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Post by GRWelsh on Sept 11, 2023 13:58:27 GMT -5
I started this on my Kindle and it is a collection of short stories, half written by the late Wilum H. Pugmire (died 2019) and the other half written by Jeffrey Thomas. Both are considered to be Lovecraftian writers although neither writes pastiche trying to imitate HPL's style (thankfully). I am enjoying them so far. This is the first I've read of Jeffrey Thomas and he seems like a more straightforward and conventional writer than Pugmire who wrote in a more antiquated style reminiscent of the 19th century decadent movement and Oscar Wilde. So far, I'm really liking it and sensing how the writers may have influenced each other in the collaboration. Basically the concept is they co-created a character named Enoch Coffin who is loosely based upon HPL's character of Richard Upton Pickman. Coffin is an artist and sculptor who seems to have some knowledge of arcane lore and things beyond the ken of most mortals. The stories alternate between Pugmire and Thomas, and are set in many familiar sites in Lovecraft country (Providence, Boston, Arkham, etc.), and we usually get the point of view of characters who interact with Coffin, hence the title.
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Post by GRWelsh on Oct 5, 2023 12:52:39 GMT -5
Now I'm back to this and about half way through. What is impressing me the most is Jeffrey Thomas's ability to morph into a Pugmire-style and adopt some of this voice and vocabulary to craft weird tales set in Lovecraft's New England. Derivative? Yes, but this is a derivative twist on the typical derivative, so I'm enjoying that meta level theme. Pugmire is at his best when putting some of himself as a character in his stories and going for the poetic or nightmarish energy of imagination, and Jeffrey Thomas is uncannily in tune with that.
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Post by GRWelsh on Oct 18, 2023 10:32:02 GMT -5
I finished this yesterday. It was good, but not great. I would have liked to see more originality rather than leaning on the old Lovecraft sites and entities, but I still enjoyed it. I thought it picked up at the end with some digging into Enoch Coffin's family background and then his trip to Sesqua Valley. I thought his confrontation with Simon Gregory Williams -- an old sorcerer like Pugmire's version of Joseph Curwen -- could have been better. Coffin seemed out of character there... Previously, he always seemed confident and enigmatic, but in his dialogue with Williams he spoke like an unsophisticated yokel.
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