My Summer Reads - Books for a Lost Soul

    At the start of summer, I thought I had an easy TBR list: Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner, Dogs of War by Adrian Tchaikovsky, and Solaris by Stanislaw Lem. But as the summer unfolded, I found myself drifting into a drearier direction. (Though I did read and enjoy Dogs of War.) Instead of sticking with my "must read" science fiction list, I wandered into darker genres that fit the mood of my stressful summer - weird lit and horror.  (Dash is my own, NOT AI!)

    I started this turn after reading the Introduction to one of my favorite books, A Case of Conscience by James Blish. The introduction was written by Greg Bear, another of one of my favorite authors. In the introduction, Bear compares A Case of Conscience to the horror story The Turn of the Screw. Like A Case of Conscience, The Turn of the Screw also has an ambiguous, unsettling ending.  After finishing The Turn of the Screw, I became interested in finding more books that were that were disturbing and ominous. Someone on Reddit suggested The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers.

    The King is Yellow is a collection of weird short stories that are mostly about decadent artists in New York and Paris. The first four stories are about a play, The King in Yellow that makes anyone that reads it go insane. Each of the stories mention the play that makes one go mad in the second act, the actual King in Yellow with his pallid mask that isn't a mask, and a symbol called The Yellow Sign. The rest of the stories are supernatural romance with some science fiction elements. The King in Yellow, so far, is my favorite book of the year. 

    I wanted to read more books like The King in Yellow and did some more research. A suggested author was Robert E. Howard with his Conan the Barbarian stories, so I decided to give them a try. In the past, I didn't think they would be something I would like to read because I was expecting a lot of trashy action. I was surprised by how deep and disturbing the stories ended up being. I was also expecting more racism because one reviewer on YouTube claimed that Robert E. Howard had a weird fetish for Black men, but I didn't see it. I have been working on the Conan the Barbarian stories all summer. My favorite story was "The Tower of the Elephant" that mixes horror with science fiction. 

    Another classic horror novella I read was The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen about an experiment gone wrong that unleashes a great evil. It was surprisingly eerie and disturbing and actually scared me.  I wonder if the Jack the Ripper murders inspired Machen as the story was told in the style of a crime novel, trying to uncover the mystery of a peculiar woman at the center of so much death and chaos in the streets of London. The most terrifying parts, in my opinion, took place in the Welsh countryside and affected innocent children. I should have done more research about the book as Stephen King, the master of horror said, The Great God Pan was the greatest horror stories ever written and in a list of dedication in his book Revival, King wrote: To Arthur Machen, whose short novel, The Great God Pan, has haunted me all my life."

   I next started reading the Zothique stories by Clark Ashton Smith. Zothique is the final Pangea continent of a dying Earth, under a weakened sun. The world is full of death and evil. Magic and evil gods roam have power over the few struggling humans left. Necromancers raise up the dead to become their slaves and armies. Evil sorcerers are filled with greed. What is interesting is that the evil characters of the book get their rewards, usually fates worse than death. These stories lean more into horror and less into mystery. 

    I enjoyed my journey into the weird this summer. The stories got my mind off of some terrible times. I hope to read more.