The Spectral Link

The Spectral Link is something of an event, and this slim volume is likely to be out-of-print before publication. If you are a fan of Thomas Ligotti, you should preorder.

First, a brief word of explanation. Ligotti has been suffering from writer’s block, but a brush with death has sparked him back into creative life. Fortunately, the surgery was a success and he’s now writing again (albeit no more quickly than before the block appeared).

This book contains two powerful novelettes, both falling into the classification of existential horror. The first is a rather deft piece of plotting in which we meet a man who’s never been completely in synch with the world. Indeed, he’s been considering the possibility of abandoning life by committing suicide. Then he receives a somewhat strange letter. Perhaps it’s from his estranged family. His dreams also take on a slightly different tone. It all builds to a nicely ambiguous ending. The second is a form of allegory in which we see a society dealing with the arrival of a different group of people. Rightly or wrongly, the native population withdraws to give the newcomers space, but there may come a point when one local may want to take action to defend his land against invasion.