Weird Fiction Old, New, and In-Between VII: Appendix – Rafe McGregor
The seventh of six blog posts exploring the literary andphilosophical significance of the weird tale, the occult detective story, and theecological weird. The series suggests that the three genres of weird fiction dramatizehumanity’s cognitive and evolutionary insignificance by first exploring thelimitations of language, then the inaccessibility of the world, and finally thealienation within ourselves. This post provides notes on a new series from theBritish Library, the cases of Kyle Murchison Booth, and the Southern Reach Quartet.
The Weird Tale: The British Library Tales of the Weird
Somewhat to my shame, I only discovered the British Library series while researching this series of posts. I really should have seen it sooner as it hasbeen going since 2018 and published fifty-three titles to date (roughly one amonth). The books are all sturdy paperbacks, with colourful, imaginative, and attractivecovers and spines and cost £10 or less, depending on where and how one buysthem. Each instalment includes a ‘Note from the Publisher’, which serves as acombined trigger warning and ethical rationale and which I reproduce here as exemplarypractice:
The original short storiesreprinted in the British Library Tales of the Weird series were written andpublished in a period ranging across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.There are many elements of these stories which continue to entertain modernreaders; however, in some cases there are also uses of language, instances ofstereotyping and some attitudes expressed by narrators or characters which maynot be endorsed by the publishing standards of today. We acknowledge thereforethat some elements in the stories selected for reprinting may continue to makeuncomfortable reading for some of our audience. With this series BritishLibrary Publishing aims to offer a new readership a chance to read some of therare material of the British Library’s collections in an affordable paperbackformat, to enjoy their merits and to look back into the worlds of the past twocenturies as portrayed by their writers. It is not possible to separate thesestories from the history of their writing and as such the following stories arepresented as they were originally published with minor edits only, made forconsistency of style and sense.
My only complaint, which prompted me to include this part of the appendix,is that there are no numbers on or in the books, meaning that it isn’t easy toread them in order. I’m sure there is a sound reason for this editorialdecision, but all collectors and some readers will want a chronological list.There’s one on Medium compiled by Owen Williams, which is easier tonavigate than the British Library’s and which I used as a guide in compiling myown:
From the Depths and Other Strange Tales of the Sea Haunted Houses: Two Novels by Charlotte Riddell Glimpses of the Unknown: Lost Ghost Stories Mortal Echoes: Encounters With the End Spirits of the Season: Christmas Hauntings The Platform Edge: Uncanny Tales of the Railways The Face in the Glass and Other Gothic Tales by Mary Elizabeth Braddon The Weird Tales of William Hope Hodgson Doorway to Dilemma: Bewildering Tales of Dark Fantasy Evil Roots: Killer Tales of the Botanical Gothic Promethean Horrors: Classic Stories of Mad Science Roarings from Further Out: Four Weird Novellas by Algernon Blackwood Tales of the Tattooed: An Anthology of Ink The Outcast and Other Dark Tales by E.F. Benson A Phantom Lover and Other Dark Tales by Vernon Lee Into the London Fog: Eerie Tales from the Weird City Weird Woods: Tales from the Haunted Forests of Britain Queens of the Abyss: Lost Stories from the Women of the Weird Chill Tidings: Dark Tales of the Christmas Season Dangerous Dimensions: Mind-Bending Tales of the Mathematical Weird Heavy Weather: Tempestuous Tales of Stranger Climes Minor Hauntings: Chilling Tales of Spectral Youth Crawling Horror: Creeping Tales of the Insect Weird Cornish Horrors: Tales from the Land’s End I Am Stone: The Gothic Weird Tales of R. Murray Gilchrist Randalls Round: Nine Nightmares by Eleanor Scott Sunless Solstice: Strange Christmas Tales for the Longest Nights The Shadows on the Wall: Dark Tales by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman The Ghost Slayers: Thrilling Tales of Occult Detection The Night Wire and Other Tales of Weird Media Our Haunted Shores: Tales from the Coasts of the British Isles The Horned God: Weird Tales of the Great God Pan Spectral Sounds: Unquiet Tales of Acoustic Weird Haunters of the Hearth: Eerie Tales for Christmas Nights Polar Horrors: Strange Tales from the World’s Ends The Flaw in the Crystal and Other Uncanny Stories by May Sinclair The Ways of Ghosts and Other Dark Tales by Ambrose Bierce Holy Ghosts: Classic Tales of the Ecclesiastical Uncanny The Uncanny Gastronomic: Strange Tales of the Edible Weird The Lure of Atlantis: Strange Tales from the Sunken Continent Dead Drunk: Tales of Intoxication and Demon Drinks The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson Roads of Destiny and Other Stories of Alternative Histories and Parallel Realms Circles of Stone: Weird Tales of Pagan Sites and Ancient Rites Doomed Romances: Strange Tales of Uncanny Love The Undying Monster: A Tale of the Fifth Dimension by Jessie Douglas Kerruish Fear in the Blood: Tales from the Dark Lineages of the Weird Out of the Past: Tales of Haunting History The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson Deadly Dolls: Midnight Tales of Uncanny Playthings The Human Chord by Algernon Blackwood Eerie East Anglia: Fearful Tales of Field and Fen The Haunted Trail: Classic Tales of the Rambling WeirdThere are three more titles due for publication, all by the end of this year: The Weird Tales of Dorothy K. Haynes The Haunted Vintage by Marjorie Bowen Summoned to the Séance: Spirit tales from Beyond the Veil
The Occult Detective Story: Kyle Murchison Booth
In parts III and IV of this series, I praised Sarah Monette’s Kyle Murchison Booth occult detective stories andmentioned that some are, unfortunately, difficult to find. The eighteen storieshave been published over a period of twenty years (2003-2023), during which twobooks have been published: The Bone Key: The Necromantic Mysteries of KyleMurchison Booth (2007; second edition, 2011), a collection of ten shortstories, and A Theory of Haunting (2023), a novella and the most recentstory. This is a chronological list of all eighteen, with the original date ofpublication in parenthesis and my suggestion for the easiest way to find them… The Wall of Clouds (2003) – The Bone KeyThe Venebretti Necklace (2004) – The Bone KeyThe Inheritance of Barnabas Wilcox (2004) – The Bone KeyBringing Helena Back (2004) – The Bone KeyThe Green Glass Paperweight (2004) – The Bone KeyWait for Me (2004) – The Bone KeyElegy for a Demon Lover (2005) – The Bone KeyDrowning Palmer (2006) – The Bone KeyThe Bone Key (2007) – The Bone KeyListening to Bone (2007) – The Bone KeyThe World Without Sleep (2008) – Somewhere Beneath ThoseWavesThe Yellow Dressing Gown (2008) – ApexThe Replacement (2008) – Sarah MonetteWhite Charles (2009) – ClarkesworldTo Die for Moonlight (2013) – ApexThe Testimony of Dragon’s Teeth (2018) – UncannyThe Haunting of Dr. Claudius Winterson (2022) – UncannyA Theory of Haunting (2023) – A Theory of Haunting
…I only hope that there are many more to come.
The Ecological Weird: Absolution
Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach Trilogy – consisting of Annihilation,Authority, and Acceptance, all published in 2014 – becomes aquartet tomorrow, with the UK release of Absolution in hardback, paperback,Kindle, and Audible. My original intention for this appendix was to provide asynopsis or summary of the trilogy for those who might not want to reread allthree books before starting the fourth, but nonetheless need a reminder of the sequenceof events. (This is what I wanted, in spite of having read the trilogyseveral times and having no doubt that I would return to it and the quartet in future.)To cut a long story short, I failed dismally, and will poach Mac Rogers’ reason: ‘There’s really noway to give the Southern Reach pitch without sounding high, soI won’t try.’ I do, however, recommend the first part of Adam Roberts’ review of the trilogy,which provides the best summary I could find with limited spoilers. (The secondpart is also worth reading, although it’s more interpretative thandescriptive.) There was chatter some time ago about a prequel to the SouthernReach and it’s not quite clear whether Absolution is a prequel,sequel, paraquel, or some combination of these categories(reminding me of Heat 2, which nearly ruined one ofmy favourite films). Here is what VanderMeer himself has to say on his website:
Ten years after thepublication of Annihilation, the surprise fourth volume in JeffVanderMeer’s blockbuster Southern Reach Trilogy.
When theSouthern Reach Trilogy was first published a decade ago, it was an instantsensation, celebrated in a front-page New York Times story beforepublication, hailed by Stephen King and many others. Each volume climbed thebestsellers list; awards were won; the books made the rare transition frompaperback original to hardcover; the movie adaptation became a cult classic.All told, the trilogy has sold more than a million copies and has secured itsplace in the pantheon of twenty-first-century literature.
And yet for all this, for Jeff VanderMeer there was never full closure to thestory of Area X. There were a few mysteries that had gone unsolved, some keypoints of view never aired. There were stories left to tell. There remainedquestions about who had been complicit in creating the conditions for Area X totake hold; the story of the first mission into the Forgotten Coast—before AreaX was called Area X—had never been fully told; and what if someone had foreseenthe world after Acceptance? How crazy would they seem?
Structured in three parts, each recounting a new expedition, there are somelong-awaited answers here, to be sure, but also more questions, and profoundnew surprises. Absolution is a brilliant, beautiful, and ever-terrifyingplunge into unique and fertile literary territory. It is the final word on oneof the most provocative and popular speculative fiction series of our time.
I’m not sure that either more closure or more exposition are required or willenhance the trilogy as it stands, but I am confident that VanderMeer won’t ruinthe masterpiece he created a decade ago. So far, there have been surprisinglyfew advance reviews: Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, and Scientific American.
More Recommended Reading
Fiction
John Hall (ed.), Five Forgotten Stories (2011).
Rafe McGregor, Eight Weird Tales (2024).
Rafe McGregor, Six Strange Cases (2024).
Nonfiction
Stephen Ellcock & Mat Osman, England on Fire: A VisualJourney through Albion's Psychic Landscape (2022).
Mark Valentine, The Thunder-Storm Collectors (2024).
Timothy Murphy, William Hope Hodgson and theRise of the Weird: Possibilities of the Dark (2025).
