In Michael Dirda’s Introduction to The Age of Decayed Futurity: The Best of Mark Samuels, Dirda points out that a Mark Samuels story usually presents the reader with a narrator who may or may not be insane. In “Sentinels,” Inspector Gray of the London police, investigates strange doings in the London Underground. As you might suspect, Inspector Gray finds more than he bargained for.
My two favorite stories in The Age of Decayed Futurity are “A Gentleman from Mexico” and “The Crimson Fog,” both with Cthulhu Mythos elements. In “A Gentleman from Mexico” A writer visiting Mexico meets a man who seems to be H. P. Lovecraft reborn. A group of soldiers attempt to rescue Major Qersh who seems to be trapped in a strange crimson fog in the jungles of Chang-Yi province. Once in the fog, the soldiers find death and a transformed Major Qersh and…more.
If you’re in the mood for some creepy stories full of terror, The Age of Decayed Futurity delivers 18 stories to horrify you. Are you a fan of scary stories? GRADE: B
Table of Contents:
Introduction, by Michael Dirda — 9
Mannequins in Aspects of Terror — 13
The White Hands — 29
Apartment 205 — 45
Vrolyck — 59
Ghorla — 73
Cesare Thodol: Some Lines Written on a Wall — 93
Sentinels — 105
A Gentleman from Mexico — 121
The Black Mould — 145
Thyxxolqu — 149
Regina vs. Zoskia — 161
The Age of Decayed Futurity — 175
My World Has No Memories — 189
Outside Interference — 197
The Crimson Fog — 215
Court of Midnight — 245
In the Complex — 255
Acknowledgements — 267
Back in the days when I used to read a lot of horror I’d have been all over this, but now I’ve never even heard of the guy. Sounds interesting, though, and I wish my library had it. I may have to make an exception to my “no book buying” rule and add to the book piles that are already threatening to fall on me.
Michael, Diane always gives me “The Eye” when one of my stacks of books catches me in an avalanche. When every year starts I resolve to reduce the number of books I buy and store…but I’ve failed just about every year!
He’s not the best-known of active horror writers, but he’s a few years younger than I am (born ’67), began publishing fiction a few years earlier (his first noted in ISFDB from 1988, in the innovative magazine BACK BRAIN RECLUSE), and I’ve barely read him…which is my fault. Michael Dirda, primary reviewer for THE WASHINGTON POST, is an informed reader of horror and related material…thanks for the pointer, George.
As I’m an occasional writer of horror and suspense fiction, it could be said I like a scary story.
Todd, I’m not into gory horror, but I do enjoy scary stories especially in the Lovecraft vein.
Well, there’s only so much gory horror, and if anything more gory suspense fiction or drama, these years and back through the decades…”The Cone” by H. G. Wells always comes to mind…not a horror story, but certainly horrible. (Not sf, either, if you haven’t had the …?pleasure.) Lovecraftian work I like best the further away from Lovecraft’s own approach it goes, as with the work of his first two major acolytes, Robert Bloch and Fritz Leiber…whom I think took the best aspects of HPL’s existential horror and made them their own, and then some.
Todd, I agree with you on Bloch and Leiber. But don’t forget Frank Belknap Long’s The Hounds of Tindalos, a story that freaked me out when I first read it in the early 1960s.
I’ve never read any first-rate Long, but I haven’t read TINDALOS yet.
Todd, I found “The Hounds of Tindalos” haunting.
No, I don’t know him, but yes, sounds like something I would like from your description.
I like Dirda’s writing very much.
Jeff, Dirda is very laudatory towards Mark Samuels in his Introduction. I found that I enjoyed most of the stories in THE AGE OF DECAYED FUTURITY.
Looks like I am going to have to buy the Kindle edition. George does it again!
Jeff, yes…I have to live up to my George the Tempter monicker that Patti Abbott used to describe me.
I enjoy horror fiction, but I never find it scary. Ditto for horror movies. I’ve read a couple of his stories in anthologies and liked them.
Steve, I’ve ordered Mark Samuels’s Prophecies and Dooms, a collection of essays on horror writers.
Don’t read horror.
George, I find gore and violence to be the two major weaknesses of contemporary horror ( the splatterpunk writers of the 80s being the worst offenders). It doesn’t offend me so much as it simply bores me and short circuits any potential for suspense or real terror. As a result I tend to stick to Victorian/Edwardian horror and early to mid century weird fiction. I’ve never heard of Samuels but will keep him in mind. If you can think of any other good contemporary horror writers feel free to recommend them.
Byron, I have the same reaction to splatter-punk and gory horror: boredom. Reading about the fountains of blood resulting from a beheading leaves me cold. I have a number of contemporary horror writers that I’ll be posting about now that Mark Samuel’s has reignited my interest in the genre.
Allow me to just skip those posts.
Rick, I wouldn’t expect anyone to read posts about subjects they aren’t interested in.
Great. I’m looking forward to these posts. Thanks for the heads up.
Byron check out Robert Shearman and Reggie Oliver.
Thanks, Steve. Will do.
I do like horror if it is more atmospheric than gory. Shirley Jackson sort of horror.
I’m not a reader of horror so I wouldn’t want THE AGE OF DECAYED FUTURITY! If I did like horror I’d want to get THE AGE OF DECAYED FUTURITY! THE AGE OF DECAYED FUTURITY sounds like a good book for horror fans, one of which I am not! I hope you can find another book like THE AGE OF DECAYED FUTURITY!
Bob, reading THE AGE OF DECAYED FUTURITY launched me on a spree of reading some of the horror books that have been on my shelves for years. Watch for future posts of scary books!
If you are going to be posting lots of posts on scary books, you won’t be tempting me to buy more anthologies that I don’t have room for (which is good). i am not looking for “creepy stories full of terror”.
Tracy, usually I reserve scary books for the week before Halloween. Psychological suspense might be a better term for the books I prefer than “scary.”