Review of A SINISTER QUARTET

TITLE: A Sinister Quartet

AUTHOR: Mike Allen, C.S.E. Cooney, Amanda J. McGee, Jessica P. Wick

382 pages, Mythic Delirium Books, ISBN 9781732644038 (paperback, ebook)

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DESCRIPTION: (from the back cover): Behind the walls of an invulnerable city ruled by angels, old movies provide balm for the soul and a plan to escape risks grisly retribution. A princess discovers a passage to a nightmarish world of deception and blood-sealed enchantment. A woman who has lost everything meets a man of great wealth and ominous secrets. In a town haunted by tragedy, malevolent supernatural entities converge, and the conflict that ensues unleashes chaos.

A Sinister Quartet gathers original long-form wonders and horrors composed in unusual keys, with a short novel by World Fantasy Award winner C. S. E. Cooney and a new novella from two-time World Fantasy Award finalist Mike Allen joined by debut novellas from rising talents Amanda J. McGee and Jessica P. Wick. All four offer immersions into strange, beautiful and frightening milieus.

 

MY RATING: five out of five stars

 

MY THOUGHTS: The short novel and three novellas debuting in A Sinister Quartet play a familiar lament: the abuse by those in power of those they deem powerless. But listen closely: there are crescendos of rebellion, adagios of personal loss, secrets revealed sotto voce and bravura, and a trembling bass line of body horror tying it all together. These stories are not happy, but they are hopeful, even if that hope doesn’t come until the coda.

In C.S.E. Cooney’s short novel “The Twice-Drowned Saint: Being a Tale of Fabulous Gelethel, the Invisible Wonders Who Rule There, and the Apostates Who Try to Escape its Walls,” the power is wielded by the Angels who rule their walled-off city and protect it from the world outside. But the Angels require obeisance and tribute, and in recent times they’ve become addicted to blood sacrifice – not from their own citizens but from the pilgrims seeking to become citizens and escape the worn-torn outer world. Not everyone within the city, not even among the ruling Angels, is happy about this turn. But is rebellion a new concept in Gelethel or is it a part of the very bones of the city? That’s one of many secrets that underpin and drive the story of the Angel Alizar and his saint, Ish. There are other secrets that surround Ish’s family, including the history of her parents’ marriage and the lives of her Uncles who are part of the Holy Host. And in this story, “host” means exactly that: when the Fourteen Angels fill their hosts with power, they distort the Hosts’ bodies gruesomely. The Angels, like most power brokers, don’t care about the effects of their power on the people who serve them, as long as they get their way. (The descriptions of these bodily transformations are not for the squeamish, nor are a couple of torture scenes midway through the novel.) The past losses and compromises experienced by Ish, by the Angel Alizar, by Ish’s family, all bubble under the surface of the story, releasing and resolving and repeating throughout. And through it all, there is Cooney’s masterful use of language, soaring into the ethereal and plummeting through the earthen – colors and sounds and smells evoked with unexpected turns of phrase and exacting word choice. Sometimes the story feels sf-nal, sometimes high (almost Biblical) fantasy, but it never feels at odds with itself despite the mix of genres.

High fantasy and portal fantasy are the genres for “An Unkindness,” Jessica P. Wick’s marvelous look at the power of the Fae over the mortal world. The tale is narrated by the young Princess Ravenna and is propelled by her sense that she is losing her beloved older brother Aliver to … something. At first, she’s not sure if it’s a growing ailment, a romantic malaise, or something more sinister. But it quickly becomes apparent that he’s been seduced by the power of a fairy ball and the queen who presides over it, and it’s up to Ravenna to save him. All the elements of classic young-girl-adventures-in-Faerie are here: the labyrinth that must be traversed, the portal (in this case, a pool) that must be descended through, the court ball that must be navigated with strange sights abounding, the confrontation with the Queen … but that’s only the middle of Ravenna’s story. The conclusion takes a slightly darker turn, an exploration of a young heroine’s loss of innocence (no, not by rape) that we don’t see in the classic “portal fantasy” stories. This is a rite of passage, a trial by fire, and Ravenna will not emerge unchanged as Dorothy and Alice are wont to do. Ravenna’s voice is endearing but also a little annoying, as befits a pre-teen and very precocious princess whose surety and love for her brother lead her into situations she almost can’t get out of. The sibling relationship we see at the beginning of the story is so real and touching that the sudden antipathy/distance of Aliver in the second chapter hits the reader as hard as it does Ravenna. Kudos to Wick for establishing that relationship so well in such a short opening space; the rest of the story would not work as well if we didn’t believe in the bond between sister and brother that threatens to be severed.  Also fair warning: the body horror is not as explicit is in the other stories but there is one pretty brutal scene involving a unicorn that may make animal lovers upset.

By comparison, Amanda J. McGee’s “Viridian” is very much rooted in the “modern Gothic” and “reconstructed fairy tale” traditions, and this melding is also perfect for the story being told. The setting is a remote part of modern Vermont. Lori Adams is a woman on the run from losses in her recent past (we find out quickly it’s the loss of her sister but don’t find out the details of that loss until later in the story). She settles in a small town and soon meets Ethan, a handsome and very rich stranger. The story is part courtship, part married life, and part the slow revelation of each partner’s secrets. Thanks to the occasional flashback chapter, the reader knows sooner than Lori what Ethan’s secret is (although not why he’s done what he’s done) and in the present-day section sees the way Ethan exerts increasing power over Lori by methods not limited to gaslighting her – but aren’t those the tenets of the Gothic suspense novel, as well as most modern psychological horror? McGee reveals Amanda’s secrets and the depths of Ethan’s depravities at a pace that made this reader anxious for the denouement and not at all eager to get there. It’s always interesting to me when a writer can make a story feel both laconic and urgent, and McGee shifts seamlessly from one to the other in the same scene. There’s only a touch of real body horror (and I won’t ruin the surprise of it here), but there’s a lot of very dark moments for Lori before the story is over. Of the four stories in A Sinister Quartet, this is the one I can most easily see being adapted to film – and in the right hands, I think it would be amazing (let’s not talk about what could happen in inept or cautious hands).

The concluding novella, “The Comforter” by Mike Allen, is the one most firmly rooted in a single genre. This is body horror, straight-up and unadultered, mixed as it may be with classic supernatural thriller elements. Throughout the story, and in increasing detail as the story unfolds, characters are physically altered in horrific ways. The feel of being fully immersed in the genre is enhanced by the multiple points-of-view: some omniscient, some narrowly third-person, some disturbingly second person. The constant shifts in POV keep the reader off-center and always on edge, not sure where the story will go or how much of the truth will be revealed or even if the disparate threads will converge. It’s a masterful mind-fuck, if I may be permitted a bit of vulgarity. “The Comforter” ties to several other of Mike Allen’s fictions, but one need not have read those to feel like this is a complete story. At points you may not understand what’s going on any more than the characters do, but it all comes together in the end. Allen also gives us a different spin on the use/abuse of power and control: the powerful in the first three stories (Cooney’s Angels, McGee’s Ethan, and Wick’s fae queen) allow those they have control over a modicum, at least, of individuality, while Allen’s nebulous protagonist is all about absorption and the removal of differences to make a cohesive and ever-expanding whole. And that protagonist goes to disturbing lengths to get what it wants. This is easily the bloodiest and most physically disturbing of the four pieces of A Sinister Quartet, nudging out the more disquieting scenes of “The Twice-Drowned Saint.”

This review would not be complete if I didn’t mention the Introduction, which I presume was also written by Mike Allen and which functions as a full additional short story. It sets the tone of the anthology and gives oblique, musical nods at each of the stories that follows, but it can be read on its own as a treatise on the power of music and the nature of stumbling, unprepared, into fictional worlds that you perhaps want to look away from but just can’t.

A Sinister Quartet released today, June 9th, and I find it apropos (and perhaps destined?) that I’m writing and posting this review on the cusp as the 9th turns into the 10th, straddling days the way three of these stories straggle genres. So go, now, seek out this strange, sinister quartet and be immersed in these worlds.

 

Note: I received an Advance Review Copy of this book from the publisher.

SERIES SATURDAY: Hexworld

This is a series about … well, series. I do so love stories that continue across volumes, in whatever form: linked short stories, novels, novellas, television, movies. I’ve already got a list of series I’ve recently read, re-read, watched, or re-watched that I plan to blog about. I might even, down the line, open myself up to letting other people suggest titles I should read/watch and then comment on.

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Jordan L. Hawk’s most well-known series is likely their Lovecraftian Whyborne & Griffin series, which ended recently after 11 books and several novellas and short stories. W&G took place in something very close to our own world, where only a select few people know that magic and Elder Gods are real. In Hawk’s Spirits series, the existence of magic is a bit more widely known but still not commonplace. Of all Hawk’s historicals, the Hexworld series is the most removed from our world and definitely qualifies as alternate history.

In the 1890s New York City of the Hexworld books, there exists the Metropolitan Police, which handles every-day crime, and the Witch Police, which handles magic-based crimes. “Witches” here is an umbrella term for anyone who can wield magic, regardless of gender. But for a witch to reach their full potential, they must be bonded with a familiar. Familiars are shifters – people who can turn into a specific animal – and they are the conduits through which magic flows to witches. The bond, once forged, is difficult to break. While any witch and familiar can be bonded, the bond works best when the witch-familiar combo are meant for each other; a witch comes across “his” familiar, or vice-versa. The implication is that for most witch-familiar combos, it’s a working relationship, with the partners going home to their own lives when the work day is over. But the bonds can be romantic, and for the main characters in the books they pretty much always are. (Hawk’s hallmark is historical m/m paranormal romance with plenty of sex tossed in the mix.)

The general public (worldwide, not just in NYC) is aware of magic and in fact dependent on it. Shop-owners rely on hexes to keep thieves out of their stores, for instance. But they also distrust familiars. Prejudice runs deep, especially towards unbonded, or “feral,” familiars, who are often the first suspects when a magic-based crime has been committed. There are those among the Witch Police who would force-bond feral familiars, even though it’s illegal, and it’s a fair bet a portion of the general public feels the same. The prejudice rears its head in sometimes very subtle ways, but it’s always at least in the background of each book, and it’s not always easy to read.

Each book focuses on the beginning of a different witch-familiar pair. They usually come across each other in the course of investigating (or in one case, committing) a crime. Sometimes the familiar realize he’s found his witch first, sometimes the other way around. Romantic and sexual tensions increase as the investigation of whatever crime is at the center of the story goes on, and in the end the main pair of the book are not only bonded professionally, they’re paired romantically. Again, these are m/m paranormal romance from an author who believes in happy endings – so I’m not really spoiling anything major by telling you that out of four novels and two novellas, Hawk has yet to introduce us to a pair who don’t end up together. The romance/sexual side of the books is a bit more formulaic in that regard than either of Hawk’s other two historical series, but I don’t really mind. Knowledge that whatever romantic misunderstandings and trials the characters encounter will be overcome by the end of the book allows me to concentrate on the surprises and twists of the crime plots.

Those crimes range from murder to a feral-child-trafficking ring. The clues to each crime/mystery are laid out very well throughout each book, along with red herrings to keep the reader guessing. The crime introduced at the beginning of each book is resolved by the end, so each book is “one and done” in that regard. But there is an over-arching conspiracy our growing group of heroes becomes aware of that will need to be resolved before the series ends (and I do believe that as with the Whyborne and Griffin series, Hawk is working steadily towards that resolution and already has an end-point in mind).

Even though each book focuses on a different witch-familiar pairing, the main characters of previous books don’t disappear. Most of these pairs end up working for the NYC Witch Police, but not all. We get to see their romantic relationships continue beyond the end of the book they star in, as they provide support for the new focal pairing. Hawk is essentially building a large “found family” of characters who come together to support each other (and deal with that pesky over-arching conspiracy). This is something intrinsically recognizable to queer readers: building a family around yourself when your own family has let you down or abandoned you. It’s interesting to see this play out in a world where being a familiar, and especially a feral familiar, seems to be more disdained than being gay. (I’m not saying there’s no anti-gay sentiment in Hexworld, just that it seems less of a threat that anti-familiar sentiment.)

It should also be noted that at least as of book four, the short story/novellas “A Christmas Hex” and “Wild Wild Hex” do not tie into the main continuity but do give us a look at witch/familiar pairs outside of the NYC Witch Police. They are nice bits of world-expansion and are equally as romantic/erotic as the main books. (Also, full disclosure: I suggested the title for “Wild Wild Hex.” Yes, I was and am a fan of the Wild Wild West television series.

The alternate history worldbuilding is spot-on, the 1890s milieu perfect for the story Hawk is telling. The characters are endearing, interesting, aggravating, and, yes, sexy (in their varied ways). If you like alternate history m/m paranormal romance with a thriller/crime aspect, these books are for you.

The books in the Hexworld series are:

·         “The 13th Hex” (prequel short story)

·         Hexbreaker

·         Hexmaker

·         “A Christmas Hex” (short story)

·         Hexslayer

·         “Wild Wild Hex” (novella)

·         Hexhunter

Reading Round-Up: May 2020

Continuing the monthly summaries of what I’ve been reading and writing.

 

BOOKS

To keep my numbers consistent with what I have listed on Goodreads, I count completed magazine issues as “books.” I read or listened to 8 books in May: 6 in print, 2 in e-book format, and 0 in audio format. They were:

1.       Lightspeed Magazine #120 (May, 2020 issue), edited by John Joseph Adams. The usual fine assortment of sf and fantasy short stories. This month’s favorites for me were C. Robert Cargill’s “We Are Where the Nightmares Go,” Millie Ho’s “The Fenghuang,” Charlie Jane Ander’s “Rager in Space,” and Adam-Troy Castro’s “The Time Traveler’s Advice to the Lovelorn.”

2.       Sal & Gabi Fix the Universe, by Carlos Hernandez. The second installment in Carlos Hernandez’s Sal & Gabi series, in which Sal & Gabi realized that Sal’s father’s efforts to discover a way to close the holes between the Universes may actually be endangering the multiverse, is as inclusive, fun-filled, and love-filled as the first. Full Review HERE.

3.       Zlonk! Zok! Zowie! The Subterranean Blue Grotto Guide To Batman ’66 Season One edited by Jim Beard. Episode-specific essays discuss casting, trivia, and behind-the-scenes facts. The tone of the essays varies from Very Scholarly to Very Silly, but they’re all enjoyable. Fans of the television series should check this out, and be on the lookout for volumes about seasons 2 and 3 in the future.

4.       The Shadow Hero by Gene Leun Yang and Sonny Liew. The Shadow Hero is a really fun re-imagining of an obscure Golden Age hero called The Green Turtle. The current creators move the character from the Asian theater of World War II to San Francisco’s Chinatown district, and the plot involves gang activity. The social commentary is interwoven with the character development. The graphic novel also includes an essay by Yang about the original comics character, and a reprint of the original Green Turtle’s first appearance.

5.       DC Comics: First Issues Specials, edited by Gerry Conway. A hardcover volume reprinting the short-lived and varying-in-quality DC Comics series called “First Issue Special.” It includes work by Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, Marty Pasko, Walter Simonson, Mike Grell, Gerry Conway, Bob Haney, Ramona Fradon, Steve Ditko and others, featuring characters DC was looking to return to prominence (The Creeper, Metamorpho, Manhunter, Doctor Fate, the New Gods) and newly-created characters (an alien Starman, Atlas, and Grell’s Warlord). Full review HERE.

6.       Dead Girl Blues by Lawrence Block. Block’s latest self-published novella (still on preorder as I post this, but due to release in mid-June) is not an easy read. It starts with the murder-rape (in that order) of a young woman and then follows the life of the murderer/rapist to the present day. It’s a deep character study of a particular mind and thus may not be for everyone. Full Review HERE. (I received an Advance Review Copy from the author.)

7.       The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo. Vo’s novella from Tor.com details the rise to power of a twice-exiled empress, through the eyes of a cleric documenting the contents of the Empress’s home-in-exile and the elderly woman the cleric meets there. Full review to come.

8.       A History of the Philippines: From Indios Bravos to Filipinos by Luis H. Francia. A concise history of the islands-nation from prehistory to the near present. Informative without being too granular.

 

 

STORIES

I have a goal of reading 366 short stories (1 per day, essentially, although it doesn’t always work out that way) this year (366 because it’s a Leap Year). Here’s what I read this month and where you can find them if you’re interested in reading them too. If no source is noted, the story is from the same magazine or book as the story(ies) that precede(s) it:

1.       “The Time Traveler’s Advice to the Lovelorn” by Adam-Troy Castro, from Lightspeed Magazine #120 (May 2020 issue), edited by John Joseph Adams.

2.       “One Hundred Sentences About the City of the Future: A Jeremiad” by Alex Irvine

3.       “Melting Like Metal” by Ada Hoffman

4.       “Rager in Space” by Charlie Jane Anders

5.       “I Bury Myself” by Carmen Maria Machado

6.       “The Fenghuang” by Millie Ho

7.       “We Are Where the Nightmares Go” by C. Robert Cargill

8.       “Destinations of Love” by Alexander Weinstein

9.       “The Proper Thing” by Seanan McGuire, on the author’s Patreon page.

10.   “Perilous Blooms” by Beth Cato, from Daily Science Fiction, edited by Jonathan Laden and Michele-Lee Barasso

11.   “Job Placement” by Jim Butcher, from the author’s website

 

So that’s 11 short stories in May. Once again way under “1 per day,” putting me further behind for the year so far. (May 31th was the 152th day of 2020.)

 

Summary of Reading Challenges:

“To Be Read” Challenge: This month: 0 read; YTD: 3 of 14 read.

366 Short Stories Challenge: This month:  11 read; YTD: 95 of 366 read.

Graphic Novels Challenge:  This month: 1 read; YTD: 10 of 52 read.

Goodreads Challenge: This month: 8 read; YTD: 58 of 125 read.

Non-Fiction Challenge: This month: 2 read; YTD: 6 of 24 read.

Read the Book / Watch the Movie Challenge: This month: 0; YTD: 0 read/watched.

Complete the Series Challenge: This month: 1 books read; YTD: 6 of 16 read.

                                                                Series fully completed: 0 of 3 planned

Monthly Special Challenge: May was Asian-Pacific/South Asian Heritage Month, so my goal was to read some poetry. Three books fit this goal (The Shadow Hero, The Empress of Salt and Fortune, and A History of the Philippines) and one short story (“The Fenghuang” by Millie Ho). Not as good as I’d have liked to have done, but better than I did with the poetry challenge last month.

June is Pride Month, so my goal is to read a number of authors from across the LGBTQIA+ spectrum.