It’s
cherrypicking, I know. But sometimes an author introduces their
collection in such an organic, telling fashion that it’s impossible
not to jump on for the ride. Starting with a giant wooden carving of
dogs worth $500 encountered as a child, and moving to the other
random, exotic things encountered in his life for sale for $500,
Blaylock, in the introduction to his 2000 collection Thirteen
Phantasms,
draws a parallel to not only the parallel manner in which the
subsequent stories’ are also of arbitrary natures and substances,
but likewise to the ebb and flow of life, and how it shapes the
stories we write or tell in memory. Covering a gamut of material,
times, settings, and possibilities, the metaphor is extremely
apt—hence I’m shamelessly rehashing it. (But do read Blaylock’s
intro; it’s miles better.)
Twenty-three
years in the making, Thirteen
Phantasms
is Blaylock’s first collection of short stories. Not a prolific
writer of short fiction, the timing is appropriate given the
collection brings together every, single piece Blaylock published
between 1977 and 1999. A mix, it includes three stories from the
popular Langdon St. Ives steampunk universe, one from his Land of
Dreams setting, two pieces co-written with Tim Powers, and variety of
individual stories that cover everything from pulp fiction nostalgia
to dwarf merchants, UFOs to men finding better ways of behaving
toward their wives. Despite the paucity of numbers, Blaylock
possesses a good touch for short fiction given the stories in
Thirteen
Phantasms
are collectively more engaging than some of his novels.
A
bit of nostalgia for yesteryear science fiction and fantasy, the
title story tells of Landers, a man who helps an elderly lady clean
out her attic after her husband passes away. The effort including
the man’s boxes of old Astounding
magazines, on a whim Landers decides to use one of the yellowed order
forms to mail in for a Clark Ashton Smith collection. To his
surprise, the collection arrives, in turn sparking further ideas…
Falling nicely in line with the nostalgia of “Thirteen Phantasms”
is “Red Planet”—another Astounding-ish
story. About a goofy guy on a cross-country, let’s-see-what-happens
bus trip, his sense of carefree takes a shot in the arm when he
discovers where one bus ticket might take him. (The old lady on for
the ride is the icing on the cake.)
Were
it written today, one might mistake “The Pink of Fading Neon” for
a China Mieville piece. Atmospheric with a touch of Weird, it tells
of a region—an unnamed place—undergoing transformation in quietly
poignant, almost nostalgic fashion. Death the teacher required to
educate one elderly man on the unperceived value of his spouse, “The
Olde Curiosity Shop” finds Doyle Jimmerson searching for her knick
knacks in an antique shop after her untimely death. The fantastical
elements used to fine allegorical effect, dwarves and vampires never
had such domestic meaning. Another domestic story—the wife not
only alive but feisty this time around, “Doughnuts” is a small
town California version of The
Remains of the Day.
One man coming to terms with his own habits in the mirror of his
wife’s, it’s likewise an educatory story for the main character,
and done in a way everybody can relate to—a “Let
he who is without sin be the first to…” fashion.
The
title (intentionally?) misleading, “Bugs” is a subtly funny yet
real-world story of a bookshop owner
with romantic problems. Inspired by six-legged creatures he finds in
his shop, he goes home to celebrate his wedding anniversary as he
never has. Childhood acquaintances accidentally running across one
another in St. Malo, France, the quirky habit of one isn’t lost to
adulthood in “Nets of Silver and Gold”. Seemingly eccentric, the
childhood friend begins talking about strange appearances through the
keyhole in his hotel. When otherworldy things begin appearing,
however, things truly become strange.
As
mentioned, there are three Langdon St. Ives stories in the
collection, including the story idea which started it all. “The
Ape-Box Affair” has many of the trademarks of Golden Age fantastika
yet bears a modern sensibility—an awareness of what it’s
doing. An
eccentric gentleman scientist, Langdon St. Ives, has built a rocket
ship, and his test pilot is an orangutan named Newton. Forgetting
to fill the food box before lighting the fuse, however, has dire
circumstances, as the ape, cheated of his vittles mid-flight, sets to
pushing buttons, sending the ship careening back to London. Emerging
from the wreckage a smoldering, alien
visage, London may never be the same as Newton wanders the city. An
origins story, “The Idol’s Eye” tells of how St. Ives’
greatest nemesis Narbando came to be. Starting innocently
enough in the jungles of Java, one wild umbrella stab later, and the
world is a different place. St. Ives’ gang getting up to
their typical antics, this story has a dark fate for one even as the
evil genius comes to life. A look at the butterfly effect as only St.
Ives/Blaylock can, “Two Views of a Cave Painting” starts with St.
Ives’ discovery of a small, overlooked cave in the Surrey
countryside. Entering the cave, he finds an ancient
painting, as well as the fact the cave is a time traveling portal—the
painting, in fact being created in real-time by a mysterious
Neanderthal from ages past. Naturally,
St. Ives and his companions go exploring in the past. But
to what effect?
The
collection features two collaborative
efforts with Blaylock’s
good friend, Tim Powers. The first is “The Better Boy.” A
story tinkering with the gray between fate and karma, it weds one
man’s love of raising tomatoes with his actions outside the garden.
Losing his pants (literally) in the early going, he learns some life
lessons in the aftermath. The second is “We Traverse Afar”. In
it, a suburban Ebenezer Scrooge finds someone—or something (as it
were)—scroogier than him, making for an atypical critique of the
religious roots of the Christmas holiday.
Winning
Blaylock a (deserving) World Fantasy Award, “Paper Dragons” tells
of a man who becomes involved in his neighbor’s bizarre project to
reconstruct a Chinese parade dragon. Strongly inflected with magic
realist m.o., the story is alliterative in the most engaging, human
sense, and is a stand out in the collection. Relatively similar in
mode but different in appearance to “Paper Dragons”,
“Unidentified Objects” takes Blaylock’s introductory $500
hodge-podge and brings it full circle, closing the collection in
subtle but fine style. A dreamlike interweaving of past events, out
of order and its lens not sharply focused, this story of a man’s
flying saucer project is certainly not your average UFO science
fiction story.
Overall,
I enjoy the Langdon St. Ives’ stories for their escapist
adventuring, but they are not my favorite flavor of Blaylock. Such
novels as The
Last Coin,
All the
Bells on Earth,
and The
Paper Grail
tend to feature Blaylock at his best. His least fantastical tales,
they are rooted in contemporary, domestic life and the eccentric yet
quotidian characters who populate it—just like the majority of
stories in Thirteen
Phantasms.
The supernatural the stories possess is just a little spice for the
pot. But it may be fair to say the quasi-magic realist stories in
the collection—“Paper Dragons” and “Unidentified Objects”
(and to some minor degree “Red Planet”) are the best of the
collection. Blaylock artistically co-locating an unconventional
number of things that have no right being together, they make for
colorful, thoughtful reading—the mustard on the collection’s hot
dog, and yet another reason to read it.
As
(inconveniently) titled, the following are the sixteen stories
collected in Thirteen
Phantasms:
Thirteen
Phantasms
Red
Planet
The
Ape-Box Affair
Bugs
Nets
of Silver and Gold
The
Better Boy (with Tim Powers)
The
Pink of Fading Neon
The
Old Curiosity Shop
Doughnuts
Two
Views of a Cave Painting
The
Idol's Eye
Paper
Dragons
We
Traverse Afar (with Tim Powers)
The
Shadow on the Doorstep
Myron
Chester and the Toads
Unidentified
Objects
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