Devourer of Souls 3/21 (ish)/20

[Latasha]

Melanie and I will be starting Devourer of Souls on or around March 21st. All the usual rules apply. Feel free to join in.
amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01...

[Latasha]

I'm starting on this. I love the cover. What's yours look like? Mine has the webbed hands coming out of the pond.

[Melanie]

Just about to start, finally. Covid19 has been kind of consuming our every waking minute here as my hubby runs a business and I've had to cancel all my classes for the foreseeable future. The halflings are pretty stressed and I'm consuming just a wee bit more wine than normal.....

Anyway, yes mine has the same cover, I'm wondering if I should have saved it for Merfolk May?

[Latasha]

I read the about section and I think it’s going to be more cosmic horror cause I thought the same thing. I guess we won’t know until it’s over 😪

[Latasha]

I'm up to chapter 10. Not much is happening yet. We learn about a creepy game the Vietnamese neighbor is selling at a neighborhood wide yard sale. I think we'll see it again.

[Melanie]

You're way ahead of me. We started a nation wide lockdown today with a full quarantine to start midnight Wednesday so things have been a bit hectic today. I'm having a wine now and will read for a bit but probably won't take it in. Tomorrow morning with my cup of tea will be better.

[Latasha]

Most places here are shut down. A lot of businesses are offing free delivery or pickup but no gathering. The grocery stores are still open but I’m out of work all this week.

[Latasha]

I'm up to chapter 14. The chapters are short so it's going by faster. Ok, this is getting weird and sad. (view spoiler)[ I have no idea what mr. Trung was doing in the pond. I think Jake has got it set in his mind if he hurts mr. Trung or kills him, it will fix his dad. (hide spoiler)]

[Melanie]

I got some reading done this morning but not as much as you. Will catch up tonight.

[Melanie]

Ooooh. Just finished chapter 8. Has your copy got the lovely illustrations? And that Mr Trang - he's not from around here is he....?

[Latasha]

Mine does have that. No, he’s from Vietnam.

[Latasha]

Or Innsmouth 😂

[Melanie]

I think he swam over from Vietnam via Innsmouth....

[Latasha]

I think your absolutely right.

[Melanie]

Finished the Sophan story (view spoiler)[ it made me quite sad, how war fucks up not just the soldiers but the people around them. I really felt awful for both Jake and the protagonist. I thought Lucia's writing gave me such a great sense of the world through their very different viewpoints.
And toads? Big on the NOPE list, particularly if they can walk upright!!!

I liked the little touch of Nate remembering that Mr Trung had sold bikes in previous summers - just what exactly has he been up to all these years? I have a vague recollection of either a book or movie or something where the killer keeps or sells his victim's bikes but I can't remember where from. (hide spoiler)]

[Latasha]

I finished that part too. I like the open ending. I’m usually a fan of those.

[Latasha]

Oh wow! The art for the man in yellow. I like that! Wonder if the author does it himself?

[Latasha]

I just now saw your spoiler. Yes! I am loving his writing! It was really sad. I don't know of any book or movie like that, sorry. I liked the story but I'm enjoying The King Wears Yellow a lot more. I'm up to chapter 16. Sorry, I can't sleep. Lucia keeps dropping reminders these stories take place in the same town. I like that cause I keep forgetting. Also, these would make a great show! What ever happened to the relaunch of the twilight zone? He should submit these stories to them! We definitely need more cosmic horror (done right) on the screen.

[Latasha]

Which one of HPL's elder gods is a toad? Shogoth? I can't remember but I'm pretty sure there is one.

[Latasha]

Never mind! Don't look. I went digging and can not wait to tell you what I found but that will have to wait some hours. I'm going to TRY to go to sleep.

[Melanie]

Latasha wrote: "I just now saw your spoiler. Yes! I am loving his writing! It was really sad. I don't know of any book or movie like that, sorry. I liked the story but I'm enjoying The King Wears Yellow a lot more..."

Yes i like the story threads to other books too. One of his other books Things Slip Through is the book our narrator keeps referring to. Lots of stories set in the same town with recurring characters.

[Melanie]

Latasha wrote: "Never mind! Don't look. I went digging and can not wait to tell you what I found but that will have to wait some hours. I'm going to TRY to go to sleep."

Ergh! Now I want to google toad god! Anyway, I was going to read my SNAFU anthology but now I might have to read that next story instead.

[Latasha]

ok. it's afternoon here so your probably asleep. to toad-like elder god is Tsathoggua. He was actually created by Clark Ashton Smith. but him & HPL were good buddies. he's described as-
The first description of Tsathoggua in which the protagonists encounter one of the entity's idols:

“ He was very squat and pot-bellied, his head was more like a monstrous toad than a deity, and his whole body was covered with an imitation of short fur, giving somehow a vague sensation of both the bat and the sloth. His sleepy lids were half-lowered over his globular eyes; the tip of a queer tongue issued from his fat mouth. „
~ Clark Ashton Smith , "The Tale of Satampra Zeiros

https://lovecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Tsa...

[Latasha]

Do you think that he was in the pond?

[Latasha]

[Latasha]

[Latasha]

[Latasha]

Story 2- The King Wears Yellow.
(view spoiler)[ Hastur! this one has me excited because i LOVE Ambrose Bierce. and He orginally created Hastur.

Hastur the Unspeakable is a Cthulhu mythos deity. Although the being is most famously associated with H.P. Lovecraft, it is only mentioned in one of his stories, "The Whisperer in Darkness." Originally it was the creation of Ambrose Bierce, whose short story "Haïta the Shepherd" describes Hastur as a god of shepherds. Hastur is the name of a city in the Robert W. Chambers short stories "The Yellow Sign" and "The Repairer of Reputations" which appeared in his short story collection The King in Yellow.

https://lovecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Hastur

(hide spoiler)]

[Latasha]

Hastur, the Unspeakable

[Latasha]

[Melanie]

Tsathoggua's fairly unattractive isn't he? (Please don't tell him I said that..)

I'm part way through the Man in Yellow. He's bloody terrifying in the old stories, I'm interested to read this newer version of him. This is a channel on YT I watch regularly, it has some great stuff on the King in Yellow - I'm planning on getting through these stories in order.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rH3SC...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLbWd...

[Latasha]

I’d be happy to read any of them with you when you get around to it.

[Latasha]

He’s not much of a looker but that page said he’s incredibly lazy so I think we could outrun heifer toad.

[Melanie]

Latasha wrote: "He’s not much of a looker but that page said he’s incredibly lazy so I think we could outrun heifer toad."

He looks like he might have been the inspiration for Jabba the Hutt.

[Latasha]

lol!!

[Latasha]

Those video are great. I never finished True Detectives. Did you watch it?

[Melanie]

Latasha wrote: "Those video are great. I never finished True Detectives. Did you watch it?"

Yes, it's VERY dark. True horror and not in the supernatural sense. I kind of want to watch it again but I ind of don't as well because while it's brilliant it's incredibly bleak as well.

Only a few chapters left in Devourer so hopefully I'll finish it today.

[Latasha]

Melanie wrote: "Latasha wrote: "Those video are great. I never finished True Detectives. Did you watch it?"

Yes, it's VERY dark. True horror and not in the supernatural sense. I kind of want to watch it again but..."

ohh ok.