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Review
For an accomplished pro like Leiber, a sorry performance. A hack writer of horror stories, recovering from a three-year alcoholic binge with the aid of a pure and lovely harpsichordist, cottons on to some funny influences on the loose in his 'Frisco apartment. It all started with a long-ago weirdo who wrote a volume of dark mutterings against the sinister spiritual forces in modern cities. Leiber can toss off a polished phrase or - with disturbing frequency - a purple inanity. The plot, which involves an occult booby-trap laid fifty years ago for none other than Clark Ashton Smith, has enough loose ends to cover Colt Tower in double macrame. (Kirkus Reviews)
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By N. Lawson
Format:Paperback
This is actually a creepy modern urban supernatural tale - or is it? - rather in the vein of the short stories of M. R. James, in that much is suggested but very little is described in detail - and yet it had me looking nervously over my shoulder... The protagonist goes on the trail of a mystery and finds more than he bargained for; the title is inspired by a work by Thomas de Quincey, if that's any help.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3.1 out of 5 stars
13 reviews
38 of 45 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Lovecraft's Horror updated to the Mid-Twentieth Century
30 Jun 2001
By Dave Deubler
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Leiber takes a stab at modernizing the H.P.Lovecraft school of horror in this peculiar novel of mid-twentieth century San Francisco. The story revolves around one Franz Westen, recovering alcoholic and horror writer, whose fascination with the steep, solitary hill called Corona Heights leads him into the creepy world of Thibault de Castries, an eccentric mystic. Anarchist, founder of a secret order, and theorizer of the dreaded paramental entities, de Castries' power has touched the lives of many of San Francisco's most illustrious citizens. Can Franz somehow keep from being drawn into its tantalizing maw?
Leiber does an excellent job of migrating Lovecraft's growing disquiet to mid-twentieth century urban angst, theorizing the existence of dark forces that draw their power from the mass aggregations of metal, electricity and lost humanity that compose our great cities. Still, it's difficult to keep an air of suspense for any great length of time, and much of this book is just a slow buildup without very much tension. Leiber has too much good material here for a short story, but as it stands, the novel could have been cut by 50 pages or more without much loss. For example, the protagonist's friends Gunnar and Saul, who appear in so many scenes, don't do anything and really have no function, while the romantic interest, the intellectual Calpurnia, is usually absent despite the critical role she plays.
If you're a big fan of Lovecraft, give this review an extra star - you'll really enjoy Leiber's new take on some classic themes. Add another if you're really into San Francisco's geography and/or literary history, because this book has lots of both. So if you find that you fit the fairly narrow target audience this book seems to have been written for, you'll probably love this novel. This reviewer didn't.
15 of 19 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Literate and Intricate
29 Nov 2010
By Thomas Parker
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
I'm not sure what those who slight this book were looking for - maybe Stephen King horror/populism or Clive Barker fashionable extremisim. It certainly isn't any of those. What it is is literate, atmospheric, intricate, subtle, slyly humorous, and character-driven. It's well worth a read.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of my favorite fantasy/suspense books of all time.
28 Dec 2010
By J. Furr
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
If you like veins-in-your-teeth horror, this isn't for you. But if you like extraordinarily well-written, deeply unsettling fiction that captures its setting and action so vividly that a later trip to the actual locale revealed no surprises, then this IS for you. After reading "Our Lady Of Darkness" I happened to have a chance to travel to the Corona Heights park in San Francisco and other locales depicted in the book and went "Wow. Leiber REALLY captured this place." Few authors could have equalled the visionary characteristics of Leiber's writing. I recommend this book to all my friends.
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3.1 out of 5 stars
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