“The Rim Of Morning demonstrates Sloane’s skill at building an atmosphere of tension and dread.”
In the 1930s, William Sloane wrote two brilliant novels that gave a whole new meaning to cosmic horror. In To Walk the Night, Bark Jones and his college buddy Jerry Lister, a science whiz, head back to their alma mater to visit a cherished professor of astronomy. They discover his body, consumed by fire, in his laboratory, and an uncannily beautiful young widow in his house—but nothing compares to the revelation that Jerry and Bark encounter in the deserts of Arizona at the end of the book. In The Edge of Running Water, Julian Blair, a brilliant electrophysicist, has retired to a small town in remotest Maine after the death of his wife. His latest experiments threaten to shake up the town, not to mention the universe itself.
Why We’re Excited About This Book: The Rim Of Morning contains two novels from the late 1930s by William Sloane–an author who is little read nowadays (perhaps because he only wrote three books in total) but ripe for rediscovery. Sloane combined cosmic horror with both mystery and science fiction. The two novels in this omnibus are both still very readable for modern tastes and demonstrate Sloane’s skill at building an atmosphere of tension and dread.
To Walk the Night begins as an investigation into a the murder or suicide of a dead professor, but progresses to become something much more gothic & sinister, with allusions to Greek tragedy hinting at a dark conclusion. In The Edge of Running Water continues the theme off forbidden knowledge, as a grieving scientist tries to find a way to communicate with his dead wife.
With an introduction by Stephen King, The Rim Of Morning is an exciting chance to discover two neglected classics.
The Rim Of Morning is released on 26 November 2015 by New York Review Books.
“If you’ve been hungry for intelligent conversation about horror, Thinking Horror will provide all the nourishment needed.”
Thinking Horror: A Journal Of Horror Philosophy: We’ve noticed there are a lot of journals devoted to horror fiction, and a lot devoted to horror-related non-fiction, but the two things they don’t seem to cover with any regularity is ‘what’ and ‘why.’ Why horror? What is horror? These are the big questions that consume us, and we wanted to do something about it.
The journal is focused on the contexts and concepts of horror fiction. Unlike other markets, it eschews the regular columns you’re used to—no news, no promotional fluff pieces, no reviews. Instead, this is about horror itself, its philosophical mechanics, about how it interacts with us, and we with it.
Why We’re Excited About This Book: Thinking Horror is a new annual journal that critically examines the genre of horror.
In the first issue, Gary Fry writes about Ramsey Campbell, Kurt Fawver tackles the rise of the new Weird and Helen Marshall looks at the influence of Medieval in our current horror fiction. There are interviews with Simon Strantzas, Molly Tanzer, Nathan Ballingrud, and Michael Kelly, amongst others. And that’s barely scratching the surface of what’s inside the pages.
If you’ve been hungry for intelligent and critical conversation about horror, Thinking Horror looks like it will provide all the nourishment you need. A welcome new venture that we hope does well.
Issue two is already being planned and will focus on the ‘horror boom’ (and subsequent bust) of the 1980s.
Thinking Horror is out now from TKHR.
JAMES EVERINGTON