#RIP Brian Lumley (1937-2024)

A biblio-itinerary

By chance I noticed last night on ISFDB that Brian Lumley died several weeks ago.

Lumley was one of the first horror writers I knew as a brand name circa 1980, when my teenage affection for genre fiction became a foaming obsession with horror.

Other than anthologies, I had no access to Lumley's short stories. Of longer works, the DAW edition of The Burrowers Beneath was widely available on used book shelves at library fundraisers, garage sales, and junk shops. But until the 1988 Tor paperback of Necroscope, my reading of Lumley was a matter of coincidence and dumb luck.

My favorite Lumley works are the short stories collected in No Sharks in the Med. His short stories often feature deadpan comedy, and are worth reading above any other titles. Of the novels, today I prefer Demogorgon to the espiocratic melodrama of Necroscope. 

Links to my reviews of Lumley works are below.

Barrows Hill. I didn’t stay long, a few months. Too long, really. It gave you the feeling that if you delayed, if you stood still for just one extra moment, then that it would grow up over you and you’d become a part of it. There are some old, old places in London, and I reckoned Barrows Hill was of the oldest. I also reckoned it for its genius loci; like it was a focal point for secret things. Or perhaps not a focal point, for that might suggest a radiation—a spreading outward—and as I’ve said, Barrows Hill was ingrown. The last bastion of the strange old things of London....

"The Thin People" (1987)

My Lumley biblio-itinerary

Review: No Sharks in the Med and Other Stories by Brian Lumley

https://jayrothermel.blogspot.com/2018/09/review-no-sharks-in-med-and-other.html

The early horrible: The Caller of the Black by Brian Lumley (Arkham House, 1971)

https://jayrothermel.blogspot.com/2022/01/the-caller-of-black-by-brian-lumley.html

Funny sort of thing: Brian Lumley's Screaming Science Fiction

https://jayrothermel.blogspot.com/2020/06/funny-sort-of-thing-brian-lumleys.html

Super-lice, cyclostomes, and obours: A Coven of Vampires by Brian Lumley (1998).

https://jayrothermel.blogspot.com/2019/05/super-lice-cyclostomes-and-obours-coven.html

"No Way Home" by Brian Lumley

https://jayrothermel.blogspot.com/2020/06/years-best-horror-stories-1976.html

The Second Wish and Other Exhalations by Brian Lumley: Reading notes

https://jayrothermel.blogspot.com/2020/06/the-second-wish-and-other-exhalations.html

A tale from the Innsmouth diaspora: "The Taint" by Brian Lumley (2005)

https://jayrothermel.blogspot.com/2020/06/a-tale-from-innsmouth-diaspora-taint-by.html

Review: The Whisperer and Other Voices By Brian Lumley (2000, Tor)

https://jayrothermel.blogspot.com/2020/06/reading-whisperer-and-other-voices-by.html

The Compleat Crow by Brian Lumley: Review and notes

https://jayrothermel.blogspot.com/2020/06/the-compleat-crow-by-brian-lumley.html

"The Pit-Yakker" by Brian Lumley

https://jayrothermel.blogspot.com/2022/08/the-years-best-horror-stories-xviii.html

"Necros" (1986) by Brian Lumley

https://jayrothermel.blogspot.com/2021/09/reading-years-best-horror-stories-xv.html

For the safety and sanity of the world: The Burrowers Beneath by Brian Lumley (1974)

https://jayrothermel.blogspot.com/2020/06/for-safety-and-sanity-of-world.html

"The Picnickers" by Brian Lumley

https://jayrothermel.blogspot.com/2023/03/the-years-best-horror-stories-xx-1992.html

"The Thin People" by Brian Lumley

http://jayrothermel.blogspot.com/2022/06/the-years-best-horror-stories-16-1988.html

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My favorite Lumley short stories

“No Way Home” (1975)

“Fruiting Bodies” (1988)

“The Luststone” (1991)

“The Picnickers” (1991)

Jay

30 January 2024

Art: https://images.app.goo.gl/AsYJnJtpNhCAZS169