Book Review: 'Salem's Lot

Book Review: 'Salem's Lot by Stephen King

5 / 5 Stars

In August 1976 I walked over to the local branch of the Binghamton Public Library, which was housed in a wing of a nearby junior high school. On the rack of ‘new paperbacks’ was the initial Signet printing of Stephen King’s ‘’Salem’s Lot’.

The 70s was the era of elaborate experimentations in paperback covers, and ‘Salem’s Lot was one of these experimentations…...the front cover was pitch black, save for the presence of a tiny drop of red blood dripping from the lip of the face of a young girl embossed on the cover. 

It was necessary to examine the back cover to see the book’s title and sales blurb….

 
(For a gallery of 'Salem's Lot covers, as well as a review, readers are referred to the 'Too Much Horror' blog here).

I read ‘Salem’s Lot in a few days, back then in ’76, and found it one of the best horror novels I had ever read. I’ve since re-read it many times, most recently this month, and in my mind, it remains one of the best novels King ever wrote. 

The theme – evil befalls a small town – has been steadily recycled in King’s later works, with ‘It’, ‘Desperation’, and ‘Under the Dome’, but ‘Salem’s Lot’ continues to be superior to all of them.

New English Library edition cover illustration by Tim White

As the novel opens, it’s a brilliant day in early September, 1975, and writer Ben Mears (a stand-in for the author; his physical description is that of King himself) is driving through Maine, on his way to the small town of Jerusalem’s Lot. Mears is seeking to recover from personal tragedy, and he hopes that relocating to the small town where he grew up will provide both artistic inspiration, and a chance to reconnect with the innocence of childhood.

In short order, Mears takes a room at a ‘Salem’s Lot boarding house, begins work on a new novel, and becomes romantically involved with a local girl. This being September '75, 'Fallin In Love', by Hamilton, Joe Frank, and Reynolds probably is playing on the FM radio. For Ben Mears, life is worth living again.

 art print by Glenn Chadbourne

But Ben Mears isn't the only person who has decided to move into the Lot. Richard Straker, a European man of mockingly courtly manners, has purchased an empty store in the downtown district; there, he sets up a business selling expensive furniture.

Straker also has purchased, and moved into, the Marsten House, the local haunted mansion. Ben Mears knows that the Marsten House is more than just a legend....and Straker's decision to live there is not the innocent act of an eccentric.

 Marsten House model by John Stewart art

When a local dog is found mutilated, it is the signal that the quiet, mundane rhythms of life in a small town are about to be replaced by something much more disturbing, and for Ben Mears and 'Salem's Lot, the coming of Fall will bring with it '....the high, sweet, evil laughter of a child....and the sucking sounds......'

If you haven't yet read 'Salem's Lot, then it is mandatory that you pick it up. It's a pop culture touchstone, the embodiment of the 70s horror boom. 

The story is a bit slow to get underway, and some of the dialogue can be trite at times, but once the Vampire Action starts up, the narrative begins to unfold with the right degree of momentum. And the battle between our heroes and the forces of darkness is by no means a battle with an assured triumph of good over evil.

[It's also worth getting King's 1978 short story collection Night Shift, which features two tales linked to the novel: 'One For the Road', and 'Jerusalem's Lot'.]

 still from the November, 1979 miniseries from CBS

Car Warriors issue 2

Car Warriors
issue 2
Epic Comics / Marvel, July, 1991

Issue 2 of 'Car Warriors' introduces some supporting characters, including Diamond, the punk rock chick; Spanner, the ace mechanic who keeps pissing off the wrong people; and my favorites, the Wysocki family: mom Agnes, dad Curt, daughter Sissy, and son Curt Jr. We learn that the 'Wysockis don't run from a fight !'

As word of the Big Race spreads, it becomes clear that the bandits and mutants of the Wasteland are in no mood to be accommodating......

Here it is, the second installment of 'Car Warriors'............

Book Review: The Harp of the Grey Rose

Book Review: 'The Harp of the Grey Rose' by Charles de Lint

4 / 5 Stars

‘The Harp of the Grey Rose’ first was published in 1985; this Avon Books paperback (230 pp) was released in February, 1991, and features cover artwork by Darrell Sweet.

I first encountered de Lint’s ‘Cerin’ character in the short story ‘A Pattern of Silver Strings’, which appeared in the anthology ‘The Year’s Best Fantasy Stories: 8’ (DAW Books, 1981). I found the story to be too insipid, and thus, I (skeptically) approached ‘The Harp of the Grey Rose’.

Surprisingly, ‘Harp’ actually is quite readable. 

The prose style remains contrived in its effort to evoke the Fantasy Atmosphere: one character is named ‘Orion Starbreath’; another character is ‘prenticed’, not ‘apprenticed’. Elsewhere, ‘braying’ winds assault another character, and there are lots of hyphenated nouns designed to impart the tenor of Archaic English (‘truth-sayer’, ‘far-seer’, ‘wall-carvings’). To add to the triteness, our hero travels in the company of a telepathic bear (?!).

However, a crisp, quick-moving narrative, that contains surprises and revelations at the right places, overcomes these weaknesses and makes ‘Harp’ stand out.

As the novel opens, seventeen year-old Cerin Songweaver is contemplating what to do with his life. He is less than enthused about continuing to live in the small, closed-minded village in the West Downs where he grew up as an orphan, raised by the Wise Woman,Tess. Cerin has some skill at the harp, and one career choice is to travel to the city of Wistlore, and there be schooled by the finest of harpmasters.

However, one day while wandering the village green, Cerin meets a beautiful young woman with a grey rose in her hair. She is called, unsurprisingly….the Grey Rose.

Smitten, Cerin spends the Summer days in her company, discovering that this is a woman of........ melancholy mystery. The mystery dissipates at Summer’s end, when Cerin learns that the Grey Rose can no longer escape her destiny: as a member of the ancient race of the Tuathans, she is to be abducted, and deflowered (this is referred to in a vague manner), by a demon named Yarac.

The Grey Rose is by no means thrilled with this enterprise, but the sanctity of a bitterly earned, centuries-old truce rests upon her acquiescence. Cerin, however, is determined to rescue the Grey Rose from her fate. Alone, and armed with only his harp and a shortsword, our harpist sets out to cross the barren lands and dark woods of the wild to rescue his lady fair. In so doing, he will learn the truth of his own heritage, and of the role he will play in the coming clash between the forces of good and evil…..

As a fantasy novel, ‘Harp’ exhibits the sort of fast pacing and economy of plot that simply wouldn’t be feasible in today’s fantasy novels, where publishers mandate that novels be at least 500 pages long, and issued as a multi-volume set. 

As a main character Cerin is something of a milquetoast, and certainly no mightily-thewed man of action; readers should prepare for quite a bit of harp-playing in times of crisis, as opposed to flashing swords and dented bucklers. However, author de Lint uses varied locales, and an interesting cast of supporting characters, to make up for the lack of macho derring-do.

Whether you are a reader of 80s-style fantasy novels, or someone who is looking for a short- but entertaining - fantasy novel, ‘The Harp of the Grey Rose’ may be worth picking up.

H. P. Lovecraft by Michael Whelan

H. P. Lovecraft by Michael Whelan

As he relates in his book Michael Whelan's Works of Wonder (Del Rey, 1987), in the early 80s, Whelan attended a conference with Judy-Lynn Del Rey at the Del Rey / Ballantine offices to discuss cover artwork for the six volumes of H. P. Lovecraft novels and stories that were going to be issued in paperback. There, he learned that Del Rey was too cheap (my term, not Whelan's) to pay for cover art for all seven volumes. Instead, they had a budget for only two covers.

Whelan proposed making two large, panel-sized paintings, with each panel designed as a triptych. The individual book covers for the six mass-market paperbacks (published in 1981 - 1982) were derived from the triptychs. 

The Del Rey trade paperback compilation, The Best of H. P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre (1982), used the entire two panels for its wraparound cover.

For additional surveys of H. P. Lovecraft paperback cover art, readers are referred to recent postings at the Too Much Horror Fiction blog.

Heavy Metal magazine October 1984

'Heavy Metal' magazine October 1984

October, 1984, and in heavy rotation on the radio is 'No More Lonely Nights' by Paul McCartney. The song is the first single, and leadoff track, from McCartney's soundtrack to the film 'Give My Regards to Broad Street'. It features guitar work from Pink Floyd's David Gilmour.

The latest issue of 'Heavy Metal' magazine is out, with a front cover by Mark America, and a striking back cover by Tito Salmoni.

Given the mediocre nature of the August and September issues, this issue shows some much-needed improvement in its contents, primarily via the inclusion of standalone comics from veteran contributors Juan Gimenez ('A Matter of Time') and Caza ('Cinders').

Caza's 'Cinders' is particularly apt for October and Halloween, as it depicts the arrival of the Red Death to the city of the innocent, simpleton Homs......its grim nature is a departure from the more humorous outlook of his many comics for HM. But it shows that Caza could do horror stories that were as creepy, in their own unique way, as those of HM contributors Arthur Suydam or Jean Michel Nicolett.................

Book Review: The Year's Best Horror Stories: Series XV

Book Review: 'The Year's Best Horror Stories: XV' edited by Karl Edward Wagner

2 / 5 Stars

‘The Year’s Best Horror Stories: Series XV’ (300 pp) is DAW Book No. UE2226 and was published in October, 1987. The nicely subversive cover artwork is by Michael Whelan, but unfortunately, it’s very small, due to the fact that starting with Series XIV, DAW began using a frame to enclose the illustrations on the front cover. 

As with all the other volumes of ‘The Year’s Best Horror Stories’, I approached this one with the expectation that perhaps 3 – 4 stories would be rewarding. All of the stories were published in 1986, some in small press magazines and anthologies, and others, in ‘slick’ magazines. 

So, how does ‘Series XV’ stack up ? Well, needless to say, there are some good entries, but enough bad ones to justify giving this installment in the series a two-star rating.

Here are my brief summaries of the contents: 

Introduction: Editor Wagner pontificates about the definition of horror, noting that "........schlock novels about giant maggots" qualify as ‘horror.’ 

He clearly was disdainful of authors like James Herbert, John Halkin, Guy Smith, and Shaun Hutson, who had no scruples about writing what could be considered 'schlock' novels, sometimes about carnivorous slugs, beetle larvae, reanimated aborted fetuses, etc. And of course, these writers never appeared in the DAW 'Year's Best' anthologies. However, I think all of them are great horror writers ! So much for Wagner’s pedantry……. 

The Yougoslaves, by Robert Bloch: as he got older, Bloch’s writing could be hit-or-miss, but this tale qualifies as a Hit, and one of the better entries in the anthology. A tourist investigates gypsy-related crime among the Paris underworld. 

Tight Little Stitches in a Dead Man’s Back, by Joe R. Lansdale: Startlingly, Wagner lets a Splatterpunk tale sneak its way into the DAW anthologies.....! This story, about the aftermath of WW3, features unique monsters, and the kind of graphic horror that never would have appeared in previous editions of ‘The Year’s Best Horror Stories’. 

Apples, by Ramsey Campbell: UK tenement kids are rude to a neighbor and plunder his apple tree; this has consequences. One of Campbell’s more accessible tales, as - for some reason, and a not unwelcome one -  he avoids the purpled prose that so afflicts his other short stories of this period. 

Dead White Women, by William F. Wu: satirical tale of a man whose girlfriends never seem to stick around very long. 

Crystal, by Charles L. Grant: A man buys a portrait; supernatural consequences ensue. Dull and unremarkable Grant story. Couldn't Karl Edward Wagner have found a story published somewhere.....anywhere ?!...... that better deserved to be in this anthology ? 

Retirement, by Ron Leming: bikers, a roadside honkey-tonk, and a mysterious stranger. Competent, if not very original. 

The Man Who Did Tricks With Glass, by Ron Wolfe: a man orders a special, mirror-filled room be made to his specifications. Author Wolfe apparently was trying to write a Charles Beaumont-style story; it doesn't work. 

Bird in a Wrought Iron Cage, by John Alfred Taylor: short-short story, and one of the anthology’s better entries. A family heirloom gives its owner unique powers. But nothing comes without its price….. 

The Olympic Runner, by Dennis Etchison: remarkably dull tale about mother – daughter conflict and psychological angst. Somehow, the 1984 Olympics get referenced. There is no horror content. 

Take the ‘A’ Train, by Wayne Allen Sallee: a plotless follow-up to Sallee's plotless story in ‘The Year’s Best Horror Stories: Series XIV'…..

The Foggy, Foggy Dew, by Joel Lane: A Ramsey Campbell pastiche from admirer Lane. Whatever thin plot exists soon is smothered under empty sentences and unwieldy metaphors. 

The Godmother, by Tina Rath: a young girl who goes to live in an English estate; the owner is particularly eccentric. Well-written, with a subtle Roald Dahl -ish vibe. 

‘Pale, Trembling Youth’, by W. H. Pugmire and Jessica Amanda Salmonson: overwrought, corny tale about an older punk-rocker who observes youthful angst. 

Red Light, by David J. Schow: a fashion model beset with psychological stress seeks assurance from her photographer boyfriend. Perhaps because it lacks the dark humor present in Schow’s better short stories, this one comes across as over-written and labored. 

In the Hour Before Dawn, by Brad Strickland: unremarkable story about two men who encounter each other in their dreams. Yep, how's that for a gripping horror story premise ?  

Necros, by Brian Lumley: an English tourist to the Italian coast meets a stunning young woman. Cuckolding her elderly husband may be the least of his problems……offbeat, entertaining tale from Lumley. 

Tattoos, by Jack Dann: set in upstate New York, this story deals with a tattoo artist with a unique gift. Competently written, although the horror content is muted. 

Acquiring a Family, by R. Chetwynd-Hayes: a spinster seeks company from supernatural sources. As with many of his short stories, this piece from Chetwynd-Hayes is well written, but doesn’t bring anything really new to the ghost story milieu. 

The verdict ? The entries by Bloch, Lansdale, Taylor, and Lumley are the only real standouts in this particular volume. One can't help thinking that for ‘Series XV’, editor Wagner made at best a perfunctory effort at searching for, and finding, good stories. This volume is of interest only to those intent on collecting the whole series.