A review of 'Cern Zoo' by Nick Jackson

The individual stories in this collection are as different as pebbles on a beach.  There is, in fact, a rather nice little story entitled “Pebbles” and, to continue the simile, the landscape of this book (book as beach) is a shifting topography:  the theme of Cern Zoo being interpreted and reinterpreted:  surreally, comically, horrifically.  This is a collection where genres collide, where the waves of one form overlay and modify those of another.  The stories gain something indefinable from one another in the process of mingling.  ‘Cern’ is interpreted variously: the acronym of the research institute, CERN; a pub name; a shorthand reference for the Cerne Giant; an alien planet; a proper name.

The collection opens with a sort of Cold-War murder mystery, “Dead Speak” which speculates on the controversy of scientific experimentation and the idea of an elite science.  This story is followed by a meditation on the process of writing itself.  “Parker” explores the physicality of ink and paper:  ink, particles, collision?

All my ideas of an easily grasped thematic link between the stories were smashed apart by “Artis Eterne”: an intriguing mystery in which a man is powerless to resist the fatal attraction of his home town.  “The Last Mermaid” is a grotesque evocation of the Hapsburg court, populated by a menagerie of weird and wonderful beasts presided over by a deformed and gluttonous monarch.

By this stage of the collection it’s clear that a breadth of style and form has been drawn on to produce a kaleidoscopic concept of CERN Zoo.  “The Lion’s Den” is a suspenseful tale that exploits the darker side of the time/space enigma hinting at the horrors of untamed and untameable beasts and creating a disturbing atmosphere.   “Virtual Violence” is a comic riff on the idea of party-games-that-can-get-out-of-hand and the damage that a pack of cards can inflict.   The story suggests we’d all be better off playing safe with virtual violence.  “The Rude Man’s Menagerie” is a sad and beautifully told story which blends mythological elements with modern day concerns.  It has one of the most convincing fantasy endings in the collection. 

“Window to the Soul” is a quieter piece which explores a single character’s thoughts when faced with the moral dilemma of his literal intellectual suicide and its effect on his family.   “Salmon Widow” is a jigsaw story with a genteel murder mystery at its core and some wonderfully bizarre but believable characters.  Fit the pieces together and you may (or may not) solve the mystery but will be vastly amused by a world of button hooks and fly fishing.  From the delights of salmon we leap into a darker world: a story in which the metaphor of a shattered society is cleverly built up from fragments of animated glass.  The author has an instinct for just how far to go in explaining his looking-glass world.  “Being of Sound Mind” explores the idea of parallel universes from the engaging viewpoint of an aging scientist who suddenly finds himself burdened with a mysterious child.  His nightmarish confrontation with social services leads to a poignantly inconclusive ending and is all the better for it.

Many of the writers in this collection succeed through a subtle manipulation of ideas, rather than too literal revelations and none more so than the author of “Mellie’s Zoo” who achieves an under-stated magic in a story about a group of children who explore a mysterious abandoned zoo.

“Turn the Crank” is one of the few stories that seems to fit squarely into the horror genre rather than the catch-all category of speculative fiction.  The characterisation is excellent and there is a gentle humour that lifts the story.  “The Devourer of Dreams” on the other hand, is more consciously manipulative, addressing the reader directly in an uncomfortable epilogue.  The story has a creepily old-fashioned feel to it; almost as if it may have been stuck in a sealed casket for many years until it found its way into this anthology.

“Just Another Day Down On The Farm” is a bleakly comic foray into the world of animal experimentation, skilfully worked through the perceptions of a pair of blundering lab assistants whose monosyllabic dialogue underscores the mindlessness of their actions.

“Strange Scenes from an Unfinished Film” is a brilliantly composed play on the blurring of reality and fiction in the world of cult horror films in which a man finds his ability to distinguish between screen and the real world slipping.

In the final few stories, the tone veers towards a less focussed interpretation of the Cern Zoo conundrum.  In “Lion Friend” a lonely woman is shunned first by her work colleagues and then finds and loses a friend whose identity seems to dissolve and reform.  In “The Ozymandias Site” an alien intelligence explores the site of the moon landings.  The identity of this alien race is evoked in amazing detail and the final analysis of their findings has a moving quality.

There is good characterisation and some humorous scenes in “Cerne’s Zoo”, a strange story about a man who is capable of communicating with animal spirits and his friendship with a young journalist.    The animal theme is repeated in a brief comic interlude about a sloth, dissatisfied with the slow pace of his life who determines to live life in the fast lane.

From this point onwards, the mood of the collection is decidedly cataclysmic.  Cern Zoo becomes the name of a pub in “City of Fashion”.  Populated by an unconventional cast of characters, the story charts the pub’s fortunes until it is overtaken by an environmental disaster, presumably caused by global warming.  The final story in the book is one of the few which declines any overt references to either CERN or Zoo.  Yet, thematically it sums up the collection.  A sense of alienation and disillusionment invades the lives of the protagonists who are desperate for a secure mortgage-bound existence only to find their hopes undermined by forces beyond their control.

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