Recently, I had The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher (the adult fiction pen-name of Ursula Vernon) recommended to me. It is inspired by, and is a approximate sequel to, Algernon Blackwood’s The Willows.
The Willows - as with several other Blackwood tales - is clearly playing around with the original concept of ‘panic’ - the oppressive terror that you can experience in truly wild places, which was, according to the ancient Greeks, inspired by Pan. As such these tales are only a step or so distant from Lovecraft’s cosmic horror - which embody the utter indifference of the universe.
Kingfisher’s tales (I am now half-way through my second: The Twisted Ones) feature very engaging, very human protagonists and typically intersperse the horrific with cosy, mundane interludes and so have a very different tone to Blackwood (or Lovecraft), but do make for easy and enjoyable reading: still with some memorable imagery and concepts, but never really soul-raking stuff.
Has anyone else read any of her works? What do you think of them?
I’ve read Hollow Places and Twisted Ones, and liked both. The writing was pretty smooth and the folklore-ish mystical events were cool. Kinda felt like reading modern fairy tales, or maybe a more horrifying take on magical realism ála Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
Library At Mount Char had a similar feel, where the mystical slots into the mundane quite seamlessly.
