Brian McNaughton (1935–2004)

Throne of Bones could be considered McNaughton's opus. The collection first put out by Terminal Frights (now defunct), with tantalizing hints that there is significantly more material set in this world, collects McNaughton's work centered around ghouls of the vaguely Lovecraftian sort. I say vaguely because, if you're familiar with that style of ghoul its a good starting point, but this expands greatly on the lore of ghouls, taking it in some interesting and unforeseen directions. Hence it show more being generally regarded as the 'Dracula' or 'Frankenstein' of ghoul stories. Its also McNaughton's foray in to serious worldbuilding, as these interconnected stories span multiple clearly well developed and thought through cultures and across time in a world that, while horrific in its own right, shows clear influences of early 20th century/late 19th century fantasy and sword & sorcery authors.
I was prepared for the explicity ghoul-porn (though there was far less of that than I was led to believe), I was prepared for the sometimes cumbersone/tiresome older/weirder fantasy world-building naming schemes, I was prepared for the weird/lovecraftian elements. What I was not prepared for was the humor. Because there's been some intense worldbuilding going on, the interconnected nature of the story telling gave McNaughton the chance to do more character development in these short works than we would normally expected from short fiction. Getting to know and understand the internal lives of necromancers, scholars, the bumbling nobles, and the ghouls themselves set up a great deal of dramatic irony for the reader to laugh at. And while much of the action sequences are well written in the sword and sorcery style, even there we get to see and frequently find humor in the exploits of one of our more reluctant protagonists.
Honestly, I think is really where McNaughton's work shines in this collection, though I'm likely to be in the minority. Not the world building, not the horror, not the exceptionally well polished and carefully crafted writing. But in showing us characters and events in the midst of a world every bit as horrific and grey as the skin of his ghouls that can make also make us laugh, and in a few cases, evoke sadness and pity.
Is it my favorite work of weird fiction? No. Is it even the best of the novel length collections Terminal Fright put out in its heyday? Not in my opinion. And I would say lovers of Robert E. Howard sword and sorcery are likely to find more to enjoy here than the lovers of Lovecraftian weird fiction I think its normally directed at. But there are definitely some things to enjoy here. If nothing else, I think the humor alone makes it worth a read. And even the old Terminal Fright hardbacks are out there on secondary markets for relatively low prices, let alone the newer editions. show less

This is a re-publication of Satan's Lovechild series from the 60s/70s. I'm still trying to get a copy of the original, Star Publishing, edition as my understanding is there have been actual revisions as well as possible additions/omissions and I'm curious to see what exactly that entails. I am assuming that the original, being published by Playboy under one of its imprints and from some comments made by the author over the years, is more explicitly racy than this reprint. I would be tempted show more to say that perhaps it is only a difference in socio-cultural norms between then and now as to what would be considered explicit sexual content, however even some of McNaughton's other works are more direct in their sexuality than this one leading me to believe that some of the changes lie there.
This falls pretty solidly into the satanic/witch cults genre of horror literature and film so prevalent from the 60s-80s. You never know if your neighbor, wife, daughter, those hermit farmers, weird hippies, or literally anyone else in society might be secret satan worshipers, looking to kidnap and/or sexually exploit children and sacrifice babies. The same ideas that the satanic panic and religious right of the 80s decided were real instead of just fiction. We get some hints that this might be a stranger, less judeo-christian, world with to the supernatural goings on than mere satan worship though. Specifically, the nature of certain brothers and sisters begins to show that perhaps this is a more Lovecraftian universe. I believe the farther one gets in the series, the more 'weird' and less just 'horrific' it gets.
As is the case with all McNaughton's work, the prose is beautifully polished throughout. He is an expert wordsmith. However, the pacing feels distinctly uneven. This is fairly short for a novel, coming in at just 144 pages, but long compared to a lot of his short fiction work. I think the pacing suffers from trying to bridge the gap between the more action oriented demands of short fiction (barring atmospheric pieces) and the internal character driven demands of long-form work. We get just enough of characters internal lives to make us want to know more, but not enough for them to feel fully developed. Engaging, more action packed scenes that seem to drop too quickly into denoument. In some of his anthologized works like Throne of Bones, we see characters more fully explored and developed over longer sequences of tales, and I think that may be where McNaughton shines. If there's every an omnibus of this series of books published, it may be better to read them that way, though I'll reserve judgment until I've read the rest of the series. show less

Fresh, Disturbing Escapism

I am biased toward enjoying provocative fantasy/horror, and Throne of Bones delivers a pleasantly disturbing escape that is too shocking for young adults. The first tale, Ringard and Dendra, admittedly should prove digestible to many. Less so are the next six stories, which are a connected set (the titular Throne of Bones sequence) and should prove weird and jarring even to mature dark fantasy readers (can you say "ghoul erotica"?). Here, the timid and disoriented show more may want to leave the book unfinished. But hang in there. With each successive story, the connection between characters clarifies as does the "rules" of being a ghoul. All is consistent. And Bizzare. Excellent. The book won a 1997 World Fantasy Award and remains fresh and daring, even now (2012).

Oddly-placed, but well-done, is a stylistic humor reminiscent of that presented in Cohen Brothers movies (Fargo 1996, Burn After Reading 2008); the situations are so dire and characters so pathetic, that you cannot help but laugh at their choices and predicaments.

I was originally hooked by Alan Rogers introductory comments:
“You hold in your hands a book of stories that forced Brian McNaughton to write. Make no mistake: I don’t exaggerate. There’s a reason this book won the World Fantasy Award. The stories inside it are rich, fascinating stuff—creepy and unsettling and phantasmic. Imagine what Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings would have been like if Tolkien had tried to tell that story sympathetically from the point of view of the human denizens of Mordor and you’ll have the slightest sense of what you’re about to wade into—but only just a sense. These stories will make the same demands on you that they made on Brian: they will command and compel you, and fill you full of terrible wonder. And when you’ve finished them you’ll find yourself wanting more.” —Alan Rodgers

I disagree with the Tolkien call-out since it raises the expectation that the book would resemble Sword & Sorcery or Epic Fantasy (this book fits neither sub-genre). The world is medieval, but there is little military or melee action (however, it is decidedly "dark fantasy"). Otherwise, Rodgers' note is accurate.

Abject People/Artists: Many paint the entire book as being "about ghouls." True the Throne of Bones sequence is ghoul focused, but that comprises only 6 of the 15 tales. More generally, themes explore being an abject person, often with regard to being a misunderstood artist. Many characters are artists and it seems very possible that Brian McNaughton was conveying his own ability to create and enjoy dark art (while not being appreciated by others). Examples:

In the first tale, Ringard, a sculptor, and his painter wife Dendra, struggle to live in a world that shuns their union. The snipet below captures the protagonists ability to see hidden subjects and the ability of his father to not appreciate that skill: "In every stick I [Ringard] saw hidden shapes, and I became obsessed with revealing them. My father fretted that I meant to ruin him by turning his valuable firewood into whimsies. I perversely maintained that my carvings had more worth than kindling, that they even justified the sacrifice of living trees. Those captive owls and trout were really there. Why would the gods let me see them, if not to set me the challenge of liberating them?" Ringard and Dendra

Then there was Asterial Vendren, a misunderstood writer of horror fiction: "I [Asteriel Vendren, writer] seldom give readings anymore. I am sick of women who scream or faint, men who grumble, "Barbarous!" or "Obscene!", sick of the self-righteous show they make of stamping out before I finish. And half of those who remain, of ocurse, will approach me to ask if I really skinned my mistress to preserve her exquisite tattoos, and might they not call on me to examine the artwork?" The Vendren Worm

And ... the body painter Tiphytsorn Glocque (who continually strives to find unique, brilliant ways to decorate skin) laments as he is arrested and brought before a magistrate for being a lunatic:
"How could anyone understand his Art when they couldn't even see it? " The Art of Tiphystorn Glocque

Many more examples pervade the book. Amplifying the artistic themes are a dozen grotesque, full-page paintings from the cover artist, Jamie Oberschlake. Incidentally, he continues to produce disturbing paintings.

No maps or index? I was taken by the promise on the Dust Jacket by publisher Ken Abner (Terminal Fright) that promised that he had a genuine map and promised to published it with additional material at a later date. Sadly, that was claimed in 1997, I cannot find any related sequels for sale, and Brian has passed away in 2004.

Jeff Van Dermeer Interview did interview the author in 1999 (available online) and revealed that Brian was not keen on sharing his map:
JVD: "The dust jacket for the book includes an appreciation by the publisher, Ken Abner. He mentions you have a whole chronology and set of maps for Seelura. You didn't want these published with the collection. Abner mentions those items as "crutches." Could you elaborate on why you didn't want the chronology and maps published?"

Brian McNaughton: "None of that stuff is really finished -- and if it were, I would feel less inclined to write fiction about my imaginary world. A certain sense of discovery is necessary for me. Besides, I feel strongly that the stories should stand on their own. I have to know as much about the world as possible in order to convince the readers that I know what I'm writing about, and that my characters weren't found yesterday under a cabbage leaf. The late Lin Carter deserves our admiration and gratitude for all he did to bring dark fantasy to the attention of the public, but he's the last sort of person I would want messing around with my creations. Maps and chronologies only encourage such people."

Ultimately, a map was not critical to enjoy the book. However, an index would have been much appreciated as the names of people and places proved disorienting. When ghouls begin taking the pace of other people, an index would have helped keep me grounded. Brian McNaughton was a great artist. Read this when you feel like everything in your book queue is derivative, shallow fluff. show less

After the pornographic Satan's Lovechild, I had written off Brian McNaughton's four mythos influenced short novels. James Ambuehl, noted mythos maven, responded that the author actually had better intentions than his editor allowed, and that I might actually like these books. So I gave them another try.

Downward to Darkness was originally published in 1978 as Satan's Mistress by Carlyle Books. This corrected text/title was published in 2000 by Wildside Press. New it costs $14.95; you can get show more free shipping from Amazon if you order > $25 worth of stuff (like Worse Things Waiting!). Page count of this trade paperback is 141, with text starting on page 7. There is a too brief but entertaining minibio of the author on the last page. Editing was good, production qualities were good, and the cover had no art, just the title in large type. I did not do an exhaustive comparison of Satan's Mistress and Downward to Darkness, but a very cursory examination shows that there was not really anything too much different or very objectionable in Satan's Mistress, not when compared to the difference between Gemini Rising and Satan's Lovechild. There was frank sexual imagery and taboo acts referred to, but not in a pornographic sense. Rather, it was important to the strange atmosphere the author was trying to build up. Considering my modest expectations, I was quite engaged by this book. With the relatively short page count, the clever plot and the very readable prose I polished it off in one day. The way the book is written, the twisted nature of the plot is not really made clear until at the very end. It does not start off with any particular Lovecraftian elements, but eventually it all comes together in a fiendishly clever sort of way. The characters do not know what they are in the middle of until the end, and even at the end maybe only one minor character has figured it all out. Downward to Darkness is not a sequel to Gemini Rising although it has some similar thematic elements.

Patrick Laughlin is an awkward intellectual high school student with odd parents. His parents are among the intelligentsia; his father Frank is a commercial artist and his mother Rose has a PhD in English. Unlike many mythos books, these characters come alive. The author has a gift for putting you inside their point of view so the most outrageous things make a sort of sense. They live in an old mill converted into a studio for Frank, as well as their home. The mill was inherited by Rose; it later turns out it was home to an ancestor or hers, Mordred Glendower, a reputed evil magician. He and his daughter, Mirdath, lived there, and apparently she was worse than he was. Eventually the town got tired of disappearing babies and burned the place (and Mordred) to the ground. Mirdath was accorded a fate deserving of a witch; she was hanged at a crossroads. Well, time has passed, and the crossroads and adjacent potter's field have been converted into the town dump. A local Wiccan (or better, pagan), Howard Ashcroft, has had his eye on the mill for years because Mordred's library is purportedly still there. Unfortunately Rose claimed her property when her father died and moved there with her family. Ashcroft can do some low grade magic, like cast glamours, and he and his followers are still trying to maneuver their way into the mill. Unfortunately his dabbling has in effect resurrected the spirit of Mordred into the genetic make up of his male descendent, Patrick. Shades of Ephraim Waite from The Thing on the Doorstep, he is trying to get control of Patrick's body. He begins by sending Patrick visions of his red haired daughter, Mirdath, as a seductress. This bleeds out into everyone, so that Rose is rummaging about the basement looking for a hidden treasure, and Frank can't help drawing pictures of a red haired woman. We meet some other characters in the town: nosy Jane Miniter and her dogs, and naïve daughter Amy, Rupert Spencer a youngish writer who is not so successful and lives with his father, an older lawyer named George, Shana Jennings a blonde high school beauty who manipulates Patrick to do her schoolwork and her boyfriend Bruce Curtis, and an unpleasant teacher of theirs, Bob Bamberger. Ashcroft invited Amy and Patrick to a pagan celebration/black mass that Patrick counsels against going to, as he understands a virgin's virginity is usually sacrificed to everyone. This is a very similar image to the pagan orgy in Gemini Rising that was used to achieve a kind of power. Everything comes to head on Hallowe'en (sic), when the Laughlins hold a big party at the mill. Everyone and a lot of other people show up, and events really spin out of control. Thanks to Ashcroft's manipulation, Rose breaks into the cellar where there is a copy of the Necronomicon and Mordred completely seizes control of Patrick. In a very tautly written scene in the kitchen at the party, Bruce and a thuggish friend, Duke, with a very drunken Shana, are tormenting Bob Bamberger, Amy Miniter and Patrick. When Bruce is about to beat the crap out of Patrick he utters the First of the Ten Words of the Litany of Hastur. Now Mordred in Patrick's body attempts to resurrect Mirdath, who was even more a Master of the Runes than her father. Mordred was always disorganized, impatient and sloppy with details. This means he does not separate Mirdath's body from any other fragment of human/animal/plant tissue...What rises is feeling a bit peckish. Now Mr. McNaughton takes a plot device I usually can't stand and makes it really work. HPL was writing the truth, tweaking the collective nose of the world's intelligentsia that refused to accord him the same consideration. I usually hate this concept but McNaughton's prose is so good and it is so organic to the plot that it all really worked for me. George hears about all this and talks a disbelieving Rupert into tracking down the Necronomicon, but instead he has a less than productive encounter with Mirdath. George comes to realize the Necronomicon is real and really wants to get it to head off certain danger. At the same time, Patrick, still alive in a corner of his own mind, somehow manages to wrest control partially back from Mordred. Unfortunately, as Patrick-Mordred attempts to placate the Mirdath thing with a snack, Mirdath no longer recognizes him as the spirit of her father....When George arrives at the mill, among other things, he finds Rose, who has only been semiconscious since Hallowe'en, and a distracted Amy Miniter. There is a denouement of sorts in a very good final scene.

Brian McNaughton provides a terrific reading experience with this book. He puts us in the viewpoints of all the major characters, and makes them all become alive on the page. The plot comes together liked a finely wrought piece of clockwork, the action scenes are quite invigorating and the entire story has a very creepy atmosphere. This is what I expected from the author of The Throne of Bones! It is a corking good read and certainly merits a few hard earned Cthulhu bucks. I liked it so much I dove right into Worse Things Waiting, and it's even better! show less