Lucius Shepard Gets His Own Thread (and about time!)

[AuntiePam]

I'd like to amend a statement I made earlier: I misread his intent. In context, what he really said was that many people ask him to write more like the stories in Jaguar Hunter (his first collection), and he sometimes wishes that would go away because he feels he writes much better now (20+ years later).

AHA! Now I understand why he refused to talk about Green Eyes in an online chat a few years ago. I got the definite impression that he wanted to put that book behind him. I loved it.

 

[intensityxx]

That's the zombie one, right?

He contributes to a blog at The Inferior 4, together with Paul Di Filippo, Elizabeth Hand, and Paul Witcover.

 

[Randy M.]

Short story collections can be great. As already mentioned in this thread, Kelly Link and Jeffrey Ford both have excellent collections. I also really like collections from Glen Hirshberg (American Morons and The Two Sams) and Peter S. Beagle (Giant Bones and The Rhinoceros Who Quoted Nietzsche). Neil Gaiman's shorts are hit or miss for me, but sometimes he knocks them out of the park.

But I definitely prefer collections over anthologies, for the same reason.

Anywho, I'll grab some Shepard this weekend. And then probably won't get to read the book for a good two months, but hey. Eventually.

Someone after my own heart. I need to catch up with Ford, Link, Hirshberg's latest and Shepard. I've read a handful, at most, of his short stories and should remedy that, though I've no clue when.

Anyway, recently read Holly Phillips' collection, and that was quite good.

Randy M.

 

[Raule]

Sometimes, with Shepard, I get the feeling that he's detached from his characters -- looking down on them from a great height, god-like, judgmental, unsympathetic, superior.

That's an interesting observation, because I'm very much feeling this way about Softspoken right now.

The teaser, Shepard out Poes Poe, in regard to this book seems rather superficial to me. Do you think this comparison more aptly fits some of his other works?

 

[intensityxx]

PS Publishing just shipped his newest collection, Dagger Key! I won't let myself open the box until I finish the book I'm reading. Ah, the anticipation.

 

[AuntiePam]

The teaser, Shepard out Poes Poe, in regard to this book seems rather superficial to me. Do you think this comparison more aptly fits some of his other works?

No. But I'm not a professor (or even a student) of literature, so stuff like this flies right over my head.

I've read Poe and I've read Shepard, but no comparisons jumped out at me. They can both write "quiet" horror -- maybe that's the similarity?

 

[intensityxx]

Just an update: I've since enjoyed Softspoken and have just finished A Handbook of American Prayer. In all my life I've never come across a writer with Lucius Shepard's precision of language, well-ruminated and crystal-clear thinking, capacity to convey love and wonder, and absolute honesty from the soul.

 

[Bear]

Just an update: I've since enjoyed Softspoken and have just finished A Handbook of American Prayer. In all my life I've never come across a writer with Lucius Shepard's precision of language, well-ruminated and crystal-clear thinking, capacity to convey love and wonder, and absolute honesty from the soul.

Well, damn. I might have to move him up a few notches on my "to read" list.

 

[intensityxx]

Although I'm enthusiastic about him, I recognize that he's not an author for everybody. I think that many people just don't "get" him. Also, he writes often in first-person, which I love, but others dislike. I notice that in American Prayer his voice is more precise, almost formal, than in his other stories, and every single word seems carefully chosen. This is because this particular story is partially about precision in language and intention, and it's perfectly suited.

He's lived an interesting life. He coped with family violence by learning to box, and then as an adult became active in changing boxing laws to protect boxers. He left home at 16, took a freighter overseas, and spent many years living in southeast asia, the middle east, south and central america, the caribbean, and sometimes took disreputable jobs to survive, so he has a breadth of experience few others have. He lives large, to the benefit of his readers.

He's outspoken about political concerns that result in social injustice, and many of the settings are just down and dirty. He did an in-depth article on hobos, and lived "on the rails" for awhile to learn more. His book, Two Trains resulted from those experiences.

He writes short fiction, and he's worth a slower reading than some people are willing to give.