Beast of the Heartland: And Other Stories

by Lucius Shepard

Book Overview

"Brings to mind the best work of Graham Greene, Robert Stone, and Ward Just."--Wall Street Journal

The fiction of Lucius Shepard has more to do with Joseph Conrad than Isaac Asimov. Fascinated by deception and decay, and generally labeled a cyberpunk writer, his work transcends the limits of genre fiction. Beast of the Heartland contains seven tales that explore the dark side where science fiction meets horror. Headed by...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1568581262
• ISBN13: 9781568581262
• Release Date: March 1999
• Publisher: Da Capo Press
• Length: 300 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.1" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

This Writer is a one-of-a-kind

This book is a collection of short stories, and although I liked them all, the one entitled Barnacle Bill the Spacer took my breath away. Lucius Shepard writes with such beautiful, unique precision, and expresses himself in such an uncommon and thought provoking manner that I found myself reading many of his sentences over and over just to savor their flavor and texture. His words linger, and his plots won't leave you alone. His uncommon writing gave me an uncommon pleasure-highly recommended.

Not his best, but the guy's an underappreciated genius.

I'm sorry that I wasn't as impressed with this particular collection of Shepard's stories as I was with some of his other work. There are a couple of gems in here, however; "Barnacle Bill the Spacer", winner of the Hugo Award, is alone worth the price of admission.However, if by chance fate has you perusing this page and wondering whether or not to take a chance on Shepard, do it. I first randomly ran across his 'Life During Wartime' in an airport, and I've read everything else of his that I could get my hands on since.This collection is a fairly mild intro to some of the awe-inspiring concepts that Shepard constructs with the ease of Legos; and not only that, this guy can put words together like nobody's business. Borges would be proud. It's a crying shame that a lot of his other work is now out of print or otherwise difficult to find; "The Jaguar Hunter", "The Ends of the Earth", and "The Scalehunter's Beautiful Daughter" I would all rate as superior to this particular collection, but don't let that stop you. Shepard is worthy of your reading time, and his full-length novels are equally astonishing.

Lucius Shephard deserves to be read.

I love short stories, and it is clear to me that anyone else that loves short stories will love this collection, regardless of whether they condsider themselves sci-fi fans or not. In fact, two of the stories are completely devoid of anything fantastical, and two more only touch upon the surreal. In all seven, you do find the clear and descriptive writing that carries with it an insight into human beings all across the world - or universe. Shephard is able to portray the humanity and inhumanity as they battle within each of his primary characters, and over all, you might say that this is really what this collection is about. Each story has a clear and entertaining plot, but underneath, each focuses on a character that is struggling with his desires or angers or impulses that often lead to self-destructive life patterns; vivid and recognizable as elements of our own lives.The genre sci-fi stories work the best for me. "Barnacle Bill, the Spacer" and "Human History" make my top five list of the best short stories ever. "Sun Spider" is interesting, but without the punch. And the remaining three straight stories were good, but less so than the others. However, in that "Barnacle Bill, the Spacer" and "Human History" are practically short novels, the book is well worth having just for these two stories alone. Consider the others bonus stories. Collections as a general rule are spotty. There are always pages you want to rip out and sometimes pages you want to hang on the wall. This is the first I've read in a long time that has no rip out material. Everything here is good. And some of it is truly amazing. Enjoy.

Wonderful stories

I liked some of his other short story collections better, but this is still great work. You simply can't miss with Lucius Shepard. He has great insight about love and the human condition, and it's obvious he has travelled and seen much along the way. In each of these stories he deals with the nature of love and the stories we tell ourselves about relationships and sexual encounters.The stories are diverse and can't be pigeonholed into one genre. I would say Shepard is a magical realist as much as anything, but he does very diverse work.

ONE OF THE BEST LIVING WRITERS

Lucius Shepard proves once again that he is the highmark in fiction with this collection. Be dazzled, be horrified, and sigh at the beauty of his prose. You can't miss this one.