Subject: _Strange Creatures of the Recent Past_ by Howard Waldrop

From: [email-masked] (sometimes a Wombat)
Date: 11 Jul 91 15:27:29 GMT

_Strange Monsters of the Recent Past_ by Howard Waldrop
	   Review Copyright (c) 1991 by Larry Hammer

Howard Who?  Waldrop.[1]  And he's finally in mass paperback.

On the Bacon scale (taste, swallow, or digest) this is to be digested.

What it is: A paperback release of the stories of _All About Strange
Creatures of the Recent Past_, published in 1987, plus the novel _A Dozen
Tough Jobs_, published in 1989.  And it's about time.

What's in it: The best stories this side of Austin, Texas.  Any side.
Waldrop writes only a few stories, but every single one is pure gold.  And
no two are ever alike.  If you've met Waldrop before, you already know to go
out and buy this.  If not, here is a perfect introduction.

Waldrop knows more pure history than any writer I've read.  He knows it
cold.  He knows it so well, he can pull off the best alternate history
stories I've ever read.  Such as "The Lions Are Asleep This Night" set in
Renaissance West Africa.[2] Or "Fair Game" where Hemingway survives his
suicide attempt and hunts a Wild Man in a Bavarian village.  Or
"He-We-Await" where an Egyptian pharaoh was not embalmed properly and...
well, read the story.  Or "What Makes Heironymous Run?" where Bosch was the
*realist* painter of his era.  He knows his culture, too, whether it comes
>from 1950's monster movies or 1920's black South or 1960's doo-wop.

But even more than History, Waldrop has a pure command of Voice.  No
character of his *ever* says anything they wouldn't.  Nothing stilted,
nothing out of place, nothing put in where it shouldn't be just so the
author can tell you something he thinks you should know (a failing of far
too many writers).  "Fair Game" is pure Hemingway style.  "The Lions Are
Asleep This Night" reproduces the feel of living in the exciting times of a
Renaissance.  The narrator of "A Dozen Tough Jobs" is perfect Mississippi
black from the '20's.

The latter story is interesting from yet another angle.  Recently, many
authors (mainly in fantasy) have been rewriting old folktales and myths into
modern genre tales.  "A Dozen Tough Jobs" is Waldrop's contribution,
reworking the twelve labors of Hercules, as performed by Houlka Lee, a
convict on work release.  It is pulled off surprisingly well, with no strain
on either story, setting, or the characters.

Or maybe not so surprising, since it's Howard Waldrop.  Go.  Read.  Reread.
Be impressed.

%T  Strange Creatures of the Recent Past
%A  Howard Waldrop
%I  Ace Science Fiction
%G  ISBN 0-441-16069-7
%U  mass paperback US$3.95

     Larry "Green with envy for his talent" Hammer

[1]  Okay, okay, old joke.  

[2]  No, that's not a mistake.
--
[email-masked]
"Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be 
chewed and digested: that is, some books are to be read, but only in parts; 
others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly and 
with diligence and attention."  --Francis Bacon, _Essays_, "On Studies"