ening within the children. Once again, they save
the day, assisted by a helpful wizard but largely on
their own.
Elidor(1965) transports a new group of chil-
dren into an even more frightening world that is
barren and ruled by a sinister figure who uses dark
magic. The four children acquire four magical arti-
facts and remove them to our own world, protect-
ing them despite pursuit by the forces of evil and
thereby helping to restore the health of the blasted
otherworld. Once again, Garner uses dark imagery
and intense sequences that have only recently
been deemed acceptable in children’s fiction, this
time also including a wealth of literary and mythic
references. The Owl Service(1967) draws from
Welsh myths and is essentially a ghost story, al-
though rich in detail and surprisingly complex.
The episodic Red Shift(1973) deals with three sep-
arate men who may be alternate versions of one
another, all of whom are influenced by subtle
magic from an ancient artifact.
Most of Garner’s subsequent work was not
fantasy, although he has written numerous fairy
tales. The majority of these were collected as Fairy-
tales of Gold(1989). “Feel Free” (1980) is also of
particular interest. Garner appears to have aban-
doned fantasy almost entirely since 1990, but the
powerful images in his early novels assure him an
honored place in the history of the field.
Garton, Ray (1962– )
As early as his first novel, Seductions(1984), it was
obvious that Ray Garton was willing to explore the
linkage between extreme horror and sex to a de-
gree unusual among his peers. The supernatural
entities in his first novel are a race of women, ap-
parently survivors from a prehistoric age, who can
change their appearance in order to better seduce
their victims and lure them into an underground
lair. They are a form of incubus, although less ethe-
real, and capable of recovering from wounds that
would be fatal to a human being. The protagonist
discovers their existence, which attracts their un-
welcome notice. Darklings(1985) makes the horror
even more personal in the form of a tentacled
creature that lives inside human bodies, com-
pelling its host to do its bidding. Garton’s first two
novels clearly heralded a significant new talent,
and his third original novel measured up to that
early promise.
Live Girls(1987) is a vampire novel, and since
there is often a deep current of sexuality in modern
vampire fiction, it was clearly an appropriate sub-
ject for Garton to tackle next. The title is a clever
play on words because the protagonist visits a
nightclub that advertises live girls and falls under
the thrall of a female vampire, who is, of course,
not alive at all. He eventually regains the will to
fight her, but only after some unusually overt sex-
ual content. A sequel, Night Life,has been an-
nounced but has not appeared as of this writing.
Sexuality is an even stronger component in Cruci-
fax (1988), in which a charismatic cult leader
arouses considerable opposition because of what is
perceived as his exploitation of many of his
younger followers. He is actively evil rather than
immoral, however, a supernatural being who has
taken human form. The content was so explicit
that his publisher edited Garton’s novel so severely
that he published the uncut version through a
small press as Crucifax Autumn(1988).
Lot Lizards(1991) is another vampire story. In
this case the undead prey on a group of travelers
trapped by a blizzard at a truck stop. The New
Neighbor (1991) involves a succubus feeding on
her neighbors. There is another cult in Dark Chan-
nel(1992), this time led by a man who is demoni-
cally possessed, but for the first time the plot seems
oddly muted and without tension despite the hor-
rific acts described. The Folks(2001) is a novella
about a family harboring a dark secret amid a rash
of serial killings. Garton’s most recent novel is
Zombie Love(2003).
A large portion of Garton’s short fiction,
which is infrequent but almost always exceptional,
has been collected in Methods of Madness(1990)
and Pieces of Hate(1996). Among his best at this
length are “Monsters” (1988), “Shock Radio”
(1990), “Dr. Krusadian’s Method” (1991), and “A
Night Out with the Boys” (2003). Garton has also
published several young adult horror novels as
Joseph Locke, of which the best are Kiss of Death
(1992) and Vampire Heart(1994). He has been a re-
liable but slow-paced contributor of above-average
horror novels whose reputation has suffered fromGarton, Ray 129