2011 Reading #11: The Imago Sequence and Other Stories by Laird Barron
Books 1-10.
11. The Imago Sequence and Other Stories by Laird Barron. I've always enjoyed Laird's noirish horror stories; many of the stories in this collection are stories I'd previously read in F&SF or in the Datlow/Windling/Link/Grant Year's Best Fantasy and Horror anthologies. Presented together, a consistency of vision emerges; Barron's horror is of the dark secrets underlying reality, yes, but it's the rational--science, in many cases--rather than the irrational that leads there. Certain elements and characters recur, central to one story and peripheral to others. Also, his characters tend to cope with their encounters with the ineffable by drinking, a lot. A couple of my favorite stories here are ones I'd read before, like "Old Virginia" and "Bulldozer"; the latter has one of the best openings I've ever read. The title story has a nicely circular structure, but my favorite story in the collection is probably "Hallucigenia"; it's a story in which the main character does all the sensible things that characters in bad horror stories never do, trying to find out what's happening in legal and logical ways, and yet there's a feeling of inexorability about the story--like Lovecraft's characters, Barron's can never escape unscathed from their encounters with the beyond. I actually like Barron's stuff better than I like Lovecraft's, though, so that may not be the best comparison.
11. The Imago Sequence and Other Stories by Laird Barron. I've always enjoyed Laird's noirish horror stories; many of the stories in this collection are stories I'd previously read in F&SF or in the Datlow/Windling/Link/Grant Year's Best Fantasy and Horror anthologies. Presented together, a consistency of vision emerges; Barron's horror is of the dark secrets underlying reality, yes, but it's the rational--science, in many cases--rather than the irrational that leads there. Certain elements and characters recur, central to one story and peripheral to others. Also, his characters tend to cope with their encounters with the ineffable by drinking, a lot. A couple of my favorite stories here are ones I'd read before, like "Old Virginia" and "Bulldozer"; the latter has one of the best openings I've ever read. The title story has a nicely circular structure, but my favorite story in the collection is probably "Hallucigenia"; it's a story in which the main character does all the sensible things that characters in bad horror stories never do, trying to find out what's happening in legal and logical ways, and yet there's a feeling of inexorability about the story--like Lovecraft's characters, Barron's can never escape unscathed from their encounters with the beyond. I actually like Barron's stuff better than I like Lovecraft's, though, so that may not be the best comparison.