Author: J.W. Donley

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Epeolatry Book Review: Fiends in the Furrows, ed. David T. Neal & Christine M. Scott

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Title: Fiends in the Furrows
Author: Various, ed. David T. Neal & Christine M. Scott
Genre: Horror, Short Story, Folk Horror
Publisher: Nosetouch Press
Release Date: Sept, 2018

Synopsis:

The Fiends in the Furrows: An Anthology of Folk Horror is a collection of nine short stories that hew both to the earthy traditions and blaze new trails in Folk Horror.

Fans of Folk Horror, as well as those unfamiliar with it, will find horrors galore in these stories. Themes of rural isolation and insularity, paranoia, mindless and monstrous ritual, as well as arcane ceremonies clashing against modern preoccupations run through these stories. Nosetouch Press is proud to bring The Fiends in the Furrows: An Anthology of Folk Horror to horror enthusiasts everywhere.

FEATURING:

Coy Hall | “Sire of the Hatchet”

Sam Hicks | “Back Along the Old Track”

Lindsay King-Miller | “The Fruit”

Steve Toase | “The Jaws of Ouroboros”

Eric J. Guignard | “The First Order of Whaleyville’s Divine Basilisk Handlers”

Romey Petite | “Pumpkin, Dear”

Stephanie Ellis | “The Way of the Mother”

Zachary Von Houser | “Leave the Night”

S.T. Gibson | “Revival”

Review:

Okay. So, I love some good folk horror. Give me rural cults sacrificing to corn gods–a la ‘Children of the Corn,’ et al. A few of my favorite movies fit this genre: Midsommar, Wickerman (both versions), Blair Witch, Viy, The Witch, The Ritual, Lair of the White Worm. These films vary widely in quality, but all are a treat. Notice that many of these are recent big hit movies which garnered a lot of attention. So, there is contemporary interest in this genre, and I am among those hungry for collections like Fiends in the Furrows.

A friend from my writing group introduced me to this anthology. He’d selected Steve Toase’s story “The Jaws of Ouroboros” for us to study. I went into this story knowing absolutely nothing, and now I am frantically looking for Toase’s other work. It was amazing. Not since my first reading of Nathan Ballingrud’s “Atlas of Hell” was I so blown away. Just like Ballingrud, Toase builds a terrifying setting filled with dread and the supernatural. The price of this book is worth it just for this one story.

There is also a story by HorrorTree’s very own Stephanie Ellis! “The Way of the Mother” is a creepy yarn that is a mix of Wickerman and Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”. There are ultra visceral and emotional images in this one. Give it a shot!

The remainder of the collection is hit or miss, but all are worth your time. I intend to pick up a copy of the follow up anthology: The Fiends in the Furrows II: More Tales of Folk Horror. (https://www.amazon.com/Fiends-Furrows-II-Tales-Horror/dp/1944286209/)

I give this anthology out of 5 ravens

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Epeolatry Book Review: Night of the Mannequins by Stephen Graham Jones

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Title: Night of the Mannequins
Author: Stephen Graham Jones
Genre: Horror
Publisher: Tordotcom
Release Date: 1st September, 2020

Synopsis: Award-winning author Stephen Graham Jones returns with Night of the Mannequins, a contemporary horror story where a teen prank goes very wrong and all hell breaks loose: is there a supernatural cause, a psychopath on the loose, or both?

We thought we’d play a fun prank on her, and now most of us are dead.

One last laugh for the summer as it winds down. One last prank just to scare a friend. Bringing a mannequin into a theater is just some harmless fun, right? Until it wakes up. Until it starts killing.

Luckily, Sawyer has a plan. He’ll be a hero. He’ll save everyone to the best of his ability. He’ll do whatever he needs to so he can save the day. That’s the thing about heroes—sometimes you have to become a monster first.

Sawyer has a plan for one final summer prank. What’s the worst that could happen? This book answers that question; bringing a mannequin to a movie theater leads to the murder of Sawyer’s friends, and only he can save those still alive.

This fun read had me guessing all the way through. I consider Stephen Graham Jones a master of horror, especially the slasher genre. He skirts along tropes and plays with them like favorite toys. Also, his writing style is conversational and comforting, even when describing gruesome violence. It’s like sitting in a pub with Jones telling you a story over a couple beers.

I’ve read a handful of Jones’s works, and none have been disappointing. I plan to work my way through his full catalogue. This is an author worth studying. He knows his craft and he knows how to unnerve his readers.

I give this one 4 out of 5 stars.

Available from Amazon and Bookshop.

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Epeolatry Book Review: The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones

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Title: The Only Good Indians
Author: Stephen Graham Jones
Genre: Horror
Publisher: Gallery/Saga Press
Release Date: 14th July, 2020

Synopsis:

The creeping horror of Paul Tremblay meets Tommy Orange’s There There in a dark novel of revenge, cultural identity, and the cost of breaking from tradition in this latest novel from the Jordan Peele of horror literature, Stephen Graham Jones.

Seamlessly blending classic horror and a dramatic narrative with sharp social commentary, The Only Good Indians follows four American Indian men after a disturbing event from their youth puts them in a desperate struggle for their lives. Tracked by an entity bent on revenge, these childhood friends are helpless as the culture and traditions they left behind catch up to them in a violent, vengeful way.

As usual, Stephen Graham Jones knocks it out of the park. Set in the world of modern Native American issues, this episodic novel tells the tale of revenge. Jones gives us a group of longtime Native American friends and the horrors that befall them and their families due to their past transgressions.

With each successive section, the story builds and builds to an ultimate faceoff. Throughout, we find ourselves rooting for both avenger and victims. Jones’s love for his Native culture shines with every chapter. I also love that basketball plays such a huge role in the novel. Jones does an amazing job making the sport and its elements an interesting part of the account.

I will be surprised if I ever find a Stephen Graham Jones book I don’t like.

I give this one 5 out of 5 stars.

Available from Amazon and Bookshop.

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Epeolatry Book Review: Finch by Jeff VanderMeer

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Title: Finch
Author: Jeff VanderMeer
Genre: Weird/Fungal Noir
Publisher: Underland Press
Release Date: 3rd November, 2009

Synopsis:

In Finch, mysterious underground inhabitants known as the gray caps have reconquered the failed fantasy state Ambergris and put it under martial law. They have disbanded House Hoegbotton and are controlling the human inhabitants with strange addictive drugs, internment in camps, and random acts of terror. The rebel resistance is scattered, and the gray caps are using human labor to build two strange towers. Against this backdrop, John Finch, who lives alone with a cat and a lizard, must solve an impossible double murder for his gray cap masters while trying to make contact with the rebels. Nothing is as it seems as Finch and his disintegrating partner Wyte negotiate their way through a landscape of spies, rebels, and deception. Trapped by his job and the city, Finch is about to come face to face with a series of mysteries that will change him and Ambergris forever.

Before Finch, I’ve only read Vandermeer’s Area X trilogy, of which Annihilation is a must read for modern imaginative fiction. I did try and read Dead Astronauts, but that one wasn’t for me. I only made it a handful of pages in before throwing it in the DNF pile.

Awhile back, a friend of mine recommended Finch to me. But, due to my experience with Dead Astronauts I was reluctant to give it a try. I’m glad I eventually got over my doubt and picked it up. And now I regret taking so long to read it. It was amazing!

Finch is a noir mystery firmly rooted in the New Weird genre alongside authors like China Mieville, Laird Barron, and Nathan Ballingrud. Though this qualifies as horror, it leans more toward the fantastic, becoming the first book I’ve read that could be described as Fungal Noir.

In the story, Finch, a detective for the city of Ambergris, must solve a double murder case. A man and a greycap (a sort of mushroom person) are found dead in an apartment. Half of the greycap’s body is missing. The more Finch digs for clues in this city under the control of the mushroom people, the more trouble he stirs up for himself and his friends.

Finch is filled with insane and unapologetic worldbuilding. I haven’t seen something this imaginative since reading Perdido Street Station by China Mieville.

I give this fungal fantasy 5 out of 5 stars.

Available from Amazon and Bookshop.

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Epeolatry Book Review: The Fires of Heaven by Robert Jordan

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Title: The Fires of Heaven (The Wheel of Time, Book 5)
Author: Robert Jordan
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Publisher: Tor Books
Release Date: October 15th, 1994

Synopsis: Soon to be an original series starring Rosamund Pike as Moiraine!

Robert Jordan’s #1 New York Times bestselling epic fantasy series, The Wheel of Time®, continues.

The fifth book in Robert Jordan’s internationally bestselling epic fantasy series, THE WHEEL OF TIME, now reissued with a stunning new cover design.

The bonds and wards that hold the Great Lord of the Dark are slowly failing, but still his fragile prison holds. The Forsaken, immortal servants of the shadow, weave their snares and tighten their grip upon the realms of men, sure in the knowledge that their master will soon break free…

Rand al’ Thor, the Dragon Reborn, knows that he must strike at the Enemy, but his forces are divided by treachery and by ambition. Even the Aes Sedai, ancient guardians of the Light, are riven by civil war. Betrayed by his allies, pursued by his enemies and beset by the madness that comes to the male wielders of the One Power, Rand rides out to meet the foe.

Rand has again fulfilled another part of the prophesies, further proving that he is The Dragon Reborn, or, as the Aiel call him, He Who Comes With The Dawn. Plus, through the mechanizations of the Black Ajah (a secret group of Aes Sedai who support the Dark One), Siuan Sanche is deposed from the Amyrlin Seat. This causes civil war in the White Tower as many go into hiding. The bulk of this one follows as Rand tracks down a renegade group of the Aiel who oppose him while wreaking havoc on the innocent. More ominous characters work against him as well, but they do not work well together. The Forsaken plot and plan against each other just as much as they do against Rand.

I didn’t enjoy this one as much as the previous entries. It didn’t earn its almost 1000 page count this time around. I still liked it and will continue! Only nine more books to go!

This one only gets 4 out of 5 stars.

Available from Amazon and Bookshop.

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Epeolatry Book Review: The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan

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Title: The Shadow Rising (The Wheel of Time, Book 4)
Author: Robert Jordan
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Publisher: Tor Books
Release Date: October 15th, 1993

Synopsis: Soon to be an original series starring Rosamund Pike as Moiraine!

Robert Jordan’s #1 New York Times bestselling epic fantasy series, The Wheel of Time®, continues.

The seals of Shayol Ghul are weak now, and the Dark One reaches out. The Shadow is rising to cover humankind.

In Tar Valon, Min sees portents of hideous doom. Will the White Tower itself be broken?

In the Two Rivers, the Whitecloaks ride in pursuit of a man with golden eyes, and in pursuit of the Dragon Reborn.

In Cantorin, among the Sea Folk, High Lady Suroth plans the return of the Seanchan armies to the mainland.

In the Stone of Tear, the Lord Dragon considers his next move. It will be something no one expects, not the Black Ajah, not Tairen nobles, not Aes Sedai, not Egwene or Elayne or Nynaeve.

Against the Shadow rising stands the Dragon Reborn….

The Shadow Rising opens with the city of Tear and its citadel under Rand’s control with the help of the Aiel, a tribe of warriors from the great desert to the east. Matt is still trying to escape his destiny as one of the taver’en linked to Rand, The Dragon Reborn, but gets pulled back into the fray with every attempt. Mistakenly, he becomes the leader of a much renowned war party. Perrin returns to the Two Rivers with Faile, a hunter of the horn they drew into their adventures in the last volume, who is falling for Perrin. Back in the Two Rivers he learns the peaceful folks from his home still have the blood of the great country of Manetheren flowing in their veins, a country destroyed long ago in the Trolloc Wars.

This is the book where the main characters really start to shine. They each begin to rise to their destiny, and it is a ton of fun following them as the different opposing forces try to stop them.

This one is a bit longer than any other volume so far at over 1000 pages, but every development is worth it. In this novel we learn more about the world they inhabit, and more about the Forsaken and what makes them tick.

This one took me a bit longer to get through, but I give it another 5 out of 5 stars.

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Epeolatry Book Review: The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan

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Title: The Dragon Reborn (The Wheel of Time, Book 3)
Author: Robert Jordan
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Publisher: Tor Books
Release Date: October 15th, 1992

Synopsis: Soon to be an original series starring Rosamund Pike as Moiraine!

Robert Jordan’s #1 New York Times bestselling epic fantasy series, The Wheel of Time®, continues.

The Dragon Reborn—the leader long prophesied who will save the world, but in the saving destroy it; the savior who will run mad and kill all those dearest to him—is on the run from his destiny.

Able to touch the One Power, but unable to control it, and with no one to teach him how—for no man has done it in three thousand years—Rand al’Thor knows only that he must face the Dark One. But how?

Winter has stopped the war—almost—yet men are dying, calling out for the Dragon. But where is he?

Perrin Aybara is in pursuit with Moiraine Sedai, her Warder Lan, and Loial the Ogier. Bedeviled by dreams, Perrin is grappling with another deadly problem—how is he to escape the loss of his own humanity?

Egwene, Elayne and Nynaeve are approaching Tar Valon, where Mat will be healed—if he lives until they arrive. But who will tell the Amyrlin their news—that the Black Ajah, long thought only a hideous rumor, is all too real? They cannot know that in Tar Valon far worse awaits…

Ahead, for all of them, in the Heart of the Stone, lies the next great test of the Dragon reborn….

It is time to fall deeper into the world of Rand al’Thor and all its magical intrigue. The Dragon Reborn opens with our heroes coming to grips with the climax of book two, when the armies clashed in Arad Doman and Rand battled one of the Forsaken in the sky for all to see. Rand can no longer deny that he is the prophesized one, and he is terrified of what he might do to his friends if, and when, he goes mad. Read along as the world begins to weave itself around Rand and his companions. Everywhere they go, they leave a wake of altered lives on their path.

Jordan again weaves a riveting epic that pulls you through every page. The complex characters change as the story continues, and you will pick your favorites and root for them through their troubles. Personally, I love Matt and Perrin. Rand is interesting, as the central focus of the story and all, but Matt and Perrin are fascinating. They both would rather not be a part of this adventure and would love a quiet life now that they’ve experience more of the world than they bargained for. But each time they try to leave Rand and return to a normal life, they are pulled back into the story. They are taver’en, important people that the fabric of reality weaves itself around.

Another 5 out of 5 stars from me!

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Epeolatry Book Review: The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan

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Title: The Great Hunt (The Wheel of Time, Book 2)
Author: Robert Jordan
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Publisher: Tor Books
Release Date: October 15th, 1991

Synopsis: Soon to be an original series starring Rosamund Pike as Moiraine!

Robert Jordan’s #1 New York Times bestselling epic fantasy series, The Wheel of Time®, continues as Rand al’Thor and his companions set out to retrieve a powerful magical artifact from The Dark One’s Shadowspawn in The Great Hunt.

For centuries, gleemen have told the tales of The Great Hunt of the Horn. So many tales about each of the Hunters, and so many Hunters to tell of…

Now the Horn itself is found: the Horn of Valere long thought only legend, the Horn which will raise the dead heroes of the ages.

And it is stolen.

In pursuit of the thieves, Rand al’Thor is determined to keep the Horn out of the grasp of The Dark One. But he has also learned that he is The Dragon Reborn―the Champion of Light destined to stand against the Shadow time and again. It is a duty and a destiny that requires Rand to uncover and master magical capabilities he never imagined he possessed.

Since its debut in 1990, The Wheel of Time® has captivated millions of readers around the globe with its scope, originality, and compelling characters. The last six books in series were all instant #1 New York Times bestsellers, and The Eye of the World was named one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read.

In book two of Robert Jordan’s epic Wheel of Time series, we dive deeper into the complex world of Rand al’Thor and his friends from the Two Rivers. Rand, being one of the dangerous few men who can channel, comes to grips with the fact that he is the one prophesied, and he must eventually fight the great evil beneath the Mountain of Shadow. We start with a visit from the leader of the Aes Sedai, the female magic wielders, when the Horn of Valere and a magical knife bound to Mattrim Cauthon, one of Rand’s best friends, are stolen. Matt cannot live long without the knife, and the enemy cannot gain the power of the horn, so Rand, Matt, and a few hunters track the thieves.

While this goes on, the Aes Sedai and the women who came from the Two Rivers, return to the White Tower, the seat of power for all Aes Sedai. There, they train to become Aes Sedai for varying reasons. We also see a few familiar faces from book one. As the adventure progresses, we learn more about this fascinating world and the different forces at play, all building up to a massive battle in Arad Doman between multiple armies, both living and dead.

The stakes really ramp up in this book.

Another 5 out of 5 stars for this one.

Available from Amazon and Bookshop.