The Haunting Of Alaizabel Cray
by Chris Wooding
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Book Summary Information
Author: Chris WoodingEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-08-01
ISBN: 0439598516
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: Point
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780439598514
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of The Haunting Of Alaizabel Cray
Book Review: Many touches and overtones near and dear to Lovecraft's heart
Summary: 5 Stars
My perspective for this review will be the interest this book holds for a dedicated Lovecraftian. I first heard about The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray in a post on a Cthulhu discussion board, where it was described as "mythos related." Funny, it has been around since 2001 as far as I can tell, and somehow I missed it. Maybe the tag `young adult' turned me off. At any rate, my curiosity was roused and I got a used copy for < $5.00, including shipping. Copyright was 2001, and my copy was by Scholastic Point, a decent trade MMPB from 2005. The cover photo depicted an out of focus London skyline, and was by Francosco Hidalgo. No wow factor for me. The interior art, however, had a mystical sigil or medallion that had a very Lovecraftian looking beasty before each major section of the book. Too bad they were all the same! I would have liked more; it was also unclear to me who did it.
I think this was a really good book. In fact I don't think the YA label applies; it has broad appeal to horror fans. Maybe it should be YA so that very young teens and children won't see it. Maybe that's a good thing considering the violence and references to drug use and prostitutes. I read more graphic stuff, however, when I started delving into Howard and Lovecraft etc about age 12-13. Now the question that gets to be more problematic is, is it a `mythos' novel. I guess it is all a matter of semantics and frame of reference. Can anyone really say for certain? We all have our opinions. For me, an obvious Cthulhu mythos novel refers to or depends on in, in some important way to the story, some entity or alien, or occult/eldritch device/tome that has been used or is intended to be included in HPL's Yog Sothothery by the ever widening Lovecraft Circle. Just mentioning a name or two won't cut it for me. Just because A Darkness Inbred mentions the name of Nyarlathotep doesn't make it mythos, not when this entity was in no way important to the story except (in my opinion) as a marketing device. Michael Slade's (a pseudonym I know) Ghoul is about some psychos who were influenced by HPL's books and used some of his names for their band. Not a mythos novel (actually just a schlocky piece of crap). Otherwise we have to include King's Needful Things where one character sees some graffiti `Yog Sothoth Rules' and is very disturbed by it. In this sense, THOAC is not really a Cthulhu mythos novel. On the other hand, it may very well be thought of as Lovecraftian. That is, it uses plot devices and thematic elements near and dear to the Old Gent's heart, without using his critters or any tomes from the Eldritch Library. Perhaps the more literary minded among us would say THOAC was heavily influenced by HPL and his circle. I dunno; did HPL originate the idea of inimical things outside our dimension yearning to break through to ravage the earth, or was he just our favorite exponent of these concepts? Whatever, if you like fiction with a Lovecraftian bent, you should like this book.
The setting of THOAC is London about the time when the ravages of the industrial age were just starting to be felt with pollution and toxic fog, about the time when Jack the Ripper stalked his victims (he doesn't make an appearance here, except in spirit...). I didn't do any web based research so I could be way off base; feel free to correct me. I guess around the time of the 1870 Franco Prussian War, England and Germany got into a dispute, and Germany sent airships, dirigibles, to bomb the city. England was forced to capitulate against the superior might of the Germans, and the center of the city was left a decaying ruin. Around this time London started to be infested by creatures out of nightmare, the wych-kin. Wooding's London is a grim and dirty place; the downtrodden would have been familiar to Dickens. That is, if Dickens' London had roving packs of wolves, blood sucking cradle robbers and ghouls. None of these wych-kin are mythos creatures exactly, although there are the Draug, the Drowned Folk. When the Draug approach all is dark. The air becomes as cold as the depths of the sea and stinks of salt; their steps are wet and sloppy, and sound liked webbed feet. Not a big stretch to compare to the Deep Ones! No one knows how the wych-kin originated, but with painful experience, a profession of sorts has emerged over the years: the wych hunters, people who chase these creatures into the Old Quarter where they lurk. Weapons include pistols, charms, wards, silver and chants. Wych hunters go loaded for bear because no one can tell what charm or ward might be best for a new sort of wych-kin. We meet Thaniel Fox, son of the greatest wych hunter London ever new, and his tutor, now partner, Cathaline Bennett. While stalking a cradle jack, Thaniel comes across and shelters a young woman, Alaizabel Cray. She turns out to have a tattoo she knew nothing about, a grotesque many tentacled thing (hmmm....image sound familiar?) we eventually learn is called the chackh'morg. Alaizabel is possessed by the spirit of an old wych, shades of Asenath Waite. In this setting, however, the wych did not transfer her spirit into Alaizabel, rather, a shadowy conspiracy known as The Fraternity effected the transfer by means of the tattoo and wychcraft. Unexpectedly, Alaizabel has somehow had the strength of character to resist. About the same time, London is being stalked by a serial killer who slices up his victims. He wears a tattered mask and a wig, and is known as Stitch-face. Detective Carver is heading the long standing investigation to track down Stitch-face and notices something. Stitch-face has a home range he never hunts outside of. Now there are even more extravagant murders being perpetrated around London. He is mapping them in his office and a pattern is starting to emerge, that of a many tentacled thing...It turns out, using a copycat technique to Stitch-face (who is not at all appreciative of having his work imitated), the Fraternity is performing some dire wychcraft. They want to open a portal into London. Our intrepid band, and a few others, are unable to prevent the completion of the murderous pattern of the chackh'morg and the first step of this summoning which releases a permanent twilight and a swarm of wych-kin upon a desperate city , but they may be able to forestall the opening of the gate. The latter half of the book details their harrowing attempt to do this. What follows is some more Lovecraftian imagery. In the Old Quarter, concealed somehow by wychcraft for years, the Fraternity has erected a cathedral of sorts, described as "it was part castle, part church, part temple; a thing beyond the power of all but the world's most insane architects to conceive." To me this echoes the geometry of R'lyeh, although the setting is not the South Pacific, and it appears to have been built by men (may I again urgently recommend perhaps the best modern mythos story, Final Draft by Annandale from Dead But Dreaming; my other contender is A Colder War by Stross). The Fraternity is inside; amidst the chaotic destruction in London they are attempting to allow their gods, the Glau Meska, to access our dimensions. It is not clear exactly what their reward is to be. Perhaps like Cthulhu cultists they will be eaten last? What are the Glau Meska is left deliberately nebulous but here is a vision one character has: "...vast loping things a kilometer high or more lumbered half-seen...;things that should not exist rose from the ocean and sent tidal waves to destroy man's cities; babies would be born with gills, their little digits webbed and atrocious." Now that is Lovecraftian imagery! I've put in enough spoilers so I will not mention how the book ends and what is resolved. One more thing, however, to show this is not so much mythos is that the origin of the wych-kin has more to do with Forbidden Planet than with extradimensional shambling.
So is it Cthulhu mythos? I would say not, as there is no mention of any of specific Great Old Ones, and the wych-kin are more or less conventional, like non-Lovecraftian ghouls. Also their origin is distinctly not mythosish. There is no use of the Elder Sign, no consultation of specific eldritch tomes. Just my opinion! But is it Lovecraftian? You bet! This was a corking good read, with living and breathing characters, an fiendishly intricate plot, thrilling suspense and tautly written action scenes. Characterizations are deftly drawn (although the one caricature was the American wych-hunter...figures) I was thoroughly entertained and will seek out more works by Mr. Wooding. I think anyone who reads Lovecraftian fiction would really like this book.
Summary of The Haunting Of Alaizabel Cray
The Alienist meets Dracula in this gripping, gothic-horror thriller from young UK phenom Chris Wooding.
Thaniel, just seventeen, is a wych-hunter. Together, he and Cathaline--his friend and mentor--track down the fearful creatures that lurk in the Old Quarter of London. It is on one of these hunts that he first encounters Alaizabel Cray. Alaizabel is half-crazed, lovely, and possessed.
Whatever dreadful entity has entered her soul has turned her into a strange and unearthly magnet--attracting evil and drawing horrors from every dark corner. Cathaline and Thaniel must discover its cause--and defend humanity at all costs.
Thaniel, just seventeen, is a wych-hunter. Together, he and Cathaline--his friend and mentor--track down the fearful creatures that lurk in the Old Quarter of London. It is on one of these hunts that he first encounters Alaizabel Cray. Alaizabel is half-crazed, lovely, and possessed.
Whatever dreadful entity has entered her soul has turned her into a strange and unearthly magnet--attracting evil and drawing horrors from every dark corner. Cathaline and Thaniel must discover its cause--and defend humanity at all costs.
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