What’s Going On

  • Hello, Friends! It’s been quite some time since I last posted. I finished reading Lord of a Shattered Land by Howard Andrew Jones. I gave it 4 stars! Below is my review.

    Title:  Lord of a Shattered Land

    Author:  Howard A. Jones

    Published: 2023

    Owned:  Yes (eBook)

    Genre:  Fantasy, Sword & Sorcery

    I am not familiar with Howard Jones (who is not to be confused with the 80’s pop singer of the same name).  I decided to pick up the book after a comment made by Michael K. Vaughan on his YouTube channel of the same name.  In one of his videos, he had made an intriguing off-hand comment about how he was looking forward to the third book in ‘The Chronicles of Hanuvar” series as the previous books were excellent.

    I’m not a hardcore fantasy / sword & sorcery fan, but I love a good yarn and the action of the pulps.  I’ve enjoyed the tales of Conan and the epic storytelling of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.  Lord of a Shattered Land is kindred to Robert E. Howard’s work as Hanuvar has similarities to the iconic characters Conan and Solomon Kane. 

    The story focuses on the great Volanian general Hanuvar and his chronicler Antires, as they embark on a journey to rescue the last remaining survivors of his conquered nation.  We follow their journey as they covertly travel through enemy territory where they encounter an excellent mix of mythical beasts, evil priestesses, and intrigue.

    The book begins as a collection of sequential short stories involving our main characters and are self-contained.  (I believe the first few stories were sold to genre magazines).  It is only until mid-way through the book that the story ‘jells’ and starts to become a unified longer story. 

    The last chapter in the book, “Thread from a Golden Loom” depicted one of the goriest / body-horror filled battles that I’ve ever read.  SPOILER: I’m talking about the soldiers that have become host to a mushroom fungus that while giving them inhuman strength and the ability to withstand pain, is slowly turning their bodies into material for the mushrooms to grow on. Truly disgusting.  This chapter alone raised my rating from 3 to 4 stars.

    It remains to be seen whether Hanuvar becomes as iconic as Conan or Solomon Kane, but this is only the first title of what at this time is a 3-book series.  The third title, Shadow of the Smoking Mountain is set to be released in October 2024.

    Direct link: https://smullster.com/2024/07/23/book-review-lord-of-a-shattered-land/

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  • Greetings from “The Bucket”: Pawtucket, Rhode Island where it has been humid and mostly cloudy.

    Looking back at my reading habits from the past year, it looks like my attraction to short story anthologies and collections were more prevalent than novels. Horror and Weird Fiction have been my staple for at least five years. I sometimes wonder if I spend too much time dwelling on things that make me uncomfortable. It seems life is uncomfortable as it is. Why spend the time remaining to you thinking about unpleasantness? I’m trying to figure that out myself.

    So, what kind of malarky did I get into today?

    I follow the Lovecraft eZine Facebook community for fans of the writings of H.P. Lovecraft, Weird Fiction, and Horror. The Lovecraft eZine has a podcast, a YouTube channel, and publishes weird fiction. Right now the group is doing a re-read of the works of H.P. Lovecraft. The story that we’re talking about is “The Festival” (You can read it online for free here.) My feelings about it? … meh. This story is all about setting. There’s very little action and not much of a twist. The main character is a descended from a family of witches. He has been summoned to attend ‘the festival’, an ancient ritual that takes place beneath the fictitious town of Kingsport, MA. The events that unfold lead to his madness. It’s a relatively short story so you probably won’t bail on it.

    I had this show up in my morning YouTube feed….

    More of the story can be found here: https://www.thejournal.ie/ai-chruch-germany-6090108-Jun2023/

    The social and theological implications that this introduces are dystopian and humorous. On the humorous side of things we have a situation where a theologian and philosopher from the University of Vienna ‘phones in’ his sermon / presentation at a Protestant convention. ChatGPT organized the whole service (Sermon, music, prayers, and blessings) with the help of Jonas Simmerlein. He says:

    “I conceived this service — but actually I rather accompanied it, because I would say about 98% comes from the machine,” the 29-year-old scholar told The Associated Press…

    “I told the artificial intelligence ‘We are at the church congress, you are a preacher … what would a church service look like?’” Simmerlein said.

    He also asked for psalms to be included, as well as prayers and a blessing at the end.

    “You end up with a pretty solid church service,” Simmerlein said.

    The Journal – Hundreds attend AI church service in Germany (https://www.thejournal.ie/ai-chruch-germany-6090108-Jun2023/)

    Are we witnessing the end of the clergy as an occupation? Can an AI “Clergybot” replace a human? Can a machine be spiritual? Is the essence of human existence just a super-complex algorithm with a dash of randomness thrown in?

    There’s something sinister about the whole thing. Assuming that a congregation would be okay with an AI preaching to them, imagine how easy it would be to control the message given to the congregants. The clergybot could be programmed for any religion – all the end user needs to do is purchase the ‘bot that preaches their denomination’s spiritual beliefs. Load up the Koran into the device and input a sprinkling of Islamic faith writings and there you go! You’re very own Islamabot!

    I’ve tried to find the transcript of the sermon but without luck. I would be interested in reading it if it is available.

    Currently Reading

    I’m about half way through Cassandra Khaw’s novella Hammers on Bone. It’s noire (horror) private eye story. I’m having a good time reading it. Khaw captures the hard boiled detective vibe and their dialog left me envisioning Humphry Bogart as the main character / narrator. It would make an excellent graphic novel, if it hasn’t already been done.

    This is my first exposure to Cassandra Khaw. I don’t know if this is representative of their work, but I’ll certainly read another story by them. Looks like Nothing But Blackened Teeth will be my next read by this author.

    Here’s an interesting article about flutes made of bird bones from more than 12,000 years ago.

    The seven aerophones discovered at Eynan-Mallah. Credit: Lauren Davin
    The seven aerophones discovered at Eynan-Mallah. Credit: Laurent Davin

    Scientists theorize that the flutes were used for hunting – like a duck call. Except in this case the sounds are similar to the kestrel and sparrowhawk. Check it out here: Researchers discover 12,000-year-old flutes made from bird bones.

    Shlock Webzine shared a link to the latest Strange Shadows podcast. These are usually available only to subscribers, but this one appears to be free! I haven’t finished listening to it, but if you want to check it out:

    That’s about it for today. If you gotten this far, thanks for your attention. I hope there was something that sparked your imagination and gave you something to talk about around the water cooler.

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  • Hello again, imaginary reader. Glad you could stop by. It has been a lovely day in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Right now it is 77o f and sunny.

    Last week and today have been pretty good. I just finished reading “The Strange” by Nathan Ballengrud. It’s a Science Fiction / Weird Tale / Western that takes place on Mars. Told by a young female settler, it details a fictional history, during the time of “The Silence” – where Mars has lost all contact with Earth and Martian society is decaying into lawlessness. Maybe I’ll go deeper into a review of the novel if it keeps me thinking for a few more days.

    At the same time I’m also reading the Kindle edition of “The Crack in Space” by Philip K. Dick. I’ve always enjoyed the quirk and goofiness of his stories. They take place in futuristic worlds that reflect our reality, usually with a mid-twentieth century flavor, but subtly twisted. Many of his worlds have commonalities, such as the analogue of the newspaper is called a homeopape; a device that creates and displays the news. Many of the population live in “conapts” – condominium apartments. It’s not our world exactly but the reader can identify with the characters and their situations.

    I’m on the fence of what next to read. My TBR is very disorganized, but at hand I have the following lined up:

    I saw two movies over the weekend – “Cocaine Bear” and “The Menu”. Both were very enjoyable!

    Cocaine Bear – a fun 80’s style horror movie romp!
    The Menu

    Well, that’s about it for today. I should have started sooner. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!

  • Book Review: Cunning Folk by Adam Nevill

    I’d like to start off my review by acknowledging several observations made by the author in his closing essay to this book – “Story Notes: About This Horror”. This story is not about a haunted house, although it details horrific events that happen within a house. The house is cursed. And that curse is created by the next door neighbors.

    Neville asks the question – “Why do we spend so little attention to the people who live next door” when we purchase a house (or rent an apartment for that matter)? Sure, most of us look at what the neighborhood is like and what attractions are near-by but very seldom do we have the chance to find out what the neighbors are like until after we’ve moved in. Cunning Folk is a story about a young family who doesn’t learn about their neighbors until it is too late.

    Neighbours, eh? Easy to overlook them. Too easy to dismiss your new neighbours as an outlier, an insignificance that will have no effect on your lives and play no real part in your pursuit of contentment, comfort, security, protection, shelter, warmth, privacy and solace.”

    Adam Nevill from Cunning Folk – pg. 321

    Tom and Fiona with their young daughter, Gracey and pet puppy move to the country to live out a dream of Tom’s. The dream: to spend Gracey’s childhood in the country so she may experience a magical time adventuring within the woods that are adjacent to their backyard garden. Money is an issue as the family has overextended itself by purchasing a run down house that Tom figures he’ll renovate while looking for full time employment.

    From the beginning there is a tension between Tom and Fiona over purchasing the home. Fiona feels that they have taken on more than they can do. The house is a wreck and is going to require enormous work and money to make livable. In stark contrast, the home next door is picturesque and beautiful.

    After several days of moving in and the start of renovation Tom decides to introduce himself to the next door neighbors. He thinks it strange that the older couple next door has not come over to welcome them and figures that to avoid future awkwardness walks over to introduce himself. The introduction goes badly as the couple seem very odd-looking and rude. Instead of welcoming him, they demand that he fix the fence that abuts their property and list off improvements that he should make in order to satisfy their standards. Tom loses his temper and storms off back to his house.

    The house has a bad history… the previous owner hanged himself in the foyer while he was trying to remodel the house. Since then the house has fallen into further disrepair and the yard / garden looks like a battlefield.

    Strange and disturbing events ensue as Tom’s relationship with his neighbors and wife rapidly deteriorates. Gracey’s dog starts digging up lead tablets with strange inscriptions around their backyard and she starts to experience terrifying events in the adjacent woods. It soon becomes apparent to Tom that the neighboring couple are inexplicably responsible for awful things happening to his family.

    Overall, I found the story eerie and disturbing. It was well worth the read and would recommend it… especially if you are a fan of Folk Horror.

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  • Just a quick update… This came in the mail a few days ago:

    Cover of New Supernatural Stories

    New Supernatural Stories by Lionel and Patricia Fanthorpe. I seldom order books directly from the publisher (in this case PS Publishing in the UK) but I couldn’t pass this up. The book comes with a very sturdy slip-case and is signed. I’m looking forward to reading this one, but my TBR pile is a bit unmanageable at the moment. Here’s a few more photos. I’m particularly impressed with the inside cover graphics.

    Yesterday I watched the first episode of “Guillermo Del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities” on Netflix. I have mixed feelings about the ending of this episode but if this is any indication of what the stories are like, I think this will be a very enjoyable series. I’m particularly looking forward to watching “Pickman’s Model”, and “Autopsy”.

    I’m continuing to read A Fire Upon The Deep by Verner Vinge and for the most part still enjoying it. It really hasn’t grabbed me, but I’m only about 100 pages into it.

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  • What’s Happening – 10/20/2022

    It has been quite a nice day! 57 degrees and a sunny day out. I’m just starting to get this WordPress blog going.

    I’ve started to write my review of Cunning Folk by Adam Nevill. This is the second book that I’ve read by this author (the first one was The Reddening). I also watched “The Ritual” on Netflix and enjoyed it. An early summation of Cunning Folk… It is well worth the read. I enjoyed it immensely.

    I’m also about 5 chapters into Verner Vinge’s A Fire Upon the Deep. This one is rather on the long side for me, but I’m intending to read it while going through some of my magazine subscriptions and maybe even some books on history. I’m usually OK on keeping track of storylines between books I’m reading in parallel, except when they are in the same genre – then it’s anyone’s guess if I’m going to confuse the two story-lines. I’m certain this is my age taking its toll.

    Good news on the Patreon front – Lovecraft e-Zine just released a free PDF copy of Old Waythscope’s Quarterly Concern – Vol. 1, Issue 1 for all Patreon’s contributing $10 a month or more. I’ll try my best to review this in the next week or so. I figured the folks at Waythscope’s were kind enough to donate their first issue to the e-Zine readers its the least I can do to give it a read and review. More info on this quarterly almanac can be found here Old Waythscope’s Quarterly Concern.

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  • Mr. Cannyharme: A Novel of Lovecraftian Terror

    By Michael Shea

    The story takes place in the 1970’s San Francisco Mission District and involves Jack Hale an aspiring author who works as a hotel clerk and part-time drug dealer. The hotel has seen better days and is now a flop house for the elderly, drug addicts and sex workers.

    Jack becomes involved with a biker / drug distributer named Cuzzens who has given Jack a large amount of crank (meth). Along with a pill addict, Brittney, and prostitute, DeeAnn he attempts to disentangle himself from the influence of Cuzzens and his pimp associates, and a monster he calls Mr. Cannyharme who lives in the hotel.

    Shae’s characters have a gritty tarnish to them that I found fascinating and disturbing. There’s a thread of paranoia that winds through the story. You’re continuously questioning who is a friend and who is a threat. Characters who appear to be allied to Jack and DeeAnn have dark intentions.

    I found themes from Shae’s work very much in line with Philip K. Dick’s fiction as he addresses these questions:

    • What is reality?
    • Did this just happen or is my interpretation of experience faulty? (view spoiler)
    • How much is Jack’s and Brittney’s experience of life twisted by their drug use?

    Being a fan of Lovecraftian horror, I wouldn’t readily classify this as “A Novel of Lovecraftian Terror” but see it as cosmic horror. If you enjoy Lovecraftian tails, you’ll probably enjoy this as well, but be ready to experience some graphic horror and violence. There’s a lot to this book and I’m finding it a challenge to process. It’s well worth a read.

    NOTE: I was lucky to have watched Lovecraft e-Zine’s YouTube podcast of an interview with Linda Shea and several authors who knew Michael Shae and are proponents of his work. It makes a very nice aperitif with reading this novel.

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