Customer Reviews

Even More Nasty Stories

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Wildside Press performed a service of inestimable value to fans of horror and weird fiction when they published their survey of Brian McNaughton's novels and stories. Mr. McNaughton died in 2004 so we will never see the like of these gems again. EMNS is a 153 page trade paperback published in 2000, that costs $14.95, undiscounted on Amazon, but eligible for free shipping. There is no cover art to speak of; we get the same very brief biography that has appeared in all the McNaughton books from Wildside, and a useful publication history in the front of the book.

How I wish I could have met Brian McNaughton! He had a gift for putting you inside the skin of his characters, so that what they were doing made inherent sense, even if it was fantastically horrific. Mordant hilarity, impossibly grotesque imagery, deft characterizations and clever plotting are the order of the day in his stories. Compared to Nasty Stories, there is less in this collection that had me laughing out loud, although I still was mostly absorbed. These stories were perhaps more horrific. Sometimes we have a slow crescendo, sometimes we have a brief, sharply punctuated image.

EMNS starts out with The Doom That Came to Innsmouth, which previously saw print in Tales Out of Innsmouth from Chaosium. The more I read it the more impressed I become. It surely is one of the my favorite 3 or 4 modern Cthulhu mythos stories, and may be the best spin on the Innsmouth legend ever. We are swept along in the narrative, all the while nodding sympathetically to a descendent of the original inhabitants on Innsmouth about his people's mistreatment by the government, until...well, you simply must read this for yourself! The Return of the Colossus is a modern exploration of a creation of Clark Ashton Smith, and I can't help but think that he would have smiled to read Mr. McNaughton's effort, which is vividly original. The Benevolent Emperor is also a homage to Smith, a wonderful Zothique story. If there was anything I didn't care for, it was Beyond the Wall of Time, which was originally part of a round robin story and seems to be missing something out of context. McNaughton being McNaughton, there is a very good ghoul story set at Miskatonic University, Ghoulmaster.

Obviously I think everyone should read these stories. Of course you must find Mr. McNaughton's ghoulish masterpiece, The Throne of Bones. His novels, published by Wildside with his final thoughts on them incorporated into the editions, are also books full of terrible wonders. Brian McNaughton's voice was wholely original and inimitable; there is no one like him writing now and probably there will only ever be pale imitators. Do yourself a favor and explore his worlds.