Adam Niswander (1946–2012)

This review is from the perspective of a Cthulhu mythos fan. From what I had read of the fiction of Adam Niswander I had been decidedly lukewarm to it (The Sand Dwellers is a mediocre Cthulhu mythos novel, and Blurring the Edges of Dream is his short fiction, the best of which is not mythos). When Hippocampus advertised The Hound Hunters I was of course interested because it was about the Hounds of Tindalos, some of my favorite beasties. Now that I have read the novel I am feeling a bit mislead. Maybe it is about the Hounds of Tindalos but maybe not. Mr. Niswander's official website (which does not appear to have been updated lately but does have a terrific photo of the author) makes no mention of these Hounds being from Tindalos like the blurb on the Hippocampus website. I even went back and reread the original story by Frank Belknap Long, for the first time in at least 15 years. The Hounds of Mr. Niswander communicate telepathically. There are bulls and bitches that whelp, and they run in a pack with a structure like a pack of wolves except perhaps for strict pair bonds. They come from a different dimension, beyond the bounds of time, but somehow this pack got lost between dimensions and is striving to return to their home. Their dialogue is decidedly mundane in human terms; they like to eat people who stray into their clutches. They are not described but perhaps use the imagination of their victims to clothe themselves. They don't really resemble those in Long's original, which are things, not really hound like, that come from the origins of time itself and move through angular rather than curved time-space, a rather definitive characteristic that is not mentioned at all in this novel. They are described as lean and hungry, and they arose from an unspeakable deed done "at the beginning," with foulness expressed in angles and purity expressed in curves. Most latter day Hound writers skip this part, making them inscrutably alien and indifferent as opposed to evil, but if Mr. Niswander is fashioning his Hounds after Long's, he has a pretext for them to be evil and opposed to the forces of good represented by the shamans. The reason I spent this much space on this topic is that it is not clear to me that The Hound Hunters is a Cthulhu mythos book. Only a word from the author could settle this.

OK ignoring this dilemma let me evaluate this novel on its own merits. Mr. Niswander lives in Phoenix; he obviously has a great respect for the Native American tribes there and for their mysticism. His whole novel is founded on this interest and respect. The shamans of the Shaman Cycle represent the twelve tribes, a group of tribes from the southwest. I could find nothing about this grouping on a brief internet search; I don't know if it is something original to the indigenous culture or Mr. Niswander's creation. Perhaps someone can enlighten me. At any rate, these shamans gather annually and are tasked by their spirit guides/counselors/gods with some great deed that preserves the world. I never read The Charm and The Serpent Slayers but I received complimentary copies of both as part of a promotion from Hippocampus. At least The Serpent Slayers was about them opposing a descendent of Yig, so it holds some appeal for mythos fans. Unfortunately for me, this passion of the author's did not translate into better fiction; it may have had the opposite effect. In his effort to include all twelve tribes there is no emphasis on one and everything is only superficial. He has about 20 main good guy characters and none of them are well developed or distinguishable. All the mysticism blurred together for me to the point where it was pretty much the same, without impact. I wish he had focused on just one or two of these shamans. The book has 302 pages with text starting on page 11. The action takes place over a few days in July, and there is a break of 3-4 pages between each day with no text. Within this page count there are 76 chapters (!) and an epilogue. As you might imagine, everything is VERY choppy. As usual I would have forgiven this but the prose never rose above the plodding. Essentially the descendent of an ancient family from New Guinea is selling a drug called the chaos drug that allows its users to pierce the veil and go beyond the bounds of pace and time. He is trying to use them to contact the Hounds, so he may enlist their aid to take over the world. Of course those poor users who succeed end up as prey for the Hounds. The best parts of the novel were the brief encounters of the prey with the Hounds and the machinations of the bad guy. As I noted before, everything and everyone else blurred together. Mr. Niswander likes his shamans so much they don't really have any warts, their magic doesn't have any flaws and they don't make any unforgiveable blunders. The climactic battle ended up being good shamans and their spirit guides vs the evil Hounds; it was not exciting and no one was really at risk. In the end everything was obviously going to be OK. Nonetheless, The Hound Hunters was a not too demanding read with some good gory scenes and I got through it in a week or two. I guess I didn't dislike it, even if I didn't really like it.

So my bottom line? I think die hard mythos fans don't need to read it. If you read it don't expect a good Hounds of Tindalos yarn. Instead wait for the Tindalos Cycle, edited by Price and coming soon from Hippocampus Press. As far as the quality of the book, it is about on the level of Hive, perhaps a better read than that book, more readable than the stories in Lair of the Dreamer and nowhere as good as The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray. Students of Native American culture may appreciate it more than me. I suppose I will read The Serpent Slayers to see what Mr. Niswander has to say about Yig, but it is definitely not going to the top of my list.… (mehr)