The Talisman

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Summary: Superb supernatural fiction of good and evil.
Review: An ancient and evil statue unearthed during an archaeological dig travels to London and awakens ancient evil in a house and throughout the city in this spell-binding ghost story written by a top author of supernatural fiction. A family man struggles against terrible influences on his unborn child while his blind wife probes beyond her senses in a series of slow-building, unpredictably satisfying chapters.

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Summary: "Babylon is Become the Habitation of Devils¿"
Review: Having recently read and reviewed Aycliffe's "A Shadow on the Wall," I was interested in investigating more of Aycliffe's horror work. A friend of mine came to the rescue and produced a very nicely bound and presented version of the text. For the record, the text is the same in the 'unlimited' edition, which, unfortunately for those of us on smaller budgets, is just about has hard to find.

Thomas and Nicola Alston, recently moved to London with their son Adam, have set up living in a fine old house previously owned by Peter Lazenby. Lazenby had an excellent reputation as an archeologist, but was also noted for a fondness for female undergraduates and wierd rituals. Tom Alston has taken a position at the British Museum where he runs into and old friend, Edward Monelli. Monelli's wife recently died at a dig in Babylon, and he has returned home grieving, with her last, very unusual find. It is a very ancient statue of Shabbatil, who was the prototype for legends of Satan and other equally unpleasant netherworld characters.

In no time at all, Alston discovers that there is some tie between Shabbatil and the spirit of Lazenby, and that something strange is happening to Adam. When Monelli shows up dead, Alston moves the statue to the Museum, but it is far too late. Atmospheric tension builds as children fall victim to demonic possession, and a plague of blindness begins to afflict the populace. Specters of evil and the dead haunt Tom's family, and this is just the beginning. Alston and his wife seem caught up in a whirlwind as they struggle to find some way to overcome Shabbatil's baleful influence.

It is impossible to resist the tale of pre-Babylonian evil, full of eerie chants, amulets and ghosts. Even though the demonic possession plot has been a bit overused in the last decade or so (blame it on Buffy), Aycliffe does a good job of weaving traditional and original elements together to make a strong tale. "The Talisman" is not as tightly written as "A Shadow on the Wall" though, and some errors are introduced because Tom, the usual narrator, sometimes steps out of his role to comment on another part of the tale. Otherwise, this is as good a ghost story as you might want to read.

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Summary: Ancient Babylonian Evil Haunts Modern London
Review: The author of "The Talisman" studied English, Persian, Arabic and Islamic Studies at the universities of Dublin, Edinburgh, and Cambridge, and lectured at the universities of Fez in Morocco and Newcastle-upon-Tyne. In his introduction to this book, Aycliffe assures us that, "The Babylonian bits(for the most part) are accurate, as are the Arabic and Persian references. I share with (M.R.) James the tendency to give in to temptation and provide my readers with authentic incantations and and historic personages."

For this reader, at least, the author's authenticity is what made "The Talisman" so fascinating and frightening. The ancient Babylonian demon Shabbatil is made to come alive (or was it ever dead?) through a combination of archeology and evil intent. The resulting plagues of blindness and demonic children form a mystery that is slowly unravelled by Tom, a museum curator and his wife Nicola, a doctoral student. Their son, Adam is one of first children to fall under the influence of Shabbatil. "The Talisman" builds to a horrifying crescendo of evil, and its end is not a tidy gathering-in of loose ends. As the protagonist comments in the final pages, "The past is not dead, it merely sleeps."

Incidentally, Jason C. Eckhardt is the illustrator of "The Talisman", not its co-author.