F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre (1948–2010)

19th century England. A young tattoo artist is approached by an invisible woman, who wants a full-body tattoo, to make herself visible. Unfortunately, her troubles don't end at invisibility. She's from an alternate dimension full of Lovecraftian horrors, and is pursued by an Ultimate Evil Villain called the Dreadful Eye. The tattooist, who falls in love with the woman sight unseen (ha ha), attempts to help her in her quest to free her dimension of tyranny, assisted by a young Aleister Crowley.

OK, sounded quirky enough to be interesting.

Unfortunately, the book suffered from poor research and/or simple ignoring of facts.

I think the portrayal of Crowley was meant to be funny, but it was wildly inaccurate.

More bothersome were the descriptions of tattooing. The first thing I noticed was that the book states that the protagonist was first employed "sterilizing his uncle's needles." The concept of sterilization for surgical intruments was only introduced in the latter half of the 19th century. I doubt very much whether tattooists bothered, at that point in time.
Then, the author goes on to demonstrate a profound lack of knowledge of tattooing, stating, for example, that tattooing the face (genitals, etc) would involve life-threatening surgery to remove the skin, rearrange the veins and blood vessels, insert the ink, and then replace the skin!!! What!!!???
I know several people with facial tattoos, it's no biggie. Tattoo ink is just barely subcutaneous, it doesn't involve veins, blood vessels, or surgery AT ALL.
This mis-assumption involves a lot of the book, so it's really quite disturbing to the reading experience.
Also, since the ink IS subcutaneous, it doesn't actually color the skin - it shows THROUGH the skin. So if you tattooed someone whose skin was invisible, they would NOT pass for normal, because the texture of their skin would still not be visible. Rubbing foundation makeup all over your body would work much better.

ANYWAY.
The villains are lifted in direct "tribute" to Lovecraft. (Much chanting of "Tekeli-li" is heard). However, it kinda just comes off as unoriginal.

And finally, I didn't think the quality of the writing, in general, was really up to professional standards.… (más)

F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre's The Woman Between the Worlds is weird horror set in 1898 and featuring luminaries of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn as central characters in a tale of invading aliens from another dimension. The portrayals of Macgregor Mathers, W.B. Yeats, George Bernard Shaw and other historical figures are rendered with near-parodic broadness, so that the book definitely leans toward camp. But it is essentially an adventure story, with genuinely outre elements and real moments of horror. By way of example, the fact that the chief menace SPEAKS IN ALL CAPS is both alarming and silly.

The book is structured as the journal of a humble and obscure Englishman, a tattoo artist by trade, and the other chief protagonists are an invisible woman who calls herself "Vanessa" and a young Aleister Crowley (age 23). The introduction of the invisible woman generates an enigma reminiscent of the 1859 story "What Was It?" by Fitz-James O'Brien. Much more explanation is furnished here than in O'Brien's story, but it's a point in MacIntyre's favor that his approach to weird invisibility captures the Victorian flavor so neatly.

I liked The Woman Between the Worlds much better than the highly comparable novel The Arcanum by Thomas Wheeler. Wheeler's book is set twenty years later in New York, but also features Aleister Crowley among various literary figures confronting supernatural threats. MacIntyre's book is both funnier and scarier, and his monsters are far more Lovecraftian, despite the fact that Wheeler had Lovecraft for a principal character! In both books, the pacing is rapid and cinematic--both actually feature train chases.

The Woman Between the Worlds is light reading for those who like this sort of thing; I finished it off in two days.… (más)

“You’ve got to read this!” is the most common phrase in any conversation of which I am a part. Frequently recommended to me are books of which I’m unaware or titles that wouldn’t usually interest me. I tend to read a lot in the SF, mystery, horror and contemporary lit genres, so it always surprises and occasionally delights me when someone tells me I have to read, say, a regency romance. I’ve made it a mission to read some of these recommended books.

Last is a book recommended by a customer from my Crown Books days more than 15 years ago. The Woman Between the Worlds is, to the best of my knowledge, the late F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre’s only novel under his own name. He’s written a number of short stories and makes regular appearances in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.

Set in late Victorian-era London, The Woman Between the Worlds begins with the invisible woman Vanessa entering the unnamed protagonist’s shop and contracting him to give her a whole body tattoo so that she might be visible again. The story quickly changes direction, but to describe it further would ruin the mystery of who or what Vanessa is.

MacIntyre makes good use of his setting, touching on the technological marvels of the day (electric cars) and utilizing Aleister Crowley as a main character. A. Conan Doyle, William Butler Yeats, George Bernard Shaw and Bram Stoker, among others, make appearances. MacIntyre occasionally overdoes it, having his characters describe likely common things in un-coversational detail. But on the whole this is an excellent book which will appeal to those who enjoyed Jonathan Barnes’ or Mark Frost’s books. -Scott… (más)