Book Review
The Woman Between the Worlds by F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre
The story begins in Victorian England when an invisible woman asks for a full body tattoo so she might become a "woman of Earth." A good deal of the tattoo artist's time is then spent running amok with this alien creature, Aleister Crowley, major literary figures from the time, and various members of the Golden Dawn. All this while trying to avoid death at the hands of an inter-dimensional Evil called The Dreadful Eye.
Hands down one of my favorite books. I first read it 14 years ago, and have been searching for another copy ever since (thank you Amazon). There are layers of genre and sub-genre here: sci/fi, horror, steam punk, occult. The dialog is brisk and witty, the characters are absolutely bizarre, and the scenes are beautifully crafted. And after reading that chase scene with the train and the corpses, I seriously considered sleeping with the light on. It's rare that a book rattles me to this degree. MacIntyre is a nut and a genius when it comes to descriptive prose. I wish he'd write more novels like this and less short stories.