X's For Eyes

A fairly entertaining post-modern take on some old-fashioned tropes of the science fantasy and horror genres, written with tongues poking through both cheeks.

Enjoyable for its themes and wry wit, but altogether too thin, too hastily sketched to make a lasting impression. Feels like there's so much going on in the world of the story, yet we're shown so little. Much prefer his collected works, but there are still glimmers here for a Barron fan to enjoy.

Another stunning book from my favourite new author. I've yet to be disappointed by anything Laird Barron publishes. As it was only a novella I found myself sighing at the end because I could honestly read this man all day and not get tired of his characters, stories and amazing use of location.

I gave up. Reading the comments here and on other sites about Laird Barron seemed to imply he is the inheritor of HP Lovecraft's inspiration. This is NOT Lovecreft. It's well written, but it's very flippant in style and IMO not at all horror. It reminded me more of Robert Rankin. I'd seriously recommend anyone who considers buying this based on the blurb to download the sample first. It isn't what I expected. Not necessarially bad, but not what it's sold as.

A superb novella that mashes up genres that I enjoy. I'd love to see an illustrated version of this at some point. The novella has many scenes that a good artist could portray. The story is excellent, the narrative races along and provides a rip roaring adventure tale of science fiction, horror, mystery, cosmic horror and more! A pulp masterpiece.. I highly recommend it.

As arguably the greatest exponent of cosmic horror in the 21st century, Laird Barron is criminally underrated. Dubbed as 'the next coming of H.P Lovecraft' and undeniably one of the masters of the the New Weird, Barron writes raw, visceral prose that is laced with eldritch horror and testosterone.Set in 1950s America, X's For Eyes is Barron's latest novella where protagonists Macbeth and Drederick Tooms book themselves an all expenses paid ticket to Hell when they come upon the crashed remains of NCY-93, a probe that their father's company, Sword Enterprises, planned to launch into deep space. The only slight niggle is that the probe is not due to launch for another 6 days, so why is it a smouldering wreck in a crater miles and miles from Sword Enterprises' launch site? And what exactly are the boys going to find on the probe's flight recorder?The Tooms' brothers hell bent for leather ride into The Great Dark takes them to locales ranging from a boarding school for assassins nestling in the Himalayas to the icy confines of a secret underground base deep beneath the ice of Alaska. With cameo appearances from Azathoth, legendary assassins and blood thirsty family patriarchs, X's For Eyes is a baroque ode to cosmic horror that is dripping with allusions to not only the genre at large but also to Barron's own back catalogue. If you are familiar with his work then you will notice a lot of sly winks and nods to past characters great and small and see a bridge form between the Old Leech and Imago mythos.5/5 stars- this novella pulsates with daemonic energy and will leave you breathless and buzzed as it hurtles towards its climax. It'll stick with you and resonate within your cranium in the days to follow. You'll see the bottom of a lot of whiskey bottles.

I got 2 Laird Barron books on the suggestion of a friend. I don't like his style at all. I find them horrible. But it's just a matter of taste I suppose.

Much longer than it's eighty pages I may have become irritated with this novella (that's the effect smug, know-it-all kids have on us middle-aged folk). However, at it stands, X's for Eyes is a thoroughly enjoyable genre-mashing romp, breathless, often funny (though it does sometimes try a bit too hard for the laughs, even at the expense of certain outer-dimensional gods - did you know, for instance, than one of Azathoth's names involves ice-cream?), inventive, generally quite wild. If you're after serious Cosmic Horror, this is not the place to come. If you're after something that riffs off Cosmic Horror and isn't afraid to stir in more mainstream Horror, SF, Adventure, or allow for a notable self-awareness, then this is solid entertainment best read in one sitting.