“Agents of Dreamland” Caitlin R. Kiernan — review

Recently I have read two excellent short story collections — The Secret of Ventriloquism by Jon Padgett and Teatro Grottesco by Thomas Ligotti, which I can honestly recommend to any weird fiction fan. This time I decided to read Caitlin R. Kiernan’s Agents of Dreamland, a novelette that won the Bram Stoker Award in 2017. Why is it worth reading? Let’s find out.

Eventually you’ve got to understand that an answer isn’t the same thing as a solution, and a story is sometimes only an excuse. Nic Pizzolatto

Lovecraftian horror at its best

The action of Agents of Dreamland begins when a government agent called The Signalman is waiting in a typical American diner for a meeting with Immacolata Sexton, who represents another agency. They want to discuss the case of Drew Standish — leader of a bizarre cult. As it turns out, the whole situation is somehow connected with the New Horizons space probe, forgotten movie by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and even monsters from the pages of H.P. Lovecraft’s books.

“Only our minds,” says the alchemist, “need to leave this sphere and make the long, cold journey through the dark. These bodies we wear are no more, my love, than tattered garments we’ve outgrown. In this new world we’ll have new forms, new bodies.