Pretty good creeper in the more conventional vein. [a:Jonathan Aycliffe|330393|Jonathan Aycliffe|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-d9f6a4a5badfda0f69e70cc94d962125.png] throws in even the kitchen sink in this one, Exorcist, Mummy, Rosemary's Baby, Omen, you name it, it's probably in there. Still he keeps the creeps coming and the action going. Not a great character builder but enough to make you care about the affected. Well written even though Aycliffe admits he's trying to appeal to a younger audience.

Aycliffe sort of deprecates his own work, even saying they are nothing but entertainments that he wants to sell well. However, he doesn't write down and respects the reader's intelligence. Still, there is a bit more here than just fun. ( )

In the run up to Christmas in six of the last seven years I have read one of Jonathan Aycliffe's brilliant modern Gothic horror novels. He has a way of conjuring up a thick atmosphere of dread through building up the tension through sounds and glimpses of evil, with sparing use of overt shock tactics. This one revolves around the discovery of an ancient Babylonian talisman and a statue that predates even the Babylonians, representing a primeval version of Satan (Shabbatil). It may sounds a little corny but this is a really tense and gripping novel (short as well at well under 200 pages, though it didn't feel short, in a good way). Academic Tom Alton 's life is affected with the most tragic of consequences for his family and some of his friends. The vanquishing of Shabbatil at the end was a little too sudden and easy to be wholly convincing in context, but the ending was studiedly ambiguous as some of his other novels. If you don't know this author, I recommend him - his books are most similar to Susan Hill's The Woman in Black, so if you like that, you should like Aycliffe's work. ( )

There are some writers who can consistently give me the creeps. Ramsey Campbell is one. And Jonathan Aycliffe is another, in NIAOMI'S ROOM, THE MATRIX and his other great ghost stories of the '80s and '90s.

THE TALISMAN proved to be no exception, although it's not a ghost story as such. This is more along the lines of THE OMEN or THE EXORCIST, and has echoes of both amid its depiction of an ancient evil brought out of the Middle East. Where this surpasses genre conventions is in the background; Aycliffe is an expert on the history of the region, and it shows in the accumuation of small but significant details that are slowly built up, layer upon layer, until the full extent of the evil is revealed.

It's a strangely old-fashion book though. It's twenty years old now, but feels even older, and reads like a throwback to those aforementioned classics of the '70s. That's no bad thing though, and I had a great time with it.

It's taken me a long time to get round to it; I have the Ash Tree Press limited edition hardcover, and it's been on my shelves all these years unread. I'm glad I finally got to it, and it's given me an urge to revisit his other works again, which is no bad thing.



( )