Review of Last Exit for the Lost

Yeah, I'm still here. Well, this will be my first post on this blog in 2 years. Although I have been posting regularly on my other blog, English Confusion, at www.goingtotea.blogspot.com, which was actually started for the ESOL students that I tutor (I prefer the title Facilitator). I will be posting book reviews to this site, however. So, allow me to post one now. It's probably all the time I have. Eddie (King Edgar to you) is napping on my neck behind my head, but that probably won't last long, and then hell will be raised. I have truly spoiled him. He does believe he is the King.
I love all speculative fiction: science fiction, dark fantasy, alternative history, magic realism, slipstream, etc., etc. But I have always had a soft spot for horror, particularly the bizarre, the weird, the atmospheric. The kind that has no need to depend on gallons of blood and violence galore. The subtle tends to burrow much deeper under my skin.
And I do have a warm place in my heart for Tim Lebbon. But I don't believe his are the stories for those suffering from severe depression or any form of paranoia. Many of his stories and novellas are collected in "Last Exit for the Lost", a signed limited edition published by Cemetery Dance. Unfortunately, at least for the time being, it is only available on the secondary market since it was sold out by the publisher. It has an introduction by Joe R. Lansdale, 17 previously published works of fiction, and 2 that are original to this collection: The Evolutionary a short story, and Nothing Heavenly, a novella.
I had read a fair number of the stories in their original publications, or in "year's best of" collections. But I re-read them all with definite relish. And, I enjoyed every single one. I'm not sure I can claim one single favorite, but if I had to, I would probably go with In Perpetuity. In this novella, a father loses his daughter to an evil collector with magical powers, and has to perform a seemingly impossible task to get her back. Along the way he runs into other strange, and not so strange, characters who are also trying to complete difficult quests for the same collector. It is a not so simple tale on the nature of love, desperation, and what it is to be human. The 2 original works round out the collection wonderfully. The Evolutionary is about a very special boy, who gets a visit from a very special man, who comes from a rather distant place. And finally, Nothing Heavenly would seem to be about a war where humans are caught in the middle. But as usual in the stories of Lebbon, things aren't always what they seem. Like I said, I love this guy.

Anyroad (anyway, if you like), I will give no more away. Above, you can see Eddie asserting his claim to the crown. Yup, he's the King. He's already woken, demanded a head rub, which I had to give him using my nose (he has a thing about fingers), and then made it clear he wished to be conveyed to the interior of his cage, where he is now continuing his nap. 
Final comment: if you enjoy literate horror fiction and dark fantasy, you can do a whole lot worse than the scribblings of Tim Lebbon. Since reading his novel The Nature Of Balance, I have never missed the opportunity to read anything of his I can get my hands on. And that, as they say, is all I have to say about that.