Matthew Tansek's Blog, page 2

Review: Abominations of Yondo by Clark Ashton Smith

The Abominations of Yondo by Clark Ashton Smith


This short story by CAS was one of the first things I ever read by this author. The fantastic use of language, the incredible imaginative landscape, and the imagery of the things that the main character comes across as he ventures into the desert really hit home for me. While I would not recommend this sort of thing to just anyone, those already steeped in the pulp fiction world will absolutely enjoy unpacking the parts of this little piece and savor the language.

I would consider it almost prose poetry, as it does not really follow the normal “rules” of storytelling. Perhaps a hidden Gem in the CAS corpus.

View all my reviews

Both Loud and Silent | Drabble

Both Loud and Silent

All the books were both loud and silent.  Brimming with epic love stories, cataclysmic machinations and diabolical conflict.  Minds spinning imagination into fabric of contrived realities.  Existence made real encoded in language.

Could there be anything more beautiful? Explosive? Profound?

Mankind prefers their immediate sensory apparatus to enjoy imaginative art.  But if one takes experience inward you will never regret it.  It is our true psychic ability.  To follow in the footsteps of great storytellers as they lead you down unknown paths and into remarkable places.  To live a thousand other lives.

All the books were both loud and silent.

DrabbleA drabble is a short work of fiction of precisely one hundred words in length. The purpose of the drabble is brevity, testing the author’s ability to express interesting and meaningful ideas in a confined space.

Website Redesign

Well the time has come for me to update things for the ol’ Author Website that I’ve been working and adding to for the past few years. Both my skills and the code I was using have both improved in the intervening time period and I’m finally ready to put the time in and get things done.

This update should also mark the beginning of a renewed period of writing and recording, as I’m hoping to see several of my pieces included in collections this year, and to finally finish my editing for Night Song which has been collecting dust on my desktop ever since I got it professionally voiced.

Exciting times indeed.

-MT

November Drabble | The Sleeping Faces

Drabble

A drabble is a short work of fiction of precisely one hundred words in length. The purpose of the drabble is brevity, testing the author’s ability to express interesting and meaningful ideas in a confined space.

The Sleeping Faces

The old library had never received a donation like it before.  The cover was faded, stained, and illegible, but the inside was splashed with vibrant red ink. 

Page after page of sleeping faces, depicted in impossible detail.  Dates and names written in french beneath each one. 

Then a shiver like a freshly plucked earthworm wriggled down my spine as the raggedness of the skin around the neck and the half drooped eyelids forced my realization.  The last wilting countenances of the guillotine’s work, looked out four to a page and lolled about between my hands as I thumbed the pages.

October Drabble | Justice

Drabble

A drabble is a short work of fiction of precisely one hundred words in length. The purpose of the drabble is brevity, testing the author’s ability to express interesting and meaningful ideas in a confined space.

Justice

The landslide had exposed the basement and beyond, for unbeknownst to the mob of angry villagers there were chambers beneath. 

The old man had not been quick enough to retreat to his subterranean chambers to escape the collapse of his shunned home.  

Apparatus of glass and metal could still be seen set up on tables, and the archaic glyphs still glowed with a baleful phosphorescence beneath the muddy water that seeped down from above.  

In the final chamber rested the old man’s life’s work.  The trapezohedron that the mob erroneously knew had crippled the burgomeister’s son.  It was smashed easily. 

September Drabble | Infinauts

Drabble

A drabble is a short work of fiction of precisely one hundred words in length. The purpose of the drabble is brevity, testing the author’s ability to express interesting and meaningful ideas in a confined space.

Infinauts

The real magic comes from the knowledge that everything that is possible, or impossible, exists simultaneously.  One only needs to conceptualize it and in some unused corner of the corrosive ether, that thing pops into existence.  Then you see it’s only a logistical problem of getting to it.  

My contribution to this endeavor is overcoming the frailty of the human body.  To be able to go absolutely anywhere and see beyond all limits. 

The machine was truly fantastic and afforded breathtaking views out of its faceted windows.  For we traveled in dreams, and indeed here we could never be hurt. 

New Goodreads Group: Classic Pulp Review

 

So I’ve got the itch to go diving through some old pulp fiction magazines once again and I thought rather than write up a review of it and post it somewhere with the off chance that someone who reads the same obscure things goes looking for someone else who has read it, it would start a group to talk about the story.

I’ll be posting the first story at the beginning of next month, so stay tuned.  But it will be in the public domain on the Pulp Magazine Archive, so anyone with an internet connection will have free access to it.

This will be my first Goodreads group, and so I don’t know how much traction I’m going to get, but I figure what the hell. So if you are interested in talking about a fun, quick, and probably over the top little read, this is going to be the group for you!

Here is the link to the group: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1099571-classic-pulp-review

It’s an open group, so feel free to join now, even if you plan on participating later. All are welcome!

Newly Published

The good folks at the Great Lakes Association of Horror Writers have put together two anthologies with stories written by yours truly in them!

Both stories were a lot of fun to put together and I feel honored to have my work included alongside other talented local authors.  If you’re looking for a fun collection of fantastic dark fiction look no further than these two anthologies.

Great Lakes Association of Horror Writers
Amazon: Erie Tales 12 | Little Bites and Finger Food
Amazon: Nicole’s Recurring Nightmares

Adventures in Reading: Fishhead by Irvin S. Cobb

Fishhead by Irvin S. Cobb

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What blew me away about this story, and other stories by Cobb is his ability to paint an amazing picture of an exotic landscape. If you spend just a moment and read the first couple of paragraphs of this story you will understand how powerful his words are, and how immersive such writing can be.

This particular story I think serves better as an interesting piece in the greater cannon of material revolving around fish people that can be found in weird fiction and supernatural pulps, than perhaps a stand alone story.

Nevertheless I think because it is so short and it contains such masterful description and relatable situations I would recommend it to almost anyone interested in speculative fiction. You will fly through this story in one sitting and be glad that you did.

View all my reviews

Adventures in Reading: The Horror On the Links by Seabury Quinn

The Horror on the Links by Seabury Quinn

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I don’t know what it is about Jules de Grandin stories that I like so much. They are not usually all that inventive, edgy, or linguistically impactful. The characters don’t really develop in any meaningful ways, and the plots usually are pretty formulaic. But with all that said these stories are so endearing and fun to read.

It’s kind of like eating icing, supernaturally laced early 20th-century icing. You don’t want to make a whole meal out of it, but rather indulge in it every now and again between other pieces of fiction. Like a long-running TV series, you’ll come to enjoy the familiar set of characters and their quirks, and begin to look out for the nuances in their personalities and relish the predicaments they find themselves in each episode.

Like a B-movie mashup of Hercule Poirot and Sherlock Holmes, these stories are great fun. I would recommend them to anyone who is looking for a great introduction to classic Weird Tales magazine material, or anyone who enjoys splashing around in the shallow waters of occult investigation stories.

View all my reviews