the beautiful thing that awaits us all by laird barron

Ties in strongly with Barron's novel, The Croning. I once made a hex-map interpretation of this piece. The Men from Porlock - Back to the 1920s this action story pits a group of lumberjacks against a weird cult ( The Children of Old Leech, of course). Vastation - Stream of (cosmic) consciousness! I love this mess of post-apocalyptic sci fi horror something. Some of the best apocalyptic imagery in Barron's oeuvre here. I like it how many of Barron stories feature similar characters, return to the same locations, but instead of being repetitive, they explore these from different points of view and reinforce the horror. The Siphon - An interesting story, with some imagery lifted from modern techno-thriller, but in the end going back to the occult roots. but what lurks in the darkness? Once again, Barron takes a formula, but gives it a couple of twists, and ends up with a great story. The Carrion Gods in their Heaven - Another good one! Two lovers hole up in a cabin in the woods. Barron even ties in Eadweard Muybridge into the conspiracy, to great effect. Back to a Barronian hardboiled narrator, a 1920s mafia hitman, who ends up being the pawn in a war between various occult factions. Hand of Glory - One of my favorites in this collection. The Redfield Girls - This is a change from most of Barron's stories, as the protagonists are not gritty pulp men-of-action, but a 'close-knit sorority of veteran teachers', who rent a house by a lake. The story has some formulaic elements, but they all come together very nicely. Barron returns with his third collection, The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All.Overall, this is a very strong collection, and it's the one that really got me into Laird Barron.īlackwood's Baby - Hunt goes horrific for this hardboiled (anti-)hero, Luke Honey. Melding supernatural horror with hardboiled noir, espionage, and a scientific backbone, Barron's stories have garnered critical acclaim and have been reprinted in numerous year's best anthologies and nominated for multiple awards, including the Crawford, International Horror Guild, Shirley Jackson, Theodore Sturgeon, and World Fantasy awards. Laird Barron has arisen as one of the strongest and most original literary voices in modern horror and the dark fantastic.

The beautiful thing that awaits us all by laird barron