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Triquorum II is now out. If you are unfamiliar to the
new series, Triquorum is a biannually published anthology
containing three novellas. One of the odd things about book
two, and this might just be limited to the review copies,
is that the book has been printed in landscape, meaning it
has more the look and feel of a manual, than a work of fiction.
The completely white front cover doesn't help matters either.
Inside there are stories from three authors. The first story
Fear and Loathing in Bat Country: Hunter S Thompson vs
Dracula is by Jason Andrew. For the confused amongst you
Thompson was a famous Gonzo journalist with a distinctive
life and writing style. I mention this because if you have
read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas then you are more
likely to appreciate what is going on in the story. Andrew
uses an approximation of Thompson's style to convey what would
otherwise be a fairly pedestrian vampire tale, there's not
even much to report about the plot as the story does what
it says in the title. Overall not a bad story but without
the Thompson angle it is surprisingly lacking in twists.
The
second novella is The Monster Mash by John Travis.
It's a kind of mad mishmash of Gardeners Question Time
meets Day of the Triffids - ladies and gentleman
we are in Quatermass
territory. The story is well written from a number of the
characters perspective, leading you slowly to the horror that
overruns the small northern town of Acrebridge. Overall I
felt that the novella was well written, with good characterisation,
though I thought that the ending was a little melodramatic.
That said, given the genre and its obvious influences, this
may have been a deliberate choice.
The last novella is Adventures in Bed-Sit by Liam Davies,
which opens with an assailant contemplating the corpse of
his victim. The story is an engrossing mixture: part journey
through the mind of a disenchanted madman and part literary
criticism. Of the three stories here, this is defiantly the
most memorable and best constructed.
So
three new stories, all of which have their good point, though
the writers laurels defiantly have to go to Liam Davies.
Charles
Packer
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