Ned Hayes's Blog, page 29
October 29, 2015
BOOK QUOTE:
“On most nights under the winter moon when we...
BOOK QUOTE:
“On most nights under the winter moon when we have made our camp, around us echo faint sounds of that other hidden world—the one of meadow and forest in the night. The melody of
whip-poor-will, the cry of hunting owl, the scurrying rush of vole and chasing clown. It is as if some great razor scraped the life from this sheet of white-edged vellum, leaving only blank.”
Original post: post
Original post: post
October 28, 2015
darkhexenmagick:
Grimorium Verum Paperback by Joseph H....
Grimorium Verum Paperback by Joseph H. Peterson (Author)
Grimorium Verum is one of the most notorious handbooks of black magic – one of the few that deals openly with spirits of darkness.
People have long sought the aid of non-physical beings; the biblical king Solomon in particular had a reputation since ancient times for commanding demons. There are many texts purporting to reveal Solomon’s methods, but most are extremely complicated and difficult.
Grimorium Verum is one of the easier texts, but also one of the most sinister. It includes a catalogue of specific demons and how to draw on their powers.
This new critical edition includes a fresh translation based on all the major sources, complete French and Italian texts, and 5 other appendices.
Book Review - Bride of the Rat God
Bride of the Rat God - Barbara Hambly
book
BRIDE OF THE RAT GOD is a marvelous historical novel (with an element of fantasy to it) that belies its kitschy title.
The title makes the story, of course, because it is, in fact, about a silent film star who gets caught in a sorcerous web of complications involving a sacred Chinese heirloom, a jealous demon-god who
wants her soul, and his attempted sacrifice of her on the altar of his own ancient desire.
Sounds kind of melodramatic and silly, eh?
Not so much. Barbara Hambly has a deft touch with deep and well articulated characters, and she adds layers of experience and reality to her characters as she goes. The marvelously well written
landscape of 1920s Hollywood is also meticulously researched and is perfectly portrayed, with an eye to both technical and emotional detail that is all too often lacking in historical novels.
The fantastical / supernatural elements of the novel merely add a rapidly accelerating plot to a novel that’s already a strong and well-written story of two women whose lives have become
enmeshed in the silliness and wild party that is Hollywood (circa 1920s…. probably worse now).
I’ll be reading more Hambly, because she made me believe in her characters, their desperate situation and their history. I’ve also written quite a bit about Bride of the Rat God in my
How to Write Fantasy Series, which you can read here.
My only nit to pick was that the final confrontation was not powerful enough — it didn’t knock my socks off. But I really cared about the characters, and I really believed in the story,
which is enough to out-last any slowness to the final denouement.
Original post: post
Original post: post
October 27, 2015
"But who prays for Satan? Who, in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one..."
-
- Mark Twain
(via the-bitchextraordinaire)
BOOK QUOTE:“I lift my eyes to the distant moon that shines over...
BOOK QUOTE:
“I lift my eyes to the distant moon that shines over our earthly sphere. I stare around at the field in front of me, the nine-branched candelabrum etched over the archway, the dark gray stones ranked together in rows, the brambles overgrowing this secret shadowed place….. It is the last graveyard of my people in London.”
from the novel SINFUL FOLK
Credit: seasons-in-hell
A good book for the Halloween holiday… !
A good book for the Halloween holiday… !
