Book Review: The Third Cry to Legba and other invocations
Yet another book review here.
I don't talk about this much, but one of my all-time favorite authors is Manly Wade Wellman. He's best known in SF&F circles today for his "John the Balladeer" stories, set in a superbly realized dark fantasy Appalachia and told in local dialect. They're some of the best truly American fantasy ever done, and deserve far more attention than they've ever gotten.
However, I'm talking about another, earlier character here, Wellman's occult investigator John Thunstone. He appeared in several short stories in the classic Weird Tales from 1943-51, all of which have finally been collected in the book being discussed (available from Night Shade Books in a lovely hardcover for $35; their site is at http://www.nightshadebooks.com). They are only a shade less polished than the John stories, and are full of pulpy horror goodness.
Thunstone himself is the main character in almost all the tales save for two ('Dead Man's Hand' and 'Twice Cursed'), and he usually faces one of two repeat enemies: Rowley Thorne, Wellman's version of Alesiter Crowley (who was so close to original that the WT editors worried about a lawsuit; Wellman reassured them by stating that Crowley could hardly complain about a fictional version of himself that in any event did nothing that Crowley himself had not boasted of doing!), a Satanic sorceror who is as much of a thief and con man as anything, and who finally ends by getting dragged off by his summoned devils (only to reappear over 40 years later in one of two Thunstone novels, The School of Darkness). Thorne is properly nasty and slimy, but he pales as a villain next to a rather more original threat Wellman invented, the Shonokin.
The Shonokin are a humanlike yet nonhuman race, practiced in sorcery, who once ruled North America but were driven out by the Indians. It's stated on several occasions that the Shonokin were the inspiration for most if not all of the devils and monsters in Indian folklore. The all-male, death-fearing Shonokins wish to reclaim their land, and they often run up against Thunstone in the process. The Shonokin are Wellman's version of the 'hidden race' so beloved of other WT writers like Lovecraft and Howard, and are rather better fleshed out than anything they ever did with the idea. If nothing else Wellman shows us why they are so secretive -- as long-lived (nearly immortal) as they are, the remaining Shonokin are all male. They need human women to reproduce (and while it's never stated, the implication is that the birthing kills the women) and they fear death terribly. Many times in the stories, the Shonokin are driven off when they see one of their own be slain. So the Shonokin have a reason to be hidden other than "they're evil". They appear in four of the stories, much like Thorne, but they also showed up in one of the Silver John novels, After Dark, where they are as wicked as ever.
The other Thunstoe stories are also well done, with the two best being 'Sorcery from Thule' (Thunstone aids an Eskimo angakok against an evil issintok), which has more than a little in it about Eskimo magic; and 'Twice Cursed' in which a pair of newly-returned soldiers from WW2 -- exact twins in every way though they've never before met -- get mixed up with Thunstone and the Svartaskoli, a Black School for witchcraft, which also showed up in a story with Thorne. It is the longest story in the book and to my mind the best.
Then there are a handful of stories that revolve around the character of Lee Cobbett. He is more down to earth than Thunstone, not a pulp hero but still a capable enemy of black magic and diabolism. The stories are short pieces for the most part from near the end of Wellman's career and life, save for one story, 'Chastel', which brings in an even older Wellman character than John Thunstone, Judge Pursuivant.
If you like old-school horror you could do much, much worse than to read a copy of The Third Cry to Legba.
Best all!
I don't talk about this much, but one of my all-time favorite authors is Manly Wade Wellman. He's best known in SF&F circles today for his "John the Balladeer" stories, set in a superbly realized dark fantasy Appalachia and told in local dialect. They're some of the best truly American fantasy ever done, and deserve far more attention than they've ever gotten.
However, I'm talking about another, earlier character here, Wellman's occult investigator John Thunstone. He appeared in several short stories in the classic Weird Tales from 1943-51, all of which have finally been collected in the book being discussed (available from Night Shade Books in a lovely hardcover for $35; their site is at http://www.nightshadebooks.com). They are only a shade less polished than the John stories, and are full of pulpy horror goodness.
Thunstone himself is the main character in almost all the tales save for two ('Dead Man's Hand' and 'Twice Cursed'), and he usually faces one of two repeat enemies: Rowley Thorne, Wellman's version of Alesiter Crowley (who was so close to original that the WT editors worried about a lawsuit; Wellman reassured them by stating that Crowley could hardly complain about a fictional version of himself that in any event did nothing that Crowley himself had not boasted of doing!), a Satanic sorceror who is as much of a thief and con man as anything, and who finally ends by getting dragged off by his summoned devils (only to reappear over 40 years later in one of two Thunstone novels, The School of Darkness). Thorne is properly nasty and slimy, but he pales as a villain next to a rather more original threat Wellman invented, the Shonokin.
The Shonokin are a humanlike yet nonhuman race, practiced in sorcery, who once ruled North America but were driven out by the Indians. It's stated on several occasions that the Shonokin were the inspiration for most if not all of the devils and monsters in Indian folklore. The all-male, death-fearing Shonokins wish to reclaim their land, and they often run up against Thunstone in the process. The Shonokin are Wellman's version of the 'hidden race' so beloved of other WT writers like Lovecraft and Howard, and are rather better fleshed out than anything they ever did with the idea. If nothing else Wellman shows us why they are so secretive -- as long-lived (nearly immortal) as they are, the remaining Shonokin are all male. They need human women to reproduce (and while it's never stated, the implication is that the birthing kills the women) and they fear death terribly. Many times in the stories, the Shonokin are driven off when they see one of their own be slain. So the Shonokin have a reason to be hidden other than "they're evil". They appear in four of the stories, much like Thorne, but they also showed up in one of the Silver John novels, After Dark, where they are as wicked as ever.
The other Thunstoe stories are also well done, with the two best being 'Sorcery from Thule' (Thunstone aids an Eskimo angakok against an evil issintok), which has more than a little in it about Eskimo magic; and 'Twice Cursed' in which a pair of newly-returned soldiers from WW2 -- exact twins in every way though they've never before met -- get mixed up with Thunstone and the Svartaskoli, a Black School for witchcraft, which also showed up in a story with Thorne. It is the longest story in the book and to my mind the best.
Then there are a handful of stories that revolve around the character of Lee Cobbett. He is more down to earth than Thunstone, not a pulp hero but still a capable enemy of black magic and diabolism. The stories are short pieces for the most part from near the end of Wellman's career and life, save for one story, 'Chastel', which brings in an even older Wellman character than John Thunstone, Judge Pursuivant.
If you like old-school horror you could do much, much worse than to read a copy of The Third Cry to Legba.
Best all!