I'M GLAD YOU'RE DEAD is the story of John Cook, a vampire who hunts the guilty to satisfy his thirst and seeks to redeem his tainted soul. What an oriI'M GLAD YOU'RE DEAD is the story of John Cook, a vampire who hunts the guilty to satisfy his thirst and seeks to redeem his tainted soul. What an original idea, I know. Except, Hunter Blain does a fantastic job in recreating a classic formula. Angel, Nick Knight, Mick Saint John, and others are all here but also Connor Macleod as well as Spider-Man. John Cook is a wise-cracking lovable oaf who just happens to be an exsanguinating creature of the night vigilante. He's also the single most important person in the world to stopping the apocalypse. It is full of great action, laughs, and twists. ...more
A CONVENTIONAL BOY by Charls Stross is the thirteenth of the fourteen book LAUNDRY FILES series. The Laundry Files is a series based around an obscureA CONVENTIONAL BOY by Charls Stross is the thirteenth of the fourteen book LAUNDRY FILES series. The Laundry Files is a series based around an obscure British intelligence agency that deals with the monsters and horrors of a Cthulhu Mythos inspired world. Charles Stross' Laundry Files is somewhere between Pratchett, John Le Carre, and Lovecraft. The books swing wildly from hilarious send ups of more serious fiction and genuinely terrifying stories. They also bring up some fascinating concepts regarding math, politics, religion, and relationships where your partner's violin wants to kill you.
It is questionable whether the Laundry series qualifies as horror novels but I'd dare say they do and the most terrifying things about them are the realism-induced elements. The Apocalypse Codex, for example combines a Dominionist evangelist cult with Cthulhu but it is elements from real-life fundamentalism that are the most disturbing. A Conventional Boy's horror comes from its invocation of the actual Satanic Panic of the 1980s and how it's never really gone away.
Charles Stross gives an extended explanation of this in the Afterword and enough information in the book to understand it for those who blessedly never heard of it but the short version is in the Eighties that a lot of televangelists like Jerry Falwell decided to motivate their followers by claiming X thing was literally invoking Satanic forces. He only touches the tip of the ice berg but the ridiculous premise was that Dungeons and Dragons books allowed you to summon demons or be possessed by them. It'd be funny if not for the child abuse and witch hunts that ensued.
This is all a rather extensive opening to explain that Derek Reilly was an adolescent in 1984 when the actual occult authorities scooped him and his friends up before institutionalizing them as potential evil wizards. The others eventually were let go but Derek's autism and social awkwardness resulted in him being treated as a threat. This is particularly notable to me as I have had that kind of fear myself as a neurodivergent.
Derek ended up spending forty-years in a camp for deprogramming wizards and cultists with his only release being a literal play by mail game once his handlers realized he was harmless but knew too much. Now, with the camp about to be shut down, the nearly fifty Derek breaks out of his camp to go to a roleplaying game convention. A convention that is actually filled with cultists but ones that have wandered in from a much more likely source of Satanic power in the real world: corporate marketing culture.
I've read virtually the entirety of the Laundry Files and much of Charles Stross' other work but find that A Conventional Boy resonates me with more than any of the others. The sheer unfairness if Derek's life has immense pathos. Tabletop gaming has a special role in the minds of many divergents and the fact it was used to ruin his life is all too believable. Perhaps the story would not hit so hard if I didn't know fundamentalist families who forced their children to burn their tabletop game supplements.
I have a few minor issues with the story as it really ends a bit too happily given the circumstances. Also, I feel like the climatic final struggle against corporate RPG culture would have been better with a confrontation against the people who imprisoned Derek (and are depersonalized drones of bureaucracy versus someone specific who signed off on imprisoning him decades ago) but I still enjoyed the book. Very much so. There's a couple of bonus short stories as well.
A Conventional Boy is good, very good. It can also be read effectively as a standalone volume of the series or even introduction to The Laundry Files. You can start with Derek Reilly's story to see if the world is for you before trying The Atrocity Archives. I think it's a series well worth picking up and this is one of the best parts of it....more
ON THE THIRD DAY is something between a thriller and a religious horror novel. These aren't usually my bag but I really enjoyed David Niall Wilson's TON THE THIRD DAY is something between a thriller and a religious horror novel. These aren't usually my bag but I really enjoyed David Niall Wilson's THIS IS MY BLOOD and GIDEON'S CURSE. David Niall Wilson loves incorporating elements of faith into his work and it's usually with the angle of someone who has dealt with some deep trauma or anger at the institutions thereof. He never rises to the level of the preachy (no pun intended) but those who have had bad experiences with the sanctified will probably enjoy them most. Interestingly, there's usually one or two sincerely religious characters in the books who aren't terrible people. They just are up against institutional corruption or supernatural forces that don't want to be terribly comforting.
On the Third Day is the story of a priest who has seemingly developed the condition known as stigmata. Stigmata, for those who didn't go to Catholic school, is the condition of bleeding from the area where Christ suffered his crucifixtion wounds. Most notably associated with individuals like Italian priest Padre Pio. The Vatican doesn't recognize these sorts of miracles anymore than they recognize crying statues due to the history of these being fradulent but send an investigator, Father Prescott, to check out the story anyway. If nothing else, it might be a reason for defrocking the young priest if he's faking.
For the most part, this novel is just a discussion of the intricacies of proving or disproving a miracle. The thing that separates it from more feel good style fair is the fact that it is a terrifying and traumatizing experience for the person it is actually happening to. The media sensationalizing events doesn't help and there's plenty of people who don't care whether it's true or not as long as there's money to be made from it. Is it a genuine supernatural event? Perhaps. But if it is, is it actually the Judeao-Christian God? Is that a good thing?
These are the kind of questions you wouldn't get in a "normal" bit of religious fiction and what makes the body work as a horror novel. However, David Niall Wilson handles it with a defter touch and it's not just another Rosemary's Baby or The Omen. Not that those aren't great. It's more a meditation on how desperately people (even the reader) can be to see the miraculous while ignoring their surroundings. I particularly like the ending that recontextualizes everything that happens before but doesn't QUITE provide wholly satisfying answers.
If you're looking for an interesting read that incorporates things like miracle investigations, faith, sleazy daytime progamming, and more then this may well be the kind of book for you. David Niall Wilson has won two Stoker awards and I think he deserves both....more
I've long been a fan of David Niall Wilson, since the days when he was a writer for Vampire: The Dark Ages. I've read many of his books and enjoyed alI've long been a fan of David Niall Wilson, since the days when he was a writer for Vampire: The Dark Ages. I've read many of his books and enjoyed all of them. However, I think it's fair to say while he works in a variety of genres that his deftest skill is at horror. Gideon's Curse is a pure horror novel and probably his best work yet because it's it pulls no punches and deals with a dark chapter of American history.
It is a novel about the horrors of slavery as told with the caveat of also being a zombie and ghost story. I'm glad for the latter because, disturbingly, the book might not have been able to be read without the level of the supernatural to make the truly disturbing elements more palatable. There's also a layer of reality to what is being talked about which makes the fictional events all the more disturbing and I don't just mean the fact America's Peculiar Institution is not Gone with the Wind or even Django but something infinitely worse.
The framing device of the book is that the Pope Plantation is an anachronism in the modern day. A haunted spooky place with only a few descendants of its former slave lords still using human trafficking, albeit migrant workers, to keep planting even as the woods are full of unnatural things.
A curse akin to the one in Silent Hill hangs over the place where the population continues to labor despite they'd probably be better off anywhere else on Earth. When the last two men of the accursed family kidnap a teenage girl to rape, the terrible curse comes to fruition with a man named Gideon relaying the terrible history of the place to the girl's family. A curse about a preacher who came to the plantation in the aftermath of the Civil War in hopes of missioning to the former slaves and who ends up bringing down the wrath of God or at least his distant cousins.
The heart of the book is the story of Reverend Gideon and his relationship with the former slave Desdemona, who is a sort of shaman or priestess to the locals. It's a love story but the kind of which Stephen King would tell as Gideon finds himself losing his Christian faith (or perhaps expanding it) as he finds himself confronted with the reality of the supernatural. This, however, layered against the fact he is acting upon a empathy and desire to touch the divine which is innate to how the religion should work.
This isn't a fuzzy feel good story about a white man and a black woman overcoming the odds, however, but how something good gets destroyed. The locals don't take well to Gideon, his ideas, being in a relationship with a black woman, or the fact he's organizing the locals even under the auspices of ministering. The idea a terrible thing happens is not a spoiler as we know it will happen but how it does is extremely well-handled with the climax being extraordinarily well-written.
It's difficult really to describe what kind of horror this book embodies since it's a kind of weird morality play that exists in the penumbra between Twilight Zone Christian morality along with Lovecraftian maltheist malevolence. The supernatural is real, arguably impersonal, and God's power seems limited to how it makes his followers feel. Yet, it is the humans who are the monsters and who bring down their doom on themselves.
I heartily recommend this book for fans who are interested in Southern Gothic horror stories....more
CLAN NOVEL: RAVNOS is the eighth novel in the Clan Novel series for the Vampire: The Masquerade line of tabletop RPGs. I've been re-reading the seriesCLAN NOVEL: RAVNOS is the eighth novel in the Clan Novel series for the Vampire: The Masquerade line of tabletop RPGs. I've been re-reading the series for the past couple of years and enjoying the world of conspiracies, action, and interlocking plotlines. The series is not without its flaws and wildly changes tones as well as themes depending on the characters. However, it is still something that I think to be quite fun. I also note that the twelve book series has its own smaller series within the books, effectively following authors continuing their own stories when they do two or more books. In this case, Ravnos is a sequel to the Setite novel.
The premise is that Hesha Ruhadze, Follower of Set high priest, has managed to finally acquire the Eye of Hazimel. The Eye is effectively the One Ring of Sauron (or Eye of Vecna) in that it bestows fantastic powers to its wielder but eventually warps your mind into a parody of itself. It also attracts the attention of Hazimel himself, who is restricted to using Khail Ravana as a minion in order to retrieve it. Khail finds himself stumbling on the erstwhile childe of Hesha, Elizabeth Dimitrios, and the Gangrel Ramona, who all have their own stake in the quest.
The biggest flaw of this novel is Khalil Ravana himself. He is, deliberately, a complete scumbag. He's a thieving, scheming, snivelling, cowardly irredeemable piece of ****. You can be a bad person as well as a protagonistin Vampire: The Masquerade, it's almost mandatory, but Khalil is closer to Gollum rather than, say, Saruman. This is a book written by a woman but there's a scene where Khalil waits in a woman's apartment, watches her undress, then forcibly restrains her before draining her dry in a scene deliberately meant to remind you of what it does.
Indeed, the fact that Khalil gets away with so much awful evil crap is something that makes the book a chore. Vampire novels almost inevitably work best when their condition is a curse and Khalil doesn't have enough self-awareness to be cursed by it. He's a living argument for why Paths of Enlightenment aren't really appropriate for a vampire game or, at least, would be if he cared enough about the Path of Paradox to be anything more than "the path of what I was going to do anyway." Indeed, the best part of Khalil's story is when he chides Ramona for racism against Romani people, saying, yes, HE is a murderous thief but that's just him. His family is rightfully ashamed of him.
The best parts of the books are Hesha, Ramona, and Elizabeth's sections. Hesha may be every bit as evil as Khalil, being a literal priest of a god of evil (which Set wasn't in RL but is in V:TM) but he has far more depth as a person. Ramona is a vampire who wants to be "good" but is rather easily led astray by Khalil's transparent lies. Elizabeth seems to have fallen in from another genre of horror entirely and is as terrified of Khalil as she is of Hesha despite the former being more Buffy vampire than Dracula in terms of intelligence.
If it sounds like I'm insulting the book, I'm not, well, not entirely. None of this is due to bad writing. Kathleen Ryan is fully capable of writing fantastic vampire fiction. I know, because she's the author of Setite and that's one of my favorite V:TM books. However, the protagonist is someone she tries to contrast against all of the others and he's just not a great place to be in the headspace of. Despite this, I found myself still interested in the plotline between them. The Eye of Hazimel is the most D&D-like artifact in V:TM but it's very strangeness is one of the reasons the plot works. No one else really looks for magical artifacts in the setting, so the one-eyed man is king....more
TALES OF AN ELDRITCH WASTELAND is the fourth novel of the Cthulhu Armageddon series but actually a collection of short stories set between the 1st andTALES OF AN ELDRITCH WASTELAND is the fourth novel of the Cthulhu Armageddon series but actually a collection of short stories set between the 1st and 3rd books (as well as a few prequels set in the world). I wrote a lot of Cthulhu Armageddon content for the BOOKS OF CTHULHU but noticed that it was unlikely every fan of the series would pick these up. So, Tales of an Eldritch Wasteland assembles them all in one place. You can find out what happened to Jon and Mercury after the events of TOWER OF ZHAAL and see them up against everything from the Mi Go to evil fungus monsters....more
VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE: WALK AMONG US is the first and possibly last World of Darkness novel we’re likely to see since the end of the Old World of DaVAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE: WALK AMONG US is the first and possibly last World of Darkness novel we’re likely to see since the end of the Old World of Darkness in 2004. The premise for Vampire: The Masquerade is that the world is secretly ruled from the shadows by a variety of supernatural beings (chiefly vampires) and they are constantly feuding for power like mafia bosses. It was an immensely fun premise if you were a counterculture Goth kid or just a guy who enjoyed playing edgy antiheroes, both of which described me. In 2018, the Old World of Darkness was revived with Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition and the results have been controversial ever since.
Walk Among Us, in it’s own way, is the perfect encapsulation of why the design philosophy of 5th Edition has been hit or miss. The book is three novellas by Genevieve Gornichec, Caitlin Starling, and Cassandra Khaw (the latter of mine is a personal favorite). The authors are each incredibly talented, create a believable World of Darkness, and write stories that are excellent pieces of horror each. This out of the way, no shade upon their writing abilities, I kind of hate this book. Walk Among Us is something that represents pretty much everything I don’t want out of the New-New World of Darkness.
The Old World of Darkness was, in simple, a comic book. Specifically, it was a very Nineties comic book. You were a dark and brooding antihero who sat on rooftops next to gargoyles and surveyed the corrupt city full of rival supernaturals as you pondered your lost humanity. There’s a reason that Underworld is a guilty pleasure and Blade is probably closer to Vampire: The Masquerade than it ever was the character from Tomb of Dracula. Yes, you feasted upon blood, but the power fantasy was also present as was the romance.
Walk Among Us reflects the 5th Edition mindset that being a vampire is not just awful. You aren’t just tormented with generic angst and tragic backstory. No, worse, being a vampire is not cool. The protagonists of these three stories are some of the whiniest most unlikable vampires in fiction. So much so that Louis of Interview with a Vampire would say they’re a bunch of losers. This is perhaps the ultimate in unforgivable sins and why I cannot endorse these three disgraces to Caine.
It’d be alright if these vampires whined because they didn’t want to be murderers, they lost their families, or even mourned the loss of the Sun in some tragic Gothic way. No, they’re all scumbags with no morality to offend against. It’s the fact that being a vampire doesn’t make them any less annoying than the kind of jerks they were in life.
“A Sheep Among Wolves� protagonist, Clea, starts sympathetically enough but her primary concern once she’s joined a radical student activist group is to make sure the leader continues to like her even when she’s committing arson/murder for no apparent reward. She doesn’t even have any politics, she just feels really lonely on campus. Being a vampire just is another label to her and not one that invokes any curiosity. My wife shares some of Clea’s issues but found her equally frustrating.
“Fine Print� follows the world’s dumbest Ventrue. Duke negotiates a contract with his sire before his Embrace, apparently assuming this is legally enforceable, and is obnoxious the entire way through. He also doesn’t bother to learn that he can’t eat food beforehand, that sunlight forces him to sleep, or that vampires like him need special kinds of blood to drink. This probably my favorite of the stories and Duke really should have been staked for the Sun on his first night.
“The Land of Milk and Honey� follows a Toreador Anarch who runs a commune of blood harvesters that raise their own food as well as animals. Leigh is among the absolute worst kind of lifestyle advocates who basically keeps her subordinates as animals to harvest but insists on it being the more humane alternative. Its blackly funny that other Kindred seem to think of her as an extreme pro-vegan type in-universe but listening to her ramble on about her ideology the entire time just makes me want to see the Sabbat arrive.
This is the heart of perhaps 5th Edition’s biggest flaw as there’s nothing particularly fun about being a vampire. Walk Among Us� vampires are not sexy, cool, or particularly powerful. They have no torment from the fact they’re good people forced to be evil by hunger or circumstance. Christof may have been a somewhat cliche example of a reluctant vampire, but he was interesting as a Crusader turned monster. Lucita may be evil, but she had tragedy, pathos, and sex appeal. These guys are like the obnoxious lady at the supermarket being turned into Kindred....more
LAIR OF THE CRYSTAL FANG by S.A. Sidor is the third book in his "Andy Van Nortwick" trilogy with THE LAST RITUAL and CULT OF THE SPIDER-QUEEN. It tak LAIR OF THE CRYSTAL FANG by S.A. Sidor is the third book in his "Andy Van Nortwick" trilogy with THE LAST RITUAL and CULT OF THE SPIDER-QUEEN. It takes the story back to Arkham, Massachusetts after the events of the Spider Queen novel and proceeds to follow up on several of the characters. It also makes use of several characters from the board game, which I always enjoy.
The premise of the books is a fairly simple one with a serial killing operating in Arkham, much to the show and horror of the city's citizens. The Lamprey operates from the Arkham sewer system and is taking advantage of the many tunnels as well as unmarked passages throughout. He is working for an entity living inside a crystal meteorite buried within said sewers and trying to bring about the end of the world, as you do in ARKHAM HORROR.
Honestly, I feel like a serial killer is a somewhat lazy plot thread to introduce into Arkham Horror. The equivalent of "cheap heat" for professional wrestling. Serial killers are exciting and interesting as well as fit into the pulp feel but I feel like the other books had a lot more interesting hooks to base the story around. That doesn't mean that this isn't an enjoyable story, it's very well-executed but it is a small complaint I had during the story.
It's great seeing characters like Rex Murphy, Wendy Adams, Carolyn Fern, Mandy Thompson and Charlie Sinclair spread throughout the story. Usually, the Arkham Horror board game characters are restricted to being cameos and are more like Easter Eggs than actual personalities. This is not the case here. I particularly like the handling of Wendy Adams, who is a street urchin trying to survive in a city full of monsters.
I appreciate the follow up from The Cult of the Spider Queen as we see Jack Williams becoming a rare disabled hero as he lost his right leg during the events of that book. We also see Maud Brion, former actress and director, struggling to recover her sanity after her ordeal. Finally, Andy Van Notwick has lost his job at the paper because he wasn't able to find gold in the jungle.
Seeing the characters attempt to bounce back from the events of an encounter with the Mythos is a rare treat in the world of Cthulhu adventures and works quite well for characterization. I also think Wendy Adams is a great character as a young woman who doesn't realize how weird the things she deals with truly are. Doctor Fern also strikes a nice balance between someone who wants to help with supernatural maladies and an objective scientist.
Ironically, one of my favorite parts of the book was the scenes with Charlie Sinclair. The Mayor of Arkham, he's an individual who believes in the occult and supernatural spookiness of his town. However, his political ambitions and stubborness is so great that when he discovers a mysterious magic crystal as well as a cult worshiping it, his primary concern is that it doesn't disrupt his attempt to repace the Arkham sewer system with a modern one.
In conclusion, this is a pretty fun book. While I think a serial killer plot in Arkham is somewhat low-hanging fruit, the story is engaging and the characters quite enjoyable. I'd love a fourth Andy Van Notwick novel and see the characters continue to develop. I'm even low-key shipping some of the characters, which I never thought I'd do....more
PAPERBACKS FROM HELL by Grady Hendrix and Will Erikkson is a fantastically well-done and researched collection of trashy books from the Seventies and PAPERBACKS FROM HELL by Grady Hendrix and Will Erikkson is a fantastically well-done and researched collection of trashy books from the Seventies and Eighties. There's an amazing collection of terrible sounding books of Nazi leprechauns, killer moths, killer cats, killer dogs, Satanic babies, evil hippies, and murderous houses. The books get only a few sentences each to a paragraph but they're usually hilarious in their descriptions. If the book has one flaw, it's like a 1/3rd annotations.
One thing this book does remind me is that there's nothing wrong with enjoying exploitative drek and there's a generally fantastic collection of books that exist just to serve up the copious amount of sex and violence that readers want. It seems there's a huge chunk of middle aged men who are able to solve monster or demon attacks, win women half their age, and prove the government utterly useless. Oh and the irony that many of these books had reactionary heavy metal/Dungeons and Dragons/hippies/drugs causing Satan or monster attacks but were consumed by the fandom of those exact things.
It makes me glad places like Crossroad Press and other presses reprinting these and also glad to realize that no matter how crappy and trashy my own writing is, it's just following in a proud tradition of these books....more
CLAN NOVEL: RAVNOS is the eighth novel in the Clan Novel series for the Vampire: The Masquerade line of tabletop RPGs. I've been re-reading the seriesCLAN NOVEL: RAVNOS is the eighth novel in the Clan Novel series for the Vampire: The Masquerade line of tabletop RPGs. I've been re-reading the series for the past couple of years and enjoying the world of conspiracies, action, and interlocking plotlines. The series is not without its flaws and wildly changes tones as well as themes depending on the characters. However, it is still something that I think to be quite fun. I also note that the twelve book series has its own smaller series within the books, effectively following authors continuing their own stories when they do two or more books. In this case, Ravnos is a sequel to the Setite novel.
The premise is that Hesha Ruhadze, Follower of Set high priest, has managed to finally acquire the Eye of Hazimel. The Eye is effectively the One Ring of Sauron (or Eye of Vecna) in that it bestows fantastic powers to its wielder but eventually warps your mind into a parody of itself. It also attracts the attention of Hazimel himself, who is restricted to using Khail Ravana as a minion in order to retrieve it. Khail finds himself stumbling on the erstwhile childe of Hesha, Elizabeth Dimitrios, and the Gangrel Ramona, who all have their own stake in the quest.
The biggest flaw of this novel is Khalil Ravana himself. He is, deliberately, a complete scumbag. He's a thieving, scheming, snivelling, cowardly irredeemable piece of ****. You can be a bad person as well as a protagonistin Vampire: The Masquerade, it's almost mandatory, but Khalil is closer to Gollum rather than, say, Saruman. This is a book written by a woman but there's a scene where Khalil waits in a woman's apartment, watches her undress, then forcibly restrains her before draining her dry in a scene deliberately meant to remind you of what it does.
Indeed, the fact that Khalil gets away with so much awful evil crap is something that makes the book a chore. Vampire novels almost inevitably work best when their condition is a curse and Khalil doesn't have enough self-awareness to be cursed by it. He's a living argument for why Paths of Enlightenment aren't really appropriate for a vampire game or, at least, would be if he cared enough about the Path of Paradox to be anything more than "the path of what I was going to do anyway." Indeed, the best part of Khalil's story is when he chides Ramona for racism against Romani people, saying, yes, HE is a murderous thief but that's just him. His family is rightfully ashamed of him.
The best parts of the books are Hesha, Ramona, and Elizabeth's sections. Hesha may be every bit as evil as Khalil, being a literal priest of a god of evil (which Set wasn't in RL but is in V:TM) but he has far more depth as a person. Ramona is a vampire who wants to be "good" but is rather easily led astray by Khalil's transparent lies. Elizabeth seems to have fallen in from another genre of horror entirely and is as terrified of Khalil as she is of Hesha despite the former being more Buffy vampire than Dracula in terms of intelligence.
If it sounds like I'm insulting the book, I'm not, well, not entirely. None of this is due to bad writing. Kathleen Ryan is fully capable of writing fantastic vampire fiction. I know, because she's the author of Setite and that's one of my favorite V:TM books. However, the protagonist is someone she tries to contrast against all of the others and he's just not a great place to be in the headspace of. Despite this, I found myself still interested in the plotline between them. The Eye of Hazimel is the most D&D-like artifact in V:TM but it's very strangeness is one of the reasons the plot works. No one else really looks for magical artifacts in the setting, so the one-eyed man is king....more
SONG OF CARCOSA is the third of the Countess Zorzi series by Josh Reynolds. I’m a huge fan of these books and their Catwoman-esque protagonist. The CoSONG OF CARCOSA is the third of the Countess Zorzi series by Josh Reynolds. I’m a huge fan of these books and their Catwoman-esque protagonist. The Countess is a multi-dimensional protagonist who straddles the line between the upper class of the 1920s as well as the increasing social tensions of the working class. She’s an ex-con woman and cat burglar but has made her fortune through multiple generations of her family being very good at both. It makes a fascinating sort of character to explore the Cthulhu Mythos through and I have no doubt she’d be one of the rare survivors of Masks of Nyarlathotep or Horror on the Orient Express.
This book has the Countess ally herself with questionable company in the Red Coterie. A group of sorcerers and aristocrats that may not be as evil as the Silver Twilight Lodge but are absolutely not to be trusted. This takes her and her companion, butch cab driver and thief-in-training Pepper Kelly, back to her hometown of Venice. While I prefer stories set in Arkham Horror’s titular city, I appreciate the international nature of the Countess Zorzi books. We get a romanticized view of the floating city at this point in time that involves lots of secrets, intrigue, Old World aristocrats, and the rising tide of fascism.
Song of Carcosa, as the name implies, is about Hastur. The most famous Great Old One not invented by H.P. Lovecraft but adapted from Robert W. Chambers� King in Yellow. Once more, we have the mysterious entity connected to an adapation of a mysterious play, madness inducing writing, and artists obsessed with bringing the supernatural to the world in order to bring about its end. In this case, the artist has the semi-sympathetic motive that he thinks that summoning Hastur is the only way to short circuit a second World War.
This is a good book for Pride month. Countess Alessandra is confirmed as bisexual with a reference to a past girlfriend of hers that she broke up with because of her cousin ratting her out to their family. Pepper has always been subtextually lesbian and gets more “hints� to this as her dream self is revealed to be a warrior woman in love with the Queen of Carcosa. We also get the confirmation that both of Zorzi’s parents received “fencing lessons� from the Red Cavalier in a revelation that shocks the Countess. The 1920s isn’t a great place to be when you’re LGBTA but it’s certainly a setting that Arkham Horror acknowledges them existing.
As mentioned, the book deals with the fact that fascism is now rising in Italy and the specter of World War 2 is starting to loom over the supernatural as well as mundane forces of Europee. I think this is an interesting element and adds to the story greatly. It is an all-too-human evil and we don’t have an Andrew Doran figure to fight Nazi aligned Cthulhu cultists. I think it’s all too appropriate that everyone, sorcerer and opponent of sorcerer alike, looks down on the fascists.
In conclusion, I continue to recommend the Countess Zorzi series as an excellent example of adventure horror. They’re Indiana Jones and Lara Croft-esque expeditions except our heroine is even more of a criminal than them. I also like Pepper’s development as she continues to go from a tagalong sidekick to an increasingly interesting heroine in her own right. It also is a pretty good story for Pride Month because it’s nice to have queer characters just being awesome, though I wish they’d stop dancing around with Pepper....more
“These hands have spilled more blood than I can imagine in one place. These eyes have looked on countless sins. These teeth have drained the gift of l“These hands have spilled more blood than I can imagine in one place. These eyes have looked on countless sins. These teeth have drained the gift of life again and again. I told myself for a thousand years that I was all the things my sire wasn’t. But I was just like him: I have preyed on others for my own ends. God won’t take the curse away, but I must atone as I can. It’s baptism, if you want to call that. I’m going to let fire strip off what water can’t.� � Lucita de Aragorn, Shards
Female antiheroes are still fairly rare in fantasy novel. This is certainly not something that is absolute, don’t get me wrong. One of my favorite characters growing up was Kitiara Uth Matar who was almost as much a protagonist in the Dragonlance Legends books books as Raistlin Majere. My wife and I met on the Anita Blake forums with the titular character having been designed to be a hard boiled detective who was willing to kill anyone she had to in order to keep the fragile peace of Saint Louis. Then there’s Lucita de Aragon, a character that only had a few appearances in White Wolf’s World of Darkness novels yet remains one of the singularly most memorable characters they ever created.
Lucita is an eight hundred year old vampire, one of the oldest most active undead around, who was a literal princess when alive. However, she was a rebellious young woman who her father assigned to the church to discipline. Unfortunately, like today, the institution was not always full of good individuals and she fell prey to a predator. This being the World of Darkness, said predator was a vampire named Father Luis Moncada who turned her into one of the undead. From there, Lucita spent centuries opposing her sire while sustaining her luxurious lifestyle as a highly paid assassin of her own kind. That is, until, Clan Novel: Lasombra when she finally killed Moncada with the help of her lover, Fatima al-Faqadi.
Unfortunately, victory has robbed Lucita of one of the things that she used to define herself as an undead survivor. Moncada was one of the Sabbat, a monstrous religious fanatic, and as close to absolute evil as you could get. By opposing him, Lucita could always keep away the Beast by saying, “I’m not as bad as that guy.� With Moncada dead, Lucita is left with the uncomfortable realization she’s now only able to define herself by her own sins and they’re horrifying. She’s not a friendly neighborhood vampire or a hero nor is she likely to become one. However, she needs to figure out something to define herself as when there’s no one left to defend herself against.
Lucita is a fantastic character and this book allows a lot more insight into her than the original Clan Novel starring her (albeit not quite as much as the Dark Ages Clan Novel by David Niall Wilson). A lot of insight is had in the fact that she wants to atone and be a better person but, really, just isn’t sorry or regretful for any of the evil deeds she’s done. Not really. It’s a nice change of pace of vampire fiction and the fact our heroine is struggling with the fact, “Yeah, I’m genuinely evil and that sucks� is an interesting character journey.
Surprisingly, for a book written by a dude in the early 2000s, Lucita’s bisexuality isn’t written for titillation. Her connection with Fatima is something that is depicted as motivated by deep loneliness and a genuine emotional connection between two deadly killers. Unfortunately, Fatima really does believe God has her back and has never lost her sense of purpose. Fatima is deeply-deluded about undead being something more than monsters but at least that is an ethos. If forced to choose between her clan and Lucita, she might choose Lucita but she’s never going to choose Lucita over God. Lucita just flat out does not share Fatima’s faith even though said faith among undead doesn’t preclude a relationship between two women. Sadly, Lucita’s other lost love, Anatole, isn’t there to mediate.
In conclusion, the Clan Lasombra Trilogy is one of the best series produced for the Old World of Darkness fiction line and this is a great introduction to it. It’s also a good book to purchase for Pride month. You’d probably have to read Clan Novel: Lasombra to get as much out of it as you should, though. It’s enough for me to wish they’d make a new set of books starring Lucita, though. Bruce Baugh’s version of Lucita is far more erudite, thoughtful, and tragic than Richard Dansky even if she’s far less sympathetic than David Niall Wilson’s....more
A LOOK BEHIND THE DERLETH MYTHOS: ORIGINS OF THE CTHULHU MYTHOS by John D. Haefele is a nonfiction book discussing the role of August Derleth in the cA LOOK BEHIND THE DERLETH MYTHOS: ORIGINS OF THE CTHULHU MYTHOS by John D. Haefele is a nonfiction book discussing the role of August Derleth in the creation of HPL's modern mythology. More precisely, it is more of a rebuttal to S.T. Joshi's THE RISE, FALL, AND RISE OF THE CTHULHU MYTHOS. If you haven't read that, the book is going to be pretty nonsensical.
August Derleth is controversial in certain parts of HP Lovecraft fandom. By which I mean the literary types who actually know who he is. For the majority of people out there who know who HP Lovecraft is, a lot larger group than used to exist, they primarily know him through Cthulhu plushies, board games, tablletop roleplaying games, as well as video game adaptations.
Go a little further and you'll know him through his inspiratios to authors like Stephen King as well as maybe spin off novels set in his world. Only by the time you pass them do you know about the guy who founded Arkham House and is a guy who either saved HP Lovecraft's legacy or stole it for his own use. Really, he did a little of both.
If you're a person who isn't part of the snobbish literary criticism crowd or obnoxiously entitled fandom academic (of which I am a proud snobbish Literature Masters waving member of both--seriously, even I hate myself), you probably need a rundown of who August Derleth is. The short as well as mostly inaccurate version is he was a Weird Tales writer that Lovecraft mentored as well as inspired.
When Howard Phillips went the way of all flesh, they worked with the man named HPL's literary executive (RH Barlow) with the permission of Howard's Aunt to republish the man's work. Eventually, she, too, passed and August froze Barlow out. August also wrote "collaborations" which was, as far as anyone can tell, were just him slapping Howard's name onto his own stuff. He also created a shared mythology from Lovecraft's Yog-Sothery that (arguably) didn't really exist in the original stories. Lovecraft was consistent in his mythology in his stories but often contradictory across them, something I consider a benefit rather than a flaw.
Working in other people's worlds is by no means unusual behavior for August Derleth as HPL fandom often overlooks the fact that he also wrote the Solar Pons Sherlock Holmes-esque stories that the Doyle family asked him not to. About seventy of these stories no less. To give a sense of August Derleth, take note that he wrote Arthur Conan Doyle and asked him for permission to take over writing Sherlock Holmes when the author decided not to write anymore. Derleth cast a far wider net than HPL's works even if he's most famous for working within other people's worlds (and did plenty of original material himself). This isn't to be criticized any more than Roy Thomas' work with Conan or other comic book writer famous for preexisting properties.
A Look Behind The Derleth Mythos requires the five paragraph introduction above because it is not a laymen's novel about Derleth, the Cthulhu Mythos, S.T. Joshi's dislike of Derleth, and a bunch of other arguments that newcomers to the Mythos will have no idea what they're referring to. It's a bit like coming in to a Reddit argument several posts in. If you've just seen The Last Jedi today and come in with opinions on it, don't be surprised if you find that a lot of people have already expressed where they stand on the battle lines.
I've got no real skin in this game or I'm moderate to neutral on the subject. Derleth's detractors tend to be Lovecraft purists while I came to the HPL through Brian Lumley's Titus Crow (influenced by Derleth) and the Call of Cthulhu tabletop game (ditto). I even made a homage to both in the Re'Kithnid, a fictional tome by "Brianna Lethder." However, I feel ninety percent of this book is just going, "Well, actually, Derleth got Lovecraft just fine!" Which is not the best use of a scholarly rebuttal, IMHO.
The book is, essentially, one long apologia for August Derleth and that's fine. I feel a better use of this book's pages would have been explaining how Derleth built a coherent mythology from a bunch of disparate sources, shared the works of a writer he loved, and inspired a bunch of other writers just like HP Lovecraft wanted to (and did). No one really should care about whether Derleth was Catholic or not (assuming all writers can only write what they believe in personally) or preferred writing cosmic horror versus pulpy tales of good versus evil. They should care about his treatment of intellectual property and misuse of a man's name. Essentially, this book feels like it misses the forest for the trees when discussing the legacy of Derleth and his relationship to Howard Phillips. ...more
I admit when I do read the Grimm Tales books, it's entirely for the fanservice. However, this is a surprisingly effective set of horror tales with a pI admit when I do read the Grimm Tales books, it's entirely for the fanservice. However, this is a surprisingly effective set of horror tales with a pretty high body count. The sexual nature of the stories actually benefits the terror as they were usually handled in the subtext with HP Lovecraft. However, it should be noted that "Deep Ones" ends with the female protagonist suffering a very DAGON-esque fate. ...more
Sonja Blue is hunting down Countless Elizabeth Bathory in Hollywood. This is mostly just a fictionalized version of her backstory and Sonja serving asSonja Blue is hunting down Countless Elizabeth Bathory in Hollywood. This is mostly just a fictionalized version of her backstory and Sonja serving as the inevitable Jason Voorhees esque killer that the Countess can't defeat. She's already crippled at the start of the story and must rely on her Renfield in order to lure men to their deaths (virginal young girls are no longer required). I really enjoyed it....more
A good place to begin if you want to start the Chastity series. Chastity is a young punk girl who gets transformed into a vampire after failing as a gA good place to begin if you want to start the Chastity series. Chastity is a young punk girl who gets transformed into a vampire after failing as a gymnast (due to injury). It's a fun dark urban fantasy/horror series and Chastity is a sexy fun protagonist that is up there with Cassie Hack for all time favorites. If you enjoy horror comics and vampires as well as the Goth look then this is definitely up your alley.
Also the Stephanie Meyers stand in is a vampire....more
PRINCE OF THE CITY by Keith Herber is both a prequel as well as sequel to the book DARK PRINCE by the same author. It is one of the early VAMPIRE: THEPRINCE OF THE CITY by Keith Herber is both a prequel as well as sequel to the book DARK PRINCE by the same author. It is one of the early VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE novels that is set in the WORLD OF DARKNESS where supernatural entities live among us, hiding their existence so they can prey upon us better. Dark Prince was a fantastic novel with a hard gritty street-crime edge and a loathsome protagonist that, nevertheless, manages to undergo serious character development. It introduced the character of Vannevar Thomas and I was interested in seeing where this book would take him as Prince of the City stars said supporting character.
Prince of the City is a very different book from Dark Prince despite so many crossover characters and including Vannevar’s perception of the events in the latter. It’s a credit to Keith Herber that he’s so dramatically able to shift his style. If I had to compare it to any other book, I’d say it’s most similar to Interview with a Vampire as it’s essentially a centuries-long biography of Vannevar from his days as a Revolutionary War soldier embraced by his deranged uncle to his rise to power as one of the early residents of San Fransisco.
One of the first things to note is that Vannevar Thomas is a far more likeable protagonist than Sullivan. He’s a vampire and feeds off the living but all indications are he’s about as nice a person as you can probably be and still survive in Kindred politics. He’s a progressive minded fellow that rescues a black man from being lynched (making him his ghoul), supports California joining the Union during the Civil War, and shows unexpected mercy that occasionally pays off. This makes him far easier to root for but does take away some of the book’s edge. Really, the worst thing that Vannevar does is turn a blind eye to all of his much-much nastier fellows� doings.
Keith Herbert obviously did a lot of history of San Fransisco and the book is a decent travelogue of the city through its various changes across multiple centuries. We follow the city from its days as part of the Wild West and Gold Rush to its transformation into an organized city as well as its ultimate fate as a counter-culture mecca. Vannevar trying to figure out what the hell hippies are saying when tracking down his LSD-blood drinking childe, Margaret, is one of the rare humorous parts of the story.
Keith Herber really “gets� the early Vampire: The Masquerade handling of Kindred as the book is filled with dozens of unique vampires interacting off one another. The politics in the city frequently change and we often get characters who are fully realized, only for them to die or be replaced within a few chapters. A deranged sea captain Malkavian that rules the docks and frustrates Vannevar? Dies in the great earthquake.
A union leader Brujah that has ties to the Inner Circle of the Camarilla? Executed along with a previous prince. Vannevar’s archenemy for a century? Shuffled off after an opportunity to kill him pays off. There’s no canon fodder and the colorful personalities illustrate both how long Vannevar has been at this and the kind of unique weirdos vampirism creates. Undead politics are a dangerous business and we watch Vannevar manage to weather them better than most across his long-long unlife.
If I have any complaints about the book, it does go for “fridging� as a means of giving Vannevar emotional pain. One of Vannevar’s love interests across the centuries suffers a horrific assault that leaves her insane, another dies horribly during a riot in Chinatown, and a third, well, almost rather comically dies when they run out into the sun while high as a kite. Remember kids, drugs are bad. Still, this is a really solid book and probably the second best of the V:TM line....more
There's something inherently funny about Theo Bell, vampire enforcer of the Traditions and Blade stand-in for Vampire: The Masquerade being assigned tThere's something inherently funny about Theo Bell, vampire enforcer of the Traditions and Blade stand-in for Vampire: The Masquerade being assigned to clean up the disaster that is Akron, Ohio. A city that apparently is overrun with Thin Blooded vampires and has a court of corrupt Kindred trying to take over the city. The Moonstone comics were a mixed bag but this is definitely one of the better ones and I really enjoyed the adventure displayed here as well as its twists and turns. A warning that these are black and white comics, though....more
The last collection of the BLOOD VICE series wraps up thing in a pretty straight forward way. We have been following our heroine for a long time (at lThe last collection of the BLOOD VICE series wraps up thing in a pretty straight forward way. We have been following our heroine for a long time (at least book wise) and watched the story move from being a crime story to become a political/romance story involving vampires. Here, I think this is a good ending even if I feel that the final confrontation with the Free Bloods was resolved a bit too quickly. I strongly recommend the series and the omnibus editions is the best way to experience it....more
THE PUPPET MASTERS is the third and finall installment of th CLAN BRUJAH TRILOGY that is a spin off of the CLAN NOVELS for VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE. ThTHE PUPPET MASTERS is the third and finall installment of th CLAN BRUJAH TRILOGY that is a spin off of the CLAN NOVELS for VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE. The premise of the book is that Theo Bell, ex-slave turned vampire, has long served the Camarilla. Unfortunately, by trying to shut down a ring of slavers, he ends up stripped of his position as an archon and on the run from his former allies.
Theo Bell managed to kill the Overseer last book but ended up diablerizing him in the process, which results in him now carrying the poor man's soul in him now. Unfortunately, this has set the Overseer's demonic patron who has decided to call in every favor it has to get "his property" back. Worse, the slavers are sick of Bell's interferance and have decided to employ Karsh, the Warlord of the Camarilla, to assassinate Bell.
If you're a fan of Vampire: The Masquerade, you'll note Karsh is one of the toughest NPCs in the game and the equivalent of sending Darth Vader. Unfortunately, the conflict between the two lacks some panache and feels a bit anticlimatic. In the opening chapter, Karsh says he could just invite Theo Bell to visit him under his authority as Warlord and offer to clear his name. Theo would show up and Karsh would murder him. This plan gets rejected by the villains, probably because the author realizes that it would work and kill the protagonist. Which means the author probably shouldn't have lampshaded the simplest solution for the villains winning.
The book has some interesting guest stars in addition to Karsh as we have Talley the Hound, Inyanga (Chicago by Night), and Mark Decker (Milwaukee by Night) show up. The takedown of the slavers is also a bit too neat but I enjoyed the revelation of their ultimate agenda. The novel ties into THE TIME OF JUDGEMENT happening around this time and it works out well. Gehenna is on the rise and Theo's attempts to stop the slavers may just be pointless.
I also appreciate the development of Nathalie and Deliphine, the identical twins now separated by the Embrace. Delphine refuses to have Nathalie's memory erased of the past month and tries ghouldom as an alternative to Embracing her. This goes about as badly as it possibly could and is a source of some personal horror in a sea of action. Overall, I really liked this trilogy and think it's among the best of the V:TM novels....more
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