least readable; it's worth noting that this story was the only one of the collection which appeared in one of the Big Three SF&F magazines. On the other hand, virtual reality has been overdone as an science-fictional theme. Ray Bradbury did it better in _The Veldt_ in 1950 (!).

The back cover says that Richard Lupoff has written over 50 books. I'm sure this collection can't represent his best.

I'm a big fan of short stories, but this collection was disappointing. I didn't care for the book, and left some stories uncompleted.

The first story is _Black Mist_, a thriller/whodunnit set on Phobos. It's already been overtaken by events (we now have close-up photographs of the "Face on Mars") and the description of the Phobos environment sounded implausible.

This is followed by _The Second Drug_. It's a mystery involving a fictional detective whose description is frankly self-indulgent. The author seems unclear as to whether the story is parody or meant as a serious mystery with fantastic elements. I wasn't able to finish it.

_I Don't Tell Lies_ is a throwaway piece with a single idea. It's impossible to say much more about it.

_Mr Greene and the Monster_ and _The Monster and Mr Greene_ are, once again, self-indulgent pieces that shouldn't have appeared in the collection. The former is a piece of juvenalia; the latter is a sequel. They're eminently forgettable.

Few of the other stories are worth noting except perhaps _The Adventures of Mr Tindle_. It's at least readable; it's worth noting that this story was the only one of the collection which appeared in one of the Big Three SF&F magazines. On the other hand, virtual reality has been overdone as an science-fictional theme. Ray Bradbury did it better in _The Veldt_ in 1950 (!).

The back cover says that Richard Lupoff has written over 50 books. I'm sure this collection can't represent his best.

In Lupoff's foreword, he argues that a work of fiction should take the reader out of their world and into the author's. If not,then the author has, in some respect, failed, leaving the reader feeling dissatisfied. From his virtually impossible whodunit 'The Second Drug' to the hard SF tale 'Black Mist' to the Lovecraftian tale 'Discovery of the Ghorric Zone' with a Lupoffian twist on it, as well as the heartfelt fantasy 'The Tootsie Roll Factor', Lupoff's stories are a passport to the richly inventive and imaginative, the wildly diverse and wholly original. Tales that run the gambit and defy classification. From the heartfelt to the humorous, sheer honesty and wonder to the horrific. Lupoff is a masterful storyteller with the adriot ability to draw the reader into his worlds. And who can argue with that...? Gary S. Potter Author/Poet.