Samhain.  Halloween.  Both words evoke approaching winter, with discontented, angry spirits crossing over into ours – as well as mischief, mayhem and bloody murder.  Mix in some sword and sorcery, where adventure meets the darkness of the world, and you have Samhain Sorceries, a compelling collection of haunting short stories. 

My first experience with Celtic mythology came in the mid-1980s when I came across the Sidhe Trilogy, written by Kenneth C Flint.  Flint plundered Irish mythology to craft an entertaining series of books pitting the magic of the Sidhe against the fallen technology of the Firbolgs.  A traditional retelling of the Hero’s Journey, the Sidhe books did introduce me to the darker side of Celtic legends, particularly their doomladen atmosphere and sense that the best times are far, far in the past.

Couple this with an interest in horror and it is no surprise that I was drawn to Samhain Sorceries, the latest in a series of anthologies from DMR Books. The publisher has been a leading force in the revival of sword and sorcery, and marrying that genre with Samhain, where the walls between our world and the Otherside fades, is something to whet the appetite.

Samhain Sorceries opens somewhat uncertainly with “Night of the Burning Ghost”, by Australian author Keith Taylor, who would be well known to many readers from the 1980s with his Bard series of books.  While an entertaining read, “Night of the Burning Ghost” feels, in its writing, old fashioned and somewhat stilted. 

However, the collection then picks up immediately with “The Black Cat of Barrowburn”, by Reverend Joe Kelly.  Full of muscular prose and some exciting action, “The Black Cat of Barrowburn” features a more modern setting than the traditional ‘back in the mists of time’ typical of the genre, and it is all the better for it.  Our hero here is Conor O’Brien, hired by the son of a local lord to deal with the Black Cat, a creature that has slain all the men of the Ewer family of Barrowburn.  Kelly crafts an impressive story, that matches his lead character’s disdain for the landed gentry with a fierce inclination to fight against the dark forces of Halloween ranging across the landscape.  Kelly is a writer to watch.

Things become darker still in Tim Hanlon’s “The House of the Dark One”.  Aengus mac Conall ventures into a barrow on Samhain, seeking to free his year long vanished sister from the grip of the sinister Donn the Dark One.  This story leans more heavily into the horror, making great use of the bizarre imagery apparent in the magical realm within the barrow.  The resolution to the story feels slightly abrupt, but it more than makes up for itself with a rather stunning ending, where Hanlon makes good use of the ‘spend a night on the Otherside, and see how many years you’ve actually been away’ trope of Celtic myth.

Adrian Cole’s Omaran series from the late 1980s got me through a difficult period in my teenage years.  Dark, brooding, mournful, the Omaran books should be sought out by all readers of grimdark for their sheer inventiveness and atmosphere.  Cole is still writing, still producing top quality work, as is evidenced here in his story “The Hill of Breaking Bones”.  It is Samhain, a time when the walls between the mortal and magical realms have faded, and Cormorac, mourning the murder of his wife and children, is travelling to a ceremony to mark this darkest of nights.  He comes across the marauders who have invaded his homeland, and in the best traditions of the genre, he slaughters them out of hand.  While this story is perhaps a touch too long, it is replete with dark, horrific imagery, particularly the cursed spirits of previous invaders, condemned to be tied forever to the bogs and marshes where they fell.  Cormorac’s world is a place of darkness, of god’s gone but not forgotten, where death is but an arm’s length away, and the dead themselves stalk the land, forever.

I’m sad to say that I wasn’t much taken with Matthew Pungitore’s “The Tale of Marius the Avenging Imp”.  The conceit of this story is that Pungitore has translated an old text, itself a translation and palimpsest of an even older work.  While I can appreciate that Pungitore was going for a vastly different reading experience from the standard the genre has to offer, for me, it wasn’t a story that I enjoyed.  That said, its purplish prose and real sense of strangeness would definitely appeal to more refined tastes than my own.  The sort of story that a large glass of absinthe would help you appreciate!

The next story is more traditional fare.  “The Eye of Balor” by Owen G Tabard features Haakon the Red, a semi-retired former reaver in possession of a Stormbringer-ish sentient demonsword.  Lest you think this is a mere Elric flavoured story, Tabard has turned the tables somewhat in that his hero is more than reluctant to hack and slash his way across the landscape.  Haakon has had enough of the adventuring life, particularly partnered with a telepathic sword that endlessly seeks to have its need for blood slaked on anyone close at hand.  “The Eye of Balor” is good fun, and a worthy addition to the anthology.

It is Samhain, and on this darkest of nights, tribesmen gather to offer a sacrifice to the dark god Cromm Cruaich.  In return for raising an army of the dead, tribal leader Lubras offers the head of his eldest son, Aron.  And so it is done.  This dark and bloody deed opens Ethan Sabatella’s “The Tomb of Tigernmas”, a tale of revenge that goes savagely awry.  The writing is strong, at times lyrical, and he has a masterly grip on the pacing of the story.  Some of the sequences, such as the summoning of Cromm Cruaich, have a real horrific feel to them, and indeed, this marrying of sword and sorcery and horror is well handled.

The last two stories of Samhain Sorceries, “The Raid into Annwyn” by Harry Piper, and “The Barrow-King’s Bride”, by HR Lawrence, are the finest in the collection and bring it to an extremely satisfying conclusion.

“The Raid into Annwyn” is an epic in miniature, the tale of a band of desperadoes who challenge the forces of Annwyn to reclaim their dead lord, Maelgwyn, on the night of Samhain.  Piper does an excellent job of evoking the Celtic underworld – a place of muted sound and colours, where demons and other monsters stand ready to defend that terrible place.  While the action scenes are handled with aplomb, it is the metaphysical aspects of the story – there is no glory without honour, arrogance and power are as nothing in death, and even the mightiest in the end are mortal and must answer for their lives – that ring loudest in this tale.  The ending gave me chills, to be honest, evoking the revelation of what is really going on in Stephen King’s classic novel, Revival.  Piper is another writer to watch.

I absolutely loved “The Barrow-King’s Bride”.  The story features Captain Aidee and Tom Cornfield, two highwaymen prowling the Yorkish byways on All Hallow’s Eve.  They encounter a coach with a strange cargo – a researcher into the occult, and the comely young woman he has taken – not for himself – but as bride for an undead lord.  The writing in this story is vigorous, the plotting and pacing immaculate, and the characterisations of the two leads – the love-lorn Cornfield, and his wry, experienced companion Captain Aidee, are a delight to read.  A story like this deserves the satisfying ending it provides the reader.  Aidee has featured in an earlier story in Rahehell #1, and I, for one, will be searching out this tale – as should you.

Finally, special shoutout to cover artist Adam Burke whose brooding and atmospheric cover perfectly encapsulates the feel and tone of Samhain Sorceries.

Overall, Samhain Sorceries proves to be a more than satisfying read.  The writers, in the main, make excellent use of the broad range of Irish and Celtic history, geography and myth.  The marriage of sword and sorcery with the atmosphere and trappings of Samhain and Halloween is a strong one, and makes this book a compelling read and a must for everyone interested in this type of storytelling.

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