Cemetery Dance Issue #35:
THE VIEW FROM HELL concerns inter-dimensional beings of an etheric or astral composition. These creatures have no bodies and do not speak, so Shirley has to do the best he can to translate their mode of communication into English. These beings are touring earth and experimenting with humans. They are quite fascinated with the violence and suffering our species is capable of. Sometimes they'll give a situation a little push. Sometimes -we humans being what we are - a push isn't even necessary. At first it seems these creatures are being used as a device to link several short stories together to form a novel, but everything does come together into a cohesive whole when several of the characters we met earlier are transported to a "terrarium." The "terrarium" provides all their physical needs, such as food, drink and recreational drugs, but has no doors or windows. The beings sit back and watch as their specimens try to make sense of their situation. The mix of personality types turns volatile as time and boredom set in. The beings' little terrarium turns into the perfect metaphor for Hell.
This novel works on several levels. The individual stories toward the beginning of the book could very easily be stand alone stories, all with their own beginnings, middles and ends. Chapter Three, subtitled "Pills" would be a superb crime story in its own right. By bringing the characters from the individual stories together in the end, Shirley manages to create a whole even more horrific than its parts.
This is the fourth in a series of short novels being produced by Subterranean Press. Shirley's effort here is of equal or better quality than the earlier short novels in the series by Joe R. Lansdake, Norman Partridge, and Thomas Tessier. These matching volumes line up very nicely on your bookshelf, too. -- Garrett Peck
John Shirley is one of the more fantastical horror writers out there, freely mixing in elements of science fiction. This new short novel should help cement that reputation.