From award-nominated writer John Langan comes a collection of uneasy meetings. A frustrated professor and his graduate student assistant accompany a group of soldiers to a remote Scottish island to learn what is buried there. A man plays an audiotape left for him by his late father and is initiated into a family story of monstrous deeds. A student learns frightening lessons in a surreal tutoring center. A young couple struggles to make their stand against a group of inhuman pursuers in a ravaged landscape. And, in a new story, an artist discovers a mysterious statue whose completion becomes his obsession.
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From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. As Elizabeth Hand aptly observes in her introduction to this exceptional debut horror collection, Langan's tales celebrate supernatural fiction's antiquarian and visionary past with as much eloquence and acuity—and terror—as they explore the dark heart of the 21st century. The richly atmospheric title story evokes the weird fiction of both Henry James and M.R. James in its account of a family cursed with a demonic familiar with a ravenous appetite for disobedient children. On Skua Island, a relentlessly creepy monster story, pits a team of modern espionage operatives against an implacable creature of the living dead out of Norse legend. The five tales run the gamut from supernatural satire (Tutorial) to apocalyptic nightmare (Episode Seven), but whatever their theme or tone, Langan shows uncommon skill at balancing character, plot and mood to achieve the perfect pitch for each. Horror readers will welcome a new voice speaking in a classic tongue. (Dec.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Nice try, but mixed bag,
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This review is from: Mr. Gaunt and Other Uneasy Encounters (Hardcover)
Langan's story collection strikes me as the ungainly product of honest literary ambition kneecapped by tired (and unintentionally humorous) horror trappings. His characters and literary style are actually more interesting and imaginative than his supernatural elements. "Mr Gaunt" and "On Skua Island," for all their effective creation of dread atmosphere and tension, conclude with cheesy and ludicrous rampages by homicidal skeletons and bog mummies that produced giggles in this reader. If the setups for both stories hadn't been so strong, I might not have laughed so hard at the climaxes, or felt so disappointed. The novella "Laocoon" is a perceptive portrait of a gifted but failed artist, but is undercut by a predictable ending that reduces this overlong story to little more than a bloated TWILIGHT ZONE episode (and a lesser one at that). I agree with reviewer Randy Cook when he cites the provocatively titled "Episode Seven: Last Stand Against The Pack In The Kingdom Of The Purple Flowers" as the strongest of this uneven lot. It boasts an unusual and imaginative structure and leaves you wanting to find out what happens next, even as you really don't need to (on account of the fullness of the story that Langan presents here).To conclude, Langan demonstrates a good enough sense for creating reality, mood, and character that I would prefer to see him leave horror and fantasy behind and try his hand at non-genre fiction.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Intellectual, Literary...and Creepy!,
By Addicted2Amazon! (Philadelphia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mr. Gaunt and Other Uneasy Encounters (Hardcover)
I consider myself a connoisseur of horror anthologies. Ok, not a very good one, but I read enough that I know what I like, I know what, in my opinion, constitutes a good story, and I am acquainted with a lot of the established masters of the genre.Or at least I think I am. And then I discover another new writer that I can't believe I have never heard of. "Mr. Gaunt and Other Uneasy Encounters" is a collection of 4 exceptional long-ish short stories and 1 excellent novella. I was initially a little skeptical to purchase an anthology of only 5 stories by one author that I hadn't heard of. The story premises and reviews, however, hooked me, and I decided to obtain a copy. I enjoyed this book! His style is very...literary, I think I can say. His description and sketching of character background is incredible. If writing about less gruesome subject matter, his work would definitely find a wide audience among people who love a strong, descriptive turn of phrase. But he is talking about gruesome subject matter, thank God! The first story, "On Skua Island" was probably my favorite. In this tale, a professor travels to a remote island off the coast of Scotland to study a relic. Naturally, he soon regrets this decision. I'll admit that the beginning caught me off guard (a group of friends are discussing scary stories in an Oceanside house on a gusty winter night). Though the action was slow at first, I immediately found myself chuckling at the conversation that the friends were having (I thought the interaction the author created was brilliant and dead-on). Then the story began in earnest, and the unfolding atmospheric creepiness was top-notch. When the climax hit, I was a tiny bit disappointed because the build-up was so great, but the story ultimately is still a winner. I felt even more torn about the title story "Mr. Gaunt." This story hits the ground running right away: A young man's father has just died and has left a cassette recording for his son to be played upon his death. The deceased then begins a very odd and disturbing story about a member of the family...and the butler. I found the build-up in this tale very chilling, very disturbing...and, again, was quite let down by the Big Revelation. Nonetheless, the character building and plot build-up that Mr. Langan weaves still make it an awesome work of fiction in my mind. The story "Tutorial" was also excellent. A horror story for writers about writing, I found it quite creepy with an "ok" ending. The awesomely-named "Episode Seven: Last Stand Against the Pack in the Kingdom of the Purple Flowers" is a post-apocolyptic tale with a very unusual writing pattern. Very creative, very non-linear. What's so damn scary about this tale is the lack of knowledge for the protagonists. They have no idea what happened to the World, to civilization. But they have their theories, many of which sound so wild...but you're actually afraid that they might be correct. Again, the characters' portraits are very strong and three-dimensional. The final story, "Laocoon, or, the Singularity," is a novella. The plot itself was very creepy to me: A failed artist/struggling art teacher finds a very strange statue in the alley by his house. The figure is...not human. He adopts it. Not wise. This story goes into character development even more deeply than his other stories. To be honest, I was rather annoyed at times by the relentless backstory upon backstory. It was done extremely well, and Mr. Langan is absolutely brilliant at it...but well, I wanted to get back to what was happening with that damn statue. And this time, when the end came, I personally was caught off guard and found the ending very satisfying. A great horror story, if a little heavy on the "man's search for himself" topic. Though I didn't absolutely love the stories, I did greatly enjoy them for their originality of voice and intellectual way that they were written. Mr. Langan's writing is a fresh breath in the genre. Recommended!
4.0 out of 5 stars
Recommended for dark evenings!,
This review is from: Mr. Gaunt and Other Uneasy Encounters (Hardcover)
Similar to many others, I have also been hugely impressed with this collection, and would like to get hold of the next book by this author. The stories in this collection are:1) On Skua Island: A Mummy/Zombie/ancient-horror story, that succeeds in getting our attention with its old-world charm and once-fashionable-no-sadly-abandoned format of story-telling around the fire. It is very good, and despite its length, is taut & gripping. 2) Mr. Gaunt: A horror story involving occult, monstrous uncle and his even-more-horrifying companion, and a somewhat-predictable ending. 3) Tutorial: Thinly veiled autobiographical story where an emerging & ambitious author tries to break away from the shackles of form, and faces some truly harrowing opponents who force him into formality. 4) Episode Seven: Last Stand Against the Pack in the Kingdom of the Purple Flowers: The best story, which is apocalyptic, super-heroic, and very tightly told with back-and-forth narrative with strong characterization. 5) Laocoon, or The Singularity: A failure because of its length and interminable ponderings through which the protagonist is forced through. A very good collection. Recommended to all lovers of horror.
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