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This is the first collection of strange stories by contemporary writer Mark Samuels. The themes that thread through these nine accomplished stories are drawn from the great tradition of the twentieth-century weird tale, and they are suffused with a distinctly cosmopolitan, European feel. Mark Samuels writes about the fundamental fears of modern life, especially the effects of isolation and the dislocation that city dwellers can experience in their inhospitable, man-made environment. H.P. Lovecraft wrote about entities beyond human comprehension that might be summoned from beyond the stars, but did he ever consider that they would feel quite at home in the sodium glare of some run-down inner-city? When one of Samuel’s characters stands alone looking up at the vast, illimitable darkness of space, the reader is forced to wonder if there is much difference between the hopeless emptiness of eternity and the bleak interstices between the concrete and steel of their daily life? The White Hands was shortlisted for the British Fantasy Awards in the best Collection category. The title story of The White Hands was also on their shortlist for the best Short Story category.
Reviews: " [The White Hands] is a treasure and a genuine contribution to the real history of weird fiction ... Even when the settings and characters are modern Samuels manages to convey a sense of otherworldly nightmare. For example, the use of computers in 'The Impasse' gives these infernal machines the feel and function of the strange books that stock the shelves of so many of the best weird tales from Lovecraft to Borges. ('Mannequins in Aspects of Terror' is the other major instance of this wonderful feat.) I thought the most impressive story in the collection was 'The Search for Kruptos.' The exotic locale and the historical setting are not the sort of thing that I would attempt in a story, and I thought Samuels handled both tasks magnificently, not to mention the ingenious and awful concept of a book in innummerable volumes. The other stories that were among my favorites, and served most powerfully to convey a uniform sensibility to The White Hands, were 'Apartment 205' and 'Colony.' " — Thomas Ligotti |
