Todd Grimson

I have a thing for Todd Grimson, his novels are sharp, clean, and tracking the pulse of cool before the cool folks know what they are looking for. His groundbreaking vampire novel ‘Stainless’, and the stylish Voodoo-chic of ‘Brand New Cherry Flavor’ are solid works deserving the attention of horror and speculative fiction fans.

Grimson is not to be pigeon holed as just a novelist. Over the years, his Short Stories have been published in various magazines and compendiums. ‘Stabs at Happiness’ is a new collection of shorts is comprised of previously published work, both under his own name and varied pseudonyms.

There are thirteen stories in the collection. As with all Short stories, readers will find that certain shorts resonate more with them than others. I found myself commonly wishing that there were more to the stories, that they were a single chapter of a book I could pull from a shelf and consume liberally. This does not read as "incomplete" only that i wanted more. and am greedy. Others were not much more than a lengthy character sketch, which many people I know would love. As such approach this collection with gleeful skepticism, you may not be dragged into every tale, but those which grab you won’t let you go.

Stand outs from my reading:

- “Brighter and Brighter”, a none too lengthy ride with a man and a child in an old Plymouth. Blood recently spilt and a code of ethics in the way of an easy escape, their conversation raises mixed feelings of honor vs post crime cleanup. I cant tell if I like the driver, or if I want some one to cap him.

- In “P not Q”, a man leaves a bunker in the heat of the desert, freshly showered and dedicated to the underground project he is part of. Picking a man up at the airport, turns out to be more confusing than the underground org is expecting. I was as confused as the characters on this, bur it was enjoyable.

- “Lamentations of Babylon”, Kimberly and Jean-Luc, in a stormy paranoia, traverse a world of beat poetry and film snobbery. It is a mess of human douche baggery, combined with the fall of Assyria. An excellent read, but might require an open wikipedia search for folks unfamiliar with the above key points…

- The title work “Stabs at Happiness” is a total ClusterF*ck of awesome. It is not for everyone.. Read on.. It is angsty, erotic, a fair amount of disturbing. The main character Nikki is a little bit Lisbeth, a little bit Wednesday, and a lotta bit Trinity sans matrix. If you do not care to read about strap-ons and a sad sad boy, you may skip it.. But it is very good.

- The true shining gem in this collection deserves to be stripped out and novelized. “Batista’s Lieutenant” is a Cubano tale that spans multiple years/decades. The characters are vibrant, the story engaging. The trouble is the short story format. This deserves a re-treatment as a full novel, or even a novella. I hope the author gets some additional feedback and gives this story the respectful treatment it commands.
… (mere)

Vampires are hard pressed to be new and exciting. Where Dracula is outdated, Stainless is cutting edge. Where Todd Grimson is subtle and poetic, Anne Rice would be overtly heavy handed. Where this book shines, so would characters from Poppy Z Brite’s “Exquisite Corpse”. This book is not for all readers, it is dark. sexual (often disturbingly), and not handed to readers on a platter.

This book is not so much a Vampire novel as it is a highly readable analysis of human tragedy. Originally published in 1996, Grimson’s Stainless is a jewel in the vamp genre that appears to have been overlooked as a just another piece of pretty glass. It seems to have aged perfectly, coming back into print with a fist-full of mid-1990′s authenticity; Where characters still listen to tape cassettes along side compact discs, and Godflesh is still an industrial/metal band whose name is recognized. Because of the time-capsule effect and the concise wording, this book really shines as something different than the norm on the market today. The same authenticity lended to it by age differentiates it from modern works trying to ride a hipster trend of anachronistic verbiage.. You read this book and it IS 1996 again.

The story itself is nothing new. What is different here is the writing style and the approach.

Vampire, vamp thrall, insert some conflict here, but instead of inflated undead ego or a sparkly love story, you have something a bit unusual. Stainless follows (in most areas) Justine and Keith. Justine is a vampire of unknown age. She is essentially illiterate, immigrated to the US from France, and has a tough time remembering the details of her life, whether by age or the trauma of non-life it is unclear.. She is stuck in survival mode, moving day to day and attempting to remain detached from what she has become.

Keith is a broken man, alive in Los Angeles, guitarist from a now defunct band, his ex-girlfriend dead in South America by suicide. Gangsters have broken all his finger bones, destroying his career. Keith is not a standard Thrall. He helps here even when she is not lording over his consciousness with a hypnotic leash. He has no desire to become immortal, he does not want money or power, all he wants to do is learn more about this undead woman that pays him attention.

Justine, likewise is not the standard vamp. Sure, she has all the conscience issues associated with modern vampire “soul investigation”, but it is not all encompassing. She is written in a manner that makes her shuffle between hot and cold personalities, sometimes caring for others, and often full predatory disregard. She refuses to kill or turn Keith, fascinated by his seemingly suicidal relationship with an arbitrary bearer of death.

The novel is primarily from the perspective of non-vampire humans who are involved, though some chapters focus from an undead POV. In all cases, the text can vary from beautifully descriptive to stuttering and disjointed. This stylization depends entirely on the character and his/her/it’s mindset or occasionally tenuous grasp on reality.

Other characters exist as well, but will not be mentioned here except that one or two of then are just damned evil..

Certain sections of this book were highly quotable
Excerpt, Keith on the topic of his venomous black congealed blood filled killing machine of a girlfriend’s possibility of having a soul:

"It is not a modern question, this consideration of soul. He leaves behind in an instant the nervous irreverence with which one might ordinarily banter about such an unknowable, metaphysical concept– he finds within himself an uneasy but hard-core reverence that he can connect to Justine like a sticky tentacle answering her need."

New paperback edition of this book goes on sale in February, distributed by Schaffner Press.
If you prefer the original cover, or would like it sooner/cheaper, copies from the 1990′s can still be found via Amazon “On-The-Cheap”. It’s worth the cost of a new book however, and you would be supporting a small publishing* (edit- correction) house, so get the nice and shiny new version. They use such high quality materials that the ink is incredibly bold, the page incredibly white, and the lettering is able to be felt by bare fingers on each page.. Pretty awesome all in all from a reading aesthetic perspective.
… (mere)