BOOK REVIEW - The Weird
Geek Syndicate
The Web comic is published on Ann and Jeff Vandermeer’s Blog, Weird Fiction Review and can be summarised as: “Reading the Weird” is an ongoing exploration of The Weird: A Compendium of Strange & Dark Stories conducted by Leah Thomas. The webcomic follows the journey of Mary and Ed through ever stranger landscapes and encounters, seemingly influenced by the stories in the anthology.” The book includes a ForeWeird by Michael Moorcock and a AfterWeird by China Mieville which adds another level of class to this book. So take a deep breath and find a dark room and then start to read, if you survive then congratulations on surviving The Weird.
The first thing you notice about this book is the sheer size of it. It’s a huge book but one that you cannot wait to just jump in and start reading. The Editors Ann and Jeff Vandermeer have collected weird tales by over a hundred authors from over a hundred years. While some are well known, there are others you might not have heard of. This is truly a labour of love by the Vandermeers and I hope this inspires others to publish other works that are like this a mesmerizing read.
Editors: Ann and Jeff Vandermeer Publisher: Corvus Books
The Blurb:
From Lovecraft to Borges to Gaiman, a century of intrepid literary experimentation has created a corpus of dark and strange stories that transcend all known genre boundaries. Together these stories form The Weird and amongst its practitioners number some of the greatest names in twentieth and twenty-first century literature. Exotic and esoteric, The Weird plunges you into dark domains and brings you face to face with surreal monstrosities; you won’t find any elves or wizards here... but you will find the boldest and downright most peculiar stories from the last hundred years bound together in the biggest Weird collection ever assembled. The Weird features an all star cast of authors, from classics to international bestsellers to Booker prize winners.
The contributing authors come from all over the world with some of best weird tales carefully selected and placed together in this dark and wonderful collection. The authors include H.P. Lovecraft, Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, China Mieville, Clive Barker and a whole host of others. Some of these stories will keep you up at night and some will leave you looking behind you when you walk. This truly is a great collection of stories for any fan of the genre but also any fan of excellent writing. All the stories are in chronological publishing order starting with Alfred Kubin’s excellent The Other Side (1908) and ending 106 stories later with K.J. Bishop’s Saving the Gleeful Horse (2010). It would be hard to select a favourite as they are all there for various reasons. In fact reading The Weird is such an emotional ride that Leah Thomas has is producing a twelve part web comic to visualise it.
Christophe Montoya Rating:
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