Blood(1970). During the 1940s he also wrote for
radio. He was an unusually accessible author, often
responding to letters from fans and contributing to
amateur journals. His wry sense of humor and gift
for the macabre have rarely been equaled.
“The Bones Wizard”Alan Ryan(1984)
There is an infrequent but recurring theme of
music in modern horror fiction, particularly rock
music, which has led to at least three anthologies
of rock-oriented short fiction and several bad hor-
ror movies as well as one of the classic novels in
the genre, Armageddon Rag(1983) by George R. R.
MARTIN. Other writers have turned to other forms
of music—folk and country in the Silver John se-
ries by Manly Wade WELLMAN, jazz in “Night
Ride” (1957) by Charles BEAUMONTand The Blues
Ain’t Nothin(2002) by Tina L. Jens, and classical
in Angel of Darkness(1990) by Charles DE LINT.
Alan Ryan contributed another significant story to
this tradition with “The Bones Wizard,” which in-
volves Irish folk music and which won the World
Fantasy Award.
The protagonist is Sean, whom we first see as
a child so obsessed with music that his mother is
convinced it will eventually be the death of him.
Not a day passes that he does not go off on his own
for at least a little while and make music in some
form. Ryan then presents the rest of Sean’s life in a
series of flashbacks and flash forwards, so that his
story fills itself in like a mosaic. As he grows older
his love of music becomes stronger, not weaker,
leaving little room for other concerns—love, a ca-
reer, or even friendship. Although he is talented
with many instruments, the one for which he has a
particular affinity is a folk instrument known as the
“bones,” literally constructed from them to make
an unusual and distinctive percussive sound.
Sean is never satisfied with inferior materials,
an insistence that pays off as he becomes a re-
spected member of an Irish folk band. His quest for
perfection takes him to a mysterious man who has
the reputation of making the very best “bones”
that can be had, instruments so well crafted that
there is a kind of magic in the sound they produce.
Although we do not learn the truth until the final
paragraphs, this is a kind of deal-with-the-devil
story, for the catch is that the only way that Sean
can acquire the perfect instrument for his needs is
through sacrificing his own leg bones. Although
there is only a hint of the fantastic in the story, it
leaves the reader with a haunting, even unsettling,
image. Ryan wrote several other high-quality sto-
ries, but none of them ever rivaled this understated
classic.“The Book”Margaret Irwin(1935)
Although Margaret Irwin was popular during her
lifetime as an author of historical novels, it is for
her comparatively small body of ghost stories and
occult fiction that she has been best remembered.
This is the most famous of her stories, a cleverly
constructed and altogether eerie tale of a man who
discovers that there is some knowledge best left
undiscovered.
Mr. Corbett is happily married with three chil-
dren, a successful investment broker who often
reads himself to sleep at night. For this purpose the
family has accumulated a bookcase full of odds and
ends, including a selection of very old books that
they acquired at a rummage sale. One evening
Corbett chooses a book from the second shelf, but
changes his mind. When he returns to exchange
the book, he notices a gap much wider than can be
accounted for by his own withdrawal, which leaves
him vaguely disturbed, although in the morning
the books are all tightly packed once again. In fact,
one of his daughters insists that that particular
shelf is always full, no matter how many books are
taken away.
Corbett begins to notice another change in his
life. The books he formerly enjoyed and the au-
thors he once admired now seem to be laden with
hidden meaning, snide commentaries, hidden cru-
elty, and implied perversions. No matter what he
reads, even the most innocuous material betrays
the deviousness of the writer, and Corbett finds
himself reading compulsively in an effort to ferret
out their secrets. This sour attitude spreads into his
personal relationships with his family and with his
business associates.
Eventually, Corbett finds another book on the
shelf, one written by hand and in Latin. Curious,
he begins to translate it, discovering that it is a28 “The Bones Wizard”