Not What's Expected; Thankfully.

The Horror at Oakdeene and Others is my first venture into the worlds of Brian Lumley, a writer I heard about way back when I was a schoolboy obsessed with the books of Stephen King. I never read any Lumley then, and – amazingly – it has taken me a further (cough!) thirty years to get around to it, and only when – I have to admit – I was offered a free audiobook to review.

I'm glad I didn't read Lumley back when I was a teenager. I was very much into more grounded storytellers back then and the horrors I preferred may have been fantastical but they took place in worlds of school kids and realities I could see unfolding around me. I think back then Brian Lumley would have left me cold, and this may have put me off him for life; and that would have been a stone-cold sin because Brian Lumley is, in a word, awesome; and Joshua Saxon, the man narrating this collection of stories, is no less so.

The Horror at Oakdeene and Others consists of eight stories of vastly varying lengths and with the opening tale, called The Viking's Stone, I was initially thinking that this would be less than an enjoyable book to get through.

I think now that this may have been an adjustment I required to get into Lumley's world. I was not expecting an amalgam of Lovecraft and Poe (two authors I respect greatly) and I certainly wasn't expecting someone to be so successful at it (which as I writer myself I found more than a little irritating).

As The Viking's Stone gave way to the second story, Aunt Hester, I found myself in more comfortable ground and steadily my enjoyment of Lumley's strange though oddly familiar world grew; but it was when I heard the next tale, No Way Home, that I knew that this wouldn't be the last Brian Lumley book I would be experiencing.

Of the eight tales No Way Home was my favourite and The Viking's Stone was my least; but I suspect that another reader would feel differently; in fact I believe it a firm possibility that my next listen to The Horror at Oakdeene and Others my thoughts may be completely different.

Lumley creates rational arguments on the irrational occurrences within his tales that sit in the readers mind long after the book is closed. Rational arguments that whisper of eldritch horrors with the same maddening combination of plausibility and absurdity that a physics professor talking about string theory may have. Enjoyment of Lumley's work takes the ability to release oneself from what that same physics professor might call “traditional reality”, and be willingly led by an author who might just be a madman down a road far less travelled than most.

This is certainly not my last excursion into the lands of Lumley which means, unfortunately, I have to decide where next to go in his considerable catalogue of works.

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First Class Horror Collection

The Horror at Oakdeene and Others is a typically strong collection of stories from Horror Grand Master Brian Lumley.
The title story and Born of the Winds are both top tier Cthulhu Mythos entries.
Other favourites of mine from this collection were No Way Home (mysterious and otherworldly), The Cleaner Woman (a burglary goes VERY wrong) and Auny Hester (sinister and creepy), but as usual with Lumley, there isn't really a weak link here.
Joshua Saxon's narration is an absolute triumph. He's clearly a natural storyteller and his work throughout this audiobook is outstanding.
A must for fans of Lumley, Lovecraft and epic horror. Highly recommended.

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