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Streamskelter by Simon Harding
reviewed by XXXX
Original appearance: Albedo one issue ??, date?
I like books that are hard to pigeonhole such as STREAMSKELTER, written by Simon Harding and published as a paperback original by PAN at £4.99. Simon Harding is an editor on the Bristol Observer group of newspapers and this is his first novel.
STREAMSKELTER is probably best described by that recent epithet for Horror - Dark Fantasy - though it could be considered a ghost story or even a psychological thriller. The tale is structured around the childhood reminiscences of the troubled and somewhat confused narrator. As a boy David, the narrator, was involved in a series of unexplained events which left his best friend a vegetable in a mental institution and himself with a legacy of memories and dreams that have destroyed his marriage and may be driving him to the edge of insanity. Although the author always poses the questions - can we trust David's memories - can we trust David?
And he appears to be pursued, haunted almost, by a malevolent water spirit. But does the spirit exist, is she an hallucination or dies David use the suggestion of her existence for some dark purpose of his own.
The novel is written in an extremely chatty, first-person style with just enough confusion thrown in to persuade us that what we are seeing is the unedited outpourings of the narrator and not some highly-polished piece of soulless prose, carefully crafted for a sophisticated literary market. Perhaps if Simon Harding had not presented this as a Fantasy and had persuaded his publishers to market it as mainstream we could be talking about serious literary credibility here.
There is no doubt that Harding turns a neat phrase and he has put together something strangely believable, consistently fascinating and ultimately fantastic. It is never less than engrossing and ultimately more than could ever be expected from a debutante. I doubt STREAMSKELTER will be discussed on THE SOUTH BANK SHOW but if you speculate your fiver on it I also doubt you will read a more intelligent contemporary fantasy this year.
Changeling Hearts by Simon Harding
reviewed by XXXX
Original appearance: Albedo one issue ??, date?
This is Simon Harding's second novel and is a sequel to his first, STREAMSKELTER. Having read the first I am unsure as to whether it has helped or hindered in my reading of CHANGELING HEARTS. Harding's debut was a strange mixture of folk tale and modern dark fantasy concerning young love, madness, water sprites and parallel worlds. Whilst the sequel could claim to have many of those strands woven through it, CHANGELING HEARTS is a very different novel in terms of feel and execution.
STREAMSKELTER had a lyrical, mystical feel to it, which made it more than the sum f its parts. Its sequel is a much more prosaic affair, a middle-of-the-road fantasy whose parts seem oddly disconnected at times.
Judged as a novel in its own right, which it deserves to be, CHANGELING HEARTS, despite the frequent references to its predecessor, is able to stand alone. And were the references to STREAMSKELTER omitted, it would probably improve the flow of plot and action.
The town of Clove is tucked away deep in the English countryside, beside a series of caves that are so deep and labyrinthine nobody knows their full extent. The caves act like a magnet for suicides, who throw themselves off the side of the overhanging cliffs into their craggy depths. But there is a weakness between our world and another which parallels it, centred on the area around the caves and the river which flows through them and cuts its way through the nearby countryside.
Through the power of ancient runes, a warlock, his apprentice, a displaced boy and a group of goblins are transferred to our world. The non-goblins take the place of dying or weakened souls, ending up in the bodies of the survivors of a car crash, an attempted suicide and an inmate of an old people's home. Quite why the goblins came over as themselves is something I must have missed (if it was explained in the first place).
The action follows a newspaper reporter who becomes involved in the off-centre mystery surrounding a car crash which he witnesses and its connection to some odd goings on in the local old folks' home where, incidentally, his wife works. As the possessed bodies begin to interact with the local community, their strange behaviour serves to deepen the mystery surrounding the already odd series of events that is taking place.
As fantasies go, this is dark and intense with elements of reality to beautifully juxtapose the otherworldly atmosphere which pervades the edges of Harding's writing. Not quite the triumph which was his debut, CHANGELING HEARTS is still well worth investigating. I doubt anyone who read its predecessor will be able to resist the lure of a return to the author's off-kilter world.
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