Din of Celestial Birds

by Brian Evenson

Short story collection

Genres: Horror

152 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1997

About the author

Brian Evenson is an American academic and writer of both literary fiction and popular fiction, some of the latter being published under B. K. Evenson.

Reviews

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Early Evenson; you get a feeling for the writer to-be in these pieces, even in the un-even ones. There's still a lot to love here for BE fans - just not recommended as a first read if you are new to his work.

[G. Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a huge Evenson fan, and while this book is my least favorite of his collections that I've read thus far, I do recommend it to any others who are already acquainted with Evenson's broader catalog. This collection is different from his others in that the stories are tied together by locale and other small threads. The protagonist of one story may be the neighbor, relative, or victim of the protagonist of the previous story.

While this collection is mostly dark fiction chronicling the troubled lives of various people in and around the city of Labaise on an unnamed island in the Caribbean or off the coast of South America, it also incorporates some supernatural elements, especially in the title work, which I originally read in the Lovecraft Unbound anthology (though it is really far more like Poe than Lovecraft).

The writing is not as crystalized as in his later work, and the stories are not as witty and experimental as in Altmann's Tongue. Still, they are definitely worth the read for his fans. But this is not a starting point for the uninitiated.

[Robbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Crazy that he was this good this early.

[Mary Giblin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, Brian. Your books scare the sh*t out of me.

[Seth Augenstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

His fifth-best collection… but still excellent

[Simon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Another one of my wife's brother's book. Again, I do not feel like I can judge his work. I did not like the stories though.