Champion Mojo Storyteller Joe R Lansdale is the author of over forty novels and numerous short stories His work has appeared in national anthologies magazines and collections as well as numerous foreign publications He has written for comics television film newspapers and Internet sites His work has been collected in than two dozen short story collections and he has edited or co edited over a dozen anthologies He has received the Edgar Award eight Bram Stoker Awards the Horror Writers Association Lifetime Achievement Award the British Fantasy Award the Grinzani Cavour Prize for Literature the Herodotus Historical Fiction Award the Inkpot Award for Contributions to Science Fiction and Fantasy and many others His nov Champion Mojo Storyteller Joe R Lansdale is the author of over forty novels and numerous short stories His work has appeared in national anthologies magazines and collections as well as numerous foreign publications He has written for comics television film newspapers and Internet sites His work has been collected in than two dozen short story collections and he has edited or co edited over a dozen anthologies He has received the Edgar Award eight Bram Stoker Awards the Horror Writers Association Lifetime Achievement Award the British Fantasy Award the Grinzani Cavour Prize for Literature the Herodotus Historical Fiction Award the Inkpot Award for Contributions to Science Fiction and Fantasy and many others His novella Bubba Ho Tep was adapted to film by Don Coscarelli starring Bruce Campbell and Ossie Davis His story Incident On and Off a Mountain Road was adapted to film for Showtime s Masters of Horror and he adapted his short story Christmas with the Dead to film hisownself The film adaptation of his novel Cold in July was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and the Sundance Channel has adapted his Hap Leonard novels for television He is currently co producing several films among them The Bottoms based on his Edgar Award winning novel with Bill Paxton and Brad Wyman and The Drive In with Greg Nicotero He is Writer In Residence at Stephen F Austin State University and is the founder of the martial arts system Shen Chuan Martial Science and its affiliate Shen Chuan Family System He is a member of both the United States and International Martial Arts Halls of Fame He lives in Nacogdoches Texas with his wife dog and two cats site_link Review will appear at Booklist Online and on the blog soonThree Words That Describe This Book Quirky Characters Sardonic Direct and Folksy NarrationEach story has a Lansdale introduction which sets the stage perfectly for each tale More details about specific stories on blog when the review goes live. From draft Lansdale has captured the hearts of readers with his quirky characters sardonic wit and gritty tone His latest collection gathers 8 stories published in various anthologies since 2009 stories he describes in the book s introduction as the best inspired by Lovecraft that he has written Taking on the troublesome racism and sexism of the classic author head on Lansdale also actively eschews Lovecraft s use of cumbersome prose instead employing his trademark direct and folksy narrative voice to the Lovecraftian concept of the Old Ones terrifying but also alluring beings from another realm trying to intrude upon our world The result is a collection that makes the enduring appeal of Lovecraft s brand of existential dread and terrifying nihilism accessible to today s readers Horror Mystery Thrillers Literature Fiction Sometimes short story anthologies can be oh so shorter especially in the case where one or two or a dozen of the brief bastards within can be easily ignored The ripe fruit can be cherry picked and easily sampled before calling it an evening In The Mad Mountains ain t one of those anthologies This is no snuff of brandy or lullaby before bed In The Mad Mountains is a whip like tentacle of poison that wraps itself around you dragging you into deep corners of darkness while your heart pistons into overdrive Here the skies are red the moon is a threat and oblivion is the only promise of rest Thank you Joe Lansdale for sharing your H. In The Mad Mountains contains eight of such stories The first few are repetitions of a theme Cthulhu is coming and only a Texas PI Huck Finn Auguste Dupin can prevent the arrival As far as themes go though Lansdale could not pick worse He knows his stuff This is not romantic high art Nor are these comic book thrills Lansdale cements his magic as the street level player he is All the dirt and scruff one can find once down on your knees is conjured into a spell that is both otherworldly and wholly recognizable Lansdale knows his audience too A fast wit some spry language and a few despicable background cats like the Dallas muscle in The Bleeding Shadow and the sheriff from The Crawling Sky are all called for ingredients And with some of those characters he better know that this Texas PI needs a follow up. Once he works through those variations Lansdale pleasurably mixes things up Ghostly figures haunt train passengers in The Tall Grass Stranger things exist in The Case of the Stalking Shadow and are trapped in broken glass with Starlight Eyes Bright The end of human existence might not be the heavy end in all the stories but the mortal threat is real Lansdale cleverly squishes together crime scifi and horror genres All of this is within a beauty of a cover by a gent who knows a thing or two about blending genres Mike Mignola What makes reading Lansdale so enjoyable is his delivery Thematic sense aside Lansdale adapts his writing style to fit the scenario a hard boiled grit a western politeness a French elegance And it all works Further he provides all the necessary elements for a short story He knows that not only are his characters up against the clock but so is the reader. This review and a mad amount of others can be found lurking over Joe s Horror Mystery Thrillers Literature Fiction Look as soon as I see the words inspired by Lovecraft I m already in I confess though at first dipping into In the Mad Mountains I got a little nervous Lansdale stated that he was keen on the Old Ones rather than the rather niche and esoteric alas dear reader I cannot describe what I saw that fateful night antics of Lovecraft I was nervous about this because bizarrely that semi kitschy stuff is what I like most Anyway I needn t have been worried although I will say the flavour of Lansdale s stories are a little different than Cosmic Horror I would say Horror Horror or adventure horror but in the end all GOOD. The Bleeding Shadow has a Lovecraft Country vibe and is a very rough around the edges piece about a deal with the devil predictably gone wrong Dread Island reads as a sort of horror up of classic tales Possibly of any of the tales enclosed this has some of the most vivid imagery and even though I prefer my horrors unknown the horrors presented in this story are quite memorable. The Gruesome Affair of the Electric Blue Lightning is a riff on Poe s Dupin It s a little light hearted than the previous too works but in my opinion is just a wee bit too much Not only does the story drag from Poe and Lovecraft we also have Grimm and Mary Shelley s Frankenstein shoehorned inThe Tall Grass was perhaps my favourite tale of the bunch It has a kind of Cosmic vibe in terms of a relatively open ended story that s about the MC brushing up against something horrific and then having to move on with their life. The Crawling Sky is a bit of a strange one A recurring character for Lansdale the story reads as a action adventure with Cosmic Horror influence It s fun enough with a VERY rough around the edges vibe too. Starlight Eyes Bright stands out weird addition less overt grossness and mystery Something that is always favourable in a short story collection is a bit of variety in tone between stories and Starlight provides that. In the Mad Mountains I confess I found the final piece perhaps one of the weaker additions In my opinion this is where the action adventure meeting cosmic horror didn t gel the best I felt like the tale wanted to provide that Cosmic alarm and terror while also having wee action set pieces which didn t create a consistent vibe I also just felt like it was a bit much too many elements thrown together in one tale. Overall I really enjoyed this one Lansdale has a bit of a cheeky lilt to his prose which is a unique touch to the genre which like I said I m a sucker for anyways Horror Mystery Thrillers Literature Fiction Champion Mojo Storyteller that s what they call him I don t know exactly who they are but on this we agree. Joe Lansdale is an American treasure he s funny and he can write whatever he wants to in whatever genre he chooses and IT WILL BE GOOD In these stories inspired by Lovecraft Joe lets his imagination run wild with old gods deals with the devil Huck Finn and the Reverend Mercer If you know you know This volume is a wild ride The Bleeding Shadow is a take on the old tale of Robert Johnson at the Crossroads Cthulhu s songs are calling something but as long as the record keeps playing all is well Dread Island puts Huck Finn and Jim on a path to save Tom from the terrors that hide on the island Will they all survive In the Tall Grass when your train stops in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night and the trainman tells you not to wander off too far you should listen The Case of the Stalking Shadow is a Dana Roberts tale She is a supernormal investigator and she s come to a private club to tell the tale of her very first case The Crawling Sky features Reverend Jebediah Mercer a character Lansdale has written about in the past This time he adds a pinch of Solomon Kane and maybe an echo of Ambrose Bierce as the author himself states prior to the story How could it not be good Starlight Eyes Bright is a whimsical fantastic tale of a piece of broken glass But it s so much In the Mad Mountains A boat full of people goes down in the sea and only some were able to escape in lifeboats It would have been easier on them if they had gone down with the ship I think this was the bleakest tale of the bunch and I loved it There you have it 8 stories from a master of the form using language much accessible than Lovecraft s ever was Being that these are Lansdale stories you can always count on some humor to lighten the mood at times and you can always count on his work to whisk you out of your dreary day to day and transport you to new and terrifying realms Do you dare to be whisked Look for In the Mad Mountains October 2024 Highly recommended ARC from publisher Horror Mystery Thrillers Literature Fiction Thanks to NetGalley and Tachyon Publications for the advanced copy. I m a big fan of Lovecraftian Eldritch cosmic horror in general like it s probably my favorite niche genre of anything so I was excited to see this anthology and not only is it all Lovecraftian or cosmic horror it s by a well established writer whose work even found itself on the excellent Netflix series Love Death Robots seriously can t recommend this highly enough if you haven t checked it out yet Unfortunately the bulk of the stories in Lansdale s collection are rather dull One is the written version of one of his episodes on Love Death Robots which was interesting The best stories are near the end though. As I usually do when reviewing anthologies here were my favorites in the collection Dread Island a sort of Mark Twain fanfic it features Huck and Jim exploring an island not unlike what Algernon Blackwood wrote in The Willows but a lot scarier Really well done it had me on the edge of my seat. Starlight Eyes Bright mostly reminiscent of Color Out of Space particularly the film adaptation from a couple years ago starring Nic Cage This one ends in an unexpected way though Short and sweet. In the Mad Mountains I think you can guess the inspiration behind this tale lol My favorite of the bunch and the creepiest in my opinion this would make an excellent episode in the next season of Love Death Robots The rest of the tales are sadly mostly average But average isn t bad The only real negative I can think of is that Lansdale can be awkward with dialogue Very little of it feels natural to the point where it s difficult to understand the time period social standing nationality culture etc a lot of the time That s not something you think of as very important when reading but their absence or oddness is felt The dialogue can get old fashioned and unnecessarily formal leaning academic a lot of the time rather than natural Anyway overall a decent collection of Lovecraftian novellas sure to please any fan as for others I can t say Horror Mystery Thrillers Literature Fiction
| In the Mad Mountains: Stories Inspired by H. P. Lovecraft By Joe R. Lansdale |
| 1616964243 |
| 9781616964245 |
| English |
| 256 |
| Paperback |