The Golem by Edward Lee

Stories of monsters pervade horror fiction, from giant beasts that ravage cities (think King Kong, Godzilla, or the anthology Monstrous reviewed here), or small, creeping horrors (H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Rats in the Walls”). There are the creatures that have become staples of the horror genre, from Frankenstein’s monster to the werewolf, zombies to Dracula and the host of other vampires that seem to be popping up in fiction everywhere nowadays. Religious backgrounds aren’t uncommon either, especially stories of possession and the Devil (The Excorcist, The Omen, Rosemary’s Baby). Yet, Jewish religious ideas, which are particularly rich for fiction like this, especially with groups such as the Kabbalah, and with folks tales of the inhuman golem, yet they are a rare occurrence indeed. All of this of course means that, as a fan of a good creature feature myself, and looking for something new from an author I only had a brief acquaintance with (“In the Year of Our Lord: 2202”—which many people seemed to like less than its companions, but which I thought was the best of the three—from the anthology Triage, featuring stories from Richard Laymon and Jack Ketchum as well), I jumped at Edward Lee’s The Golem.


Seth and Judy have lived through dark patches of their lives, and now have recovered from their addictions to achieve great success and fortune. The boyfriend-girlfriend duo buys a house in rural Maryland, once owned by a well-known Jewish leader. However, their house and the land surrounding it have a dark past filled with religious intolerance that lead to violence and death. Over one hundred years ago a mysterious force killed an entire town, and that creature has returned.

With a brutal prologue that sets the stage for the events to come, Lee weaves a wonderful novel filled with historical and religious details. While the horror elements take a while to surface, there is an underlying unease and tension that fills the very well written story. The plot is tightly wound, with realistic dialogue, convincing characters, and a swift pace. While this lacking of the elements I was suspecting at times made things seem to lag, leaving the reader with an urge for something to happen, it is undeniable that Lee’s writing ability managed to cover that flaw fairly well.

If you are looking for a fast-paced, suspense-filled horror novel, you might look elsewhere. However, if a well-written tale of historical horror and modern struggles appeals to you, The Golem is for you.

8/10

A War of Gifts: An Ender Story by Orson Scott Card

The Ender series is very well known among fans of science fiction, in particular the Ender Quartet (Ender’s Game (based on the novelette “Ender’s Game”), Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind). Years after this was wrapped up, we saw the Shadow Quartet (Ender’s Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, Shadow of the Giant), along with a collection of stories, First Meetings in the Enderverse, and now we are seeing a new resurgence of the Ender series. Orson Scott Card created the webzine Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show, every issue of which promises a new Ender story, while Marvel has begun adaptations of Ender novels, along with a few new stories themselves, found in Red Prophet: The Tales of Alvin Maker (contains the short graphic tale “The Gold Bug”), Ender’s Game: Battle School, Ender’s Game: Command School, Ender’s Shadow: Battle School, Ender’s Shadow: Command School, and Recruiting Valentine. The stories from Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show have all been collected so far, with the first four collected in the anthology of material from Card’s webzine, the book also holding the title of Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show, another being incorporated into A War of Gifts: An Ender Story, and three more in Ender in Exile, the last two books mentioned being the new Ender novella and newest Ender novel, respectively.


Brand new in paperback, A War of Gifts: An Ender Story is a long novella that takes place during Ender’s first year at Battle School, where the kids decide that it is time for a little rebellion. After two Dutch boys celebrate Sinterklaas Day, all of the students want to bring Santa Claus to Battle School. All of them except Zeck, a religious fundamentalist whose father has literally beat into him that Santa is from Satan. Zeck works to destroy the fun the other kids are having, throwing whatever he can in the way, all in hopes of being sent home. Also worked into the story is the short story “Ender’s Stocking,” giving readers a look back at Ender’s home, where his mom deals with the grief of losing her child.

The book is a very quick read, and fun. It is nice to see the characters from the early Ender books again, especially the young Ender Wiggin. The idea Card is putting out is a good one, of acceptance and joy. The pacing is spot on, and the book never lags. A War of Gifts does have a couple of downfalls, however, among them that we see a number of students arrested due to Zeck’s selfishness, and then they disappear from the story. The role of one of them in other books is alluded to, yet at the same time the need to forgive Zeck feels lacking when a number of kids are punished, their lives seriously affected, and there is no recompense. Also, for readers who are making their first foray into the Ender series, the chapter titled “Ender’s Stocking,” which is just the short story from InterGalactic Medicine Show, will make less sense, as it is the only part of the book in which Mrs. Wiggin and Peter Wiggin are ever mentioned or play any role. More of a bone for the long-time reader’s than the new ones.

Despite these, A War of Gifts does have the good aspects I mentioned, and is great for an afternoon of reading. If nothing else, it will spark your interest to dive back into Ender’s world, as well to check out the brand new Ender in Exile.

8/10

Broken Trail by Alan Geoffrion

Continuing my slight foray into the Western at Luke Reviews, I tackled a well-known but far more contemporary Western than both John Ermine of the Yellowstone and The Searchers, 2006’s Broken Trail by first time author Alan Geoffrion. The novel was also made into a very successful AMC mini-series, starring Robert Duvall and Thomas Haden Church.

Print Ritter’s sister dies, and leaves all of her property and money to him, instead of her son, Tom Harte. Print, upset by this slight, convinces Tom to join him on a new job: to take 500 horses from Oregon to Sheridan, Wyoming, to sell to a man buying horses for the British Army. They take up the deal, but it turns out to be far more than they bargained for, as early on they run into Captain Billy Fender, a scurrilous man who has five Chinese girls that he is taking to sell into prostitution, and is raping on the journey. After a fight between Tom and Billy, the Ritter-Harte party suddenly has five new members, none of whom can communicate in English with the two men. Ging Wa, Mai Ling, Sun Foy, Ye Fung, and Ghee Moon (or Numbers 1 through 5, as Print renames them) join the two men on their trek across the vast west, and through many other dangers, on their way to Sheridan.

An interesting mix of using the tropes Western’s made famous while at the same time making fun of them, this revisionist Western digs into the nitty-gritty of being a cowboy, instead of promulgating the romantic ideal seen in many other books in the genre. The pace of Broken Trail has a tendency at times to slow down a bit, but for the most part it is an intriguing look at the west, as well as the prostitution trade that ran rampant through the region, in particular among Chinese girls, who were shipped to the west for that sole purpose. Humor and life philosophies are mixed in with the action, making certain moments incredible and unforgettable. Hopefully in his next book, Geoffrion will remove the slow parts, focus on the mixing of deep thoughts and cowboys he does so well in Broken Trail, and will leave us an even more masterfully written book.

8/10

Galaxy in Flames by Ben Counter

Begun in Dan Abnett’s Horus Rising, and continued in Graham McNeill’s False Gods, the Horus Heresy’s opening trilogy comes to a conclusion in Galaxy in Flames, by Ben Counter. This trilogy is the beginning of the Horus Heresy series, a saga of the epic civil war that created the Warhammer 40,000 universe.

Galaxy in Flames wraps up the trilogy following Garviel Loken, captain in the Sons of Horus legion, and space marine, future fighter for the Imperium of Man. His legion is led by the Warmaster Horus, who has, over the first couple novels, begun his path from favored son of the Emperor to traitor. In Counter’s first contribution to the series, Horus attacks the rebelling world of Isstvan III, but it is all a set up. Horus uses bombs of horrible effectiveness to destroy life on Isstvan III, including thousands upon thousands of space marines. In a huge move, Horus tries to eradicate those warriors who would remain loyal to the Emperor during his great betrayal. After a warning gets out, a few soldiers, including Loken, begin an impossible battle against Horus’ overwhelming forces, knowing that they can’t win, but wanting to do some damage and avenge their fallen brothers.

Counter does a wonderful job of wrapping up the initial set that tells of Horus’ fall from grace and eventual heresy, as he turns his face from the Emperor and embraces the gods of Chaos. This novel ties up everything from the first two books, with many of the characters finally having their face-to-face confrontations, and many major players, both heroic and villainous, perish. While the book does a great job of ending the story begun in Horus Rising, it at the same time sets up the next novel, Flight of the Eisenstein by James Swallow, very well. I look forward to the continuation of this wonderful series, as well as my new copy of Grey Knights, written by Ben Counter just like this novel.

8/10

Island by Richard Laymon

Richard Laymon is a stalwart of horror fiction even if he tends to fly under the radar occasionally, particularly in the US. He put out a large number of very entertaining novels before his untimely death in 2001. Dorchester’s Leisure Horror imprint is putting all of his works back into circulation, and this reviewer tends to snatch those books up as quickly as he can. However, occasionally he misses one, and has to go back in their catalogue a bit to find it. Island is a perfect example, but I did grab it, and dove in, looking forward to what I hoped would be a crazy ride.

Rupert Conway is, for lack of a better term, a bit of a loser. However, he lucks into dating the beautiful Connie, who invites him to go on her parent’s twentieth anniversary cruise in the Caribbean. He jumps at the chance. However, after their boat explodes from a gas leak, Rupert and company are stranded on an uninhabited island. This seems like an excellent adventure to Rupert, until one of Connie’s sisters’ husbands turns up dead, hanged from a tree. The murderer is out for more, and tries to pick off the group one by one. Rupert is in for the struggle of his life, as he and the family he is with struggle to survive this murderer, and stop him from acting again.

Laymon, as always, quickly works the cast into realistic, believable characters that you care about or hate, depending on his whim, and then puts them through the wringer. This book occasionally felt a little long-winded, as I’m sure is prone to happen in novels purporting to be someone’s journal. The journal angle also gives away that the writer of the journal has to live through the book, or else it would be a novel with no conclusion. Despite these minor flaws, the book moves well most of the time, and it is a fun read. This novel has no supernatural elements, making it more of an exception than a rule-follower in Laymon’s canon, but it still has his characteristic style, sense of justice, and twist ending. A fun romp, if not his best work.

8/10

The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker

Clive Barker is a man of many talents: artist, film-maker, and author. Even just in the past couple years, he has had movies out, his newest novel Mister B. Gone (which will be reviewed here soon) hit shelves, and he held a number of showings of his art. I have sadly not had a lot of experience with his work (the novel The Thief of Always and short stories from a range of anthologies), and I wanted to jump back into his work, starting at an earlier point, before exploring his newest output. The movies will wait, but his literary works are readily available, and where better to go than his famous novella The Hellbound Heart.

Frank lives his life one adventure at a time, flaunting law and morality in his goal of getting the most selfish enjoyment out of life. However, he runs into a wall as he realizes that his life just doesn’t satisfy him, and he uses a dark artifact to call forth a group of demons known as the Cenobites, making a Faustian bargain: he is theirs, if they will bring pleasure to his life. However, Frank’s deal, like most made with the Devil, goes awry, as the Cenobites don’t have the same sense of fun that Frank does. Hopeless, Frank is left a prisoner, until his brother Rory and his wife Julia move into his old house, and a little bit of blood helps him set a plan. Only Julia knows how to free him, and together they go to any end to succeed.

This dark story of being careful what you wish for is very well told, in a moody, atmospheric sense that works quite well. Barker’s characters are all (often deeply) flawed, giving them far more realism, and his philosophical dilemma makes The Hellbound Heart a thinking man’s horror story. While this tale didn’t have the melancholic beauty of The Thief of Always, it still was a very entertaining, short romp into a dark avenue that we seek in horror. I look forward to the sequel Barker says is in the works, as well as the new anthology out, Hellbound Hearts, with tales by many authors set in the mythos originated in this novella. Barker continues to assert himself as an author worth exploring further.

8/10

Stephen King’s The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born by Stephen King, Robin Furth, and Peter David

Stephen King is famous for a plethora of works, including classics such as Carrie, Dead Zone, The Stand, It, Cujo, Insomnia, on and on, but his magnum opus is certainly the Dark Tower series, consisting of The Gunslinger, The Drawing of the Three, The Waste Lands, Wizard and Glass, Wolves of the Calla, Song of Susannah, and The Dark Tower (however, Stephen King has stated that he has plans for more Dark Tower novels), some short stories, and connections to almost all of his other works. Marvel has, in the past couple years, begun a series of stories that act as prequels to Stephen King’s novels, with the fourth one to come out soon. I have read and enjoyed the first four novels in the series (especially Wizard and Glass, from which most of the first volume of the graphic novel series is taken), and was excited to finally get the chance to dive into Marvel’s series.

Stephen King’s The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born recounts the flashback sections of The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass, although told in sequential order without interruptions, and filling in details given in other books as well. Roland Deschain is a young man in a world slowly falling apart. His mother is having an affair with one of his father’s advisors while Roland’s father is away, and in anger Roland takes his test to become a gunslinger early, succeeding in best his teach Cort. However, with the surprise arrival of Steven Deschain, Roland’s father, and the anger of the agents of John Farson at Roland’s success, Roland and his two best friends, Cuthbert and Alain, are sent on a fact-finding mission to help Roland’s father in his war effort. However, Roland meets Susan Delgado, and falls in love, while the entire team realizes that they are in over their heads. Roland and company struggle to survive a losing battle that could have huge consequences for the war.

Under Stephen King’s direction, Robin Furth (of The Dark Tower: A Concordance fame) and Peter David (writer for a number of Marvel books, most famously his run in the 1980s and 90s on The Incredible Hulk) rewrite Roland’s tale for the graphic format, and do an excellent job. The wording is a perfect mimic of the Mid-World dialect King uses in his novels, and the important scenes are all played out without feeling forced. While the entire tale being fit into such a small page count meant that some of the extended love story of Roland and Susan is cut out, it still resonates in a wonderful way. The book moves very quickly, and the words match perfectly to the gorgeous art of Jae Lee and Richard Isanove.

This book is an excellent companion to The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass, as well as an interesting introduction to the series for people who have yet to try it out. I would consider rereading this one after reading the first four novels, if you haven’t read them when you read The Gunslinger Born, as it will work even better as illustrating the framework of King’s books while letting you recall the emotional impact the novels have. I look forward to the next book in this series.

8/10