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11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A mosaic of the fantastic, July 7, 2007
In the age-old tradition of masterful story telling guaranteed to make your skin crawl, author Laird Barron offers us _The Imago Sequence and Other Stories_, ten heart numbing tales of terror that will leave you glancing furtively in the mirror, ever fearful something altogether unwholesome will glance back in recognition.
_The Imago Sequence and Other Stories_ comes to us courtesy of Night Shade Books, an independent book publisher with an impressive reputation for publishing outstanding authors. And should you acquire the limited hardcover edition of _The Imago Sequence and Other Stories_, signed by the author himself, you will have in your hands the edition that includes "Hour of the Cyclops", an energetic tribute to H. P. Lovecraft which first appeared in the online e-zine, _The Three-Lobed Burning Eye_. You will not want to miss this one.
Appearing in both editions for the first time is the novella "Procession of the Black Sloth", an original tale Mr. Barron penned exclusively for the collection, in homage to Asian horror. I had to read this novella several times over because it had me running hither and yon in my head trying to identify the numerous allusions embedded therein, which included big and little screen classics; classic tales of horror; literary and genre novels; authors; music, so on and so forth. The novella is a veritable puzzle, deftly crafted, at once horrifying and irreverently entertaining. Even Santa Claus takes a hit in this lurid tale of skewed reality, where the game played in Hong Kong is the game of retribution. And should you find yourself unfamiliar with some of the allusions, you will nonetheless enjoy this dark and oft-times grisly tale, in which the author pulls out all the stops, not pausing once to spare the reader nightmares. If you enjoy conundrums, you will enjoy reading "Procession of the Black Sloth".
I love all the tales in _The Imago Sequence and Other Stories_, but my favorite is "Hallucigenia", a novella as layered as the earth is ancient, offering to the reader an indirect and eerie glimpse at the Cambrian Period as it spills forth into present time, utterly annihilating everything in its path. Laird Barron performs here a deft and spine-tingling integration of H. P. Lovecraft's chthonic and inimical Old Ones with the contemporary science of paleontology -- the allusions are subtle, however, and require a discerning eye.
I first read "Hallucigenia" in the June 2006 Issue of _The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction_, and instantly recognized an award winning tale. In May of last year I wrote as much in a review I did on F&SF at Amazon, mentioning Laird Barron's outstanding novella. I've read the story three times since, and with each reading I experience something new, noteworthy, and ultimately chilling to the bone. "Hallucigenia" is a remarkable piece of writing, and will be recorded in literary history as a true classic among all the other great tales penned by master story-tellers past, present, and future.
"Hallucigenia" has been nominated for the IHG Award in the long fiction category, and should, in my opinion, take the award. The story was also nominated for a HWA Stoker Award.
It is no exaggeration to say Laird Barron has indeed joined ranks with the reigning masters of eldritch horror. His award-nominated work has appeared and continues to appear in several of the "Best of ..." anthologies -- though what a pleasure it is to read his tales in this single, elegantly bound volume.
_The Imago Sequence and Other Stories_ table of contents:
Proboscis (8500 words): "Alien horrors pursue a failed actor during a nightmarish road trip with a pair of amateur bounty hunters..." F&SF 2005; reprinted in YBF&H 19; Best New Horror 2005; and Best New Fantasy 2005. Nominated for International Horror Guild Award.
Bulldozer (10,600 words): "Jaded Pinkerton detective Jonah Koenig tracks a serial killer from Boston to an 1890s California mining town and encounters malevolence that dwarfs his grimmest imaginings..." SciFiction 2004; nominated for IHG award; reprinted in YBF&H 18 and a forthcoming Czech anthology.
The Imago Sequence (20,000 words): "One tough guy investigator explores the origin of a series of macabre photographs and discovers secrets not meant for the eyes of Man..." F&SF 2005; reprinted in Hartwell & Cramer's Year's Best Fantasy 6; nominated for International Horror Guild Award; Nominated for World Fantasy Award.
The Royal Zoo Is Closed (4500 words): "A vignette about life, angst and the end of the world..." Phantom # 0 World Fantasy Convention 2006.
Old Virginia (8000 words): "A domestic CIA operation to conduct psychological experiments on an elderly woman goes terribly awry and one man will encounter the very incarnation of evil..." F&SF 2003; reprinted in YBF&H 17; nominated for IHG award.
Parallax (9800 words): "Life unravels for a flamboyant modern artist following the mysterious disappearance of his wife..." SciFiction 2005.
Hallucigenia (25000 words): "Cosmic terrors descend upon a hapless tycoon after a tragic accident..." F&SF 2006; Reprinted in Polish magazine Fantastyka (10/2006); nominated for the HWA Bram Stoker Award; nominated for the IHG Award.
Shiva, Open Your Eye (5800 words): "A creature as old as the stars contemplates its origins and its destiny..." F&SF September 2001.
Hour of the Cyclops (4500 words): "A humble hero saves mankind from chthonic destruction in this retro-pulp tribute to H. P. Lovecraft..." The Three-Lobed Burning Eye #6 2000.
Procession of the Black Sloth (24,000 words):
"A lurid tale of skewed reality, where the game played in Hong Kong is the game of retribution..." A tribute to Asian horror; original to the collection.
Reading Laird Barron's work is comparable to watching a star nebula being born.
Highly recommended.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Modern H.P. Lovecraft Inspired Tales, September 18, 2009
Out of all the books I've read, and all the stories I've enjoyed, I'm never really sure which one I'll sit down to review until I actually start typing. I read this book, The Imago Sequence and Others, a few weeks ago and it's really stuck with me.
This is the author's, Laird Barron, first collection of short stories. I'm always on the lookout for new horror, so when I saw this book on the shelf in the library it grabbed my attention immediately.
The collection starts with "Old Virginia ", a story about an over-the-hill CIA agent assigned to guard a strange experiment in the woods of West Virginia. Of course, something goes wrong and the experiment gets out of hand, leading inevitably to very bad things. I really liked the tone of this one, and it sets the stage very well for the stories that follow.
"The Procession of the Black Sloth" is a strange story about ghosts and witchcraft set in modern day China. I like the atmosphere and characters, but the ending was kind of a let down after such a good buildup.
"Bulldozer" is set in the Old American West, and follows a Pinkerton Detective on the trail of a murderous circus strongman with some very strange abilities.
"Hallucigenia" starts with a rich couple's encounter with a giant wasp nest in an old abandon barn. They both are attacked by something they don't remember. While his wife is in a coma, the husband investigates who owns the barn and tries to find out what really happened there. The imagery in this story really stuck with me, and this story is be my favorite of the bunch.
"Parallax" is another weird story, this time about a husband whose wife mysteriously disappears one day. The husband is accused of murdering her, but even though one police officer (the wife's ex-boyfriend) continually harasses him, nothing is proven. I don't want to give too much away about this one, because there's a twist ending or two.
"The Imago Sequence" is about a group of pictures that slowly drives everyone mad if they stare at them too long. This story is told so well one has to wonder why it wasn't done before (maybe it has, though, and I just don't know about it). This is my second most favorite story of the collection.
Three other selections, "Shiva, Open Your Eye", "The Royal Zoo is Closed" and "Proboscis" are your standard the-world-ends-with-a-whimper-not-a-bang type of stories. Their protagonists aren't really fleshed out and there is no real plot to get hooked into.
While this is a very strong collection of tales, there are a few things that did annoy me about many of them. The first is that old trope of giving away the ending as the start of the story. I know many writers use this because it's a good way to grab the reader and suck them quickly into the story, but if used too often it can be confusing and hackneyed. Secondly, Barron's characters all take way too many drugs. I don't have a problem with drug use, per se, it's just so blatant and pervasive in these stories that it gets a little hard to believe after awhile.
Overall, this collection is a very good read, and I would love to have a copy for my shelves. I'm always on the look out for new authors who write in the milieu made famous H.P. Lovecraft. In this book, Laird Barron has managed to create the same feeling of cosmic horror, without resorting to outright imitation.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I'm a believer, December 11, 2007
Since becoming engrossed in the works of Thomas Ligotti I've been seeking out weird horror stories. These are pretty much all I read right now. I found the works of Quentin Crisp and Mark Samuels, both kind of difficult to obtain due to the limited edition releases of their works through more obscure presses. These men possessed a slow - ponderous power in their works, quite distinctive in their own way but very tied in to the vibe that Ligotti possessed.
So after scanning Amazon I came across this collection of stories. Intrigued, I bought it and as soon as I got it read the whole thing, which is unusual for me as I usually put a book down after a few stories to give some freshness to the ones that remain.
Barron is like if Mickey Spillane wrote eldrich horror tales. Every one of his stories has a very distinct voice and even the ones that aren't in the first person are written very stylishly. This is definitely not Ligotti, but rather a very distinct and different take on horror fiction. It's tough to write stories that evoke the spirit of mind-paralyzing overwhelming horror that Lovecraft evoked without sounding derivative. I don't remember a single reference to any of the pantheon of Lovecraft beings, yet through many of the stories I felt that kinship Barron must have with Lovecraft. Many amazing and overwhelming horrors await our hapless heroes as they inch towards a fate that seems destined from the start.
He's also really good at evoking the feel and the environment of the State of Washington. Curiously enough, I was reading this book as I visited some relatives in Washington, seeing the state for the first time, and I could see and feel a lot of the locations that Barron writes about.
I highly recommend this collection and I am looking forward with great anticipation the next book from Barron.
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