Book Review: THE BRIDES OF HIGH HILL

TITLE: The Brides of High Hill (The Singing Hills Cycle, Book 5)

AUTHOR: Nghi Vo

115 pages, TorDotCom, ISBN 9781250851444 (hardcover, e-book, audio)

MY RATING:  4 stars out of 5

At the start of The Brides of High Hill, the fifth book in Nghi Vo’s wonderful Singing Hills Cycle of novellas, Cleric Chih is in the process of accompanying a family to the titular estate, where the daughter will be married to the lord of the manor. Chih quickly discovers that not all is as it seems: the Lord has a history of short-lived marriages with tragic ends and a strangely ill son from one of those previous marriages; the Bride-to-Be’s family has secrets of their own; and why can’t Chih remember how they parted ways with Almost Brilliant, the neixin who usually accompanies them, and came to be traveling with the family?

Vo packs a lot into each Singing Hills novella, and The Brides of High Hill is no exception. What at first seems like a simple tweak to the legend of Bluebeard morphs into an Asian-inflected gothic suspense novel with a possibly haunted estate and then morphs again into a rumination on colonialism and on revenge as an unending cycle.

Chih of course finds themself at the center of all of this, not only as chronicler but also as the person who must try to find a solution that satisfies all the parties involved. This is not the first time we’ve seen Chih operate without Almost Brilliant at their side – but is the first time we’ve seen Chih unsure of where Almost Brilliant is. And that makes a difference in Chih’s confidence in their ability to recall details about Lord Gao’s family and the bride-to-be’s. It’s a side of Chih I feel like we haven’t seen before and continues the character growth we’ve seen in the preceding four novellas.

Vo does a wonderful job setting the mood of High Hills with details about the architecture, the smells, and the distinct differences noticeable between daylight hours and the nighttime. I understood Chih’s sense of disorientation, shared their discomfort at not being able to put their finger on exactly what was creating the sense of wrongness, felt like I was there in the misty, uncomfortable dark.

I can’t speak too much on the aspects of the book that touch on the ravages of colonialism and cycles of revenge (and how we break them), or on the parts that involve gaslighting, without spoiling major plot points that are best left discovered as they unfold. I can say that when I realized what was going on, I found Vo’s handling of the gaslighting in particular to be expertly done, with great care and understanding of the victim’s questioning of how to trust their feelings in the future. Likewise with the “how do we break violent cycles” issue.

I think I say this in every review of a Singing Hills Cycle installment, but these books truly can be read in any order; you do not have to know anything about what transpired in books one through four to enjoy The Brides of High Hill. I highly recommend picking it up – or picking up the first book in the series, Empress of Salt and Fortune, and savoring each novella in turn.

I received an electronic advance reading copy of this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. I did receive the e-ARC well before publication date but never posted the review. The Brides of High Hill is available now wherever books are sold.

Theater Thursday: ONCE UPON A MATTRESS

The Broadway portion of this year’s “Books and Broadway for my Birthday” trip into New York City was the revival of Once Upon a Mattress playing for a limited engagement at the Hudson Theater. I was originally supposed to see this production when it was at New York City Center as part of the Encores! series, but work travel got in the way and I sold my ticket to a friend, who loved the show. So I was especially excited when it transferred to Broadway and the Hudson (where we saw Merrily We Roll Along last year) with most of the City Center cast.

The production maintains the music and lyrics of Mary Rodgers and Marshall Barer, with Amy Sherman-Palladino adapting the original book by Jay Thompson, Marshall Barer, and Dean Fuller. I’ve only seen one other production of Once Upon a Mattress, and that was a middle school production with my niece in the cast. Of course, I’ve seen the clips of Carol Burnett as Winifred in the original 1959 production. But my memory of the show was dim, so I have no idea what changes Sherman-Palladino may have made. So for me, it was very much like seeing the show for the first time.

You won’t be shocked to hear if you know me at all: I loved it! Absolutely the best choice of show to see after a full day of hiking around Manhattan buying books (when the security guard waved his flashlight into my backpack, he raised his eyebrow. I said “yeah. It’s books all the way down.” He laughed.). The show is light, funny, touching; the music swings from the romantic to the goofily energetic and back multiple times. Great Prologue by the Jester, great opening number (“Opening for a Princess”), fun act one finale (“Song of Love”), etc.

City Center Encores! productions typically have the orchestra on stage with the cast rather than under the stage or visible at the sides of the stage, highlighting that the music is as important as the talking, singing, and dancing. For this production, the orchestra is slightly above and behind the action. Conductor Annbritt duChateau and her musicians were such a natural part of the staging that I sometimes forgot they were there. They sounded fantastic under Mary-Mitchell Campbell’s music supervision. Lorin Latarro’s choreography was terrific – frenetic when it needed to be (“Spanish Panic”) and subtle when it needed to be (“Yesterday I Loved You”). I believe Lear deBessonet has directed most of the Encores! productions that have transferred to Broadway in the past few years. She directed the Encores! production of Oliver! last year that I loved so much (and reviewed). She has a wonderful knack for picking the right person for each role and teasing great performances out of them, and this production was no exception.

Sutton Foster. Much has been made of Carol Burnett saying that Sutton is the perfect choice among current Broadway performers for Princess Winifred, and I can’t disagree with her. She was endearing, walked the line between slapstick and over-the-top slapstick (which can be precarious) perfectly. Her “Shy” was brassy and loud, her “The Swamps of Home” more subtly comedic, her “Happily Ever After” sweet. I am hard pressed to think of another musical where the lead character’s “11th hour number” isn’t a song but a three-minute-long piece of pantomime (as Winifred tries to fall asleep but just can’t get comfortable); Sutton delivered the silent physical comedy goods without veering into overblown physicality. (This was my first time seeing Sutton on stage. I know. I know. It won’t be my last, I’m sure.)

Michael Urie is adorable as Prince Dauntless. Not an easy task with the way the character is written for most of the play (henpecked, spineless, a bit dim) but he made it work. Musically, he gets to shine in the act one closer (“Song of Love”) and in the middle of act two (“Man to Man Talk”). In the first number, he is adorably infatuated with Winifred; in the latter, he is adorably slow to pick up what his father is silently trying to tell him. What I’m saying is that Michael Urie is adorable. Always. But especially as Dauntless.

Ana Gasteyer plays the willful, controlling Queen Aggravain. I really, really, really disliked the Queen – which tells you that Gasteyer is brilliant in the role. David Patrick Kelly has perhaps the hardest part in the show, making us care for King Sextimus the Silent without ever uttering a word. It’s a role that in other hands could be (here’s that phrase again) over the top and possibly even offensive but in Kelly’s hands is subtle and lovable. Nikki Renee Daniels and Will Chase as the young lovers Lady Larkin and Sir Harry complimented each other well (both of their duets, “In A Little While” and “Yesterday I Loved You” were sweet, earnest highlights).

If anyone comes close to stealing the show from Foster and Urie, though, it is Daniel Breaker as the Jester. His delivery of the Prologue (“Many Moons Ago”) set the stage for the evening, but his “Very Soft Shoes” pretty near broke my heart. The number is a paean to the Jester’s father, who preceded him in show business. The Jester is surrounded by dancers (including one who is a vision of the father), but I don’t think my eyes left Breaker once during the number. His body language, facial expressions, and vocal delivery all touched me and brought back memories of my father (who was not a dancer, but that’s beside the point). Not gonna lie – I got very emotional.

Once Upon a Mattress runs at the Hudson Theatre in New York until November 30, 2024, after which it is apparently transferring to the Ahmanson Theater in Los Angeles. Don’t be “Shy” – go see it!

I’ve always loved live theater, and in the past couple of years I’ve been making a stronger effort to see more of it. Theater Thursday is an occasional series where I talk about live theater, both shows I’ve seen recently and shows I’ve loved in the past.

BOOKS AND BROADWAY 2024

Every year, I try to make sure my birthday week includes visits to bookstores and to Broadway. But 2024 was the first year my friend Margaret and I did an organized “Books and Broadway Crawl,” focused on indie bookstores in lower Manhattan.

Our trip this year included:

·       10.16 miles of walking,

·       3 PATH and subway rides,

·       2 meals (and 1 snack stop),

·       8 bookstores

·       14 books for me (15 if I include the gift I bought for a friend)

·       1 Broadway show

·       1 jar of pickles

·       A lot of sweat from the 80 degrees (Fahrenheit) weather

·       3 wonderful friends (in addition to my day-long companion)

·       Too many laughs to count

So I figured I’d write a post-Crawl post and provide as many links to the bookstores we visited as I can.

Once we got into the city, I told Margaret my plan to buy one book per bookstore. You’ll see how well I did with that.

Our day started at Bibliotheque (54 Mercer Street), where we had a nice brunch (bacon and egg on a wonderful bun for me, with tea (earl grey, hot … if you know, you know), egg and cheese on a roll for Margaret, and we shared a pain au chocolat as well) followed by some browsing. Knowing my love of all things Macbeth-related, Margaret pointed out a recently released novel called Lady Macbeth, by Ava Reid, which I eagerly grabbed. And I found a hardcover of Peter Beresford Ellis’ Macbeth: King of Scotland 1040 – 1057 in the “rare books” glass cases that was actually not very expensive and so grabbed that as well.

Bacon and egg sandwich, tea, and two books related to Macbeth? The trip was off to a great start! (Interested parties should know that at dinner time, Bibliotheque is also a wine bar, but we weren’t going to be downtown late enough to return…)

We next meandered south/east-ish to The Mysterious Bookshop (58 Warren Street), one of my favorite bookstores ever, anywhere, and one of only three on this trip that I’d been to before, although not in over a year. After some browsing (and picking out a birthday present for a friend), I found Tonight, Somewhere In New York: The Last Stories and an Unfinished Novel by Cornell Woolrich. If you know me, you know that Woolrich is one of those authors I can never read enough of, so buying it was an easy decision. Also picked up an interesting looking mystery by an author I’ve never read before, Kenneth Fearing, called The Big Clock.

Thence it was off to Sweet Pickle Books (47 Orchard Street), where the jar of bread and butter pickles came from. But also Strange Tales from Japan: 99 Chilling Stories of Yokai, Ghosts, Demons, and the Supernatural, collected and retold by Keisuke Nishimoto and translated into English by William Scott Wilson, and Something Nasty in the Woodshed, a mystery by Kyril Bonfiglioli, which I only discovered later in the day is actually the third book in the author’s Charlie Mortdecai series. As with the Fearing book at Mysterious, I bought this based on the cover art and the back cover description, and somehow missed the “third book” indicator on the bottom of the front cover.

The employee working the register at Sweet Pickle heard us mention our book crawl and after we described where we’d been and where we were planning to go, he suggested we visit Bluestocking Cooperative (116 Suffolk Street), NYC’s only queer/trans/sex worker run, employee-owned, bookstore. I only made one purchase there, Bugsy and Other Stories by Rafael Frumkin, but I’m sure I’ll be back for more. (I also made a small donation to their operating fund.)

Thence it was back onto the planned itinerary and off to P&T Knitwear (180 Orchard Street), which after Sweet Pickle I really expected to be selling knitting goods alongside the books. No knitting stuff in sight (although the store’s history connects to a sweater and shirts store in the 1950s), but I did find two books: Tatyana Tolstaya’s post-apocalyptic novel The Slynx and Bolivian author Giovanna Rivero’s short story collection Fresh Dirt from the Grave, translated into English by Isabel Adey.

Next stop was McNally Jackson’s SoHo location (134 Prince Street), which I had never been to. Loved it just as much as the Rockefeller Center location I’ve visited quite a few times (see below). I’ve been meaning to start collecting the British Library’s Tales of the Weird anthology series (because we all know by now just how much I’m a sucker for “trade dress” book series) and decided to finally bite the bullet and pick up Glimpses of Unknown: Lost Ghost Stories and Queens of the Abyss: Lost Stories from the Women of the Weird, both edited by Mike Ashley.

It was time for a breather, something to drink, and a snack. Margaret found Fellini Coffee (120 Thompson Street in SoHo). An iced coffee and Danish for her, an iced chai tea and slice of lemon cake for me, with a water to go … and we were off for our last “lower Manhattan” bookstore.

I’ve been to Three Lives and Company (154 W. 10th Street) several times, and it, like the Mysterious, is one of my favorite indies to visit in NYC. This time, I picked up Don’t Look Now, stories by Daphne Du Maurier (since re-watching The Birds earlier this year I’ve finally be reading an author I’ve previously overlooked) and Rock Crystal, a novella by Austrian/Czech author Adalbert Stifter, translated by Elizabeth Mayer and Marianne Moore, with an introduction by W.H. Auden.

By this point we were ready to not be walking for a while, so we took the subway up to midtown, where we were meeting friends for dinner … but we were an hour early, so we walked over to the McNally Jackson Rockefeller Center location, where I picked up a copy of Sol Yurick’s The Warriors, the novel on which the cult classic 1979 film was based. (It didn’t even occur to me to look for a few more British Library of the Weird titles, even though this is where I first became aware of them.)

Dinner was at Arriba Arriba, one of my favorite Mexican restaurants in NYC (762 9th Avenue) – great food (the fajitas are to die for), great wait-staff. And great company, as I got to introduce my college friends Margaret and David to my writer friends Claire and Carlos.

Then it was time for Margaret and me to head to The Hudson Theater to see Once Upon a Mattress, my review of which will be posted on Thursday.

Lest people wonder why I didn’t visit The Strand, or Forbidden Planet, or The Drama Book Shop: I was at two of the three just a week ago. I picked up a Parke Godwin hardcover I’d been looking for at The Strand (The Tower of Beowulf) and a Macbeth-related script at The Drama Book Shop (macbitches by Sophie McIntosh). And the backpack was heavy enough without also hitting Forbidden or Midtown Comics this trip.

And just to complete the books part of the birthday week: on the Monday of the week, I picked up The God of the Woods by Liz Moore from my local indie, Sparta Books, and on Saturday I paid a visit to Stanza Books in Beacon NY and picked up the new Stephen Graham Jones (I Was a Teenage Slasher) along with Allen Bratton’s modern queer reworking of Shakespeare’s Prince Hal (Henry Henry) and the fourth book in Mick Herron’s Slough House series (Spook Street).

And that completes Books and Broadway 2024! On top of what I picked up at Pulpfest earlier in the month, I have probably TOO MUCH to read … but as a friend often points out, buying books and reading books are two different hobbies.

the birthday week book haul

Series Saturday: BATMAN: CAPED CRUSADER

Batman: Caped Crusader, Season One (2024)

Starred Hamish Linklater, Jason Watkins, Diedrich Bader, Crystal Joy Brown, Eric Morgan Stewart

Produced by Bad Robot, DC Entertainment, and 6th & Idaho Productions

Originally aired on Amazon Prime

FAIR WARNING: I can’t discuss what I liked about this show without spoiling certain character appearances and plot points. So if you care about SPOILERS, walk away after the first paragraph. Of course, much of what I’ll discuss has already been spoiled on various reporting websites and social media platforms … but you can’t say I didn’t warn you.

The ten-episode first season of Batman: Caped Crusader dropped on Amazon Prime on August 1st. It has a lot to recommend it: a 1940s design aesthetic reminiscent of both Batman: The Animated Series and the 1940s Fleischer Studios Superman cartoons, excellent voicework by the leads, and tightly written individual episode scripts. It also has some flaws (season storyline arcs that stall or disappear and moments of animation that are not as smooth as they could be). Despite these flaws, I enjoyed the first season and will definitely be back for season 2 when it bows sometime in 2025.

I am a fan of both B: TAS and the Fleischer Superman cartoons, so the borrowed/melded aesthetic of the animation really works for me. I like that they’re leaning more heavily into real 1940s technology (dial phones, phone booths, cars) and less the “’40’s look with advanced tech and police blimps” of B: TAS. It sets this show apart a bit visually while still recalling its beloved predecessor. I love some of the tiny details as well. For instance, Batman’s gloves are not the full forearm with wings we’ve become accustomed to but rather the “driving glove” style of his earliest comics appearances (minus the purple color of his first appearance), and the ears on his cowl appear to be thin and curved. I also appreciated Harley Quinn’s costume looking very much like a period costume piece, and the decision to go with the heftier/portly Alfred of the 1940s comics.

The voice work of the main cast is undeniably strong. I believe Hamish Linklater has said in interviews that he’s not consciously imitating the late, great Kevin Conroy, but Conroy’s influence on Linklater’s performance is obvious. Linklater’s Bruce and Batman are distinguishable and equally solid. Jason Watkins’ Pennyworth (who only really gets called by his first name in the season finale) is staunch and steadfast, the supportive assistant who is not afraid to stand up to his boss when it really matters. Diedrich Bader’s turn as District Attorney Harvey Dent is as slimy as you could want, with just enough “am I really doing the right thing” throughout the early part of the season to make his internal conflict near the end of the season make sense. Eric Morgan Stewart (Commissioner Gordon), Crystal Joy Brown (Barbara Gordon), and Michelle C. Bonilla (Renee Montoya) are all wonderful as Batman’s slowly developing support cast; likewise John DiMaggio (Bullock) and Gary Anthony Williams (Flass) as the odd-couple corrupt cops and Cedric Yarbrough as crime boss Rupert Thorne.

The semi-regularly appearing characters include Bumper Robinson’s cool but friendly Lucius Fox, Tom Kenny’s photojournalist Eel O’Brian, and Roger Craig Smith’s Detective Jim Corrigan. (Those last two names carry a lot of weight for long-time DC Comics fans. I have no idea if the producers of Batman: Caped Crusader intend to eventually introduce other super-heroes into the mix of this show, but they certainly seem like they’re setting the stage with these character names as well as the appearance of an unspeaking reporter who looked a lot like the Fleischer Studios version of Lois Lane in one episode.)

With as long and deep a bench as Batman’s rogues gallery has, a ten-episode season is bound to disappoint someone in terms of which villains are used. I enjoyed the balance between “big guns” (Catwoman, Penguin, Harley Quinn, and Two-Face) and “lesser lights” (Clayface, the Gentleman Ghost, Firebug, Nocturne, Onomatopoeia, with blink-and-you’ll-miss-them appearances by King Tut, Killer Croc and Deadshot). I think the choice to hold the Joker back for season two (along with, presumably, the Riddler, Poison Ivy, and Mister Freeze) was a smart one (I also don’t think the season finale needed a Joker-coda, but that’s a moot point since it had one). I’m hoping that some of these villains will get return appearances in season two, especially the Penguin and Catwoman (I could do without a return appearance from Onomatopoeia; I found the execution of this character a bit underwhelming.)

I enjoyed the slow, multi-episode development of Harleen Quinzell (the wonderful Jamie Chung) and Harvey Dent into villains, and the gradual development of respect for Batman by the Gordons and Montoya. But If I have one major complaint about this first season, it’s the way certain subplots were just dropped to make room for Dent’s season-ending arc. In particular, the establishment of a Batman-hunting task force. The episode in which it was introduced, headed by Montoya, was effective. Then the Mayor turns it over to Flass and Bullock and … it’s barely mentioned for the rest of the season. Even in the season finale, it’s given one line (“If you’re still around when they [the Gotham patrolmen] get here, I’ll have to take you in.”). Given the amount of attention that is paid to the cops’ distrust of Batman in the first half of the season, it should have been given greater weight in the second half.

A lot of people online are unhappy with changes that have been made to certain characters (everything from the Penguin being a woman, to the Gordons being Black, Montoya being heavy-set/buxom, all the Robins being orphans in the same orphanage, to Harleen’s origin having no connection to the Joker at all). Here’s my take: If you can proclaim your love of comics stories in which Batman is a vampire, or is Clark Kent instead of Bruce Wayne, or in which Batman is active in the Victorian Era rather than the “present,” you can accept an animated series where the Penguin is a woman and the Gordons are black and where Batman’s wards may or may not ever become Robin(s). And if you can’t accept a gender or race-flip … then don’t watch the show. The existence of a female Penguin, or a Harley Quinn whose origin has nothing to do with the Joker, does not in any way negate the existence of the versions of those characters that you love.

Final thoughts: In conversation after I’d finished watching the season, my friend David said, “It was good overall, I agree, but it mostly made me like Batman: The Animated Series even more.” That said, I am looking forward to season two of Batman: Caped Crusader, with the hopes that some of the villains and supporting characters from season one will get more development (Dave and I agree that both the Penguin and Catwoman would have benefited from one more episode each.).

This is an occasional blog series about … well, series. I love stories that continue across volumes, in whatever form: linked short stories, novels, novellas, television, movies, comics.

Theater Thursday: Back To The Future The Musical

Sometimes, you need a little spectacle. Back to the Future: The Musical provides it, in great heaping doses.

I feel like the Winter Garden Theater usually goes out of its’ way to make the house feel like part of the set/show. For BttF:TM, they’ve rigged flashing computer circuits from the stage out along the box seats and across the ceiling to at least midway above the orchestra seats to keep you in mind of a mad scientist’s crazy plan. (If you’re sitting along the outer edges of the orchestra, as we were, this makes reading the Playbill before the show exceedingly difficult, but it definitely sets a mood.) The front scrim (instead of a curtain) shows the show’s logo when it isn’t reminding you that photography during the show is prohibited because it would mess with the space-time continuum (pretty cute).

The staging is heavy reliant on special effects (the front scrim and back display do a lot of the heavy lifting on that score) both for the time travel scenes (including Doc’s number, “21st Century,” that opens Act Two) and for just moving around town or even around the school. The car, of course, is the big draw and it looks and sounds great (the car even gets a bit of KITT-like personality, although I scoured the Playbill and could not find out who voices her).

Casey Likes is a likeable Marty McFly. He’s got a great singing voice and sells both the ballads (his “Got No Future” was particularly moving) and the rock numbers (“The Power of Love” and “Back in Time”). But if I’m being totally honest – his dialogue often sounded like he was trying too hard to be Michael J. Fox. Which, okay, that’s not a horrible thing, but I would have liked to see Likes make the part more his own.

Which is what Roger Bart did with Doc Brown. There was little of Christopher Lloyd’s mannerisms or inflections in Bart’s performance, and I absolutely loved it. He was just as “over the top” as Lloyd, but in a vastly different way, and was clearly enjoying every moment he was on stage. He also knew exactly when to tone it down. I will go on record here that Bart’s Act Two ballad, “For the Dreamers,” made me tear up and is hands-down my favorite original song in the show.

The chemistry between Likes and Bart is palpable. They’re a great pair, all of their scenes together crackle. I may be mistaken, but I think there are a few moments where they improvise, and there was one moment where they both broke slightly. It was as much fun to watch their scenes together as it was as a kid to watch Harvey Korman and Tim Conway crack each other up on the Carol Burnett Show.

We had understudy Becca Petersen as Lorraine Baines McFly, alongside Evan Alexander Smith as George, and they were both fantastic. Petersen played the difference between 1985 alcoholic bitter Lorraine and 1955 romantic lusty Lorraine wonderfully; Smith doesn’t get to show that same type of character change until the final scenes but his nerdy, anxious, underdog George is someone you can’t help but feel sorry for and want to see succeed (something I don’t think I ever really got from Crispin Glover in the movie). I totally believed Lorraine falling for George after he punches Biff and when he shows himself to be a gentleman at the dance.

I feel a little bad for Nathaniel Hackmann, as Biff is not really given a chance to be anything beyond the stereotypical villain. He does have a solid “villain song” in Act Two (“Teach Him a Lesson”), and physically he looks more like Thomas F. Wilson than any of the other actors look like their movie counterparts. I’m not saying bully Biff should have been given any kind of tragic backstory (as we see with so many classic villains who get their own movies these days), but I wonder if the show couldn’t have added a little more depth or at least given Hackmann a bit more variation to play.

A great surprise in the show was understudy Kevin Curtis as Goldie Wilson. His “Gotta Start Somewhere” was the showstopper of Act One, with at least a full minute of applause. I love it when a supporting character gets a spotlight moment and delivers on it. Curtis has an incredibly voice; I hope wonderful things are in his future.

There are some parts of the film that just couldn’t be adapted to stage, even with the incredible special effects. So the skateboard-and-car chase of the film (that ends with Biff and his cronies covered in manure) is replaced here with a foot chase through the school, full of slapstick pratfalls, all while Lorraine sings “Something About That Boy.” It’s a strong end-of-Act-One full cast number, although nowhere near as funny as the movie chase.

Ultimately, Back to the Future: The Musical is exactly what it claims to be: feel good fun for the whole family, special effects and sound effects heavy, with a couple of original songs that might stick in your head (alongside classics by Chuck Berry (“Johnny B. Goode”) and Huey Lewis (The Power of Love” and “Back in Time”) that are required when adapting Back to the Future). It doesn’t pretend to be anything else. Go in with the expectation that you’re just going to have fun, and you won’t be disappointed.

I’ve always loved live theater, and in the past couple of years I’ve been making a stronger effort to see more of it. Theater Thursday is a new occasionally series where I talk about live theater, both shows I’ve seen recently and shows I’ve loved in the past.

Book Review: A PRINCESS OF MARS: SHADOW OF THE ASSASSINS

TITLE: A Princess of Mars: Shadow of the Assassins

AUTHOR: Ann Tonsor Zeddies

314 pages, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., ISBN 9781945462698 (paperback, hardcover, limited edition)

MY RATING:  5 stars out of 5

The Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe (or ERBU) continues to expand with Ann Tonsor Zeddies’ A Princess of Mars: Shadow of the Assassins, the first new canonical novel to truly feature Dejah Thoris in the main role since she was introduced in Burroughs’ first Barsoom novel (also titled A Princess of Mars) in 1911 (when it was originally serialized in All-Story magazine as “Under the Moons of Mars”). Despite the title, A Princess of Mars focused more on John Carter, the amnesiac and long-lived Earthman who is mysteriously transported to Mars and finds himself caught up in the political and existential crises of a world not his own, than it did on the titular Princess. Carter does meet and fall in love with Dejah Thoris, princess of the human city-state of Helium, and her scenes introduce us to a woman adept at statecraft, quick to make decisions, handy with weaponry, and not easily wooed/swayed by the presence of a handsome stranger.

People who have never read Burroughs, who rely only on the television and movie interpretations of his work from the 1950s and ‘60s to inform their opinion of him, are surprised to discover just how progressive (for his time) Burroughs was in writing his female characters. Dejah Thoris, Jane Porter, Duare of Amtor, Dian of Pellucidar, and so many others are not the wilting damsels-in-distress of so much media of the time. They are all strong, intelligent, proud women capable of not only getting into danger but rescuing themselves from it (as discussed in “The Women of Edgar Rice Burroughs” panel at Pulpfest 2024, as discussed in my post earlier this week).

Ann Tonsor Zeddies takes what we know of Dejah Thoris’ personality and history from the Barsoom novels she featured prominently in and delivers a prequel novel that shows us how she grew into the woman John Carter falls in love with. Dejah starts off the novel straining against her father’s (Mors Kajak, jed of Lesser Helium) reluctance to treat her like an adult. While her brother gets to go off on scientific expeditions, Dejah is expected to stay in Helium and await the wooing of suitors from the city’s warrior class. The unexpected arrival of an embassy from another city-state and the bad timing of an attack by a tribe of Mars’ green men conspire to place Dejah in the position of representing her father, and her city, at a series of Olympics-like games in the previously unheard-of city of Zor. (The timing of this novel, which so heavily features sporting competition and the awarding of honors for same, coming out amid the 2024 Summer Olympics may or may not have been planned by Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. If it wasn’t, it is certainly fortuitous.)

Shadow of the Assassins is somewhat an origin story for Dejah Thoris. We get to watch her grow from a girl who thinks she knows everything to a woman who recognizes that to be a good leader, one must surround oneself with trusted and smart advisors – and not just be in their company, but also listen to them. She bungles her initial interactions with the Jeddak of Zor, Jan Vajo, and his sister Phortara, ignoring the advice of the older friend of her mother’s sent as adviser in Dejah’s retinue. She also takes ownership of her mistakes and strives to make amends – although almost too late – and in the end makes a series of decisions that not only save herself and her friends but also her embattled father.

Zeddies also crafts exciting, engrossing chase and fight scenes full of tension that alternate wonderfully with the scenes of courtly intrigue. Both the action scenes and the intrigue scenes work together to deepen and further the mystery Dejah Thoris must solve: what is really going on in Zor and how will it affect Helium?

Since this is a prequel, we know that Helium will be okay, but the threat still feels palpable. Few of the familiar characters from Burroughs’ original Barsoom novels appear outside of Dejah’s parents and grandparents. But there are winks at some of the friends and threats that appear in the Burroughs books and there are new characters introduced who add to the interesting tapestry of the Barsoom books without contradicting anything we already know and who hopefully will continue to appear as the ERBU grows.

The book also includes a new John Carter of Mars novella, “John Carter of Mars: Swords of the Mind,” written by Geary Gravel (who also wrote the ERBU novel John Carter of Mars: Gods of the Forgotten, part of the company’s “Swords of Eternity” Super-Arc, which I reviewed HERE). The novella is a sequel of sorts to Gods of the Forgotten as well as to Burroughs’ novel Thuvia, Maid of Mars, but you do not have to have read either novel to enjoy this novella. John Carter discovers that his son Carthoris is missing and goes to investigate. An old threat is found to not only still be active but also stronger in power. Geary expertly weaves together and extrapolates from Burroughs’ concepts to expand the mythos with new dangers. And to introduce a new character! One of the things I’ve enjoyed about the new ERBU books is the introduction of the “next generation:” Suzanne Clayton (granddaughter of Tarzan), Victory Harben (daughter of Gretchen von Harben), Janson Gridley (son of Jason and Jana), and now Djon Dihn (son of Carthoris and Thuvia). Burroughs had no problem extending the family trees of his characters (having given us Korak, son of Tarzan, and Carthoris and his sister Tara, children of John Carter and Dejah Thoris), and I think he’d be happy to see the way that tradition is being carried on in the new spate of canonical ERBU books.

I hope this is just the first of several Dejah Thoris prequel novels from Ann Tonsor Zeddies, who also wrote the novella “Victory Harben: Stormwinds of Va-Nah.” I am excited to see where she’ll take Dejah and her new friends next, in the years between this book and A Princess of Mars.

I received an advance reading pdf of this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. A Princess of Mars: Shadow of the Assassins can be pre-ordered now (in paperback, hardcover, and limited-edition collector’s hardcover versions) at the Edgar Rice Burroughs Incorporated website.

PULPFEST 2024 Report

Those who follow me on Instagram or are friends with me on Facebook know that I spent this past weekend (actually, 5 days: July 31 to Aug 4) at Pulpfest in Cranberry, Pennsylvania. Pulpfest is a convention dedicated to the pulp magazines of the early 20th century (so called because they were printed on pulp/newsprint paper as compared to the “slick” magazines). It’s a convention I look forward to every year, probably my favorite. (Yes, I also love Readercon, held in Quincey, Massachusetts in July, but for different reasons.)

Before I talk about why I love Pulpfest so much and tell you a bit about this year’s convention, allow me to present you with a photo featuring every pulp magazine I own:

Yes, that’s it. Five pulp magazines. One issue of Startling Stories (which happens to include stories by the great Robert Bloch and also John Broome); one issue of Doc Savage (including the novel The Flaming Falcons); three issues of Planet Stories (one of which has a story by Fredric Brown, another of which has a short novel by Gardner F. Fox). And I am perfectly fine with the fact that I only own five pulp magazines, none of them in any salable condition (in fact, they were all gifts from a friend, duplicates of his own collection).

So why go to a convention dedicated primarily to pulp magazines, if I don’t collect pulp magazines?

Camaraderie.

See, Pulpfest is really three conventions in one. While the focus of Pulpfest panels is the preservation of the history of pulp magazines in all their multi-genre splendor (pulps ranged from romance/spicy to horror, adventure, mystery, western, science fiction, fantasy, and probably some genres I’m forgetting, to the “single character” pulps (both heroic, like The Shadow, The Avenger, and Doc Savage, and the villainous, like Doctor Satan.)), they also have welcomed FarmerCon (dedicated to celebrating the work of Philip Jose Farmer) and ERBFest (dedicated to celebrating the work of Edgar Rice Burroughs). And next year (2025), Pulpfest will expand to being “FOUR conventions for the price of one!” with the addition of DocCon, celebrating Doc Savage.

I started going to Pulpfest because of FarmerCon. I’d been online friends for quite a few years with a group of fans of Philip Jose Farmer and was finally convinced to meet them in person when Pulpfest relocated from Columbus, Ohio to Pittsburgh (Cranberry) Pennsylvania around 2018. I could (and will, one of these days) write an entire post, or even series of posts, about how Phil Farmer’s books (most notably, his fictional biographies of Tarzan and Doc Savage) inspired and intrigued me. Among the group of Farmer fans, I am easily the least knowledgeable about Farmer and his works. But that’s okay, they don’t hold it against me. They welcomed me with open arms, and I absorb their knowledge (and their book recommendations and writing advice) eagerly. These people have become more than friends (and far more than just online acquaintances) over these past few Pulpfest/FarmerCons.

Many of the FarmerCon folks are also big fans of Edgar Rice Burroughs – another relatively early influence on me (thanks in part to an adult neighbor who lent me some of the novels after seeing me reading some Marvel and DC Tarzan and John Carter of Mars comics), and another author about whom I am the least knowledgeable among our friend group when we gather. (See above for why I’m fine with that.) This year, it was decided to hold an ERBFest as part of Pulpfest, including the 2024 Dum Dum Banquet (if you’re fan of the Tarzan books, you know why it’s called that).

Many of the FarmerCon and ERBFest folks are also big fans of Doc Savage. You see where this is going – lather, rinse, repeat the above.

I LOVE (yes, in all caps) just hanging out and talking with all of these people in the hotel lobby until way later than is healthy for me, as well as attending panels and dinners and wandering the dealers’ room having conversations with the people I know, and people I’ve never met before. I usually don’t stop smiling and laughing the whole time I’m there unless I’m sleeping. These folks are “good medicine,” as my father used to say.

The panels I attended this year included:

·       “The Women of Edgar Rice Burroughs,” where panelists Cathy Mann Wilbanks (Vice-President of Operations at Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc.) and Bernice Jones discussed both the real women in Burroughs’ life (his mother, daughter, and two wives) and the strong, independent, progressive-for-the-time women in his fiction (Jane Porter Clayton, wife of Tarzan; Dejah Thoris, wife of John Carter of Mars; Duare, wife of Carson of Venus; Maggie Lynch, the main character of Burroughs’ novel The Girl From Farris’s; and many others). If there was one complaint from the attendees, it was that the panel wasn’t long enough to cover all of the strong, capable female characters Burroughs created (notable absences: Meriem, wife of Korak (son of Tarzan); Betty Caldwell and Llana of Gathol (from the John Carter books); and Virginia Maxon (from Burroughs’ The Monster Men).

·       “Flinch!Fest,” focused on current and recent releases from small press publisher Flinch! Books, during with Flinch co-publishers Jim Beard and John C. Bruening read passages from their stories in the western anthology Six Gun Legends, Bruening’s novel The Midnight Guardian: Gods and Sinners, and the Flinch anthology Quest for the Space Gods: The Chronicles of Conrad von Honig, which led into panel guest Brian K. Morris reading from the newest Flinch release, Quest for the Delphi Occulus, which Morris wrote for the press and which also features Conrad von Honig.

·       “The Universe According to Edgar Rice Burroughs,” during which ERB Inc Vice-President of Operations Cathy Mann Wilbanks and Vice-President of Publishing / Creative Director Christopher Paul Carey were joined by Joe Ferrante, one of the producers of the upcoming John Carter of Mars: the Audio Series (currently funding on Kickstarter), to discuss the audio project (including a video message from Sean Patrick Flannery, who will be voicing John Carter)  before launching into announcements of the next slate of ERB Universe books (including a new Land That Time Forgot novel, Fortress Primeval, by Mike Wolfer in 2025, as well as the very soon to release A Princess of Mars: Shadows of the Assassins by Ann Tonsor Zeddies (the first full length Dejah Thoris novel) and several projects featuring Victory Harben), as well as the next slate of books in the Edgar Rice Burroughs Authorized Library.

·       “Farmercon XIX Panel,” moderated by Keith Howell, during which Meteor House Press publishers Paul Spiteri and Win Scott Eckert discussed the recent Meteor House releases of The Full Account (which combines, in alternating chapters, Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days with Philip Jose Farmer’s The Other Log of Phileas Fogg, which tells the same story from a different, more science fictional, angle) and the Secrets of the Nine Omnibus (which brings together under one cover Farmer’s A Feast Unknown, The Mad Goblin, and Lord of the Trees, as well as some connected short stories and essays by Eckert, Frank Schildiner, and others). They were joined by Meteor House author Sean Lee Levin, who talked about his non-fiction release Crossovers Expanded: The Secret History of the World Volume 3 as well as his fiction debut chapbook The Lazarus Cabal.

Sadly, due to my own poor scheduling, I had to miss several panels, including “Burroughs, Farmer, and Pulp,” in which author Craig McDonald interviewed one of my favorite artists, Douglas Klauba, about his work on various book covers for Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc and Meteor House. I would have loved to listen to Doug talk about his process.

I also got to see the world premiere of We Are Doc Savage, a documentary about Doc Savage fandom directed by Ron Hill, which will soon be making the film festival rounds. I readily admit I teared up several times, and finished the documentary thinking not only how wonderful Doc Savage fandom is in general and how the Doc Savage stories have influenced so many people but also thinking “Damn, I know some really incredibly cool and wonderful people,” since so many of my friends were interviewed for the film.

And of course, I bought stuff. Too much stuff. No pulps, but a lot of paperbacks, some hardcovers, two art prints (one by Doug Klauba, the other by Mark Wheatley), some comics, and a small pile of DVDs. On the vintage paperback side, I made progress filling in some series I’m re-collecting (including Dark Shadows and The Man from U.N.C.L.E.) and started (and possibly completed) two more (Strange Paradise and Mathew Swain). I also found a first edition hardcover of the novelization of Miracle on 34th Street. And I bought current releases from the tables of small press publishers Flinch! Books, Becky Books, Stormgate Press, Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc., and Meteor House, as well as from authors Craig McDonald and Brian K. Morris. If you’d like to see pictures of everything I purchased, head on over to my Instagram page.

I could go on and on about the dinner time and late-night conversations; there were SO MANY in-jokes, and so many instances of just basking in friends talking about the things they love. But this post is already way longer than my usual.

Pulpfest 2024 is over … but Pulpfest 2025 (including Farmercon XX, ERBFest, and DocCon!) is a mere 53 weeks away: Thursday, August 7th through Sunday, August 10th, 2025, at the Doubletree by Hilton in Cranberry, PA. Join us!

READING ROUND-UP: July 2024

Here’s what I read, listened to, and watched in July 2024!

BOOKS

I read 15 books in July: 9 in print, 3 in e-book format, and 3 in audio format. They were:

1.       Represent! by Rosalie Mastaler, Hunter Mastaler and Brant Day (PRINT)

2.       Let the Games Begin by Rosalie Mastaler, Hunter Mastaler and Betty Yuku (PRINT)

3.       Hunter's Tall Tales by Rosalie Mastaler, Hunter Mastaler, and Danelle Prestwich (PRINT)

4.       A Scout Is Brave by Will Ludwigsen (E-BOOK) REVIEW HERE

5.       Caesar Now Be Still (Wilson Hargreave #1) by Frank Schildiner (E-BOOK) REVIEW HERE

6.       Changes in the Land by Matthew Cheney (PRINT)

7.       Prez: Setting a Dangerous President by Mark Russell, Benjamin Caldwell, Wilfredo Torres, Mark Morales, and others (PRINT, Graphic Novel Challenge)

8.       Reflections (Indexing #2) by Seanan McGuire (AUDIO)

9.       Star Trek Adventures: The Operations Division Supplemental Rulebook by Chris McCarver, Andy Peregrine, Jack Geiger, and others (PRINT)

10.   Dancing on the Edge by Russ Tamblyn (AUDIO, non-fiction challenge)

11.   Lovely Creatures by KT Bryski (PRINT)

12.   A Stick-Figure Macbeth by Mya L. Gosling (PRINT) REVIEW HERE

13.   Super Sons: The Complete Collection Book 1 by Peter J. Tomasi, Jorge Jiminez, Patrick Gleason, Carlo Barberi, and others (PRINT, graphic novel challenge)

14.   We by Yvgeney Zamyatin, translated by Clarence Brown (AUDIO)

15.   Victory Harben: Tales from the Void, edited by Christopher Paul Carey (E-BOOK, ARC (book to be published in September)

STORIES

Here’s what I read this month and where you can find them if you’re interested in reading them too. If no source is noted, the story is from the same magazine or book as the story(ies) that precede(s) it.

1.       “The Last Lucid Day” by Dominique Dickey in Lightspeed Magazine #170, edited by John Joseph Adams

2.       “The Only Writing Advice You'll Ever Need to Survive Eldritch Horrors” by Aimee Picchi

3.       “The Heist for the Soul of Humanity” by Filip Hajdar Drnovšek

4.       “The Aliens Said They Want to Party” by Joel W.D. Buxton

5.       “Songs of the Sorrow of Thorns” by Amayah Perveen

6.       “The Red Queen's Heart” by Vanessa Fogg

7.       “A Guide on How to Meet the Deity of Many Faces” by Oyedotun Damilola Muess

8.       “Between Above and Below” by Carrie Vaughn

9.       “The Girl Who Loved Peacocks” by Seanan McGuire, from the Author’s Patreon

10.   “The Terms and Conditions of Kindness” by James Bennett, from The Dark #110, edited by Clara Madrigano and Sean Wallace

11.   “That Maddening Heat” by Ray Cluley

12.   “Every Hopeless Thing” by Tia Tashiro, from Clarkesworld #214, edited by Neil Clarke

13.   “Pellucidar: Dark of the Sun” by Christopher Paul Carey, from Victory Harben: Tales from the Void, edited by Christopher Paul Carey

14.   “Victory Harben: Clash on Caspak” by Mike Wolfer

15.   “Victory Harben: Stormwinds of Va-Nah” by Ann Tonsor Zeddies

16.   “Victory Harben and the Lord of the Veiled Eye” by Christopher Paul Carey

17.   “Jason Gridley of Earth: Across the Moons of Mars” by Geary Gravel

18.   “Beyond the Farthest Star: Rescue on Zandar” by Mike Wolfer

19.   “Grottmata” by Thomas Ha, from Nightmare Magazine #142, edited by Wendy N. Wagner

20.   “Automaton Boy” by Sara S. Messenger

21.   “The Museum of Cosmic Retribution” by Megan Chee

22.   “Tamaza's Future and Mine” by Kenneth Schneyer, from Asimov's Science Fiction 582/583, edited by Sheila Williams

23.   “The Phantasmagoria of Castle Specfel” by Greta Hayer, from Kaleidotrope Summer 2024, edited by Fred Coppersmith

So that’s 23 short stories in July. Less than “1 per day” again, which puts me slightly behind again for the year! (July 31st was the 213th day of 2024.)

MOVIES

I watched one movie in July:

1.       The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)

The week ending July 28th was the 31st week of the year, so I’m still way behind on the “1 movie per week” challenge.

TELEVISION

·       Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2, Episodes 1 – 20 (20 episodes)

That’s 20 episodes of television, which is well below the “1 per day” I was shooting for and keeps me behind the pace for this challenge.

LIVE THEATER

I didn’t get to any live theatrical performances in July!

Summary of Challenges:

“To Be Read” Challenge: This month: 0 read; YTD: 6 of 15 read.

366 Short Stories Challenge: This month:  23 read; YTD: 202 of 366 read.

Goodreads Challenge: This month: 15 read; YTD: 75 of 120 read.

Graphic Novels Challenge:  This month: 2 read; YTD: 15 of 52 read.

Non-Fiction Challenge: This month: 3 read; YTD: 12 of 12 read.

Read the Book / Watch the Movie Challenge: This month: 1 read/watched; YTD: 2 read/watched. (I read The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie earlier in the year and finally watched the movie this month.)

Movie Challenge: This month: 1 watched; YTD: 17 of 52 watched.

TV Shows Challenge: This month: 20 episodes watched; YTD: 149 of 366 watched.

Live Theater Challenge: This month: 0 shows attended; YTD: 9 of 12 attended.

Theater Thursday: OR, WHAT SHE WILL

I think my first encounter with the writing of Liz Duffy Adams was as part of the writing staff for Serial Box’s (now Realm’s) four seasons of Ellen Kushner’s Tremontaine (the prequel audiobook series to Kushner’s “Riverside” fantasy series). I really enjoyed her episodes (but that’s a whole different blog post at some point). She’s been a playwright for far longer than I’ve been aware of her, and I began seeking out her published scripts, many of which are neo-Restoration or touch on that period.

I finally got to see a live performance of one of her works when Red Bull Theater produced a reading of OR (retitled Or, What She Will) at the Sheen Center Shiner Theatre in New York City on May 6, 2024 (yes, I’m behind on my theater reviews. Forgive me.) The reading was directed by Gayle Taylor Upchurch, and featured Kelly Curran as Aphra Behn, b as Nell Gwynne and others, and Santino Fontana as King Charles II and others.

This was an incredibly fun, high-energy evening. All three actors were wonderful; I was extra impressed when I found out they’d only had one rehearsal, that afternoon. They made effective use of a handful of props, including masquerade masks, and b and Fontana were a master class in transforming from one character to another, sometimes mid-sentence, through body language and vocal inflections. Fontana’s King Charles II and William (a former lover and fellow spy of Aphra’s) were equally earnest and slimy; b’s Nell Gwynne was sexual and sensual, her Maria the epitome of hapless and long-suffering. At the center of it all, Kelly Curran’s performance as Aphra Behn was captivating.

For those who may not know, Aphra Behn was a poet and former spy for King Charles II during his exile. She was one the first English women to make a living by writing, moving into playwriting after her time as a spy. Some of her early life is shrouded in mystery, as is whether she actually went to debtor’s prison and who paid off her debts to free her. She did eventually go to work for the King’s Company and the Duke’s Company, theatrical troupes that would have brought her into contact with famed actor Nell Gwynne.

OR attempts to answer some of the questions of Behn’s adult life in the form of a neo-Restoration comedy, postulating romantic/sexual liaisons between Behn and King Charles II, Behn and Nell Gwynne, and giving a possible origin point for the affair between Nell Gwynne and King Charles II. There’s lots of bedroom farce type comedy, characters being shuffled from room to room or being forced to hide in wardrobes to keep them from seeing each other, as Aphra Behn tries to juggle not just visits from three different present and former lovers but also from Aphra’s elderly servant woman Maria and from Lady Davenant, patroness of the Duke’s Company, from whom Aphra hopes to secure work after being released from debtor’s prison.

I can only imagine what a fully staged production of OR would look like, with all the slamming of doors, hiding in wardrobes, and quick costume changes with two actors playing the majority of the roles. During the reading, the cast did a wonderful job of implying all of this physical comedy without much in the way of actual movement.

The script allows for the possibility of Lady Davenant, who enters in a breathless rush and delivers a two-and-a-half-page monologue without pause before sweeping out again, to be played by either of the performers who are not playing Aphra. In the reading, Santino Fontana delivered the energy and the comedy perfectly – although as is the nature of readings, he lost his place mid-monologue and turned finding it again into a bit that had the audience laughing along with him.

OR, set in the 1660s, is particularly topical right now, dealing as it does with, as the program notes state, “a cyclical view of history: against a background of drawn-out wars and a fervent counter-culture of free love, gender fluidity, political optimism and pastoral lyricism…” that we’ve seen in the 1960s and are seeing currently. Written during the early years of the Obama administration, it feels even more contemporary in the political climate of Fall 2024.

If you can find a performance of OR in your area, I highly recommend seeking it out. I may as well also mention here that Liz Duffy Adams’ Born with Teeth, about the professional and personal relationships between William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe, is playing at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival through the fall. I have yet to read the script or see a production, but it sounds as interesting as OR.

A full list of the works of Liz Duffy Adams can be found on her website.

I’ve always loved live theater, and in the past couple of years I’ve been making a stronger effort to see more of it. Theater Thursday is a new occasionally series where I talk about live theater, both shows I’ve seen recently and shows I’ve loved in the past.

Book Review: A SCOUT IS BRAVE

TITLE: A Scout is Brave

AUTHOR: Will Ludwigsen

155 pages, Lethe Press, ISBN 9781590216606 (softcover, e-book)

MY RATING: 5 stars out of 5

Will Ludwigsen’s new novella A Scout is Brave is almost too many things at once: young adult coming of age story (the narrator and main character is thirteen-year-old Bud Castillo), nostalgic historical (the time is 1963), a paean to the glory days of Scouting … and Lovecraftian eldritch horror. It almost shouldn’t work. In Ludwigsen’s deft hands, all the elements mesh for a story I couldn’t put down. I wasn’t surprised, of course. Ludwigsen’s Acres of Perhaps: Stories and Episodes is one of my favorite genre short story collections, and I will take any chance to tout it, including at the top of a review about a completely different book by the same author.

But let’s speak of A Scout Is Brave.

In the summer of 1963, Bud Castillo’s father loses his construction job in Queens NY. Just as the family is starting to worry about whether he’ll find work again, Bud’s father is offered an incredibly lucrative job: to help install and make operational an oil rig … off the coast of Massachusetts, near the small town of Innsmouth. Of course, weirdness is going to ensue. Bud finds he is the only kid in a town full of mostly elderly folks descended from the town’s original inhabitants … except for one other boy, Aubrey Marsh.

Readers of cosmic horror are well familiar with the history of Innsmouth, and with the Marsh family, as detailed in H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Shadow Over Innsmouth.” There have been countless pastiches, prequels, and sequels over the years, and yes, this is a sequel. One of the better ones, since Ludwigsen doesn’t try to imitate Lovecraft’s style, as so many of the writers who have visited Innsmouth in Lovecraft’s wake have. He tells the story in the simpler, less purple-prose, style of a man reminiscing about a year that changed his life. There’s no doubt, from the very first pages, that Bud and his family are walking into something they can’t imagine. The reader knows it, and the narrator, from his decades-later vantage point, knows it. Ludwigsen expertly portrays the language of someone whose fondest memories (of a friendship he’ll never experience again, of the time he came to understand his parents, and himself, better) are tinged with unimaginable horror.

The cosmic horror builds slowly: the little hints at the start, with descriptions of the odd behavior of the few returning residents of Innsmouth, slowly grow into scenes that are both rife with jump-scares (a visit to an abandoned hospital on the outskirts of town) and eerie cultish religious ceremony (when Bud’s family finally agrees to attend a service led by Reverand Pritchett at the Evangelical Progress Temple, the only church in town), which eventually lead to the story’s action-packed, frightening dénouement on ice-packed seas. The slow ratcheting up of the eeriness and the tension is perfectly paced. And what I find particularly brilliant is that the story feels Lovecraftian without ever actually teetering over into full on cosmic/eldritch horror.

These moments that teeter on, but never full embrace, the cosmic horror are interspersed with what I can only call a “skewed Rockwellian normalcy.” Bud meets Aubrey, introduces him to the concept of the Boy Scouts, they form a troop. They roam the town looking for good works to do, and through Bud’s eyes we get to meet the town’s denizens, most of whom have endearing, if odd, personalities, and who become the boys’ de facto teachers in whatever subjects they are expert it, since Innsmouth doesn’t have a school. I was a Cub Scout, a Webelo, and made it through a couple of years of Boy Scouts before the unexpected passing of a favorite Scoutmaster. I recognize Bud’s idealized attitude of “what Scouts should be,” and his joy at finding someone who embraced it in the same way. I also recognized the tint of nostalgia in older Bud’s narration – a tint that doesn’t quite cover up the things he’s learned since leaving Innsmouth, the scars that belie some of the nostalgia.

There’s also some insightful commentary about the negative aspects of nostalgia (through the citizens of Innsmouth who cannot move on even though they were left behind) and charismatic leaders who will say anything and do to get their way.

A Scout Is Brave is a perfect mix of nostalgia, horror, coming-of-age, and social commentary. It is going to be on my list of favorite reads of 2024.