A picaresque adventure in the tradition of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen! In this stand-alone novel that can be fully enjoyed without having read William Makepeace Thackeray's classic Vanity Fair, his villainess Becky Sharp enters the Cthulhu Mythos as an agent of H.P. Lovecraft's Great Race of Yith! Follow Becky as she seduces, conspires and fights her way across the 19th century and into the 20th and along the way learn: 1) the circumstances of the unheralded first attempted Lidenbrock expedition to the center of the earth! 2) the secret parentage of Ann Darrow, bride of the fearsome Kong! 3) the apocalyptic origins and final fate of Queequeg's fetish and how it went from pagan idol among the wreckage of the Pequod to a dust-gathering paperweight at 221-B Baker Street! All these and other metafictional mysteries solved in: The Eldritch New Adventures of Becky Sharp. Featuring an introductory mini-essay by Mark Schultz, artist of The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, writer of King Features Prince Valiant, and creator of Xenoxoic Tales!
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Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Micah Harris is the author (with artist Michael Gaydos) of the graphic novel Heaven's War and a regular contributor to Black Coat Press's annual cross-over anthology series, Tales of the Shadowmen. He teaches composition, literature and film at Pitt Community College in North Carolina.
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By Ron Fortier
One of the true rewards of this job is being able to share with all of you amazing books that, for one reason or another, simply do not get the exposure and acolytes they deserve. This is such a case. It overflows with so much old fashion adventure, I'm hard pressed to describe the fun I had reading it. Be aware, it is not a graphic novel, despite both its gorgeous cover, by artist Loston Wallace, and its comic dimensions. It is a prose novel, but packaged differently with a nice overall design. It's both very easy to handle and read.
For those of you not versed in classic English literature, Becky Sharp is the heroine of William Makepeace Thackeray's 1947 novel, VANTIY FAIR; a book that satirized the mores of 19th century English society. Harris actually teaches English Lit, thus his familiarity and obvious fascination for the character. But it is what he does with her in this madcap tale that is pure pulp genius. Since the lovely lass came to a rather tragic ending in the Thackeray version, Harris's offers us a duplicate Becky Sharpe from an alternate world. In this reality, Becky is recruited by a sect of Lovecraftian aliens posing as human to help them defeat a rival monster known as Tulu. But to do so, Becky will first have to be granted immortality and then sent on a globe-spanning quest to obtain the required talismans needed to defeat Tulu.
Once her journey begins, through both geography and time, Becky manages to meet Asheya, known as She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed, encounters the giant gorilla Kong of Skull Island, enters into a passionate romance with the Scarecrow of Romney Marsh, travels with Nemo and battles a super strong Egyptian Mummy alongside the Ape Man of the African Jungle. And these are only a few of her amazing exploits.
The delight of this book is not only its marvelous conceit, but Harris' talent as a gifted writer. His use of language is deft and exact, with a very beautiful command of style. The narrative has such grace as to carry to reader along effortlessly, all the while painting unbelievable scenes of action and daring-do with panache. This is easily one of the best books I've read all year. Last word, if you enjoy reading fresh and original fiction, then consider picking up THE ELDRICTH NEW ADVENTURES OF BECKY SHARP as a Christmas gift to yourself.
For those of you not versed in classic English literature, Becky Sharp is the heroine of William Makepeace Thackeray's 1947 novel, VANTIY FAIR; a book that satirized the mores of 19th century English society. Harris actually teaches English Lit, thus his familiarity and obvious fascination for the character. But it is what he does with her in this madcap tale that is pure pulp genius. Since the lovely lass came to a rather tragic ending in the Thackeray version, Harris's offers us a duplicate Becky Sharpe from an alternate world. In this reality, Becky is recruited by a sect of Lovecraftian aliens posing as human to help them defeat a rival monster known as Tulu. But to do so, Becky will first have to be granted immortality and then sent on a globe-spanning quest to obtain the required talismans needed to defeat Tulu.
Once her journey begins, through both geography and time, Becky manages to meet Asheya, known as She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed, encounters the giant gorilla Kong of Skull Island, enters into a passionate romance with the Scarecrow of Romney Marsh, travels with Nemo and battles a super strong Egyptian Mummy alongside the Ape Man of the African Jungle. And these are only a few of her amazing exploits.
The delight of this book is not only its marvelous conceit, but Harris' talent as a gifted writer. His use of language is deft and exact, with a very beautiful command of style. The narrative has such grace as to carry to reader along effortlessly, all the while painting unbelievable scenes of action and daring-do with panache. This is easily one of the best books I've read all year. Last word, if you enjoy reading fresh and original fiction, then consider picking up THE ELDRICTH NEW ADVENTURES OF BECKY SHARP as a Christmas gift to yourself.
By M. Baugh
Pastiche is a form of literature that involves a new author using the characters and situations of another author. There are a few popular characters who exist in the public domain, who have been given this treatment quite a bit. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of Sherlock Holmes pastiches, for example. Some have been very good, and others miserable.
The trick with a good pastiche is to faithfully capture the essence of the original author's vision, but to reinterpret it in exciting new ways. Some writers slavishly recreate the original character, but fail to add anything new or interesting. Others launch into imaginative flights of fancy but stray so far from the original that fans are offended. The very best manage to meld the things that compell us about the original character with new and compelling situations.
THE ELDRICH NEW ADVENTURES OF BECKY SHARPE by Micah Harris is one of the best examples of pastiche I've seen in quite a while.
Micah starts with a very unlikely premise, placing the anti-heroine of William Makepeace Thachary's VANITY faire into the world of H.P. Lovecraft's ancient alien races and mind-shredding horrors. If you're familiar authors, you'd expect the combination to be bleak and pessimistic, but Mr. Harris has written this as a fast paced, and often funny, adventure.
It's amazing how beautifully this combination works. The story opens with Becky living in the dire straits that Thackary left her in. She is kidnapped by agents of a mysterious secret society and offered work as their agent. Becky, ever the self-interested pragmatist, agrees and finds herself caught up in something bigger, and stranger, than she could have imagined.
What follows is a series of adventures in the best tradition of Edgar Rice Burroughs or H. Ryder Haggard as Becky journeys to a hidden city in the depths of Africa, a time-lost island inhabited by dinosaurs and gigantic apes, and even to the center of the world. On the way she interacts with characters from the worlds of Jules Verne, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Russell Thorndike, Washington Irving, Herman Melville, and many more. All of this takes Backy across the world, and through the ages, to a confrontation with something that could destroy the world for, when the stars are right, great Cthulhu will rise from the sunken city of R'leyh and only Becky will stand between him and the destruction of humanity.
The different fictional worlds are woven together with a great deal of skill and an obvious love of the originals. It makes for a compelling adventure with a lot of clever literary references throughout. I had nearly as much fun catching all of Mr. Harris' allusions as I did just reading the adventure.
Though he introduces a number of larger than life characters, it is Becky who dominates the story. Harris gives us a character who is every bit as selfish, willfull, and manipulative as the original. While, in VANITY FAIRE these qualities were meant to make us hate Becky, he deals with her more sympathetically. Women in Becky's time lived at the whims of the men in their lives, and a modern audience can appreciate a owman who doesn't want to live that way. Her cunning and callousness make Becky an excellent spy, and her sense of irony makes her a lot more approachable than a hard-edged killer like 007.
In fact, Becky comes across as a very likable reluctant heroine when you get beneath her bad girl exterior. She's still a bad girl underneath, but one who can be loyal, loving, and even self-sacrificing, in the right circumstances.
The novel works on a number of levels, giving us effective moments of horror, high adventure, humor, and sharp(e) insight. Mr. Harris new version of Becky, and her adventures, will take your breath away.
The trick with a good pastiche is to faithfully capture the essence of the original author's vision, but to reinterpret it in exciting new ways. Some writers slavishly recreate the original character, but fail to add anything new or interesting. Others launch into imaginative flights of fancy but stray so far from the original that fans are offended. The very best manage to meld the things that compell us about the original character with new and compelling situations.
THE ELDRICH NEW ADVENTURES OF BECKY SHARPE by Micah Harris is one of the best examples of pastiche I've seen in quite a while.
Micah starts with a very unlikely premise, placing the anti-heroine of William Makepeace Thachary's VANITY faire into the world of H.P. Lovecraft's ancient alien races and mind-shredding horrors. If you're familiar authors, you'd expect the combination to be bleak and pessimistic, but Mr. Harris has written this as a fast paced, and often funny, adventure.
It's amazing how beautifully this combination works. The story opens with Becky living in the dire straits that Thackary left her in. She is kidnapped by agents of a mysterious secret society and offered work as their agent. Becky, ever the self-interested pragmatist, agrees and finds herself caught up in something bigger, and stranger, than she could have imagined.
What follows is a series of adventures in the best tradition of Edgar Rice Burroughs or H. Ryder Haggard as Becky journeys to a hidden city in the depths of Africa, a time-lost island inhabited by dinosaurs and gigantic apes, and even to the center of the world. On the way she interacts with characters from the worlds of Jules Verne, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Russell Thorndike, Washington Irving, Herman Melville, and many more. All of this takes Backy across the world, and through the ages, to a confrontation with something that could destroy the world for, when the stars are right, great Cthulhu will rise from the sunken city of R'leyh and only Becky will stand between him and the destruction of humanity.
The different fictional worlds are woven together with a great deal of skill and an obvious love of the originals. It makes for a compelling adventure with a lot of clever literary references throughout. I had nearly as much fun catching all of Mr. Harris' allusions as I did just reading the adventure.
Though he introduces a number of larger than life characters, it is Becky who dominates the story. Harris gives us a character who is every bit as selfish, willfull, and manipulative as the original. While, in VANITY FAIRE these qualities were meant to make us hate Becky, he deals with her more sympathetically. Women in Becky's time lived at the whims of the men in their lives, and a modern audience can appreciate a owman who doesn't want to live that way. Her cunning and callousness make Becky an excellent spy, and her sense of irony makes her a lot more approachable than a hard-edged killer like 007.
In fact, Becky comes across as a very likable reluctant heroine when you get beneath her bad girl exterior. She's still a bad girl underneath, but one who can be loyal, loving, and even self-sacrificing, in the right circumstances.
The novel works on a number of levels, giving us effective moments of horror, high adventure, humor, and sharp(e) insight. Mr. Harris new version of Becky, and her adventures, will take your breath away.
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