Quest for Sex, Truth & Reality [Paperback]

In the first story, "Goddess of the New Dark Age," a cancer-stricken author is literally haunted by his life's failures. He consults people of various stripes - a priest, a professor, a call girl - in an attempt to answer the question "what is real?"

The second story, "The Seeker," is essentially a rehash of the first, with added gore and the revolting acts that Lee is infamous for. It is perhaps meant for those who couldn't hold their attention on the previous story.

In the final story, "Pay Me," a writer visits a sex club and encounters an acquaintance he carried a torch for in high school. He soon finds she has changed in unspeakable ways. Lee tries to add weight to the story by telling us (in his afterword) that it is a philosophical tale. It's really just a soulless piece of pornography, and the inexplicable ending seems like a lame attempt to root it in the horror genre.

The first story is recommended. It is deep and surreal and the only well-written piece of the three, and earns this publication three stars. The others aren't worth the time it took to read them.

Goddess of the New Dark Age: A story of a man dying of cancer, and of the ghost who follows him , whispering to him, as he seeks the meaning of what is real. Only in death will the ghost make reality clear to him. This is the best story of the three.

The Seeker: A man wanders through a quarantined zone, seeking truth and finding only revolting people and horrific acts of violence. When he does find what the army and he himself has been seeking, he discovers that he is capable of handling it when others are not. This is the most vague, and yet the goriest, of the three.

Pay Me: A man finds an old school mate in a Live-Sex bar, and witnesses her involvement in a pornographic stage show. Still wanting to see her, he gets involved with her only to find out she will recruit him for the show in horrible fashion. This is the most sexually graphic of the three, better than The Seeker but not as good as Goddess.

Three stories, one chapbook, and the label out-of-print on all this beastï¿s previous release. That is what this work, by Edward Lee, comprises on its Quest For Sex, Truth, and Reality. It also entails something thatï¿s well written in its short, 35-page run, something that reflects upon its author while the main characterï¿s ï¿ all reflecting on bits of Edwardï¿s internal struggle ï¿ search for something more, and a more meaningful side of the gore writerï¿s persona. Personally, I find this time period in his writing life an interesting one, filled with reflections of what is going on in the authorï¿s mind after each tale told, letting you into the painterï¿s mindset as the scene was crafted. To me, that is an important keyhole to sometimes peek through because knowing the author, its knowing something behind-the-scenes.

For fans of Leeï¿s writing, this is something that youï¿ll want to definitely procure because the alternative to picking it up here is paying way too much for the out-of-print volumes of this, his first chapbook. Also, Pay Me, the third story in the book, is also listed as exclusive to the volume, so that makes it a nice find, too. Included herein is Goddess of a New Dark Age, The Seeker, and the before-mentioned piece, evening it out as something that is worth picking up. For anyone that has yet to check out Lee, you should bear in mind that he is a horror creator and incorporates the spilling of internal stimuli to get his message across. If this works for you and you want a tale coated in the renditional imagery of terror, then this is worth picking up.