Tournament Of Shadows by Pauline E. Dungate (book review).

Pauline Dungate is something of an SF renaissance woman. She has been a past Arthur C Clarke award judge and is a noted poet alongside her SF, fantasy and horror authorship. Her latest book, ‘Tournament Of Shadows’, is a brand-new collection of her horror stories and some of her poetry. Although many of these stories have appeared in other anthologies, there are also at least six previously unpublished works and this is the first time the previously seen stories have been collected together in one anthology.

Overall, the level of horror in these stories is variable with some straying more into the urban fantasy realm. Dungate shows a deft touch and has a nice readable style of her own in the prose. The author clearly understands that true horror does not come from ghosties and ghoulies but from human beings and the actions they are capable of. This allows some of these stories to be quite ‘harrowing, haunting and strange’ as the blurb would have it.

After a fair introduction by Liz Williams, we launch into the first story, ‘In The Tunnels’. Immediately noticeable is Dungate’s familiarity with Birmingham, UK, which makes elementary sense as it is her home city. Indeed’ at least the first third of the book makes use of this setting after which a wider variety of locations comes into play. It is a credit to Dungate’s travels that the other locations share the same verisimilitude as with her stories in Brum. Anyway, after we read about Bernie’s adventure in the tunnels beneath Birmingham city centre, which informs the cover illustration, we can move onto ‘A Mother’s Love’. Of the two, the former is more traditionally a horror story, having a supernatural element, but the latter is more harrowing as it deals only with plausible people and an unfortunately insane young runaway mother.

After this we have ‘The Magic Roundabout’ for which the title is a clever play on Birmingham’s many traffic junctions. This is tale is more odd than scary and paints a picture of how strange or intolerant humans can be at times. Next we have ‘Nina’, which is a study in how horrifying a person can become when damaged by society and has the strange ability to influence people. This was the first tale in the book that I really found harrowing but I am not certain that I did not miss the point to be honest.

‘The Scent Of Elder Flowers’ is another tale of evil residing in the human heart but alas this one telegraphed the ending twist which took off the impact a bit. This is odd because Dungate is quite capable of delivering a final sentence that turns the whole story on its head and make it a fine surprise and several tales in this book do so with finesse, but in ‘Flowers’ I saw it coming. Oh well.

After this, Dungate really gets into her stride with ‘Skylight’. This is a longer piece, almost a novella and keeps one guessing. There is a subtle form of the supernatural going on but it is almost light enough to assume that the main character might be dreaming or hallucinating the effects. But it builds up to a curious and rather ambiguous denouement.

This completes the tales set in Brum and now we have six of the poems included in ‘The Tournament Of Shadows’. One or two are quite a personal reflection on Dungate’s relationship with literature and two are best described as Birmingham Mythic, both one with that title and the fun Devolution. For my money, my favourites are ‘Underrated’ which I like because of its cleverness and ‘Leaving’, because it is both clever and poignant.

Following the poetic interlude, we start back on the prose with ‘Away With the Fairies’. This is kind of a short adventure with sensible spelunkers who get fatally sidetracked due the presence of unanticipated issues with fungi. After this, we get ‘Night Hunter’ which introduces the protagonist of the same name and his employer Phoebe Makhani. Hunter makes his living by hunting down wild animals that pose a danger or nuisance and usually doing so by night. Phoebe has a supernatural secret and wants to hire Hunter because of his rugged competence. The result is a great fun thriller adventure with a tough man and an impossibly glamorous femme fatal that seems to recall adventure serials from the 30s but set in a thoroughly modern setting. This may not be horror but I know what I like and I like this.

Following this, we have ‘Plant Hunter’ which is a short story about a photographer hunting down a very rare plant about which a previously expired botanist made notes. A slightly Cthulhu-esc tale that features an unexpected monster twist. Alas, if there is a duffer in the selection, then for me this is it.

‘Angelo’s Bar’ however is much more interesting, featuring Venice as the location for both a mother/daughter holiday and the investigation of the tomb of a supposed sorcerer with strange antics ensuing. This is possibly the most effective supernatural tale in the volume, all the more so due to its subtle nature until the end, anyway.

Next, we have ‘Closed Borders’ in which a journalist tracks down the site of a mysterious asteroid crash in Turkey. If the reader is the kind of person who finds ‘Jurassic Park’ to be horror, although I am not so, then this might have more appeal to you. Otherwise, it is a short tale without too much impact.

‘Demon Hunter’ follows and this vies for most impressive tale of the collection. It appears to be a dramatic retelling of a Hindu legend concerning Parvati, the Hindu creator goddess. In this tale, she is protecting mortals by tracking down a demon named Kesin. I am unsure if this is a version of Keshi the horse demon or maybe this is an original demon for this tale? Either way, the tale evokes both Bollywood action and Kipling’s ‘Jungle Book’ in the portrayal of the goddess and demon’s powers. This is the most action-packed story in this anthology and a highlight to boot.

Next we have ‘Chan Chan’, which features the return of Night Hunter and Phoebe Makhani, which now seem to be in partnership. Despite Hunter being the main protagonist, I can’t find it in myself to call Phoebe his sidekick. Anyway. one of Phoebe’s supernatural contacts has alerted the pair to an issue in Peru that the locals think Hunter can solve for them. This was previously published in Theresa Derwin’s anthology ‘Mummy Knows Best’, where it was one of the stand-out stories, although there it suffered a bit without the introduction of Night Hunter we had earlier in this volume.

Antepenultimately, we have ‘Red Slave’, in which a professor at a Midlands UK university examines the cured and mummified body of a slave boy and gets rather too empathically into his work. The horror here is the life faced by the slave and his desire to escape is understandably palpable. His demise is both unfortunate and slightly depressing as it was easy to root for him as an underdog, although the realism of escaped slaves meeting dismal ends does lend the story more authenticity.

Second to last, we have ‘Beneath Namibian Sands’, which features a senior administrator for a charity trying to track down her missing boss in the desert. The expedition with guides and locals runs into trouble and the tale turns into a monster story. Not the brightest tale in the volume, but serviceable enough.

Finally, we have the titular ‘A Tournament Of Shadows’, which is a haunting poem about warfare from 1914 to the modern era and asks us to question who the real heroes of such conflicts actually are. A very thoughtful piece with a genuine message and certainly an effective way to close the anthology.

So, overall, is this set of works worth reading? Well, yes, it is. This reviewer does not pretend to be an expert on horror as I have always focussed on SF and fantasy. But I enjoyed these tales, particularly the ‘Hunter and Phoebe’ stories. I am given to understand there may be more of these and where do I find them? The Hindu action of ‘Demon Hunter’ and several of the poetic works are very clever or dramatically bittersweet. I am not sure I would have ordered the pieces in this book as has been done. ‘In The Tunnels’ is not the strongest opening, neither is ‘Beneath Namibian Sands’ the strongest tale to close the prose with, although the poem ‘A Tournament Of Shadows’ saves the day here. But all the tales are of a good standard of writing with a keen insight on how to affect the reader. Haunting and harrowing by turns then but worth a gander no less.

Dave Corby

January 2023

(pub: Alchemy Press, 2023. 306 page small enlarged paperback. Price: £13.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-91103-418-6)

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