Bibliomancy by Elizabeth Hand

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Bibliomancy by Elizabeth Hand
pub: PS Publishing. 296 page hardback. Delux: Price: £60.00 (UK), $90.00 (US). ISBN: 1-902-880-74-9. Hardback: Price: £35.00 (UK), $50.00 (US). ISBN: 1-902-880-73-0

check out website: www.pspublishing.co.uk

When I recently reviewed 'The Year's Best Fantasy And Horror' anthology, Elizabeth Hand's novella, 'The Least Trumps' was my pick of 2003's best.

Emotionally powerful, with a subtle but vital layer of magic and a deliciously satisfying climax, 'The Least Trumps' was noticeably ahead of other great works in the last year.

It's not a surprise, then, that Bibliomancy, a four-novella anthology that includes 'The Least Trumps', two other acclaimed releases and a huge new novella, 'Chip Crockett's Christmas Carol', is so good.

I'd recommend this purely on the one novella alone but all four here are worthy additions to the genre's best.

Elizabeth Hand, as Lucius Shepard states in his short introduction, is an extremely potent writer. Her prose is assured, clear and utterly hers. It is very difficult to see the stories written in any other way and there is an inevitability to each story without them being predictable, as if the stories were literally occurring in front of us.

'Cleopatra Brimstone', a tale of a young woman trying to get over being raped by studying butterflies in London's Camden Zoo begins the anthology. Like most of Hand's work, it starts brutally real and the magical element takes it time to come in, slowly and naturally.

The speculative element is slight but indispensable. The ending is both horrific and beautiful.

'Pavane For A Prince Of The Air' won the 2003 International Horror Guild Award. It describes the death of a hippie succumbing to brain cancer and the pagan rituals made by his friends and lovers to honour his passing.

It is a wonderful testimony to how death effects us, the actions of each character and their reactions to the illness and death taut and realistic. However, the story element is quite passive and rarely gives the sense of completion the other three novellas provide.

Hand wrote 'Chip Crockett's Christmas Carol' especially for this volume. It's long, taking up almost half of Bibliomancy's word count. The style used differs from Hand's usual third person perspective and the omniscient point of view put me off for a while but, despite my initial misgivings, this novella won out to deliver perhaps the most rewarding experience.

It's essentially a re-working of Dickens' seasonal classic but so subtly is it hidden that I barely noticed until the story finished.

Brendan is the Scrooge figure, a lawyer whose son's autism has caused him to lose faith in all things happy. It's when his childhood friend and washed out rock star Tony (modelled on Joey Ramone, according to Hand's afterword) moves in with father and son that things start to change.

Tony has an obsession with Chip Crockett, a TV children's presenter from the early sixties, all of whom's work has been lost over the years. The plot proceeds logically and heart-warmingly from this premise to the expected yet pleasing conclusion.

I love the last story 'The Least Trumps' and the quiet magic it contains. I could read over and over about loner Ivy's discovery of a pack of mostly-blank tarot cards and how when she tattoos the pictures onto her skin, the world changes...It's a mesmerising story that I'll never grow tired of.

Bibliomancy is strong. Very strong. Elizabeth Hand crafts stories filled with deep realism, yet quiet magic lies hidden beneath it all. The stories are effortlessly right. Read them and be entranced.

Tomas L. Martin

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