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Crows and Silences
by Lucius Shepard

Reviewed by Galen Strickland
Posted December 22, 2024

I received an advance review copy of this posthumously published collection of four novellas by Lucius Shepard from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. It will be published by Subterranean Press on December 31. We have no affiliation with Sub Press, but it is your best bet since many of their editions have limited print runs. Both Bookshop and Amazon have the hardcover listed for pre-order, so if you choose either don't put it off too long. Amazon also shows it available for Kindle on that day, at a very reasonable price, and other e-book sources will probably have it at the same price point, including directly from Sub Press. A purchase through either our Amazon or Bookshop links may earn us a commission.

Lucius Shephard (1943-2014) won the John W. Campbell Award (recently renamed The Astounding) as Best New Writer in 1985. I had previously read one of the novellas in this collection, although it has been many years, and that goes for a few of his others. Mainly known for shorter work, there are several "novels" that were actually fix-ups of related stories, or else they are very long novellas. I think it safe to say Shepard is a writer's writer, appreciated for his prose by other writers, but perhaps not as well known to the general reading public. However, serious readers have nominated him for many awards. According to the SFADb, which is maintained by the publishers of Locus Magazine, Shepard had a total of 166 award wins and nominations, winning 6 major awards, 8 for Locus, plus 16 other wins. None of the four novellas in this collection won an award, but three were finalists for at least two each. Previous editions of these novellas may be available used from various sources, so I will show cover art from some of them. The introduction is by Michael Swanwick, who says a lot of Shepard's characters are from the lower echelons of society. I can recommend this book, but it is not for anyone who thinks all fictional characters have to be sympathetic.

*     *     *

"Kalimantan," along with two other stories, was originally published in 1990 by Legend/Century Limited Editions. It was also in two other editions from Legend Novellas on its own. Later publications include a mass market paperback from Tor. It was a finalist for British Fantasy and Locus awards. It takes place in the Indonesian Kalimantan section of Borneo, the story being told of past events that occurred sometime in the 1980s I believe. I'm not sure who the main narrator is, but it is someone listening to, and reporting what is said by a British man named Barnett. I'm pretty sure his first name is never given, but the two other men he talks about are Curtis MacKinnon, an American, and Paul Tenzer, who is Dutch. Neither of the men are what you would call upright citizens. Even if they were engaged in legitimate businesses, they also were involved in smuggling, including drugs, and perhaps prostitution. Barnett had known Tenzer for many years, the latter then living in an inland compound. MacKinnon runs afoul of the law, which prompts him to come to Barnett for advice. Barnett arranges for him to travel to Tenzer's compound, to lay low until things settle down. MacKinnon writes him a few letters for a couple of years, then nothing. Later, Tenzer writes to Barnett that he is needed to control MacKinnon's outrageous behavior.

It reads like a combination of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness and a more indigenous, mystical experience. MacKinnon had resorted to a drug called seribu aso, which the natives used to communicate with spirits, some of whom dwell in other worlds. Tenzer wants Barnett to either take MacKinnon back to Banjormasim, or else kill him. Barnett is not sure either is possible, since under the influence of the drug MacKinnon is transported to those other worlds. What if Barnett takes the drug himself? Does he dare follow MacKinnon to better understand his agenda? Will he have any influence on MacKinnon's actions, or have the power to stop him? If so, will he then be someone Tenzer needs help to stop? Considering Barnett's stories are after the fact tells you he survived, but his listeners have to grapple with whether or not he is telling the truth. Is it possible what came back from the other world is not the real Barnett?

*     *     *

"Skull City" first appeared in the July 1990 issue of Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, where I first read it, and I still have that issue in my collection. It was a finalist for a Locus award, as well as the Asimov Reader's Poll. It was also part of a previous Sub Press edition, Skull City and Other Lost Tales, now out of print. Asimov's contents and copyright page says the cover art is by Michael Whelan, although it doesn't specifiy it is for "Skull City." While I have always associated it with the story, it did originate a couple of years earlier, and may have been used for other books. The original painting from which it is cropped (and reversed) is from a 1988 painting, Sentinels. The story is the type I would have expected to see in Fantasy & Science Fiction instead. On the surface it reads more like fantasy, verging toward horror, but if alternate universes can be considered SF then it fits. The means to reach the alternate worlds does have somewhat of a scientific basis.

Larson is a heroin addict, a drifter, and a thief. He becomes involved with a man he knows as Cooge (real name Cugielo), a former record producer, now working on his own with a rock group called Skull City. I'm sure a lot of people have heard conspiracy theories of backwards recordings that are supposedly satanic in origin, or at least with hidden messages. Cooge knows that some of that was a real attempt at sorcery, so he has devoted many years studying satanic rituals, incantations, and symbols, along with mathematical notations in order to incorporate all of that into music. He gives Larson a player and headphones, which transport Larson into another world. For lack of a better term, he calls it Skull City, whereas Cooge thinks of it as Dys, and a previous associate called it Bedlam. Cooge thinks it is Hell, or at least an approximation of Hell, but it could be perceived differently by whoever is experiencing it. On one occasion Larson encounters a woman who says her name is Saney, but when he comes back from that world he is sitting in a cafe, and sitting opposite him is that same woman, although now seen differently. Her name is different too; Ainsley.

Ainsley is a model and hopeful actress, who has to leave for an audition, but they make plans to meet up later. Larson is mad at Cooge for not preparing him for what would happen when he listened to the music, so he concocts a plan to break into Cooge's place at a time he is known to be with a call girl each week. He recruits a lock-pick and safe cracker for assitance. He finds both journals Cooge has written about Dys/Bedlam/Skull City, as well as maps, from which he deduces where things in the alternate world relate to the Manhattan he knows. From that information he plans an assault on Cooge's headquarters in Skull City. Problems arise though, since when you are a lowlife yourself, you may find your allies are not really allies, only other lowlifes working their own angle.

*     *     *

"Louisiana Breakdown" was published by Golden Gryphon Press in 2003. A few other reprints, including foreign editions, preceded this collection. It was a finalist for Bram Stoker and International Horror Guild awards. It is set in the fictional small town of Grail, Louisiana. Musician (but mainly songwriter) Jack Mustaine's BMW breaks down just outside of town. While waiting for a tow truck a local sheriff's deputy stops and harasses him, implying the three guitars in his car might be stolen property. Luckily (?) along comes Joe Dill, a rich and prominent Grail citizen, who cautions the deputy about the harassment, then takes Jack to a local bar, Le Bon Chance. It is in that bar Jack first hears about Vida Dumars, the reigning Midsummer Queen, and shortly after that she walks in.

Prior to this, we learned a lot about the town and some of its inhabitants, including Vida. The population is small, and there are normally very few visitors or tourists, so how can there be so many thriving businesses, including multiple ones owned by Joe Dill? Could it be because they have embraced the spirits of chance, paying tribute to any and all dieties that might grant them favors? "These people have a talent for belief. They've learned to believe in whatever's necessary to preserve the illusion of the moment. They'll tell you stories about the Swamp Child, about the Kingdom of the Good Gray Man, about voodoo and hoodoo and how you can do it to whoever you want long as you got the coin to pay the old Nanigo woman who lives in the mangrove where mosquitoes whine and gators belly-flop in the black water. Jesus lives. So does Shango, Erzulie, Damballa, half a dozen others."

Vida was selected Midsummer Queen when she was ten, to serve in that capacity for twenty years, when the next ten-year-old girl would be selected on St. John's Eve. The day the story begins is the eve of St. John's Eve, which will mark the end of Vida's reign. Only Jack wants her to leave town with him right away, to hell with Grail, to hell with the Midsummer festival, to hell with the Good Gray Man, the spirit that supposedly picks the new Queen. Vida knew a change was coming that morning when she saw The Great Cloud of Being, in which she recognized the Nine Forms. She had seen the Cloud only one other time, when she was eighteen and ran off to New Orleans to be a wild child, to live with the witch man, Clifford Marsh. She is also being haunted by Marsh, who she knows wants to reclaim her. She also thinks she sees the spirit of the Good Gray Man inside Jack, so that must signify Jack will be her salvation, right? Maybe, maybe not.

*     *     *

The first publication of "Colonel Rutherford's Colt" was in a previous Sub Press edition in 2003, no other stories included. As far as I've been able to determine it has only been made available otherwise in an audio version, and an e-book that seems to no longer exist. It has only one element that comes close to being speculative fiction, but it's not really, and that might account for it not receiving any genre award recognition.

Jimmy Roy Guy and his partner/lover Rita Whitelaw are rare gun dealers, traveling a circuit of gun shows in the Pacific Northwest. We first meet them at a show in Issaquah. Most of what they have to sell is of no interest to many who come to the shows, since they are high dollar items with historical significance. Among their collection is a .42 caliber Smith & Wesson revolver that once belonged to Teddy Roosevelt, a .38 caliber Beretta which had been presented to Elliot Ness by the Chicago Chamber of Commerce, and a single-shot derringer wielded by Civil War spy Belle Starr. They are also always on the lookout to buy and resell others of the same type.

What comes close to spec fic is Jimmy's penchant for concocting stories. Earlier that day he was starting a new story, one in which a gun would be associated with a place with palm trees. A woman approaches them and offers to sell them a 1911 Colt revolver, previously owned by notorious white supremacist Bob Champion. As soon as he saw it, Jimmy knew this was his "palm tree gun." What I first thought was he would concoct the story to tell potential buyers, but no, the story is for his own edification. He was known as a truthful and reliable gun seller, he would never lie about a gun. For instance, he once had sold a rifle recovered from a certain compound near Waco, Texas, but was upfront that he could not confirm it had ever been wielded by David Koresh. It was then I realized Jimmy shared something with a character in a book written about twelve years later. Jimmy has (suffers from?) narrative disorder. He never wrote down the stories, but once finalized he could recite them to Rita, but she sometimes made suggestions for different narrative tracks. Rita also knew that Jimmy frequently got lost inside his fabricated narratives, and in those cases she had to be patient until he came back to reality.

Instead of Bob Champion, he placed the Colt in the hands of Colonel Hawes Rutherford, who served the US Army attached to the consulate in Havana, Cuba, circa 1912. His first thoughts were 1910, but had to change to accomodate when Bob Champion's gun was manufactured. Loretta Snow had been Champion's wife, and then after his mysterious death started a relationship with a Major Raymond Borchard, although she wasn't sure if "Major" was just an affectation, or if he had served in the military. She later learned he had been associated with her late husband, and mostly just wanted the gun. She wants to sell it, but also wants to make sure Jimmy doesn't resell it to Borchard. There is another buyer Jimmy thinks of, a history professor at Washington State in Pullman, and he hopes to drive up the price by having him bid against Borchard, while also denying Borchard the truth about the competing bids. While Rita took care of their table at the gun show, Jimmy met with both Loretta Snow and Borchard, both on their home turf. While doing so he got them mixed up with the characters in his story, calling Loretta Susan, the long-suffering wife of Colonel Rutherford, as well as mixing up Borchard with the Colonel. In his story, Susan's cousin Aaron had once confessed his love for her, but she rejected him. Now she needs his help to rid her of Rutherford, who has killed her lover. Chaos ensues as Jimmy becomes Aaron in a story he may not be able to escape.

*     *     *

In summation, I have endeavored to give just a brief synopsis of each story, but hopefully not spoil any major events. As I said in the beginning, none of the characters are necessarily sympathetic, but that doesn't mean their stories aren't worth reading. Each has their own world view, their own hopes and anticipations of their future, even if they don't think that future is too far away. I can't say I identified with any of them in particular, but if I had to choose it would be Jimmy Roy Guy. Not mentioned in the story, but he could be considered somewhere on the autistic spectrum. He doesn't relate to other people very well, not even Rita, even though he loves her, or at least says he does. He is most at home inside his own head, which can be a scary place, or perhaps his only safe place. It is hard for me to relate to either Barnett or Larson, both self-serving and indifferent to other's sufferings. Maybe Jack Mustaine, who was very good at running away from his problems, both before and after he met Vida.

The strengths of the stories are in the propulsive narrative flow, the anticipation, or I should say trepidation, of what is coming next. I remembered "Skull City," and of liking it the first time around, but after thirty-four years it was mostly a new story, with very few scenes that sparked a memory. I can't tell you which is the best of the collection, all are memorable for different reasons. My least favorite is probably "Kalimantan," but that might change if I ever re-read them. I wasn't sure the final story could top "Louisiana Breakdown," and while it might not have, it may be the one I think about most often in the future. Come get lost in the narrative disorders of Lucius Shepard, and it wouldn't surprise me if you seek other stories, as I very much want to do. Every time I read strong stories such as these I want to dive into the writer's full bibliography, but for Shepard that would be a long journey. I have four of his books in print, three I read long ago, plus four e-books, one novel and three collections, all previous releases from Sub Press, with only a few stories previously read. One of these days I hope to get to them, and more.

 

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Author
Lucius Shepard

Published
Stories: 1990, 2003
Collection: December 31, 2024

Awards
See body of review for individual award information.

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