Flaming London, by Joe R. Lansdale

Flaming London
Joe R. Lansdale
Subterranean Press: 2006

What do you get when you mix Jules Verne, Mark Twain, The War of the Worlds, King Kong, Sitting Bull, a giant steam powered robot, and a highly intelligent and horny seal? Flaming London! The sequel to Joe R. Lansdale's Zeppelins West, that's what!

Zeppelins West was a highly entertaining blend of some classic pulp science fiction and alternate history. Flaming London is more of the same, only with different characters and books to send up. Ned the Seal is back and washed up on some faraway shore where he is found by Mark Twain, a currently struggling author whose life has pretty well fallen apart (much like what happened to to Twain in real life). Twain brings Ned to Twain's friend Jules Verne, a still successful author and inventor. Meanwhile, octopi from Mars have invaded with Death Rays and are laying waste to the Earth, much like what happened in War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells (Wells himself will make an appearance later in the novel), only without the octopi. The tripods are back, though. The rest of the novel is an escape by Ned the Seal, Twain, and Verne, as well as a chance to fight back. Oh yeah, King Kong, the Jolly Roger, Robots, dinosaurs, a time traveler, and more will make appearances later in Flaming London.

It would not take much to guess that I was enthralled and entertained by Joe Lansdale's story here. Wickedly funny, Ned the Seal is a much stronger character in Flaming London than he was in Zeppelins West, indeed he takes center stage in this novel. The combination of seeing how Lansdale fits together historical figures and fictional worlds to tell a coherent narrative is pure pleasure, as is Lansdale's stylish use of language. Sometimes harsh, sometimes crude, always entertaining, Joe Lansdale is a master stylist and spins a hell of a story. Laced with humor and near violence, Lansdale spits out the story but we don't want to step back. We want the story to spray all over our face. We want to wallow and revel in Lansdale's storytelling. This is Joe Lansdale at the top of his game.

Cycle of the Werewolf, by Stephen King

Cycle of the Werewolf
Stephen King
Land of Enchantment: 1984

A collection of twelve related vignettes about the small town of Tarker's Mills being threatened and attacked by a werewolf, though at first the townsfolk do not know this for sure. Cycle of the Werewolf is set up in short chapters, each focusing on a month of the year and the rise of the full moon which brings the return of the werewolf.

The first several chapters of this illustrated novel focus on the the attacks on random townspeople. The first several chapters feature the random townsperson discovering he or she is about to be attacked and then the werewolf strikes and at some point later a body is found.

It is only when Marty Coslaw is introduced that we are given the chance to have a storyline because Marty has seen the werewolf and lived. Marty is also a young boy confined to a wheelchair, but that does not stop him from wanting to stop the werewolf somehow.

Cycle of the Werewolf is, at its heart, a series of short glimpses into Tarker's Mills and the attacks of the werewolf. It is a brief novel, more a novella or novelette if we take the actual word count into consideration, and tells a decent enough story. If read by candlelight on the night of a full moon when the wind whips outside your window, I imagine Cycle of the Werewolf would be chilling enough. Because the short chapters feel almost unrelated for half the book, it was difficult for King to really build narrative and emotional heft. The ending is reasonably strong, but not enough to recommend Cycle of the Werewolf as something everybody must run out and buy (or borrow). That said, Cycle of the Werewolf is entertaining enough and short enough that it is a decent interlude between weightier King novels.

Had Roger Ebert not trademarked the use of thumbs in reviews, I would put mine firmly in the middle. Alas, he has and so I will not.