Lee is a well known aficionado of the macabre and lives up to form in The Canals of Anguilar. A world/dimension hopping tale of cowards on the run. I read this story shortly before going to sleep – not advisable. It’s not particularly horrific in content but Battersby does manage to deliver presence of understated creeping dread.
And this tone is where these two stories mesh quite well. O’Callaghan in her realist piece Legacy, manages to paint an ordinary picture of idyllic seaside England and underline it with, if not creeping dread, a certain weighty sadness.
The Canals of Anguilar as an introduction to non-speculative fiction readers is a good choice. There’s some grounding in the real world before we make our way across worlds or dimensions and how this is done is mostly hand waved in folk tale like fashion.There’s no need to have a significant reading in the classics of the genre. The dread Battersby conjures up translates across all genres.
For readers who don’t generally read realistic or literary fiction I think O’Callaghan does a good job of revealing subtle horror in the everyday ( I shall say no more).
I am happy to have read another Battersby tale ( he hasn’t disappointed me yet) and am keen to read some more of O’Callaghan’s work. So a successful pairing to my reckoning.
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