This book is a collection of four pieces by four different authors. Normally the quality of anthology books is uneven. This book, however, is the exceThis book is a collection of four pieces by four different authors. Normally the quality of anthology books is uneven. This book, however, is the exception. Every one of the four was excellent, leaving me panting and wanting more.
Ammonia by William Holloway sets the stage for an “event” which has occurred in Antarctica, splitting the Ross Ice Shelf. It is the story of the beginning of an apocalypse. It sets the ground rules for the stories that follow, opens the mysteries which will be unveiled in the following tales, and establishes the tone of bleak nihilism which the hallmark of all great Lovecraftian storytelling.
Michelle Garza and Melissa Lason’s The Sunken Desert introduces us to life in the new world order created by “the event“. It is almost something of an adventure caper, fun and thrilling. Criminals, cops, and tough minded women and together to make their way in a new world where the rules are only just beginning to be understood. At the same time it introduces us the a world of squid beasts, insane cultists, and survivors doing their best.
Brett J Talley’s Rise and Fall brings us to a world where the apocalypse has been settled. People finally understand what’s going on, more or less. We experience organized human resistance, communities trying to rebuild themselves, and a culture in radical flux. Talley explores the different ways in which humans and our communities break under unbelievable strain. He does to to great effect. I have long maintained that Talley is one of the best modern practitioners of Lovecraftian tales. This story shows him in his full glory, weaving issues of interpersonal relationships, religion, culture, survival, and family and exploring them within a world gone as mad and brutal as possible.
Rich Hawkin’s work “The Great Beast” is the perfect companion piece to Talley’s. Talley looks at the larger social effects of a Lovecraftian nightmare world come to be. Hawkins leaves behind the communal exploration for the individual. He gives us a protagonist somehow left behind in a dead world now ruled by horrific beasts. We see the effects and strain of this world. Slowly, as a few new characters are introduced, we see what this world has made of them.
This work is a first class exploration of humanity confronted with the unknown, the horrific, and the insanity inducing. It’s well worth the time of horror nerds. It should be required readings for any Lovecraft geeks. ...more
I adored the first book in this series and was so excited for a chance to read this sequel. Health issues made me sit on it for a bit and it was tortuI adored the first book in this series and was so excited for a chance to read this sequel. Health issues made me sit on it for a bit and it was torture to not get to it, wondering what happened to Os at the end of the first book. This one picks up from that cliffhanger ending and grabs you from the start by setting up a clever mystery which drives the subsequent action.
One the whole, I think this second installment in the Spectral Investigator series is better than the first. (That says something, because I gave 5-stars to that one as well.) With the establishing of relationships, introducing main characters and concepts, and the basic world building out of the way in the first book, Beckett is free to lead us through a couple hundred pages of fun, fast-paced action. We have here a novel filled with demons, monsters, witches, interpersonal drama, and trans-dimensional conflict laced with the witty repartee and moved by lovable and now-familiar characters.
This book develops the ensemble cast of characters more than the first does, and to good effect. The heart and soul of this novel, however, is still the protagonist Pru Osgood. She is clever, vulnerable, defiant, and messed up in all the right, relatable, and endearing ways. This is made all the better by the fact that I still can’t think of another queer paranormal investigator series in any media.
I’m a big fan of Cooper S Beckett. I think he’s one of the most enjoyable writers out there that you probably don’t know about. Do yourself a favor- read Osgood Riddance and this both. Then sign up for email list and get the short, Osgood Con as well. You’ll be hooked. ...more
The House of Nodens by Sam Gafford is an excellent addition to the Lovecraftian cannon. It is borne of a successful mixture of coming-of-age novel, myThe House of Nodens by Sam Gafford is an excellent addition to the Lovecraftian cannon. It is borne of a successful mixture of coming-of-age novel, mystery, and Lovecraftian cosmic horror. It is one of the most enjoyable novels I’ve read in the last few months.
The novel centers around Bill, flipping back and forth between his childhood experiences with his friends in the 1970s and the present. Due to the tragic events of his childhood, Bill grows to become completely broken, an impoverished alcoholic disowned by his family. He remembers the events only dimly and drinks in part to forget what’s left. Something happens which forces him to come to terms with his childhood. Slowly but surely, we unravel the mystery of “what really happened that night”.
This was the first work I’ve read by Sam Gafford, but it will not be my last. I loved the mystery element of the story. The ending was excellent too. It left me with a wonderful sense of dread and foreboding. I’d love to read a sequel or a novel which takes place in some sort of adjacent story line....more
One of Lovecraft’s simpler tales. It’s the story of a man - native to Appalachia - who seemingly went mad and killed someone. He is acquitted by reasoOne of Lovecraft’s simpler tales. It’s the story of a man - native to Appalachia - who seemingly went mad and killed someone. He is acquitted by reason of insanity and sent to an asylum. The man has incredibly intense and vivid waking dreams. A young doctor there does experiments on the man, trying to link their minds, so that he too may experience these dreams. He suspects - rightly it turns out - that they may be much more than just dreams.
This is Lovecraft at his simplest and most effective. No frill, but creepy as hell. It bringing you a vastly expanded sense of the universe and an equally diminished sense of your self in it.
One thing to add about this tale is that is argues somewhat against HPL’s notorious well known racism. The dreamer in the tale is a white, poor, unlettered Appalachian. It is clear that Lovecraft has an equally disdainful view of these white folk. A fair amount of his racism may really have been an almost equally unpleasant classism or grotesque snobbery. Just a thought. ...more
It’s hard to know where to start when reviewing this book. Let me just start by saying it is awesome. You need to buy it. Like now.
Ok. Got that out oIt’s hard to know where to start when reviewing this book. Let me just start by saying it is awesome. You need to buy it. Like now.
Ok. Got that out of the way. Let me highlight a couple of things that really stick out as reasons why I feel you should part with your hard earned cash.
1. Prudence Osgood - formerly Pru, now Os. She’s a queer (very queer), smart-talking, paranormal investigator with a troubled past. She suffers from depression, has more than a few substance abuse issues, and I totally fell in love with her within a few pages. Her differentness from the stereotypical Raymond Chandler knock-offs that haunt most investigative novels is a breath of fresh air. 2. The Trio - Os undergoes her journey with two companions, Audrey and Zack. Audrey is the estranged bestie who comes back into Os’ life with a back story that adds depth and complexity to the mystery and Os both. Zack is the techie geek no investigator can be without these days. He is loyal, loving, and the perfect companion for Osgood’s witty and snarky repartee. It seems these three are here to stay for sequels and that only makes me want to read them more. 3. The Mystery - I won’t say too much about this. I don’t want to drop spoilers. Suffice it to stay that it involves 80s Rock, vinyl LPs, occult symbolism, conspiracy theories, possession, and trans-dimensional beings. Beckett takes you carefully through the unraveling, teasing you along the way, and the brings it to a crescendo that does not disappoint. 4. The Ending- This deserves its own number. While the mystery is really cool and compelling from the get go, Beckett takes it to a place that lives more in the horror genre than mystery novels. (Particularly, I smell some strong Lovecraft aromas in this brew.) For me, a confirmed Lovecraft nerd, that made the novel go from damn good to freakin great.
This novel was fun as hell. It had a great mystery and better ending. It will make you want to read the next ones (coming soon, I hope). If you love it half as much as I did, your time and money will have been well spent. ...more
This book was something of a special surprise to me.
From the description and marketing, I thought I had this book pegged: a ghost hunter reality showThis book was something of a special surprise to me.
From the description and marketing, I thought I had this book pegged: a ghost hunter reality show that did not take itself seriously, which lands a gig in a real haunted house, doesn't think it is really haunted, slowly finds out it actually is haunted, the body count mounts, and a few survivors get out just when you think all hope is lost.
Yes, in a way, that's exactly what you get. However, you get an awful lot more. It's that "lot more" that makes all the difference. In stead of supplying the perfunctory ghost story, David Longhorn spins a vision of reality and intersecting worlds which is squarely within the cosmic horror tradition. My short, run-of-the-mill haunted house story slowly turned into a dark world building exercise right before my eyes... and it was great.
This has all the hallmarks of the Lovecraftian spirit. Lovecraft didn't really write ghost stories and - it seems - did not really care for them all that much. But this is exactly the sort of meta narrative he would have loved. You're left going to bed with he distinct feeling that the world is not safe, not right, and not going to go on well either. ...more
From the publisher description, The Sister Verse and the Talons of Ruin by Amelie C Langlois should have been everything I look for in a book. HoweverFrom the publisher description, The Sister Verse and the Talons of Ruin by Amelie C Langlois should have been everything I look for in a book. However, for reasons that are a little hard to place, I did not love this book.
The story starts with a police detective who seems pretty washed up and is having an epically bad day at the office. Early on it is clear he is living in a world a lot like ours, but which definitely isn’t out. The early chapters read almost like a dream sequence, skipping from one scene to another. Sometimes they are very jarring and it is unclear for a while what relation they have to one another. They evolve, pretty cleverly I think, into an encompassing world view involving monsters, alternate dimensions, and so much more. I really enjoyed the story and the way it spiraled out from small beginnings.
In terms of a world building epic, I think this book shows great promise. Few writers have the capacity to build worlds which are both very different and strangely compelling. Langlois clearly has the chops to make that happen. This is the first of a planned trilogy and it will be interesting to see how the world unfolds from here.
The promotional material links this book to Lovecraft and that’s a fair assessment. The writing has a formality which he would recognize and approve of. Also, the use of multidimensionality, alien monster gods, dream sequences, and more (which I can’t speak of without spoilers) would have pleased the Old Gentleman from Providence. If you like Lovecraftian story telling, you will find a lot to like in this book.
The mystery for me is why I didn’t fall in love with this book from page one. The main issue I had with the book was it’s pacing. The pacing is so relentless it will leave you mentally breathless. You go from fight scene, to car chase, to big reveal, to mass murder scene, to flashback, to assassination, to interrogation, to… The book doesn’t give you you a chance to pause and digest what happened before it gives you the next big shock to the system. At nearly 700 pages, it is already a big book. Yet, I was left with the impression that it must have once been a few hundred pages longer and was a little over-redacted. Personally, I can get frustrated with long descriptive paragraphs. Oddly, this is the first time I’ve ever read a book and wished there were more.
On a final note, readers should be warned that this book is pretty gory. Even within the realm of horror aficionados, the levels of blood and gore in this book are not for everyone. That said, I would like to add that I did not find the gore gratuitous. It was called for and added to the story Ms. Langlois was trying to tell.
*My thanks to NetGalley for the free copy of this book in exchange for my honest feedback.*...more
Kirk Battle's 70 page novella is a whole lot of fun. It should please both long time fans of the Lovecraftian-Cthulhu mythos and novitiates alike. It Kirk Battle's 70 page novella is a whole lot of fun. It should please both long time fans of the Lovecraftian-Cthulhu mythos and novitiates alike. It follows the journey of a Miskatonic University student who, taking a leave of absence, goes on a working voyage into the coldest, iciest regions of our planet. While there, he comes across - what else? - some sort of odd cultic object lodged in the ice. Hey, it wouldn't be a Lovecraftian story if someone didn't find an odd little statue connected in some way to the permanently frozen parts of our planet. There are rules people! Rules!!!
The majority of the story takes place on two islands just off "the Deep South", not far from antebellum Charleston. The islands are a plantation controlled by a wealthy slave holding family. The protagonist's ship gets stuck on a sand bar not far from the island with the manner house and he is forced to make landfall in order to seek what help is available. Our young student then gets suck into a world of cultists and cosmic horror that will be familiar to all lovers of the Cthulhu mythos. I have not read the sequel yet, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the statue found is the same one mentioned in Lovecraft's Call of Cthulhu as being in Louisiana. (I could be wrong.)
There is a lot to love in this story. First of all, it should be highly accessible to folks who aren't big into Lovecraftian tales. It avoids the pitfalls of many Mythos writers, where they seem to assume you're a total nerd who's real 300+ Cthulhu short stories before you come to their tale. That's fine for the well initiated, but really off putting to most readers. There is a fun section where you get a brief primer on the Mythos. Even if you are a total Lovecraft nerd, you will still enjoy that part because there are a few fun ways that Battle has tweaked the over arching narrative of that shared world.
The Mythos has inherited a tradition of using very old fashioned ways of writing and vocabulary. It is tricky to do this well. Again, many Mythos tales can come off as stodgy, stilted, or inaccessible. Battle seems to be one of the few practitioners who knows how to do this well. You have all the flavor and feel of reading a nineteenth century university student's papers, but without any of the hangups modern readers would actually have doing it for real. ...more
There is a lot to love about this collection of Lovecraft tales. Many anthologies are very uneven, but not this one. Every story is strong. Every storThere is a lot to love about this collection of Lovecraft tales. Many anthologies are very uneven, but not this one. Every story is strong. Every story is on point with what the anthology is trying to do. There don’t seem to be any submissions that were accepted to add bulk to the volume.
I appreciate the way all of the stories are thematically Lovecraftian, but avoid repeating Lovecraft’s work after him. Mythos lovers will know what I’m talking about here. There’s only so many mythos tales you can tell that take place in New England in the 1920s. It gets tiresome after a while. Ms Jones seems to agree and has done a service in finding stories that offer new places and ways to be weirded out.
Another feature I liked is that most of the tales are relatively short. Again, it irks me when a tale looks like it’s adding bulk to meet a word count or page number requirement. They should be as long as they need to be to tell the story right. Some stories are very short. I think nearly any one of them could be read in about a half an hour or less. (G K Lomax’s story being the only possible exception.) It made the book perfect to bring along and read a chapter here and there as I carted by girls to their activities.
I would also like to add this: the book is almost worth purchasing alone for the excellent afterwords by Joshi. It’s one of the finest summaries of Lovecraft’s work and unique point of view. ...more
Anthologies are typically a mixed bag. This one, however, was unusually strong. It is an excellent collection of ten short stories which are all in thAnthologies are typically a mixed bag. This one, however, was unusually strong. It is an excellent collection of ten short stories which are all in the tradition of “cosmic horror” as written by Lovecraft and his circle. I recommend this tales to anyone who loves good, old fashioned pulp laced with great old ones and tentacles.
I especially liked that, while they were all Lovecraftian in style, none of them were written to be part of the Cthulhu mythos. They are all effort at providing something new to the realm of weird fiction. That was refreshing. ...more
This was only my second foray into the writings of Ambrose Ibsen. While the first book I read was somewhat average, I found this one far more successfThis was only my second foray into the writings of Ambrose Ibsen. While the first book I read was somewhat average, I found this one far more successful.
The plot revolves around a series of protagonists and the events that transpire following a breakthrough at a chemical laboratory, the disappearance of the main researcher, and suicide of his assistant. As the book when on, it evolved into a delicious Lovecraftian nightmare, a real celebration of the cosmic horror tradition.
This was a good read, left open for a sequel which I hope the author one day writes. ...more
Andrew “The Weirdling”
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