Poe's Lighthouse

Very good book, good graphic and good idea to publish unfinished Poe's works, finished now by modern authors. This is a limited edition: only 1000 items. And I'm so glad to have one of this precious book, signed by all authors, except Edgar Allan Poe, unfortunately :). I'll write a review about the tales. Yes, this is a good purchase.

as I'm a very ssslllooowww reader, since my massive stroke 6 + years ago. Up to this point, I'd rate a 5! Greg!

What do you get when you submit a literary legend's tantalizing, uncompleted story fragment to twenty-four imaginative and disparate writers? You get POE'S LIGHTHOUSE, an engaging collection that lives up the promise of its offbeat concept. Poe's skeletal tease of a tale serves as chum to whip up a feeding frenzy among a group of modern authors. The results are as eclectic as one might expect. Several of the writers take a stab at channeling the master and finish the short story as might Poe himself. Others add their own unique talents and sensibilities to the mix. Much of the charm in such an experiment is seeing Poe reflected through the prism of these other writers, who often display the same fertile mind and gift for imagery as their absent host yet offer fresh perspectives on Poe's vision. The wildly diverse offshoots presented here ricochet into nearly ever genre or sub-genre one can imagine: pure horror, hard science fiction, broad comedy, psychological drama, whodunit mystery, explicit romance, and grand adventure. In addition, passionate affairs between these topics treat us to bastardized offspring that defy both convention and categorization. Naturally, as with any anthology, some tales are better than others, and with such a variety to choose from, personal taste will cause one to gravitate towards (and away from) certain stories. But when the lesser lights in this collection flicker dimly, it is not because they are unfit or unworthy; they are simply outshined by the more audacious and creative tales. If a complaint must be mustered, it is the necessary evil of constantly re-reading Poe's original lines, which become brittle with repetition. But even this nitpick has an upside: Discovering Poe's narrative, and noting the clever ways in which the authors intertwine or bury them within their stories, becomes sort of a subliminal game for the reader. Kudos to Christopher Conlon for conceiving of such an offbeat anthology and pulling it together with style. POE'S LIGHTHOUSE collects talented authors both well-known and obscure, and highlights their diversity of style. Upon completion, I found myself longing for the discovery of another lost fragment of Poe's work to serve as fodder for a sequel. Perhaps Mr. Conlon can exhume similar outlines or lesser-known short works from other masters (Lovecraft? Bierce?) and call upon his cadre of writers to work their magic again. This is a winning formula.

This collection is based around such an unsusal premise, but it works, thanks to the efforts of both well-known writers and a few people I never heard of--who ever would have thought that The Waltons creator Earl Hamner would come up with such a story about rats? I was struck by the story by Hilary Tham, which I thought was very atmospheric. I have to give credit to Christopher Conlon, the book's editor, who was justified in including his story about an abused child--no vanity piece there. I thought Carole Nelson Douglas' cat story was a little cutsie for me, but that's just me. Perhaps the stories that will haunt me longest were those of Steve Schlich, whose work interpreted the idea very creatively in a story with grim warnings for those inclined to experiment with drugs, and of Gary Braunbeck, whose contibution, a story about bereaved parents who find themselves communicating with their missing son through a toy lighthoue.

The underlying theme of this superb collection is modern authors completing a fragment written by Edgar Allen Poe sort of like Natalie Cole singing Unforgettable with her father Nat King Cole. In the Introduction Christopher Conlon explains that just before his death, Poe, though depressed and an alcoholic, was still writing, but never finished his last work. That fragment (included in the Introduction) and his strong literary résumés serve as the basis for the twenty-three tales that make up POE'S LIGHTHOUSE. The contributions are fascinating just to follow the various interpretations that led to the stories. On top of that obvious allure, the compilation is well written with a who's who contributing their interpretation. Interestingly the stories run the speculative fiction gamut to include fantasy, gothic, horror (of course), romantic suspense, mystery and science fiction; all this from the fragment as the authors stayed true to Poe and to their particular writing style. This is a well written homage as the light shines on Poe evermore. Harriet Klausner