“On a lonely mountain, deep in the high desert country of the American Southwest, a rifle-toting nun faces an unexpected test. A scientist makes an incredible discovery at the heart of a melting European glacier, and nine years later finds himself inexorably drawn back to the site. During the Siege of Bastogne, while facing overwhelming odds in the frozen forests of Belgium, a pragmatic young medic encounters a war he never could have imagined. The Florida Everglades exert an irresistible, supernatural pull on a dying man, the last descendant of a great Seminole shaman. A young girl, trapped in a waking nightmare and seemingly without hope, devises her ultimate escape using the most unexpected tools. A group of desperate men, almost out of luck and on the run, find themselves in an eerie Badlands town…”
Drawing In The Dark is a collection of short stories and one novella. There’s no central theme, but the stories are all haunting and weird (in a good way) and despite their differences, they come together to make an inspired collection that shows off Baker’s style and writing ability to very good effect.
The Standing Cave is the first story in the collection. It follows a hunter chasing a deer, desperately trying to catch one meal to last his dying tribe another week in the snows, when he stumbles across an old ruin. The story’s eerie; we’re not sure if it’s this world but post-apocalypse, another world, another time…and it’s never entirely made clear what the ruin is, leading to further lingering questions. It’s a story that sets the tone for the rest of the collection; eerie and mysterious.
The Last Battle is one of two Arthurian-themed shorts; this one looking at what happened to Arthur’s Knights and Queen in the time until the Last Battle, wondering what they would have done and where they’d go, and what decisions they would make when the final choices come. The second is The Nightshift Cook, involving a diner and what looks at first glance like zombies and bikers, as well as some steaks – and their fate is, frankly, terrible. The story’s told in a slightly more light-hearted way than the events could be, which works very well, but does leave you with more questions than you started with; what were the bikers doing there? And what will the hero of the story do now that he’s experienced the events he has?
There are several stories with military themes. Karpov’s Mountain is excellent; you get a real sense of the battle, of the futility of defeat, and of the soldier’s final push up the mountain overlooking his burning hometown to get one final shot in at the attackers. This story is actually my favourite in the collection, simply for the brilliant twist at the end – but you’ll have to read it to find that out! Bump’s War at Bastogne is another military story, set in WW2 during the battle of Bastogne. A young medic is trying to save his comrades as best he can amidst the shells and mud, and then learns that there’s a bigger battle around him. The third military themed story is The Insurgent, which follows a group of soldiers into a small village, hunting for an insurgent base. It’s a good story, but jumps around too much to have the tension needed to make it brilliant; despite that, it’s a nice modern military setting.
The stories in the collection cover a variety of genres, including Arthurian and military. Becoming The Storm is paranormal, told from the perspective of an onlooker to the chilling incidents as a girl comes into her powers and begins to exact revenge. Calling Back is science-fiction, told mostly through timelines and news snippets; I’d love to see it expanded into a novel. It’s set in an alternate version of this world and wondering what would happen if we received a message from space…that was asking us to respond. Would we? And what would happen when we did? Roaming The Deep Green is almost another paranormal; the dying descendant of a Seminole shaman is called into the Everglades, unsure of what he’ll find. I found The Equilibrium Zone hard to follow, and ended up flicking backwards and forwards through it to try to work out what was going on. A scientist discovers a strange cavern in a glacier, and nine years later, he’s drawn back to it…but some of the links and aspects weren’t completely described, and I wanted just a bit more information and explanation on how everything fitted. Despite that, it’s very atmospheric; mysterious and creepy and just all a bit strange.
While Karpov’s Mountain is my favourite in the collection, Drawing In The Dark is hands-down the best. It’s creepy in a subtle way; you’re not sure what’s going on, and even when you’ve read it all the way through, you’re still not sure…but it’s definitely not a good thing. It’s got a nice shiver down the spine, a subtle horror that’s just eerie enough to stick with you. A very close second is the excellent A Slight Miscalculation; it shows an alt-history version of the future, where the Director of the Genetic Purity Administration is writing a letter of apology to a widow whose husband was mistakenly terminated. It’s full of snippets and references to the world outside, to the alternate version of history, and is brilliantly done.
The second half of the collection is the novella, Night’s Edge. A group of desperate soldiers stop in a Badlands town, and find they’ve got rather more than they bargained for…it’s supernatural and horror, with a side dose of alt-history and eerie! Worth a read if you like a good action-filled story.
My one criticism of the collection is that some of the stories – notably Calling Back, Becoming The Storm, and Bump’s War – felt half-finished, in the sense that they could have started a longer story or been expanded into a novel. I wanted to know what happened next; I wanted the next section, the next incident. Becoming in particular felt like the start of a horror movie; we’ve seen how the protagonist started from one point of view, so now let’s see what happens next! So while these are all good stories in their own right, I was left with a nagging sense of incompleteness and little question marks – not loose ends or hanging plot, but more a sense of unfinished business. I’d love to see some of these expanded and made into longer stories, and I’d certainly enjoy Calling Back as a longer novel with more exploration of the characters and events.
Overall, the collection is very good, covering creepy, military, paranormal, sci-fi and alt history with some excellent story-telling and ideas that will linger with you. I look forward to seeing future work!
© Kate Coe, July 2016
Drawing In the Dark by Jeremy Baker
Published November 27th 2015
Review copy courtesy of the author
148 pages
