The 37th Mandala

Rating:
Summary: Very Scary Stuff. Great Book!
Review: I had a hard time getting through this first little bit of this book. However, after that it was no holds barred scary stuff.

Derek Crowe, in his push to write "the" book that will get him a following, he alters some ancient, mystical writings. Thus he unleashes the mandalas. Rather than being the benevolent beings he represents them as, the mandalas are truly scary beings that feed on human passions.

Even at the end when you think things are going to be better and at least leave you with hope, your fooled. Maybe there is hope, maybe there isn't.

The other two main characters Michael and Lenore are very believable and interesting. They keep the plot moving to it's climax. Every character in this book only adds to the story. Rather than distracting the reader with too many subplots and substories, this book just leads the reader from opening page right to the end.

A true winner.

Rating:
Summary: HAPPY IT'S BACK!
Review: I had a hard time getting through this first little bit of this book. However, after that it was no holds barred scary stuff.

Derek Crowe, in his push to write "the" book that will get him a following, he alters some ancient, mystical writings. Thus he unleashes the mandalas. Rather than being the benevolent beings he represents them as, the mandalas are truly scary beings that feed on human passions.

Even at the end when you think things are going to be better and at least leave you with hope, your fooled. Maybe there is hope, maybe there isn't.

The other two main characters Michael and Lenore are very believable and interesting. They keep the plot moving to it's climax. Every character in this book only adds to the story. Rather than distracting the reader with too many subplots and substories, this book just leads the reader from opening page right to the end.

A true winner.

Rating:
Summary: Marc Laidlaw's books are incredible...
Review: I just now finished The 37th Mandala and all I can say is the cliched "wow". Strange, violent, bitter but not hopeless this sadly undervalued work stands head and shoulders above many other, more high profile horror books...I've read a fair amount in the genre and it's clear that Laidlaw has here created a unique piece that should take its place amongst the treasured classics. Few other novels of the last 25 years do as much as this book to elevate the craft above the usual terror trappings and to advance it into an intelligent realm of speculative fiction. Overall, a brilliant novel that will frighten, entrance and amaze you.

Rating:
Summary: Easily one of the best horror novels of the 90's...
Review: I just now finished The 37th Mandala and all I can say is the cliched "wow". Strange, violent, bitter but not hopeless this sadly undervalued work stands head and shoulders above many other, more high profile horror books...I've read a fair amount in the genre and it's clear that Laidlaw has here created a unique piece that should take its place amongst the treasured classics. Few other novels of the last 25 years do as much as this book to elevate the craft above the usual terror trappings and to advance it into an intelligent realm of speculative fiction. Overall, a brilliant novel that will frighten, entrance and amaze you.

Rating:
Summary: Another great book like 'The Cerimonies'
Review: I must say that after 'Cerimonies' by TED Klien [ what happened to him?, this is another great book I read. The blurb by King and Campbell are worthy. I thank Lesuire to publish the book. Also I recommand Leisure to tell some of its writers to read this book; Picirili and Clegg chiefly. This book migght take a while to pick up but go on. I dont know why Campbell, who is a good judge of books, himself is not writing the book which a person can understand? I read 'Incarnate' I know something is happening but what? May be re-read it. This is a straight book with out anything like 'Debby is dead' or other such things. The author cleverly personifised Steven Hawkings! and that person mentioned Hawkings! Any other good stuff by this author? I will not give away story or stuff. The bottom line is 'dont play with unknown'

Rating:
Summary: Mark Laidlaw understands the nature of horror
Review: In the Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocide in Cambodia, a journalist is seeking a manuscript. But this manuscript is more than just a pile of papers, a memoir written by yet another nameless victim of Khmer killing squads, it has a life of its own, and the entities within it want to be known to the world. These entities - thirty-seven mandalas which feed upon human passions - want more scope for their needs. They want more food.

Horror doesn't have to be invented. True horror exists in our world as a recognition of our own darkest depths; how can we help but recoil from tales of torture and murder so egregious that some people persist in believing the events described could not have happened? Mark Laidlaw understands the nature of horror, and he uses this knowledge to root his novel, THE 37TH MANDALA, firmly in those shadowy realms which we do not wish to see, but cannot quite look away from. He opens the book in in a place which stands as a monument to the Cambodians - between one and two million by most estimates, as many as a quarter of the country's inhabitants - who were tortured and murdered by the Khmer Rouge, their own countrymen, between 1975 and 1979, their bodies strewn on what is now known as "The Killing Fields." It's to his credit that he does not attempt to explain away evil by attributing it to the influence of the mandalas (or any external force) because that would ring false. Rather he presents us with a group of living things that feed upon cruelty and evil and perhaps intensify it, but which never create it. And it's here that the real horror of this book lies, in the knowledge that the mandalas exist in a sort of symbiotic relationship with human beings, gobbling up the emotions which we are constantly throwing off, deriving more nourishment from the strong ones, delighting in the malign ones as if they were emotional t-bone steaks.

Laidlaw has created a nearly seamless narrative that carries the reader along on a flow of ideas as much as on the action, a trait he shares with Stephen King. His characters are both believable and memorable. I didn't much like Derek Crowe, Lenore, Michael, Elias Mooney or the others, but I doubt I'll forget them easily precisely because they were so human and fallible. I recognized these people and, despite myself, I identified with them. Though I had a few problems with the narrative they are, perhaps, more my problems than Laidlaw's. I found some of his choices a little gratuitous, and frankly, the novel's end was rather more downbeat than I like. Despite that, I derived a good deal of pleasure from the skill with which Laidlaw presents his ideas, in his tight, unflinching prose which forces the reader to bring a good deal of thought to the story. In one particularly brilliant section, the protagonist (naming her would give away too much of the plot) witnesses a scene between mother and child from two levels of consciousness - human and mandala. Laidlaw gives us a scene of terrible rage and cruelty in counterpoint to the ordinary dealings between a petulant child and an irritated mother, and in a moment the workings of the mandalas become at once clearer and more ambiguous. If spiritual and emotional ambiguity disturb you, or if you don't feel like working with the author to get the meat of the story, then skip this book. But if you're prepared for a book which forces you to think about these issues, then THE 37TH MANDALA is well worth your time.

Rating:
Summary: Mark Laidlaw understands the nature of horror
Review: In the Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocide in Cambodia, a journalist is seeking a manuscript. But this manuscript is more than just a pile of papers, a memoir written by yet another nameless victim of Khmer killing squads, it has a life of its own, and the entities within it want to be known to the world. These entities - thirty-seven mandalas which feed upon human passions - want more scope for their needs. They want more food.

Horror doesn't have to be invented. True horror exists in our world as a recognition of our own darkest depths; how can we help but recoil from tales of torture and murder so egregious that some people persist in believing the events described could not have happened? Mark Laidlaw understands the nature of horror, and he uses this knowledge to root his novel, THE 37TH MANDALA, firmly in those shadowy realms which we do not wish to see, but cannot quite look away from. He opens the book in in a place which stands as a monument to the Cambodians - between one and two million by most estimates, as many as a quarter of the country's inhabitants - who were tortured and murdered by the Khmer Rouge, their own countrymen, between 1975 and 1979, their bodies strewn on what is now known as "The Killing Fields." It's to his credit that he does not attempt to explain away evil by attributing it to the influence of the mandalas (or any external force) because that would ring false. Rather he presents us with a group of living things that feed upon cruelty and evil and perhaps intensify it, but which never create it. And it's here that the real horror of this book lies, in the knowledge that the mandalas exist in a sort of symbiotic relationship with human beings, gobbling up the emotions which we are constantly throwing off, deriving more nourishment from the strong ones, delighting in the malign ones as if they were emotional t-bone steaks.

Laidlaw has created a nearly seamless narrative that carries the reader along on a flow of ideas as much as on the action, a trait he shares with Stephen King. His characters are both believable and memorable. I didn't much like Derek Crowe, Lenore, Michael, Elias Mooney or the others, but I doubt I'll forget them easily precisely because they were so human and fallible. I recognized these people and, despite myself, I identified with them. Though I had a few problems with the narrative they are, perhaps, more my problems than Laidlaw's. I found some of his choices a little gratuitous, and frankly, the novel's end was rather more downbeat than I like. Despite that, I derived a good deal of pleasure from the skill with which Laidlaw presents his ideas, in his tight, unflinching prose which forces the reader to bring a good deal of thought to the story. In one particularly brilliant section, the protagonist (naming her would give away too much of the plot) witnesses a scene between mother and child from two levels of consciousness - human and mandala. Laidlaw gives us a scene of terrible rage and cruelty in counterpoint to the ordinary dealings between a petulant child and an irritated mother, and in a moment the workings of the mandalas become at once clearer and more ambiguous. If spiritual and emotional ambiguity disturb you, or if you don't feel like working with the author to get the meat of the story, then skip this book. But if you're prepared for a book which forces you to think about these issues, then THE 37TH MANDALA is well worth your time.

Rating:
Summary: Very unique
Review: Laidlaw has created one of the more unique horror novels I have ever read. I must admit that I had some difficulty getting through the first 50 pages or so of this novel, but after that, I simply could not stop reading this story.

Derek Crowe is a hack writer of new age/occult self-help books. His only concern is how to write "the" novel that will make him rich and famous. His disdain for his readers as well as his rather stunted personal life, however, combine to leave him feeling empty. While on the obligatory speaking engagement, Crowe meets the very young Michael and Lenore Renzler. What none of them realizes is that Derek's latest novel is a deceptively benevolent presentation of some serious evil. As it turns out, Derek has knowingly altered these ancient texts of the mandalas, thus allowing a powerful, horrible force into the world. Derek, Michael and Lenore are all drawn into a spiraling life-threatening chase to fight or join the mandalas.

Laidlaw's writing is superb. Even though it took me a few pages to finally get into the story, this is a novel that certainly reached out and clawed its way into my imagination. The subject is rather unique, and this is a breath of fresh air for the horror genre. Laidlaw creates interesting, believable characters, and the mandalas are some of the creepiest things I've read about in a long time! This is definitely a novel well worth your time. It's intelligent, captivating and terrifying--what more do you want in a novel?

Rating:
Summary: Spirits in the sky
Review: Marc Laidlaw has chosen an unusual subject matter for this novel: mandalas - astral creatures that feed on human pain. A spiritualist named Elias Mooney discovered them and shared their existence with Derek Crowe, an entrepreneur whom he trusts. But Crowe is more interested in making money off the phenomena, and he twists Mooney's writings into palatable new age drivel, generating a cultish religion and gaining celebrity for himself. He doesn't truly believe in his mentor's teachings, until two young followers are all too successful in breaking the barrier between the planes and come to him, desperately seeking help.

THE 37TH MANDALA is a well-written drama about meddling with greater powers but it never really becomes as involving as it could have. After a powerful prologue, the story settles into a typical adventure with typical characters. The mandalas themselves, though nicely depicted, are never really frightening and actually become less interesting as the story progresses. The importance of the number 37 is stressed at the very start of the book (which, amusingly, contains 37 chapters) and the significance of the title mandala is strongly hinted at, as if generating some kind of build-up. Yet later on this idea is abandoned, as it seems everyone has a mandala of their own - and that's something we have seen before. (John Shirley's WETBONES comes to mind.)

It's a decent novel, and most people will probably enjoy it, but I had higher expectations.

Rating:
Summary: Another great book like 'The Cerimonies'
Review: Run for your life, some doilies with really funky shapes and colors are attacking! Try as I might I could not get up to the level of terror the author wanted to instill with this particular villain--the mandalas. I found the main character very unlikable so I really didn't care what happened to him. ...