It's a tribute to the intensity of Snellings' vision that, without undue derivativeness or monotony, Kramer's stable of authors is impelled to take her lead and build impressively upon it. Strange Attraction opens with an autobiographical fragment by Harlan Ellison, who remembers his own early acquaintance with the Carnival as a scapegrace runaway. These are a strong cocktail, searing, ruthless, lyrical, and despairing all at once. But the true merit of Strange Attraction may emerge more clearly from a detailed look at a few selected stories. De Lint is a central figure in contemporary Urban Fantasy, and his tale is very much his own, rich in atmosphere as ever.
Writers can do homage while being profusely inventive.
Your Art is necessary, he seems to tell Snellings, but it is also exorbitant, and you must suffer as you make us suffer. Strange Attraction is an impressive and important book. And with a regular trade hardcover edition promised in due course, its accessibility can only increase. Review by Nick Gevers . More of Nick's reviews are online at Parsec .