The Imago Sequence Author: Laird Barron | Language: English | ISBN:
B0070YQT4A | Format: EPUB
The Imago Sequence Description
The title story of this collection — a devilishly ironic riff on H. P. Lovecraft’s “Pickman’s model” — was nominated for a World Fantasy Award, while “Probiscus” was nominated for an International Horror Guild award and reprinted in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror 19. In addition to his previously published work, this collection contains an original story.
- File Size: 554 KB
- Print Length: 249 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1597801461
- Publisher: Night Shade Books; Reprint edition (July 1, 2007)
- Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
- Language: English
- ASIN: B0070YQT4A
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #53,840 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #98
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Anthologies & Short Stories
- #98
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Anthologies & Short Stories
Out of all the books I've read, and all the stories I've enjoyed, I'm never really sure which one I'll sit down to review until I actually start typing. I read this book, The Imago Sequence and Others, a few weeks ago and it's really stuck with me.
This is the author's, Laird Barron, first collection of short stories. I'm always on the lookout for new horror, so when I saw this book on the shelf in the library it grabbed my attention immediately.
The collection starts with "Old Virginia ", a story about an over-the-hill CIA agent assigned to guard a strange experiment in the woods of West Virginia. Of course, something goes wrong and the experiment gets out of hand, leading inevitably to very bad things. I really liked the tone of this one, and it sets the stage very well for the stories that follow.
"The Procession of the Black Sloth" is a strange story about ghosts and witchcraft set in modern day China. I like the atmosphere and characters, but the ending was kind of a let down after such a good buildup.
"Bulldozer" is set in the Old American West, and follows a Pinkerton Detective on the trail of a murderous circus strongman with some very strange abilities.
"Hallucigenia" starts with a rich couple's encounter with a giant wasp nest in an old abandon barn. They both are attacked by something they don't remember. While his wife is in a coma, the husband investigates who owns the barn and tries to find out what really happened there. The imagery in this story really stuck with me, and this story is be my favorite of the bunch.
"Parallax" is another weird story, this time about a husband whose wife mysteriously disappears one day.
The first thing that struck me about Imago was that, after having read it and Occultation - Laird's second anthology - for the first time, I immediately turned around and read them both all over again. That's never happened to me before with any other book - not sure what it means, just taking note.
Laird is often spoken of in the same breath with Thomas Ligotti, but they could not be more different. While I am in awe of Ligotti's work, his universe is one of futility - of clockwork horrors that don't even afford their victims the grace of personal animosity. Laird's horrors are intimately personal, with a predator/prey relationship oft-times fraught with gleeful malice - while his protagonists are doomed, they oppose their fate with a frontiersman's fatalism and stoic refusal to submit - this, I assume a result of Laird's upbringing in rural Alaska. While the characters in both Ligotti's and Barron's tales wind up as no more than peristaltic grist for the maw of Lovecraftian horrors intent on provender, Laird's protags at least have the decency to kick and struggle on their way down the gullet, rather than succumbing to the numb despair exhibited by Ligotti's people.
Then there is craft. Laird leaves so much unsaid that the majority of his stories unfold puzzle-like behind your unconsciousness after you're done with them, ultimately looming several times their original size back in your oh-so-vulnerable lizard brain. His wording, phrasing, and editing are flawless - literally among the best wordsmithing I have encountered among writers active today. I am reminded of Joyce Carol Oates' very best in some of Laird's work, or Ramsey Campbell at his most hallucinogenic - Laird's characters are often face to face with facts and realities they refuse to recognize or acknowledge.
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