The stories in Beyond the Veil deal with aging, death, dying, and ghosts.

My favorite story in Beyond the Veil is Stephen Gallagher’s “A Mystery for Julie Chu.” Julie Chu likes to shop at auctions, thrift stores, and  consignment stores. Chu has a talent at finding vintage items that are underpriced.

Chu finds an old toy called Mr. Disco. She buys it for a pittance. But Chu soon learns Mr. Disco allows the Dead to speak to the Living. I thought I knew where “A Mystery for Julie Chu” was going, but Stephen Gallagher had some clever tricks up his writer’s sleeve that surprised me.

Other than “A Mystery for Julie Chu,” I didn’t find any other story that pleased me in this anthology. The constant dying and suffering wore me down. GRADE: C

Table of Contents

Introduction Mark Morris 1

The God Bag Christopher Golden 3

Caker’s Man Matthew Holness 21

The Beechfield Miracles Priya Sharma 44

Clockwork Dan Coxon 69

Soapstone Aliya Whiteley 79

The Dark Bit Toby Litt 93

Provenance Pond Josh Malerman 107

For All the Dead Angeline B. Adams Remco van Straten 119

The Girl in the Pool Bracken MacLeod 135

Nurse Varden Jeremy Dyson 144

If, Then Lisa L. Hannett 159

Aquarium Ward Karter Mycroft 173

A Mystery for Julie Chu Stephen Gallagher 185

Away Day Lisa Tuttle 205

Polaroid and Seaweed Peter Harness 213

Der Geisterbahnhof Lynda E. Rucker 231

Arnie’s Ashes John Everson 244

A Brief Tour of the Night Nathan Ballingrud 257

The Care and Feeding of Household Gods Frank J. Oreto 268

Yellowback Gemma Files 282

Biographies 307

I’m fond of Time Travel stories so you’d think I would be ecstatic over The Adam Project. But, you would be wrong.

Ryan Reynolds plays a pilot who travels from 2050 back to 2022 in an attempt to save his wife (Zoe Saldana). Reynolds’ character, called Adam, really wanted to arrive in 2018, but a mis-calibration by Adam’s craft lands him in the wrong year. Adult Adam then meets his 12-year-old self (brilliantly played by Walker Scobell) which does generate plenty of humor. But, murder squads from 2050 arrive to kill Adam (and even his younger self).

You would think that a movie with a cast that includes Ryan Reynolds; Mark Ruffalo; Jennifer Garner; Walker Scobell; Catherine Keener; and Zoe Saldaña would be fabulous. But, once again, you would wrong.

The Adam Project gets bogged down in family problems: an inattentive father, a surly son, and an unconfident mother. The action scenes are okay, but there are too few of them. There’s potential in The Adam Project but much of it is wasted. GRADE: B-

“In the spring of 1990, New Kids on the Block started the Magic Summer Tour, a summer that lasted 303 days and earned $57 million. The year’s highs grossing films was Ghost and the ghost of of Patrick Swayze was not CGI. David Lynch’s Twin Peaks debuted on ABC, but its hallucinatory Melo dram was disconnected from both lear time and the rest of the TV universe, where Cheers remained the most popular show.” (p. 33)

Chuck Closterman revisits the 1990s with insights into its music, movies, politics, TV shows, and famous people. Remember Operation Desert Storm? Remember the stock market zooming to new highs?

The Nineties will be famous for the introduction of the Internet and GOOGLE. And the culture changing TV programs like Seinfeld and Friends and The X-Files. The National Football League solidified its position as the dominant sport in America. People thought David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest–1,079 pages–was the best novel of the decade.

What do you remember best about the Nineties? GRADE: B+

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction p. 11 

Fighting the Battle of Who Could Care Less p. 5

[projections of the distortion] p. 29

The Structure of Feeling (Swingin’ on the Flippity-Flop) p. 33

[i see death around the corner] p. 49

Nineteen Percent p. 53

[casual determinism] p. 73

 The Edge, as Viewed from the Middle p. 77

[the slow cancellation of the future and the fast homogenization of the past] p. 103

The Movie Was about a Movie p. 107

[the power of myth] p. 123

 CTRL + ALT + DELETE p. 129

[alive in the superunknown] p. 165

 Three True Outcomes p. 169

[vodka on the chessboard] p. 185

 Yesterday’s Concepts of Tomorrow p. 189

[the importance of being earnest] p. 209

 Sauropods p. 213

[giving the people what they want, except that they don’t] p. 241

 A Two-Dimensional Fourth Dimension p. 245

[the spin doctors] p. 273

 I Feel the Pain of Everyone, Then I Feel Nothing p. 279

[just try it and see what happens] p. 305

 The End of the Decade, the End of Decades p. 311

Acknowledgments p. 339

Sources p. 341

Index p. 355

Sometimes I’m in the mood for a good, thrilling historical novel. And, here are two of them: The Eyes of the Queen (2020) and The Queen’s Men (2021). The two books are subtitled: An Agents of the Crown Novel.

The Eyes of the Queen introduces Francis Walsingham, Queen Elizabeth I’s “principal private secretary” (aka, spy master). Mary Queen of Scots is under confinement but she’s busy plotting the assassination of Queen Elizabeth using her wiles to feed information on the Queen’s movements to her supporters.

Meanwhile, Walsingham recruits Queen Elizabeth’s tutor and sometime alchemist, Dr. Dee, to investigate the assassination plot. Dee discovers threads that lead to a group who recruited a sharpshooter who never misses. Only Dee can disrupt the assassination…if the assassin’s minions can be outwitted! GRADE: B

When Queen Elizabeth travels in a convoy through Waltham Forest at night, her carriage is ambushed by masked gunmen and riddled with holes. By chance, the Queen happened to be in a different carriage, but one of her ladies-in-waiting is killed. Walsingham suspects someone in the Royal Court is leaking information to the assassination team…but who?

Dr. Dee is called in again to assist the investigation. In addition, the Queen asks Dee to discover the formula for “Greek Fire,” a incendiary fluid famous for its ability to burn on water. With the threat of an invasion from Spain, the secret of “Greek Fire” might delay the Spanish Armada. In 1578, Dee has limited equipment and knowledge of how to re-invent the long-lost toxic substance. But, conspiracies swirl around the Royal Court as members of the Privy Council attack Walsingham for not solving the latest assassination attempt.

Dee finds himself drawn into a nefarious plot to “protect” the Queen…which could lead him to the gallows. While Walsingham urgent searches for the assassination team, Dee discovers that one of the gunman had a relationship with the dead lady-in-waiting. Following that clue leads to a mind-boggling plot to destroy the Queen and most of the Royal Court. If you’re looking for action and intrigue, The Eyes of the Queen and The Queen’s Men deliver more thrills than a roller-coaster! Are you a fan of historical fiction? GRADE: B+

Yesterday, I reviewed Jack Vance’s Alastor series. Splatterlight Books published this authorize “sequel” to Vance’s trilogy in 2019. In addition, Splatterlight published a “sequel” to Vance’s Demon Princes by Matthew Hughes, Barbarians of the Beyond (you can read my review here), in 2021.

A young man named Gunnar and his mother Justine arrive on the peculiar planet Phaedra after Gunnar’s father is killed on a military mission. Gunnar signs up for school and immediately is attracted by one of his classmates, a strange girl, Lavoine, who claims she’s a witch.

Phaedra features artifacts from the Elder Race that dominated the Galaxy before disappearing. Strange alien boats called Galleons sail the rivers of Phaedra. But Bad Things happen to anyone who tries to interfere with the Galleons progress.

Lavoine, with Gunnar and some friends, attempts to contact the Galleons with forbidden technology. The result sends Gunnar and Semele, a fierce huntress, to try to stop the return of the Elder Race and the destruction of humanity!

I enjoyed this intense adventure. Not only did Tais Teng write Phaedra: Alastor 824, he also painted the wrap-around cover! If you’re a Jack Vance fan, you’ll be entertained by this book. I hope Tais Teng writes more Alastor adventure novels! GRADE: B+

In 1995, TOR Books published an omnibus edition of Jack Vance’s Alastor novels. Alastor is a region of 30,000 stars in an area roughly 30 light-years in diameter. Trullion: Alastor 2262 (Ballantine, 1973), Marune: Alastor 933 (Ballantine, 1975), and Wyst: Alastor 1716 (DAW, 1978), each named after a world in the cluster. Vance planned a fourth novel Pharism: Alastor 458, but it was never written.

Trillion: Alastor 2262 follows the adventures of Glinnes Hulden, a young man who served in the Whelm–the military agency of the Connatic (who rules the Alastor Sector from his palace on Lusz)–and then retires to his home on Trillion. Glinnes arrives to find his twin brother, Glay, has sold the family homestead without his approval. Glinnes tries various strategies to earn the money to recover the land, but the only avenue he’s successful at is playing a team game called hussade. A conspiracy involving starmenters (aka, space pirates) changes Glinnes’ fortunes. GRADE: B

Marine: Alastor 933 opens on Bruse-Tansel, Alastor 1102 at the Carfaunge spaceport. A young man is found who claims he’s lost his memory. With help, the young man reaches the Connatic’s Hospital on Lusz. Although the doctors fail to restore the man’s memory, they determine the man’s origin: he is a member of a group called Rhunes on Marine, Alastor 933. The young man travels to Marine and discovers his identity: he’s Efraim, the Eighteenth Kairark of Scharrode.

Efraim’s return isn’t welcomed by everyone. Efraim’s father died in a military encounter so Efraim now succeeds him as leader. But political machinations, treachery, and murder threaten Efraim. I found the amnesia aspect skillfully manipulated by Jack Vance to produce a powerful conclusion. GRADE: B+

Wyst: Alastor 1716 begins with a strange interview between The Whispers of Wyst and the Connatic on Lusz. The Whispers are leaders, but the Connatic senses something is very wrong on Wyst. The story then shifts to Jantiff Ravenstroke, a talented artist on Zeck, Alastor 503. Jantiff decides to visit Wyst to pursue his artistic ambitions. What Jantiff encounters on Wyst is a society that disdains work and exceptionalism. Early on, Jantiff’s painting supples are stolen–a normal occurrence on Wyst–in the cause of “equality.”

Jack Vance plunges Jantiff, a naive young man, into a conspiracy with massive implications. Jantiff loses everything and Vance paints his hero into such a corner only a deus ex Machina solution resolves all the plot entanglements. GRADE: B-

The Alastor novels center around young men in desperate situations in very strange societies. I enjoyed the series and wish Vance had written more novels with this formula.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Compulsory Games
Le Miroir
Raising the Wind
Residents Only
Hands in Glove
Wood
Laura
Just a Song at Twilight
Letters to the Postman
Marriage
No Time Is Passing
The Strangers
The Fully-Conducted Tour
A Disciple of Plato
The Coffin House

A few weeks ago, I featured Robert Aickman’s Painted Devils: Strange Stories (you can read my review here).

A few weeks ago, I reviewed Robert Aickman’s short story collection, Painted Devils (you can read what I had to say here). It took me a few weeks to find my copy of Aickman’s Compulsory Games, the New York Review of Books volume that collects some brilliant stories from Aickman’s previous books.

For readers unfamiliar with Robert Aickman’s work, Compulsory Games would be a great place to start. In her insightful Introduction, Victoria Nelson notes that Aickman himself characterized his fiction as “strange stories.” And, strange they are!

Take “Hand in Glove” for an example. Millicent has broken up with Nigel and Millicent’s odd friend, Winifred, takes Millicent for a picnic in a surreal country town. Aspects of loss and lies result and Millicent finds herself in a menacing situation. Or take the title story, “Compulsory Games,” where a man in a tired marriage nearly falls into an affair with a friend, only to be rebuffed near the point of consummation. From this point forward that he’s punished, not in any overt way, but through the slow withdrawal of his wife via that same friend, 

One of my favorite stories in this collection–which easily could have been titled The Best of Robert Aickman–is “Le Miroir” where a woman has an eerie attraction to a looking glass. If you’re in the mood for the unusual and offbeat, you’ll find it in Compulsory Games. GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction: Under the Skin by Victoria Nelson — vii

• Compulsory Games — 1
• Hand in Glove — 25
• Marriage — 51
• Le Miroir — 84
• No Time in Passing — 95
• Raising the Wind — 120
• Residents Only — 130
• Wood — 179
• The Strangers — 204
• The Coffin House — 253
• Letters to the Postman — 258
• Laura — 296
• The Fully-Conducted Tour — 306
• A Disciple of Plato — 313
• Just a Song at Twilight — 327

The new Criterion Collection version of Miller’s Crossing blends classic noir fiction with Joel and Ethan Coen’s trademark sparkling dialogue, off-beat characters, and violent action. Here’s a summary:

“Gabriel Byrne brings a wry gravitas to the role of Tom Reagan, the quick-thinking right-hand man to a powerful crime boss (Albert Finney). Tom’s unflappable cool is tested when he begins offering his services to a rival outfit—setting off a cascade of betrayals, reprisals, and increasingly berserk violence. The Hopperesque visuals of cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld, majestically elegiac score by Carter Burwell, and vivid supporting performances from John Turturro and Marcia Gay Harden come together in a slice of pulp perfection that crackles with sardonic wit while plumbing existential questions about free will and our own terrifying capacity for evil.”

Of course the real reason I bought Miller’s Crossing was the conversation between Megan Abbott and the Coen’s film noir and crime fiction. Great movie, great conversation! GRADE: A

DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:

• 2K digital restoration, approved by director of photography Barry Sonnenfeld and filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen, with new 5.1 surround soundtrack mix, presented in DTS-HD Master Audio
• New conversation between author Megan Abbott and the Coens about film noir and hard-boiled crime fiction
• New interview with actors Gabriel Byrne and John Turturro, moderated by Abbott
• Interviews from 1990 with Byrne, Turturro, and actors Marcia Gay Harden and Jon Polito
• New interviews with Sonnenfeld, composer Carter Burwell, music editor Todd Kasow, and production designer Dennis Gassner
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: An essay by film critic Glenn Kenny
  
  New cover illustration by Patrick Leger