Viator
by Lucius Shepard
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Quartered aboard the freighter, Viator, run aground twenty years before on a remote section of the Alaskan coast, the four men hired to determine the ship's worth at salvage have begun to exhibit a variety of eccentric behaviors. They've become obsessed with Viator to the point that the world beyond seems of consequence only as it relates to the ship. When their putative leader, Thomas Willander, is afflicted by a series of disturbing dreams, he concludes that something on board may be show more responsible for their erraticism. He seeks the help of a woman in the nearby village of Kaliaska and together they initiate an investigation into the history of Viator, hoping to learn, among other things, why the ship was run aground and who was the mysterious man who hired the four. But their efforts may be too late. The men, whose eccentrities are now verging on the insane, show no sign of intending to abandon their new home, compelled by Viator's eerie allure. To make matters worse, winter will soon be setting in, ominous incidences of sound and light are issuing from the forest surrounding the ship, and Willander's dreams may be coming true... Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors. show lessTags
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This review is for the newly expanded version of this story, available at this date (2013) in ConcordEPress ebook format only. Shepard, who came close to a mental and physical breakdown while writing the original story, says that he turned it into his publisher in its unfinished state in order to be done with it (and even then it received critical admiration), but after recovering went back and added 20,000 words so that it reflected the story as he meant it to be.
Five men labor to dismantle a long-grounded ship along the Alaskan coast. Each appears to be slowly going mad, including the newest member, Tom Wilander, who is theoretically their leader. He begins a romance with the owner of the trading post in town, but he is increasingly show more drawn to return to and stay on the ship, even as his own sense of reality changes and he begins to feel that the salvage crew is preparing the ship for a continuation of its metaphysical journey.
Shepard's convoluted and often paragraph-long sentences suck readers in towards Wilander's reality, gripping them with Wilander's confusion and fantasies, and while I'm not usually a fan of psychological horror, I was hooked within a few pages. The only other Shepard I've read is the story collection "The Jaguar Hunter", which I just refinished 25 years after reading it the first time. It's time I delved in and read more of his original and gorgeous storytelling. show less
Five men labor to dismantle a long-grounded ship along the Alaskan coast. Each appears to be slowly going mad, including the newest member, Tom Wilander, who is theoretically their leader. He begins a romance with the owner of the trading post in town, but he is increasingly show more drawn to return to and stay on the ship, even as his own sense of reality changes and he begins to feel that the salvage crew is preparing the ship for a continuation of its metaphysical journey.
Shepard's convoluted and often paragraph-long sentences suck readers in towards Wilander's reality, gripping them with Wilander's confusion and fantasies, and while I'm not usually a fan of psychological horror, I was hooked within a few pages. The only other Shepard I've read is the story collection "The Jaguar Hunter", which I just refinished 25 years after reading it the first time. It's time I delved in and read more of his original and gorgeous storytelling. show less
Viator reads like Shepard is channelling Ballard, who is in turn channelling Borges. The title is the name of a ship which has run aground on the Alaska coast near the small town of Kaliaska. Tom Wilander is one of five men of Scandinavian ancestry living aboard the ship and ostensibly preparing it for salvage. The novella's central premise is one Shepard used again in the Hugo and Nebula nominated 'Stars Seen Through Stone'. Like that novella, Viator's story is carried by its main character and his relationships with others; unlike that novella, in Viator Shepard attempts a rational explanation for the events of the story.
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151+ Works 4,155 Members
Lucius Shepard was born in Lynchburg, Virginia in 1947. He wrote in many different genres including science fiction and fantasy, cyberpunk, magical realism, poetry, and non-fiction. He published his first short stories in 1983 and his first novel, Green Eyes, in 1984. His other works include Life During Wartime, The Jaguar Hunter, and Two Trains show more Running. He won several awards including the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 1985, the Nebula Award for the novella R&R, the Hugo Award for the novella Barnacle Bill the Spacer, and the Shirley Jackson Award for the novella Vacancy. He died on March 18, 2014 at the age of 66. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Awards
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Common Knowledge
- People/Characters
- Thomas Willander
- Important places
- Viator
- First words
- Truly original novels emerge from the soul of the author like a tumor, benign or otherwise. -Introduction: On Viator - Headlong, Heedless and Harrowing, by Stona Fitch
Wilander had grown accustomed to his cabin aboard Viator. -Chapter 1, "husband of the linden tree" - Canonical DDC/MDS
- 813.54
- Canonical LCC
- PS3569.H4874
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- Members
- 74
- Popularity
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- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.95)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 2
- ASINs
- 1
