Timothy Findley offers something for everyone, at least, according to me. Your Mileage May Vary....

General Fiction (G) -- "Non-Genre, general fiction and literature." Sort of the default, doesn't fit anywhere else genre. The all-or-none-of-the-above genre. It's pretty sparse, really, and there's nothing in here that doesn't have at least a double whammy. Heck, Timothy Findley's 'Headhunter' gets four, and it deserves every one of them. Findley's a Canadian author, who for by reason of being Canadian (I'm guessing) doesn't get the notice in the states that he deserves. It could also be because his books are remarkably hard to pigeonhole. 'Headhunter' is a surreal tale based on Joseph Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness' (general fiction and literature) about a woman at a psychiatric institute who inadvertently sets Colonel Kurtz free from page 92 of the novel (fantasy, of course), in a Toronto beset by a mysterious plague (horror). She's trying to find him, as where he might be is a mystery. So it's a pretty 'tweeny' book, and a very good one. It might appeal to a wide range of readers, if they ever managed to connect to it. Similarly, readers of General Fiction and literature might otherwise miss out on John Clute's ultra-literary, ultra-radical 'Appleseed' -- much to their dismay.

Phil Rickman uses supernatural devices and is usally classified as horror, but his work has more the feel of mystery.	When one says "horror", this is the name usually associated with the word. 'Bag of Bones' was a more adult book for King's newest publisher.	Mo Hayder masquerades as mystery, but will probably succeed in scaring the crap out of the reader.

Horror (H) -- "Supernatural fiction, supernatural horror and non-supernatural horror." This is by far the bucket with the most records, and with a nebulous definition like that, it's no wonder. Lots of readers who like horror fiction -- fiction designed to "scare the crap out of you" -- also like fiction that is not designed to "scare the crap out of you", but uses the same elements as much horror fiction, in particular, supernatural devices. Phil Rickman is the Poster Man for non-horrific supernatural fiction. He uses many of the devices, but his work like 'The Cure of Souls' have most of the elements and drives of a mystery. The books are not there to scare you or gross you out, they're there to draw a dense, tangled, intense picture that slowly becomes clearer. But horror readers like that sort of stuff as well, and so it gets called horror, though in many ways it is simply mystery. And what about stuff that has not one whit of the supernatural, but manages to scare the crap out of you? That's horror as well (in my book, though you might find in the MegaSmegaBookstore right alongside Raymond Chandler (who wrote some pretty horrific stuff himself.) The Poster Man for that little neighborhood is of course, Thomas Harriss, though since you don't need to hear about him from me, in my DB you'll need to look at Mo Hayder ('Birdman', 'The Treatment'), Kathe Koja (the superlative 'Bad Brains') or Magnus Mills ('The Restraint of Beasts') to get a similar buzz.

It looks like SF, it reads like alternate history, but it's true -- George Dyson's story ignites hope in space exploration enthusiasts even now.	Simon Clark's 'The Fall' uses time travel and other very science fictional ideas to put a new spin on horror, while using horror to put a new spin SF.	Ray Garton's brain-on-fire 'Biofire' is the kind of novel that looks like horror but is really science fiction, with lots of sex and gore.

 

Science Fiction (SF) -- "Science fiction, science fantasy, speculative fiction, alternate history." As soon as you see the 'speculative fiction', you know I've made this well-populated category pretty squishy. Sure, there's a fair number of records that are solely SF and easily identifiable as such. Most of them probably have pictures of spaceships on the cover. But then, there are books like 'Project Orion: The True Story of the Atomic Spaceship', which is, uh, non-fiction. But it sounds like an SF story, and it would certainly appeal to a wide swathe of the SF audience. And horror writers Simon Clark and Ray Garton both have entries, because, in the process of scaring the crap out of their readers, they've taken some ideas from the SF Writers toolbox. But there are a surprising number of entries that are strictly SF. I may go back and revise some of them, to even out the distribution. 'Speculative Fiction' can cover a multitude of sins.

Here's what you typically think of when one says fantasy. I've read all three Barclay books and I've rather enjoyed his gritty, unpleasant take on the genre in 'Dawnthief'.	Horror writer Mark Chadbourn gives his own horrific spin on 'elves' in his 'World's End' series. If you look closely, you might be able to tellt hat the dragon is sitting on a freeway.	Jeffrey Barlough writes some really, really weird stuff that's really, really good. His Dunsanian, sunny world is shot through with veins of icy horror.

Fantasy (F) -- "Fantasy, surrealism and magic realism." Now the usual take on fantasy is that it's elves and sorcerers in the tradition of Tolkein. Of late that has been expanded somewhat. Good thing, too, since I don't read many elves and sorcerers books. Eventually I'll review some I did read recently by James Barclay. In the interim, it's another blanket over sins. Probably the closest to actual fantasy are works that don't even get listed as 'Fantasy' first that is, the books of Mark Chadbourn's 'World's End' series. At least they have elves, though they're the most un-elf-like elves you've ever seen. But where else can Iput the exquisite books by Jeffrey Barlough? 'The House in the High Wood' is wonderfully fantastic, and has all the charm of the best Lord Dunsany, stories for sunny day. Alas, one cannot ignore the intensely poisonous pill Barlough passes in his narrative that brings it back into the world of Horror.

I just ordered the latest Rumpole collection from the UK, since I was tired of waiting for it to show up here. It's pretty much an actual, normal mystery.	I had to scan my own copy of this book to avoid the odious movie advertisement that the cover has become. Don't judge the book by the movie!	Richard Morgan's very scince fictional 'Altered Carbon' is, uh, shot through and through with icy veins of mystery. Yep, that's it.

Mystery (M) --"Crime, thrillers, mystery, suspense." That's pretty straightforward, isn't it? Except where it crosses over with horror, so that works which might otherwise seem to be whodunits are turned into stomach churning journeys of discovery. Or, when they're not fictional at all, but merely, but even worse, true. Don't hate 'A Civil Action' because it was a movie. Love it because it's a fantastic book and a page-turning mystery that happens to be at least purportedly true. And what about hardcore science fiction novels like Richard Morgan's fantastic 'Altered Carbon' that read like Raymond Chandler? Though it is set in the 26th century, the motives are straight out of Gumshoe Lit 101.

Not surprisingly, this supposedly true book reads much like what might be called an 'occult thriller'.	Attention all horror writers! If you have not yet bought Kenneth Iserson's 'Death to Dust', you'd best do so. Everything you want to know about death is nicely orgtanized for your convenience. Make that gore all too realistic!	OK, the Lovecraft Tarot. I mean, it's not even a book, it's not fiction, but it is, in a non-fictional sense, a tarot deck. Thus its inclusion in the non-fiction genre list.

Non-Fiction (NF) -- "Non-Fiction, True Crime, Forteana, Reference." Well, you might hope that all the books in this category are non-fiction. Once you read the list, you might want to change your mind. If 'Psychic Warrior' is true, then we're not living in the world that everyone thinks we're living in. That sub-category 'Forteana' will certainly cover another, entirely separate multitude of sins. Taken from Charles Fort, a failed fiction writer who became wildly popular and culturally significant when he published a book of newspaper clippings called 'The Books of the Damned', he was the original Fox Mulder. A number of the books reviewed here are dropped into categories like horror or mystery so that writers in these genres who happen to read these pages might find a new source of inspiration. Or, as in the case 'From Death to Dust', pure data for reference. And where else can I put my review of 'The Lovecraft Tarot' by David Wynn, illustrated by D. L. Hutchinson, a pack of Tarot cards based on the works of H. P. Lovecraft?