Clock's Watch III: Alpdruck!

It???s very strange coming to the end of a series when you have read all the books consecutively and watched as a character grows on page.

I have literally spent two years ???book time??? with the diminutive Chaos mage Clock as he has fought all manner of demons and been attacked by numerous hellish creatures, including possessed flesh-eating racoons (if this has you blinking our eyes in disbelief that the cute, cuddly rubbish eating delinquents are cute, then think again! Racoons in Coney Island are positively possessed).

There are eleven individual tales in Alpdruck, that all link to give one cohesive story. I like this structure a lot. On the one hand you have read a story that is self-contained and completed, but on the other hand you get the feeling of an overall narrative.

As usual, the book is filled with all manner of strange tales that bend the imagination and introduce a whole host of new enemies for Clock to deal with.

One of my favourites was ???Last Ticket To Party Town??? just for the utterly fantastic image of Clock dressed in platforms and having his customary crossbow strapped to his back. It made me howl with laughter.

Another standout was the final tale in the book ???Zen Bright??? which I have to admit, is the first story that I have seen which includes the pandemic as a backdrop. However, what absolutely cracked me up, was a scene in which Clock and Sal were attending the funeral of Sal???s mother. In a discussion of the reasons for the pandemic, Sal described that it had started due to the Australian???s eating unsavoury items and that this was all documented in the film ???Crocodile Dungaree???, starring Ted Danson.

This absolutely cracked me up for a couple of minutes before I could start reading again.

Alpdruck is full of sublimely ridiculous moments like this but is peppered with gross out horror throughout.

I like Michael Reyes??? books a lot. He has this ???punk??? ethic to writing that I admire, and ever since reading his ???The Cursed Diary of a Brooklyn Dog Walker???, I have loved his uncompromising approach to writing, and he tells stories that he wants to write.

In Apldruck we learn more of Clock???s past and delve deeper into what made him the Chaos Mage he is today. He has always been a character that is removed from the real world as he lives outside this dimension and this suits him fine, although he does have an overarching desire to interact with some people.

In some sense, there is a very ???old fashioned??? style to his writing, particularly with the episodic nature of the stories. I mean you can obviously see the Lovecraftian element to his stories in the way that he will superimpose a whole different world on the normal one which nobody else can see, but it feels so fresh.

However, he will then add some decent amount of grossness to it all, or some utter madness to it.

Another story that stood out for me was the Stigmata of Leo Jackson, which gave me some Prince of Darkness vibes, which is a film that I utterly adore, so when I felt that this was encapsulated in this story I was utterly engrossed.

If you haven???t read Michael Reyes??? books, I highly recommend them. They are full of gross out schlocky horror, absolutely sublime, devilish madness and some cracking comedic moments.