On the Hierophant Road

Chambers’s (The Dead in Their Masses) new collection of stories (blending science fiction, horror, folklore, myth, and magic) proposes that there are places beyond the world we know: places where humans can fly, where having a singular body is condemnable, where comic book characters plot to overthrow their creators. Chambers hands readers a map to these unknowable worlds and points the way into the shadows; he is a capable guide. There’s confident worldbuilding throughout, even in the collection’s shorter tales, and Chambers nails the many narrative styles deployed in the stories; the work really sings when its weirdness is married to narrative tropes readers know well. The collection is at its best in stories like “Meet the Tuskersons,” a strange “whatever happened to…?” story about the only human star of an all-walrus family sitcom, and “He Who Burns,” a bit of crime fiction that pits a grizzled alchemist against a fire elemental where cleverness—not magic—saves the day.