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A review by aksel_dadswell
Alectryomancer and Other Weird Tales by Christopher Slatsky, Jordan Krall
5.0
I was a Slatsky virgin until I read this collection, and now I'm in love. This has got to be one of the best collections of weird fiction (of ANY fiction) I've read, ever, let alone this year. There's such a wide variety of weirdnes and horror on display here I can't begin to encompass the terror and joy of experiencing Slatsky's perfectly calibrated words.
Okay, so, favourites. Really all thirteen of these stories are amazing, but a few stood out further than the others, left a burning impression in my brain with their wonderful, terrifying imagery.
"Corporautolysis" left me breathless with dread and practically dry-retching. It's a little reminiscent of Thomas Ligotti's work but it stands so well as its own entity with its increasing sense of unease, of reality sloughing away to reveal the squishy truth of the protagonist's workplace. And basically anything involving fungus and horror has me at fruiting bodies.
"No One is Sleeping in This World" is one of the creepiest, coolest, most original stories I've read. Its use of terror via the architecture and structure of cities, and the implications this has for the nature of reality and the universe, is nothing short of genius. I felt like I needed a scalding hot shower after reading this story, and that's about the highest compliments I can give a piece of writing.
Film Maudit is a beautiful, squelchy love letter to horror films and old cinemas, and bears what I suppose is now Slatsky's trademark of transforming the mundane into the deeply unpleasant.
Anyway, stop reading this sycophantic review and go find a copy of this collection, and don't stop reading it until you've finished. An incredible debut collection from a writer whose next work I'll be eagerly awaiting.
Okay, so, favourites. Really all thirteen of these stories are amazing, but a few stood out further than the others, left a burning impression in my brain with their wonderful, terrifying imagery.
"Corporautolysis" left me breathless with dread and practically dry-retching. It's a little reminiscent of Thomas Ligotti's work but it stands so well as its own entity with its increasing sense of unease, of reality sloughing away to reveal the squishy truth of the protagonist's workplace. And basically anything involving fungus and horror has me at fruiting bodies.
"No One is Sleeping in This World" is one of the creepiest, coolest, most original stories I've read. Its use of terror via the architecture and structure of cities, and the implications this has for the nature of reality and the universe, is nothing short of genius. I felt like I needed a scalding hot shower after reading this story, and that's about the highest compliments I can give a piece of writing.
Film Maudit is a beautiful, squelchy love letter to horror films and old cinemas, and bears what I suppose is now Slatsky's trademark of transforming the mundane into the deeply unpleasant.
Anyway, stop reading this sycophantic review and go find a copy of this collection, and don't stop reading it until you've finished. An incredible debut collection from a writer whose next work I'll be eagerly awaiting.