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Apocrypha Sequence: Inferno
Apocrypha Inferno explores the invasion of Australia by legendary monstrosities. With the Kraken's rise off the shores of Western Australia, an age of monsters is ushered in. When wits and heroics fail, a secret cabal of guardians will take drastic, devastating measures to protect everything they know and love. In the aftermath, when everything has turned to ash, hope will find a way.
The Apocrypha Sequence is a series of dark fantasy collections with interwoven themes and interconnected stories from Shane Jiraiya Cummings, Australia's master of the macabre. Also in the Apocrypha Deviance, Divinity, and Insanity.
The Apocrypha Sequence is a series of dark fantasy collections with interwoven themes and interconnected stories from Shane Jiraiya Cummings, Australia's master of the macabre. Also in the Apocrypha Deviance, Divinity, and Insanity.
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First published January 22, 2011
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About the author
Shane Jiraiya Cummings
32 books35 followersShane Jiraiya Cummings has been acknowledged as "one of Australia’s leading voices in dark fantasy". Shane is the author of the forthcoming Yokai Wars series (Circle of Tears, Clockwork Legion, and Blight of the Underworld) and the dark fiction books The Abandonment of Grace and Everything After, Shards, the Apocrypha Sequence (Deviance, Divinity, Insanity, and Inferno), and the Ravenous Gods cycle (Requiem for the Burning God and Dreams of Destruction). He has won the Australian Shadows Award and two Ditmar Awards, and he has been nominated for more than twenty other major awards, including Spain's Premios Ignotus.
Shane is an Active Member of the Horror Writers Association and former Vice President of the Australian Horror Writers Association. When he is not writing, Shane is an editor and journalist by day. By night (and on weekends), he can be found indulging in hobbies such as playing the guitar, photography, sword fighting, and testing the limits of his new cruiser motorcycle.
In his youth, Shane was trained in the deadly arts of the ninja, and the name Jiraiya (lit. "Young Thunder", after the legendary ninja Jiraiya) was bestowed upon him by his sensei.
Shane was born and raised in Sydney, Australia. He lived for many years in Perth, Western Australia, and Wellington, New Zealand, but he recently returned to his old home town to revisit the ghosts of his past.
More information on Shane (including his free fiction) can be found online at www.jiraiya.com.au.
Shane is an Active Member of the Horror Writers Association and former Vice President of the Australian Horror Writers Association. When he is not writing, Shane is an editor and journalist by day. By night (and on weekends), he can be found indulging in hobbies such as playing the guitar, photography, sword fighting, and testing the limits of his new cruiser motorcycle.
In his youth, Shane was trained in the deadly arts of the ninja, and the name Jiraiya (lit. "Young Thunder", after the legendary ninja Jiraiya) was bestowed upon him by his sensei.
Shane was born and raised in Sydney, Australia. He lived for many years in Perth, Western Australia, and Wellington, New Zealand, but he recently returned to his old home town to revisit the ghosts of his past.
More information on Shane (including his free fiction) can be found online at www.jiraiya.com.au.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 15, 2011
Apocrypha Sequence: Inferno by Shane Jiraiya Cummings is third collection in the Apocrypha Sequence that I have read.
Inferno is by far my favourite, a reflection perhaps of my emerging preferences. I am finding I am enjoying longer works(and by longer I mean at least novella sized) and Inferno comes in it 84 pages.
Inferno is different than the previous Apocrypha books, it features only 3 stories, one novella, one lengthy short story and one standard length short story. It’s not just the length and the greater immersion in the story that it seems to confer but the focus on theme that this collection displays that has me quite content.
All the Apocrypha books are themed collections, but Inferno feels a much tightly grouped selection of stories to me. Looking back I can almost view them as part of a continuing narrative. There is a sense that its one story being told albeit through different characters and different styles.
The Stories
Beneath Southern Waves is sea monster story and while there might be a hat tip to Lovecraft it feels more action than horror.
Phoenix and the Darkness of Wolves, has an ethereal or folkloric component that makes it my favourite of the the Inferno collection and perhaps my favourite Cummings work. It features a modern day mage trying to fight the onslaught of monsters and protect his family and switches between a surreal and catastrophic present and an almost normal suburban Australian, past.
Cummings goes Post-Apocalyptic with the Colossus of Roads, where a tiny rural settlement wards off evil magic using Artisans with a mechanical robot constructed from old car parts by the Technicians.
Final Thoughts
Read in the order above each piece can be seen as part of one long narrative set in the same world at different times. Though they sit quite well as stand alone works too. If you were going to limit yourself to one book in the Apocrypha series I’d make it Inferno.
This ebook was provided to me by the author at no cost to myself.
Inferno is by far my favourite, a reflection perhaps of my emerging preferences. I am finding I am enjoying longer works(and by longer I mean at least novella sized) and Inferno comes in it 84 pages.
Inferno is different than the previous Apocrypha books, it features only 3 stories, one novella, one lengthy short story and one standard length short story. It’s not just the length and the greater immersion in the story that it seems to confer but the focus on theme that this collection displays that has me quite content.
All the Apocrypha books are themed collections, but Inferno feels a much tightly grouped selection of stories to me. Looking back I can almost view them as part of a continuing narrative. There is a sense that its one story being told albeit through different characters and different styles.
The Stories
Beneath Southern Waves is sea monster story and while there might be a hat tip to Lovecraft it feels more action than horror.
Phoenix and the Darkness of Wolves, has an ethereal or folkloric component that makes it my favourite of the the Inferno collection and perhaps my favourite Cummings work. It features a modern day mage trying to fight the onslaught of monsters and protect his family and switches between a surreal and catastrophic present and an almost normal suburban Australian, past.
Cummings goes Post-Apocalyptic with the Colossus of Roads, where a tiny rural settlement wards off evil magic using Artisans with a mechanical robot constructed from old car parts by the Technicians.
Final Thoughts
Read in the order above each piece can be seen as part of one long narrative set in the same world at different times. Though they sit quite well as stand alone works too. If you were going to limit yourself to one book in the Apocrypha series I’d make it Inferno.
This ebook was provided to me by the author at no cost to myself.
July 30, 2012
I like this author, I really do. This is why I was so frustrated to read this third novel in the Apocrypha Sequence of short stories. They were in many ways so unlike his other works, and nowhere near the standards I'd come to expect. The author did note, I believe, that these were much older stories of his, so I'd like to think he's improved greatly over time.
Only when I reached the end did I realize that the three larger stories that make up "Inferno" were really one long story told in different contexts, from different points of view and at different points in time. That in and of itself is an interesting idea. But they read like a bad Hollywood disaster movie (and my, haven't we all seen more than enough of those?!). I kept waiting for characters to step out of stereotype phase and develop into something richer. And the plot points themselves seemed really rather contrived. Taken as a whole, this is a disaster epic, and end-of-days story that mixes high magic, demonic monsters and a collection of average people caught in the middle trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. I only wish he had developed the characters more and made the stories just a little bit more plausible, as fantastic as they were. In the end, I'm afraid they just fell flat.
Only when I reached the end did I realize that the three larger stories that make up "Inferno" were really one long story told in different contexts, from different points of view and at different points in time. That in and of itself is an interesting idea. But they read like a bad Hollywood disaster movie (and my, haven't we all seen more than enough of those?!). I kept waiting for characters to step out of stereotype phase and develop into something richer. And the plot points themselves seemed really rather contrived. Taken as a whole, this is a disaster epic, and end-of-days story that mixes high magic, demonic monsters and a collection of average people caught in the middle trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. I only wish he had developed the characters more and made the stories just a little bit more plausible, as fantastic as they were. In the end, I'm afraid they just fell flat.
December 1, 2011
Katharine is a judge for the Aurealis Awards. This review is the personal opinion of Katharine herself, and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of any judging panel, the judging coordinator or the Aurealis Awards management team.
To be safe, I won't be recording my review here until after the AA are over.
To be safe, I won't be recording my review here until after the AA are over.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews