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Coming Soon: More Heroes of Redhook News!
The genius’s at GoldenGoblin Press have released the preview video for Heroes of Redhook Video!!
Myself, I’m anxiously awaiting this kickstarter’s launch and in the venerable words of one Philip J. Fry, I must demand; “SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!”
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Coming Soon! Heroes of RedHook by Golden Goblin Press!
The cover for Golden Goblin Press’s Heroes of Red Hook
The fine folks over at Golden Goblin Press tipped us off that their newest kickstarter project is almost ready. We couldn’t be more excited about their newest fiction offering. While you know that we’re going to post the link as soon as it is up, go ahead and get your mouth watering over what we can release to you so far (story details after the fold)
Heroes of Red Hook, the fifth Kickstarter from Golden Goblin Press, is a compilation of short cosmic horror stories set in the 20’s and 30’s. It is our 3rd fiction collection, following Tales of Cthulhu Invictus and Dread Shadows in Paradise. Heroes of Red Hook will be a 100,000 word collection, twice the size of our previous collections. What makes this project unique in that it features protagonists who are immigrant, minorities, independent women, non-Christian, and members of the LGBT. Our heroes and heroines struggle to overcome not only the dark horrors beyond mankind’s understanding, but a society seeking to deny them basic human rights.
Kickstarter launches on June 20th, and ends on July 25th.
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Andrew Doran and the Tomb of the Pharaoh: Episode 2
Andrew Doran and the Tomb of the Pharaoh
Dr. Doran is back in his third Serialized story. If you’re new to Andrew Doran, he’s an Adventurer who fights the minions and monsters of the Cthulhu Mythos. The first two novels came out as serials before being published as novels. There are a few ways that you can catch up. You can get the first story, The Statement of Andrew Doran, for free by reading it on Wattpad. Or you can purchase it on Amazon for only $0.99. Book 2 is called Andrew Doran at the Mountains of Madness, and you can find it on Amazon as well. Both are also on Audible and iTunes as audio books.
This time around, Dr. Doran is forced to face the return of an enemy he thought long gone as they race to get their hands on the dreaded Book of Eibon.
To read episode 1, click here.
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Origins Game Fair 2016
Despite a misprint in their onsite book; Shoggoth.net Group will most decidedly NOT be at Origins Game Fair, nor are we associated with their Cthulhuthon. Although this was communicated to Origins staff some time ago, it appears that they have made an over site. We wish Rogue Cthulhu good luck with their further endeavors.
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Dreamlands Music
I think this is excellent background music for the Dreamlands.
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Hooked Up
Gutted by Doug Murano
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I was fortunate enough to be advanced a copy of this book prior to publication. And I mean fortunate. This book is destined to generate strong sales, firstly on the strength of the names involved (Neil Gaiman, Clive Barker, Ramsey Campbell), and then on the strength of the poem and stories included.
Stephanie M. Wytovich leads off with an effective piece of verse, which leads into what I think is the best story in the book: Brian Kirk’s “Picking Splinters From a Sex Slave.”
That story illustrates what lengths a person might go to to accomodate a loved one, in exquisite detail. The actual tableau is revolting, but the internal logic is inescapable. The tone is perfect.
“Splinters” is followed by Lisa Mannetti and then Neil Gaiman. Both stories are good — not pedestrian, but are overshadowed by the excellence of Kirk’s piece. Christopher Cooke’s “Dominion” levels up one from those and leads into a tetralogy of really effective horror tales by Mercedes M. Yardley, Paul Tremblay, Damien Angelica Walters, and Richard Thomas, before Clive Barker takes center stage with his “Coming To Grief”. I’m not going to say that this story is as good as “classic Barker” pieces like “In the Hills, the Cities”, but it is a Barker story, and has a certain resonance.
The second-best story, John F.D. Taff’s “Cards for His Spokes, Coins for His Fare”, which has distinct Kingian undertones, is set in the early 70s of my own childhood and morphs into a fairly classic ghost yarn. Cheers for the setting and characters.
Amanda Gowin contributes a decent piece, “Cellar’s Dog”, with a good portrait of po’ white trash, and Kevin Lucia adds “When We All Met at the Ofrenda”, which again hits me especially, as I live in the Southwest and am familiar with the lore that contributes to the setting and setup.
That’s followed by good pieces from Maria Alexander and Josh Malerman, before the capstone, Ramsey Campbell’s “The Place of Revelation”, which does not disappoint.
Strong, strong, strong. Pieces that find beauty in grotesquerie, love amid the ruins, that entice you with beauty and magic and then hang you on a meathook, still wanting more.
Gutted will have out your liver and lights in an instant, after you give your heart willingly.
An easy five stars.
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Madder than…
The Madness of Cthulhu Anthology by S.T. Joshi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Lovecraftian anthologies tend to be uneven, especially earlier ones, where the stable of writers was fuller.
This is a later and smoother version, albeit with the work of some older and/or completely unexpected scribes. The level of craftsmanship is very high, and everyone clearly knows the material, which is another common issue.
I enjoyed it. Caitlin Kiernan’s story was the best, I thought (and think).
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Neon Noir in the Cities of the Red Night
Riding the Centipede by John Claude Smith
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Terrance Blake is the best man in his world and would be a good man in most worlds. Rudolf is a mutant villain without a shred of decency, but still disciplined and purposeful. They are on a collision course, and don’t know it. Jane and Marlon Teagarden are only the twin rails that the story rolls along on, and only one of them is Riding the Centipede.
I get the sense that a lot of the actual journey was cut. The scenes of experience don’t seem as protracted as they might be. And that may be for the best.
The setting and denouement are determinedly Burroughsian, though there’s not as much of the old up and out and more of the Burgessian ultraviolence as Chernobyl performs his version of art. Though Jane Teagarden could use a little more fleshing-out of character, that would probably detract from the hold-your-breath movement of the narrative, which comes to an explosive climax.
Background-5;plotting-5;characters-4;style-5. Round up to 5.
Highly recommended.
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Of a mind to…
Nightmares from a Lovecraftian Mind by Jordan Krall
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Smooth, polished, professional. Disturbing, subtle, and definitely nightmarish. The stories in this volume are not so Lovecraftian as the title would have you believe. There is a dollop of cosmic horror, but none of the usual suspects are present. No hooded cultists, octopus-headed monstrosities, cyclopean ruins, non-Euclidean space.
Headspace is more the issue. The Lovecraftian “mind”, indeed. Some of the matter-of-factness of JG Ballard, the inventive weirdness of David Lynch, the slightest hint of Philip Dickian mindrape, a tinge of the existential, a small infusion of the Gnostic. The reading of strange texts informs the text. Mr. Krall has been turning some strange pages indeed, and he melds all of those disparate elements into a surreal collage all his own.
These are pictures of minds after “experiences”, continuing to try to function in mundane space, and largely failing.
Recommended reading.
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