[ H O M E ]

New year, new books

[ posted by One Who Webs Weirdly ]
Earthling correspondent and speculative-fiction writer/blogger/editor Matthew Kressel took some time out from his busy schedule over the holidays to dive into a pile of recent releases. What did he find? Everything from a true history of alien conspiracies to novels of dark fantasy and Caribbean deviltry.


The Cult of Alien Gods: H.P. Lovecraft and Extraterrestrial Pop Culture, by Jason Colavito (Prometheus Books, $19, paperback) -- This dense yet fascinating read proclaims that those theories suggesting humanity commingled with alien races long ago -- possibly even being spawned by one -- can be directly traced, not to historical reality, but to a series of fictional short stories by the horror writer H.P. Lovecraft, written at the beginning of the 20th century. Author Colavito -- a former believer, and a contributor to Skeptic magazine -- takes us chronologically through the history of this idea, from Lovecraft's life to the present day, and he makes a convincing argument that "extraterrestrial genesis," the theory that humanity was created by aliens, is hogwash. Lovecraft, Colavito argues, was a lifelong atheist and materialist and had no room for these pseudo-scientific theories in real life -- but he knew well that they make for excellent fiction. The biographical portrait consumes only a fraction of The Cult of Alien Gods, though, and the rest of the work details long arguments intended to debunk dozens of alien-history theories, including those that claim: the Sphinx at Giza is much older than originally thought; Atlantis was real and home to an ancient, technological race; an ancient African tribe knew Sirius was a double star even before modern astronomers did. Though the links to Lovecraft seem reasonable at first blush, Colavito's arguments sometimes turn specious, and he's not immune to the same weakness of which he accuses others: presupposing a conclusion and then accepting only evidence that supports it. Nevertheless, it's a worthwhile read that seeks to shed light upon a hundred years of speculation and myth, while at the same time paying high praise to one of the last century's greatest storytellers.

John Crow's Devil, by Marlon James (Akashic Books, $19.95, hardcover) -- In the Jamaican town of Gibbeah, all is not well. The village priest is a drunk they've dubbed the Rum Preacher, and the devil's work roams as freely as the vultures. John Crow's Devil is rife with the black birds, which seem inextricable from the festering morality of this forsaken community. Enter a smarmy man from Kingston called the Apostle York, who drags the former priest from his pulpit and leaves him in a haunted river to rot. First-time novelist James drenches us in Christian symbols, as the river becomes the Rum Preacher's baptism and subsequent rebirth. While the Apostle slowly convinces the congregation to loathe the word Jesus, to murder cattle farmers, to attack visitors and destroy the only bridge into town, cows are born with heads turned backwards, and strange murders of crows congregate on rooftops and in yards. James weaves a dark, engaging tale from this mix of magic realism and religious literalism. While there are a few unnecessary distractions from the story -- sexual organs are mentioned a bit too frequently, and the narrative is often recounted in an awkward-to-read Jamaican patois -- in the end it's a remarkably solid debut novel, promising much from a young and talented writer.

X out of Wonderland, by David Allan Cates (Steerforth, $17.95, hardcover) -- The Global Free Market will solve all ills: That is the premise which propels "X," the protagonist of Cates' satirical novel X out of Wonderland, on a journey from successful radio talk-show host to third-world sweatshop laborer, from kill-or-be-killed soldier to oversexed commune citizen. Make no mistake, X out of Wonderland is diatribe -- but it's the funniest and most poignant diatribe about the state of our current society you may ever read. No matter how many times X loses all that he has, no matter how much pain he suffers, he still trusts in the redemptive power of the Global Free Market. Wonderland contains genius twists and turns of phrase which alternately delight and horrify; its only fault is that the novel is rather plotless, moving from one circumstance to the next literally with every gust of wind. But at a breezy 140 pages, this fact can be easily overlooked as we enjoy our light-hearted tour of the rife hypocrisy that passes daily under our noses. Despair over the hopelessness of life on earth has never been so much fun.

The Water Mirror: Dark Reflections, Book 1, by Kai Meyer, translated by Elizabeth D. Crawford (Simon & Schuster, $15.95, hardcover) -- What do a blind orphan girl with mirrors for eyes, mermaids, Egyptians, flying stone lions, and urban Italy all have in common? Apparently nothing -- until you pick up Kai Meyer's The Water Mirror and begin floating with her down the canals of Venice. This first volume of a young-readers series, originally published in German, centers around Merle, a bold and curious orphan who begins an apprenticeship under the reclusive magic-mirror maker Arcimboldo. In the spirit of Pullman's His Dark Materials, The Water Mirror's Venice exists in an alternate universe, where mermaids are raised in farms, stone lions guard the submerged city from imperious Egypt, and magic roams as freely as the flowing waters. And just like Pullman, Meyer leaves us waiting for the next book in the series. The author hints of great wonders -- two expelled wizards whose aged towers lean uncomfortably close, gigantic underwater cities abandoned to the ravages of time -- but she often gets caught up in relating this backstory, and long stretches of the narrative refer to events long ago, or are revealed rather awkwardly as conversations inside Merle's mind. Nevertheless, The Water Mirror is imaginative enough to evoke wonder, and one hopes that with the scene now completely set, Meyer can open the floodgates of her creativity onto Venice with the next installment.
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09 January 2006 at 1:12 PM | permalink | 3 comments