Post by Calenture on Nov 23, 2008 19:15:49 GMT
The Satyr's Head edited by David Sutton, Corgi 1975
I'd have prefered these synopses to be more detailed, but I wrote them some time back and am trying to track down various others that I placed here and there on the net. For the time, this will have to do. If anyone wants to add to them of course...
Provisioning by David Campton. The author of Goat brings us a story of Kez and Adam, two homesteaders whose faith in the ability of the Almighty to provide is astounding. Hilariously black and gruesome.
The Night Fisherman by Martin Ricketts tells of Albert Jordan, a quiet man who likes nothing better than sitting beside a black lake under the stars watching the luminous float drifting on the water. But tonight he feels oddly restless, uncomfortable; and besides, he cannot seem to stop thinking of the worm, caught on the hook...
Sugar and Spice and All Things Nice by David A Sutton. The editor contributes his own piece, an arrestingly bizarre story of a man's humdrum existence as a book indexer interrupted by a series of visions of a small girl in yellow who wants him to come and play. This one starts awkwardly but quickly moves into something genuinely scary.
The Nightingale Floors by James Wade. The narrator is a veteran of the Korean war and high-school dropout, who has picked up a drug habit, and now needs a job to pay for it. The job is night watchman in the run-down Ehlers' Museum seems just right...if he can only get used to the way the floors seem to crackle with a life of their own. A superbly set and very moody piece, this one pulls a final nerve-jolting twist out of the hat just as you think it's all done.
The Previous Tenant by Ramsey Campbell is a bizarre impressionistic piece about the new occupier of an apartment who becomes obsessed with the memory of the previous tenant, a young woman who comitted suicide there.
Perfect Lady by Robin Smyth is a cheerfully ghoulish piece about Rupert's love affair with Winnie, which is so much happier than his earlier romance with Lizzie Spring, as Winnie has so many charming attributes - in fact, as many as all the other girls Rupert has known put together!
The Business About Fred by Joseph Payne Brennan. The author of the cult classic Slime contributes the old turkey about the man at the bar who seems to be fading away before the other regulars' eyes, then is found dead - and you can guess the rest.
Aunt Hester by Brian Lumley. Aunt Hester is the black sheep of the family, but the narrator, her favourite nephew, has never learned why. Taking advantage of a holiday break he visits her and listens to a strange account of her ability to switch minds with her brother George - much to her brother's chagrin - which has led to him living as far away as possible, in Australia.
Lumley, a disciple of Lovecraft, brings in unnecessary trappings like the Necronomicon, but these are easily ignored and the story is none the worse for it. The ending is genuinely unsettling.
The Satyr's Head by David A Riley. A man is given a curious ancient stone head by an old tramp, then finds himself troubled by dreams in which he is the victim of a rapacious homosexual succubus. This was one of the most original horror stories to appear in years, and possibly marked a turning point from "safe" traditional horror to the more unpredictable stories being written today.
A Pentragram For Cenaide by Eddy C Bertin. A Belgian writer who found his feet like several others here, working within the safe parameters of John Carnell's New Writings in SF series, Bertin here gives us a story of a painter obsessed with his best-friend's girl, who resorts to sorcery to win her. Entertaining, but not oustanding.
Despite one or two so-so pieces, this is an above average collection. The jewels in its crown are the stories by David Riley, Brian Lumley, David Campton, James Wade and the editor.
Excellent cover painting, too.