T. E. D. Klein

[Sargeant_Fox]

After reading much praise about him, I've decided to give his Reassuring Tales a try; it was reprinted in 2021 by Pickman's Press. It'll arrive this week.

I really know nothing about this guy beyond his reputation, so I've been reading this short 1986 interview with him:

https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/bitstream/handle/1808/25149/Tibbetts_Klein.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

 

[Randy M.]

I've only read a few stories. "Black Man with a Horn" I remember as an excellent Lovecraftian story in which Klein proves a Lovecraftian story and characterization are not incompatible. "The Events at Poroth Farm" is another good Lovecraftian story. "Nadelman's God" I wasn't as enthused with, though it's good; it's kind of an extension of Fritz Leiber's "Smoke Ghost" -- sort of.

Anyway, he's worth exploring. (And I probably should take my own advice on that.)

 

[Toby Frost]

I've heard good things about his novel The Ceremonies.

 

[Sargeant_Fox]

I've only read a few stories. "Black Man with a Horn" I remember as an excellent Lovecraftian story in which Klein proves a Lovecraftian story and characterization are not incompatible.

Perhaps a minority opinion, but I think Lovecraft's stories prove that; I find his characters are as developed as they need to be for his purposes. I think a character should be interesting by his actions, not by how many pages of backstory he gets prior to the action; and whatever else his characters may be, they're not boring.

"Black Man with a Horn" is from his Dark Gods volume; if I like his short-stories I'll try that one next.

 

[Randy M.]

Perhaps a minority opinion, but I think Lovecraft's stories prove that; I find his characters are as developed as they need to be for his purposes. I think a character should be interesting by his actions, not by how many pages of backstory he gets prior to the action; and whatever else his characters may be, they're not boring.

I don't disagree about Lovecraft's characters -- they serve a function and serve it adequately; but Klein demonstrated how one could create a more fully realized character within a strong Lovecraftian story.

 

[Sargeant_Fox]

I've started Klein's Reassuring Tales; I'm still on the first story, "The Events at Poroth Farm", but I'm loving it! I barely know horror fiction from after 1945, so when I hear that Klein is one of the leading voices of contemporary horror - that's a pretty meaningless statement to me without reference points. But I can tell the narrative is very well constructed.

The beginning is quickly gripping with the narrator expecting doom from something that hasn't been introduced yet. It's a simple technique, done before, but it works in getting me hooked. Then Klein switches to linear diary entries so the weirdness unfolds slowly. Of course by now the reader knows more than the protagonist, so we're waiting. Klein also does a good job with the setup: he takes his time describing the farm's isolation, suggesting there's no one to help the protagonist when bad stuff starts happening; and his room is described as having three large windows that augments his sense of being watched even before he has any reason to feel scared. It's a good idea since feeling exposed and having our privacy violated are two common fears.

And on top of it all the narration is propulsive, I just want to keep reading to find out what's going on. I'm only 12 or pages from the end; I'm stuck in the office anxious for my meal hour to finish it.

 

[BAYLOR]

I've started Klein's Reassuring Tales; I'm still on the first story, "The Events at Poroth Farm", but I'm loving it! I barely know horror fiction from after 1945, so when I hear that Klein is one of the leading voices of contemporary horror - that's a pretty meaningless statement to me without reference points. But I can tell the narrative is very well constructed.

The beginning is quickly gripping with the narrator expecting doom from something that hasn't been introduced yet. It's a simple technique, done before, but it works in getting me hooked. Then Klein switches to linear diary entries so the weirdness unfolds slowly. Of course by now the reader knows more than the protagonist, so we're waiting. Klein also does a good job with the setup: he takes his time describing the farm's isolation, suggesting there's no one to help the protagonist when bad stuff starts happening; and his room is described as having three large windows that augments his sense of being watched even before he has any reason to feel scared. It's a good idea since feeling exposed and having our privacy violated are two common fears.

And on top of it all the narration is propulsive, I just want to keep reading to find out what's going on. I'm only 12 or pages from the end; I'm stuck in the office anxious for my meal hour to finish it.

You might also find British Author Ramsey Campbell to be of interest . He The Uk answer to Stephen King His novel The Hungry Moon is terrific slow burn epic finish. and his lovecratian stories Cold Print are good . His novel Ancient Images which revolves around a supposedly never made Boris Karlofff Bella Lugosi film , Midnight Sun dealS with the places of infinite darkness, its atmospheric type novel. Hie story Down There gave me with fear of getting off form an elevator and onto the wrong floor .

 

[Randy M.]

You might also find British Author Ramsey Campbell to be of interest . He The Uk answer to Stephen King His novel The Hungry Moon is terrific slow burn epic finish. and his lovecratian stories Cold Print are good . His novel Ancient Images which revolves around a supposedly never made Boris Karlofff Bella Lugosi film , Midnight Sun dealS with the places of infinite darkness, its atmospheric type novel. Hie story Down There gave me with fear of getting off form an elevator and onto the wrong floor .

I agree about digging into Campbell, but he's only the U.K.'s King equivalent in terms of amount published. He's a far subtler writer than King. I've barely dented his back list, but my favorite is The Grin of the Dark, which is vaguely Lovecraftian and extremely creepy. I also enjoyed Ancient Images and Midnight Sun. One thing, don't expect characters in Campbell that you like unreservedly. His characters tend toward a prickliness that King seems incapable of creating in his characters.

 

[BAYLOR]

I agree about digging into Campbell, but he's only the U.K.'s King equivalent in terms of amount published. He's a far subtler writer than King. I've barely dented his back list, but my favorite is The Grin of the Dark, which is vaguely Lovecraftian and extremely creepy. I also enjoyed Ancient Images and Midnight Sun. One thing, don't expect characters in Campbell that you like unreservedly. His characters tend toward a prickliness that King seems incapable of creating in his characters.

Overall, he's a better writer than King . When I read The Hungry Moon, I couldn't put it down , The way he built up the menace in that novel was outstanding , You get growing sense of dread and unease as you read .

A book you might find of interest Waking the Moon by Elizabeth Hand.

 

[Randy M.]

Overall, he's a better writer than King . When I read The Hungry Moon, I couldn't put it down , The way he built up the menace in that novel was outstanding , You get growing sense of dread and unease as you read .

Another one I should get to. Anyway, that dislodged a thought I had about Midnight Sun: It's a King novel if King were a better writer. (Not that I think King is especially bad, but on the spectrum from story-teller to writer, he's more the former than the latter.)

 

[Sargeant_Fox]

So yesterday I finished "Poroth" and advanced some more. "Poroth" is pretty good and also a good example of how storytelling's all in the telling itself. The explanation of the horror isn't novel at all, but the build-up and the pacing are perfect. The narrative seamlessly swings between calmer moments when it seems like the menace's over to high-octane moments of panic for the protagonist.

The other pieces are twists on old concepts; there's a clever vampire story. There's a time travel story, "Renaissance Man", which I'm nearly sure is Klein riffing on a lecture by Max Weber. Given Klein's status as a master of horror, I'm also surprised at the comical, whimsical mood of several stories. Reassuring Tales isn't really a horror book (whatever that even is) so much as a miscellany of quirky stories.

"Ladders" didn't do much for me, but I did realize there was something amiss with the first word of each section. However, I didn't realize Klein was playing a "word ladder". Funnily, I first discovered word ladders weeks ago while looking up Lewis Carroll:

Word ladder - Wikipedia

I'll probably get Klein's Dark Gods next.

 

[Sargeant_Fox]

I agree about digging into Campbell, but he's only the U.K.'s King equivalent in terms of amount published.

That's actually a reason I'm reticent to try him; he has so much stuff I don't even know where to begin. Right now I'm more into short-stories.

 

[Randy M.]

That's actually a reason I'm reticent to try him; he has so much stuff I don't even know where to begin. Right now I'm more into short-stories.

Alone With the Horrors is an early career compilation of what Campbell felt were his best stories. Like so many collections (including Dark Gods) I've dipped in but not read it cover to cover, but I've read is quite good.

 

[BAYLOR]

That's actually a reason I'm reticent to try him; he has so much stuff I don't even know where to begin. Right now I'm more into short-stories.

Short stories ? Try Cold Print Thats a good ststatting point for Campbell.

Of future interest in the short story department.

Fruiting Bodies and Other Fungi by Brian Lumley.

The Dead of Night The Ghost Stories of Oliver Onions

Revelations in Black by Carl Jacobi

Night and Demons by David Drake

 

[Sargeant_Fox]

I liked Reassuring Tales a lot, excluding some duds. It's not really a "horror" collection; it's a mixed bag; it has horror, fantasy, sci-fi; the tone varies from serious to whimsical and light-hearted. I'm not spooked by written fiction, but there was a jokey story, "SF", that actually unsettled me when I thought what would happen if its concept were true - incredibly in the afterword Klein says it's not a good story.

One thing I noticed is that Klein is fond of the concept "thought creates reality", so a lot of horrible scenarios arise because of the protagonists' imagination running amok. That's good because I love the concept myself.

 

[Randy M.]

I like that concept, too.

This is similar to how I felt about John Langan's Mr. Gaunt and Other Stories. The first two, the title story and "On Skua Island," had a well rendered and sustained Weird Tales feel. Then the other stories went off in other directions that I wasn't as attuned to. They were as well-written and imagined as the others, just not the tone and approach I went into the collection for. One of these days I may reread them to see what they're like when I'm prepared for them.

 

[Sargeant_Fox]

I've read conflicting opinions on John Langan; for now he's not a priority.

The "thought creates reality" is philosophically interesting; it's a tenet of esotericism (and self-help); and up to a point is true. Just recently I discovered a vintage fantasy novel by Frank Baker about an invention bleeding into reality.

Anyway, just ordered Klein's Dark Gods.

 

[Sargeant_Fox]

Days ago I finished Dark Gods, which impressed me very much.

“Certain things are not supposed to happen before midnight. There’s a certain category of events – certain freak encounters and discoveries, certain crimes – for which mere nighttime doesn’t seem quite dark enough. Only after midnight, after most of the world is asleep and the laws of the commonplace suspended, only then are we prepared for a touch, however brief, of the impossible.” ("Children of the Kingdom")

 

[BAYLOR]

Days ago I finished Dark Gods, which impressed me very much.

“Certain things are not supposed to happen before midnight. There’s a certain category of events – certain freak encounters and discoveries, certain crimes – for which mere nighttime doesn’t seem quite dark enough. Only after midnight, after most of the world is asleep and the laws of the commonplace suspended, only then are we prepared for a touch, however brief, of the impossible.” ("Children of the Kingdom")

Don't look Now by Daphne Du Maurier This anthology contain her story The Birds

 

[Sargeant_Fox]

“We are living in a day when there are no more secrets, when my twelve-year-old nephew can buy his own grimoire, and books with titles like The Encyclopaedia of Ancient and Forbidden Knowledge are remaindered at every discount store. Though my friends from the ‘20s would have hated to admit it, the notion of stumbling across some moldering old ‘black book’ in the attic of a deserted house – some compendium of spells and chants and hidden lore – is merely a quaint fantasy. If the Necronomicon actually existed, it would be out in paperback with a preface by Colin Wilson.” "Black Man with a Horn")