Chris reviewed Human-Shaped Fiends by Chandler Morrison
None
4 stars
My notes said, "Like a 25-years-younger Edward Lee decided to write a sequel to 'Blood Meridian' with some help from William S Burroughs."
It's a horror western, sure, and yes it does bring in a character from the Glanton Gang and is mercifully short on untranslated Spanish. At times it deliberately goes over the top ... but then what do we find? Interspersed short chapters in which a Flanderized Morrison is debating with various people about how much all this horror stuff is necessary. Right up until the last one which I thought was both obvious, silly, and unnecessary. Very Edward Lee, that, to put yourself in a novel of weird fiction, although Lee's author avatar tends to be middle-aged, bookish and bewildered rather than a literary rock god.
Then there's the recurring joke about bowdlerising the language. So we get BIPOC Alley and Persons with Disabilities (was keeping a …
My notes said, "Like a 25-years-younger Edward Lee decided to write a sequel to 'Blood Meridian' with some help from William S Burroughs."
It's a horror western, sure, and yes it does bring in a character from the Glanton Gang and is mercifully short on untranslated Spanish. At times it deliberately goes over the top ... but then what do we find? Interspersed short chapters in which a Flanderized Morrison is debating with various people about how much all this horror stuff is necessary. Right up until the last one which I thought was both obvious, silly, and unnecessary. Very Edward Lee, that, to put yourself in a novel of weird fiction, although Lee's author avatar tends to be middle-aged, bookish and bewildered rather than a literary rock god.
Then there's the recurring joke about bowdlerising the language. So we get BIPOC Alley and Persons with Disabilities (was keeping a pet person with disabilities a thing in the Old West? Maybe it's something else Morrison got from 'Blood Meridian.'). It isn't so much not funny (not saying it isn't) as a joke that may go on too long.
Then there's characters from other novels including the man with the shopping cart i.e. not-Randall-Flagg.
I'd rate this book as better than Dead Inside but not as good as Until the Sun.