REVIEW By DAVID PRICE

I first heard of Paul Kane back in 1998, when I was editing a magazine called Tales of the Grotesque & Arabesque. He submitted a story called ‘Star-Pool’. I was completely carried along by the narrative, and the story appeared in issue 4. Over the course of three years I have seen Paul’s reputation growing; now, courtesy of BJM Press, we have the first anthology of his work.

On the front cover he is described (by Simon Clark) as "one hell of a talented and visionary writer". It is a description that Paul has never had any trouble living up to. His tales can be funny (‘The Last Temptation of Alice Crump’), deeply shocking (I’m one of the few people to have read his powerful tale, ‘The Torturer’, unpublished so far due to an unfortunate series of events), and wildly imaginative in tales like ‘Astral’, which appeared in an early issue of The Dream Zone.

Sadly, the last two don’t appear in this collection, which is a pity, as they represent the very best of his work; but there is still much to enjoy in the twelve tales on offer here, including a dark take on a Louis Armstrong classic. (I see ‘friends’ smiling broad / Saying "Come right on through." / They’re really saying / I’ll kill you / And I warn everyone / It’s a dangerous world!)

ALONE is the title of the opening story; a man wakes up one morning to find that all life on earth has vanished. It may not be the most original premise for a story, but the final revelation throws everything into question. Yes, the reader is left to infer what is really going on, but tacking a neat explanation onto the end would have ruined the atmosphere. This is followed by BIORHYTHMS, a visually stunning tale of a man’s attempt to wrestle control of his body from Mother Nature. Extensive research into human biology adds conviction to the incredibly visual narrative.

Next we have IN THE HOUSE OF MAGRITTE. Imagine the worlds of Salvador Dali transformed into a living environment. Paul has, and his protagonist has a weird and wonderful time walking through it. Like most slices of surrealism, there is no coherence to the narrative; it is simply an enjoyable odyssey through a strange Dream World, where the grotesque is accepted as the norm.

NET CURTAINS is a darker, more basic horror story about a man’s slide into madness when he believes that a family of ogres have moved into the neighbourhood. It is disturbing, and finally violent, so a little light relief is more than welcome. THE LAST TEMPTATION OF ALICE CRUMP is a chance to enjoy Paul’s devilish sense of humour. Satan sends out one of his Minion’s to corrupt the most righteous woman in the world. Alice Crump, of course, is far too smart for the hapless Daemon. You’ll smile – then get a full blast of Kane-style horror in the blood-curdling vignette, THE WEEPING WOMAN. I would suggest reading it after – rather than before – partaking of your supper!

Putting a new spin on an old fable, THE PIPER is about a talented musician charming reanimated corpses back into their graves, while CYCLOPS is about a young man driven mad by his own anatomy. You’ll work out what the Cyclops of the title is long before the end, but it’s still a powerful account of a young man’s descent into madness.

SABBAT is written in the form of a scholarly research paper, in which the behaviour and activities of witches and Devil-worshippers have been studied and documented. The detached voice of the translator brings the horrors vividly to life. After this, a stiff drink and a little light relief is the order of the day. Help yourself to a drink while Paul provides the entertainment, in the form of the outrageous MASTER OF THE WHITE WORMS.

It was a Monday morning when I received the urgent call from my good friend and – dare I say it? – colleague, Dalton Quayle, regarding a mysterious matter of the utmost importance. Naturally, I cancelled my practice appointments for that day, indeed for that whole week, as a summons from the great man himself could only mean one thing; he was about to embark upon another one of his splendid adventures. Either that or his piles were flaring up again.

This is the opening to a glorious Sherlock Holmes pastiche with achingly funny dialogue and wonderfully black humour. I wont go into detail about the over-the-top tale of a lady in distress, a missing husband, a gothic manor, and a Lord of that manor with a dark secret – I’ll just advise you to check it out, and enjoy lines like, "Not the Cthut…Ctnuth…Cuchuff …Not those rascals again!"

In the penultimate story, REMEMBERENCE, a teenage yob gets a lesson in warfare as he is about to deface a war memorial; then, bringing the collection to a close, Paul returns to a theme he has touched on before in EYE OF THE BEHOLDER (that of cold, indifferent alien forces shaping human lives). This time, we have the cradle-to-the-grave story of Lucy, a young woman who lives out her short life in ‘a blink of the eye of The Beholder’. It is a life more tragic than some, less tragic than others. Told in a calm, detached manner, Lucy’s whole life comes to seem totally meaningless, and ultimately, it is a world where no single life will ever make the slightest bit of difference to the great scheme of things. Like a lot of the stories Paul has written, it gives the reader much to think about.

From this review, you will certainly realize that Paul is a very versatile writer; brooding horror, dark humour, surrealism. He even penned all the illustrations. But above all, he has an outstanding imagination, which puts him in a class above most of the small press writers on the scene today. This collection will, hopefully, be the first step towards getting him the recognition he so richly deserves. Check it out, this could well be the start of something big.