SHADOWS FROM NORWOOD By: David Hambling

“Never summon that which you can not put down…”

Shadows From Norwood, is a collection of seven stories told in the Loveraftian style. All stories are told with a strong Lovecraft voice with an original embellishment on most of the tales. David Hambling incorporates many of the classic Lovecraft themes, with a heavy emphasize on not losing the scientific side of his storytelling. The Cthulhu mythos that Hambling draws from is exquisite in it’s delivery and is a perfect homage to Lovecraft. H.P. would be very proud to know that there are people like Hambling building off his worlds and creating something for future generations to enjoy, forever keeping Lovecraft’s stories alive. I could not put this book down.

THE DULWICH HORROR OF 1927: A group of arrogant, know it all, grad students stumble upon an ancient evil that will tear them apart quite literally. We have Tom, the keen eyed photographer, George the leader of the group, Jessica the athletic one of the group, the pleasant know it all Sophie, Daisy the quiet beautiful one, Daniel, the incredible mathematician, and finally our main character William through which this tale is told. This story reminded me a lot of the movie Flatliners where a group of young doctors experiment with bringing people to the verge of death and reviving them back. For this group of scholars, it is the Whatley house that holds the answers to their questions and fate. There is speculation about what has gone on in that house, from incest to cult satanic worship, but what our characters discover is much more sinister and otherworldly and by awakening the creature they inadvertently cast a shadow of insanity of all those that survive. FIVE STARS

TWO FINGERS: When a wealthy Yacht builder’s wife suffers an accident that leaves her disfigured, he takes it upon himself to fin any means necessary to fix her hand and liven her spirits even at the expense of others. The Effra House is key to his salvation and with the help of Sir Harold, a transplant should be easily attained….I liked this story. I was a bit annoyed that Michael goes through all this trouble over two fingers (and not even the thumb!!). It’s all done out of vanity for his stupid wife who apparently just becomes this catatonic depressed woman because of her disfigurement, which isn’t too terrible to begin with. Other than that, the story is really good. FOUR STARS

THE THING IN THE VAULT: Written and stylized like an old 1920’s rime noir mystery, the story opens up with Detective Jones being hired by the wealthy Spencer Wade who needs Jones to check on his investment. Being set in the 20’s when prohibition was around, the investment is that of a filter used to supposedly make the best liquor to ever touch one’s lips. Wade believes the invention to be too good to be true and sets Jones off to investigate the validity of the inventor’s creation. Dr. K is the good doctor that invites not only Jones to his home but other potential investors as well. They all meet up at Dr. K’s where he takes them into his underground lab. This lab is home to far more than just inventions and paper work and the investors soon find themselves in a battle to save their lives when they meet Dr. K’s associates….Great story from start to finish, might be my favorite. FIVE STARS

THE MONSTERS IN THE PARK: This is in fact my favorite story (although it was hard to choose). Set in 1936, William is called upon by an old friend to help him with his son, Paul. William is a school teacher and having experiences with all sorts of children, Webster feels he may be able to return his son, Paul, back to his usual boisterous self. When William meets with Paul, it is obvious that something is off with the boy. After several conversations with him, William finds Paul is no longer Webster’s son. Through a form of mind transference, an alien race has traded places with Paul’s brain. Paul is just a young boy, and his mind is not up to the task of grasping the concepts that the alien that is living in his body needs to accomplish his mission (whether or not they are sinister is only speculated). The alien wants to go home and to humor him, William and Webster arrange for the “boy” to visit a local radio station. Here Paul constructs a complicated structure that will be able to submit proper signals to his “people” and Paul will be returned to his body. What that signal picks up, however, is far from home sweet home…..FIVE STARS!

THE DEVIL’S IN THE DEEP BLUE SEA: “Being an account of events on the voyage of the SS Amaryllis from Melbourne to Fiji in the Tasman Sea, 1886, as told to William Blake.” This was the least of my favorite tales but it was still a good one. Basically a crew of seamen are sent out to find what happened to the Ly-ee-Moon that has been reported missing. They find the remnants of the ship along with two crazed crew members that they bring back aboard with them. What they don’t know is that one of the crazies has brought a curse aboard with them and they must find a way to break it before they all die at sea. THREE STARS

THE NORWOOD BUILDER: So when an eccentric ex asks you to come out to the middle of nowhere so he can show his “experiments” that he won’t tell you about over the phone…don’t go. Unfortunately Lottie, even though her husband tries to convince her that it is a sketchy idea, still takes the bait, but it’s not her that gets gobbled up by the fish on the line. What’s suppose to be a harmless visit with an ex-lover and fellow scientist turns into a human experiment with terrible consequences. The basis of this story is really good, but the ending is kinda cheesy. I liked the “mind over matter” mentality and explanation of epigenetics. FOUR STARS

SHADOWS OF THE WITCHHOUSE: This is where we come full circle in the Shadows From Norwood tales! Our players from the first story, THE DULWICH HORROR OF 1927, shed more light on the events and fates of the rest of the gang. In a letter addressed to William, Sophie clarifies her role in what happened and what has become of her. Her letter is written from within the walls of Canterbury House Sanatorium and told in three parts. This was my favorite wrap around story I have read in a while and what Sophia reveals is quite astonishing. FIVE STARS

This truly felt like reading Lovecraft himself without the sometimes obnoxious attention to detail. Though that is not to discredit the detail that Hambling does bring to his stories, from his descriptions of the fish-men, and the ominous shadows that play off the waves and the human eye, all is perfectly detailed and explained. I love the time periods that the author chose to tell his stories in and made them all the more richer in my imagination. Each story has it’s own explanation for how and why these creatures came to our plane of existence and even more interesting are the ways in which the characters combat the “evil”. David Hambling is an old soul with a thick Lovecraft style of art.

HEY HERE’S THE AUTHOR!

Why is David Hambling writing Lovecraftian fiction?

As a teenager I was enthralled by HP Lovecraft. His fiction was like nothing I had ever encountered: intense, hallucinatory stories about eldritch alien terrors beyond human comprehension. I was fascinated; I devoured every story of his I could find.

I even looked up what ‘eldritch’ meant.

Flash forward a few decades and I am a freelance science writer, blamelessly crafting pieces for WIRED, Popular Mechanics, New Scientist and others from the seemingly mundane region of Norwood, South London.

Like most of South London, Norwood is obscure even to Londoners. We have no great historic buildings or famous residents. Everything is relatively modern. It is not an inspiring area, or so I thought.
My view of it was changed after a gigantic oak tree toppled into our garden one night, making a noise like the end of the world, a roaring and rending which went on and on. The cat was terrified.

The next morning the oak was stretched out like a giant fallen from another world, which in sense it was. I found out that the tree was one of the primeval survivors from the old North Wood which gives Norwood its name. Everything is modern because a couple of centuries ago this was all woodland.

Norwood was the notorious haunt of witches, outlaws, hermits, smugglers and other colourful characters. There was an encampment of gypsies here for over a century; Londoners would make the journey to have their fortunes read. Before that, the ancient forest was the home of Celtic tribes and their druid priests who – according to the Romans, anyway – carried out human sacrifices in the sacred oak groves.

It is, in short, every bit as worthy a setting as Lovecraft’s witch-haunted Arkham. Every piece of research turned up colourful, unexplained happenings crying out for tales to be woven around them. Tales with roots as deep and dark as the ancient oaks. A whole Necronomicon of Norwood stories began sprouting in my brain like alien parasites. I had to get them out somehow.

So I started writing.

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