dark fantasy | CW Hawes

For the Weekend 3

One of my all time favorite authors is Robert E Howard. I think the general quality of Howard’s writing is superior to that of HP Lovecraft’s. At the very best I think they are about equal. It all depends on which style you prefer. At their worst, I think I would take Howard story over Lovecraft.

And of all the characters Howard created, my favorite is Solomon Kane. IMO, he is more intelligent than Conan, and the atmosphere of the stories is far more dark and spooky.

Why there hasn’t been a movie series or a television series based on Kane is beyond me. The original stories themselves would make for rousing dark fantasy action/adventure with a splash of horror video viewing, and would be a great base for other writers to build on.

There was a movie some years ago entitled Solomon Kane, but it was at best mediocre. I can understand why whoever produced the movie was reluctant to continue the saga. However a better writer would’ve done the movie justice. Hopefully some producer will get the idea to reboot the series and actually base it on Howard, at least to begin with, and then they might see some bang for their buck.

A marvelous one volume edition of all of the Solomon Kane stories was published by Del Rey some years ago, and is still in print.

You can get The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane in e-book from Amazon or Apple, or in paperback, or as an audiobook. The cost of the e-book is $13.99. I refused to pay that money to the German conglomerate that owns Del Rey, and bought a used paperback instead. But you might not have my hangups.

If you like action/adventure stories, or dark fantasy, or horror, then you will like Solomon Kane — and I encourage you to pick up a copy of The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane. A great way to spend your weekend!

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

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Investigators of the Paranormal

Fear is one of our oldest emotions — if not the oldest. And fear of the unknown is one of our greatest fears.

I don’t know what I don’t know, and that lack of knowing scares us. It is primal, that fear of the unknown.

Fear, playing on our fears, is the stock in trade of the writer of the macabre. Those spinners of stories that parade our fears before us and scare us to death — and we love it.

For all of our façade of sophistication, biologically speaking we are no different than our ancestors from 300,000 years ago. We may no longer be afraid of thunder and lightning, and we may have outgrown our fear of what’s under our beds — we are, however, still controlled by our fears.

Just look at the nightly news. Listen to David Muir’s tone of voice. He’s playing into our fears. And how often do we say, “I’m afraid…” — no matter the context?

Is it any wonder that the tale of terror, the horror story, has never lost its appeal with readers?

Today, interest in the paranormal — our modern term for what used to be called the supernatural and the occult — is hot. Genre fiction has pretty much a paranormal version of every genre. Some of it’s silly, and some of it is pretty doggone scary.

Paranormal fiction has made quite a few of its writers a boatload of money. And while much of the paranormal genre fiction is formulaic trope-filled tripe, some of it is quite good.

When I conceived of my Pierce Mostyn Paranormal Investigations series, I wanted something that moved in the world of the Cthulhu Mythos and also appealed to viewers of The X-Files.

From comments I’ve received and from the reviews of the books, I believe I’ve succeeded.

What’s more, since his introduction, Pierce Mostyn has been my top selling series. Therefore, it’s only natural to revisit the paranormal as I contemplate starting a new series.

However, I wanted something a bit different from the Cosmic Horror, Cthulhu Mythos, focus of Mostyn. And since my first love as a reader is detective fiction (ever since discovering Nero Wolfe in the early 80s), what would be more natural than to blend detective fiction with the paranormal?

Thank goodness I don’t have to reinvent the wheel. The occult detective has a long and time-honored lineage and is alive and well today.

Therefore, my new series, which will most likely debut next year, will be a brother and sister team of occult detectives, or, in contemporary parlance, paranormal investigators.

Taking a page from the exploits of Flaxman Low, Thomas Carnacki, and Jules de Grandin, my investigators will explore those things that go bump in the night and scare the bejeebers out of people.

Haunted houses, demons, assorted monsters, arcane and occult magic. Twisted tales about two normal (well, mostly normal) young adults battling the ageless fears that underlie the veneer of our contemporary scientific sophistication.

As all good occult detectives have done, my hero and heroine will allay our fears of the unknown. Of course, such fears can never truly be put to rest. Can they?

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

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Book Review: Your Arms Around Entropy

Every now and then one encounters an extraordinary author. A writer who’s a magician with his or her pen. Last year, I was very fortunate to find several such authors.

This year, with the fourth of the year over, I’ve discovered one: Brian Fatah Steele.

Thus far, I’ve read his short story collection Your Arms Around Entropy and others stories and his novel There is Darkness in Every Room. I’m currently reading his early novel In Bleed Country.

The first story I read by Steele was “Delicate Spaces”. The story that starts off Your Arms Around Entropy. I was immediately struck by his imagination. Building on the foundation of Lovecraftian cosmic horror, Steele bends the sub-genre into a shape that is uniquely his.

Sometime ago I was at an art fair in Elk River, Minnesota. I looked at what the artists were selling. There were glass artisans, potters, painters, woodworkers, the whole gamut. Out of all those artists, one jumped out at me: a potter.

His work captivated me. The miniatures were subtle in their coloration. The shapes were not exotic, but just a bit off the norm to make them unique. I bought several pieces.

It’s the same with Steele’s storytelling. It’s captivating.

Your Arms Around Entropy is a collection of a dozen stories, four appearing for the first time in the book.

A lot of people don’t like short stories. I happen to love them. The main criticism I see is that they are lacking. Lacking in story. Lacking in characterization. My response is, yes, the bad or mediocre ones are. The good ones are fabulous stories, with characters we love, or hate, or love and hate.

Steele draws superbly lifelike characters, who tell us, show us, their lives, and therein lies the tale.

Your Arms Around Entropy contains a little bit of everything. Some cosmic horror, a bit of the surreal, some straight up supernatural horror, a bit of humor. And plenty of trips to places perhaps even you can’t imagine.

My favorite story in the collection was “Bleak Mathematics”. It is a story I will probably re-read — and I don’t usually re-read books or stories. The tale is replete with interesting characters, suspenseful storytelling, Steele’s unique spin on cosmic horror, a touch of mystery, and an ending that takes a moment or two to sink in before it slaps you in the face with the horror of real reality.

I was so impressed by Your Arms Around Entropy — I bought all of Steele’s books. He really is that good.

You can read my Amazon review before you buy. Or you can just plunk down 99¢ and take twelve trips to where The Twilight Zone didn’t dare to go.

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

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An Angel Fallen

Good Books You Probably Never Heard Of – Part 3

Somewhere in the social media world I ran into Andy Graham. From that encounter, I went on to read his novella An Angel Fallen. And I’m glad I did.

Graham is a superb writer. His command of the language, as well as his knowledge of literature, and his skill at telling a story — all add up to one fabulous read.

An Angel Fallen must be experienced. To try and tell the story in brief would do it an injustice. And the story is about justice. And retribution. And sacrifice.

An Angel Fallen could very well be the ultimate coming of age story. Even though it’s much more than that. It is a philosophy of life masquerading as a story — one that is haunting and stays with you long after you’ve read it.

I do not understand why this gem is not selling like the proverbial hot cakes. Because it needs to be. It’s that good.

What I didn’t realize is that An Angel Fallen is Book 2 of the Dark Fiction Tales series. So I went ahead and bought the first book and am looking forward to reading it.

Don’t miss this superb writer. His star, and ours, is rising.

Comments are always welcome, and, until next time, happy reading!

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