Snag Dreams Of Shadow And Smoke: Stories For J.S. Le Fanu Published By Jim Rockhill Accessible In Publication

of Shadow and Smoke" brings the atmosphere and style of Sheridan Le Fanu's work to thest century, All of the tales in this anthology succeed in drawing the reader into the gothic landscape that so inspired Le Fanu, This landscape whether it be the timeless Irish countryside or elsewhere plays a central role in all of these stories, The tales that most impressed me were "Let the Words Take You" by Angela Slatter, This wonderful Australian writer's tale takes place in the Blue Mountains, a magical range of eroded plateaux inland from Sydney, Like Ireland, it is a part of the world that is full of superstition and mystery, and her hauntingly clever tale is a highly original work of gothic fiction.
"Seaweed Tea" by Mark Valentine is another tale that takes the reader on a mysterious and dark journey, His development of Le Fanu's fascination with green tea is delicious, "Echoes" by Martin Hayes and "Princess on the Highway" by Peter Bell were also two tales which took me to that other place, Fans of Le Fanu won't want to miss this eerie tribute to the invisible prince, This is a very good collection of stories 'for J, S. Le Fanu', marking theth anniversary of the celebrated Irish author's birth, The authors range from wellknown figures within the field of modern weird fiction to writers with some link often a bit tenuous with Le Fanu, Among the former is Lynda E, Rucker, an American in Dublin whose story of a haunted house combines the modern with the traditional to fine effect, There's also Liverpoolborn Peter Bell, whose 'Princess of the Highway' offers a new take on an old folk legend, Derek John's three linked vignettes offer more folklore, but also a touch of Le Fanu's oftenoverlooked humour, 'Echoes', by Martin Hayes, is much darker in tone, tackling the theme of the haunted outcast in the context of what is today the least forgiveable crime, Mark Valetine's 'Seaweed Tea' is a more mystical mystery, couched in oldschool anecdotal form and set in England, but 'Swedenborgian' in its weird climax, All in all this collection offers a good mixture of fiction in a worthy cause to help ensure that Le Fanu's work lives on, In, had he lived, J, S. Le Fanu would have been two hundred years old, and Dreams of Shadow and Smoke is an anthology in celebration of that anniversary, And it is outstanding. Bottom line.

Without going into detail there are definitely writeups of this book out there already done by real reviewers there are ten stories in this book written by ten wonderful writers.
Two of them, Sarah LeFanu note the spelling difference and Emma Darwin have some sort of family connection several are from people whose work I've read previously and I've discovered new ones to seek out.
Here's the Table of Contents:

"Seaweed Tea," by Mark Valentine
"Let the Words Take You," by Angela Slatter
"Some Houses A Rumination," by Brian J.
Showers
"Echoes," by Martin Hayes
"Alicia Harker's Story," by Sarah LeFanu
"Three Tales from a Townland," by Derek John
"The Corner Lot," by Lynda Rucker
"Rite of Possession," by Gavin Selerie
"A Cold Vehicle for the Marvellous," by Emma Darwin
"Princess of the Highway," by Peter Bell

All of these tales are delightfully dark and done with such a degree of finesse that makes the book sheer joy to lose yourself in.
There are also "story notes" at the end of the book, where each author talks about his or her work in this volume and how Le Fanu has influenced them in their own writings.


For me what sealed the deal with this book was not just the stories themselves, but the focus on the combination of landscape amp history and how it melds with the already somewhatdisturbed psyche.
This concept is played out time and again in Peter Bell's "Princess of the Highway" for example the view from a holiday cottage in the remote Irish countryside ventures

"across the raindrenched moorland, the peathags, the black bogs and the solitary lough, beneath the louring clouds which, down here in the depression, seemed to suffocate, eloquently earning the land's repute as the most haunted region of Ireland.
"

It is an "eerie landscape, . . eloquent of darker legends, and a history as bloody as it was bleak", But Ireland isn't the only setting, Angela Slatter uses her native Australia "because it taps into that idea of hills and fairy mounds, yet it's part of a wild landscape that's very different to Ireland.
" And in "Seaweed Tea," the coast of England reveals a spot where "the sea seemed to obey different rules," where "black stones, . . hold the secret of the other tide, the dark tide, . . invisible to us "

There is a reviewer from sitelink Totally Dublin who wrote what I think is the perfect summary of this collection:

", . . this literary parlour game in Sheridan's honour yields happy fruits his shade would smile, "

I have to say that I couldn't think of higher

praise for this entire book, If I was as eloquent, I would say the very same thing,

Congratulations to Jim Rockhill, Brian J, Showers and Swan River Press for ediitng and putting out this anthology that won the inaugural Ghost Story Awards in Best Ghost Story Book of the Year,category! And of course, congratulations to all the contributors as well! I had been planning to read this soon anyhow, so what better reason do I need to push this to the top of my reading list and start now I've been reading a lot of Le Fanu lately, so I'm definitely in the right mindset.
I have a good feeling about this collection, . . This hardcover is numberof thenumbered copies, With Henry James, Elizabeth Bowen, and James Joyce among his admirers, the ghost stories and novels of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanucast a long shadow on the literary landscape.
Dreams of Shadow and Smoke features ten new tales of the fantastic and macabre written in celebration of the bicentenary of Dublin's "Invisible Prince", Revisit a world in which certain elixirs remain capable of awakening the mind to the presence of unknown forces where the monuments, portraits, and other legacies of history lay traps for the unwary and the logic of finance butts up against the unyielding rules of folklore.
We would like to think that should Le Fanu be handed this book, he would smile at the results and deem it worthy of his consideration, .