Silence times Three
Please note: Silence times Three is a collection of out of print¸ public domain fiction and is not a gaming supplement.
Welcome to the first in the "Classics of the Occult and Supernatural" line of books. The goal of this¸ and future books¸ is to bring attention back to the originators of the genres of horror¸ gothic¸ fantasy and supernatural literature. There is a great¸ untapped stream of early writers out there in the public domain that so many readers of today do not even know about and traditional publishers and bookstores do not help to change that. Once¸ the genre sections of bookstores (both new and used) sagged with the output of creative writers¸ both past and present¸ but these days the only concern of publishers is what is new and shiny. Hopefully¸ in some small way this line of books will be able to change that. With technology and the internet today¸ few works can truly ever die. In fact that should be the motto of "Classics of the Occult and Supernatural": nothing truly dies. And as this present volume and the future ones will demonstrate some works just do not deserve the death that they have received. For this first volume of what is hoped to be many¸ we present three of the Doctor John Silence stories written by horror great Algernon Blackwood.
From H.P. Lovecraft's extraordinary Supernatural Horror in Literature: "Less intense than Mr. Machen in delineating the extremes of stark fear¸ yet infinitely more closely wedded to the idea of an unreal world constantly pressing upon ours is the inspired and prolific Algernon Blackwood¸ amidst whose voluminous and uneven work may be found some of the finest spectral literature of this or any age. Of the quality of Mr. Blackwood's genius there can be no dispute; for no one has even approached the skill¸ seriousness¸ and minute fidelity with which he records the overtones of strangeness in ordinary things and experiences¸ or the preternatural insight with which he builds up detail by detail the complete sensations and perceptions leading from reality into supernormal life or vision. Without notable command of the poetic witchery of mere words¸ he is the one absolute and unquestioned master of weird atmosphere; and can evoke what amounts almost to a story from a simple fragment of humourless psychological description. Above all others he understands how fully some sensitive minds dwell forever on the borderland of dream¸ and how relatively slight is the distinction betwixt those images formed from actual objects and those excited by the play of the imagination.
"Mr. Blackwood's lesser work is marred by several defects such as ethical didacticism¸ occasional insipid whimsicality¸ the flatness of benignant supernaturalism¸ and a too free use of the trade jargon of modem ‘occultism.' A fault of his more serious efforts is that diffuseness and long-windedness which results from an excessively elaborate attempt¸ under the handicap of a somewhat bald and journalistic style devoid of intrinsic magic¸ colour¸ and vitality¸ to visualise precise sensations and nuances of uncanny suggestion. But in spite of all this¸ the major products of Mr. Blackwood attain a genuinely classic level¸ and evoke as does nothing else in literature in awed convinced sense of the imminence of strange spiritual spheres of entities.
"The well-nigh endless array of Mr. Blackwood's fiction includes both novels and shorter tales¸ the latter sometimes independent and sometimes arrayed in series. Foremost of all must be reckoned The Willows¸ in which the nameless presences on a desolate Danube island are horribly felt and recognised by a pair of idle voyagers. Here art and restraint in narrative reach their very highest development¸ and an impression of lasting poignancy is produced without a¸ single strain