Five Autobiographies and a Fiction

Shepard passed away in 2014 so this was the last collection published during life. He describes "autobiographical" aspect as stories of Shepards who could have been if he had taken different paths. All through his work there were lots of stories with a solitary American travelling in exotic locations and the first 5 "autobiographies" work with this pattern. It's really summed up by probably the best work in the collection "Dog eared paperback of my life" where the main character (a writer) follows the path of a namesake who it appears is another version of him. Along the way he meets a number of alternate versions of himself. "Vacancy" is the other great success in the collection. Shepard probably worked best at this length - he probably didn't produce a novel as good as his best novellas. (No surprise that the he Nebula and Hugo awards he won were for novellas). There has been some criticism of Ditch witch and The flock. These are not the strongest of Shepard's work but I thought both created a surreal feel and while not memorable they are both solid enough.Definitely not Shepard's best collection (hunt down Jaguar hunter, Eternity and The ends of the earth) but still a strong collection. It's made more interesting how the introduction ties the stories together and gives some insight into the life of a great writer.

If Shepards "Dragon" books are your only exposure to the man's writing, a real treat will be in store with in this collection of stories. Reading Shepards books and stories have brought years of pleasure into my life and finding his novellas especially a great treat, this book is the cake and the icing. As I recall first reading "Vacancy" in the Subterranean Press magazine a number of years ago and totally being taken in by its magic, and then finding it had won the Shirley Jackson award it seems I was not the only one enthralled with the story. The following year he published a story called "The Dog Eared Paperback Of My Life" which has stuck with me all these years , I believe it was published in a DAW paperback collection. The lush prose and the unflinching look at what may and my not be carry you away with the main character, a writer, down the rivers from Reality to Drug infused fantasy. Next from 2009 we get from the magazine "Fantasy and Science Fiction" "Halloween Town". What a great concept a town built up on cliffs along a river, populated with a fantastic set of characters. This concept should be utilized again by Shepard. All the stories in this collection are a great addition to reading pleasure. Another great production by Subterranean Press with a beautiful dust jacket and well made book,thus making the world a better place.

Yet another excellent collection of stories. Well written and well formed characters lead the reader through a world only Shepard can imagine.

Arguably one of the finest science fiction writers currently working in the field, Shepard here hits one out of the park with highly diverse stories, leaving you guessing which one is the fiction and which ones are drawn from his own life. Doesn't matter: all good.

Anyone familiar with the work of Lucius Shepard knows that his star never shined brighter than when he was cobbling up some of the finest short fiction (usually at novella length, though there are quite a few classic short stories from the early years as well) in the 1980s and 90s: check out THE JAGUAR HUNTER, THE ENDS OF THE EARTH and even BEAST OF THE HEARTLAND, AKA BARNACLE BILL THE SPACER. He was, and is, a writer who made his bones in genre fiction, and, as I noted in a review of the BEST OF LUCIUS SHEPARD, a writer who can open vast vistas of imagination in the span one sentence (often making the beginning of a story seem both important and loaded with portents). It's the follow-through which, in the past, has sometimes given Shepard trouble -- and, sadly, of late, the follow-through has been something Shepard seems no longer capable of doing in the majority of his stories.FIVE AUTOBIOGRAPHIES AND A FICTION begins and ends with some of the author's latest work, but that isn't necessarily a good, or wise, thing. Any writer - or editor - worth his salt knows you want to "lead with strength" and then finish strong. So, naturally, that would suggest putting the best material first and last. And while - in truth - none of these stories would fall into the category of "the Finest Short Fiction of Lucius Shepard", it does contain at least most of a good (shorter) novella - "Vacancy" - and about three fourths of a VERY good long novella - "Dog-Eared Paperback of My Life" - and a couple of decent (but bland, and often aimless) newer, novellas -- "Halloween Town" and "Rose Street Attractors".But in an "epic fail" of content decision-making, someone (one has to assume the author, who has never been a very good judge of his own work) decided to begin the collection with two short stories: one excruciatingly bad piece of short fiction entitled "Ditch Witch (from 2011) and one almost as bad, entitled "The Flock". "Ditch Witch" reads like something that made it half way through one of the Clarion classes Shepard used to teach, albeit WITHOUT gaining the benefit of criticism for its disjointed narrative and muddled sensibilities. And while one (possibly the author) might try to argue that the story was written in that manner to reflect the drugged out mindset of the protagonist (something done to perfection in "Life of Buddha") and his "moll", that dog don't hunt. Especially when Shepard - very briefly - shows he is still capable of finding his chops in a short passage that deals with the protagonist's relationship with an older man who molested him or worse. But Shepard loses whatever nerve he had in bringing up the topic and quickly dives into a failed attempt to make inanimate objects the, um, object of horror: in this case, wooden garden gnomes (no, really - garden gnomes...Keebler Elves...Texas Tea...y'all come back, now. Not). It's something Stephen King (a writer of the sort whom Shepard once looked down upon when he was in his heyday) has done a far better job of in THE SHINING, and with hedges shaped like animals, to boot! Suffice it to say that Shepard's opening story reads like a muddled mess written by someone who should've been flunked out of the same school from which he once graduated with honors. Go figure. On the other hand, "The Flock" is...well...pretty bad, as well. A short story about high school angst and castes, it might've made for a good mainstream story. But since Shepard cobbled it up for yet another theme anthology (and, no doubt, a nice little chunk of change come payday), it reads like a cross between a John Hughe's flick and a rip-off of Hitchcock's "The Birds" - not JUST a rip-off of that goofy, old classic, but a REALLY BAD, TRULY SILLY rip-off. See, the horrible birds, in this instance, end up be-fowling (pun intended) some of the kids by flocking over them and pooping on them. No kidding (yes, the symbolism is understood - just not clever or even well-thought out). For anyone who HASN'T given up on the book by this point, the next story, "Vacancy" from 2007 (winner of a Shirley Jackson Award for horror), is a big step up, with solid writing and characterization and even what seems to be a good, solid, supernatural angle. The only fly in the ointment where this story is concerned is - as other reviewers have pointed out - is the motivation behind the actions of the protagonists. A movie Shepard rightly raved about, "Old Boy" -- which also used a rather lame incidence of unintentional neglect as the spark to set a fire -- was already out and in cult classic status by the time of this stories, so perhaps Shepard took his cue from that movie he admired. I won't write anymore, so as not to give away too much, but I'm sure this will be one of two largely enjoyable stories for most readers. "Dog-Eared Paperback of My Life" is three-fourths of a VERY good long novella, and if a wise enough -- and secure enough -- editor had done time working on it with Mr. Shepard, it would have been his best work since "Barnacle Bill the Spacer" (a Hugo Award winner) or "Stars Seen Through Stone" (a story that suffered from only a touch of Shepard's mostly recent penchant for losing focus during the writing of a story). Taking its cue from Conrad, this novella sends a man into the deepest darkness of a jungle (reflecting his own, inner darkness). On his journey into his own dark heart, writer Tom Cradle, who has stumbled across a published Tom Cradle novel that he knows he didn't write, learns that there are parallel universes which often collide with each other -- like strips or rice paper (one of the many brilliant descriptions in this novella. Not only do universes overlap, but the people in them often walk through each other's worlds, visiting for a spell. Cradle's journey is littered with self-indulgence, revelation -- there are long passages wherein Cradle not only decries being pigeon-holed as genre writer (much like Lucius Shepard), he also describes the dorkiest fans of the literature to a tee -- as well as sexual fulfillment and kinkiness, and strange encounters with other versions of himself. The last pages of the ending, however, come off as not quite thought out -- or, perhaps, rushed (a story should be finished when it is ready to be finished, not when a deadline looms). The worst part is, Shepard came up with the perfect ending and perfect last sentence. If ONLY he'd taken a bit more time to fix up the last handful of muddled pages and narrative; or, if only his EDITOR had made him do so (also, someone -- Shepard or a future editor, NEEDS to convince him to remove the world "steatopygian" from this story -- see my review of THE BEST OF LUCIUS SHEPARD for more in-depth explanation).Finally (for those ADHD readers who only like three line, half-wit, twitter-style reviews), I'll end by admitting that, after three weeks of pushing myself, on and off, while reading other books, I could not keep slogging through this collection. A rare thing for me these days (and a sad thing, considering I used to devour Shepard's short stories and collections). The main problem is that -- besides the two noted above -- none of the tales are that compelling. Of the last two, "Halloween Town" -- which revisits some Shepard's facility with geographical oddities (ala the "Dragon Griaule" stories) -- is a tale that flirts with the sort of slipstream, between two worlds, fantasy which is all the rage, as well as murder and political machinations, and "Rose Street Attractors" is a period ghost story (or so I gathered from the dust jacket, and two other reviews I glanced at after giving up the, um, ghost, so to speak, when it comes to finishing this book).The truly sad thing -- for a one-time, die-hard, fan of Shepard's -- is that, unlike "Stingo" in SOPHIE'S CHOICE, Shepard clearly "has the syrup", and can clearly pour it -- he just can't seem to find the pancakes. Whatever is going on with him these days, his recent auctorial failings (he hasn't had a solid, new, worthwhile collection out since ETERNITY AND OTHER STORIES, over 8 years ago) are not only the fault of the writer, but of his _editors_. Any editor who would pay good money for "Ditch Witch" is proving that past glories and name-recognition, both of which Shepard still has within the SF/fantasy/horror genre, can buy any writer a "pass" when it comes to truly critical, editorial guidance. And in buying those stories and/or not pointing out their problems, those editors are cheapening not only the anthology or magazine they edit, but the field of genre fiction as well.When I think of this collection, I think of a bit of narrative from the first abomination of a story, "Ditch Witch", wherein Michael is musing over Carole's conversational style: "There was a new tension in her delivery and he believed she was building toward something important, something that would punctuate or define." Of course, no revelations are forthcoming, and Michael ends up thusly: "Disappointed, his thoughts shifted miles and hours ahead..."I don't know: perhaps this two-star review is the result of my changing sensibilities. Maybe as a younger reader I was so enthralled with Shepard's abilities with a sentence -- he can write some beautiful ones -- and with occasional insights into the human condition and recognition of good plot and narrative, that I over-estimated his abilities. I'm gonna read THE DRAGON GRIAULE pretty soon, and see if those early stories still hold up, and if the later stories are any good.Until then, I've got plenty of other things to read. Like the new Joe Hill novel I just picked up, and which already has me turning pages in anticipation (_not_ frustration). Say what you will, but both Mr. Hill and his father (when King is on top of his game) know how to tell a story!