Möbius Lyrics by Angela Yuriko Smith and Maxwell I. Gold
Independent Legions Publishing (October 2022)
84 pages; $11.90 paperback; $3.99 e-book
Reviewed by Joshua Gage
Angela Yuriko Smith is a third-generation Shimanchu-American and award-winning poet, author, and publisher with 20+ years of experience as a professional writer in nonfiction. She is the publisher of Space & Time magazine, a two-time Bram Stoker Award winner, and HWA Mentor of the Year for 2020 w. Maxwell I. Gold is a multiple award nominated author who writes prose poetry and short stories in weird and cosmic fiction. His work has appeared in numerous anthologies and magazines including Weirdbook Magazine, Space and Time Magazine, Startling Stories, Strange Horizons and more. Their newest collaborative collection is Möbius Lyrics.
Möbius Lyrics is a hybrid collection of experimental prose and poetry focused on cosmic horror through a lens of allegory. Entropy is a deity, and the book focuses on her bringing life and horror to the universe. She is accompanied by Sleep, Death, Father Nature, etc., all of whom are given personalities, intentions, physical form, etc. The tale is one of epic battles and conflicts between angry deities, and the puny lives on the planets have to sit back in horror and watch, innocent victims in a cosmic war. It’s fun narrative, and while Cosmic Horror is nothing new, Smith and Gold certainly have fun with the tropes and make them their own.
The book is set up in a call and response format. The opening piece, “Death-Less” by Gold, introduces us to the narrative in a short, micro fiction (possibly narrative prose poem?) spoken by Death, as well as the character Entropy. “Some annoyance, some false equivalency to the Mistress of Disorder, Entropy Herself. Death had no place in a system where the world was moving faster and faster; shattering the broken galactic ceilings as she grew thirstier, hotter, and more wretched,” says the narrator, contemplating their own obsolescence. Smith answers with “Live-Full,” in which Entropy begins her fun. The poem opens with lines:
“Time to make a mess,”
she said. Lips parted, she sighed.
In her breath: starshine.Galaxies oozed forth
primordial ecstasy—
primitive passion
mixing into pools…
a milky way springing forth
from her dark matters.
and readers know they’re in for messy chaos on a galactic scale accompanied by the keening screams of humanity. The back-and-forth approach really helps build the narrative and creates a tension between the two voices that works well to enhance the themes of the book.
Overall, this is an interesting collection of weird and cosmic horror. Fans of those genres, especially poetry readers, will enjoy this collection. Smith and Gold have unique voices that pair well, working with and against each other to build an underlying tension for the reader that heightens the emotional anxiety and fear and makes for a fun horror read.
