In Concert (Audible Audio Edition) Steve Rasnic Tem Melanie Tem Abby Elvidge Crossroad Press Books
Download As PDF : In Concert (Audible Audio Edition) Steve Rasnic Tem Melanie Tem Abby Elvidge Crossroad Press Books
In Concert collects the collaborative short fiction of Melanie Tem and Steve Rasnic Tem, who have worked at the cutting edge of imaginative fiction for over a quarter century. In the twenty-one tales herein, the reader will find fear, joy, and mystery. In Concert showcases the wide range of their collaborative work. The title story tells of a lonely elderly woman who achieves rapport with a lost astronaut through the power of music.
In "The Icy Region My Heart Encircles," an aging Mary Shelley, creator of Frankenstein, keeps the heart of her late husband on the mantel and is haunted by her dead children and the living incarnation of her Monster. And in "The Man on the Ceiling," the authors take turns telling of the fears and darkness common to all families, while reminding the reader that "everything I tell you is true." The publication of In Concert is an event well worth celebrating.
In Concert (Audible Audio Edition) Steve Rasnic Tem Melanie Tem Abby Elvidge Crossroad Press Books
[This is an old review, slightly edited for republication here.]Near the end of "The Man on the Ceiling," a story that won the Stoker, the International Horror Guild Award, and the World Fantasy Award, co-author Melanie Tem writes:
"It was hard for us to write this piece.
For one thing, we write differently. My stories tend more toward magical realism, Steve's more toward surrealism. Realism, in both cases, but we argued over form: 'This isn't a story! It doesn't have a plot!'"
That's an apt description of the Tems' different approaches to their solo work. Their prose styles are also distinct: Melanie Tem's is smooth, more suited to her magical realism, while Steve Rasnic Tem's has a harsher, disjointed quality, fitting his surreal tales of loss and psychological degeneration. Despite their different approaches, the Tems have written nearly two dozen collaborative stories over the past quarter-century, all of which are collected in the new Centipede Press volume In Concert, including one original, a creepy tale of dependence and manipulation called "Bees from the Hive." These twenty-one finely crafted, insightful tales highlight the talents of both members of this husband and wife team.
Although I was most familiar with the Tems as writers of horror and dark fantasy, several of the stories included here are science fiction. Some of those, such as the earliest entry, "Prosthesis," are dark, using aliens and alien worlds as metaphors for loneliness and fear. But the title story, the longest in the collection, in which an old woman's intermittent telepathy brings her into contact with a trapped astronaut, is more optimistic, the human connection easing the pains of life and age. That may sound overly sentimental, but the story's observant, non-manipulative portrayal of the elderly protagonist's life keeps it from feeling cheap or idealized.
The dark fantasy pieces included here frequently feature familiar monsters; vampires and vampirism are central to six stories, while two deal with zombies. But the focus is not on these creatures as boogeymen-- readers looking for traditional chillers won't find them here-- but on what they can tell us about humanity. "The Tenth Scholar" appeared in a book called The Ultimate Dracula, but its true protagonist is the streetwise young woman who goes to the famous bloodsucker in search of an unlikely education. The vampire mother of "Mama" offers a poignant metaphor for the devastating power of a mentally unstable parent, while "Nvumbi" puts a unique spin on a father's sense of isolation and impotence in a household dominated by women.
Ultimately, it is this interest in the human condition that defines and elevates the Tems' work. As Melanie writes in "The Man on the Ceiling," a haunting, jointly-narrated metafictional meditation on family, love, and fear:
"And the world also has in it: Werewolves, whose unclaimed rage transforms them into something not human but also not inhuman (modern psychiatry sometimes finds the bestial 'alter' in the multiple personality). Vampires, whose unbridled need to experience leads them to suck other people dry and are still not satisfied. Zombies, the chronically insulated, people who will not feel anything because they will not feel pain. Ghosts.
I write in order to understand these things. I write dark fantasy because it helps me see how to live in a world with monsters."
It is because she and her husband understand this human darkness so well, and describe it with such sympathetic insight, that In Concert makes such a fine, harrowing collection of speculative fictions.
Amazon customers should not that the cover art shown here is not what appears on the actual book. You can find the real cover, a Salvador Dali image, on the publisher's website. Also note that in addition to being signed by both authors, the book is limited to 300 copies, and includes woodcut illustrations by Howie Michels, color plates by Marc Chagall, and endpapers by Max Ernst. All that, plus the book's small-press status, is the reason for the high price tag.
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In Concert (Audible Audio Edition) Steve Rasnic Tem Melanie Tem Abby Elvidge Crossroad Press Books Reviews
[This is an old review, slightly edited for republication here.]
Near the end of "The Man on the Ceiling," a story that won the Stoker, the International Horror Guild Award, and the World Fantasy Award, co-author Melanie Tem writes
"It was hard for us to write this piece.
For one thing, we write differently. My stories tend more toward magical realism, Steve's more toward surrealism. Realism, in both cases, but we argued over form 'This isn't a story! It doesn't have a plot!'"
That's an apt description of the Tems' different approaches to their solo work. Their prose styles are also distinct Melanie Tem's is smooth, more suited to her magical realism, while Steve Rasnic Tem's has a harsher, disjointed quality, fitting his surreal tales of loss and psychological degeneration. Despite their different approaches, the Tems have written nearly two dozen collaborative stories over the past quarter-century, all of which are collected in the new Centipede Press volume In Concert, including one original, a creepy tale of dependence and manipulation called "Bees from the Hive." These twenty-one finely crafted, insightful tales highlight the talents of both members of this husband and wife team.
Although I was most familiar with the Tems as writers of horror and dark fantasy, several of the stories included here are science fiction. Some of those, such as the earliest entry, "Prosthesis," are dark, using aliens and alien worlds as metaphors for loneliness and fear. But the title story, the longest in the collection, in which an old woman's intermittent telepathy brings her into contact with a trapped astronaut, is more optimistic, the human connection easing the pains of life and age. That may sound overly sentimental, but the story's observant, non-manipulative portrayal of the elderly protagonist's life keeps it from feeling cheap or idealized.
The dark fantasy pieces included here frequently feature familiar monsters; vampires and vampirism are central to six stories, while two deal with zombies. But the focus is not on these creatures as boogeymen-- readers looking for traditional chillers won't find them here-- but on what they can tell us about humanity. "The Tenth Scholar" appeared in a book called The Ultimate Dracula, but its true protagonist is the streetwise young woman who goes to the famous bloodsucker in search of an unlikely education. The vampire mother of "Mama" offers a poignant metaphor for the devastating power of a mentally unstable parent, while "Nvumbi" puts a unique spin on a father's sense of isolation and impotence in a household dominated by women.
Ultimately, it is this interest in the human condition that defines and elevates the Tems' work. As Melanie writes in "The Man on the Ceiling," a haunting, jointly-narrated metafictional meditation on family, love, and fear
"And the world also has in it Werewolves, whose unclaimed rage transforms them into something not human but also not inhuman (modern psychiatry sometimes finds the bestial 'alter' in the multiple personality). Vampires, whose unbridled need to experience leads them to suck other people dry and are still not satisfied. Zombies, the chronically insulated, people who will not feel anything because they will not feel pain. Ghosts.
I write in order to understand these things. I write dark fantasy because it helps me see how to live in a world with monsters."
It is because she and her husband understand this human darkness so well, and describe it with such sympathetic insight, that In Concert makes such a fine, harrowing collection of speculative fictions.
customers should not that the cover art shown here is not what appears on the actual book. You can find the real cover, a Salvador Dali image, on the publisher's website. Also note that in addition to being signed by both authors, the book is limited to 300 copies, and includes woodcut illustrations by Howie Michels, color plates by Marc Chagall, and endpapers by Max Ernst. All that, plus the book's small-press status, is the reason for the high price tag.
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