The Edge of Running Water

I learned about William Sloane on a website that locates lost old classics in literature, and fans of horror and speculative fiction should track down copies of his out-of-print novels. Sloane's mix of classic horror with elements of science and speculation was innovative for its time. He apparently only wrote two novels – this one from 1939 and its predecessor "To Walk the Night" (which has the slight edge in creepiness). Sloane was brilliant at a slow-burn sense of dread, and disconcerting observations into the dark side of human nature. While Sloane's prose had a certain stiffness and ponderousness that was surely common in his day, his work gives you a vague creepy feeling that is both effective and timeless. On the surface, this story is a fairly typical mad scientist yarn with a forlorn electrophysicist who yearns to communicate with his late wife, and at first the novel could be easily categorized in the horror department. But Sloane's ideas were not so simple, and the strength of this novel lies in where the scientist's electrical experiments are ultimately headed. Sloane kept the results of the experiments intriguingly vague, but he was surely hinting at subtle elements of science fiction that were way WAY ahead of their time. Sloane's lost works are quite difficult to categorize, and he has a bit of a cult following among fans of unappreciated old literary gems. He deserves it. [~doomsdayer520~]

I just read "Running Water"(1939) and Sloane's only other novel, "To Walk the Night"(1937), after buying some used copies. I bought them because "To Walk the Night" is cited as one of the "100 best Fantasy" novels, according to J. Cawthorn and Michael Moorcock. Basically, I agree with everything the previous reviewer wrote, and I also feel that "Running Water" is slightly better than "To Walk the Night" although "Night" is also highly recommended. Both of Sloane's novels concern themes that were used by his contemporary, H.P. Lovecraft ("obsessed scientists pursuing forbidden knowledge"). However, Sloane is a far better writer than Lovecraft, and his characterization is excellent. Unlike Lovecraft, Sloane's novels have female characters and "Running Water" even has a romance as one of its sub-plots...something that Lovecraft was incapable of doing. Finally, Sloane had a beautiful writing style and both of his (only) two novels are real pageturners....I finished both of them within 2 days each. Despite their age, the writing style is contemporary and there were only a few things such as slang-terms that dated them. It's hard to believe that nearly everything Lovecraft ever wrote or even half-wrote ("if you know what I mean") is back-in print while Sloane's two masterpieces have been out of print for decades!