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Ana Kai Tangata: Tales of the Outer the Other the Damned and the Doomed
"Leave safety at the door... shaped by this weatherman of a wounded humanity, Nicolay's punch is grim and honest, his horizons vast, alluring, and keenly-attuned to what unfurls in our darkest dreams. This explorer's debut is a collection of strange... living inside some wonderful reading."--Joseph S. Pulver Sr."With extraordinary precision and a profound understanding of the power of language, Scott Nicolay examines the nuances of modern discontent. In his fiction you will find no refuge from the grime and dust, marrow and sinew of human experience. His characters are damaged by their efforts in a world that thrives on brutality and gree. Many of these characters can't be redeemed through heroism. Yet the grapple, tooth and claw, with the truly horrific aspects of guilt, regret, and despair. And in their struggle we glimpse the last hope for ourselves, to climb over the rubble of so-called civilization and make our way toward compassion, with all odds against us."-- S.P. Mikowski
356 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2014
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April 25, 2014
Only too often do debut collections or novels read as such, and while more than a few display promise they still bear the hallmarks of being the author's first foray into the publishing realm. Rarely, a debut work transcends the trappings, and reads as if penned by a master well into his prime. These are the sorts of debuts that readers should take note of, as they herald the arrival of talents that are titanic in scale, talents that will leave their mark for many generations to come. This year marks the appearance of one such debut: Scott Nicolay's Ana Kai Tangata: Tales of the Outer the Other the Damned and the Doomed.
Scott Nicolay came to my attention with his story "Eyes Exchange Bank" from The Grimscribe's Puppets, although he had a couple stories printed before that (one in the ill-fated magazine Phantasmagorium and one in the equally ill-fated Aklonomicon). In my review for The Grimscribe's Puppets I said the following about Scott's story: "Nicolay excels at creating the decrepit setting, which is an oppressive part of the narrative. The characters are realistic, and when the protagonist goes to visit his old friend in the run-down Pennsylvania town in order to find succor from his bad breakup, he finds a town that seems to be a black hole that sucks the life out of it's inhabitants."
"Eyes Exchange Bank" was one of the standout stories in the Ligotti tribute anthology. It managed to capture the theme and spirit of Ligotti's work while using a voice that was fresh and new.
In Ana Kai Tangata readers are served eight stories, every one of which is excellent. Nicolay is obviously very comfortable with the long form, with many of the stories measuring novella length. He takes advantage of the length, taking the time to build upon his characters in layers, resulting in protagonists who bleed off the page. Some are more likable than others, but all are real. The majority of stories focus on men who are struggling with personal issues, with loss and guilt taking the forefront. These broken men are often focusing their energies on certain obsessions. For some it's the loved one they lost, for others it's work related opportunities, and often it's a mixture of the two. These men often struggle with dark desires, and find themselves treading paths in which the light at the end of the tunnel is nonexistent. Almost every story is infused with a noirish inflection, a certain jaded and neurotic look at the world.
The fiction also benefits from authenticity. Caves feature in a few of the stories, and Nicolay's experience as a caver himself serves to anchor the fiction in a believable sense. Nicolay, born and raised in Jersey where some of the stories are set, has an eye for luminous, haunting locales, and many of the settings so perfectly described in the stories are weird, unsettling places that actually exist.
Of the eight stories present, four have been previously published, and four are original. "alligators" serves as an excellent opener, and shows that sometimes confronting one's fears does not have the therapeutic impact it's supposed to. Caves figure a large part in "Ana Kai Tangata" and "Phragmites" although the stories couldn't be more different from one another. "The Bad Outer Space" stands out for it's choice of narrator: a young child. It's not easy to write in the voice of a child, but Nicolay manages and makes the story all the more chilling because of the cold, matter-of-fact voice of the boy. The young Jaycee of "The Soft Frogs" is a perfect example of a Nicolay protagonist: jaded and getting himself in trouble all for the pleasures of the fairer sex. "Geschäfte" may be my favorite story in the book. The guilt ridden protagonist with the dark voyeuristic side paired with the one of the creepiest apartment settings make for a perfect weird tale. The collection ends with the extra long "Tuckahoe." Elements from Lovecraft's "The Dunwich Horror" are present, and what starts out as a police procedural quickly descends into some freaky, backwoods territory.
It's very rare that a short fiction collection contains no weak stories, and it's practically unheard of that a debut collection manages to be all around excellent. Nicolay's debut is proof that it can happen. Eight of the best weird fiction stories that I have ever had the pleasure of reading, all paired perfectly with shudder-inducing art from David Verba, make this a landmark collection. Publisher Fedogan & Bremer have struck gold with Nicolay, and further refined the presentation with the amazing artwork from David Verba, and introduction from Laird Barron, and an afterword from John Pelan. As a bonus, the slipcased deluxe version (coming later this year) also features a new chapbook novella that doesn't come with the trade edition. Although it is only April, I have a feeling that this is not only going to be hailed as the debut of the year, but possibly even the best fiction collection of the year.
First appeared on my blog, The Arkham Digest.
Scott Nicolay came to my attention with his story "Eyes Exchange Bank" from The Grimscribe's Puppets, although he had a couple stories printed before that (one in the ill-fated magazine Phantasmagorium and one in the equally ill-fated Aklonomicon). In my review for The Grimscribe's Puppets I said the following about Scott's story: "Nicolay excels at creating the decrepit setting, which is an oppressive part of the narrative. The characters are realistic, and when the protagonist goes to visit his old friend in the run-down Pennsylvania town in order to find succor from his bad breakup, he finds a town that seems to be a black hole that sucks the life out of it's inhabitants."
"Eyes Exchange Bank" was one of the standout stories in the Ligotti tribute anthology. It managed to capture the theme and spirit of Ligotti's work while using a voice that was fresh and new.
In Ana Kai Tangata readers are served eight stories, every one of which is excellent. Nicolay is obviously very comfortable with the long form, with many of the stories measuring novella length. He takes advantage of the length, taking the time to build upon his characters in layers, resulting in protagonists who bleed off the page. Some are more likable than others, but all are real. The majority of stories focus on men who are struggling with personal issues, with loss and guilt taking the forefront. These broken men are often focusing their energies on certain obsessions. For some it's the loved one they lost, for others it's work related opportunities, and often it's a mixture of the two. These men often struggle with dark desires, and find themselves treading paths in which the light at the end of the tunnel is nonexistent. Almost every story is infused with a noirish inflection, a certain jaded and neurotic look at the world.
The fiction also benefits from authenticity. Caves feature in a few of the stories, and Nicolay's experience as a caver himself serves to anchor the fiction in a believable sense. Nicolay, born and raised in Jersey where some of the stories are set, has an eye for luminous, haunting locales, and many of the settings so perfectly described in the stories are weird, unsettling places that actually exist.
Of the eight stories present, four have been previously published, and four are original. "alligators" serves as an excellent opener, and shows that sometimes confronting one's fears does not have the therapeutic impact it's supposed to. Caves figure a large part in "Ana Kai Tangata" and "Phragmites" although the stories couldn't be more different from one another. "The Bad Outer Space" stands out for it's choice of narrator: a young child. It's not easy to write in the voice of a child, but Nicolay manages and makes the story all the more chilling because of the cold, matter-of-fact voice of the boy. The young Jaycee of "The Soft Frogs" is a perfect example of a Nicolay protagonist: jaded and getting himself in trouble all for the pleasures of the fairer sex. "Geschäfte" may be my favorite story in the book. The guilt ridden protagonist with the dark voyeuristic side paired with the one of the creepiest apartment settings make for a perfect weird tale. The collection ends with the extra long "Tuckahoe." Elements from Lovecraft's "The Dunwich Horror" are present, and what starts out as a police procedural quickly descends into some freaky, backwoods territory.
It's very rare that a short fiction collection contains no weak stories, and it's practically unheard of that a debut collection manages to be all around excellent. Nicolay's debut is proof that it can happen. Eight of the best weird fiction stories that I have ever had the pleasure of reading, all paired perfectly with shudder-inducing art from David Verba, make this a landmark collection. Publisher Fedogan & Bremer have struck gold with Nicolay, and further refined the presentation with the amazing artwork from David Verba, and introduction from Laird Barron, and an afterword from John Pelan. As a bonus, the slipcased deluxe version (coming later this year) also features a new chapbook novella that doesn't come with the trade edition. Although it is only April, I have a feeling that this is not only going to be hailed as the debut of the year, but possibly even the best fiction collection of the year.
First appeared on my blog, The Arkham Digest.
December 2, 2014
I’m going to ramble a bit as I’ve wanted to say something about Scott Nicolay’s astonishing debut collection ever since I finished reading it. No, wait…it was probably around the time I finished reading “The Soft Frogs” I knew I had to say something. So I wrote notes, a mess of them, fragments, observations. Let’s see if I can make sense of them.
Shall we?
I remember reading the first story “alligators” a few years back, enjoyed the details, yet thought the ending was rushed. I knew I wanted more, though, to follow Nicolay’s growth as a writer, because he had something here that compelled, despite my misgivings about the ending.
Growth was fully attained with the release of his debut collection, Ana Kai Tangata. Though, to be honest and in retrospect, it was all there in “alligators,” intentions and presentation clearly defined. I simply had to acclimate to what Nicolay was doing as a writer.
That said I skipped it, wanting to experience something else, something new.
The eight mostly long tales in Ana Kai Tangata posit a densely woven exploration of the exterior and interior landscapes to create a concise, hyper-realistic picture. Layer upon layer, a CT scan delineated with words. In every story, the psychological terrain is not only expressed by the motivation of characters, the terrain they are immersed in is paramount to the whole picture, bleeding into the character’s mindsets…or vice versa. There’s deep knowledge and understanding of Weird fiction, but the tales are firmly set in the here and now, utterly distinct and uncompromising. Nicolay has vision and sets forth with unwavering determination to convey this vision to the utmost of his immense talent.
He succeeds on every count.
I didn’t even read the title story. I watched it as it played out on the cranial cinema in my head. I may never have visualized a story as lucidly as this one, caver Max’s fumbling breakdown something to behold, the final image annihilating any pretext to hope. As with many tales here, the casual asides are an essential part of the story architecture. Offhand comments, many of them of a sexual nature, are also essential to each story’s psychological foundation.
The only other tale I’d read by Nicolay before diving into AKT was “Eyes Exchange Bank,” from the Shirley Jackson award winning The Grimscribe’s Puppets anthology. I could see again Nicolay was doing what he did in “alligators” until a paragraph toward the end ("Ray opened his mouth to reply, but his tongue had gone numb…”) stopped me dead in my tracks. Nicolay had somehow touched perfection, an astonishing feat, a dense, beautiful depiction of dread, a kind of psychological (again, everything here touches on multiple layers with the perceptive reader) erosion manifested in an incapacitating way, a split second in one’s personal Hell. I re-read the paragraph a few times before moving forward, absorbing what he had done. Fascinated…
This is something he does. The compulsion is to re-read the tales because they so deeply cut into something inexplicable and beyond my understanding. But I want more. Nicolay is addictive.
“Phragmites,”perhaps the most detailed story and threaded with Navajo nuances throughout—more than threaded, it's woven into the text—punches once, then once again, a brutal, harsh finale.
“The Soft Frogs” (probably my favorite story) sinks into the shallows of Jaycee, a lost soul driven by punk rock and blow jobs and not a whole lot more. Connecting with a woman known as Eye at an abandoned Convent patrolled by the title amphibians, it may sound like a preposterous premise for a story, yet the details as always really flesh this one out, and the soft frogs made me think of early 20th century horror, as if they were born back then, but mutated into what they had become, now. And, please, don’t take a look under Eye’s shirt…
“Geschafte” (probably my…favorite…story…) (ahem) is a masterful descent into urban dread, deeply hallucinatory, a fever dream of erosion on every level (outward, inward...), ending with a shocking image that feels like something culled from the finest of Japanese Horror. A curious thought? No matter, it’s brilliant.
(I've just noticed I've used the word 'erosion' three times already. Interesting...and I'm not changing it.)
“Tuckahoe,” a short novel, opens with an extra limb found at a car accident on the Parkway south of Tuckahoe. This may “feel” like the most traditional tale, yet it’s still prime Nicolay, veering all over the place, from a realistic bout of rough sex, to a labyrinthine rural nightmare, to a finale that is about as cruelly horrific as any you might encounter…though at this point, we’ve encountered many worthy contenders among these pages.
Perhaps the best way for the reader to acclimate to Nicolay’s mad scientist masterplan is with “The Bad Outer Space,” in which a precautious five year-old experiences a spin on weirdness that is of a level of expression that is crystal clear. Simplified, if not simple. And so different from anything expected. But, again, that’s where all the tales go.
I noticed as I read the stories, I gathered a deeper understanding of what Nicolay was doing—not attempting, but doing—and my enjoyment of the stories as I read them grew exponentially. After the final story, I went back and read the first story, “alligators,” and the ending was perfect, the final image and build-up before it, powerful.
I had learned well…
I could go on. There’s a lot to embrace with these stories. A lot to learn (hey, I know nothing about caving, but since a couple stories here touch on the subject with genuine depth and knowledge, now I do). Read them all. Don’t just read a couple and think, well, I’ll finish this later. These tales are meant to be absorbed in large chunks over short time. Ana Kai Tangata is a fully immersive, mind-altering masterpiece. Required reading for anybody into Weird fiction...or anybody who wants to experience words as well as read them. Mandatory...and, as noted at the beginning of my ramble, fairly astonishing.
PS. Forgot to mention, David Verba's artwork is spot-on for what Nicolay does with words. A perfect pairing.
--John Claude Smith
Shall we?
I remember reading the first story “alligators” a few years back, enjoyed the details, yet thought the ending was rushed. I knew I wanted more, though, to follow Nicolay’s growth as a writer, because he had something here that compelled, despite my misgivings about the ending.
Growth was fully attained with the release of his debut collection, Ana Kai Tangata. Though, to be honest and in retrospect, it was all there in “alligators,” intentions and presentation clearly defined. I simply had to acclimate to what Nicolay was doing as a writer.
That said I skipped it, wanting to experience something else, something new.
The eight mostly long tales in Ana Kai Tangata posit a densely woven exploration of the exterior and interior landscapes to create a concise, hyper-realistic picture. Layer upon layer, a CT scan delineated with words. In every story, the psychological terrain is not only expressed by the motivation of characters, the terrain they are immersed in is paramount to the whole picture, bleeding into the character’s mindsets…or vice versa. There’s deep knowledge and understanding of Weird fiction, but the tales are firmly set in the here and now, utterly distinct and uncompromising. Nicolay has vision and sets forth with unwavering determination to convey this vision to the utmost of his immense talent.
He succeeds on every count.
I didn’t even read the title story. I watched it as it played out on the cranial cinema in my head. I may never have visualized a story as lucidly as this one, caver Max’s fumbling breakdown something to behold, the final image annihilating any pretext to hope. As with many tales here, the casual asides are an essential part of the story architecture. Offhand comments, many of them of a sexual nature, are also essential to each story’s psychological foundation.
The only other tale I’d read by Nicolay before diving into AKT was “Eyes Exchange Bank,” from the Shirley Jackson award winning The Grimscribe’s Puppets anthology. I could see again Nicolay was doing what he did in “alligators” until a paragraph toward the end ("Ray opened his mouth to reply, but his tongue had gone numb…”) stopped me dead in my tracks. Nicolay had somehow touched perfection, an astonishing feat, a dense, beautiful depiction of dread, a kind of psychological (again, everything here touches on multiple layers with the perceptive reader) erosion manifested in an incapacitating way, a split second in one’s personal Hell. I re-read the paragraph a few times before moving forward, absorbing what he had done. Fascinated…
This is something he does. The compulsion is to re-read the tales because they so deeply cut into something inexplicable and beyond my understanding. But I want more. Nicolay is addictive.
“Phragmites,”perhaps the most detailed story and threaded with Navajo nuances throughout—more than threaded, it's woven into the text—punches once, then once again, a brutal, harsh finale.
“The Soft Frogs” (probably my favorite story) sinks into the shallows of Jaycee, a lost soul driven by punk rock and blow jobs and not a whole lot more. Connecting with a woman known as Eye at an abandoned Convent patrolled by the title amphibians, it may sound like a preposterous premise for a story, yet the details as always really flesh this one out, and the soft frogs made me think of early 20th century horror, as if they were born back then, but mutated into what they had become, now. And, please, don’t take a look under Eye’s shirt…
“Geschafte” (probably my…favorite…story…) (ahem) is a masterful descent into urban dread, deeply hallucinatory, a fever dream of erosion on every level (outward, inward...), ending with a shocking image that feels like something culled from the finest of Japanese Horror. A curious thought? No matter, it’s brilliant.
(I've just noticed I've used the word 'erosion' three times already. Interesting...and I'm not changing it.)
“Tuckahoe,” a short novel, opens with an extra limb found at a car accident on the Parkway south of Tuckahoe. This may “feel” like the most traditional tale, yet it’s still prime Nicolay, veering all over the place, from a realistic bout of rough sex, to a labyrinthine rural nightmare, to a finale that is about as cruelly horrific as any you might encounter…though at this point, we’ve encountered many worthy contenders among these pages.
Perhaps the best way for the reader to acclimate to Nicolay’s mad scientist masterplan is with “The Bad Outer Space,” in which a precautious five year-old experiences a spin on weirdness that is of a level of expression that is crystal clear. Simplified, if not simple. And so different from anything expected. But, again, that’s where all the tales go.
I noticed as I read the stories, I gathered a deeper understanding of what Nicolay was doing—not attempting, but doing—and my enjoyment of the stories as I read them grew exponentially. After the final story, I went back and read the first story, “alligators,” and the ending was perfect, the final image and build-up before it, powerful.
I had learned well…
I could go on. There’s a lot to embrace with these stories. A lot to learn (hey, I know nothing about caving, but since a couple stories here touch on the subject with genuine depth and knowledge, now I do). Read them all. Don’t just read a couple and think, well, I’ll finish this later. These tales are meant to be absorbed in large chunks over short time. Ana Kai Tangata is a fully immersive, mind-altering masterpiece. Required reading for anybody into Weird fiction...or anybody who wants to experience words as well as read them. Mandatory...and, as noted at the beginning of my ramble, fairly astonishing.
PS. Forgot to mention, David Verba's artwork is spot-on for what Nicolay does with words. A perfect pairing.
--John Claude Smith
April 27, 2014
Scott Nicolay is a friend of mine, so I already knew the man could really write. But seeing several familiar stories together like this, along with others I hadn't read previously, I come from ANA KAI TANGATA away very, very impressed with his skill and talent. These stories overflow with invention and intelligence, and comprise what might well end up being the book of the year. Certainly it's one of the best debut collections I've ever read, and promises great things to come. Anyone interested in horror or weird fiction, or just dark and disturbing stories of troubled and broken people, will want to check this out.
I'll write a more comprehensive review later, but for now I'll just say this book is the "can't miss" collection of the year.
I'll write a more comprehensive review later, but for now I'll just say this book is the "can't miss" collection of the year.
January 18, 2016
Shortly after my purchase of "Ana Kai Tangata", Nicolay's carrier crow landed on my balcony with instructions to "ingest hard drugs and cover (myself) in scorpions throughout the duration of the reading period."
I returned the following note, unsure if the bird made it home:
Scott,
The closest I got was a home brew and a fruit fly, BUT if you meant that schmaltzy German metal band, fear not, as I was conceived in the back of a Camaro to the thrust of "In Trance". I assure you caveman - Scorpions are my plasma.
Simply put, in a year of abundant quality, "Ana Kai Tangata" towered over the field. You've transported us to your turf, your tunnels, your caves. And although we've never met, you'll hate I said that. Because I could feel you wanting to share it all; Navajo culture, Negative Trend culture. Scott Nicolay what you do is unhealthy. And what happens to your young male protags is far worse than what hungry arthropods and an eight-ball of chang could ever dream.
As the claustrophobic title story neared - I caught myself reaching for a flashlight. You're damn right your mother should never venture into these pages past the acknowledgements. I must confess, that beat in "Ana Kai Tangata" truly scared me. I felt the same testicular twist as when your pal Laird Barron took us into that department store in "The Croning".
I heard somebody wrote 200 books about Lovecraft and doesn't think you're that awesome. Perhaps he's made it to the mid-point by now, and found not the scooped mids of so many other collections, but instead Phragmites and Soft Frogs: towering achievements, both.
I'd keep going Scott, but there's only so much room left on this bird's leg, and he's eyeing some poor trio of hikers down below.
I returned the following note, unsure if the bird made it home:
Scott,
The closest I got was a home brew and a fruit fly, BUT if you meant that schmaltzy German metal band, fear not, as I was conceived in the back of a Camaro to the thrust of "In Trance". I assure you caveman - Scorpions are my plasma.
Simply put, in a year of abundant quality, "Ana Kai Tangata" towered over the field. You've transported us to your turf, your tunnels, your caves. And although we've never met, you'll hate I said that. Because I could feel you wanting to share it all; Navajo culture, Negative Trend culture. Scott Nicolay what you do is unhealthy. And what happens to your young male protags is far worse than what hungry arthropods and an eight-ball of chang could ever dream.
As the claustrophobic title story neared - I caught myself reaching for a flashlight. You're damn right your mother should never venture into these pages past the acknowledgements. I must confess, that beat in "Ana Kai Tangata" truly scared me. I felt the same testicular twist as when your pal Laird Barron took us into that department store in "The Croning".
I heard somebody wrote 200 books about Lovecraft and doesn't think you're that awesome. Perhaps he's made it to the mid-point by now, and found not the scooped mids of so many other collections, but instead Phragmites and Soft Frogs: towering achievements, both.
I'd keep going Scott, but there's only so much room left on this bird's leg, and he's eyeing some poor trio of hikers down below.
April 24, 2014
I was not familiar with Scott Nicolay before this collection, though I can thank Goodreads author Laird Barron for the post recommending this title (ok, he did write the forward for the book). The first four stories are reprints, and they more than set the tone for the four new stories that follow. Creepy and dark, his stories have found a nook in my brain, and they won't go away, they're that good!
August 14, 2014
Originally published at Risingshadow.
Scott Nicolay's Ana Kai Tangata: Tales of the Outer the Other the Damned and the Doomed was published in April, but unfortunately I didn't have a chance to read it earlier. Well, better late than never, because this collection is an excellent and outstanding collection. I would've been very sorry to have missed it, because it contains fantastic and original horror stories.
Many critics have already praised Ana Kai Tangata and a lot has been written about it and its contents, so I'll write a short review about it. Before I write more about the contents of this collection, I'll mention briefly that I agree with the other critics and their opinions about the superior quality of this collection. This collection truly is something unique, because all the stories in it are excellent and worth reading (the publisher, Fedogan & Bremer, must be congratulated for publishing Ana Kai Tangata, because collections like this one are rare gems).
It's a bit difficult to believe that Ana Kai Tangata is Scott Nicolay's debut collection, because he writes good prose and knows how to shock his readers with weird and fascinating horror stories that have both depth and plenty of style in them (normally this kind of quality can only be expected from already established authors who have published many stories). There are no flaws or weaknesses in this collection, because everything's perfect.
It's easy for me to say that Ana Kai Tangata is one of the best weird fiction collections of the year and it's a serious contestant for the best debut weird fiction collection of the year. The only other debut weird fiction collection that has truly impressed me this year is Clint Smith's Ghouljaw and Other Stories, but it differs greatly from this collection. Ana Kai Tangata is something different and experienced weird fiction readers will be able to notice how subtly and nuancedly the author has written his stories from start to finish and how easily he has added explicitness and raw emotions to them.
This collection is a totally satisfying and mesmerizing combination of unsettling weirdness, explicit scenes, three-dimensional characters, powerful imagery and beautifully written prose. I think it's good to mention that the stories in this collection contain sexually explicit material and brutality (the author uses explicit elements in a good and satisfying way).
Ana Kai Tangata contains the following eight stories:
- alligators
- The Bad Outer Space
- Ana Kai Tangata
- Eyes Exchange Bank
- Phragmites
- The Soft Frogs
- Geschäfte
- Tuckahoe
I've heard that the deluxe edition of this collection contains an extra story, but I haven't had a chance to read it, so I can't mention anything about it. If it's as good as the other stories, it'll be worth reading.
Most of these stories are of novella-length, so they're long stories. Scott Nicolay writes excellent novellas, because he carefully develops the protagonists and explores many things. I liked the way the author wrote about the characters and their lives, because they felt realistic and had their own feelings and traits. The author writes surprisingly complex stories and takes his time to build a strange atmosphere that almost leaps of the pages and grabs you by the throat and refuses to let go until you've finished reading the stories.
Although I loved the novellas, the shorter stories were also good. They were interesting and differed from the longer stories in terms of storytelling, because the author had less space to develop the story and had to create tension in a short time. In my opinion the short stories demonstrate how versatile an author Scott Nicolay is, because he's one of the few speculative authors who are as adept at writing short stories as they are at writing novellas.
This collection opens with "alligators" which is a strong short story about a man who sees a recurring nightmare, but the next story, "The Bad Outer Space" really sets the mood for what's to come, because it's an unforgettable and frightening story that has been told from a child's point of view. It's rare that Scott Nicolay has had courage to write this story in the first person from a child's point of view, because not many authors are capable of writing this kind of stories in a successful way.
"Ana Kai Tangata" is an especially interesting story, because the events take place on Easter Island. This novella is one of the best weird fiction stories I've ever read, because the author manages to create a strange atmosphere that both chills and thrills the reader.
"Eyes Exchange Bank" is an excellent Ligottian story. It was originally published in The Grimscribe's Puppets (edited by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr.), which was an anthology that paid homage to Thomas Ligotti. This story will also be found in Year's Best Weird Fiction: Volume One (edited by Laird Barron). I'm sure that everybody who has read Thomas Ligotti's stories will be impressed by this story.
Here's a few words about the rest of the stories: "Phragmites", just like "Ana Kai Tangata", is a story in which a cave is mentioned. "The Soft Frogs" is a wonderfully unsettling and creepy weird fiction story that is partly a tale of a transformation from a nature nerd to a punk. The apartment featured in "Geschäfte" is creepy and unforgettable, and the protagonists memories about his girlfriend are nuanced and vivid. The horror and noir elements blend perfectly and effortlessly in "Tuckahoe", which can almost be called a short novel due to its length.
Such authors as Thomas Ligotti, Robert Aickmann, Algernon Blackwood, Arthur Machen and T.E.D. Klein have been mentioned by readers and critics who have read this collection. I agree with them on what they wrote about the resemblances to these authors, because there's something in these stories that remind the reader of their complex stories. I want mention separately such authors as Clive Barker and Laird Barron when talking about the contents of this collection, because in my opinion Scott Nicolay has the same kind of tendency to avoid easy solutions and worn-out elements and storylines as Barker and Barron.
The protagonists in these stories are fully three-dimensional. The author takes his time to develop the characters and adds quite a lot of depth to them, which is very nice, because the more you know about the characters, the more powerful and personal is the effect on the reader when something unexpected happens to the characters or they experience something strange that shakes their lives.
The locales featured in these stories feel wonderfully realistic and also threatening. Scott Nicolay has chosen effectively haunting locales for his stories. He writes deftly about them. I respect him for using this kind of locales, because it demonstrates that he has creativity and vision.
There's quite a lot of originality in this collection, because the author has an original and modern way of approaching many themes and things. It was a real pleasure to read stories that were genuinely original and differed from other new horror stories. It was especially interesting for me to read about the caves, because caves are seldom featured in modern horror stories. There are - of course - a few other stories out there on the market in which feature caves, but only a couple of them have been as good and frightening as the stories in this collection.
According to the information found on the inside of the dust cover, Scott Nicolay has had an interesting life and has experienced quite a lot. For example, he has explored caves and knows about archaeology etc. I think that many of his experiences have been an important source of inspiration to him, because he writes fluently about cave exploration, the Navajo people and many other things.
I have to admit that I was positively surprised to find out that all the stories in this collection were excellent, because normally debut collections seem to have at least one or two mediocre stories in them. I liked "The Bad Outer Space", "Ana Kai Tangata", "The Soft Frogs", "Geschäfte" and "Tuckahoe" very much and consider them to be perfect examples of well written weird horror stories. I especially want to mention that "Geschäfte" is an exceptionally good and memorable piece of modern weird fiction, because it features a protagonist that suffers from guilt and the author has created a creepy yet melancholy atmosphere that can almost be touched by hands.
The artwork by David Verba looks beautifully weird and fits the collection perfectly. The artwork emphasizes the unsettling nature of the stories in an excellent way.
As you may have already guessed by my glowing praise of this collection, I love it very much. I sincerely hope that Scott Nicolay will write more short stories and novellas and continues to grace us with his dark imagination.
If you like enjoy reading stories by such modern horror masters as Laird Barron, Richard Gavin, Clive Barker, Clint Smith, Thomas Ligotti, Nathan Ballingrud and Simon Strantzas, you're in a for treat when you begin to read Ana Kai Tangata, because it's every bit as good as the stories written by these authors. Scott Nicolay uses the same elements as these authors, but writes wholly original fiction that resonates among readers who are fond of powerful images, well created protagonists and weird storylines.
If you love the weirder side of horror and aren't squeamish, you should read this collection as soon as possible. It's an excellent collection full of fascinating stories and well written prose. In my opinion Ana Kai Tangata is essential reading material for fans of weird fiction and weird horror stories. It's a superb collection for quality-oriented horror readers.
Highly recommended!
Scott Nicolay's Ana Kai Tangata: Tales of the Outer the Other the Damned and the Doomed was published in April, but unfortunately I didn't have a chance to read it earlier. Well, better late than never, because this collection is an excellent and outstanding collection. I would've been very sorry to have missed it, because it contains fantastic and original horror stories.
Many critics have already praised Ana Kai Tangata and a lot has been written about it and its contents, so I'll write a short review about it. Before I write more about the contents of this collection, I'll mention briefly that I agree with the other critics and their opinions about the superior quality of this collection. This collection truly is something unique, because all the stories in it are excellent and worth reading (the publisher, Fedogan & Bremer, must be congratulated for publishing Ana Kai Tangata, because collections like this one are rare gems).
It's a bit difficult to believe that Ana Kai Tangata is Scott Nicolay's debut collection, because he writes good prose and knows how to shock his readers with weird and fascinating horror stories that have both depth and plenty of style in them (normally this kind of quality can only be expected from already established authors who have published many stories). There are no flaws or weaknesses in this collection, because everything's perfect.
It's easy for me to say that Ana Kai Tangata is one of the best weird fiction collections of the year and it's a serious contestant for the best debut weird fiction collection of the year. The only other debut weird fiction collection that has truly impressed me this year is Clint Smith's Ghouljaw and Other Stories, but it differs greatly from this collection. Ana Kai Tangata is something different and experienced weird fiction readers will be able to notice how subtly and nuancedly the author has written his stories from start to finish and how easily he has added explicitness and raw emotions to them.
This collection is a totally satisfying and mesmerizing combination of unsettling weirdness, explicit scenes, three-dimensional characters, powerful imagery and beautifully written prose. I think it's good to mention that the stories in this collection contain sexually explicit material and brutality (the author uses explicit elements in a good and satisfying way).
Ana Kai Tangata contains the following eight stories:
- alligators
- The Bad Outer Space
- Ana Kai Tangata
- Eyes Exchange Bank
- Phragmites
- The Soft Frogs
- Geschäfte
- Tuckahoe
I've heard that the deluxe edition of this collection contains an extra story, but I haven't had a chance to read it, so I can't mention anything about it. If it's as good as the other stories, it'll be worth reading.
Most of these stories are of novella-length, so they're long stories. Scott Nicolay writes excellent novellas, because he carefully develops the protagonists and explores many things. I liked the way the author wrote about the characters and their lives, because they felt realistic and had their own feelings and traits. The author writes surprisingly complex stories and takes his time to build a strange atmosphere that almost leaps of the pages and grabs you by the throat and refuses to let go until you've finished reading the stories.
Although I loved the novellas, the shorter stories were also good. They were interesting and differed from the longer stories in terms of storytelling, because the author had less space to develop the story and had to create tension in a short time. In my opinion the short stories demonstrate how versatile an author Scott Nicolay is, because he's one of the few speculative authors who are as adept at writing short stories as they are at writing novellas.
This collection opens with "alligators" which is a strong short story about a man who sees a recurring nightmare, but the next story, "The Bad Outer Space" really sets the mood for what's to come, because it's an unforgettable and frightening story that has been told from a child's point of view. It's rare that Scott Nicolay has had courage to write this story in the first person from a child's point of view, because not many authors are capable of writing this kind of stories in a successful way.
"Ana Kai Tangata" is an especially interesting story, because the events take place on Easter Island. This novella is one of the best weird fiction stories I've ever read, because the author manages to create a strange atmosphere that both chills and thrills the reader.
"Eyes Exchange Bank" is an excellent Ligottian story. It was originally published in The Grimscribe's Puppets (edited by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr.), which was an anthology that paid homage to Thomas Ligotti. This story will also be found in Year's Best Weird Fiction: Volume One (edited by Laird Barron). I'm sure that everybody who has read Thomas Ligotti's stories will be impressed by this story.
Here's a few words about the rest of the stories: "Phragmites", just like "Ana Kai Tangata", is a story in which a cave is mentioned. "The Soft Frogs" is a wonderfully unsettling and creepy weird fiction story that is partly a tale of a transformation from a nature nerd to a punk. The apartment featured in "Geschäfte" is creepy and unforgettable, and the protagonists memories about his girlfriend are nuanced and vivid. The horror and noir elements blend perfectly and effortlessly in "Tuckahoe", which can almost be called a short novel due to its length.
Such authors as Thomas Ligotti, Robert Aickmann, Algernon Blackwood, Arthur Machen and T.E.D. Klein have been mentioned by readers and critics who have read this collection. I agree with them on what they wrote about the resemblances to these authors, because there's something in these stories that remind the reader of their complex stories. I want mention separately such authors as Clive Barker and Laird Barron when talking about the contents of this collection, because in my opinion Scott Nicolay has the same kind of tendency to avoid easy solutions and worn-out elements and storylines as Barker and Barron.
The protagonists in these stories are fully three-dimensional. The author takes his time to develop the characters and adds quite a lot of depth to them, which is very nice, because the more you know about the characters, the more powerful and personal is the effect on the reader when something unexpected happens to the characters or they experience something strange that shakes their lives.
The locales featured in these stories feel wonderfully realistic and also threatening. Scott Nicolay has chosen effectively haunting locales for his stories. He writes deftly about them. I respect him for using this kind of locales, because it demonstrates that he has creativity and vision.
There's quite a lot of originality in this collection, because the author has an original and modern way of approaching many themes and things. It was a real pleasure to read stories that were genuinely original and differed from other new horror stories. It was especially interesting for me to read about the caves, because caves are seldom featured in modern horror stories. There are - of course - a few other stories out there on the market in which feature caves, but only a couple of them have been as good and frightening as the stories in this collection.
According to the information found on the inside of the dust cover, Scott Nicolay has had an interesting life and has experienced quite a lot. For example, he has explored caves and knows about archaeology etc. I think that many of his experiences have been an important source of inspiration to him, because he writes fluently about cave exploration, the Navajo people and many other things.
I have to admit that I was positively surprised to find out that all the stories in this collection were excellent, because normally debut collections seem to have at least one or two mediocre stories in them. I liked "The Bad Outer Space", "Ana Kai Tangata", "The Soft Frogs", "Geschäfte" and "Tuckahoe" very much and consider them to be perfect examples of well written weird horror stories. I especially want to mention that "Geschäfte" is an exceptionally good and memorable piece of modern weird fiction, because it features a protagonist that suffers from guilt and the author has created a creepy yet melancholy atmosphere that can almost be touched by hands.
The artwork by David Verba looks beautifully weird and fits the collection perfectly. The artwork emphasizes the unsettling nature of the stories in an excellent way.
As you may have already guessed by my glowing praise of this collection, I love it very much. I sincerely hope that Scott Nicolay will write more short stories and novellas and continues to grace us with his dark imagination.
If you like enjoy reading stories by such modern horror masters as Laird Barron, Richard Gavin, Clive Barker, Clint Smith, Thomas Ligotti, Nathan Ballingrud and Simon Strantzas, you're in a for treat when you begin to read Ana Kai Tangata, because it's every bit as good as the stories written by these authors. Scott Nicolay uses the same elements as these authors, but writes wholly original fiction that resonates among readers who are fond of powerful images, well created protagonists and weird storylines.
If you love the weirder side of horror and aren't squeamish, you should read this collection as soon as possible. It's an excellent collection full of fascinating stories and well written prose. In my opinion Ana Kai Tangata is essential reading material for fans of weird fiction and weird horror stories. It's a superb collection for quality-oriented horror readers.
Highly recommended!
January 12, 2015
Ana Kai Tangata, Tales of the Outer, the Other, the Damned and the Doomed,
by Scott Nicolay.
Publishers Fedogan and Bremer. Price £18.02
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ana-Kai-Tanga...
Reviewed by Rebecca Lloyd.
I like to think there really is a movement to bring about intelligent literary work in the old horror genre which for far too long now has been flooded with imitation ideas and stock characters. I would be glad to see the back of the zombie, the werewolf and the vampire in their classical forms. Nothing could be more tedious than these fanged, clawed and half-dead hairy things. And I don’t at all mind if it’s called something else like the new weird or the new black, just as long as we can begin to see good writing, as these days – with the changes in the publishing world perhaps – there seems to be an ocean full of books written by people whose use of language is flat and one dimensional.
I stumbled upon ‘Ana Kai Tangata’ by Scott Nicolay purely by chance and I only had to read a couple of pages before I knew that he was a real find. Nicolay’s writing is original, acerbic, witty and energetic, and full of depth and grit, [or bone and gristle]. Firstly, as a reader and a writer, I need authors to impress me with their use of language; I want to see dexterity, skill and humour. And poetry – such as this from Nicolay’s story ‘Geschafte’:- ‘Now here was a whore close enough to touch, metallic fuchsia wig against a complexion more Mississippi mud than mocha, sloppy no-bra boob roll flopping over sloppier tummy roll bulging out from under too short too tight leopard print top above waistband of neon pink leather miniskirt at least three sizes larger than any miniskirt had a right to be and still two sizes too small.’
When you think about it, if you don’t have the control of language that Nicolay has, how can you thrill, intrigue or terrify the reader however good your story idea is? Because it isn’t the hideousness of any monster we might invent that does the trick, but the use of agile and imaginative language about that creature.
I have the book in front of me now, a very handsome hardback with a beautiful red- coloured book jacket and published by Fedogan and Bremer. A further pleasure is that the book has a sprinkling of mysterious black and white curious illustrations by David Verba that could be paintings, etchings or drawings.
Sex or thoughts of sex are common for the main characters in the these eight long short stories, but one story in particular, ‘Soft Frogs,’ has sex at its centre and the rawness and celebratory quality of Nicolay’s writing here makes you think that all writers before him were slightly restrained when it came to describing the sex act. This is one of my favourite stories, as, being a lover of things amphibian, I’m familiar with the particular toad mentioned; I saw pictures of it as a child, and have always thought it wonderfully repulsive. Nothing goes drastically wrong in the beginning of this very creepy and intense story, but Nicolay’s descriptions are so beautifully written and in such dreadful detail that the atmosphere is well established and the tension palpable before the final revelation. ‘No stream ran below, just a narrow ditch, purple black mud lining its shallow V. A few foul pools spotted the depths of the dead trench and a nasty silver sheen marked the mud of both banks and the scattered scummy puddles.’
Nicolay is just as masterful at creating inside settings that give you the creeps in much the same way as his fantastic outdoor descriptions do, as in this about a motel room in his story ‘Phragmites’:- ‘Big holes in the dirty curtain pinched closed with safety pins. Cobwebs. No TV, but the useless cable lay coiled on the carpet. No door on the bathroom, just forlorn hinges hanging in the stale air…. Seven dead roaches on their backs in the shower, garnished with a scatter of brittle moths and flies.’ This story begins in a bone factory beneath a museum of anthropology, and as in maybe all of his other stories, the author from time to time, gives small and interesting side stories as remembered through his characters about landscape or history or sociological matters. Again in ‘Phragamites’ there is fantastic attention to the physical details of the landscape. I’ve always thought we don’t need to create ‘fantasy’ settings for our dark stories as things monstrous are all around us in our real life, and stories set in believable settings are far more terrifying. Nicolay’s settings are evidently actual, or built from memories of the actual. He introduces the reader to archaeology, geology and anthropology – jungles and caves come into his stories so that sometimes it’s like reading half ‘gothic’ half adventure.
Another of the stories that really inhabited me was ‘The Bad Outer Space’ spoken through the pure strong voice of a young boy who is making observations about extraordinary events without being aware of it. He has a friend Sari who is a little older:- ‘the black parts of her eyes are extra big, and the sky always shows in them, even when she is not looking up.’ This story, set against the grittier stories, shows how dextrous Nicolay is in his ability to create characters of very different kinds. Another pleasing aspect of his work is that he makes references to other writers from time to time. Occasionally, they are slightly more than references such as here about Hemmingway – and this made me smile:- ‘Worst was the way the girl whose name he couldn’t even recall kept talking about this stupid Hemmingway story the whole time they were waiting, some shit about lumpy white elephants.’
by Scott Nicolay.
Publishers Fedogan and Bremer. Price £18.02
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ana-Kai-Tanga...
Reviewed by Rebecca Lloyd.
I like to think there really is a movement to bring about intelligent literary work in the old horror genre which for far too long now has been flooded with imitation ideas and stock characters. I would be glad to see the back of the zombie, the werewolf and the vampire in their classical forms. Nothing could be more tedious than these fanged, clawed and half-dead hairy things. And I don’t at all mind if it’s called something else like the new weird or the new black, just as long as we can begin to see good writing, as these days – with the changes in the publishing world perhaps – there seems to be an ocean full of books written by people whose use of language is flat and one dimensional.
I stumbled upon ‘Ana Kai Tangata’ by Scott Nicolay purely by chance and I only had to read a couple of pages before I knew that he was a real find. Nicolay’s writing is original, acerbic, witty and energetic, and full of depth and grit, [or bone and gristle]. Firstly, as a reader and a writer, I need authors to impress me with their use of language; I want to see dexterity, skill and humour. And poetry – such as this from Nicolay’s story ‘Geschafte’:- ‘Now here was a whore close enough to touch, metallic fuchsia wig against a complexion more Mississippi mud than mocha, sloppy no-bra boob roll flopping over sloppier tummy roll bulging out from under too short too tight leopard print top above waistband of neon pink leather miniskirt at least three sizes larger than any miniskirt had a right to be and still two sizes too small.’
When you think about it, if you don’t have the control of language that Nicolay has, how can you thrill, intrigue or terrify the reader however good your story idea is? Because it isn’t the hideousness of any monster we might invent that does the trick, but the use of agile and imaginative language about that creature.
I have the book in front of me now, a very handsome hardback with a beautiful red- coloured book jacket and published by Fedogan and Bremer. A further pleasure is that the book has a sprinkling of mysterious black and white curious illustrations by David Verba that could be paintings, etchings or drawings.
Sex or thoughts of sex are common for the main characters in the these eight long short stories, but one story in particular, ‘Soft Frogs,’ has sex at its centre and the rawness and celebratory quality of Nicolay’s writing here makes you think that all writers before him were slightly restrained when it came to describing the sex act. This is one of my favourite stories, as, being a lover of things amphibian, I’m familiar with the particular toad mentioned; I saw pictures of it as a child, and have always thought it wonderfully repulsive. Nothing goes drastically wrong in the beginning of this very creepy and intense story, but Nicolay’s descriptions are so beautifully written and in such dreadful detail that the atmosphere is well established and the tension palpable before the final revelation. ‘No stream ran below, just a narrow ditch, purple black mud lining its shallow V. A few foul pools spotted the depths of the dead trench and a nasty silver sheen marked the mud of both banks and the scattered scummy puddles.’
Nicolay is just as masterful at creating inside settings that give you the creeps in much the same way as his fantastic outdoor descriptions do, as in this about a motel room in his story ‘Phragmites’:- ‘Big holes in the dirty curtain pinched closed with safety pins. Cobwebs. No TV, but the useless cable lay coiled on the carpet. No door on the bathroom, just forlorn hinges hanging in the stale air…. Seven dead roaches on their backs in the shower, garnished with a scatter of brittle moths and flies.’ This story begins in a bone factory beneath a museum of anthropology, and as in maybe all of his other stories, the author from time to time, gives small and interesting side stories as remembered through his characters about landscape or history or sociological matters. Again in ‘Phragamites’ there is fantastic attention to the physical details of the landscape. I’ve always thought we don’t need to create ‘fantasy’ settings for our dark stories as things monstrous are all around us in our real life, and stories set in believable settings are far more terrifying. Nicolay’s settings are evidently actual, or built from memories of the actual. He introduces the reader to archaeology, geology and anthropology – jungles and caves come into his stories so that sometimes it’s like reading half ‘gothic’ half adventure.
Another of the stories that really inhabited me was ‘The Bad Outer Space’ spoken through the pure strong voice of a young boy who is making observations about extraordinary events without being aware of it. He has a friend Sari who is a little older:- ‘the black parts of her eyes are extra big, and the sky always shows in them, even when she is not looking up.’ This story, set against the grittier stories, shows how dextrous Nicolay is in his ability to create characters of very different kinds. Another pleasing aspect of his work is that he makes references to other writers from time to time. Occasionally, they are slightly more than references such as here about Hemmingway – and this made me smile:- ‘Worst was the way the girl whose name he couldn’t even recall kept talking about this stupid Hemmingway story the whole time they were waiting, some shit about lumpy white elephants.’
January 25, 2016
Once again I've gotta give a weird fiction collection 5 stars! For one thing this is an amazingly consistent collection of stories without a bad one in the bunch. But what really makes this a five star collection is I REALLY looked forward to reading the next story.
I believe that years from now this collection will seen as a classic in the genre of weird fiction.
alligators - Certainly a good story, but my least favorite. It's full of believable characters and nostalgia. I kind of saw where it was headed, but it still threw me for a loop. A man haunted by nightmares centering around an old quarry travels there to confront his fears.
The Bad Outer Space - This was so good. An excellent story, great weird fiction, unsettling, emotional with truly "outre" elements told in a convincing way. It's told from the perspective of a child who doesn't understand all he sees, used to great effect the same as Arthur Machen did in "The White People." A boy describes a friend he meets on the playground who reveals many strange secrets about a "bad outer space."
Ana Kai Tangata - This brought the stories of Laird Barron to mind, but it's impressively original too. It has plenty of great, creepy moments, some well-handled hallucinogenic ones and a steadily growing sense of unease. I will admit, the end didn't make a lot of sense to me, but doesn't take away from the story overall. An archaeologist joining with a group of cave researchers on Easter Island witnesses inexplicable phenomena in the caves which seem to hint at a manipulative sentience on the island itself.
Eyes Exchange Bank - This is one I read last year in a Ligotti tribute anthology. At the time I made the following note: "Wow, very scary story, reminds me of "The Last Feast of Harlequin" at times, it certainly has the spirit of it. Wonderful atmosphere of a decayed town, and a decrepit mall makes a good setting for the horror. What most shines though are the two main characters. One of the more realistic stories in the collection. A man trying to recover from his recent breakup travels to see an old friend, but finds him in a state of peculiar lassitude like the town itself."
Phragmites - Whatta story! This story just builds and builds with an increasing sense of paranoia and isolation, and has quite a powerful, and grim ending. All of this is aided by a very seedy sense of place and interpersonal relationships. I did wish this one had more hints of horror throughout, it saves it all for the end. An archaeologist agrees to accompany his rather shady cousin to a cave that could hold an historic goldmine...or...!
The Soft Frogs - Excellent, probably my favorite. I really loved the gritty feel and setting; the early-Gen X, 1980's youth, living for punk rock and sex. It's got a genuine, "devil may care" atmosphere -- these characters live in old abandoned buildings, in bare rooms, sleep on mattresses on the floor. It's all got a nihilistic feel, reminds me of the film River's Edge (1986) which encompasses that so well. The setting establishes an effective sense of impending horror throughout, whereas the previous story mostly held things close to the chest until the very end. Great "body horror" ending. A young guy looking to "pump and dump" girls gets attached to one, the only problem is she lives in a swamp full of weird creatures that come out at night.
Geschäfte - An outstanding story, memorable for being one of the scariest in the collection, and the most effective in terms of how it skillfully handles some particularly hallucinogenic moments. The urban grit here reminds me of Fritz Leiber at times, especially his very scary story "Horrible Imaginings" which also features a sort of haunted building, and his novel Our Lady of Darkness, also set in San Francisco. A man who has burned his bridges and fled his haunted past is living with a friend in a seedy San Francisco apartment, with some very strange goings on.
Tuckahoe - Coming in at 41,000~ words this is practically a novel and I have to say it's the best entry in the book, even if I _personally_ enjoyed a couple others slightly more. Part hard-boiled mystery, part backwoods horror, this is such a good story. It never lets up throughout it's entire length and has the most exciting ending of anything in the book. A detective wants to make a name for himself by investigating a hit and run accident with some very mysterious aspects, connected with a very weird clan of inbreds.
I believe that years from now this collection will seen as a classic in the genre of weird fiction.
alligators - Certainly a good story, but my least favorite. It's full of believable characters and nostalgia. I kind of saw where it was headed, but it still threw me for a loop. A man haunted by nightmares centering around an old quarry travels there to confront his fears.
The Bad Outer Space - This was so good. An excellent story, great weird fiction, unsettling, emotional with truly "outre" elements told in a convincing way. It's told from the perspective of a child who doesn't understand all he sees, used to great effect the same as Arthur Machen did in "The White People." A boy describes a friend he meets on the playground who reveals many strange secrets about a "bad outer space."
Ana Kai Tangata - This brought the stories of Laird Barron to mind, but it's impressively original too. It has plenty of great, creepy moments, some well-handled hallucinogenic ones and a steadily growing sense of unease. I will admit, the end didn't make a lot of sense to me, but doesn't take away from the story overall. An archaeologist joining with a group of cave researchers on Easter Island witnesses inexplicable phenomena in the caves which seem to hint at a manipulative sentience on the island itself.
Eyes Exchange Bank - This is one I read last year in a Ligotti tribute anthology. At the time I made the following note: "Wow, very scary story, reminds me of "The Last Feast of Harlequin" at times, it certainly has the spirit of it. Wonderful atmosphere of a decayed town, and a decrepit mall makes a good setting for the horror. What most shines though are the two main characters. One of the more realistic stories in the collection. A man trying to recover from his recent breakup travels to see an old friend, but finds him in a state of peculiar lassitude like the town itself."
Phragmites - Whatta story! This story just builds and builds with an increasing sense of paranoia and isolation, and has quite a powerful, and grim ending. All of this is aided by a very seedy sense of place and interpersonal relationships. I did wish this one had more hints of horror throughout, it saves it all for the end. An archaeologist agrees to accompany his rather shady cousin to a cave that could hold an historic goldmine...or...!
The Soft Frogs - Excellent, probably my favorite. I really loved the gritty feel and setting; the early-Gen X, 1980's youth, living for punk rock and sex. It's got a genuine, "devil may care" atmosphere -- these characters live in old abandoned buildings, in bare rooms, sleep on mattresses on the floor. It's all got a nihilistic feel, reminds me of the film River's Edge (1986) which encompasses that so well. The setting establishes an effective sense of impending horror throughout, whereas the previous story mostly held things close to the chest until the very end. Great "body horror" ending. A young guy looking to "pump and dump" girls gets attached to one, the only problem is she lives in a swamp full of weird creatures that come out at night.
Geschäfte - An outstanding story, memorable for being one of the scariest in the collection, and the most effective in terms of how it skillfully handles some particularly hallucinogenic moments. The urban grit here reminds me of Fritz Leiber at times, especially his very scary story "Horrible Imaginings" which also features a sort of haunted building, and his novel Our Lady of Darkness, also set in San Francisco. A man who has burned his bridges and fled his haunted past is living with a friend in a seedy San Francisco apartment, with some very strange goings on.
Tuckahoe - Coming in at 41,000~ words this is practically a novel and I have to say it's the best entry in the book, even if I _personally_ enjoyed a couple others slightly more. Part hard-boiled mystery, part backwoods horror, this is such a good story. It never lets up throughout it's entire length and has the most exciting ending of anything in the book. A detective wants to make a name for himself by investigating a hit and run accident with some very mysterious aspects, connected with a very weird clan of inbreds.
October 6, 2014
Let me first say that I am mad at Scott Nicolay.
Hell of a way to start a review, huh? Well, I'll explain why later.
The 7 stories in this book is something that will surprise you. This collection of stories are what epitomizes what great, weird stories should be. In all my years of reading, I realized that authors of the horror genre seem to run in groups. This is not a definite list. It may change with other people, so bear with me.
We have had the Lovecraft Circle: Derleth, Howard, Smith & Bloch.
We have had the horror writers of the '70's: King, Straub, Etchison, Campbell & the like.
We have had the horror writers of the 80's & 90's: Barker, Ligotti, Brite, Skipp, Spector, Lansdale & others.
Now we have Langan, Pulver, Miskowski, Barron, Pelan...and now, Nicolay.
This book reminds me of the quality book of short stories that will rank up there with T.E.D. Klein's Dark Gods, Thomas Ligotti's Songs of a Dead Dreamer, and Karl Edward Wagner's Why Not You & I. The stories in here will not only blow your expectations out of the water, they will level that whole f-ing lake dry! Scott is a guy who knows his stuff: be it the Navajo culture, Lovecraftian 'other-worldliness”, or urban legends, this guy has the goods. I remember reading years ago a book called Song of Kali by Dan Simmons. In that book, Mr. Simmons can take you to Calcutta and make you feel like you are right there.
Scott Nicolay has the power to do that. Not too many writers can do that nowadays. That is a gift, my friends.
Here is a brief synopsis:
alligators-New Jersey urban legend and Navajo culture where a man with a recurring dream (memory?) turns into a nightmarish reality.
The Bad Outer Space-Picture Invasion of the Body Snatchers as told in the first person ala The White People by Arthur Machen. Throw in some Lovecraft and you have a tale you won't forget.
Ana Kai Tangata-Think about going caving? This will bring claustrophobia to an all new level.
Eyes Exchange Bank- This story was previously published in the book called The Grimscribe's Puppets. A Ligotti-esqe tale that does a fantastic homage to one of the masters of the weird tale.
Phragmites- I do not want to give anything away but this is a tale that Poe would admire to no end.
The Soft Frogs- Mix sex, amphibians, and the death of Punk (ok, for me, there was a message like this) and you have a story that would disturb David Cronenberg.
Geschafte- Roman Polanki's Repulsion meets David Lynch. 'Nuff said.
Tuckahoe- A cop looking for that one, big case. That one, big chance to fix everything that has been broken by bad choices. Be careful what you wish for or what you pursue. You may bring a hell on yourself worse than any choice you have ever made.
I like how he can bring a character from one story and move them into the next. A feat that is not easy.
Why am I mad at him? I have only been in the writing game for a short time, there are a few authors that I look at and say “Damn! It is going to be a bitch to put out the quality of writing like these guys.”
Scott Nicolay has been added to my list. Right when I think I haven't found anyone that raises the bar, Scott comes along. An impressive first collection.
Hell of a way to start a review, huh? Well, I'll explain why later.
The 7 stories in this book is something that will surprise you. This collection of stories are what epitomizes what great, weird stories should be. In all my years of reading, I realized that authors of the horror genre seem to run in groups. This is not a definite list. It may change with other people, so bear with me.
We have had the Lovecraft Circle: Derleth, Howard, Smith & Bloch.
We have had the horror writers of the '70's: King, Straub, Etchison, Campbell & the like.
We have had the horror writers of the 80's & 90's: Barker, Ligotti, Brite, Skipp, Spector, Lansdale & others.
Now we have Langan, Pulver, Miskowski, Barron, Pelan...and now, Nicolay.
This book reminds me of the quality book of short stories that will rank up there with T.E.D. Klein's Dark Gods, Thomas Ligotti's Songs of a Dead Dreamer, and Karl Edward Wagner's Why Not You & I. The stories in here will not only blow your expectations out of the water, they will level that whole f-ing lake dry! Scott is a guy who knows his stuff: be it the Navajo culture, Lovecraftian 'other-worldliness”, or urban legends, this guy has the goods. I remember reading years ago a book called Song of Kali by Dan Simmons. In that book, Mr. Simmons can take you to Calcutta and make you feel like you are right there.
Scott Nicolay has the power to do that. Not too many writers can do that nowadays. That is a gift, my friends.
Here is a brief synopsis:
alligators-New Jersey urban legend and Navajo culture where a man with a recurring dream (memory?) turns into a nightmarish reality.
The Bad Outer Space-Picture Invasion of the Body Snatchers as told in the first person ala The White People by Arthur Machen. Throw in some Lovecraft and you have a tale you won't forget.
Ana Kai Tangata-Think about going caving? This will bring claustrophobia to an all new level.
Eyes Exchange Bank- This story was previously published in the book called The Grimscribe's Puppets. A Ligotti-esqe tale that does a fantastic homage to one of the masters of the weird tale.
Phragmites- I do not want to give anything away but this is a tale that Poe would admire to no end.
The Soft Frogs- Mix sex, amphibians, and the death of Punk (ok, for me, there was a message like this) and you have a story that would disturb David Cronenberg.
Geschafte- Roman Polanki's Repulsion meets David Lynch. 'Nuff said.
Tuckahoe- A cop looking for that one, big case. That one, big chance to fix everything that has been broken by bad choices. Be careful what you wish for or what you pursue. You may bring a hell on yourself worse than any choice you have ever made.
I like how he can bring a character from one story and move them into the next. A feat that is not easy.
Why am I mad at him? I have only been in the writing game for a short time, there are a few authors that I look at and say “Damn! It is going to be a bitch to put out the quality of writing like these guys.”
Scott Nicolay has been added to my list. Right when I think I haven't found anyone that raises the bar, Scott comes along. An impressive first collection.
October 20, 2024
I should realize at my age that any book with a ton of fawning review quotes, equally fawning introduction AND afterward would suck. And this book does not fail in delivering the suckage. Sure, the man can string some interesting details together, but he has no idea how to handle a plot, pacing or a satisfying ending. Out of the eight stories, FIVE have nearly identical plots. How lazy can you get?
You're much better off leaving this on the shelf and reading Stephen King or HP Lovecraft.
You're much better off leaving this on the shelf and reading Stephen King or HP Lovecraft.
September 1, 2016
Oh no, oh yes indeed, here comes yet another keyboard warrior proudly riding the anti-Lovecraft wave. This is the type of impertinence which makes me both laugh and throw up at the same time. What makes a 53 years old bloke go as far as to say that he would like to take a piss on Lovecraft's grave? Decency, good taste, integrity? Let's not bother with that. That's amusing because the only good tale in this collection is Tuckahoe, which is a bona fide Lovecraftian yarn.
January 5, 2015
While Scott Nicolay’s stories had previously appeared in a few places, I was unfamiliar with his work until I read “Eyes Exchange Bank” in the excellent Thomas Ligotti tribute anthology THE GRIMSCRIBE’S PUPPETS (Miskatonic River Press, 2013), winner of the 2013 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Anthology. A dense cloud of confusion, dread, and decay lazily drifted up from his words, and it was one of my favorite stories in a TOC stacked with some of the best names working in the weird/horror field today. (The book won that Shirley Jackson Award for a reason.)
In early 2014, Nicolay published a chapbook through Dunhams Manor Press, THE BAD OUTER SPACE. Later in the year, he had an entry (co-written with his son) in the outstanding Laird Barron tribute anthology THE CHILDREN OF OLD LEECH (Word Horde, 2014). Their story “Tenebrionidae” closes out the book and again, it is one of my favorite things in a thoroughly superior collection loaded with heavy hitters.
And then he dropped ANA KAI TANGATA (Fedogan & Bremer, 2014) on us. The book is comprised of eight substantial tales, four original stories and four reprints. Of the four reprints, “Eyes Exchange Bank” and "alligators" can easily be found elsewhere. "Eyes Exchange Bank" is in THE GRIMSCRIBE'S PUPPETS, and “alligators” was published in the little-distributed and currently defunct magazine Phantasmagorium, now available as a Kindle edition. The other two stories are nearly impossible to find. “Ana Kai Tangata” appeared in the almost-mythical anthology THE AKLONOMICON, a very interesting book with a sad history that was never properly produced. The fourth story, “The Bad Outer Space,” was printed as that chapbook mentioned above, in a very limited print run (50).
So, coming in to the book, I had read two of the eight stories. (I managed to snag one of those 50 chapbooks, yay.) Based on “Eyes Exchange Bank” and “The Bad Outer Space,” I was expecting a very good book. What I read ended up being one of the best single author collections I came across all year, right up there with Simon Strantzas’ BURNT BLACK SUNS (Hippocampus Press, 2014), JohnLangan’s THE WIDE, CARNIVOROUS SKY (Hippocampus Press, 2013), and Nathan Ballingrud’s NORTH AMERICAN LAKE MONSTERS (Small Beer Press, 2013), itself a Shirley Jackson Award-winner. Yes, those last two came out in 2013 but I just read them this year, so, technicality.
The stories in ANA KAI TANGATA have a number of textures and tones, but whether the protagonist is a young child (“The Bad Outer Space”), Jersey punk (“The Soft Frogs”), or doomed cop (the harrowing “Tuckahoe”), Nicolay excels at portraying their individuality while maintaining a consistent voice. Nicolay grew up “amidst the toxic waste dumps and devil-haunted swamps of New Jersey” and moved long ago to New Mexico and the Navajo Nation. His stories are filled with the people you might run across in these places. Life is not easy for many of them, even before they have to deal with an incursion of The Outside. Nicolay has a strong grasp of the everyday mechanics of living life near or below the poverty line, and is sympathetic to the down and/or out (see the subtitle of the book). In AKT, he adeptly infuses his real experiences into fantastical stories that we all should be very, very glad are not so real.
While it is hard to pin down an absolute favorite, I’ll go with “Tuckahoe,” the 100+ page story that closes the collection. Nicolay has plenty of time to lay the foundation before things go awry and the space suits him well. Even his shorter stories are somewhat slow-burners, and while I enjoyed every single story in this book, it is the longer pieces that really stayed with me.
Mention must also be made of David Verba's beautiful cover and interior artwork. It has an abstract yet organic feel that fits in well with Nicolay's stories.
If you are still on the fence about reading this book, go back and look at the other authors mentioned here. Ligotti, Barron, Strantzas, Langan, Ballingrud… Nicolay’s style is his own, but if you look hard, you might find, for instance, the rugged action-horror of Barron sharing space with the quieter terror of a Strantzas story, featuring a protagonist who would feel right at home with one of Ballingrud’s hard-luck characters. If you like any one of those authors, there is a good chance you will like Nicolay.
If you are unfamiliar with those other names, I weep for you a little bit, and urge you to check them all out as each and every one has much to offer. Strantzas and Langan appear alongside Nicolay in THE GRIMSCRIBE’S PUPPETS, and Langan is also in THE CHILDREN OF OLD LEECH. In fact, both of these books are excellent samplers of the current weird fiction scene, easily obtainable and more than worth their cover price. Though they are both tributes to specific authors, the stories inside function perfectly well without the often tenuous connection to the source.
Bringing it all back home, "Eyes Exchange Bank" was chosen to appear in the inaugural edition of a new anthology series, YEAR'S BEST WEIRD FICTION, VOLUME ONE, edited by Michael Kelly and Laird Barron. Kelly will bring in a new co-editor every year, with Kathe Koja lined up for 2015. This looks to be another amazing collection of diverse strangeness, one I am very much looking forward to reading.
It sure seems like we are in the midst of a Weird Renaissance; thanks in large part to the internet and print-on-demand books, more authors are able to more easily get their stories out to readers. There has been a huge influx of humdrum, rehashed, or just downright poorly-written chaff because of this but there is also an ever-growing pile of wheat. ANA KAI TANGATA lies very near the top of that grainy heap and it fully deserves a couple inches of your bookshelf.
In early 2014, Nicolay published a chapbook through Dunhams Manor Press, THE BAD OUTER SPACE. Later in the year, he had an entry (co-written with his son) in the outstanding Laird Barron tribute anthology THE CHILDREN OF OLD LEECH (Word Horde, 2014). Their story “Tenebrionidae” closes out the book and again, it is one of my favorite things in a thoroughly superior collection loaded with heavy hitters.
And then he dropped ANA KAI TANGATA (Fedogan & Bremer, 2014) on us. The book is comprised of eight substantial tales, four original stories and four reprints. Of the four reprints, “Eyes Exchange Bank” and "alligators" can easily be found elsewhere. "Eyes Exchange Bank" is in THE GRIMSCRIBE'S PUPPETS, and “alligators” was published in the little-distributed and currently defunct magazine Phantasmagorium, now available as a Kindle edition. The other two stories are nearly impossible to find. “Ana Kai Tangata” appeared in the almost-mythical anthology THE AKLONOMICON, a very interesting book with a sad history that was never properly produced. The fourth story, “The Bad Outer Space,” was printed as that chapbook mentioned above, in a very limited print run (50).
So, coming in to the book, I had read two of the eight stories. (I managed to snag one of those 50 chapbooks, yay.) Based on “Eyes Exchange Bank” and “The Bad Outer Space,” I was expecting a very good book. What I read ended up being one of the best single author collections I came across all year, right up there with Simon Strantzas’ BURNT BLACK SUNS (Hippocampus Press, 2014), JohnLangan’s THE WIDE, CARNIVOROUS SKY (Hippocampus Press, 2013), and Nathan Ballingrud’s NORTH AMERICAN LAKE MONSTERS (Small Beer Press, 2013), itself a Shirley Jackson Award-winner. Yes, those last two came out in 2013 but I just read them this year, so, technicality.
The stories in ANA KAI TANGATA have a number of textures and tones, but whether the protagonist is a young child (“The Bad Outer Space”), Jersey punk (“The Soft Frogs”), or doomed cop (the harrowing “Tuckahoe”), Nicolay excels at portraying their individuality while maintaining a consistent voice. Nicolay grew up “amidst the toxic waste dumps and devil-haunted swamps of New Jersey” and moved long ago to New Mexico and the Navajo Nation. His stories are filled with the people you might run across in these places. Life is not easy for many of them, even before they have to deal with an incursion of The Outside. Nicolay has a strong grasp of the everyday mechanics of living life near or below the poverty line, and is sympathetic to the down and/or out (see the subtitle of the book). In AKT, he adeptly infuses his real experiences into fantastical stories that we all should be very, very glad are not so real.
While it is hard to pin down an absolute favorite, I’ll go with “Tuckahoe,” the 100+ page story that closes the collection. Nicolay has plenty of time to lay the foundation before things go awry and the space suits him well. Even his shorter stories are somewhat slow-burners, and while I enjoyed every single story in this book, it is the longer pieces that really stayed with me.
Mention must also be made of David Verba's beautiful cover and interior artwork. It has an abstract yet organic feel that fits in well with Nicolay's stories.
If you are still on the fence about reading this book, go back and look at the other authors mentioned here. Ligotti, Barron, Strantzas, Langan, Ballingrud… Nicolay’s style is his own, but if you look hard, you might find, for instance, the rugged action-horror of Barron sharing space with the quieter terror of a Strantzas story, featuring a protagonist who would feel right at home with one of Ballingrud’s hard-luck characters. If you like any one of those authors, there is a good chance you will like Nicolay.
If you are unfamiliar with those other names, I weep for you a little bit, and urge you to check them all out as each and every one has much to offer. Strantzas and Langan appear alongside Nicolay in THE GRIMSCRIBE’S PUPPETS, and Langan is also in THE CHILDREN OF OLD LEECH. In fact, both of these books are excellent samplers of the current weird fiction scene, easily obtainable and more than worth their cover price. Though they are both tributes to specific authors, the stories inside function perfectly well without the often tenuous connection to the source.
Bringing it all back home, "Eyes Exchange Bank" was chosen to appear in the inaugural edition of a new anthology series, YEAR'S BEST WEIRD FICTION, VOLUME ONE, edited by Michael Kelly and Laird Barron. Kelly will bring in a new co-editor every year, with Kathe Koja lined up for 2015. This looks to be another amazing collection of diverse strangeness, one I am very much looking forward to reading.
It sure seems like we are in the midst of a Weird Renaissance; thanks in large part to the internet and print-on-demand books, more authors are able to more easily get their stories out to readers. There has been a huge influx of humdrum, rehashed, or just downright poorly-written chaff because of this but there is also an ever-growing pile of wheat. ANA KAI TANGATA lies very near the top of that grainy heap and it fully deserves a couple inches of your bookshelf.
July 17, 2014
The journey can be the most important part of an exploration. And for those who enjoy the journey, Ana Kai Tangata is a great book. Scott Nicolay takes his time and unfolds his stories at their own pace (this book includes a couple novellas, which we need more of rather than forcing stories to be under or over certain lengths) and in doing so, gets us into the nitty gritty of his character's heads and issues, so we know that, in many cases, the characters themselves had a hand in their eventual fate. Ugly though it may be, a person usually causes their downfall in some way.
What I really enjoyed about the book was the variety of settings. Nicolay has a wide birth of knowledgs and he uses it all. While this can lead to a lot of technical terms being used that may confuse the reader, it also means that we go a lot of places. Weird little nowhere towns in New Mexico and Arizona, Navajo reservations, Easter Island. You always feel like you're learning something new and cool in these stories. Also, I have a personal weakness for fokloric supernatural stories, and that is the true strength of this book in my opinion.
That said, for people who enjoy the destination, this book can leave you a little wanting. Nicolay's stories tend to end pretty abruptly after the revelation, so there's no real time for readers to savor a screwed up ending (because Nicolay knows how to end his stories). There's a strength to this approach, but most of the stories in the book end this way, so it can leave the reader wanting after a bit. Also, while we have a great deal of variety in setting and plot, the lead character actually tends to be the same: A down on his luck guy with woman troubles. Again, there are many books out there like that, but to have a whole bunch of stories grouped together about it can get kind of repetitive.
This is a book for people who like to wander in the dark corners of life and don't really care what they find because wandering is the fun part. If you're not the kind of person who is going to worry about what will happen to you when you've put the book down, then read Ana Kai Tangata. You'll be glad you took that trip.
What I really enjoyed about the book was the variety of settings. Nicolay has a wide birth of knowledgs and he uses it all. While this can lead to a lot of technical terms being used that may confuse the reader, it also means that we go a lot of places. Weird little nowhere towns in New Mexico and Arizona, Navajo reservations, Easter Island. You always feel like you're learning something new and cool in these stories. Also, I have a personal weakness for fokloric supernatural stories, and that is the true strength of this book in my opinion.
That said, for people who enjoy the destination, this book can leave you a little wanting. Nicolay's stories tend to end pretty abruptly after the revelation, so there's no real time for readers to savor a screwed up ending (because Nicolay knows how to end his stories). There's a strength to this approach, but most of the stories in the book end this way, so it can leave the reader wanting after a bit. Also, while we have a great deal of variety in setting and plot, the lead character actually tends to be the same: A down on his luck guy with woman troubles. Again, there are many books out there like that, but to have a whole bunch of stories grouped together about it can get kind of repetitive.
This is a book for people who like to wander in the dark corners of life and don't really care what they find because wandering is the fun part. If you're not the kind of person who is going to worry about what will happen to you when you've put the book down, then read Ana Kai Tangata. You'll be glad you took that trip.
August 18, 2015
A stellar collection made by someone who it very much seems has a quite similar background (at least when they were a young adult) as I do. From growing up on the Jersey-PA border to developing a very large fascination with Native American issues and mythology, it seems I was meant to click with these stories. There is even a pretty explicit Jersey Devil reference near the end which was quite cool.
Though I will have to rethink the story idea of the Navajo character of mine moving to Bucks County, when I first started that story I had no idea of the preexistence of Mr. Nicolay's own dealing in similar themes.
Eyes Exchange Bank (encountered previous in 'The Grimscribe's Puppets' and the reason I looked up this collection in the first place-I was once a Rutgers student who made ice cream runs to Bent Spoon in Princeton and have in fact been to the accurately rendered Landsdale in addition to having a large chunk of my life spent on or around the 202 corridor-so naturally this story grabbed me) and Ana Kai Tangata were among my favorites, though Tuckahoe came quite close as well. The Bad Outer Space and Soft Frogs fell a bit flat for me though the body horror in the second one was exquisite. The total stand out though in a kind of Lynchian-black and white surreal film kind of way (in my head this is what it looked like) was 'Geschafte' even though I couldnt exactly tell you what was going on in it.
Though I will have to rethink the story idea of the Navajo character of mine moving to Bucks County, when I first started that story I had no idea of the preexistence of Mr. Nicolay's own dealing in similar themes.
Eyes Exchange Bank (encountered previous in 'The Grimscribe's Puppets' and the reason I looked up this collection in the first place-I was once a Rutgers student who made ice cream runs to Bent Spoon in Princeton and have in fact been to the accurately rendered Landsdale in addition to having a large chunk of my life spent on or around the 202 corridor-so naturally this story grabbed me) and Ana Kai Tangata were among my favorites, though Tuckahoe came quite close as well. The Bad Outer Space and Soft Frogs fell a bit flat for me though the body horror in the second one was exquisite. The total stand out though in a kind of Lynchian-black and white surreal film kind of way (in my head this is what it looked like) was 'Geschafte' even though I couldnt exactly tell you what was going on in it.
August 24, 2014
'Ana Kai Tangata: Tales of the Outer the Other the Damned and Doomed' by Scott Nicolay.
There are 8 stories included along with moody art by David Verba.
Warning: I don't get into detail in my reviews. It is too easy to give away important aspects of the story by talking too much.
I was mesmerized by this anthology and read it twice through back to back.
Scott writes a different kind of horror in my opinion. He forces you to think, to use your imagination, to fill in the frightening blanks. This makes for a more horrific experience and I absolutely love stories like this.
I must mention 2 of the stories as being especially well written and most horrific.
'Geschafte' is true urban horror at it's best and will make you look at your renovated apartment building in a new way.
'Tuckahoe'.....a blend of True Detective and Cthulhu Mythos as interpreted by Scott Nicolay. A masterful tale to finish the book with and one that will leave you in stunned silence.
I really can't recommend 'Ana Kai Tangata' enough. If you enjoy horror, well written and strnage horror, you will love this anthology.
There are 8 stories included along with moody art by David Verba.
Warning: I don't get into detail in my reviews. It is too easy to give away important aspects of the story by talking too much.
I was mesmerized by this anthology and read it twice through back to back.
Scott writes a different kind of horror in my opinion. He forces you to think, to use your imagination, to fill in the frightening blanks. This makes for a more horrific experience and I absolutely love stories like this.
I must mention 2 of the stories as being especially well written and most horrific.
'Geschafte' is true urban horror at it's best and will make you look at your renovated apartment building in a new way.
'Tuckahoe'.....a blend of True Detective and Cthulhu Mythos as interpreted by Scott Nicolay. A masterful tale to finish the book with and one that will leave you in stunned silence.
I really can't recommend 'Ana Kai Tangata' enough. If you enjoy horror, well written and strnage horror, you will love this anthology.
Read
February 26, 2017There are some great stories here but I would have given it a 3 star rating were it not for the wonderful---and even despite the, at times, uneven---writing of the last story "Tuckahoe" which is in fact the crown jewel of the collection. Like the controversial & at times maddening Laird Barron (who provides a so-so introduction to this very book, btw), I await Nicolay's next collection in great anticipation--what will/can some one obviously possessed of such a prodigious talent achieve next?!
April 28, 2014
A bizarre, unsettling collection of Weird fiction with a very urban and very bleak setting. The stories are long, lush and depressing. So, that works for me! A very strong debut collection.
September 2, 2017
One cannot help but adopt this cynical view of modern weird fiction and its attached fandom after encountering something like this. One sees these ratings, reads the reviews, then proceeds to read actual collection. Drops it before finishing all of its stories. Meandering plots, two dimensional characters (for someone so given to virtue signaling, Nicolay sure appears to be unable to write any female character who isn't some sort of sex object or just all-around horrible human being) who oft act in this wholly unbelievable manner (fatherhood tip from the first story: floating corpses are apparently a good way to impress your daughter!), cringe-inducing dialogues, even more cringe-inducing description of sexual acts.
Yeah, he might use some less explored mythologies and backgrounds, and he seems to posses extensive knowledge of them, but he uses them in mundane ways, leading to increasingly predictable horror story endings. There is nothing particular to Native American folklore to ending of first or fifth tale, other than creature and surrounding used – million other devices could have been used. Infodumps fail to impress in this day end age, when they serve no purpose. And by the way, that entire shtick he has going in the first tale, meandering “plot” filled with side-diversions, without any real sense of mounting dread, with nothing supernatural going on until the abrupt ending in the last 1% of it and its culminating chthonic sacrifice in the final lines – he will repeat it! This wouldn't be as bad if his characters and dialogues weren't, as noted above, awful, or if his diversions weren’t obvious filler.
Titular tale goes further with its use of the mythology and history of Easter Island, but it only left me wanting for a good story that uses them as its basis (also, tho it leaves our pattern a bit, it still ends with chthonic sacrifice). Also, one that delineates dialogues in some normal manner. I thought that certain critic was doing his usual exaggeration act when commenting of Nicolay’s use of of dashes instead of quotation marks, but this can indeed make for messy reading. Titular story is a nasty example of that, even tho I can see how this can be used as a way to create additional confusion in the reader and accent the dreamlike feel he seems to be going for. Another story actually references use of certain textual tricks, choosing one of them for its title. Again, I can appreciate the idea, but his execution is messy, lackluster.
This story that I‘ve referenced above is “Eyes Exchange Bank“. Not glaringly bad, but my original encounter with it was in that Ligotti tribute anthology where it struck me as its weakest part. Its description of urban decay and protagonist’s seeming descent into madness would impress more if they were not juxtaposed with the work of far more accomplished writers, ones who, in that sam anthology, achieved much more with far less words. Also: again, incredibly abrupt ending.
One story that I genuinely liked was the second one. There is nothing particularly original about this one, at its core it repeats the premise of Lovecraft‘s “From beyond” or Stevens’ “Unseen – Unfeared“, but it is well told, from a perspective of this young child which is something that I always enjoy when well executed. In a way, this one almost reads as if it was written by another writer, lacking some glaring flaws of other pieces and wholly departing from their formula. It also happens to be one of shortest pieces in this collection, free of that meaningless fat that plagues so much of it.
I dropped the collection after finishing “The Soft Fogs”. Less I write about that one, the better. Tho, comparing it, together with the opening tale, to praise found in Barron‘s intro made for one interesting experience, if nothing else.
Yeah, he might use some less explored mythologies and backgrounds, and he seems to posses extensive knowledge of them, but he uses them in mundane ways, leading to increasingly predictable horror story endings. There is nothing particular to Native American folklore to ending of first or fifth tale, other than creature and surrounding used – million other devices could have been used. Infodumps fail to impress in this day end age, when they serve no purpose. And by the way, that entire shtick he has going in the first tale, meandering “plot” filled with side-diversions, without any real sense of mounting dread, with nothing supernatural going on until the abrupt ending in the last 1% of it and its culminating chthonic sacrifice in the final lines – he will repeat it! This wouldn't be as bad if his characters and dialogues weren't, as noted above, awful, or if his diversions weren’t obvious filler.
Titular tale goes further with its use of the mythology and history of Easter Island, but it only left me wanting for a good story that uses them as its basis (also, tho it leaves our pattern a bit, it still ends with chthonic sacrifice). Also, one that delineates dialogues in some normal manner. I thought that certain critic was doing his usual exaggeration act when commenting of Nicolay’s use of of dashes instead of quotation marks, but this can indeed make for messy reading. Titular story is a nasty example of that, even tho I can see how this can be used as a way to create additional confusion in the reader and accent the dreamlike feel he seems to be going for. Another story actually references use of certain textual tricks, choosing one of them for its title. Again, I can appreciate the idea, but his execution is messy, lackluster.
This story that I‘ve referenced above is “Eyes Exchange Bank“. Not glaringly bad, but my original encounter with it was in that Ligotti tribute anthology where it struck me as its weakest part. Its description of urban decay and protagonist’s seeming descent into madness would impress more if they were not juxtaposed with the work of far more accomplished writers, ones who, in that sam anthology, achieved much more with far less words. Also: again, incredibly abrupt ending.
One story that I genuinely liked was the second one. There is nothing particularly original about this one, at its core it repeats the premise of Lovecraft‘s “From beyond” or Stevens’ “Unseen – Unfeared“, but it is well told, from a perspective of this young child which is something that I always enjoy when well executed. In a way, this one almost reads as if it was written by another writer, lacking some glaring flaws of other pieces and wholly departing from their formula. It also happens to be one of shortest pieces in this collection, free of that meaningless fat that plagues so much of it.
I dropped the collection after finishing “The Soft Fogs”. Less I write about that one, the better. Tho, comparing it, together with the opening tale, to praise found in Barron‘s intro made for one interesting experience, if nothing else.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 4, 2014
This book received mostly highly positive reviews, though it got a negative one from S.T. Joshi. I thought the book was pretty good. I also like the book as a physical object--such as the cover art, and the interior art that goes which each story.
This is what the potential reader can expect from this book. The book is a collection of short to medium length weird fiction, some of which was published previously, others are original to the volume. The fiction follows the tenets of the literary manifesto which Scott Nicolay put on the internet a few years back. No stock figures from supernatural fiction, such as vampires, werewolves, Elder Gods, etc. Naturalism, for example serial killers, are eschewed also. Place is an important feature in this fiction. We get locales ranging from New Jersey to the southwestern part of the US to Easter Island. Empirical fields of inquiry, such as forensics, physical and cultural anthropology, inform the stories. Another thing in these stories, which I don't see mentioned in the manifesto, but perhaps could be added to it, is that I suspect that Nicolay has autobiographical elements in his fiction. It reminds me of the fiction of the late Lucius Shepard.
Some might not care for art manifestos. I look at Nicolay's art manifesto as rules for constrained writing.
The writing, I find to excellent at times. The story "Geschafte"
is like the uncanny fiction of Robert Aickman and Franz Kafka. What is this story about? Here is a quote from the story:
What the hell was going on in this building? Blackout streaking, people disappearing, entire rooms disappearing--maybe even whole buildings? If he helped this girl could they perhaps join forces, put the pieces together and grasp the mystery between them?
At other times, however, the writing goes into minutiae. For example, one story has an extending sex scene. Now, a sex scene can have a place in a story, but this scene goes into specific details into the kind of sex this couple is having. In another story, two characters meet up for breakfast. Ok, there is dialogue here which advances the plot. However, we also learn about the contents of the breakfast burrito, that one of the characters got sick from it, and some interaction with a stranger, none of which was relevant to the plot.
Also, the writing employs dashes instead of quotation marks, which some might find unappealing.
This is what the potential reader can expect from this book. The book is a collection of short to medium length weird fiction, some of which was published previously, others are original to the volume. The fiction follows the tenets of the literary manifesto which Scott Nicolay put on the internet a few years back. No stock figures from supernatural fiction, such as vampires, werewolves, Elder Gods, etc. Naturalism, for example serial killers, are eschewed also. Place is an important feature in this fiction. We get locales ranging from New Jersey to the southwestern part of the US to Easter Island. Empirical fields of inquiry, such as forensics, physical and cultural anthropology, inform the stories. Another thing in these stories, which I don't see mentioned in the manifesto, but perhaps could be added to it, is that I suspect that Nicolay has autobiographical elements in his fiction. It reminds me of the fiction of the late Lucius Shepard.
Some might not care for art manifestos. I look at Nicolay's art manifesto as rules for constrained writing.
The writing, I find to excellent at times. The story "Geschafte"
is like the uncanny fiction of Robert Aickman and Franz Kafka. What is this story about? Here is a quote from the story:
What the hell was going on in this building? Blackout streaking, people disappearing, entire rooms disappearing--maybe even whole buildings? If he helped this girl could they perhaps join forces, put the pieces together and grasp the mystery between them?
At other times, however, the writing goes into minutiae. For example, one story has an extending sex scene. Now, a sex scene can have a place in a story, but this scene goes into specific details into the kind of sex this couple is having. In another story, two characters meet up for breakfast. Ok, there is dialogue here which advances the plot. However, we also learn about the contents of the breakfast burrito, that one of the characters got sick from it, and some interaction with a stranger, none of which was relevant to the plot.
Also, the writing employs dashes instead of quotation marks, which some might find unappealing.
July 21, 2015
f you enjoy Laird Barron or Fritz Leiber, chance are you’ll dig Scott Nicolay’s debut collection “Ana Kai Tangata.” Hell, if you like Stephen King or Joe Lansdale or Jack London or Charles Olson or or Angela Carter or Lou Reed, you probably will, too.
The universe doesn’t care about you has been the starting point for Weird fiction/cosmic horror back to Hodgson and Lovecraft. But what’s been exciting to me lately is discovering that a movement of authors--the most prominent of which are perhaps Laird Barron, Caitlin R. Kiernan and Jeff VanderMeer with his Southern Reach trilogy--are redefining the Weird for the 21st century in astonishing ways. Scott Nicolay’s “Ana Kai Tangata” not only falls into this Weird Renaissance but boldly eschews its tired tropes to chart disturbing new territory.
In these eight stories and novellas, a series of doomed protagonists have hit the dead end of their streets in a diverse itinerary of places ranging from the toxic wastes of Weird New Jersey, where Nicolay grew up, to the far-off-the-beaten-track--in his hands, otherworldly--corners of the Navajo Nation region of NW New Mexico, where he has resided since 1991. At a dead mall in Pennsylvania and a decaying historic apartment building in San Francisco, reality begins to fracture, revealing shadowy, hungry urban cracks. Third world grittiness slowly melts into creeping dread as ancient mysteries are revealed and may or may not be explained in the lead story which takes place on Rapa Nui, aka Easter Island, where Nicolay spent two summers doing archaeology digs. Wherever the location and amplified by powerful abstract illustrations by David Verba, Nicolay displays a unique skill at immersing the reader in settings both familiar and slowly metamorphosing into something else not of this world--or as he titles one story, “a bad outer space.”
Bizarre architecture, cryptozoology, cave archaeology, entymology, symbolisme français, crime noir, repetitive dreams, imaginative children, a restored ’72 Challenger, Jack Spicer, a sexually charged game involving doughnuts, pizza, punk rock. Nicolay blends all of these masterfully into the strange soup of “Ana Kai Tangata.”
The universe doesn’t care about you has been the starting point for Weird fiction/cosmic horror back to Hodgson and Lovecraft. But what’s been exciting to me lately is discovering that a movement of authors--the most prominent of which are perhaps Laird Barron, Caitlin R. Kiernan and Jeff VanderMeer with his Southern Reach trilogy--are redefining the Weird for the 21st century in astonishing ways. Scott Nicolay’s “Ana Kai Tangata” not only falls into this Weird Renaissance but boldly eschews its tired tropes to chart disturbing new territory.
In these eight stories and novellas, a series of doomed protagonists have hit the dead end of their streets in a diverse itinerary of places ranging from the toxic wastes of Weird New Jersey, where Nicolay grew up, to the far-off-the-beaten-track--in his hands, otherworldly--corners of the Navajo Nation region of NW New Mexico, where he has resided since 1991. At a dead mall in Pennsylvania and a decaying historic apartment building in San Francisco, reality begins to fracture, revealing shadowy, hungry urban cracks. Third world grittiness slowly melts into creeping dread as ancient mysteries are revealed and may or may not be explained in the lead story which takes place on Rapa Nui, aka Easter Island, where Nicolay spent two summers doing archaeology digs. Wherever the location and amplified by powerful abstract illustrations by David Verba, Nicolay displays a unique skill at immersing the reader in settings both familiar and slowly metamorphosing into something else not of this world--or as he titles one story, “a bad outer space.”
Bizarre architecture, cryptozoology, cave archaeology, entymology, symbolisme français, crime noir, repetitive dreams, imaginative children, a restored ’72 Challenger, Jack Spicer, a sexually charged game involving doughnuts, pizza, punk rock. Nicolay blends all of these masterfully into the strange soup of “Ana Kai Tangata.”
January 8, 2015
In these long tales Nicolay births scuttling monstrosities by interbreeding weird horror, the grotesqueries of bizarro, and a more subtle decadent tradition. The reader knows from the outset the hapless, and well-drawn, male protagonists are doomed, but the manner of their ends always shocks. If I had one gripe, it would be that this inexorable plotting comes to seem a bit rote over the course of the collection, but these are strong and deeply unsettling stories.
June 19, 2017
I'm fascinated by where horror is headed in the 21st century. Which contemporary issues will find their expression in Gothic? How do creators work with new media? What happens to the classic tropes?
Ana Kai Tangata offers a quiet and powerful answer. Scott Nicolay's short stories return us to the classic tale of dread, where a protagonist is gradually immersed in unease, then terror.
Nicolay's approach to horror is fascinating. He's very serious, although some opening lines are hilarious, and there are quiet nods to the tradition (Poe at Kindle location 824, for example). Most of the stories point to a rich range of non-genre literary sources, from Ezra Pound to the Bible to Jessica Tarahata Hagedorn. Nearly every story has an embedded tale, the revelation of which either sets up a mystery or undermines the protagonist's reality. Every story is deeply grounded in a specific intellectual or professional domain, be it archaeological technique, Easter Island minutiae, New Jersey police codes, or Navajo culture. We learn about linguistics, the bullfrog's life cycle (although it won't help us), bad federal policies from the 1930s.
You'll notice that the preceding paragraph uses words like "each" and "every" and "most", and that brings me to my sole criticism of the collection. Many of the stories contain so many similar elements that reading them all in a row can weaken their power. I started anticipating certain tropes (dead fathers, hidden cave mouths) and phrases (snipe hunt).
One theme, however, became stronger through repetition. Ruin and decay shoot through Ana Kai Tangata, backgrounded as settings and foregrounded as plot points and issues to consider. Nicolay forces us to consider urban decay, falling-apart communities, bitterly ruined towns, and people suffering poverty, physical distress, and mental trauma. This dark theme is very much in the Gothic tradition, and the collection explores it with sympathy and without flinching.
Nicolay's style carries this thematic engagement off. Most of the time his prose is direct, showing us scenes of decay and dread, yet he never lets us escape a protagonist's mental state through internal monologues, which humanizes every scene, especially since each protagonist is very flawed. At the same time he's capable of passages that stretch beyond those features, into something like noir or otherwise twisted lyricism:
To selected stories:
The title story, "Ana Kai Tangata", is a long exploration of Easter Island, with an interesting mythos. It does a fine job of introducing horror early on, yet calibrating things well enough to keep suspense and dread in play throughout.
"Phragmites" begins with archaeology, moves into a study of Native American sociology (who stays close to their people, and who leaves), then goes deeply underground.
"Eyes Exchange Bank" is a Thomas Ligotti tribute story, and does a good job of approximating that author's blend of nightmare, surrealism, and decay.
"The Bad Outer Space" is unusual, and won me over right away as the book's second story. It's a first person reflection by a young boy about his family and a new friend, which veers into something close to cosmic horror, without leaving that perspective. Very well done and sad.
"Tuckahoe" is even more unusual, although it has at its core standard Nicolay elements: a messed-up protagonist, gradual immersion into dread, engagement with professional details (here, New Jersey policing). But it's longer, and the end is a surprise. Horror shifts away from the Lovecraftian doomful mode into two-fisted adventure, and the change of pace is actually refreshing.
I need to say something about the stories' endings, and must cloak that in spoilers.
In short, strongly recommended for horror readers. This is an author whose work I'll seek out.
Ana Kai Tangata offers a quiet and powerful answer. Scott Nicolay's short stories return us to the classic tale of dread, where a protagonist is gradually immersed in unease, then terror.
Nicolay's approach to horror is fascinating. He's very serious, although some opening lines are hilarious, and there are quiet nods to the tradition (Poe at Kindle location 824, for example). Most of the stories point to a rich range of non-genre literary sources, from Ezra Pound to the Bible to Jessica Tarahata Hagedorn. Nearly every story has an embedded tale, the revelation of which either sets up a mystery or undermines the protagonist's reality. Every story is deeply grounded in a specific intellectual or professional domain, be it archaeological technique, Easter Island minutiae, New Jersey police codes, or Navajo culture. We learn about linguistics, the bullfrog's life cycle (although it won't help us), bad federal policies from the 1930s.
You'll notice that the preceding paragraph uses words like "each" and "every" and "most", and that brings me to my sole criticism of the collection. Many of the stories contain so many similar elements that reading them all in a row can weaken their power. I started anticipating certain tropes (dead fathers, hidden cave mouths) and phrases (snipe hunt).
One theme, however, became stronger through repetition. Ruin and decay shoot through Ana Kai Tangata, backgrounded as settings and foregrounded as plot points and issues to consider. Nicolay forces us to consider urban decay, falling-apart communities, bitterly ruined towns, and people suffering poverty, physical distress, and mental trauma. This dark theme is very much in the Gothic tradition, and the collection explores it with sympathy and without flinching.
Nicolay's style carries this thematic engagement off. Most of the time his prose is direct, showing us scenes of decay and dread, yet he never lets us escape a protagonist's mental state through internal monologues, which humanizes every scene, especially since each protagonist is very flawed. At the same time he's capable of passages that stretch beyond those features, into something like noir or otherwise twisted lyricism:
A diffuse blade of sun angled through the window slot to cut the shadows. (2831)Nicolay is also skilled in understated descriptions and phrases that chill, like "soft frogs" (you'll see: 2678).
Jagged bands of leached alkali spread out around each pond. Approaching close to one he saw dead brown weed choking the wide lens of stagnant water, ranks of fuzzy fronds straining to reach the surface yet failing, the still pool fixed as a vast decrepit moss agate, dismal exercise in vegetal futility. (2468)
To selected stories:
The title story, "Ana Kai Tangata", is a long exploration of Easter Island, with an interesting mythos. It does a fine job of introducing horror early on, yet calibrating things well enough to keep suspense and dread in play throughout.
"Phragmites" begins with archaeology, moves into a study of Native American sociology (who stays close to their people, and who leaves), then goes deeply underground.
"Eyes Exchange Bank" is a Thomas Ligotti tribute story, and does a good job of approximating that author's blend of nightmare, surrealism, and decay.
"The Bad Outer Space" is unusual, and won me over right away as the book's second story. It's a first person reflection by a young boy about his family and a new friend, which veers into something close to cosmic horror, without leaving that perspective. Very well done and sad.
"Tuckahoe" is even more unusual, although it has at its core standard Nicolay elements: a messed-up protagonist, gradual immersion into dread, engagement with professional details (here, New Jersey policing). But it's longer, and the end is a surprise. Horror shifts away from the Lovecraftian doomful mode into two-fisted adventure, and the change of pace is actually refreshing.
I need to say something about the stories' endings, and must cloak that in spoilers.
In short, strongly recommended for horror readers. This is an author whose work I'll seek out.
July 3, 2022
A wonderful debut collection of weird fiction, originally published in 2015. These eight stories are uniformly atmospheric, unpredictable, eerie, and stylish, and they're set in varied locations: New Mexico, San Francisco, Easter Island, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. My favorites are "The Bad Outer Space," "Ana Kai Tangata," "Phragmites," and "Tuckahoe," powerful, well-written stories that I can't stop thinking about.
Is there another debut collection as good as this? Nicolay establishes himself here as the preeminent author of weird fiction set in caves or New Jersey. He's also the best writer to emerge from my hometown. For that reason, I pledge to read everything he writes.
Is there another debut collection as good as this? Nicolay establishes himself here as the preeminent author of weird fiction set in caves or New Jersey. He's also the best writer to emerge from my hometown. For that reason, I pledge to read everything he writes.
September 4, 2015
A TOP SHELF review, originally published in the September 4, 2015 edition of The Monitor
Emerging over the last couple of decades, the New Weird is a vibrant, growing genre of speculative fiction which boasts some of the most compelling writing of the 21st century. Jeff VanderMeer, one of its foremost figures, has defined the New Weird as “a type of urban, secondary-world fiction that subverts the romanticized ideas about place found in traditional fantasy, largely by choosing realistic, complex real-world models as the jumping off point for creation of settings that may combine elements of both science fiction and fantasy.”
Author Scott Nicolay, a former field archaeologist and teacher, set up some guidelines for his own forays into the New Weird in his “Dogme 2011,” stressing that stories should be atmospheric, that setting should be a vital element, that the normal tropes and monsters of speculative fiction should be avoided. Importantly, he cited Caitlin R. Kiernan’s rule of thumb: “dark fiction dealing with the inexplicable should, itself, present to the reader a certain inexplicability.”
This disciplined approach to the New Weird makes Nicolay’s first collection, Ana Kai Tangata, a compelling and unsettling read. Subtitled “Tales of the Outer, the Other, the Damned, and the Doomed,” volume pulls from the author’s wide experience and reading, presenting the reader with eight masterfully written narratives in which hapless protagonists have the cover of the cosmos ripped off for a brief glimpse at the vast, inscrutable indifference waiting just beyond.
The collection opens with the powerfully disturbing “alligators,” in which a New Jersey teacher’s life-long nightmare about a flooded quarry collides with urban legends and the Navajo traditions of his wife’s family to create a growing sense of unease that ends in an abrupt moment of obscure, fleeting revelation (a narrative pattern that undergirds quite a few New Weird tales, almost like the genre’s own twisted iteration of the Monomyth).
“The Bad Outer Space” is an exquisitely controlled tale narrated by a young boy who is gradually exposed to (and arguably corrupted by) normally invisible worm-like creatures entering our world from elsewhere to infest the people of his neighborhood.
“Eyes Exchange Bank,” first published in the anthology “The Grimscribe’s Puppets” (a tribute to Thomas Ligotti that won the Shirley Jackson award), is an amazingly constructed edifice of inexplicable dread. It is sandwiched between my two favorites, “Ana Kai Tangata” and “Phragmites,” both of which blend archaeology and hints of indigenous mythology (on Easter Island and in the Dinétah or Navajo Reservation) with broken male protagonists who find themselves thrust into deadly liminal spaces.
A similarly adrift man, in search of punk rock and easy sex, finds instead a crumbling abandoned convent teeming with unearthly amphibians in “The Soft Frogs.” Stranded in an acquaintance’s apartment in a strange building across the street from a stranger temple, the disaffected voyeur of “Geschäfte” finds himself and the edifice around him changing inexplicably.
Noir and New Weird collide in the novella “Tuckahoe,” which reads like the unholy child of Jim Thompson and Lovecraft’s “The Dunwich Horror.” Detective Donny Cantú is investigating a horrible highway accident that has left three people dead and dismembered. The problem is that there are seven arms on the scene, not six, and that unexpected extra limb isn’t quite human …
Punctuated by the haunting art of David Verba, Scott Nicolay’s stories are like tenuous beams of light from a miner’s helmet that briefly illuminate grotesque, ineffable and prodigious forms in the dark, avid caverns of the unknown. A stunning debut from a new master of the macabre.
Emerging over the last couple of decades, the New Weird is a vibrant, growing genre of speculative fiction which boasts some of the most compelling writing of the 21st century. Jeff VanderMeer, one of its foremost figures, has defined the New Weird as “a type of urban, secondary-world fiction that subverts the romanticized ideas about place found in traditional fantasy, largely by choosing realistic, complex real-world models as the jumping off point for creation of settings that may combine elements of both science fiction and fantasy.”
Author Scott Nicolay, a former field archaeologist and teacher, set up some guidelines for his own forays into the New Weird in his “Dogme 2011,” stressing that stories should be atmospheric, that setting should be a vital element, that the normal tropes and monsters of speculative fiction should be avoided. Importantly, he cited Caitlin R. Kiernan’s rule of thumb: “dark fiction dealing with the inexplicable should, itself, present to the reader a certain inexplicability.”
This disciplined approach to the New Weird makes Nicolay’s first collection, Ana Kai Tangata, a compelling and unsettling read. Subtitled “Tales of the Outer, the Other, the Damned, and the Doomed,” volume pulls from the author’s wide experience and reading, presenting the reader with eight masterfully written narratives in which hapless protagonists have the cover of the cosmos ripped off for a brief glimpse at the vast, inscrutable indifference waiting just beyond.
The collection opens with the powerfully disturbing “alligators,” in which a New Jersey teacher’s life-long nightmare about a flooded quarry collides with urban legends and the Navajo traditions of his wife’s family to create a growing sense of unease that ends in an abrupt moment of obscure, fleeting revelation (a narrative pattern that undergirds quite a few New Weird tales, almost like the genre’s own twisted iteration of the Monomyth).
“The Bad Outer Space” is an exquisitely controlled tale narrated by a young boy who is gradually exposed to (and arguably corrupted by) normally invisible worm-like creatures entering our world from elsewhere to infest the people of his neighborhood.
“Eyes Exchange Bank,” first published in the anthology “The Grimscribe’s Puppets” (a tribute to Thomas Ligotti that won the Shirley Jackson award), is an amazingly constructed edifice of inexplicable dread. It is sandwiched between my two favorites, “Ana Kai Tangata” and “Phragmites,” both of which blend archaeology and hints of indigenous mythology (on Easter Island and in the Dinétah or Navajo Reservation) with broken male protagonists who find themselves thrust into deadly liminal spaces.
A similarly adrift man, in search of punk rock and easy sex, finds instead a crumbling abandoned convent teeming with unearthly amphibians in “The Soft Frogs.” Stranded in an acquaintance’s apartment in a strange building across the street from a stranger temple, the disaffected voyeur of “Geschäfte” finds himself and the edifice around him changing inexplicably.
Noir and New Weird collide in the novella “Tuckahoe,” which reads like the unholy child of Jim Thompson and Lovecraft’s “The Dunwich Horror.” Detective Donny Cantú is investigating a horrible highway accident that has left three people dead and dismembered. The problem is that there are seven arms on the scene, not six, and that unexpected extra limb isn’t quite human …
Punctuated by the haunting art of David Verba, Scott Nicolay’s stories are like tenuous beams of light from a miner’s helmet that briefly illuminate grotesque, ineffable and prodigious forms in the dark, avid caverns of the unknown. A stunning debut from a new master of the macabre.
September 4, 2015
Scott Nicolay's collection, "Ana Kai Tangata" is a new and very interesting look at Lovecraftian-type horror, especially since the new debate around Lovecraft's racism. What all seven stories are about, in my eyes, is not so much the horror of the "creatures" or the "Ancient Ones", but, on the contrary, on the horror of the phallocratic and imperialist Western "Civilization". Most main characters, as symbols of the latter, "get what they deserve" - not in a stupid, moralistic way, but rather as "we might be dead and forgotten, but WE haven't forgotten." The settings - caves, Native-American reservations, Surburban interzones- are all linked to nature, or to its destruction. And the same goes for cultures, whether they are Navajo or from Easter Island. What's more, Scott Nicolay is a tremendous narrative craftsman, who manages to create a sense of gloom that is both, paradoxically, extremely controlled, yet open to anything horrible. This collection opens for a new big name in Horror, and a very, very interesting and talented one.
August 31, 2015
Ana Kai Tangata: Tales of the Outer the Other the Damned and the Doomed is a consistently excellent short story collection from Scott Nicolay. Often when I’m reading a collection if I run across a short story I’ve read elsewhere, I’ll skip it. Not the case here. “Eyes Exchange Bank” was just as good the second time, having already read it in The Grimscribes Puppets. “The Soft Frogs” was also fantastic the second time, although I’m not sure where I’ve read that before. My favorite piece in the collection is “Phragmites” which is set in an area of the southwest I have a particular interest in. The title story is also particularly interesting. Easter Island is another great setting, full of mystery, and Nicolay seems to have a great affinity for presenting struggling academic characters particularly archeologists.
I highly recommend this collection for anyone interested in hard hitting weird fiction.
I highly recommend this collection for anyone interested in hard hitting weird fiction.
July 3, 2015
Ana Kai Tangata is a stellar collection, full of the best worst kind of xenotropic weirdness. There is a through line to these stories, and it is laid bare by the book's subtitle. These are explorations and inhabitations at the twin thresholds of Outer Dark and Inner Void, undertaken by those poor souls best suited to the work: the marginalized among us, be it economically, culturally, academically, etc. After all, who better to pull back the frayed curtains and poke at what squirms beyond the edges of the world than those already denied its thin comforts?
Highlights include:
- "The Bad Outer Space", a nasty little yarn of the beginning of the end as told from a child's perspective;
- "Geschäfte", a paranoid tenement house nightmare;
- "Tuckahoe", a novella-length tale of classically Weird doings in and under rural New Jersey.
Highly recommended.
Highlights include:
- "The Bad Outer Space", a nasty little yarn of the beginning of the end as told from a child's perspective;
- "Geschäfte", a paranoid tenement house nightmare;
- "Tuckahoe", a novella-length tale of classically Weird doings in and under rural New Jersey.
Highly recommended.
April 11, 2015
It's not often that a debut collection can chill you deep to your core and make you question what you see every day. Scott Nicolay's first collection "Ana Kai Tangata" will do just that. His stories are powerful and rich with atmosphere. You will see the wiggly things in your eyes from "The Bad Outer Space". You will feel the despair on the streets of Lansdale in "Eyes Exchange Bank". You will go on a journey to lands far away in unexplored caves in the title story, and will feel the caves closing in on you. Then the closing story "Tuckahoe" will take you from the autopsy room, down to your worst nightmare. This collection is astounding for a debut, and completely and wholly original. I highly recommend it.
August 15, 2017
This collection contains two superb stories: "Tuckahoe" and "Bad Outer Space". They also happen to be the longest and shortest works in collection, respectively. Both are "lovecraftian" in a very classic manner, and the influence of specific Lovecraft stories is more than felt. "Tuckahoe" also completely drops one the promises from Nicolay's pretentious manifesto, in that it is bursting with noir tropes. Though, be strays from the large part of his manifesto throughout this collection. Rest of the stories vary between forgettable filler and junk. So, skip the overblown reviews, and read the aforementioned two stories. Read the rest only if you feel like it. Otherwise, chances are that this collection will defeat you long before you come to "Tuckahoe"...
December 26, 2020
Fedogan and Bremer put out high quality editions, from paper quality, to binding, to cover and interior art. This edition is no exception, so if you're looking to buy a physical copy take the opportunity to support a small, high end publisher (and check out some of their other collections while you're at it). The interior art is particularly well done and haunting. Its also important to point out that this is a collection of primarily novellas, rather than short-stories, just so the reader knows what they're in for when sitting down to crack it open.
The fact that Scott Nicolay's first collection was put out by such a fine publisher says something. As does his long reputation in the horror-lit and weird fiction community. However, I think those self-same connections to so much of the community may have skewed reviews a bit. Or maybe I'm the outlier, as I neither fall into the camp issuing glowing, unconditional praise, nor the much smaller camp (including S.T. Joshi) that really panned the book.
I think, as a first collection, its not a bad effort by any means. Overall, the quality of the writing is good, the stories are engaging, we get a good sense of place, and there's what feels like a lot of new (or at least underused) ideas and settings for horror. Like the great plains, until more recently the southwest, especially the modern southwest, felt like an underutilized setting ideal for horror and the weird and much of this collection is firmly grounded there. Exploring some indigenous myths and legends for the genre was also refreshing. After all, the region and some of its myth cycles, are things Nicolay knows a lot about, and things he knows, he knows very well. Unfortunately, I think that depth of knowledge in very specific areas worked both for and against him in this collection.
First, the foreward is written by a very well respected name in horror, both it and the afterward seem over the top in their fawning praise of Nicolay. While not included, both foreward and afterword also mention Nicolay's 'manifesto' (readily available online) as his guiding document in writing. The combination of the three, in a first printing/release of a freshman collection for an author who at the time had limited fiction publishing credits, feels really pretentious and off-putting. Unless you're already a fan of Nicolay, I'd heartily recommend you skip the foreward, afterward, and not go in search of his manifesto.
Beyond that, I'd say the largest failing is something to be expected in beginning authors, putting too much of oneself into one's stories. The protagonist in most of the stories is are very thinly veiled portraits of the author, most sharing his own avowed interests, specialties, and activies (spelunking, archeology, the culture of the high desert/new mexico region, & etc.). There even tend to be physical similarities. As I said, a sometimes amateur mistake, and one that likely would have gone entirely unnoticed and unremarked on had so many short stories suffering from it not been put side by side in one collection. The flip side is, of course, that Nicolay clearly understands these characters, their thought processes, and motivations very well. However, that pressed up against the repetitive nature of them, sets up a strange dichotomy where characters sometimes feel simultaneously like two dimensional tropes and complex, living characters. I have seen heard similar complaints from reviewers elsewhere regarding Nicolay's descriptions of many of his the female characters serving as love (or at least lust) interests. Nicolay definitley has a type, and it shows. Some of that I'm willing to chalk up to the demographics of many of the locales in which these stories are set, but even within that there is room for a great deal more variation than we're given. As above though, I don't feel either that or the student/teacher or mentor/mentee power dynamic that I've seen some reviewers balk at would be nearly as noticable were they not presented side by side in one book. I would also say that neither bothered me nearly as much as the issue with his male protagonists. I did think at one point that perhaps the repition was intentional, in order to set up the same sort of feel as the repeated language and themes in extended epic poems. I could imagine the same sort of rythmic feel as I would get sometimes in epics like the illiad or odyssey, though obviously not approaching that level of craft.
Perhaps unsuprisingly, I found the strongest and most effective stories to be those which broke as much as possible from the above issues, though none feel entirely free from them. "Geschafte" is particularly haunting and set in a foreboding urban environment. "The Soft Frogs" may bee subtle nod to Clark Ashton Smith's 'Mother of Toads' and is delightfully disgusting, disturbing, and fast paced. The longest story, "Tuckahoe" is perhaps the best, and gives us protagonists perhaps furthest from Nicolay himself, in the form of detectives and medical coroners. It was certainly the highlight of the collection in my eyes.
Don't get me wrong, there is plenty to enjoy here, and its definitely worth a read. Nicolay shows an extreme attention to detail without it bogging down his pacing. There's a lot of good representation of latinx and first peoples here that we don't see enough of in horror. I've since read other pieces by him in multi-author anthologies that I've very much enjoyed, and I'm definitely going to give some of his subsequent longer work a read. Just be prepared going in for some of the above.
The fact that Scott Nicolay's first collection was put out by such a fine publisher says something. As does his long reputation in the horror-lit and weird fiction community. However, I think those self-same connections to so much of the community may have skewed reviews a bit. Or maybe I'm the outlier, as I neither fall into the camp issuing glowing, unconditional praise, nor the much smaller camp (including S.T. Joshi) that really panned the book.
I think, as a first collection, its not a bad effort by any means. Overall, the quality of the writing is good, the stories are engaging, we get a good sense of place, and there's what feels like a lot of new (or at least underused) ideas and settings for horror. Like the great plains, until more recently the southwest, especially the modern southwest, felt like an underutilized setting ideal for horror and the weird and much of this collection is firmly grounded there. Exploring some indigenous myths and legends for the genre was also refreshing. After all, the region and some of its myth cycles, are things Nicolay knows a lot about, and things he knows, he knows very well. Unfortunately, I think that depth of knowledge in very specific areas worked both for and against him in this collection.
First, the foreward is written by a very well respected name in horror, both it and the afterward seem over the top in their fawning praise of Nicolay. While not included, both foreward and afterword also mention Nicolay's 'manifesto' (readily available online) as his guiding document in writing. The combination of the three, in a first printing/release of a freshman collection for an author who at the time had limited fiction publishing credits, feels really pretentious and off-putting. Unless you're already a fan of Nicolay, I'd heartily recommend you skip the foreward, afterward, and not go in search of his manifesto.
Beyond that, I'd say the largest failing is something to be expected in beginning authors, putting too much of oneself into one's stories. The protagonist in most of the stories is are very thinly veiled portraits of the author, most sharing his own avowed interests, specialties, and activies (spelunking, archeology, the culture of the high desert/new mexico region, & etc.). There even tend to be physical similarities. As I said, a sometimes amateur mistake, and one that likely would have gone entirely unnoticed and unremarked on had so many short stories suffering from it not been put side by side in one collection. The flip side is, of course, that Nicolay clearly understands these characters, their thought processes, and motivations very well. However, that pressed up against the repetitive nature of them, sets up a strange dichotomy where characters sometimes feel simultaneously like two dimensional tropes and complex, living characters. I have seen heard similar complaints from reviewers elsewhere regarding Nicolay's descriptions of many of his the female characters serving as love (or at least lust) interests. Nicolay definitley has a type, and it shows. Some of that I'm willing to chalk up to the demographics of many of the locales in which these stories are set, but even within that there is room for a great deal more variation than we're given. As above though, I don't feel either that or the student/teacher or mentor/mentee power dynamic that I've seen some reviewers balk at would be nearly as noticable were they not presented side by side in one book. I would also say that neither bothered me nearly as much as the issue with his male protagonists. I did think at one point that perhaps the repition was intentional, in order to set up the same sort of feel as the repeated language and themes in extended epic poems. I could imagine the same sort of rythmic feel as I would get sometimes in epics like the illiad or odyssey, though obviously not approaching that level of craft.
Perhaps unsuprisingly, I found the strongest and most effective stories to be those which broke as much as possible from the above issues, though none feel entirely free from them. "Geschafte" is particularly haunting and set in a foreboding urban environment. "The Soft Frogs" may bee subtle nod to Clark Ashton Smith's 'Mother of Toads' and is delightfully disgusting, disturbing, and fast paced. The longest story, "Tuckahoe" is perhaps the best, and gives us protagonists perhaps furthest from Nicolay himself, in the form of detectives and medical coroners. It was certainly the highlight of the collection in my eyes.
Don't get me wrong, there is plenty to enjoy here, and its definitely worth a read. Nicolay shows an extreme attention to detail without it bogging down his pacing. There's a lot of good representation of latinx and first peoples here that we don't see enough of in horror. I've since read other pieces by him in multi-author anthologies that I've very much enjoyed, and I'm definitely going to give some of his subsequent longer work a read. Just be prepared going in for some of the above.
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