A Bright and Beautiful Eternal World by James Chambers
- 306 pages, Paperback
- Published October, 2023 by Weird House Press
Musically I am a metal guy, but I spent most of my life being part of the hardcore scene, as I felt more kinship to folks in that scene. On paper, I am a Science Fiction guy, and much the same way I am a horror fiction scene guy. I have always loved the horror community. James Chambers is one of the bright examples of why I love the horror community. We first hung out at Borderlands Writers Boot Camp in 2011. It was way longer ago than I want to think about. Halloween People have kinship, SF people have a kinship, and I share both with Chambers. An active force in the HWA if you are a horror writer it is likely that James has impacted your work.
Now that stuff is out of the way let's talk about this beautiful special edition paperback. Graced with eight mostly full-color illustrations by artist KL Turner. This book looks better than any paperback has any right to. As it is a good-looking book, I should add you can judge this book by its excellent cover. The interior is filled with several Lovecraftian and Cosmic horror works anchored to the geography of the perfectly intentional cliche horror town known as Knicksport.
The horror town is often thought of as a New England town thanks to Castle Rock and Derry Maine, Charles Grant’s Ox-Run station and more. In a modern context, Josh Malerman has given us Goblin Michigan. Going back to Lovecraft’s fictional college towns the mythical horror towns are like a power cord in the genre. Knicksport Long Island just outside of the largest city on the east coast is Jim Chambers's fictional town and he has made the most of it.
The fictional town in horror is always a nexus point for horror and the unexplained, but in this case Knicksport is like a cosmic portal. The collection features 10 stories. I am not sure how many years they were written over but one thing I can say is the work is consistent throughout. There are mentions of Lovecraftian figures but the uses are tactical and minor, used like a fine spice and not hammering the reader over the head to make sure you know “this is LOVECRAFTIER than Lovecraft.” The mythos elements are subtle and perfect.
My two favorite stories are the title story and Song on the Fringe of a Black Hole. Both stories are haunting. Song on the Fringe of Black Hole has a split narrative that makes the story stand out. The title story is an entry in the cursed book subgenre, and it gets Meta. “There is one book, but many authors, and we have not told our stories well.
Why do those words haunt me? What is there one book?
A stray cloud passes across the face of the sun and darkens my window I flinch at the tepid gloom, but it passes in a moment.”
The vibe is a perfect for ending the book, and as The Dude would say it ties the room together. Along the way every story is solid, and at no time did I think the book would be stronger without one. Other favorites include Basement Gin and Dropped Signal. Throughout the book like lots of cosmic horror there are plenty of really powerful moments that come from the amazing prose. Consider this passage from the story Refugees. “Some nights as we lay in bed, sated, cradled in the rolling of the ship, Dagmar spoke to me of her dreams and theories, the two things inextricably intertwined around her conviction that a long-extinct intelligent species had once populated every major body of water on the planet. She spoke of legends and folklores, of strange artifacts lost to contemporary knowledge, of whispers among isolated tribes that suggested incredible powers beyond the scope of science. She told me of discredited orne account from Massachusetts and the rumor of immortality granted to unknown beasts of the sea that idea appealed to her the most I think.”
Look at the way Chambers puts forward several ideas with a classic method. The relationship between the lead characters who are researching this ancient. In classic tales the method of telling the tale was often straight-up. The long-extinct species that exists in whispers. Knicksport is a city haunted by a chorus of whispers.
From the story dropped signals “The TV man bled and moaned on the barn floor his terrified expression did not fool Marshall. The old man knew well from his father, his grandfather, and his great-grandfather before him how to recognize the crawling chaos when he saw it, no matter what avatar the messenger displayed. The black man. The faceless god. The man and the waxing mask. Or some monstrous, nameless, horrifying creature none of it deceived Marshall he knew well Nyarlathtep’s many possible forms when the TV man, who smiled too much and lied with every word he spoke, arrived that morning he recognized the dreaming void in his eyes, since the dimming darkness seeping from the man's brain saw the prepubescent haze it formed in the air above his head as it escaped his skull.”
And there he is the great deceiver straight from Lovecraft a subtle mention that puts this straight into the tradition stretching back to weird tales spread in pulps and letters in the 1930s. Here is a perfectly calibrated entry in the mythos set in Chamber's own creation Knicksport, NY
With plenty of creepy moments like this one taken from Basement Gin: The corpse shifted in the soil. More shell cracked. It's Bony roots dragged themselves out of the dirt. It rolled to one side than the other, freeing itself. It's left arm rose, its hands spreading its fingers, more shelled chips raining from it the tendril softening, uncoiling. Where they pulled free of earth, water welled up from the holes. It coated the bottom of the grave, soaked into the corpse, restored life to it, softened the shells so they cracked less as they moved.”
A Bright and Beautiful Eternal World is a creepy collection of masterfully written cosmic horror not only in the mythos tradition but also a fine example of what modern innovations can bring to the classic genre. A must-read work for cosmic horror fans that ends with the strongest story in the collection and will have you dying for more.
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