Gerald Suster - The Devil's Maze

[nightreader]

The Devil's Maze - Gerald Suster (ROC 1994)

Suster’s first novel is an ambitious tale. Set in Victorian London it pits satanic aesthete Dr. Lipsius against unconventional gentleman about town Charles Renshaw. Dr. Lipsius is aided by three devilish thrill seekers, while Renshaw is teamed up with feisty sophisticate Lady Clarissa Mountford, herself an unconventional character.

Lipsius and his clan outline their plan in the Prologue, to perform a Blood Quest carried out with “subtlety, ruthlessness and artistry”, resulting in human sacrifice.

Renshaw and his friend Lady Mountford become embroiled in their elaborate scheme, perpetrated by Lipsius and his three disciples, all popping up in various guises. Also involving a writer of weird fiction named Septimus Keen whose stories weave into the main narrative, and a character known only as The Girl With Flaming Red Hair, there is a tangled web of half truths and lies. Thankfully, after so much effort by Suster, it is all satisfyingly sewn up at the end, even with a few surprises.

In an Author’s Note at the end of the book Suster reveals his love for the works of Arthur Machen. In the ‘Devil’s Maze’ he has used the same device as Machen in his tale “The Three Impostors”, telling his story interspersed with short pieces of fiction (Suster using the character of Septimus Keen). In Machen’s “The Three Impostors” one of the tales within the tale is called ‘The History of the Young Man With Spectacles’ featuring a character called Dr. Lipsius, in “The Devil’s Maze” one of Lipsius’ followers actually mentions this.

Suster isn’t afraid to refer to other writers works, he describes a book used in the Robert Bloch story “The Shambler From The Stars” (‘The Mysteries of the Worm’ by Ludwigg van Prinn). I suspect that the character of Septimus Keen was also partly that of H.P. Lovecraft – in the stories there are references to the “spaces between the stars” etc.

There is a lot in “The Devil’s Maze”. If you’re a Machen (and Lovecraft) fan there is probably a lot more – I only cottoned on to some of it after finishing the book and reading a bit about Machen. At times the structure was a bit frustrating, just when you want the plot to move along another tale by Septimus Keen is introduced, I felt it slowed things down a lot but I appreciated it more when I knew why Suster had done it. I think “The Devil’s Maze” would definitely benefit from more than one reading.

[dem]

Great review, nights!

I still only have three of his novels, but Suster is maybe the author I'm most grateful to Vault for putting me on to. He's like a very clued-in, occult savvy Dennis Wheatley. The Devil's Maze sounds typically convoluted in terms of plot and I'm sure Mark will want a copy, always assuming our big Machen man doesn't have one already!

[Calenture]

Train spotter's note:

I was just looking to see if I had any Gerald Suster. The database only turned up one item unfortunately, and that not fiction. He wrote an introduction to the Sphere 1981 edition of William Hope Hodgson's The Ghost Pirates.

[nightreader]

I only got into this because I'd enjoyed reading 'The Block' - although this is obviously a very different book.

Here's a sadly brief bibliography (nicked from the 'Fantastic Fiction'website):

'The Devil's Maze' (1979)
'The Elect' (1980)
'The Scar' (1981)
'The Offering' (1982)
'The Block' (1983)
'Stryker' (1984)
'The Force' (1984)
'The Handyman' (1985)
'The God Game' (1986)
'The Labyrinth of Satan' (1997)

He also wrote quite a few non- fiction books, a number of them about Hitler and the Nazi use of Black Magic.

Gerald Suster died in 2001.

[dem]

nightreader said:

I only got into this because I'd enjoyed reading 'The Block' - although this is obviously a very different book.

That's something I particularly rate him for. From your review, The Block sounds very different to, say, The Scar which has little in common with The Elect which bears absolutely no relation to the stripped down approach he adopts for The Handyman. I think with the death of Dennis Wheatley in 1977, publishers were on the loo out for a new king of black magic which maybe explains why Suster, Eric Ericson and Jack Shackleford came to prominence at roughly the same time and gave us a mini golden age of saucy sorcery.

[justin]

Extract from a great letter I received from Stephen Sennitt re The Fanatic-

"Gerald Suster as author of Blowfly? I met Gerald on the 'occult scene' in the mid-1980s and talked to him on several occassions about his novels and pseudonyms, but he never mentioned 'David Loman' to me. However, by that time Gerald had become a 'serious' occultist, going on to write books on Crowley, Israel Regardie and the tarot. I was one of the few 'serious occult types' who had a big interest in more pop-cultural subjects, like comics and pulps and paperbacks. So perhaps Gerald wanted to forget 'David Loman' amongst the curiously (and ironically) image-conscious London occult scene of the 1980s...? Of course Gerlad returned to pulps in the late 890s with The God Game and The Labyrinth of Satan, two great sequels to his first Arthur Machen inspired novel, The Devil's Maze. Gerald was great fun; could sometimes be a pain in the a*se- very much like his books, if that doesn't sound too cliched... when he dies several years ago we'd lost touch more or less."

[marksamuels]

I think Gerald Suster wrote the intros to most, if not all of those Sphere Hope Hodgson paperbacks. He certainly did for Carnacki and for The House on the Borderland. Not sure about The Nightland, but doubtless someone here knows.

I remember when I first met Gerald (I didn't meet him more than three times) and mentioned the Crowley biography The Great Beast by John Symonds. He took me aback somewhat by launching into a detailed critique about how all the facts in it were wrong. (At the time I knew next to nothing about old Aleister.) He involved himself in some disputes with other occult scholars that were often very pugnacious. Sometimes literally so. I don't know if it's true but I heard a story that he'd once interrupted a talk by Bob Gilbert and the two came to blows on stage.

Which reminds me. Didn't he write a book about boxing too (having been a practitioner of the art in his youth)?

From my limited experience, he was the soul of hospitality, first to the bar and fastest to hand around his ciggies, but then I tended to get on with him and thought he was great fun. It may have helped that my interest in the occult was purely as a basis for literary inspiration now and then.

Mark S.

[jkdunham]

marksamuels said:

Which reminds me. Didn't he write a book about boxing too (having been a practitioner of the art in his youth)?

Gerald Suster wrote a couple of boxing books; Champions of the Ring, about the great heavyweights, and a lightweight companion volume, Lightning Strikes. Both published in the early '90s.

[Calenture]

marksamuels said:

I think Gerald Suster wrote the intros to most, if not all of those Sphere Hope Hodgson paperbacks. He certainly did for Carnacki and for The House on the Borderland. Not sure about The Nightland, but doubtless someone here knows.

Sadly the Sphere (1979) edition of The Night Land has no introduction. Probably a perfect introduction to it would be Brian Aldiss's account of it in Billion Year Spree. I'm not sure if I have that book, but I'm sure an extract covering The Night Land was published in the BSFA's Vector.

I think it's the most fascinating of all unreadable books. One day I'll make the attempt again.

Hodgsons' The Boats of the Glen Carrig (Sphere, 1982) has a 1972 introduction by Lin Carter.

My copies of The House on the Borderland and Carnacki the Ghost Finder are both Panther (no introductions).

[sean]

calenture said:

Sadly the Sphere (1979) edition of The Night Land has no introduction. Probably a perfect introduction to it would be Brian Aldiss's account of it in Billion Year Spree. I'm not sure if I have that book, but I'm sure an extract covering The Night Land was published in the BSFA's Vector.

I think it's the most fascinating of all unreadable books. One day I'll make the attempt again.

Yeah, there's a couple of pages on it in the updated book Trillion Year Spree, probably much the same as in the earlier version.

Sounds like an interesting novel.

[franklinmarsh]

Alternate cover . Sphere paperback 1979.

TO ANN

and in memory of Arthur Machen

[andydecker]

After all the posts and anecdotes about Suster and after reading the great Black Pearl I had to get a few of his novels. I started with The Devil´s Maze which I have read the first four chapters to date.

Hm, frankly I expected something different. Don´t get me wrong, I love those victorian pastiches and there is some clever und fun writing on display here, but it all seems very, how do I put it, playful? I´d thought it would be more edgy, I guess.

Now I don´t have read much of Machen´s stuff and won´t get a lot of references which I gathered are there, and after the second tale within a tale within a tale I kind of had to fight the impulse to skip a few pages ahead.

But I have to say that the writing itself is marvelous. He makes this kind of period piece seem to be so easily done when it is course the opposite as shown by so many writers who thinks seing crap movies like From Hell twice or a few Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes eps enable them to write convincing period piece novels.

Looking forward to finishing this.

[dem]

i've still not tracked down The Devil's Maze, but it doesn't sound typical of those i've read which, as far as i remember, are all set in the (then) present day (although The Elect - Satanic goings-on in the Vatican - concerns a conspiracy spanning three centuries). As mentioned, he varied them a fair bit. The Offering was likely written to land him the treasured Hamlyn 'Nasty' tag. The Scar: lots of sex 'n witchcraft. The Handyman even dispenses with the black magic altogether in favour of a demented stalker theme. Those last two should certainly be edgy enough for you. The guy really should've been massive!

[andydecker]

So I finished this on the train and said hmm to myself. After some time I got the hang of the tale within a tale concept. And the stories of Mr. Septimus Keen were fun as was the very constructed plot of a rather complicated and pointless intrigue.

The ending was a disappointment though, much too linear and anticlimactic for my taste.

Still, I didn´t feel cheated and will browse Machen´s Three Imposters these days, which I accidently have in a nice edition. In this particular case it can only enrich the experience.

[ramseycampbell]

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this, but Ann (the dedicatee) was then his wife. She was my editor at Century for The Influence and Ancient Images.