Ana Kai Tangata je jedna od najboljih
zbirki horor priča objavljenih poslednjih godina, i kao takva zakitila se sa
nekoliko nagrada, uključujući tu i Zlatnog Gula za najbolju knjigu horor proze
u 2014, kao i nagradu RUE MORGUE magazina u istoj kategoriji (koju sam takođe
ja izglasao).
To je
debi-knjiga Skota Nikolaja, pisca koji baš i nije spring chicken ali eto, bavio
se poezijom i pećinarenjem pre nego što se bacio u prozopisanje, i oboje se
(naročito ovo drugo) lepo vidi u njegovim pričama. Evo šta sam o njegovoj
zbirci pisao u prikazu za RUE MORGUE pre dve godine.
Ana Kai Tangata
– Scott Nicolay
Fedogan & Bremer, 2014
Ovaj naslov ne mora mnogo da vam znači, osim ako ne govorite
Rapa Nui jezik, u kojem ta fraza znači nešto kao "pećina koja jede
ljude". Ime autora ne mora mnogo da vam znači, osim ako niste pročitali antologiju
Grimscribe's
Puppets (videti RM #137), gde je priča "Eyes Exchange Bank" ovog
autora bila jedna od najboljih.
Ali to će se promeniti: upamtićete
ovaj naslov, jer pripada najboljoj debitantskoj zbirci u poslednje vreme, a upamtićete
i ime Skota Nikolaja, jer njemu pripada
najsnažniji glas koji se pojavio u horor književnosti još od od Lairda Barrona
(videti RM #132).
Onda je sasvim prikladno da
je upravo Barron napisao uvod, dok pogovor dolazi od uvaženog žanr-priređivača,
Johna Pelana (Darkside) a sve priče u ovoj lepo dizajniranoj knjizi su osnažene
polu-apstraktnim ilustracijama koje je izveo David Verba.
Ana Kai Tangata je veoma vredna zbirka sa ravnomerno visokim nivoom sadržaja, i što je
naročito čudno – ni sa jednim ćorkom (što retko biva čak i u zbirkama većih
imena, uključujući tu i Barrona). Sve priče su iznad proseka, sa veoma živim,
filmskim, nezaboravnim slikama i natopljene su gustom atmosferom.
Smisao za mesto je posebno
jak: čitaoce će sigurno proganjati napušteni kamenolom koji čudno privlači
protagonistu "aligatora" (sic), mali grad u propadanju u "Eyes
Exchange Bank", pećina u indijanskom rezervatu sa ne-baš-mrtvim
arheološkim nalazom u priči "Phragmites", kužna močvara koju opsedaju
gnjecave žabe ("The Soft Frogs"), oronula stambena zgrada u San
Francisku ("Geschafte") i, naravno, oduvek misteriozno Uskršnje ostrvo
koje je ambijent za naslovnu priču (otud Rapa Nui jezik).
Knjizi svakako pomaže to
što je većina priča zapravo obima novele ili novelete, sa dovoljno prostora da
se izgradi ugođaj za pamćenje. Nikolaj - pesnik, speleolog i arheolog - bio je svuda;
zna čudna mračna mesta dovoljno blisko da vas preveze tamo pre nego što to i
osetite.
I da ne zaboravimo i kratak
roman smešten u ovih 350 stranica - Tuckahoe je zabavna pulp detektivska
storija koja sadrži amorfna telesno-topeća stvorenja i urnebesnu scenu u sali za
autopsije soba koja će sigurno da vas natera ili na povraćanje ili na grohotan
smeh od neverice koliko je ludački ogavna!
Podjednako
vešt kad treba da uplaši kao i da zgrozi, Nikolaj ovom knjigom nudi
zadivljujuću zbirku koja zaslužuje pažnju svih tragalaca za dobrom stravom.
(c) Dejan Ognjanović
Nikolaj je dobio odlične
kritike za ovu zbirku, a godinu dana kasnije dodeljena mu je i prestižna
nagrada – 2015 World Fantasy Award for
Best Short Fiction (za priču “Do You Like to Look At Monsters?”). Tom
prilikom se obilato sprdao sa Lavkratovim likom na statui koju je dobio, sve
vreme je držeći naopačke, i lepeći na nju preko usta natpis „Black lives matter“.
On je veoma glasan pobornik
političke korektnosti i, naročito, antirasizma (budući da u sebi ima indijanske
krvi). Potonje, nažalost, kao da počinje da opterećuje njegovu noviju prozu.
Evo šta sam u aprilskom broju RUE MORGUE-a napisao, u mini-rivjuu, o njegovom
najnovijem čepbuku sa novelom od oko 90 strana.
NOCTUIDAE –
Scott Nicolay
King Shot
Press, 2016
Troje ljudi (ubrzo svedeni na dvoje)
zarobljeni su u pećini gde im džinovska ljudožderska biljka prepreči ulaz/izlaz
dok unutra vlada mnogo rasno i polno zasnovanog nepoverenja. Previše očigledno politički
korektno popovanje u ovoj noveli podriva njen željeni „kosmicizam“ vezan za
neodređenu kreaturu dok je veza između spoljašnje i unutrašnje strave prilično
nasumična.
Ipak,
uprkos pojedinim zabrinjavajućim znacima (prenapadni egoizam, politička
korektnost, napadna mržnja prema Lavkraftu...), Nikolaj ostaje ime na koje
treba obratiti pažnju, a evo šta su neki od viđenijih hororista imali da kažu o
njegovoj debi-zbirci:
“Scott Nicolay is as
good a debut author as I’ve ever read. This collection of weird and horrific
tales would be a significant accomplishment for a tenured master of the black
arts. That it has been created and put forth by an author in his third or fourth
year on the scene is extraordinary . . . We are not in the presence of a
callow and bullish youth, but a man of erudition and experience. Nicolay is one
who has seen much, endured much, has undergone prolonged pressure and the
result is a diamond among stones.”
—Laird Barron,
author of The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All
“What you have here
is indeed something special: a debut collection that shows none of weaknesses
one might expect from a new writer…I’d have assumed thsis was the fourth or
fifth collection by a seasoned pro at the top of his game.”
—John Pelan,
author, editor and publisher
“The stories in Scott
Nicolay’s excellent debut collection unite a lean, elegant prose style with
meticulously-observed characters moving through landscapes rendered with
painterly precision. Rooted in but not confined to the body, the terrors
Nicolay’s characters confront pay subtle homage to the traditions and
practitioners of weird fiction who have gone before, even as his willingness to
develop his narratives at length moves them into a territory that is uniquely
his own. With this book, Scott Nicolay lays claim to the attention of everyone
interested in the future of weird fiction, and his claim is a strong one
indeed.”
“Leave safety at the
door…shaped by this weatherman of a wounded humanity, Nicolay’s punch is grim
and honest, his horizons vast, alluring, and keenly attuned to what unfurls in
our darkest dreams. This explorer’s debut is a collection of strange…living inside
some wonderful reading.”
—Joseph S. Pulver,
Sr, author of Blood Will Have Its Season
“With extraordinary
precision and a profound understanding of the power of language, Scott Nicolay examines
the nuances of modern discontent. In his fiction you will find no refuge from
the grime and dust, marrow and sinew of human experience. His characters are
damaged by their efforts in a world that thrives on brutality and greed. Many
of these characters can’t be redeemed through heroism. Yet they grapple, tooth
and claw, with the truly horrific aspects of life: guilt, regret, and despair.
And in their struggle we glimpse the last hope for ourselves, to climb over the
rubble of so-called civilization and make our way toward compassion, with all
odds against us.”
—S.P. Miskowski, author
of The Skillute Cycle
“Nicolay’s writing is
clean-limbed, not a shred of rococco excess on it. Poetry and the demotic mix
well in his prose. He expertly delivers clues and foreshadowings and backstory
tidbits attendant upon his enigmas and frights without hammering the reader
over the head with gore or hyperbole. His characters are engrossing, if often
repellant, his plotting assured, and his venues enticingly nasty. This book
marks the start of a fine career, I am sure.”
–Paul Di Filippo, Locus
“Scott Nicolay is a
writer in the tradition of modern practitioners of the weird such as Mark
Samuels, Terry Lamsley, and Laird Barron. He gives us the unease of Ligotti
with the fluid prose of Clark Ashton Smith. Ana Kai Tangata is a serious
contender for best collection of the year.”
–John Llewellyn
Probert, This Is Horror
“Remember when you
first read the stories of Clive Barker, or T.E.D. Klein, or Thomas Ligotti, or
John Shirley, or Dennis Etchison, or David J. Schow or Lucy Taylor, or Caitlin
Keirnan, or Michael Shea, or Melanie Tem, and realized you were in the
presence of a major talent in modern horror? I got the same feeling reading
Nicolay. He steers clear of stock monsters and tropes of the horror genre. His
fiction is clear-sighted, hard-edged, realistic, Raymond Carver-like…”
–Leigh Blackmore, Dead
Reckonings 15
“Ana Kai Tangata is
a bizarre, unsettling book of Weird fiction with some very urban and very bleak
settings. It’s a book in which the mundane transforms into something toxic. So,
an empty mall becomes a source of evil (“Eyes Exchange Bank”), a rundown
apartment plays tricks with your mind (“Geschafte”), and what should be some
sort of island paradise melts into a nightmare (“Ana Kai Tangata”).”
–Silvia
Moreno-Garcia, Innsmouth Free Press
“Eight of the best
weird fiction stories that I have ever had the pleasure of reading, all paired
perfectly with shudder-inducing art from David Verba, make this a landmark
collection. Publisher Fedogan &
Bremer have struck gold with Nicolay, and further refined the
presentation with the amazing artwork from David Verba, and introduction from Laird Barron, and an afterword
from John Pelan.”
–Justin Steele, Arkham Digest
“Ana Kai Tangata by
Scott Nicolay is a truly important collection…to this reader, the supernatural
aspects aren’t what give these stories their great power. No, this is what I
think Nicolay should be praised for, and what I hope he has more venues to
exercise his talents in: human relationships.”
—Anna Tambour, author of Crandolin
“Ana Kai Tangata [is]
a truly stupendous work of modern horror. The shape of each story plays out
like a familiar yet horribly catchy murder ballad–beautiful layering of
character detail and an excruciating evocation of foretold doom make us care
deeply for his protagonists, after which we’re forced to watch the worst
possible outcome for their given situation unfold.”
–Gemma Files, author
of the Hexslinger series.
