Matthew M. Bartlett

Like many fans of Matthew Bartlett's work, I've read a considerable amount of what he has set to paper. If you find you're someone who his dense, hallucinatory, unpredictable nightmare prose appeals to, you likely don't ever get tired of feverishly stumbling through his world. However, I have by and large not read his work in anything resembling publication order. Owing that mostly to my habit of binge buying/reading whole bodies of work at once with sometimes sizable breaks in between. Consequently, I came to Stay-Awake Men, one of his earlier books, long after digesting much later iterations of his work. Which is a travesty, as barring some of the 'fun' examples his bizarre vision of the world, this is likely one of my favorite collections. I think it is probably also one of the easiest entry points for new readers of Bartlett, save possibly for one off stories appearing in anthologies with other authors' work.
I easiest entry point, though not necessarily the most rewarding for all readers. Long-time fans of Bartlett likely know him for his Leeds/WXXT work, and while there are mentions of and connections to Leeds here, these are mostly stand alone stories. While Leeds has its appeal, jumping feet first into that body of work can be disorienting and confusing, with what feels like definitive world-building that you're never quite in on all the details of with the feeling that things both dangerous and incomprehensible may lurk in those holes in your knowledge. Stay-Awake Men by contrast will give new readers a good taste of Bartlett's rock solid authorial talent, without quite yet setting them adrift in that red sargasso sea full of, well...its definitely not seaweed...
We have a glowing introduction from Scott Nicolay, well known in weird fiction, lavishing on well deserved praise for Bartlett. This is followed by 'Carnomancer of The Meat Manager's Prerogative' which like the later 'Following You Home' gives us both a narrator and world so unreliable that we may never know what part of the madness is external and what part internal. 'Spettrini' falls between them, and is one of my favorites of the collection. Its trappings of illusion and true, terrifying magic are reminiscent of Barker's 'Last Illusion' without a D'Amour (or Scott Bakula) to protect our fragile world and sanity. 'No Abiding Place on Earth' feels like an apocalypse tale swirled round with bits of folklore spanning centuries and an elderly protagonist, something I always love. 'Kuklalar', which is tied with 'Spettrini' for possibly my favorite entry here, along with 'Stay Awake Men' give us a little us a little less hallucinatory insight into how aspects of Leeds and WXXT may fit into our larger world. While I suspect this isn't meant as world building per se, its an intriguing and different approach to the material that has become a cornerstone of Bartlett's body of work.… (més)

Jonathan Raab and Muzzleland Press serve up another great themed collection. This particular collection focuses on the gothic horror revival of the classic Hammer horror films. The stories here range from inspired by those beautifully coloured early films to fan-fiction esque re-imaginings or continuinations. Mer Whinery's "George Straight and the Black Orchard Grimoire" is coming home/prodigal son story of the former sort, in which plenty of his Little Dixie, backwoods (back plains?), feel comes through. You'll have to imagine the corrupt Oklahoma version of the Irish accent instead of the refined British voices we're used to from Hammer. You'll hear a more pure version of that brogue in Tom Breen's haunted moor meets traditional traditional faerie story, "Taste of Fear in the Night." It gives us fun alternate European and American titles, and as the author notes may be the first Hammer story set in Ireland.
A number of these stories involve female empowerment or flipping the tropes of the Hammer era of heaving bosoms. So many in fact that I would be tempted to call it a second, more subtle theme in the collection. Gwendoline Kriste's "Over the Violets Here There That Lie" Poe tinged feminist tale, as well as Christa Carmen's "Cleaver Castle of Carnage Presents: The Coven Strikes Back" are even set in a meta world in which the filming of those movies is incorporated ala Shadow of the Vampire. Other pieces attempt to update the gender roles and power dynamics of the Hammer films that always approached being ahead of their time but never quite stepped all the way over the line. In "Vengeance of the Blood Princess", Dominique Lamssies gives us a continuation of the Karnstein trilogy, but this time firmly grounded in the feminist empowerment that the original lacked. Heather Levy tries to push the other, possibly negative, boundary of female empowerment in "You Should Smile More: The Blood Coven of Arkana", a modern folk-horror tale.
By contrast, the bulk William Tea's "Diabolus in Musica" seems feels like one of the most perfect encapsulations of the slow burn, atmospheric, gothic feel of so much of the Hammer era coloured by an almost Yellow Wallpaper style domination of the female lead. It the suddenly dovetails (in the best way possible) into scenes that fit right in with the wildest of the Hammer creations.
Tom Breen maintains the gothic aesthetic with a nod to "Dracula" in "Mina's Castle." It uses the same technique to maintain verisimilitude as Dracula, telling the story through a series of letters, but updating it for the modern era and his familiar territory of the integration of technology with the horrific supernatural by using emails.
Matthew Bartlett's "Go To The Devil"and Thomas Mavroudis' "Bloody Cask of Rasputin" feel more like Hammer influenced tales, with the two author's familiar voices and styles still very much dominating.
My favourite inclusion might just be Gamma Files', "The Filthy Creation of Frankenstein." A spectacular, intimate, love triangle retelling of the creation of monsters that both frightens and touches the heart.
While too short to possibly cover all of the delightfully outlandish settings and themes from those films, there are certainly plenty of satanic cults, created monters, and of course, Draculas, here to satisfy. I would add that the only omission I regret here is that Orrin Grey, given his love of cinema and extensive writing in ouvre both fictional and non, didn't make it into this collection. It would have been a match made in...well...an old, cobweb strewn castle.… (més)