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THE LIBRARY, by Paula Guran

This issue The Library simply takes a look at a few books the Head Librarian, nonfiction editor Paula Guran, wishes to offer for your consideration.

The Silent Land, by Graham Joyce

Doubleday | $23.95

Written with precise clarity and vivid description, this short novel begins with Zoe and Jake, a happily married couple, on a skiing holiday that is quickly altered by an avalanche. After digging out, they return to their luxurious hotel and find both it and the surrounding resort village deserted. Phones don’t work. At first they think the area has been evacuated, but then notice meat left out in the kitchen is not spoiling and candles don’t burn down. Leaving the village by car or on skis simply returns them to where they began and a compass does not work. Whatever is going on—or not—feels ominous and the suspense builds. The couple is not, at first, all that endearing. Their relationship seems both self-centered and rather too good to be true, but gradual revelation, clever but believable repartee, Zoe’s intrepid curiosity and Jake’s philosophical acceptance soon make them people the reader cares for. The reader will likely come up with theories as to what is going on before the characters do, but that merely adds to the tension—and whatever postulations are made, even if close to correct, will not provide all the answers. The mystical and mysterious becomes a reasonable milieu while losing neither the enigma of the former nor the intrigue of the latter. Joyce has a gift for writing moving stories that reveal core truths about human existence and the meaning of our humanity. His fiction is consistently significant and The Silent Land is yet another excellent addition to an already remarkable body of work.

Anno Dracula, by Kim Newman

Titan Books | $14.95

Anno Dracula was brilliant when first released in 1992; now—in this handsome new expanded edition—it’s better than ever. The premise is a simple “What if...?”: What if Bram Stoker’s Dracula were real and, instead of being destroyed, he married the widowed Queen Victoria, become Prince Consort, and subsequently controlled Great Britain and its Empire? Clever alternative history idea that it is, Newman takes it to the level of genius by populating the novel with both fictional and historical characters from the era. The primary thrust of the narrative features girlish vampire Geneviève Dieudonné (who has been around for close to half a millennia) and Charles Beauregard, an agent of the Sherlockian-inspired Diogenes Club untangling the Silver Knife (Jack the Ripper’s) murders. This aspect provides a broad canvas for Newman to paint—at a breakneck pace—a panoramic masterpiece that includes sociopolitical commentary and satire, hearty adventure, thrilling mystery and espionage, a decent dollop of romance, edgy horror, occasional comedy, and an extensive exploration and appreciation of vampire lore. Titan Books will also be re-issuing sequels Anno Dracula: The Bloody Red Baron and Anno Dracula: Dracula Cha Cha Cha, as well as a new novel: Anno Dracula: Johnny Alucard. Whether as a classic of several genres or as a new discovery, Anno Dracula is recommended to anyone with the intelligence to appreciate it.

What Lies Beneath the Clock Tower, by Margaret Killjoy

Combustion Books | $8

A clever experiment—adapting the “choose your own adventure” format for adults—What Lies Beneath the Clock Tower may be worth the minimal ($8) investment simply for the fun of it.

Whether the experiment completely succeeds, however, probably depends on the reader’s individual imagination. Author Killjoy provides little detail and the writing seldom departs from the utilitarian. Patience is also needed with the unwieldy second-person narrative required by the format. No matter what choices are made, “you”—Gregory, the protagonist—are never fully fleshed out. Adventure, emotion, battles, danger, and death are shorthanded rather than described. Gregory is allegedly a decadent sort, but merely referring to absinthe and drugs are not enough to make “you”

depraved and dissolute. Nor is the plot, no matter what turns you decide on, exactly entrancing. There’s a light veneer of steampunk, but it’s easily scratched off. What’s left is something of a mishmash of goblins, gnomes, an underground world, something of a rebellion, and lots of names with unneeded apostrophes. As for any of the permutations, one finds oneself dying rather abruptly in many cases, but that’s part of the fun of it; die and try another path. Despite its imperfections, the book and its format remain interesting enough to keep a reader exploring—which is probably the point.

BOOKS IN BRIEF

For those who like their pulp flavored with crime, the Hard Case Crime imprint has returned (thanks to Titan Books) and been re-launched. The first four novels have gloriously cheesy covers and stories to match. In Getting Off by Lawrence Block a promiscuous babe sets out to kill every man she’s had sex with. The Consummata is an unfinished Mickey Spillane novel, posthumously completed (at the late author’s request) by Max Allan Collins. A Collins solo effort, Quarry’s Ex, features his hitman hero, Quarry. Of the most interest is Christa Faust’s Choke Hold, which brings back Angel Dare, the ex-porn star turned vigilante.

A Weird Writer in Our Midst: Early Criticism of H.P. Lovecraft, edited by S.T. Joshi (from Hippocampus Press) is about as far from the Hard Case quartet as one can get. As ignored by the literary mainstream as Lovecraft may have been in his day, his work elicited considerable response from fan writers and amateur journalists. Despite the ease of commentary the Internet now provides any reader, one yearns for the erudition of this earlier era. Of particular interest to us are letters from fans (including August Derleth and Robert Bloch) to Weird Tales.

Artist Richard A. Kirk is featured in this issue, but he’s an author too. His dark novella The Lost Machine came out last year, but hasn’t received much notice. (It is easiest to find through www.richardakirk.com.) Graced with five pages of his detailed, elegant art, the story is set in a weird (or alternative or future) world in which an unjustly sentenced school teacher survives prison and sets out to find the true criminal. Although brief, Kirk’s strange journey is well worth taking: the revelations seem to exceed the word count.