Talking In Obscurity, "The Hellbound Heart," by Clive Barker

 

Or Download This Episode Here: https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/8ip62a/Hellbound_Heart_podcast_Editakj8v.mp3

This is a special episode of Talking In Obscurity. James Reinhardt, who has written reviews before on WIO, joins Steven and me in discussing Clive Barker's "The Hellbound Heart." This is the story that inspired the movie "Hellraiser."

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Author's Website: http://www.clivebarker.info/

Talking In Obscurity, "Red Rising," by Pierce Brown

Or Download This Episode Here: https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/9ba8sp/Red_Rising_Podcast_Editasn6g.mp3

I love this novel and talking about it with Steven, but to say it's a happy story would be, we'll say, disingenuous. Often a grim story, it contemplates the idea that the fascists will take over in the future after all, and thank god that isn't likely in today's world. ...Oh, I just made myself sad. Anyway, you should listen to Steven and me discuss "Red Rising." 

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Author's Website: https://www.piercebrown.com/

"Moonshadow's Guardian" by Dianna Gunn--Fiction Review

Today Obscurists, we’re taking on a fantasy horror story, “Moonshadow’s Guardian” by Dianna Gunn.

What I love about this book:

The first thing I love about this book is that Gunn’s main character Riana is a super long-lived character, and there are several other similarly long-lived characters in this story that I think Gunn depicts uncommonly well. I’ve said on this blog before that it’s tricky to depict a character who has lived for centuries or even millennia—and make them feel as though they’ve lived for thousands of years. Gunn, though, without bringing the narrative to an absolute standstill, makes it clear that Riana has lived multiple lives over the long years.

I rather enjoy the moral complexity in this story. None of the principal characters are pure good or evil—even the story’s chief antagonist. Mind you, straight-up evil shit does happen in this story, but the perceived correctness or wrongness of the character’s actions are subject to debate, and the morality of their choices, combined with their motives, is a matter of point of view. No one in this story holds a moral high ground above the other characters. 

The consequences in this story are sudden and harsh, which takes a bit of fearless writing to not just hurt one’s darlings but murder them, and I appreciated that quality in Gunn’s writing. Punches are definitely not pulled in this story.

What I don’t love about this book:

I often say that using a first-person perspective is a bold choice, and this novel is in first person. Other than a few key emotional moments that could be argued justified the creative choice—I didn’t feel it added much. To play devil’s advocate, though, the first-person perspective certainly facilitated people reminiscing about the past. Building off that point, if you’re not a fan of flashbacks, well, tough news, lots of flashbacks in this story.

I appreciate an excellent dark and brutal story as much as the next person. What I often find to be wearying are drawn-out torture scenes. There are a few of those in this story, too, especially when it comes to Riana’s memories of the demon realm or the compulsion. It’s not the violence that gets me. I’m just bored by anything that feels like a kid with a magnifying glass and an ant hill.

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Author’s Website: http://authordiannagunn.com/

***The Spoiler part of this review***

***Ye be warned to turn back now***

The quick and dirty synopsis:

Our story begins with a little girl and her mother on a mysterious journey. It doesn’t go well after the mother tells her daughter that she is actually the daughter of a god and is, in fact, a demon. Soon she will transform into her true form. Despite her mother’s best magical efforts, her daughter breaks loose from the binding and kills her mother after transforming.

"Dead Station" by Aaron Beardsell--Fiction Review

Tonight Obscurists, things go bump in the stars! Gear up for a sci-fi horror story with Aaron Beardsell’s “Dead Station.”

What I love about this book:

“Dead Station” was pitched to me as a mix between “Alien,” “Event Horizon,” and “The Thing,” three sci-fi horror stories I absolutely adore—and Beardsell, one hundred percent, hits those notes pitch perfect. For better or worse, a lot of genre fiction is marketed by what it’s like. A lot of the time, the first question about a story is, “what is it like?” And to be honest, it’s usually an interpretation of whether or not a story is “like” another story or not. So it’s genuinely impressive how laser-like accurate Beardsell is on what “Dead Station” is like.

What “Dead Station” is, is a short story collection. And as with any talented short story writer, I’m jealous. In my fiction, my attempts at short fiction tend to balloon on me. I’m often reminded of the Abraham Lincoln quote, “I could write shorter sermons, but when I get started, I’m too lazy to stop,” never mind if he actually said that or not, I like it, and it reminds me of my plight. Beardsell pulls off all the essential qualities of a plot in each story and does it with brevity and style. 

This next point is minor spoiler-esque, not anything to spoil the plot, but more character motivation that I need to bring up. I have often said that I like my human antagonists to have motivations and my Lovecraftian nightmare monsters to be unknowable. That’s the rule I live by, and “Dead Station” flat out defies that preference of mine, and god damn it if I didn’t fucking love it. We get a peek into the ultimate-terror-from-beyond-the-stars’ mind, and, from its perspective, it feels like it’s being friendly. It’s bringing people together—making friends—and that childlike exuberance is terrifying. “Dead Station” is an object lesson that rules are great to know, but if you’ve got a good angle on something—break whatever rule you need to achieve that effect.

What I don’t love about this book:

The human characters we follow through these short stories are great quick sketches, but that’s all they are, partly due to the short story form, so there isn’t much that could be helped there. Every time I felt I was getting in a groove with a character, learning who they were and how they thought, that story was about over. The ultimate effect is none of the human characters achieve much of an emotional response from me.

It’s eluded to that there is a company a lot like Weyland-Yutani in this universe, and I never understand how these companies grew to such power to supposedly control everything. These sci-fi horror story companies choose evil at each step, even when it doesn’t make sense. It’s the Umbrella Corporation conundrum, as I call it. For instance, how does Umbrella keep getting investors? Because their primary preoccupation seems to always be; to build a secret illegal bioweapons lab underneath everything, have the laxest laboratory procedures to guarantee an accident, and get 99 percent of their workforce killed. Repeat. Not the most effective business model. And sure, real companies can be evil too, but they’re typically much better at least pretending they’re not. So it’s not my favorite trope.

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Author’s Website: https://allmylinks.com/aaronbeardsell

Analysis:

“Dead Station” is an extremely quick read, a fantastic time burner if you need one. Beardsell clearly has bigger ideas for this universe, but don’t expect them to be fully fleshed out in this collection.

Overall, these stories know what they are and embrace their core concept. There aren’t any sub-plots, extraneous detail, or character study—it is a straight arrow of high concept. Each story rolls out precisely on message. The first is a mysterious dead station from which a desperate crew needs to get supplies; horror ensues. The second is another station from a child’s perspective while the initial horror is ongoing. The third is a dogfight in space against a Lovecraftian-style horror. There is also a bonus story. 

Like the stories it’s compared to, expect quick and terrible violence. Beardsell’s distinctly clinical style makes his narrative especially sharp, which serves his overall aesthetic of to-the-point storytelling.

Parting thoughts:

I love sci-fi horror. It might be my favorite sub-genre. So I’m easily sold on stories like “Dead Station.” But it’s a hard sub-genre to pull new readers into; usually, they will be recruited from people who are already fans of sci-fi or horror.

Fans of such macabre stories tend to be enthusiastic about their favorite stories and love talking about them. But the community is rather insular, which I think is a holdover tradition from both parent genres of science fiction and horror.

If you want to write a sci-fi horror story, great! I think Beardsell proves that with keen insight and clarity, these kinds of stories can be quick successes with a cult audience.

The appeal to the broader mainstream, though, is, and always has been, even back to Lovecraft’s day—rare. 

I’ve often lamented this issue with horror stories in general, and it feels all the more true for the sub-genre. There are no actual examples of stories or authors in this subgenre that have lit the world on fire like Tolkien did for high-fantasy with “The Lord of the Rings.” “Alien” or “The Terminator” might come close. Also, I think a pretty good argument can be made for “Godzilla,” but they’re still not as iconic as, say, “Batman” in superhero fiction or “Harry Potter” in children’s Fantasy. Also, each of my examples are movies with a whole visual component to them that a novel—at least at first—lacks.

It’s not that I think it’s impossible to do—fear and the drive to survive are perfectly valid core emotional structures to build a narrative off of since they’re universal. I just don’t think it’s ever been done before. It is interesting to imagine what a sci-fi horror story that reaches cultural saturation would look like.