"TEQUILA'S SUNRISE" by Brian Keene

At only fifty-eight pages, Brian Keene's Tequila's Sunrise is not a novella, and barely a novellette. It is exactly what Keene calls it in the book's afterword: Tequila's Sunrise is a fable. I'll get to all that, but first I'd like to talk about the physicality of the book itself.

Bloodletting Press proves once again that they're one of the Good Guys. The book screams quality all the way from the 'keen' numbering scheme to the cover-matching marker ribbon. Beyond that, Alex McVey's killer cover and mood-inducing interior illustrations put a definitive collector's item stamp on the piece.

As to the story, if you haven't read any of Brian's other works, I won't say that you won't 'get' Tequila's Sunrise, but possessing at least a cursory knowledge of Keene's overall mythos will make this book much, much more enjoyable. Telling the tale of an Aztec boy's journey up a mountain, the story turns on its ear about midway through and gives you a healthy gulp of knowledge pertaining to how all of Keene's works interact.

In a delightfully insightful afterword, Brian writes of how he was inspired by Jack Ketchum and a bottle of Tequila to tell this tale. He talks about falling in love with fables again, and deciding to tell one of his own.

Like I said, this is a collector's piece. I believe that it's sold out, so if you want one you'll be buying it on ebay. I'm lucky enough to own number 457, signed by both Keene and McVey, and I know I'll treasure it for some time to come.

Rated 4 out of 5

(Originally reviewed in "The Daily Cave" on November 20th, 2007)

"THE THIEF OF ALWAYS" by Clive Barker

To tell you the God's honest truth, I can't remember if I've read this before or not. If I did, it's been long enough ago that I'd forgotten all about it.

The Thief of Always is one of the few books by Clive Barker that I haven't (or possibly have) read. Like Abarat, there's something about Clive's books for young people that hit a nerve - whether you're an adult or a child... or anywhere in between.

Filled with the pseudo-psychotic-fantastique imagery that one comes to expect from Barker, the story is about a ten-year old boy who is slowly being devoured by that awful beast known as February. He's seemingly rescued from his doldrums by a man who's smile might be just a bit too large, and taken to a magical house where all the seasons transpire in a single day. Of course, the house isn't what it first appears to be, and the boy must soon learn what's important, and what's illusion.

A fabulous fairy tale that only Barker could tell, The Thief of Always is a classic that I may or may not have read before.

Rated 4 out of 5

(Originally reviewed in "The Daily Cave" on February 18th, 2007)

"STRAIGHT ON 'TIL MORNING" by Christopher Golden

Part coming of age tale, part fairy tale, Chris Golden's Straight on 'til Morning made me laugh on some level - in a good way - and had me skipping words - in a good way - because I was so excited to find out what would happen next.



The book starts out as a very real look at childhood in the eighties. The descriptions of the kids are accurate. They're largely from broken homes, and trapped somewhere between the realm of cartoons, comic books, and tree forts, and the realm of beer and sex. They are part of tight-knit cliques, and their major concerns grow out of dating relationships.


That's the first part of the book.



The second part takes you away to a world where Golden's imagination is unleashed. No holds barred. A world - a Neverland - where death and magick are only a footstep away. It's funny, because though the two parts are probably of equal length, I'm sure that I read the last half in about a third of the length of time it took to read the first. The second half of the book is nonstop, fast paced fantastical adventure. Not that the first part of the book is bad, not by any means. Golden tells the story through the eyes of the kids, and is spot on with their observations... maybe too spot on. As I was reading the book, I found myself chiding some of the main characters for taking superfluous things far too seriously, and yet, after thinking about it, I was the exact same way at 13. You take everything far too seriously. Those 'tween years are some of the hardest, and Chris Golden made me remember why.



The edition that I read, pictured above, had an additional short story at the end entitled Runaway. The story is about an event that occurred in two of Straight on 'til Morning's main character's lives, preceding the main story. I found it interesting that the story could have easily been the prologue of the novel. A very good book.



For more on Christopher Golden check out his website: http://www.christophergolden.com/.



Rated 4 out of 5






(Originally reviewed in "The Daily Cave" on January 30th, 2007)

"COME FYGURES COME SHADOWES" by Richard Matheson

It really sucks when the business end of the writing world interferes with the creative - like when restrictions are placed on writers telling them just how long a novel should be, or what type of narrative is acceptable. Oh, don't get me wrong, I understand full well why a publisher isn't overly willing to sign off on a two or three thousand page novel; I do know a little something about the law of economic return. But that doesn't make it any easier to swallow... from a writer's standpoint.

Case in point:

I guess I really ought to preface this by saying that Richard Matheson is flat-out my favorite writer. For me, reading Matheson is like inhaling a breath of fresh air. The combination of a genius-level imagination, an incredibly astute assessment of the way the real world works, and an astounding gift for the actual craft of the language, makes him a living legend in my mind. Matheson is one of those writers that I pride myself on collecting limiteds of.

So, I'm just saying up front, I dig Matheson.

Come Fygures Come Shadowes is the story of a teenage girl named Claire, in the early twentieth century. Her mother is a Medium - as in she communicates with the dead - and she's training Claire to cultivate her God Given gift - passed down proudly from her mother's side of the family - to take her own place as a medium. The mother is a shrill, bitter woman, (reminding me of Piper Laurie's fantastic turn as Sissy Spacek's mother in Carrie) who domineers everyone within reach. Claire is terrified to give herself over to trances as she conducts sittings for customers who come to the home to speak with their dearly departed.

The book escalates, with the perils - both physical and mental - becoming more and more strenuous for Claire.

And then the book ends.

You see, when Matheson originally started working on this manuscript, he showed what he had finished and what was yet to be completed to his publisher. The publisher in turn told him that the book would be over two-thousand pages long and impossible to sell. Being young and without a lot of confidence, (Matheson explains this in the book's afterword) he dropped the project Cold Turkey... and has regretted it ever since.

Come Fygures Come Shadowes is only a fraction of what the intended story was to be. Don't get me wrong, it really is a complete story in and of itself, however, at the end you do get a sense that there was more to the overall tale. Luckily, Matheson explains the story behind the work in the afterward, and is so nice as to tell you what he'd planned to unfold had the book been written.

Last year I read Matheson's Mediums Rare which is a nonfiction, chronological history of Mediums. Considering the references in Come Fygures Come Shadowes, I'm wondering if Mediums Rare didn't evolve out of research done for the novel.

So. When the business end infringes on the creative... well, that sucks.

Rated 4 out of 5

(Originally reviewed in "The Daily Cave" on January 19th, 2007)