Book Review: "The Science Fiction of Edgar Allan Poe" ed. by Harold Lowther Beaver

As we know, I am a huge Edgar Allan Poe fan. As you also know, I was not entirely keen on the Netflix Series The Fall of the House of Usher due to how far it was from the actual text. My personal favourite story by this author has always been (since I was a young girl) The Cask of Amontillado purely because there are so many ethical arguments involved and because it is so incredibly evil. When it comes to the science fiction works of Edgar Allan Poe though, I have not been able to delve too deeply into them at any given time. I have read my fair share, but I am excited to get on with an entire anthology dedicated only to them.

The anthology opens with a story aboard a ship. This is a narrative in which our main character is thrown from a ship as it begins to sink and only he and a few others make it out alive. The descriptions of the captain and other men drowning is absolutely classic Poe. But one thing is definitely different - I don’t know of many Poe stories set upon a turbulent sea like this one. I have to say that at the beginning, this story felt like that novel I read called ‘The Terror’ but by the end it felt more like a nautical version of ‘2001’. I won’t tell you everything that happens because the ending is absolutely devastating, but what I will say is that I am enjoying these stories as much as his horror ones. Even in Sci-Fi, he manages to weave in scenes of absolute terror.

This continues into stories such as A Descent into the Maelstrom in which Poe again, takes to the seas to witness its dangers and turmoils. It is about an old man recounts his harrowing experience of surviving a massive whirlpool, known as the Maelstrom, off the coast of Norway. He tells the story to a listener atop a mountain, overlooking the dangerous sea. The man was a sailor, and during a fishing trip with his two brothers, they were caught in a terrible storm. Their boat was dragged toward the whirlpool, which seemed impossible to escape.

As the vortex sucked them in, the narrator observed the whirlpool’s patterns and noticed that smaller, cylindrical objects were pulled under less violently. Using this observation, he tied himself to a barrel, believing it would help him survive the descent. His two brothers were lost to the storm, but he was eventually ejected from the whirlpool, miraculously surviving. Although he lived through the ordeal, the experience aged him drastically, leaving him physically and mentally changed forever.

It is possibly my favourite story in the whole anthology and has the most descriptive scenes in all of the text's stories. If you like body horror like I do, then you will possibly love the story The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar. This is one I have not only read before, but it is also one that I have taught in my classes because older students tend to love solving a mystery whilst reading something especially maddening.

In this story, the narrator, a mesmerist, becomes curious about what would happen if a person were hypnotised at the moment of death. He decides to experiment on M. Valdemar, a friend who is terminally ill with tuberculosis. As Valdemar’s death approaches, the mesmerist successfully puts him into a hypnotic trance. In this state, Valdemar confirms that he is dying but is unable to die while under the hypnotic influence. He remains suspended between life and death for several months, his body decaying yet his mind still able to communicate.

Eventually, the narrator attempts to release Valdemar from the trance. Upon doing so, Valdemar's body immediately decomposes into a horrifying, liquefied mass, confirming the disturbing reality of his prolonged state.

As you can see, this anthology is well worth the read and honestly, it is one of the better anthologies I have read this year. But - it is Edgar Allan Poe so what would you expect. It would never be considered bad, it would never even be considered average. This is an A-star of an anthology and I highly recommend it to Poe fans who love his horror stories because there is no lack of horror here.