...right in your own neighborhood. This is a strange book, but one of my favorites. It gets very strange, and could easily offend at many points. If you can find a copy, give it a try. This one is definitely a step above most of Laidlaw's books.

In the Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocide in Cambodia, a journalist is seeking a manuscript. But this manuscript is more than just a pile of papers, a memoir written by yet another nameless victim of Khmer killing squads, it has a life of its own, and the entities within it want to be known to the world. These entities - thirty-seven mandalas which feed upon human passions - want more scope for their needs. They want more food.

Horror doesn't have to be invented. True horror exists in our world as a recognition of our own darkest depths; how can we help but recoil from tales of torture and murder so egregious that some people persist in believing the events described could not have happened? Mark Laidlaw understands the nature of horror, and he uses this knowledge to root his novel, THE 37TH MANDALA, firmly in those shadowy realms which we do not wish to see, but cannot quite look away from. He opens the book in in a place which stands as a monument to the Cambodians - between one and two million by most estimates, as many as a quarter of the country's inhabitants - who were tortured and murdered by the Khmer Rouge, their own countrymen, between 1975 and 1979, their bodies strewn on what is now known as "The Killing Fields." It's to his credit that he does not attempt to explain away evil by attributing it to the influence of the mandalas (or any external force) because that would ring false. Rather he presents us with a group of living things that feed upon cruelty and evil and perhaps intensify it, but which never create it. And it's here that the real horror of this book lies, in the knowledge that the mandalas exist in a sort of symbiotic relationship with human beings, gobbling up the emotions which we are constantly throwing off, deriving more nourishment from the strong ones, delighting in the malign ones as if they were emotional t-bone steaks.

Laidlaw has created a nearly seamless narrative that carries the reader along on a flow of ideas as much as on the action, a trait he shares with Stephen King. His characters are both believable and memorable. I didn't much like Derek Crowe, Lenore, Michael, Elias Mooney or the others, but I doubt I'll forget them easily precisely because they were so human and fallible. I recognized these people and, despite myself, I identified with them. Though I had a few problems with the narrative they are, perhaps, more my problems than Laidlaw's. I found some of his choices a little gratuitous, and frankly, the novel's end was rather more downbeat than I like. Despite that, I derived a good deal of pleasure from the skill with which Laidlaw presents his ideas, in his tight, unflinching prose which forces the reader to bring a good deal of thought to the story. In one particularly brilliant section, the protagonist (naming her would give away too much of the plot) witnesses a scene between mother and child from two levels of consciousness - human and mandala. Laidlaw gives us a scene of terrible rage and cruelty in counterpoint to the ordinary dealings between a petulant child and an irritated mother, and in a moment the workings of the mandalas become at once clearer and more ambiguous. If spiritual and emotional ambiguity disturb you, or if you don't feel like working with the author to get the meat of the story, then skip this book. But if you're prepared for a book which forces you to think about these issues, then THE 37TH MANDALA is well worth your time.

I had a hard time getting through this first little bit of this book. However, after that it was no holds barred scary stuff.

Derek Crowe, in his push to write "the" book that will get him a following, he alters some ancient, mystical writings. Thus he unleashes the mandalas. Rather than being the benevolent beings he represents them as, the mandalas are truly scary beings that feed on human passions.

Even at the end when you think things are going to be better and at least leave you with hope, your fooled. Maybe there is hope, maybe there isn't.

The other two main characters Michael and Lenore are very believable and interesting. They keep the plot moving to it's climax. Every character in this book only adds to the story. Rather than distracting the reader with too many subplots and substories, this book just leads the reader from opening page right to the end.

A true winner.

I just now finished The 37th Mandala and all I can say is the cliched "wow". Strange, violent, bitter but not hopeless this sadly undervalued work stands head and shoulders above many other, more high profile horror books...I've read a fair amount in the genre and it's clear that Laidlaw has here created a unique piece that should take its place amongst the treasured classics. Few other novels of the last 25 years do as much as this book to elevate the craft above the usual terror trappings and to advance it into an intelligent realm of speculative fiction. Overall, a brilliant novel that will frighten, entrance and amaze you.

The Third Force is a horror-meets-sci-fi novel. It was very original with radical new concepts which could only come from the mind of a visionary. All-in-all, The Third Force is a great book, get it now.

The worst book I have ever read! Actually, I have never read it

This is a wonderfully unique, readable book combining Buddhism, Magic/ Western Mysticism, and technology in a workable and enjoyable blend. Buddhists, Pagans, and "techies" I have reccomended this book to have all liked it.

This is a truly fascinating book. It has depth and is an easy read at the same time. If you are into Buddhism or not, you will like how the story unfolds. I read it two times and still love it.