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mulkurul's review
5.0
The Man Who Painted Dragon Griaule ☆☆☆☆
Salvador ☆☆☆☆☆
A Spanish Lesson ☆☆☆☆☆
R & R ☆☆☆☆☆
The Jaguar Hunter ☆☆☆☆☆
The Arcevoalo ☆☆☆☆☆
Shades ☆☆☆☆☆
Delta Sly Honey ☆☆☆☆☆
Life of Buddha ☆☆☆☆☆
White Trains ☆☆☆
Jack’s Decline ☆☆☆☆☆
Beast of the Heartland ☆☆☆☆☆
Radiant Green Star ☆☆☆☆☆
Only Partly Here ☆☆☆☆☆
Jailwise ☆☆☆☆☆
Hands Up! Who Wants to Die? ☆☆☆☆☆
Dead Money ☆☆☆☆☆
Stars Seen Through Stone ☆☆☆☆
Salvador ☆☆☆☆☆
A Spanish Lesson ☆☆☆☆☆
R & R ☆☆☆☆☆
The Jaguar Hunter ☆☆☆☆☆
The Arcevoalo ☆☆☆☆☆
Shades ☆☆☆☆☆
Delta Sly Honey ☆☆☆☆☆
Life of Buddha ☆☆☆☆☆
White Trains ☆☆☆
Jack’s Decline ☆☆☆☆☆
Beast of the Heartland ☆☆☆☆☆
Radiant Green Star ☆☆☆☆☆
Only Partly Here ☆☆☆☆☆
Jailwise ☆☆☆☆☆
Hands Up! Who Wants to Die? ☆☆☆☆☆
Dead Money ☆☆☆☆☆
Stars Seen Through Stone ☆☆☆☆
mburnamfink's review
5.0
There's a terrible density in seeing a career compressed into a "Best of..." collection. I'm sure I've read a few Lucius Shepard stories before, but it was some milSF in the Playboy Anthology that inspired me to follow up, and discover a truly great and weird author.
Shepard's form was the novella, stories long enough to let his characters and setting breath a little without deviating from his point, and this is a great collection of novellas. The 'straight scifi' centers on a guerrilla war in Central America between American soldier hopped on combat drugs and napalm, and locals who draw upon a mystical spirit of the land to fight them. But what really calls to Shepard is the weird, the mystical, the magical, and the stories explore the uncanny from Honduras to Vietnam to the American South.
Truly great authors have a knack for picking precisely the right word, the difference between lightning and lightning bug, and Shepard tends to bombard his stories with baroque layers of imagery, in the hopes that one will get close enough, but the style is very very good. My favorites were "Delta Sly Honey" and "Jailwise", but the only miss was the nihilistic criminal caper “Hands Up! Who Wants to Die?”
Lucius Shepard never quite made it into the top-tier of SF and weird writers, but if you haven't read him, you're missing out.
Shepard's form was the novella, stories long enough to let his characters and setting breath a little without deviating from his point, and this is a great collection of novellas. The 'straight scifi' centers on a guerrilla war in Central America between American soldier hopped on combat drugs and napalm, and locals who draw upon a mystical spirit of the land to fight them. But what really calls to Shepard is the weird, the mystical, the magical, and the stories explore the uncanny from Honduras to Vietnam to the American South.
Truly great authors have a knack for picking precisely the right word, the difference between lightning and lightning bug, and Shepard tends to bombard his stories with baroque layers of imagery, in the hopes that one will get close enough, but the style is very very good. My favorites were "Delta Sly Honey" and "Jailwise", but the only miss was the nihilistic criminal caper “Hands Up! Who Wants to Die?”
Lucius Shepard never quite made it into the top-tier of SF and weird writers, but if you haven't read him, you're missing out.
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