the horror! the horror!

DATE: March 2, 2011
ITEM: Dan Simmons’ Carrion Comfort
RECIPIENT: J.F.

In the last two years, I have become fairly obsessed with this author. On a geek whim, I picked up Ilium a couple of years ago at the library, and, frankly, I just couldn’t believe how much I liked it. It should be a pretentious piece of shit because there is so much book learning in it, but Simmons is absolutely great at describing battle scenes, and the labyrinthine plot devices actually end up…not exactly coming together because the story isn’t really finished until you’ve read the sequel, Olympos, but in any case, the story is a ripping good time with all kinds of geeky Classical world and literature references to make you feel smart just for getting them. I freakin loved that pair, and then I just couldn’t get enough of the guy.

Which is not to say that everything he has written is as good as those, not surprising, though, given that the dude has written an absurd amount of stuff. But, all of it has had something that grabbed me. These days, he seems to be interested in writing huge historical novels with supernatural twists. I like them, but he’s suffering from his successes (I think) – not quite as much editing as I’d like to see and endings which just seem to go on too long and stretch my disbelief a little too far. But, it’s all pretty well plotted and hard to put down (until the end, especially Drood and The Terror, which both drag a bit there).

Carrion Comfort is a seriously disturbing piece of work, violence in a literal sense and in a figurative, psychological, effing make-you-put-down-the-book-to-breathe sense. Do not read this book if you have a heart condition. Do not read if you can’t take a little gore (I’ve read gory-ier, but still…). I read this book while I was on maternity leave; you can’t imagine a more inappropriate time to have this in your hands. Of course, I was also watching hour after hour of the last few seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer at the time. (Finishing that series left me with a hole in my heart.) Nazis, vampires, and government conspiracies, oh my! Again, Simmons pulls off an improbable number of twists and converging story lines. I can’t explain. Just read something this guy has written. Anyway – bottom line: great book, perfect for J.F., but not for the faint of heart.

The quote on the front says that Stephen King (another dude with bad endings and no editor) deems this to be one of the “three greatest horror novels of the twentieth century.” But what I want to know is, what are the other two? (and does he think he wrote them?)

DATE: March 1, 2011
ITEM: Dan Simmons’ Summer of Night
RECIPIENT: J.F. or his son, S.C.

This book is a much more palatable somewhat more traditional horror story, some small-town kids fighting a shadowy big nasty, which might herald the end of everything. It’s older,and I’m guessing Simmons just hadn’t gotten quite so carried away with himself when he wrote this one. I did enjoy it quite a bit; in particular, the milieu (if I may be so bold) is a world which doesn’t really exist any more, where kids play all over town, ride bikes for miles all summer long, don’t have cell phones, or, necessarily, even phones in their houses, and don’t think much of walking a long distance to hang out together and be kids. It’s no pre-technology paradise, just a time very slightly out of reach, and one which I can relate to in only the barest memory. Simmons evokes it well, and seems to be able to make very authentic kids who think, who try, who are growing up, and are up against more than they can imagine. Maybe that ounds corny, but if so, that’s my fault, not Simmons’.