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Mr. Gaunt and Other Uneasy Encounters Kindle Edition

by John Langan (Author), Elizabeth Hand (Introduction) Format: Kindle Edition
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 136 ratings
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A professor and a graduate student escort a group of soldiers to a remote Scottish island to find out what's buried there; a man plays an audio tape left by his late father and unearths a family history of monstrous deeds; a student receives intimidating lessons at a surreal learning center; a young couple struggle to hold their own against a group of brutal pursuers in a devastated landscape; an artist discovers and becomes obsessed with a mysterious statue.

From Bram Stoker Award-winning author John Langan comes this new Word Horde edition of his debut collection, Mr. Gaunt and Other Uneasy Encounters, a collection of tales both elegant and macabre, steeped in the tradition of the literary weird.

Includes extensive story notes, an introduction by Elizabeth Hand, and a brand new story exclusive to this edition!
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  1. Print length
    285 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publication date
    July 5, 2022
  5. File size
    1517 KB
  6. Page Flip
    Enabled
  7. Word Wise
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  8. Enhanced typesetting
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John Langan is the author of two novels and five collections of stories. His second novel, The Fisherman, won the Bram Stoker and This Is Horror Awards. He is one of the founders of the Shirley Jackson Awards, for which he served as a juror during their first three years. He reviews horror and dark fantasy for Locus magazine. He lives in New York's Mid-Hudson Valley with his wife and younger son, and is slowly disappearing into an office full of books. And more books. --This text refers to the paperback edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. As Elizabeth Hand aptly observes in her introduction to this exceptional debut horror collection, Langan's tales celebrate supernatural fiction's antiquarian and visionary past with as much eloquence and acuity—and terror—as they explore the dark heart of the 21st century. The richly atmospheric title story evokes the weird fiction of both Henry James and M.R. James in its account of a family cursed with a demonic familiar with a ravenous appetite for disobedient children. On Skua Island, a relentlessly creepy monster story, pits a team of modern espionage operatives against an implacable creature of the living dead out of Norse legend. The five tales run the gamut from supernatural satire (Tutorial) to apocalyptic nightmare (Episode Seven), but whatever their theme or tone, Langan shows uncommon skill at balancing character, plot and mood to achieve the perfect pitch for each. Horror readers will welcome a new voice speaking in a classic tongue. (Dec.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the hardcover edition.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0B4K63QBV
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Word Horde (July 5, 2022)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 5, 2022
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1517 KB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 285 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 136 ratings

About the author

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John Langan

John Langan

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John Langan is the author of two novels, The Fisherman and House of Windows, and three collections of stories, Sefira and Other Betrayals, The Wide, Carnivorous Sky and Other Monstrous Geographies, and Mr. Gaunt and Other Uneasy Encounters. The Fisherman won the Bram Stoker and This Is Horror Awards for superior achievement in a novel. With Paul Tremblay, Langan co-edited Creatures: Thirty Years of Monsters. He's one of the founders of the Shirley Jackson Awards, for which he served as a juror during its first three years. Currently, he reviews horror and dark fantasy for Locus magazine. In 2020, his fourth collection, Children of the Fang and Other Genealogies, will be published by Word Horde Press.

John Langan lives in New York's Hudson Valley with his wife, younger son, and many, many animals. He holds a first degree black belt in the Korean martial art of Tang Soo Do.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
136 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Paul Mcmahon
5.0 out of 5 stars Time to get caught on a modern master horror writer.
Reviewed in the United States on December 23, 2023
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Book came a little late,good condition,gonna wait till xmas to start reading,footnotes makes stories sound promising.
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Addicted2Amazon!
4.0 out of 5 stars Intellectual, Literary...and Creepy!
Reviewed in the United States on October 5, 2011
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I consider myself a connoisseur of horror anthologies. Ok, not a very good one, but I read enough that I know what I like, I know what, in my opinion, constitutes a good story, and I am acquainted with a lot of the established masters of the genre.

Or at least I think I am. And then I discover another new writer that I can't believe I have never heard of.

"Mr. Gaunt and Other Uneasy Encounters" is a collection of 4 exceptional long-ish short stories and 1 excellent novella. I was initially a little skeptical to purchase an anthology of only 5 stories by one author that I hadn't heard of. The story premises and reviews, however, hooked me, and I decided to obtain a copy.

I enjoyed this book! His style is very...literary, I think I can say. His description and sketching of character background is incredible. If writing about less gruesome subject matter, his work would definitely find a wide audience among people who love a strong, descriptive turn of phrase.

But he is talking about gruesome subject matter, thank God! The first story, "On Skua Island" was probably my favorite. In this tale, a professor travels to a remote island off the coast of Scotland to study a relic. Naturally, he soon regrets this decision. I'll admit that the beginning caught me off guard (a group of friends are discussing scary stories in an Oceanside house on a gusty winter night). Though the action was slow at first, I immediately found myself chuckling at the conversation that the friends were having (I thought the interaction the author created was brilliant and dead-on). Then the story began in earnest, and the unfolding atmospheric creepiness was top-notch. When the climax hit, I was a tiny bit disappointed because the build-up was so great, but the story ultimately is still a winner.

I felt even more torn about the title story "Mr. Gaunt." This story hits the ground running right away: A young man's father has just died and has left a cassette recording for his son to be played upon his death. The deceased then begins a very odd and disturbing story about a member of the family...and the butler. I found the build-up in this tale very chilling, very disturbing...and, again, was quite let down by the Big Revelation. Nonetheless, the character building and plot build-up that Mr. Langan weaves still make it an awesome work of fiction in my mind.

The story "Tutorial" was also excellent. A horror story for writers about writing, I found it quite creepy with an "ok" ending.

The awesomely-named "Episode Seven: Last Stand Against the Pack in the Kingdom of the Purple Flowers" is a post-apocolyptic tale with a very unusual writing pattern. Very creative, very non-linear. What's so damn scary about this tale is the lack of knowledge for the protagonists. They have no idea what happened to the World, to civilization. But they have their theories, many of which sound so wild...but you're actually afraid that they might be correct. Again, the characters' portraits are very strong and three-dimensional.
The final story, "Laocoon, or, the Singularity," is a novella. The plot itself was very creepy to me: A failed artist/struggling art teacher finds a very strange statue in the alley by his house. The figure is...not human. He adopts it. Not wise.
This story goes into character development even more deeply than his other stories. To be honest, I was rather annoyed at times by the relentless backstory upon backstory. It was done extremely well, and Mr. Langan is absolutely brilliant at it...but well, I wanted to get back to what was happening with that damn statue. And this time, when the end came, I personally was caught off guard and found the ending very satisfying. A great horror story, if a little heavy on the "man's search for himself" topic.

Though I didn't absolutely love the stories, I did greatly enjoy them for their originality of voice and intellectual way that they were written. Mr. Langan's writing is a fresh breath in the genre. Recommended!
21 people found this helpful
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Mac6uffin
5.0 out of 5 stars John Langan's First Story Collection Back in Print
Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2022
Verified Purchase
I think it's also my favorite. Here is where John Langan came into his own as a horror writer. Five stories from his start selling short stories (a sixth was added to this new edition, the shortest one but still good). All diverse and most playing with tropes of horror and writing.
Recommended to all horror fans.
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Steven Lehti
3.0 out of 5 stars Nice try, but mixed bag
Reviewed in the United States on June 16, 2009
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Langan's story collection strikes me as the ungainly product of honest literary ambition kneecapped by tired (and unintentionally humorous) horror trappings. His characters and literary style are actually more interesting and imaginative than his supernatural elements. "Mr Gaunt" and "On Skua Island," for all their effective creation of dread atmosphere and tension, conclude with cheesy and ludicrous rampages by homicidal skeletons and bog mummies that produced giggles in this reader. If the setups for both stories hadn't been so strong, I might not have laughed so hard at the climaxes, or felt so disappointed. The novella "Laocoon" is a perceptive portrait of a gifted but failed artist, but is undercut by a predictable ending that reduces this overlong story to little more than a bloated TWILIGHT ZONE episode (and a lesser one at that). I agree with reviewer Randy Cook when he cites the provocatively titled "Episode Seven: Last Stand Against The Pack In The Kingdom Of The Purple Flowers" as the strongest of this uneven lot. It boasts an unusual and imaginative structure and leaves you wanting to find out what happens next, even as you really don't need to (on account of the fullness of the story that Langan presents here).

To conclude, Langan demonstrates a good enough sense for creating reality, mood, and character that I would prefer to see him leave horror and fantasy behind and try his hand at non-genre fiction.
13 people found this helpful
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Louis Rosenstock
5.0 out of 5 stars A good read
Reviewed in the United States on March 31, 2023
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No remarks.
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Top reviews from other countries

asocrates
4.0 out of 5 stars Weird and macabre stories
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 16, 2021
Verified Purchase
Pleased to find this rare book on Amazon - ex-library but excellent condition with protective sleeve. A collection of disturbing stories - strange and thought provoking.
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