The Ends of the Earth

More of Shepard's mix of the exotic and bizarre, from crazed sf jungle war, to demon summoning. Even a high fantasy with Scalehunter's Beautiful Daughter, although even that has junkies and midget slaying. Ends of the earth : The Ends of the Earth - Lucius Shepard Ends of the earth : Delta Sly Honey - Lucius Shepard Ends of the earth : Bound for Glory - Lucius Shepard Ends of the earth : The Exercise of Faith - Lucius Shepard Ends of the earth : Nomans Land - Lucius Shepard Ends of the earth : Life of Buddha - Lucius Shepard Ends of the earth : Shades - Lucius Shepard Ends of the earth : Aymara - Lucius Shepard Ends of the earth : A Wooden Tiger - Lucius Shepard Ends of the earth : The Black Clay Boy - Lucius Shepard Ends of the earth : Fire Zone Emerald - Lucius Shepard Ends of the earth : On the Border - Lucius Shepard Ends of the earth : The Scalehunter's Beautiful Daughter - Lucius Shepard Ends of the earth : Surrender - Lucius Shepard Writer's Guatemalan getaway gains girl, but the local game proves a tad gruesome. 4 out of 5 Ghost patrol's gunnin' for body baggin' boy broadcaster. 4.5 out of 5 Shapeshifters need shootin' on the terror train. 4 out of 5 Reverend's sermonised secrets stab home. 3 out of 5 Come into my dream parlour said the undead spider-woman to the shipwrecked IRA bloke. 3.5 out of 5 Drug den death's transformation. 3 out of 5 Ghost grunt. 3.5 out of 5 Honduran honey's time travel revolution. 4.5 out of 5 Spook settles up after goddess girl's demon defiance mentor death trap. 4 out of 5 Bloodnut's moonlighting memories. 3 out of 5 Drug boosted maniac murderous soldiers seek Queen of the Jungle. 3.5 out of 5 Rich girl rescuer rudely repulsed. 3 out of 5 Escapee dragon prisoner. 3.5 out of 5 Guatemalan mini-mutant massacre. 4 out of 5

Lucius Shepard, The Ends of the Earth (Arkham House, 1991) Lucius Shepard has been one of America's most underrated writers for years; this is one of those collections that faded into obscurity quickly, but that deserves to be taken out, dusted off, and thrust upon the nation with the marketing campaign it deserves. The Ends of the Earth features fourteen of Shepard's finest stories from early in his career. They span the globe from Vietnam to Guatemala to New England, taking on all things weird and wonderful, and are uniformly excellent. Fans who came to know Shepard through Twilight Zone magazine and the excellent Vietnam War fiction collection In the Field of Fire will already be familiar with "Delta Sly Honey" and "Shadows," two of the book's strongest pieces. Others will no doubt already know the novella "The Scalehunter's Beautiful Daughter," published on its own as a limited edition, and the kind of story that cannot be described with any accuracy; it must be read to be believed. All, and the rest of the stories here, are mesmerizing. That said, this is a collection of early work (well, relatively); while the stories here are undoubtedly strong, sometimes they don't reach the gloriousness of some of his later work, especially the novels. That's not to say this stuff isn't worth reading; to the contrary, seek this book out however you have to. ****

Lucius Shepard is one of the most extraordinary writers living, inside the genre ghetto or out. All his books - Green Eyes, The Jaguar Hunter, The Golden, Barnacle Bill the Spacer, Life During Wartime and any others you happen to run across - are complex, literate, unputdownable and decidedly different from anything else you've ever come across. There's almost nothing in science fiction, less in horror fiction, and damn little in the mainstream to match his visionary scope, his brilliant atmospherics, and his lucid prose - lucid even in the most extreme states of mind and of spirit. The stories in The Ends of the Earth take place in his usual locations - evil little Central American wars as in "Fire Zone Emerald", weird mutations of the United States as in "Bound for Glory" and "Nomans Land", and upon (and inside) the great dragon Griaule in the stunning "The Scalehunter's Beautiful Daughter" - which is a heartbreakingly beautiful story. As are the rest, including among many others the terrifyingly optimistic "Bound for Glory", which tells of monsters and why we might consider joining them; the existential nightmare "Nomans Land", which treats of white spiders which dream us; and "Aymara", which is that near impossibility, an original tale of time travel, with one of the most moving final sentences I've ever seen. You should go to the ends of the earth to buy this one. These fourteen stories alone are worth a cartload of almost anyone else.