plot outline sounds like a straightforward occult ad-
venture, Paine uses his inventive imagination to en-
rich the background. Some of the monstrous figures,
for example, are creatures who might have been
given life by Jesus Christ himself. The mix of Egyp-
tian lore and Christian beliefs and heresies is skill-
fully woven together in this highly atmospheric and
often vividly realized novel.
Paine drew on many of the same sources for his
second novel, The Colors of Hell(1990). This time
the protagonist is involved in a search for fragments
of glass that were forged with the blood of saints,
rumored to give them unusual powers. The quest
brings him into contact with a secretive order of
nuns, who have been concealing something from
the outside world ever since they were founded.
Paine’s third novel is Owl Light(1990), which also
mixes supernatural horror with religious themes. In
the midst of a controversy about the teaching of
the theory of evolution at a local school, a town be-
comes involuntary host to an enigmatic woman
who can bring dead animals back to life and com-
mand them to perform various acts. She becomes a
center of great controversy when she asserts that
her powers derive from her pagan beliefs and that
this disproves the truth of Christianity.
Paine had quickly established a reputation for
intelligent, sometimes controversial, and always
engrossing horror thrillers, but he fell silent for the
next 15 years. His fourth novel, Steel Ghosts
(2005), which involves a haunted steel mill, signals
a welcome return, a less ambitious but relentlessly
suspenseful novel. Michael Paine is the pseudonym
for John Curlovich.
“Paper Dragons”James P. Blaylock(1986)
This very unusual short fantasy starts with the nar-
rator waking one morning to find his bedroom in-
fested with blood-red crabs. He chases them out,
but they return in greater numbers. The entire
area is overrun with them for some time, with the
smaller creatures giving way to larger and larger
ones, until the last two pass by, each as large as a
small automobile. One of the crabs gets into a
neighbor’s garage and shreds the stuffed dragon
that he, Filby, had been keeping safe for a friend,
the famous magician Augustus Silver. This world,
we discover, resembles ours only in part, because in
this California the nature of matter can be altered
so that life and nonlife are no longer separate
things. It is possible for a talented magician to take
inorganic material and turn it into a living being,
such as a dragon.
In anticipation of Silver’s arrival, Filby begins
constructing a new dragon to replace the old one.
As the day approaches, Filby frantically struggles to
complete his project, convincing the narrator that
he should travel into the city to meet Silver and
bring him back. Although he tries to do just that,
he fails because Silver has diverted himself on an-
other trip. Then his attempt to visit a town made
of discarded dragon parts comes to nought, and he
returns to find that Filby is beginning the process
of dismantling his dragon, initially to find an ap-
parent fault in the design, but eventually as an act
of uncreation. Indeed, none of the characters
achieve their goals except a tomato worm that suc-
ceeds at last in becoming a moth.
Most fantasy fiction, even that that takes
place in magical otherworlds, explains the rules
that govern the setting so the reader can feel
comfortable within it. BLAYLOCK’Sversion of our
world is more than slightly off kilter, and there are
hints that it is even stranger than what we are
shown. The things that motivate his characters
are just the same, and their failures are just as
tragic. Although not prolific at this length, Blay-
lock has written several memorable short stories,
of which this, a World Fantasy Award winner, is
his best.Paxson, Diana L.(1943– )
Diana Paxson started appearing in fantasy antholo-
gies during the late 1970s and published her first
novels, Lady of Light(1982) and Lady of Darkness
(1983), a short while later. Both novels are set in
Westria, a postapocalyptic version of California in
which magic works, and are fairly straightforward
tales of a king and his efforts to retain his throne
despite the opposition of evil sorcery. Her third
novel, Brisingamen(1984), is much more interest-
ing. A contemporary woman discovers Freya’s neck-
lace, a magical artifact with immense powers. Loki
detects its presence as well and returns to the268 “Paper Dragons”