THE INHUMAN CONDITION

Five Barker novellas come to life with Dillinger Steele's tough narration, skillfully complemented by musical interludes between chapters and books. While Steele could use a pronunciation lesson occasionally, his gritty style suits Barker's earthy characters. Neither author nor narrator shies away from violent eroticism in stories about the ultimate aphrodisiac, a living-dead sexual encounter and a symbolic union of knots. The final segment, Body Politic, carries the theme onward, looking at human appendages as individual entities gone wrong. These stories race beyond any semblance of mental, physical or emotional control, and Steele imposes none of his own as he carries the listener into the depraved core of Barker's dark fantasies. R.P.L. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT 97]