Ghosts by Gaslight

Starred review from July 18, 2011
Devotees of M.R. James, H.P. Lovecraft, and Algernon Blackwood will relish this superior anthology of original stories reflecting what the editors call the "paradox of Victorian superstition-amidst-enlightenment." From the haunting opening of James Morrow's "The Iron Shroud" to the grim conclusion of Jeffrey Ford's "The Summer Palace," seductive, evocative writing demonstrates that the tradition of literate horror is alive and well. Laird Barron's "Blackwood's Baby" perfectly balances suggestion and revelation. John Langan's "The Unbearable Proximity of Mr. Dunn's Balloons" is both Lovecraftian and impressively original. Margo Lanagan's "The Proving of Smollett Standforth" delicately touches on the classic Victorian themes of class differences and family love. It seems almost unfair to single out individual works when all 17 are superb and will be cherished by steampunk and horror fans alike.

July 15, 2011

Seventeen all-new tales emulating, or re-creating, the ambience of classic Victorian supernatural suspense.

Not unexpectedly, London with its smog haunts of ill repute and real-life history is the favored, sometimes quite imaginary, but by no means exclusive venue. The standouts: Peter S. Beagle's typically lyrical and brilliant conjuring of ghostly voices in an alternate-world past. Gene Wolfe, in inimitable style, gives us a murderer who's brilliantly duped by a vengeful not-quite-ghost. Lucius Shepard weighs in with a creepy tale of a ghost-trapping machine, obsession and incest. John Harwood writes a lethal manuscript. Laird Barron describes devilish sprits, some in human guise, roaming the wilds of Washington State. From Jeffrey Ford comes a fine tale from the early career of Cley, his splendidly deluded Physiognomist. Paul Park offers an eerie, jangling tale of New Orleans wherein nothing is what it seems and, indeed, seems to deny that anything ever could be. And John Langan's effervescently titled "The Unbearable Proximity of Mr. Dunn's Balloons" conjures up some oozily nasty alien vampires. Elsewhere, Robert Silverberg offers a perfect Kipling-esque period piece without surprises; James Morrow's ghost-trapping metal shroud falls apart from illogic; Terry Dowling describes a demonic mummy; Garth Nix offers an imaginative but overdone Sherlock Holmes pastiche; plus, a time-travelling succubus (Margo Lanagan), a ghostly alien invader (Sean Williams), a machine that cures mental illness (Richard Harland), a ghost in a mirror (Marly Youmans) and, with a decidedly modern sensibility, the ghost of a murdered poet (Theodora Goss).

Clever and often impressive work that succeeds, mostly, in being more than a mere exercise in nostalgia.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

September 1, 2011
Dann and Gevers have found a theme that works remarkably well for assembling a well-rounded story anthology. James Morrow's The Iron Shroud combines spiritualism and a fascination with automatons, then gives them a particularly chilling twist. Garth Nix uses a Holmesian (the Holmes in question is neither of the brothers you might expect) framework to great effect. Jeffrey Ford's The Summer Palace is a journey back to his Well-Built City, in which, early in his career, Physiognomist Cley is sent to solve a mysterious, weaponless murder and discovers a brew that opens up great vistas of the mind while being terribly addictive. Peter Beagle brings Turkish magic to a London winter. Terry Dowling provides a story of Egyptologists, rather a necessity in a volume of stories inspired by Victoriana. This is, all told, a charming anthology. Few things go together better than strange machines and Victorian ghosts, and the stories, for the most part, successfully combine the frisson of the supernatural with the Gothic reflection that the editors mention in the introduction.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)