Meat on the Bone

Stableford (The Elusive Shadows) sets his clever fantasy jeux d'esprit in the Reservation, a vividly realized "Ghetto" where avatars of postmortal existence—vamps (vampires), lykes (lycanthropes), ghosts, zombies, and skellies (sentient skeletons)—have been sequestered by the Larvae (i.e., living humans). The reader's tour guide through this strange territory is cheerful skellie Peterkin. Peterkin's living a carefree afterlife as a postmortal pianist when an injury caused by a zombie prank results in flesh starting to reform on his bones. Has he been traumatically "scared to life," as the old skellies' tale has it? Or is his befuddling condition somehow connected to more sinister machinations orchestrated behind the scenes by other postmortals? Stableford elaborates his fantastic world with admirable gusto, colorfully detailing the nuances of Reservation existence and the often fraught hierarchies of its society: ghosts are disdained by most as snooty intellectuals, and zombies are seen as disgusting. Though his characters are all flights of fancy, readers will relate to their all-too-human motivations. This is a treat. (May)