Review: 'The Hole in the Moon and Other Stories by Margaret St. Clair' by Margaret St. Clair, Ramsey Campbell

A major mea culpa needs to proceed this review. I read The Hole in the Moon and Other Stories genuine years ago and somehow my thoughts never moved from my head onto the (web)page. For that I apologise. This mess-up, however, did give me the perfect excuse to once again luxuriate in St. Clair's writing, however. Thanks to Dover Publications and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Pub. Date: 7/19/2017
Publisher: Dover Publications

Introduced and edited by horror fiction great Ramsey Campbell, this newly assembled anthology is the only short story collection in print of works by the pioneering science-fiction writer Margaret St. Clair. Seventeen tales of compelling strangeness include "The Gardener," "Child of Void," "Hathor's Pets," "The Causes," "Brenda," and "The Invested Libido."

This edition of Margaret St. Clair's stories hopes to return her to her rightful place in the pantheon of SciFi authors, or so the introduction by Ramsey Campbell argues. While I often tend to save the introductions for last, not wanting to be spoiled for the stories themselves, I took my time with it this time. Campbell discusses the way in which St. Clair's writing got dismissed during her own time as "cozy" horror or SciFi, not comparable to the "grand masters" like Asimov etc. Campbell, however, argues for the complexity of St. Clair's work and I think the variety of stories collected here does attest to that. We get Science Fiction elements, Fantasy themes, Horror scenes, Ecocritical arguments, and much, much more. Alongside that there is an almost irrepressible humour in most of these stories which means I snorted out loud on the bus at least once. 

'Rocket to Limbo', the first story, is a perfect example of that, as it discusses a married couple who might just be willing to use space travel to solve their marital issues. One of my favourite stories is 'The Hierophants', in which a junk salvage mission on a remote asteroid turns into a Lovecraftian but beautifully lyrical religious experience with a tragic end. I genuinely sat with the resolution for a bit, wondering how I'd feel and what I'd do, utterly captivated by St. Clair's descriptions. 'The Gardener' is another favourite, from its anti-cop start to its ecocritical message. Also some solid horror material in this one. 'Hathor's Pets' had me laughing even though I don't know if that's the intend. Imagine a man, his mother, and his sister and her husband trapped in some alternate dimension with enormous, maybe divine, mystical beings, desperate to return home. Thinking they're seen as pets they figure that misbehaving will see them "rehoused" back home. The ending really came out of nowhere. Si many others, like 'The Causes' and 'The Island of the Hands', are brilliant and their imagery will stay with me for a while. The final story in the collection, 'The Sorrows of Witches', is the most Fantasy-influenced of all the tales, and tells of the tragic love life of a necromantic queen.

In her memoir, as Campbell tells us, St. Clair said she wanted to write about people in the future who were just as clueless about their technology as we are now. And when I read that I was immediately on board. I could technically tell you what a phone does, i.e. what its uses are, but if you'd ask me how it works, how the wifi moves (?) between routers and phones, or even something like how the electricity gets into the wall for the socket to work, I'd be kinda lost. I doubt people in the future will fully understand their bionic organs or limbs, just like I don't really know what's in a paracetamol but trust it to work. So throughout St. Clair's stories we get characters who simply live in their world(s) but do not necessarily have an overarching view of how everything works or why certain things might be weird, like in 'Rocket to Limbo'. What elevates this for me is the writing, which is consistently strong and surprising. There is an ease to the prose which belies the difficulty of writing that way. It's hard to make complex things simple, as I keep experiencing in my own writing. On top of that, the imagery and pathos in each story is stunning. As I wrote above, I first read these stories years ago, and when I reread them now I had the vaguest of memories of them. I had small glimpses of moments that had stuck with me all this time, and rediscovering how they connected was a great experience. I'm definitely on the look out for more of Margaret St. Clair's writing!

I give this collection...

5 Universes!

The Hole in the Moon and Other Stories is a delightful collection of tales that range from Science Fiction to Fantasy to Horror to Thriller. Margaret St. Clair's writing is accessible and beautiful, always good for a laugh, and often sneakily terrifying. I'd wholeheartedly recommend this collection!