A podcast recommendation

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you have probably realized that I harbour a particular love for British weird fiction from the Edwardian era that's nearly as large as the one I have for the strain of weird fiction coming from the US pulps (which was of course influenced by the British way of doing things).

The wonderful audiodrama podcast "The Strange Tales of Virgil Kaylock" puts itself quite consciously into the same tradition, though not without certain markers when it comes to social norms and mores that clearly show it to be a product of the Now (which is a good thing), hitting my personal sweet spot between the Then and the Now rather well. The tales are also simply very effective and highly satisfying stories of horror, well-paced, and atmospherically written.

Productionwise, this is not an amateur production, but features professional acting, a soundtrack made explictly for the show, as well as way above average foley (often a weakness in even well-funded audio dramas, and yes, I'm looking at you, QCode).

If you want to hear more, you only need to click on yet another handy link.

Arkham Tales

Weird Fiction web zines and web magazines are a rather problematic thing. Although you can always find some hidden story pearls, too often "inspired by" or "in the tradition of" the Weird Tale in truth means "bad pastiches of the works of far superior authors".

All the more surprised am I by the high quality standards of the new free PDF magazine Arkham Tales whose stories are clearly in the tradition of the classic Weird Tale, but are just as clearly based in respect for themes and methods of the classic writers of the Weird instead of slavish copying of all the worst aspects of their works.

I highly recommend going to the magazine's site and reading through it.

 

Technorati-Tags: free fiction,weird fiction,links

Book report: Robert Aickman, Powers of Darkness

Robert Aickman's position in the world of fantastic literature is a strange one - on the one hand he was heavily influential on authors like Neil Gaiman, on the other his work has the tendency to be very much out of print most of the time. The second hand availability of the books is spotty, what is available tends to be somewhat overpriced.

Nonetheless I was able to acquire my first collection of some of his "strange stories", as he called them, and am positively enthusiastic. What we have here is the work of an author with a very British voice, sometimes deceptively stiff sounding, in truth precise, often highly ironic, but still graced with the ability to somehow and puzzlingly use his distancing style for full emotional effect.

"Strange Stories" really is the best phrase to describe these pieces - they are at once absolutely realistic in their characterizations and the tangibility of the details of the world they describe and utterly puzzling and unpredictable in their use of the fantastic.

Based on this book, I can't recommend Aickman's work highly enough. And it's just gotten easier to get hold of his work. "Faber Finds", Faber & Faber's new print-on-demand imprint has three of Aickman's collections in its program, for a reasonable price.

For further explorations of Aickman and his work, this site is a fine starting point.

 

Technorati-Tags: robert aickman,books,weird fiction