“There were a couple of factors I wasn’t aware of when I accepted a pdf review copy of this book from PS Publishing: Firstly, that it was actually a new edition of a book that originally came out just over 20 years ago. In fact, this is the first book release of the complete, restored text of the novel, which was published by Hodder & Stoughton in 1998. That particular year had seen a collapse of sales in the horror fiction market, after the boom of the 80s. Authors were being dropped by the big publishers by the dozen and Laws reports that this novel also suffered from a rotating editorial staff, who all had their own views on what was best for the book. Scenes were cut, which Laws strongly disagreed with, but he lost the battle. The publisher was contractually obliged to publish it, but they needed it to be at minimal cost to them, which obviously led to a desire to reduce the size and therefore the unit cost by as much as possible. There was no publicity provided and the paperback was rushed out as fast as possible after hardback publication. I imagine it went out of print fairly quickly. Twenty years later, PS Publishing conducted a survey of their readership/customers and asked them which horror novel, now out of print, was the one they'd like to see again in a special edition. CHASM came out top of their list.

“The second thing I wasn’t quite prepared for becomes rather obvious when armed with the above information. It’s a big book! It’s a whopping 567 pages long! As a rule, I generally tend to prefer shorter novels and novellas. Nevertheless, I dived in. We are introduced to several characters who, in moments of extreme stress, find themselves caught up in massive earthquakes. We are introduced to the main protagonists individually as the cataclysmic event which completely upends their lives takes place. It has to be admitted that none of them have particularly great lives in any case. This is very much a story about how people may or may not be able to step up to the plate when the going gets bad. The question is would they survive this or would they all die?

“It’s not an easy book to talk about without revealing too much detail. When certain characters turn to the dark side, it’s not really that much of a surprise. I don’t believe the author really intends it to be, it’s more comparable to watching a crack grow wider prior to something breaking, so that’s no great of criticism. Laws writes so well that he manages to slip an idea like the Cherubim by me, despite the fact that it initially seems a little silly. I found myself wondering if there wasn’t a slight influence from those nasty little dolls in the ‘Barbarella’ movie. Everything eventually starts to take on a somewhat cosmic element as the story progresses. I think the best recommendation I can give is to say that I finished this rather long novel in just two sittings.

It is appropriate that this volume should end with “He Speaks for Those Who Do Not Die.” For although the narrator is an adult by its conclusion, it’s all about a boy who is captivated by the occult and mysterious, the eldritch arts, dark imaginings as Darrell himself must surely have been at that age. I do not suggest that he is the protagonist’s original. Only that the acorn does not fall far from the tree. As a young man, Schweitzer fell in love with weird fiction, horror, the uncanny. He never fell out of love with them. 

To have a vision and to stay true to that vision are the two things that are the making (or, in their absence, the breaking) of a writer. Darrell Schweitzer was seized by the desire to write weird fiction and dark fantasy at a very early age, and has stayed the course through the ensuing decades. It is why he is still standing after all the vicissitudes of life and publishing, when so many other writers found themselves shut out of the market long years ago.

It is a rare honor for a writer to have the best of his short fiction collected in two volumes. It is a still moment in time when he can pause in his labors, draw a deep breath, and take stock of what he has accomplished and how far he has journeyed. It is also an opportunity for the person writing this introduction to say: Darrell, if you will, come forward. 

Please, take a bow.

“Everything I need to know I learned from fandom.”

Darell is a fan in the same way that Robert Silverberg, Ray Bradbury, Harlan Ellison, Isaac Asimov and a host of other great writers were fans. In other words, they came up as youngsters and young adults through a very unique and codified subculture that began in the days of Hugo Gernsback (or even earlier, if we count the Amateur Press Associations that shaped Lovecraft and his coevals) and which continued, basically undiluted, until the great fracturing brought on by the internet and social media. This “proud and lonely” subculture preserved and honored the whole continuum of fantastical literature. It encouraged sharing of knowledge, the expression of wit and originality and creativity, while tolerating eccentricity and different points of view. It promoted critical thinking, irreverence and deep friendships among a tiny minority of non-mundane folks. It was, as the saying went, “a way of life.”

Darrell’s immersion in this milieu, his adherence to its precepts and worldview, has carried over into his notable professional existence as a critic, reviewer, interviewer and anthologist. He operates from a fannish platform of seeking out fresh knowledge relevant to the field; encouraging those newcomers who share the same attitudes; honoring traditions and ancestral voices; and maintaining a balanced perspective on all these enterprises. For fandom was also, paradoxically, “just a goddamn hobby.” The current proliferation of savagery and nuclear-armed flame wars that occur all too regularly in the current degenerate state of fandom is antithetical to Darrell’s civilized and cultured take on the literature we all love.