The stories are not independent! To call them a novel is also inaccurate, but to suppose that each one exists solely on its own merits, completely without regard to the events of the other stories is incorrect. Certainly themes will re-occur in any good writer, especially one of stories of the terrible, but the reality that, at a certain point, the stories need each other in order to create a cohesive narrative wasn't clear until I read the Descendant. When I first read it, last night, with the assumption that the story was independent, it was just a character, a bit of prose that had no beginning, no exposition, no climax and no denouement. I decided to re-read the story, and I remember The Nameless City. It's the same character, or at least a descendant of his. Suddenly the re-occurrence of themes brings on a whole new meaning and I can't read the same way. Try it. Read The Descendant. Find the horror--the terror in it. There is non. Then read The Nameless City and you'll find it. It's kind of like watching a well written season of Doctor Who, where minor events turn up later to be very important to a central story.
To be honest, now I'm afraid to continue reading.
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