The Florilegium of Madness

by D.J. Butler, Callie Butler (Editor), Joe Monson (Editor)

Set in world established by The Cunning Man, six stories follow Hiram Woolley in the intermountain west of the 1930s as he uses Grandma Hettie’s traditional magical lore to battle demons. He discovers an ancient horror that explains an oddity of Utah geography, helps a deceased Shoshone war leader, finds an unappreciated consequence of the Mountain Meadows Massacre battles an ancient sorcerer in a secret mountaintop lookout, and more.

Other stories explore dark and somber themes, including two tales set in the Cthulhu Mythos; the weaving together of ancient Egypt, 1930s Massachussetts, and a future spaceship across time and space; a traveler in the Old West comes to an elaborately bad end. Eight more stories and three essays round out this collection.

Paperback

Published July 13, 2021

About the author

D.J. Butler (Dave) is a novelist living in the Rocky Mountain west. His training is in law, and he worked as a securities lawyer at a major international firm and inhouse at two multinational semiconductor manufacturers before taking up writing fiction. He is a lover of language and languages, a guitarist and self-recorder, and a serious reader. He is married to a powerful and clever novelist and together they have three devious children.

Dave is published by Baen, Knopf, and WordFire Press. He writes adventure fiction for all ages. He writes for young readers under the name Dave Butler: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

Read about D.J. Butler’s writing projects at http://davidjohnbutler.com.

Reviews

[Daniel Yocom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Those who have read works by D. J. Butler need to pick up this collection, excuse me, florilegium. It is a wonderful showcase of his talent as a storyteller, and great views about his writing from author. This is particularly the case for the stories expanding the setting of his own creation.

The stories provide a view into the breadth of the style of writing Butler has done over the years. Multiple genres are covered reflecting the larger collection of Butlers library of books he has written.

I recommend The Florilegium of Madness to readers who enjoy short stories that make you think once you’ve finished.

Read my complete review at http://guildmastergaming.blogspot.com...

[David Madara · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of short stories 6 of which are connected to the Cunning Man series. One of
the Hiram Woolley stories is a prequel to the two novels.

Fantastic! The nods to the Manly Wade Wellman Silver John stories are even more prevalent
in this collection of stories. Each one sings to me. The perfect stories which need to be told.
You can't go wrong trying this.