It’s
time for another special edition of Short Story Sunday. It seemed like a
no-brainer to use Halloween as an excuse to read horror short stories. I
decided to check out a collection of science fiction, fantasy, and horror
stories from George R. R. Martin and well as explore the earliest stories of
Stephen King. I enjoyed myself so much I might just do this every year.
“The Pear-Shaped Man” by George R. R. Martin
Read in Dreamsongs volume 1 (2007), a collection
of works by George R. R. Martin
Originally
published in Omni (October 1987)
“The
Pear-Shaped Man” is a very creepy story. I was pretty grossed out while reading
it and I have to admit it’s going to be a really long time until I ever eat
cheezies again. The story is about the titular Pear-Shaped Man. You know who
I’m talking about, you’ve seen him. He’s very odd and Martin describes him
exceedingly well. Even without a description you can probably get a sense of
the kind of character the story refers to. In essence, he’s noticeably strange
while also appearing rather harmless. Martin conveys the banality of the man
while also convincing the reader of his unnatural creepiness. You, as the
reader, want to get to the bottom of it. Who is the Pear-Shaped Man and why is
he so damn eerie?
Jessie,
who just moved into a new apartment with her roommate Angela, gets to find out
all about the Pear-Shaped Man. He lives in the apartment below them and he
quickly develops a fascination with Jessie. She bumps into him often, at the
grocery store, outside, in the laundry room. He leaves little stacks of Cheeze
Doodles lying around for her. He haunts her, essentially. After Jessie’s
friends urge her to confront her unnatural fears of this odd but certainly
harmless man, she goes to visit him in his apartment. There, she discovers the
true horror of his being and her life is changed forever.
Ranking:
4 stars
I can't
say I particularly enjoyed this story. That's not entirely true, I enjoyed the
beginning of it and the simplicity of the premise but the more the story
progressed the more I wanted it to end. Martin made me uneasy. I’m surprised
that Martin managed to make the Pear-Shaped Man so familiar yet also very, very
frightening. The story's ending, which I won't spoil for you, reveals an
unexpected theme and gives the story some depth. Don’t read it before bed, like
I did.
“Sandkings” by George R. R. Martin
Read in Dreamsongs volume 1 (2007), a collection
of works by George R. R. Martin
Originally
published in Omni (August 1979)
Following
his return from a long business trip, Simon Kress, a collection of dangerous
and exotic animals is looking for a new pet after most of his other animals
died while he was away. He finds Sandkings in a mysterious shop called Wo &
Shade. There, he purchases four little armies of small, sand dwelling insects
that operate with a hive mind. They build sand castles to protect the maw,
their queen which is essentially a large mouth and a womb. If left alone and in
relative proximity, the different castles will wage war against each other and the
owner can watch it play out. They’re pets, they’re entertainment, and they also
become a party trick for Kress and his friends.
Soon, he
starts to starve his new pets to make them wage war according to his schedule.
Kress enjoys freaking people out by having his alien insects fight against foes
other than themselves. Larger and larger animals are thrown into the tank.
After an accident resulting in the tank breaking, the Sandkings are loosed and
Kress finds himself dealing with an infestation of dangerous and rapidly
growing omnivores.
People
who think of Martin as the American Tolkien have obviously never read any of
his work out of the Song of Ice and Fire
series. The man’s short stories can be absolutely terrifying. “Sandkings”
proves this. It’s gruesome while also being very, very engaging. There is a driving
energy, pushing the plot and the reader forward without a desire to stop even though
the bloody and very scary parts. It’s one of Martin’s most popular works
outside of Song of Ice and Fire. It’s
been adapted to the small screen as the premier episode of The Outer Limits revival in the 90s and it’s been spoofed in The Simpsons, South Park, and Futurama
though I haven’t noticed since I’ve only recently read the story.
It’s
easy to see why this story is so popular. It’s difficult to summarize without
giving too much away but the plot is definitively more involved than what I make
it seem. There are also interesting themes at work but, again, if I were to
write about them extensively, I’d be ruining some of the story’s impact. If you
like monsters and increasingly difficult situations, this is a story for you.
Ranking:
5 stars
A masterful
blend of science fiction and horror, “Sandkings” is the best short story I’ve
read in a while. I found it utterly fascinating and very gross, but it a way
that avoided being off-putting. The pacing of the story was superb and it was
richer in detail than I had expected. It’s a classic to be enjoyed by fans of
genre storytelling.
“The Boogeyman” by Stephen King
Read in Night Shift (1978), a collection of
short stories by Stephen King
Originally
published in Cavalier (March 1973)
A very straightforward
story, a man visits a psychiatrist to talk about his experience with the
Boogeyman who haunted his house and caused the death of this three baby
children. He’s not there for treatment. He just has to get the knowledge of what
really happened off his chest. The police have filed all three deaths as
accidental death (crib death, falling out of a crib, etc.). “The Boogeyman”
ends with a twist ending that is not only unnecessary, it goes a long way to
ruining most of the story up to that point.
What
works best here isn’t the monster or the haunting or the deaths. What works is
the narrative. King proves that even when he’s telling a subpar story he still
has a knack for making dialogue and narration a very human and colourful sound.
As an auditory medium, the use of words and giving characters a unique or
memorable parlance can go a long way to making a written story engaging. Comic
book master Garth Ennis knows this and so does Stephen King.
Ranking:
2 stars
The
story and the monster were less than thrilling. The deaths themselves were scary
and horrific, but I think that’s due to them being the death of babies rather
than it being anything particularly frightening. I enjoyed the telling of the
story more than the story itself.
“Jerusalem’s Lot” by Stephen King
Read in Night Shift (1978), a collection of short
stories by Stephen King
Originally
published in Night Shift (1978), a
collection of short stories by Stephen King
I was a
little surprised by “Jerusalem’s Lot”. It’s different from other short stories I’ve
read by King. It’s set primarily during the mid-1800s. It’s a prequel of sorts
to ‘Salem Lot but you don’t need to
have read that novel in order to enjoy it. The connection is mostly there to
show you that Jerusalem’s Lot has been a focal point for dark forces hundreds
of years before the events of the novel. There are some neat connections
between both stories, but I think only diehard King fans will get much of a
kick out of it.
What I liked
about it was that it’s a straight up gothic haunted mansion story with bonus
ghost town and haunted church thrown in. Told through letters and journal
entries, the story is about Charles Boone’s arrival at his familial mansion just
outside of Preacher’s Corners and near the abandoned town of Jerusalem’s Lot.
What appears to be an exciting old house in quaint part of Maine, turns out to
be a repository for decades old nightmares and other assorted horrors. That
noise might sound like rats in the walls but I can assure you it’s something
far more unpleasant.
Ranking:
4 stars
This is
one of my favourite King short stories. I liked the story and I was
particularly impressed with how king managed to be convincing in his writing. The
letters read as something that would have been written in 1850. He builds very
good atmosphere in this tale and that kind of things work really well with
gothic stories.
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