14 by Peter Clines

Decidi requisitar este livro no NetGalley por ter lido um comentário de um autor dizendo que seria uma leitura ao estilo de Lost. De facto, a estrutura da história lembra facilmente a série, mas as semelhanças ficam-se por aí. Peter Clines não tem a subtileza do suspense da série e cruza o seu mistério com outros estilos de horror, de forma que o resultado final é algo estranho.

14 é a história de como a chegada de Nate ao edifício Kavach despoleta uma série de investigações dos inquilinos sobre a sua casa, culminando não só na descoberta do que o Kavach é mas também na possibilidade de se destruir a humanidade.

O prédio é, de facto, muito estranho. Nenhuma das pessoas que lá vive tem sonhos durante a noite, há baratas verdes com pernas extra, cada apartamento tem um tamanho e organização diferentes e há portas trancadas para nunca serem abertas. Facilmente se compreende como os inquilinos não conseguem segurar a sua curiosidade e, à medida que vão ganhando confiança uns com os outros, vão formando um grupo de investigadores à revelia do encarregado que parece estar determinado a impedi-los.

A escrita de Clines é pouco elaborada e as suas personagens são em geral simples peões num enredo em que a estrela é sem dúvida o edifício. Nota-se que este livro é, essencialmente, fruto da sua vontade de contar esta história, não havendo espaço para especial evolução das personagens que a povoam, com a notável excepção de Nate. O mistério é interessante e vai sendo revelado aos poucos, nunca deixando o ritmo abrandar mas sem revelar demasiado do que se espera ser o final. Tentando não contar demasiado para não estragar a leitura aos interessados, limito-me a dizer que podem contar com uma mistura entre Lost, steampunk e H.P. Lovecraft. O livro está pejado de referências à cultura popular e geek actual, desde Lost e Fringe a Star Trek ou Twilight Sone, ao ponto de se tornarem cansativas. Gosto bastante de detectar referências nas minhas leituras mas quando isso parece ser o único ornamento da escrita do autor a piada sucumbe à exaustão.

Para quem não se incomodar com SPOILERS, há mais a dizer sobre a obra de Peter Clines. Um ponto positivo é o seu tratamento das relações interpessoais. Não lhes dá demasiado foco mas mostra a sua influência nas decisões das personagens e não se preocupa com encaixes bonitos ou lições de moral. Um homem acha uma mulher atraente mas acaba por se apaixonar por outra, sem que nenhuma tenha que ser melhor ou pior pessoa, simplesmente porque acontece. Um ponto negativo é o final mal explorado, em que criaturas imortais capazes de viagens interdimensionais são burras ao ponto de dar tempo e oportunidade aos humanos para lhes impedir a entrada na Terra.

Não sendo uma obra-prima, 14 é no entanto competente como entretenimento, segurando o leitor migalha a migalha e sempre com algo inesperado à espreita, resultando numa leitura leve e rápida. Ponderaria ler outros trabalhos do autor, em especial se os soubesse mais refinados ao nível da escrita.

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I decided to request this book on NetGalley after reading a comment which stated it was similar to Lost. In fact, the structure of the story reminds one of the TV series, but Peter Clines doesn't have the subtlety of its suspense and he crosses his mystery story with horror which ends up originating a rather weird novel.

14 is the story of how Nate moving into the Kavach building starts a chain reaction of events that culminate in the tenants discovery of exactly what is Kavach but also on the possibility of bringing about the end of humanity as we know it.

The building is in fact really weird. None of the tenants have dreams at night, there are green cockroaches with extra legs, each apartment has different size and organization and there are doors locked so they would never be opened. One can easily understand how they can't get a grip on their curiosity and, as they get to know each other, eventually become a group of investigators, much to the despair of the caretaker.

Clines' writing is simple and straightforward and his characters are generally all but pawns to his plot where the true star is the building itself. One can tell the book is, in essence, the result of the authors will to tell this story, without much dedication to the evolution of the characters, with the notable exception of Nate. The mystery is interesting and is revealed step by step, never slowing down the pace or showing too much of what's ahead. Trying not to spoil too much, if you're going to read 14 expect a mix of Lost, steampunk and H.P. Lovecraft. The book is teeming with cultural and geeky references, from Lost and Fringe to Star Trek and Twilight Zone, to the point where they become tiresome. I usually enjoy finding these small nods to cultural icons but when that is the author's sole means of adorning his text, the fun is drowned by exhaustion.

For those who don't mind SPOILERS, there's of course much more to say about 14. One of its strengths is his approach to human relations. He doesn't give them centre stage but he does show their influence on people's decision-making and he avoids those typical fittings or moralised endings. A guy finds a woman attractive but he ends up falling in love for another, not because one of them is shown to be better or worse, but simply because it happens. A weakness would be the ending, where immortal inter-dimensional travellers are dumb enough to give the puny humans time and chance to stop them from entering Earth.

Far from being a masterpiece, 14 is still competent as entertainment, leading the reader with breadcrumbs of revelations and always something unexpected waiting just around the corner, resulting in a quick and light read. I might read other works by Peter Clines, if I knew them to be more refined in terms of writing.

The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All by Laird Barron

I asked for an advanced e-version of this book from Netgalley because I really liked the name and cover and also because it's about time I read some good horror stories. The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All is not only the first of Laird Barron's works I've read but also the first time I read a horror anthology. I haven't even read H.P. Lovecraft I'm afraid. So take this as a beginner's review, someone who didn't really have specific expectations or previous works in the genre to compare to. The book will be made available on April the 2nd.

This book collects nine stories and I'll start by talking a bit about each of them.

The first tale is Blackwood's Baby, a nice introduction into the theme and the author's apparent intent. We follow a hunter who gets invited to a special hunt, in a forest known to be haunted or else associated to some supernatural infernal being and those who cut deals with him. We are given all the campfire chills we would expect from such a typical setting, but at a pace and with such a surprising build up and development that puts it miles away from most of the plots we see in horror films. Barron even has space to explore some issues of social hierarchy but the two things that stand out in Blackwood's Baby are the main character, a complex and mysterious Luke Honey who really drives the story, and the ending which keeps nagging you at the back of your mind long after you've read it. I noticed that while at first, just after finishing the story, I was rather confused, probably because I am not used to this kind of theme and storytelling, after delving more into the book I came to like it much more. The fact that the author doesn't put all the evil in the supernatural beings and allows the humans to have the worst intentions and actions gave me hope that this would be something more than a bunch of scary stories. 

After all the weirdness of the first one, The Redfield Girls starts off as a very simple story. Some women who travel on vacations together, this time forced to take a new element, Bernice's niece who appeared without warning at her door the day before the trip. Of course they had to go to a a place with a lake which here represents the unknown and scary and also the place where Bernice's aunt died years ago. The characters are very believable and their actions seem genuine but the plot, apart from one or two good moments, is somewhat predictable and the spookiness didn't work as well as in other cases. I liked The Redfield Girls, mostly for the "girls" themselves and for the play the facts versus its interpretation and people's imagination of lack thereof, but it's far from the best story here.

Hand of Glory on the other hand is my favourite story of the collection and the only one I felt I'd keep on reading if there was more written on those characters and setting. Johnny Cope - the main character - is a hit-man who was attacked and sets out to investigate and get some good old revenge, something that turns out to be much more complicated that he thought. The whole investigation, the weird people he meets, the dark magic abounding and the overall uncertainty are really well played but the strong point is the development of the character and the insight into who he is, who he thinks he is or even who he wishes he could be. This becomes even better because at the same time he questions himself, his motives or purpose, he also feels he is surrounded by people of unknown or ever shifting allegiances and unreliable information. Laird Barron brings us a truly character driven story with a horror and suspense setting which works just right. Add up references to real people and history with a twist and some unique villains about whom we are never sure of anything and you know why Hand of Glory became one of best short stories I've read.

The next in line is The Carrion Gods in Their Heaven, where we follow an abused wife hiding from her former husband with her girlfriend in an old cabin in the woods. Everybody knows one shouldn't go to such a place if one is a character in a horror story, but if you think it's a bunch of film clichés, think again, the danger might not come from the forest or a haunted shack or whatever. Sometimes it's our own curiosity that dooms us as much as it saves us. This is an original tale based on a known myth of transformation into an animal. I wasn't really hooked by the plot or the characters but I liked the uncertain ending.

In The Siphon we return to what Laird Barron does best, a plot that gives the story a structure while allowing the reader to have some insights into the mind of the weird characters he creates. The main character is a psychopath but so are some others he meets in a tale where the greed of humans is paralleled with the hunger of some supernatural beings whose revelation, description and actions will make you squirm until the very end.

The Jaws of Saturn take us back to the setting of Hand of Glory, though even the very same Phil Wary manipulating and using people to his dark intent isn't enough to make it as interesting a story as the previous one. There is something more predictable and less scary about this plot and its main character. In spite of that, I liked the reference and the feeling I was slowly getting to know Phil, here portrayed as a dark magician in the open, all resistant to bullets, super strength and mind-control.

What to say about Vastation? I think the author had to try an array of psychoactive drugs in order to come up with this kind of storytelling. It's a surreal look into the mind and "life" of a godlike being, someone who is immortal, capable of time-travel and of all sorts of other superhuman things. In spite of all this lack of clarity, Vastation ends up being the best story at evoking a feeling of life (and death) as a circle and of how boring it all would become if one had to exist outside of it. Though it is true for all other, this was the story that most suffered from interrupted reading. If you can, read it all at once or at least during the same day. I believe the experience will end up much better than if you do otherwise.

The Men from Porlock is another very good horror tale that uses a forest to place the characters in a context where everything can happen, where the unknown is full of possibilities, where finding an isolated community who sacrifice people is both believable and terrifying. The name should tell most of the veteran readers that these men are as unwelcome interruption and by now one already knows what Laird allows his characters to do or suffer but it's the way things are revealed that makes this one of the best stories in the collection. And to think they only wanted to hunt for some food.

The last tale, More Dark, gives a weird ending to the book and was, unfortunately, the only one I didn't enjoy reading. This is due not only to the rather confusing text but also and mostly because it is a reference to real people, mostly horror authors I suppose, of whom I know nothing. This, added to the lack of explanation or insight into who the people in More Dark are made me feel uninterested and even bored at times, in spite of the looming darkness the author was still able to transmit. Some kind of metafiction in a genre I know little about couldn't work for me.

As a whole, this was a good collection, with a very good but versatile prose and a pervasive unsettling feeling - which probably comes from the fact that Laird Barron tends to describe the scariest moments and revelations as if the characters were in fact hallucinating. Connecting the stories is not only this hallucination but also that sensation that there is always something lurking in the shadows, on the corner of the character's eye (or is it on the corner of my eye?) that we never really grasp. The references to myth and culture and the characters or ideas that appear in more than one story add to the excitement and make the anthology work as a whole. The different ways the author explored death are still with me, making me think about ends, beginnings, transitions and even considering the possibility that most of the moments we see as endings, destructions or disappearances, are thought of as such because of our own lack of knowledge and self-confidence. Most of those moments end up as being little transitions into "more of the same". Might death be, in spite of all the awe and terror most cultures and religions associate with it, just another one of those, a way into something quite like the life we had until then?
As a final note, I must say that even though I'm not really into reading horror - by itself, as entertainment, I prefer epic fantasy or science fiction - Laird Barron convinced me with the main characters he creates, some of the best, most complex and fleshed out I've seen in short fiction. My favourite stories were Hand of Glory, The Siphon and The Men from Porlock, previously published in The Book of Cthulhu II, Blood and Other Cravings and The Book of Cthulhu, respectively.

If you like horror, read The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All. If want to try it out and feel like you need some strong characters and thought-provoking stories to enjoy it, then Hand of Glory is definitely for you. If you don't like horror stories, undefined mythologies and unexplained mysteries, stay away from this. In my case, if I ever return to horror anthologies, I'll be sure to look for Laird Barron in the participant authors list.

The thing that awaits us all, according to Laird Barron, beautiful is not.

The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson

I read Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy last year and it is one of my favourite epic fantasy works. I hope that one day I can actually review those books here, maybe after reading them again, but for now I'll just say that I became a fan of Sanderson's writing, his world building and the way he tackles a lot of interesting and important issues throughout the trilogy's plots. He has said, to my absolute delight, that his intention for that world was to produce three trilogies in different times. Meanwhile, he seems to have decided to give Mistborn fans a dessert with The Alloy of Law.

This book has a short story, a typical gunslinger-western plot with the addition of Mistborn's magic system, happening 300 years after the events of the original trilogy. It follows Waxillium Ladrian, a noble turned lawkeeper, initially in the Roughs (the rural part of that civilization) and then as he comes back to the big city somewhat forced to assume his role as the family's heir. Although there are some references to Wax relearning to live with the aristocracy after spending years away, that's by no means the main focus of the book. There are also some steampunk elements, namely the introduction of guns, cars, trains, lamps in a magical and somewhat unindustrialised world, the emancipation of women, or even the main character with his tendency to individualism - a typical "I'll change the world by myself" kind of mind - and his do-it-yourself science (here in the form of alloying). Despite all this I wouldn't consider The Alloy of Law a steampunk novel. The plot is first and foremost that of a crime thriller and a very good one at that, with a bit of mystery kept until the end. The reference and description of the multiple weapons used adds to the western feel of the book. The characters are very believable, if somewhat predictable, though the plans they concoct aren't as obvious and keep the story quite interesting all the way through. The action is also constantly present, giving the plot a fluid and exciting development.
The fusion of magic and technology was very well done and I actually wish I could read more stories exploring the possibilities Sanderson's allomancy/feruchemy/hemalurgy system allows in multiple contexts (in other words, I can't wait for his urban fantasy and sci-fi story arcs). The way the gun fights are enhanced by the movement the magic allows, the increased bullet power, a kind of kinetic shield, the time warps and the healing ability had really cool consequences. Another marvellous addition is the association with the previous trilogy, mostly through religious (which for those who have read Mistborn is particularly good) and historical references. The characters I knew and liked became legends for this society, used as moral examples but also as everyday expressions, in Scadrial's own versions of "oh my god" or the even the boogieman.
One particular theme I enjoyed seeing explored was the effects of taking ideals as your only compass, here shown by a character who doesn't mind harming or killing innocent people in the name of his own revolution, his war against injustice and exploration. For those who have read the previous trilogy, another thing one must notice is the recurrence of nobility systems. It seems that whatever cataclysm this world goes through, the society ends up organizing itself in a similar manner, despite the consequences such injustices have had before.
The one negative claim I can make is that, probably to try to make the book readable as a stand alone story, there are some moments where the narrator slows the action and dumps some information. But I should add that this is by no means too frequent or considerably damaging to the reading experience.

With The Alloy of Law, Brandon Sanderson offers both a bonus read for Mistborn fans and a genre bending humorous and very refreshing story, probably as a bridge to his second arc in that same world, establishing a new social and technological context and defining a mythology based on the events of the first trilogy. If this is in any way a sample of what's to come, good for us all.

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A versão portuguesa desta opinião foi publicada no Clockwork Portugal.