Review: Rudyard Kipling's Tales of Horror and Fantasy

Review, the short version: Read it, and be changed, and never, ever argue with me about the Cthulhu Mythos.

Preface to the long version: I am well aware of Rudyard Kipling's political and social leanings, and the degree to which he was both more extreme than, and sadly sometimes only as extreme as, his contemporaries. I do not agree with nor condone his beliefs, but reading his fiction is not the same as condoning his politics. I hope in vain that this might put a rest to this argument, but I don't expect to put out the chemical fire that is the Internet.

Now, the long version.

Kipling is one of those great writers I am ashamed to admit I have not read much of; beyond the obvious and regrettable Disney exposure I have read a little bit of his Just So Stories. So when I was given a chance to read a collection of his work specifically aimed at my preferred genre(s) via the power of the Christmas present, I jumped at it.

What I read rearranged my brain and took my breath away.

Kipling is, simply put, a master of English prose, and this book captures not only some of his most, but some of the most, inventive stories. "The Mark of the Beast" and "The Man Who Would Be King" are, of course, classics, considered some of Kipling's strongest work; but this book is not merely an excuse to reprint those pieces. Kipling's work here is genuinely masterful, and masterful in a way I do not often attribute to such a clear precursor of later, more prominent works; because while I didn't expect it, I have to trace inspiration, if not origination, of some of the greatest works of speculative fiction back to Kipling. "On the Gate: A Tale of '16" peeks through a good bit in Neil Gaiman; "Wireless" reminds me of Tim Powers; and "A Matter of Fact" predates Lovecraft's "The Call of Cthulhu" by a good thirty years; and both of them are not only inspirational, but fantastic stories in their own right.

These are not the highest points in the book, either: "The Finest Story in the World" is beautiful and amusing, and "The Brushwood Boy" pulled at my heart and my tear-ducts. But all of them are worth something, even just a wry smile; there are no low points in this collection.

Or at least, there are no low points that are a fault of Kipling. The only trouble I had with this edition (Pegasus Books, 2008) was its copyediting; it is, in a word, abysmal. Some of this may be idiosyncrasies of Kipling's grammar that I am just too post-Strunk to understand, but it seems in most places like the editorial process was simply ignored; I often found myself having to go back and re-read sections of stories just to understand what Kipling was trying to say. There are worse things in the world than having to re-read Kipling, certainly, but I should not be doing it out of typographic necessity.

All in all, this is going to be a tough book to beat for my favorite of the year, and it will be going on my Inspiration Shelf for those nights when the words are gummed up. If you are a reader, I recommend it; and if you want to write urban fantasy, I'd call it mandatory.