I had heard of Steve Bermans fiction collection, Trysts, at Amazon.com, and it sounded interesting. Matt Bauers striking artwork on the cover caught my interest even more.
As the words he chose for his title and subtitle suggest, Berman can find something obscure or archaic, then turn it into something wondrous and unpredictable.
While Berman will certainly appeal to fans of modern horror writers like Clive Barker, his writing seems more like a reshaped, updated, and gay-themed version of Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Like those 19th century authors, both of whom helped shape fantastic fiction, Berman can use a few suggestive words, emotions, or images to spawn entire worlds of fear, dread, and awe. But also like those writers, he makes us want to keep exploring the dark forests of the human mind, to see how the experience will affect us.
Of course, in Bermans case, we mostly find modern landscapes, such as run-down apartment buildings that house demons, spiders, ghosts, and seductive hustlers. Or we find familiar situations that many gays can relate to, such as a young gay man who worries that he might not be as attractive as his gay buddy or the men in one of their favorite magazines.
These stories arent always dark. They can be hopeful or erotic, and theyre sometimes even funny, though Berman often adds to the intensity by mixing the fearful with those more positive elements. I loved these thirteen stories by Steve Berman, and I hope he wont stop with the Triskaidecollection that introduced me to his work.
We can now find many writers that bring the gay fiction genre into the sub-genres of science fiction, fantasy, and/or horror. Ive barely started exploring the works of such writers, but I consider Trysts a great place to start!
