John Silence: Physician Extraordinary (Dodo Press)

by Algernon Blackwood

• ISBN10: 1409949133
• ISBN13: 9781409949138
• Publish Date: 13 February 2009
• Publish Status: Unknown
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Dodo Press
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 344
• Language: English

Reviews

[Cameron Trost]

Algernon Blackwood is one of those weird tale writers who impress and disappoint me by turns. Several of these stories show Blackwoods' talent for evoking the power and mystery of the natural world; particularly, The Camp of the Dog, and demonstrating the spiritual interconnections he believed to be inherent between all elements of nature. Similarly, his character, John Silence, who always manages to make his mark on the narrative despite appearing only briefly in some stories, is a credit to Blackwoods' creativity. What disappoints me, almost to the extent of spoiling his work, is that he does far too much explaining and repeating, and indeed the narrative often transforms into a sermon of his spiritual viewpoint. In this way, a gripping tale of weird fiction in which the tension is built slowly, strangely, and steadily, loses its power to hold the reader. In addition, and although this may be counter-intuitive, Blackwood's belief in the existence of lycanthropes and elemental demons, as indicated in these tales, renders the suspension of disbelief impossible. In some of his other work, including "The Willows", the subtler and more removed approach is far more effective in capturing the reader's sensibilities.