The Library Beneath the Streets

"It is a great pity that Daniel Hale's last name doesn't begin with a "B". A great pity because the natural impulse will be to place this paperback next to very similar books in the card catalog of the mind. The writing alternatively reminds one of Borges or Bradbury—in theme, in mastery and in magic. This little book is worthy companion of  El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan or of The Martian Chronicles. I'm glad to write the blurb that will always be quoted as this writer finds his way through the labyrinth of words." — Don Webb, Through Dark Angles
 

"An unnerving set of stories that offer modern updates on classic horror tales.…In his debut, Hale employs a device that's common to short story collections: an overarching tale with a character that connects to subsequent plots. That character is D'shall, a thief of stories, who aims to infiltrate the titular library and escape with the legendary tales therein, though to what purpose remains unclear. His infiltration process is detailed in a short but stunningly eerie piece titled "How to Join the Library Beneath the Streets." Writing in the second person, Hale explains the history of the library and how to join it, and the tale strikes a delicate balance between the phantasmagoric imagery of horror icons, such as H.P. Lovecraft and Clive Barker, and the relatively banal world of a local library, complete with a boring book club. The library is ruled by an ancient, leathery Librarian, who rules over a dark pit of enslaved writers, who type out the grand narratives of the world on machines that drain their blood.…Hale is a proficient horror writer, and he evokes the family drama and graveyard atmosphere of Edgar Allan Poe and the complex mythology and twisted body horror of Lovecraft by turns." — Kirkus Reviews