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3.0 out of 5 stars
Promising tales that fail to deliver, Jun 22 2006
Since reading Dark Gods and Klein's novel The Ceremonies a dozen years or so ago, I had built up a legend of Klein's amazing talent and horror writing prowess in my head, fueled in part by this author's virtual disappearance from the world of publishing since the mid-1980s. I especially hailed this collection of four novellas as examples of unparalleled, Lovecraft-infused marvels of horror. Having now reread Dark Gods, I have to wonder just what I was thinking about years ago. Klein is definitely a talented author, but each of these novellas is disappointing in its own way. Children of the Kingdom has its moments, building up a story with giant worm-like entities insinuating themselves into a senior adult facility in New York, introducing us to a single-minded Costa Rican man attempting to prove that the birthplace of man was actually in Costa Rica and, tossing tradition upon its head, arguing that the lost tribe of Israel was in point of fact a lost tribe of Costa Rica. The ending, though, is just too ambiguous to be wholly satisfying - this is a problem that repeats itself in the remaining tales. Petey forces us to endure a smarmy dinner party, tossing in occasional insinuations about the former owner of the house; the best it manages to produce are some trivial parlor tricks with a certain Tarot card, refusing in the end to even acknowledge the type of denouement which the reader necessarily anticipates.
Black Man With a Horn is much better than the previous two novellas, introducing us to a failed missionary returning home in disguise in fear of something unspeakable happening to him. Our protagonist becomes an audience to this man's story of his work in Malaysia and witnesses his heavy unease regarding a symbolic black man blowing a horn (finding out later that the man is doing quite the opposite of blowing). Eventually, the protagonist comes to realize that the Chauchas his new acquaintance is running in fear from are none other than the Tcho-Tcho people described by H.P. Lovecraft , forcing him to conclude that these people actually exist after all. Much of the effect of this story is harmed by the protagonist's identity as an old horror writer who held a place in the Lovecraft Circle. Finally, there is Nadelman's God, the best story of the bunch but one that also ultimately disappoints. The premise is very good, though. Nadelman is a normal guy who wrote a lengthy decadent poem about a dark god who shows his love for man by punishing him. Some twenty years after the poem was published in his small college magazine, a rock group bases a song on the poem. This, indirectly, brings a strange young man into Nadelman's life, one who has taken the song literally, built an image in the likeness described therein, and claims to have given the creature life and a bid to do his god's work. The unwanted encroachment of this seemingly disturbed new "groupie" has an effectively stifling effect on Nadelman, but once again the conclusion fails to deliver much of a punch. The atmosphere is made ready for an impressive thunderstorm of an ending, but the storm never materializes.
Basically, Dark Gods contains two average stories and two promising pieces of fiction, all of which seem to shy away from delivering a conclusion of any force or satisfaction. I really hate to give this book only three stars, but I must. No matter how much I enjoyed these tales over a decade ago, I have to say that they each prove something of a let-down to me today.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Intelligent, atmospheric and beautifully written, Mar 4 2004
By A Customer
I must disagree with the reviewer who found these four novellas weak. Of course, I should clarify my criteria for rating such works: I am not a big fan of the graphic, bloody, "modern" horror fiction: I have reservations about Stephen King (I think my favorite work of his is his novella "The Mist" -- though bloody, it is not gratuitously so-- and in it he is not as callous with his characters as in his novels) -- and most other popular modern horror writers. I think the finest horror fiction is, almost by definition, shorter: horror must extablish a pervading and insistent atmosphere of dread -- carefully built up and cumulative. This is difficult to sustain over novel-length works and shock is employed rather too lavishly to compensate. For the type of horror I rank highly, think Shirley Jackson, Lovecraft, Blackwood, Leiber (in his rare but brilliant forays into the genre). Well, in my opinion, Klein is, simply, one of their peers. The four works in this collection are all excellent. Even the weakest ("Petey") is interesting and beautifully written. The other three are all, in my estimation, masterworks of modern horror. "Children of the Kingdom" is more than that other reviewer indicates: it builds up the notion that there is a terrifying subterranean world that is on the move, spreading, actively looking to usurp our position in the world (the creatures, who do far more than just invade an old folks' home, are called in Costa Rican folklore "usurpadores" -- usurpers. The citywide blackout pictured in NYC is, by implication, caused by them -- and in the darkness they run rampant, all over New York, raping women by the hundreds (the only way they can reproduce).) The final vignette at the sewer grating is chilling: and implies (or did so to me, at least) that WE can be corrupted into THEM. "Black Man with a Horn" is a Lovecraftian tribute that never descends into pastiche; its subtle accretion of evidence for the pursuing terror is masterly. H.P. himself would have heartily approved. One has to applaud the variety of outlooks Klein employs, as well: "Petey" and "Nadelman" are third-person narratives; in "Kingdom" the first person narrator is a young married Jewish man; in "Black Man" it is an elderly horror author who was a friend of Lovecraft. And the references to Lovecraft are totally pertinent. He dealt with parallel themes. In Klein's novellas, the notion of horror lurking hidden in remote places (and implacable in its pursuit of trespassers into its realm) is a fine counterpoise to that of horror lurking beneath the surface of our everyday world in "Kingdom". The final story is quite the equal of the other two just mentioned: "Nadelman's God" tackles the notion that sometimes things we do or say can have terrifying consequences, however innocently they may have been done or uttered. It also tackles the Lovecraftian idea that the universe is indifferent at best, hostile at worst, to the lives of mere humans. In the midst is Nadelman himself, somewhat smug, supremely jaded, finding out the error of his assumptions. All told, these three tales ("Kingdom", "Black Man" and "Nadelman") garnered a passel of awards, and rightly so: they have taken classic Horror into the everyday world of the late 20th (and early 21st!) Century. They cannot be recommended highly enough! They will not please those of a jejune temperament, perhaps, but for thoughtful and literate readers, they will be a joy.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
This is great stuff...., Feb 16 2004
I wish this guy was still writing, his work is outstanding.
I liked it then and still love re-reading now. One of the finest
examples of this genre.
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