BOOK REVIEWS
I have dispensed with my 'Books of the Year' postings which covered the years 2009 and 2010, and now attempt to review a selection of books that I have read both good and bad, in editions old and new. Much of what I buy is often based on suggestions by others, or some train of thought that makes me think "maybe I should try..." so they are not necessarily all strange/supernatural fiction.
With many small press books costing around £35-£40 each, and some seemingly worthy tomes changing hands on the second hand market for many times that, these reviews may also give the potential purchaser some indication of what they might receive for their money. Needless to say, my opinions should not be given any great value as I bring my own foibles to every review and these may change at any time.
Ron Weighell
'Tarshishim'
Passport Levant 2011
box set of novella and loose folio
approx pp210 £150.00
I first became aware of Ron Weighells work about 25 years ago when his articles and stories began to appear sporadically in 'Ghosts and Scholars' magazine and culminating in a huge volume of fiction 'The White Road' for Durtro Press(1997). He has certainly written some fine stuff; 'Carven Of Onyx', 'The Greater Arcana' and 'The Case of the Fiery Messengers'. His works draw heavily on the occult, especially the classical grimoires and works of Elizabethan magus John Dee, together with Austin Spare, Crowley and fiction authors such as James and Machen. He has recently re-emerged on Ex-Occidente and gets the 'box-set treatment' similar in style to the earlier (excellent) Mark Valentine edition, ie: a book and a loose sheaf of papers. We will come to the packaging later- but what of the words?
The Tarshishim of the box name refer to the entities who help in the movement of energy from heaven to man and the novella 'The Tears Of The Gods' describes the attempts of initiates from the time of Dee onwards to shield this knowledge from falling into the hands of the impure hearted who may wish to utilize this for more selfish ends. As I have said, Weighall is a knowledgeable man and this erudtion is made apparent on virtually every page as the tale moves from 17th Century Prague to the present day. We have Jewish mystics named, books which you might think are made up (but aren't), signs and methods of protection and reference to various occult orders throughout the ages. It should be good fun in a 'Foucaults Pendulum' kind of way. Except that it isn't.
The novella structure is basically far too short to support this bombardment of titles and references which sit too seriously and heavily upon its pages. This yields two results; the 'conspiracy' aspects that span the centuries fail to attain the solidity needed to seem plausible, while the more poetic elements (one feels Weighell is more than just an academic student of magic(k) are weighed down by too much extraneous historical material. Its a lose/lose situation that is only marginally redeemed as we move into the later stages of the book and the plot moves more centre stage.
This is even more galling when one reads the 80 odd loose pages collectively titled 'Summoning the Ancient Dust- Journal Notes' as these are very good indeed.
Standouts are 'Kingdom of Darkness', an opiated tale of death and dream, followed by Weighells thoughts on Coleridge and Poe; while 'Suburbs of the Black Lyre' reveals the final photographic folio of Orias Sabnak in all its mystic hideousness. The tales are not devoid of literary and occult references, but in these cases they enhance and expand they narratives in which they are placed. The whole foilio has a more poetic feel than the novella in terms of language (the best parts of 'Tears...' are where Weighell waxes more lyrical) which only emphasises the shortcomings of the novella further. I would have much preferred the folio as the book and the novella reduced to 'Journal Notes'.
We must, for this is a very expensive item, speak of the packaging. E.O./P.L. generally cannot be faulted for the quality of their products and the standard of printing is up to the usual (excellent) standards, Both book and sheaf are illustrated by the wonderful Santiago Caruso- and the images are amongst his best work. Some are posted on his website.
Sadly the binding and box are not without flaws. My d/w (I am informed there are three variants but only seen one) has a full wraparound pair of wings in blind tooling on heavy black paper. This paper is too heavy for the tooling (or perhaps the latter too heavily pressed down) and this has wrinkled at the edges of the design.
The box itself exists in both purple and buff cloth variants. In my (buff) version the weave of the cloth is too wide for the black blocking to adhere properly and the image is somewhat fragmented and ghostly. For some reason the binders inserted two circular underlays the cloth where each side of the box folds over. They look unsightly (as if a shard of card had been accidently caught between box and cloth) and seem to serve no purpose. It would also have been nice if one of those loose sheets of paper had been signed by the author.
Overall this seems a volume of missed opportunities. Ex-Occidente publish great material in lovely editions- it is a pity that for me, this one fell short on both counts. I bought my copy from Fantastic literature.
