Rhys Hughes' Bone Idle in the Charnel House was published by Hippocampus Press in December 2014.
Information about Rhys Hughes:
Rhys Hughes is the author of seven novels, dozens of short story collections, and hundreds of tales, essays, poems, and artwork. He has also compiled two volumes of the anthology series The Ironic Fantastic.
Click here to visit the author's official website.
Information about Bone Idle in the Charnel House:
For more than two decades, Welsh writer Rhys Hughes has been entertaining and befuddling readers with his distinctive mix of terror, humor, fantasy, and absurdity. Although influenced by such writers as Italo Calvino and Jorge Luis Borges, his work is utterly unique in its melding of weirdness and comic grotesquerie.
In this substantial collection of new and reprinted stories, Hughes displays the literary skills that have brought him a wide and devoted readership. In “The Old House Under the Snow,” we find two explorers burrowing under the snow to find a house whose bizarre features mesmerize them; in “What I Fear Most,” the narrator’s account of his inmost terrors takes a strange turn; in “The Hydrothermal Reich,” Hitler and his cohorts are shown to have an unusual plan for world domination.
In a story reminiscent of Kafka, “Happiness Leasehold” tells of a wealthy man who is unnerved to discover that his prosperity is entirely the result of another’s actions - and now his time is up. Somewhat more orthodox, “Sigma Octantis” is a powerful tale in the Lovecraftian idiom, telling of cosmic horrors in an obscure Welsh community.
Many of these stories have been published in leading magazines and anthologies over the past decade; but several are unpublished and reveal their wonders and mysteries for the first time. With this book, Rhys Hughes stakes a claim to being one of the most original writers in contemporary weird fiction.
A REVIEW OF RHYS HUGHES' BONE IDLE IN THE CHARNEL HOUSE
Rhys Hughes' Bone Idle the Charnel House is one of the most intriguing and gripping collections of eerie and weird stories ever published, because it differs from other collections by its contents. There's amazing diversity among the stories in this collection. These stories are creepy, thrilling, bizarre and horrifying. There's even a bit of surrealism and mesmerizing absurdism in some of them.
I have to mention that these past few years have been exceptionally good years for horror fiction and especially weird fiction, because many new authors have emerged and already established masters of the weird have written excellent new stories. As a big fan of weird fiction I can say that it's fantastic that many beautifully written and excellent collections and novels have been published during the recent years. Now Rhys Hughes' Bone Idle the Charnel House joins the canon of these excellent and notable works, because its' a quality collection.
When readers think about Rhys Hughes, they probably don't think about a writer of weird stories, because Rhys Hughes has become famous for his humorous, fantastical, surreal and intriguingly twisted stories. It may come as a surprise for many readers that Rhys Hughes has written weird stories that can be called weird fiction. Some of his stories are not weird fiction in the traditional sense, because they differ from what readers normally consider to be weird fiction, but they're definitely weird stories and they will please fans of weird fiction.
One of the reasons why I love weird fiction is that it is a genre that has certain rules and boundaries that can be bent and pushed into new directions. Some of the stories in this collection clearly bend and push the boundaries of weird fiction in a thrilling way and that's a good thing, because it's enjoyable to read well written and original weird stories. Rhys Hughes is a talented author who has an ability to broaden the boundaries of weird fiction.
It was enjoyable to read this collection, because until now I had only read a few of the author's weird stories. I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that he can write excellent weird fiction. This collection showcases the weirder side of the his unending imagination and shows that he has true talent when it comes to writing weird stories.
Bone Idle in the Charnel House contains the following stories:
- The Swinger
- Bitter in Sour
- The Old House Under the Snow
- Degrees of Separation
- The Warlord
- Vampiric Gramps
- Bone Idle in the Charnel House
- What I Fear Most
- Rediffusion
- Casimir the Converter
- Smuggling Old Nick to Newfoundland
- Shelling the Toad
- The Hydrothermal Reich
- The Spoon
- Chameleons
- Happiness Leasehold
- Life and the Plumbline
- The Unsubtle Cages
- Sigma Octantis
- The Century Just Gone
These stories are very diverse in nature and style and differ greatly from each other, but they're all excellent stories. Some of them are traditional horror stories, but others are not, because they're eerie and strange stories. I think that readers who have previously read Rhys Hughes will enjoy reading these stories, because the author has his own unique writing style that makes his stories captivating and memorable. Newcomers will also enjoy them.
Here's a bit more information about these stories without spoilers and my thoughts about them:
The Swinger:
- An atmospheric story about a hotel, a haunted tree and an old legend of time travelling through hanging.
- A well written horror story.
Bitter in Sour:
- An interesting story about a person who's looking for a room to spend the night.
- Rhys Hughes demonstrates his ability write intriguing oddness in this story.
The Old House Under the Snow:
- A fantastic story about a search for a lost mansion that a rich merchant built with help from labourers who were recruited from a lunatic asylum.
- This is one of the best weird stories I've read in a long time.
Degrees of Separation:
- An interesting story about a man who's thinking of killing another man.
- A well written and gripping short story.
The Warlord:
- A story about a warlord who lives on an island.
- An interesting and a bit different kind of a story.
Vampiric Gramps:
- This is one of those rare vampire stories that differs fascinatingly from other similar kind of stories.
- An excellent story.
Bone Idle in the Charnel House:
- A well written story about a person who has been punished by being forced to dwell in the charnel house all alone without other living beings.
- The author writes well about the protagonist's life and experiences.
- This is one of my favourite stories in this collection.
What I Fear Most:
- A bit different kind of a story about fear and how to live with it.
- An excellent and memorable short story with an excellent ending.
Rediffusion:
- An interesting story about a man who has watched television without license and receives a sentence.
- This is a wonderfully weird short story.
Casimir the Converter:
- A story about a missionary, Casimir, who converts vampires.
- The author writes about Casimir's life and vampires in a fascinating way.
Smuggling Old Nick to Newfoundland:
- An intriguing and well written short story about a preacher who finds a secret tavern.
- A short, but effective story.
Shelling the Toad:
- A story about a couple who see a minstrel at the hotel.
- The author writes amazingly well about the couple and what they talk about.
The Hydrothermal Reich:
- An interesting, unforgettable and fascinatingly original look at Nazi Germany.
- This is one of the best and most memorable stories in this collection.
- What happens to the protagonist will most likely be of interest to many readers.
The Spoon:
- A story about a doctor and a patient who claims to have a spoon in his mouth.
- A short, but excellent story.
Chameleons:
- A good story about a space explorer who encountes chameleons.
- This is one of the most intriguing short stories I've read during the recent years.
Happiness Leasehold:
- An interestingly Kafkaesque story.
- I consider this kind of well written Kafkaesque stories to be real gems among speculative fiction stories, because there's something in them that I've always found mesmerizing.
Life and the Plumbline:
- This story has been inspired by Jorge Luis Borges' "Death and the Compass". It's a kind of a sequel to Borges' story.
- A well written story.
The Unsubtle Cages:
- In this story a traveller visits a zoo.
- A short, but memorable story.
Sigma Octantis:
- A wonderfully Lovecraftian story that takes place in a Welsh community in Patagonia.
- One of the best and most memorable stories in this collection.
The Century Just Gone:
- A story about two men having a conversation on a New Year's Eve.
- A good and well written story with a perfect ending.
Here's a few extra words about certain stories:
"Bone Idle in the Charnel House" is a brilliant story about a person who has to live in the charnel house. I enjoyed this story very much, because the author wrote intriguingly about the protagonist's childhood and life at home. What happened to the protagonist and his relatives was brilliantly disturbing.
“What I Fear Most" is an excellent story about fear and how to live with it. The author explores fear and the protagonist's feelings in an interesting way. The ending of this short story is fascinatingly dark and satisfying.
Reading about how vampires react to different things in "Casimir the Converter" was interesting for me. In my opinion the author wrote well about the vampires and examined vampire themes in a slightly different way.
"The Hydrothermal Reich" is a story that every speculative fiction reader should read, because the author explores Nazi Germany in a literary and memorable way. A lot has already been written about Nazi Germany and its horrors, but this story manages to be a different kind of a story and brings something new to this kind of fiction (it's one of the best stories ever written about this subject).
One of the greatest gems in this collection is the beautifully Lovecraftian "Sigma Octantis". It's an excellent Lovecraftian story with captivating cosmic menace. I think that Lovecraft fans will enjoy reading it.
I also want to mention separately that "The Old House Under the Snow" is one of the best weird stories ever written. It's been a long time since I've read anything this good, because the story becomes more powerful as it begins to unfold and ends in an excellent way. The author builds a good atmosphere in this story.
Rhys Hughes has an uncanny way of building up atmosphere and evoking feelings of unease in the reader. He uses the same elements as many other writers of the weird, but he adds a bit more absurdism and surrealism to some of his stories than other writers and thus creates a strong atmosphere full of weirdness. Some of these stories will put a chill in your heart and bones in a creepy way, but they will also entertain and surprise you in many ways.
It's great that Rhys Hughes writes fluently both short stories and long novella-like stories, because not all authors are capable of writing stories of varying length. Fortunately the author does it exteremely well - his short stories are just as good and memorable as his long stories. The long stories contain excellent characterization and beautiful descriptions of the happenings, but the shorter ones are deliciously sharp and poignant.
Although Rhys Hughes has a literary voice of his own and he writes original fiction, there was something in these stories that reminded me a bit of Edgar Allan Poe, Jorge Luis Borges, Brendan Connell, Douglas Thompson, David Rix and Nina Allan. Rhys Hughes addresses certain themes and issues in a slightly similar kind of way as these authors, but stays true and faithful to his own unique voice. He writes excellent literary prose.
The cover art by Mike Dubisch looks great. It fits this collection perfectly.
If you have a taste for the weird and love weird stories, you should add Rhys Hughes' Bone Idle in the Charnel House immediately to your reading list. It's an excellent collection of weird stories that range all the way from normal kind of stories to fascinatingly odd stories that border on the line of being new weirdish stories. This collection deserves to be read, because it's one of the best collections of the year.
Highly recommended!