I first came across Sterling E. Lanier’s Brigadier Ffellowes in Sherlock Holmes Through Time and Space, as I’ve mentioned elsewhere. To the best of my knowledge, that was the only place I’ve ever heard of the character but rereading that book made me decide to look further.
The stories had been collected in two volumes: The Peculiar Exploits of Brigadier Ffellowes and The Curious Quests of Brigadier Ffellowes. From what I can tell, the second book had a much smaller print run, but I was able to find the first one.
And, as I was reading it, one story seemed quite familiar. With a little bit of research, I realized I had read ‘His Coat So Gay’ in two different anthologies edited by Gardner Dozois, Horses and Sorcerers. It makes me wonder where else some of these stories might be hiding.
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The Brigadier Ffellowes stories are club stories with the British brigadier telling fantastic tales at his New York club. No matter the topic at hand, one of his experiences ties into it.
The club or pub story genre is an old one. I think you can make a convincing argument that Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales has at least one foot in the genre. Apparently Lanier cited Lord Dunsany’s Jorkens stories as an inspiration.
What struck me about Brigadier Ffellowes’ stories is that they are quite serious in tone. A lot of club stories are flat out comedies and I feel like all of them have some whimsy. While some of Dunsany’s Jorkens stories are serious, some of them are just plain silly. The Neopolitan Ice is about him drunkenly passing out in a dish of ice cream!
When looking at reviews, more than one reviewer described the stories as weird stories, as in the pulp magazine. I can definitely feel a pulp vibe and I’d also describe them as horror stories. I think weird, pulp and horror pretty much covers it.
I found the stories to be very much a mixed bag. Some of them, ‘His Coat So Gay’ about the brigadier getting drawn into the wild hunt or ‘Fraternity Brother’ where he stumbles upon a fairly peaceful modern enclave of Neanderthals are quite good. ‘The Kings of the Sea’ feels downright Lovecraftian.
(Pause… yup, Dozois reprinted that one in his Sea Serpents anthology. That’s why it was familiar! Dozois loved these stories!)
Others are pretty weak. The Leftovers is literally Ffellowes getting chased by Paleozoic man and nothing else. A Feminine Jurisdiction is downright sexist. And there’s plenty of casual racism throughout the stories, although the brigadier is often the most clueless character.
Every review I looked at mentions the last story in the first collection, Soldier Key. It’s about an insane cult that worships a giant hermit crab. Part of me is impressed by the audacity of the concept but I have to admit, the way it’s handled is too ridiculous to be scary or creepy. It’s pretty original though.
Ultimately, I felt that the anthology was a mixed bag. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the strongest stories have been reprinted in other collections but that the book itself has gone out of print.
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