Seven Stars by
Kim Newman
pbk out May 00
(Pocket Books)
at £6.99
Regular readers of this column will know by now that I think Kim Newman's writing is the bee's knees. He excels at everything he does, be it horror, science fiction, criticism… you name it. And as
the accompanying Tangled Web interview with Newman demonstrates, he is a man with uniformly thoughtful and entertaining things to say. Seven Stars is his latest collection
of previously published work, and while it offers something extra special for those who have followed Newman's work over the past decade, it is a fabulously inventive and absorbing book for any
reader with imagination. Seven Stars is a collection of two closely related halves: the first half features five stories (novellas, really) employing familiar
Newman characters, but each of which also stands alone. These are all finely crafted tales - my own favourite is "The End of the Pier Show" - demonstrating Newman's considerable gifts for narrative, and well worth the price of admission on their own. But the real
glory here is the second half, consisting of the seven- part (plus prologue) "Seven Stars" a spectacularly inventive re-imagining of Bram Stoker's Jewel of the Seven Stars, featuring just about every character Newman has ever invented and attempting to
tie them all together in one interleaved adventure. "Seven Stars"originally saw print last year in Stephen Jones' Dark Detectives, a lovely small press volume devoted to the adventures of various supernatural sleuths (and which, by the way, happens to feature my own Marty Burns in a new tale as well). "Seven Stars" was woven through that book, taking the reader chronologically through something like the history of modern detective fiction. From the Holmesian to the hardboiled to the
virtual, the various segments of "Seven Stars" trail the progress of the cursed Egyptian gem across the century, genre tropes, styles
of storytelling, and the range of Newman's many delightful characterizations. Each of the chapters is a pleasure to read, though I confess a preference for "The Trouble With Barrymore",
the hardboiled, Hollywood tale, and "The Biafran Bank Manager" featuring Richard Jeperson, one of Newman's most peculiar and
purely entertaining creations. The final chapter brings to some kind of close a large number of strands which have run through most of Newman's novels and short stories. Newman does leave himself an "out," however, in that the incarnations of some of the characters in "Seven Stars" are not exactly the same as those
which appear, for instance, in the "Anno Dracula" stories. (This is, as Newman freely admits, straight of Michael Moorcock's play
book, but when the result is this much fun, why carp?). Seven Stars is yet more evidence - as if we needed it - that Kim Newman is *the* star of the UK genre scene. Aw, hell, let's be honest: he's a star. Period.
(
Jay Russell
- one of the greatest talents the horror industry has produced for some time… (Black Tears))
Seven Stars by
Kim Newman