Mark Samuels
Speculative Fiction Junkie just celebrated its second birthday and, fortuitously, the book I happened to be reading on that day was one worthy of the occasion; a book that is almost guaranteed to appear on my Top 5 Reads of 2010 list. That book was The Man Who Collected Machen & Other Stories by modern master of the weird tale Mark Samuels. If ever there was a book that I didn't want to end, this is it.
The occasion was made even sweeter by the fact that it marked a successful return to ordering books directly from the publisher, Ex Occidente Press. To put it mildly, I've had problems in the past ordering books directly from the press, I hope that my success in acquiring this book marks the dawning of a new day for Ex Occidente Press.
The Man Who Collected Machen and Other Stories starts off strong with "Losenef Express," in which a successful but unhealthy and disillusioned American writer attempts to get away from it all by retreating into an anonymous alcoholic haze in Eastern Europe. After drinking a lot of whiskey one evening, he spots a fellow bar patron staring at him with contempt and decides to follow his antagonist into the misty night when the latter departs. What he does to the man when he catches up with him, and the chain of events it ignites, is chillingly effective.
Also excellent is "Glickman the Bibliophile," the story of a retired bibliophile who goes to meet with the publishers of his latest collection of weird tales only to find that they are not as friendly towards his work, or indeed to the written word in general, as he expected. He discovers, in fact, that the publisher's operations are part of a larger endeavor that is concerned with the dissemination of literature in a peculiar and shocking way.
"Thyxxolqu" is another highlight among a book filled with them. It is the tale of a man who starts to notice that the writing on familiar objects has been replaced with an unfamiliar script. Eventually, the ability to see the script looks more and more like a disease, one which comes with a physical deformity that enables the afflicted to speak the strange dialect better. What the protagonist learns of the language is classic Samuels.
"The Age of Decayed Futurity" is also a tale that only Samuels could write. This story, which originally appeared in Cinnabar's Gnosis, tells of Joanna Wolski, who takes a sojourn in a hotel on the Baltic Sea to work on her fourth novel. While there, a hideously disfigured guest tells her of the Reassembly Cartel, which, he alleges, has absolute power over human society and is to blame for his disfigurement. The precise nature of the conspiracy is shocking and its ultimate effect on Wolski no less so.
My final favorite is "A Contaminated Text," in which a librarian finds among the recently acquired stock of an occultist a book that tells of the Voolans, evolutionarily decayed creatures who dwell in the center of worlds and relish in the piecemeal destruction of the universe. The book soon starts to exert an influence that explains why its previous owner attempted suicide.
While the five tales I've singled out are excellent, the remaining five are also wonderful. The main thing that distinguishes Mr. Samuels' work from that of many other modern writers of the weird tale is how cerebral it is. If writers like Simon Strantzas and Adam Golaski affect the reader primarily through their imagery, Mr. Samuels' work derives most of its potency from the core idea that is at the heart of most of his stories. These ideas are often stunning notions about the nature of time, the world of the dead, language, the universe, or any number of other things, but what they all have in common is that if you distilled them into their fundamentals, they would be absolutely fascinating even without the narratives that Mr. Samuels constructs around them.
But of course, Mr. Samuels does create narratives around them, and in this he excels too. His prose is targeted and economical and is the perfect vessel for elevating his ideas into true works of art.
Mr. Samuels is a genius and the value of his work has not yet been fully appreciated. He is an absolute original for which there is no substitute.
Rating: 10/10
The True First
The Man Who Collected Machen and Other Stories was first published by Ex Occidente Press in 2010 and is limited to only 170 copies. If you are on the fence about getting this one, trust me: make the jump.
[This review was not based on a review copy]
As a bit of an aside, I thought I would mention that Mr. Samuels' work can even affect creatures of the feline variety. Take a look at this picture of one of my cats:
Now look at the same cat after she had just finished reading Mr. Samuels' debut collection (scary!):
7 comments:
Happy birthday Ben and what better birthday present than a Mar Samuels collection. Have you read The White Hands and other Weird Tales yet. I think you might enjoy it.
Oh and Mark Samuels is almost as good as his brother Mar...ahem
Thanks a million Colin! I have read "The White Hands" (that's the collection that my cat is guarding devilishly in the picture!) and loved it. I had forgotten how much I loved that book until I read this one. Now I've just got to read the two intervening books ("Glyphotech" and "The Face of Twilight").
I also like Mark's brother's work :)
I have The Face of Twilight on my reading pile, your review has brought it closer to the top.
Let me know what you think of it. From what I've heard, it's not his best but I'm willing to bet that it's still fantastic.
Having finally had the chance to read and review the book in its new paperback incarnation, I can't agree more with this review. I would be interested in knowing what you think of the two "new" stories added to the Chomu edition.
My only regret is seeing this book published in its beautiful first edition in such limited quantities. But at least the well produced and expanded Chomu paperback will touch new readers, without the possible risks posed by ordering from Ex Occidente Press.
@Grim: glad you liked it as much as I did. As soon as it's released (this month, right?), I plan on snapping up the new version and I can't wait to get at those two new pieces!
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