Occultation and Other Stories

Laird Barron has gained a reputation over the course of his short career as a master working in the same slice of horror that H.P. Lovecraft first launched - that is, a section of horror filled with horrific demons and monsters beyond any sense of imagination, otherworldly realms that are dangerously close to our own, and a pervading sense of darkness that fills our world in places we least expect. What sets Barron apart, though, is the complex and literary feel of his prose, which makes his stories feel incredibly constructed - a plus - but also dense and a bit forbidding. Over the course of these tales, Barron charts a group that's looking to move forward to the next phase of evolution, an anthropologist whose obsession with Satanic imagery tempts him to open some unclosable doors, and a group of gay men whose wilderness expedition leads them to places that should have stayed forgotten. These sound like the ideas of pulp horror, and simple plot summaries would do nothing to convince you otherwise. But to paraphrase Roger Ebert, these stories are not about what they are about; they are about how they are about them. From broken marriages to lost loves, from the pain of loss to the shadow of the past, Barron's characters are complex, nuanced, flawed people who would fit perfectly into any literary novel written today. But what you'll remember about Barron are the horrors he creates, horrors which are every bit as literate and exquisitely crafted and rendered as his people. Occultation is a hard sell, in many ways; it inhabits a world between literature and true horror that's hard to pin down, and one where very few authors tend to work. (I would say the inimitable Brian Evenson is one of the few in the same field.) The prose can be forbidding at first, even for a "serious" reader like me, and I won't say that it didn't take me a couple of stories to get into the book's rhythm. But as I continued to read, I found myself captivated by Barron's rich, horrifying world and his masterful prose. For those who like their horror with a touch of culture and literature, Occultation is a brilliant choice.

Great selection of cosmic horror stories

The first thing that struck me about Occultation was that, after having read it and The Imago Sequence - Laird's first anthology - for the first time, I immediately turned around and read them both all over again. That's never happened to me before with any other book - not sure what it means, just taking note. Laird is often spoken of in the same breath with Thomas Ligotti, but they could not be more different. While I am in awe of Ligotti's work, his universe is one of futility - of clockwork horrors that don't even afford their victims the grace of personal animosity. Laird's horrors are intimately personal, with a predator/prey relationship oft-times fraught with gleeful malice - while his protagonists are doomed, they oppose their fate with a frontiersman's fatalism and stoic refusal to submit - this, I assume a result of Laird's upbringing in rural Alaska. While the characters in both Ligotti's and Barron's tales wind up as no more than peristaltic grist for the maw of Lovecraftian horrors intent on provender, Laird's protags at least have the decency to kick and struggle on their way down the gullet, rather than succumbing to the numb despair exhibited by Ligotti's people. Then there is craft. Laird leaves so much unsaid that the majority of his stories unfold puzzle-like behind your unconsciousness after you're done with them, ultimately looming several times their original size back in your oh-so-vulnerable lizard brain. His wording, phrasing, and editing are flawless - literally among the best wordsmithing I have encountered among writers active today. I am reminded of Joyce Carol Oates' very best in some of Laird's work, or Ramsey Campbell at his most hallucinogenic - Laird's characters are often face to face with facts and realities they refuse to recognize or acknowledge. Allusion is especially strong in all of Barron's work. This is strong stuff - not because of its often graphic violence, or its bleak Lovecraftian cosmological mindset - but more for Laird's unrelenting insinuation. With Laird Barron, resistance is futile - if anyone reads a hundred years from now, he'll still be in print. Occultation has an introduction by WFA winner Michael Shea of Nifft the Lean fame, with a beautiful opening sentence: "Laird Barron's carnivorous cosmos . . ." which says much. All the stories are excellent, but a few stood out for me. 'The Forest' is one of those tales that you just can't stop thinking about when you're done. The title piece is one that would have reduced Kafka and his cronies to stitches if Laird somehow traveled back in time and read it out loud to them at one of their writer's gatherings. 'The Broadsword' almost qualifies as science fiction (though technically ANYTHING smacking of Lovecraft's oeuvre could qualify as such) with a masterfully open ending that makes you ask yourself (***potential partial plot spoiler***) whether it would be preferable for the whole story to be a delusion on the part of the narrator -- trust me on this, if it IS delusion, the seconds after the end of the story can only be ugly indeed. Deserving its own paragraph, ghost story 'Six Six Six' is IMHO one of the finest short horror pieces I've ever read, on par with Poe, HPL, Machen or Ramsey. I foresee this tale being anthologized a lot in the future, it may even earn a position as a 'saw,' alongside such classics as William Hope Hodgson's 'A Voice In The Night,' or Saki's 'Svredni Vashtar.' It's THAT good, and it disturbed/infuriated me. Read it and weep.

This was my first foray into Laird Barron's strange, dark world. Good overall, a bit predictable. His command of the English language is admirable, no faults there! I plan on reading more of his work to gain a better appreciation of his abilities.

Laird Barron could well be the successor to Lovecraft for me. With his own disorienting acid trip style. My only complaint, hence 41/2 stars is in this book he relays on Satanic panic tropes (appeal to American evangelical fear?) a few times rather than cosmic unknown horror, which propagates prejudices, organized Satanists are atheists who use concepts. I mean It's the Roman Catholic Church that has instituialized and protected child molester priests. Stories you hear of Teenagers killing living things to get the power of an alleged supernatural Satan are inverse Christians. Also he has this habit of making the banter between couples the same snarky wit every different story, even though it's not the same couple, not every couple interacts like that. But I digress, over all he builds disturbing, confusing dream like malignant fear that leave you going what the hell was that?. Overall brilliant.

Creepy, thrilling and fantastic! I read this collection over a number of months reading a story every now and then. And each time I returned to it, I was blown away by the quality of story telling throughout the collection. This has been my first Laird Barron collection I have read, and it definitely won't be the last. Laird has the skill of brilliant story telling, and I enjoyed every single story in this collection. If you have not checked Laird out yet, I heavily recommend you do! Overall, 5* Favourite stories - The Broadsword and -30-

Boring stories, goes nowhere. Nothing live Lovecraft. The stories are so slow and it goes nowhere and abruptly stops with no conclusion. Stopped reading midway.

I have read this (and every other title by this author) three, four, and five times, and will do so again. Every time that I go through his stories, I notice a new facet of detail. I really can't recommend his books strongly enough.

Decent modern weird-ish horror. To me this read like a cross between Stephen King and HP Lovecraft, though more King than Lovecraft unfortunately. The stories have a tendency to jump about a bit and revisit the same type of characters which left me with a sense of 'seen it all before' by the time I got to the end of the collection. I thought the least successful efforts were 'Catch Hell' and 'Six Six Six', both of which had a pretty obvious 'Rosemary's Baby'/Hammer Horror devil worship thing going on. 'Six Six Six' particularly jumped about all over the place and felt as if it had been phoned in. My favourites were the (very) short 'Occultation' which had a very unnerving David Lynch type quality (though some might say it doesn't really go anywhere) and, particularly, 'Mysterium Tremendum' which I felt was the only story in the collection really worthy of the Lovecraft comparisons. 'The Broadsword' was also very good though that suffered from being a bit incoherent and jumbled in its themes. On the whole though I enjoyed the collection, just wouldn't rate it half as highly as some. 3.5 stars would be more accurate but I'm rounding up for effort! Would certainly try more Laird Barron in the future, particularly at not so steep a price.

This is the second collection of Laird Barron stories that I have had the pleasure to read. The first being the brilliant Imago Sequence. This second collection actually on the whole, tops the Imago Sequence collection. The stories in Occultation are in my opinion more accessible to take in as Laird can be quite challenging ay times. They are gripping, mysterious, creepy and sometimes weird and horrific but they all share one thing in common, they are superb pieces of fictional work. I highly recommend this book and I now look forward to reading more of what Laird has awaiting....