I haven’t read as much of Clive Barker’s work as I’d like too, mainly due to most of his back catalogue lacking re-issues for whatever reason publishers have for these things. His latest, Mister B. Gone (Gollancz, 2007) comes across a bit like Barker-light, being much lower in page count than his usual. It’s still full of nasty events and that twisted dark imagination I like him for, but the slimness of the volume makes it seem less substantial, like he was holding back. Despite that I still enjoyed it, with the demon’s constant entreaties for us to stop reading adding a little extra to his tale and how he came to be trapped in the book.
Robert T Jeschonek is a writer I’ve come to appreciate from the three very good short stories he’s had published in PS Publishing’s Postscripts anthology. So I was delighted when PS announced he was to feature as the third in their Author Showcase series. Mad Scientist Meets Cannibal (PS Publishing, 2008) is more of the same, well-crafted and highly imaginative short stories taking a skewed approach to what at first appear to be fairly ordinary starting points. Sterling stuff, I’ll be looking forward to reading further stuff from Mr Jeschonik (except for the Star Trek and Dr Who tie-ins, no interest in those).
I like Gary McMahon. Well I reckon I’d like him if I met him. I certainly like his writing. Having read a couple of short stories and his two novellas, Rough Cut (from Pendragon Press) and All Your Gods Are Dead (from Humdrumming), and purchased (but not yet read) his debut novel, Rain Dogs (also from the now defunct Humdrumming Press) I thought I’d better check out his first short story anthology, Dirty Prayers (Gray Friar Press, 2007). Spanning his short career so far it’s inevitable that all the stories wouldn’t appeal to me, but for the most part it’s a very good anthology; well worth reading as an overview of one of the best new horror short story writers around.
And if you’re looking for a copy of the aforementioned Rain Dogs novel, Gary has procured the remaining stock from Humdrumming and is selling them at half price. More details here.
