About

Bob Leman's cult classic, Feesters in the Lake, is an eclectic collection of stories that defies easy or obvious categorization re they fantasy? Are they science fiction.

Elements from each can be found in any one of these narratives However, his style skirts the conventions of genre fiction, thereby producing an oeuvre befitting any moniker So, why spoil the fun by attaching a label.

Et's just call them what they are: genre-bending, nebulous tales from a distorted mind itching to scratch the reader's cerebrum Though, if definitions are your game, look no further than “Sturkeyville,” published for the first time in t's a brief ode to the paradise we can clearly see but can never visit.

It's an Atlantis on land that exists within a bubble surrounded by wandering roads and hills that invariably warp us around our destination, leading us to question our eyesight and even our perception of reality his subversion is a mechanism by which most of his work operates There's the pastiche of 1950s Americana found in “Bait,” where the door-to-door salesman is king ut the idyllic setting of a wholesome suburban homestead turns into a case study of the cold, calculated human nature inherent in us all The story “Industrial Complex” falls under the same post-World War II romanticism that only acts as the window dressing for an underbelly of distrust and paranoia t features a man branded as crazy for seemingly outlandish thoughts But he can see what others are unable or unwilling to see o, who's the crazy one now? If you wish to leave this world for another, “Window” may be the escape you seek ne of Leman's most vexing and insightful stories, it features a portal to a universe that seems much like our own And we know curiosity won't keep us from investigating even at the risk of our own welfare hen there's the indefinable “Instructions,” which plays out like a recipe for artistic manipulation Follow the directions as stated and you won't be harmed hough, you might become unsettled or unhinged by Leman's clairvoyance The eponymous “Feesters in the Lake” is a story of Lovecraftian horror that begins in the bottom of a lake where “boneless pale creatures with ragged mouths full of teeth” reside ut rather than revel in their grotesque existence, Leman uses them to expand on the rationale behind the tall tales that created them However campy it starts, the script flips so fast you'll question who's on the side of honesty and goodwill, or if it even exists As you see, there's a bend or curve to every story (including those that aren't listed) avigating through each is part of the fun, even if the answers don't come easy But if you work hard enough, you might find them buried in Leman's prose, where he avoids the pitfalls committed by lesser authors on't waste a second Grab your shovel and get digging his edition of Feesters in the Lake is 568 pages, with illustrations by Bob Eggleton, and is edited with a new introduction by Jim Rockhill.

Edition Details

• Limited to 500 signed copies.
• Signed by Jim Rockhill and Bob Eggleton, with a facsimile signature by Bob Leman.
• Dustjacket, endpaper, and frontispiece art by Bob Eggleton.
• Interior artwork by Bob Eggleton.
• Illustrated endpapers.
• Top-edge stain.
• Ribbon marker, head and tail bands, bound in Brillianta black cloth.
• Two-color stamping on spine and front boards.
• Smyth-sewn binding.
• Book size 6 × 9 inches.
• Number of pages: 568.

External Links

• Feesters in the Lake. Centipede Press page for Feesters in the Lake
• Bob Leman (ISFDB). ISFDB entry for Bob Leman