Recently, I had The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher (the adult fiction pen-name of Ursula Vernon) recommended to me. It is inspired by, and is a approximate sequel to, Algernon Blackwood’s The Willows.
The Willows - as with several other Blackwood tales - is clearly playing around with the original concept of ‘panic’ - the oppressive terror that you can experience in truly wild places, which was, according to the ancient Greeks, inspired by Pan. As such these tales are only a step or so distant from Lovecraft’s cosmic horror - which embody the utter indifference of the universe.
Kingfisher’s tales (I am now half-way through my second: The Twisted Ones) feature very engaging, very human protagonists and typically intersperse the horrific with cosy, mundane interludes and so have a very different tone to Blackwood (or Lovecraft), but do make for easy and enjoyable reading: still with some memorable imagery and concepts, but never really soul-raking stuff.
Has anyone else read any of her works? What do you think of them?
I just finished What Moves The Dead. It’s so good.
I’ve read Hollow Places and Twisted Ones, and liked both. The writing was pretty smooth and the folklore-ish mystical events were cool. Kinda felt like reading modern fairy tales, or maybe a more horrifying take on magical realism ála Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
Library At Mount Char had a similar feel, where the mystical slots into the mundane quite seamlessly.
