The Ends of the Earth

Lucius Shepard

Lucius Shepard has been one of America's most underrated writers for years; this is one of those collections that faded into obscurity quickly, but that deserves to be taken out, dusted off, and thrust upon the nation with the marketing campaign it deserves.

The Ends of the Earth features fourteen of Shepard's finest stories from early in his career. They span the globe from Vietnam to Guatemala to New England, taking on all things weird and wonderful, and are uniformly excellent. Fans who came to know Shepard through Twilight Zone magazine and the excellent Vietnam War fiction collection In the Field of Fire will already be familiar with "Delta Sly Honey" and "Shadows," two of the book's strongest pieces. Others will no doubt already know the novella "The Scalehunter's Beautiful Daughter," published on its own as a limited edition, and the kind of story that cannot be described with any accuracy; it must be read to be believed. All, and the rest of the stories here, are mesmerizing.

That said, this is a collection of early work (well, relatively); while the stories here are undoubtedly strong, sometimes they don't reach the gloriousness of some of his later work, especially the novels. That's not to say this stuff isn't worth reading; to the contrary, seek this book out however you have to.