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Nightmares From A Lovecraftian Mind
From Jordan Krall, the author of TENTACLE DEATH TRIP and FISTFUL OF FEET comes this collection of Lovecraftian tales of horror both cosmic and personal. This is a collection of cryptic weird fiction... dreamlike and ominous in its style and subject matter. Krall goes beyond the tropes of Mythos literature and has presented the reader with an original approach to Lovecraftian fiction.
129 pages, Paperback
First published July 28, 2012
2 people are currently reading
153 people want to read
About the author
Jordan Krall
102 books258 followersBooks include:
TENTACLE DEATH TRIP
FISTFUL OF FEET
MOTEL MAN
KING SCRATCH
BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE APOCALYPSE DONKEYS
PIECEMEAL JUNE
SQUID PULP BLUES
NEWLY SHAVEN SAINT
UNFRUITFUL WORKS
PRELUDE TO SPACE RAPE!
SQUID KILLS
THE PISTOL BURPS
ALL POEMS MUST DIE
FALSE MAGIC KINGDOM
BAD ALCHEMY
THE GOG AND MAGOG BUSINESS
YOUR CITIES, YOUR TOMBS
TENTACLE DEATH TRIP
FISTFUL OF FEET
MOTEL MAN
KING SCRATCH
BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE APOCALYPSE DONKEYS
PIECEMEAL JUNE
SQUID PULP BLUES
NEWLY SHAVEN SAINT
UNFRUITFUL WORKS
PRELUDE TO SPACE RAPE!
SQUID KILLS
THE PISTOL BURPS
ALL POEMS MUST DIE
FALSE MAGIC KINGDOM
BAD ALCHEMY
THE GOG AND MAGOG BUSINESS
YOUR CITIES, YOUR TOMBS
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
January 12, 2017
Hooves sound beneath the web of the horizon like horns as spheres collide downstairs. The book is open and words swirl in a dizzy formation of industrial parks, oceanic hues and subterranean debris. Rebirth, repeat.
March 26, 2015
NIGHTMARES FROM A LOVECRAFTIAN MIND is a weird fiction tour de force. It's not often that I encounter a book that is--in so many ways--unlike anything I've ever read. It's a singular and extraordinary and important work.
On the surface, the only thing the unlucky characters in Krall's linked stories have in common with the stereotypical Lovecraft protagonist is an obsession with/horror of books which hold nightmares within their covers. Even this trope Krall subverts and makes his own. Real or imagined run of the mill, harmless sounding books (e.g., A Brief History of Industrial Parks) or otherwise nameless tomes are infused with esoteric power and horror and are just as likely to be monsters in and of themselves than they are to evoke them. Otherwise, Lovecraft's typical cast of characters and plot devices are in short supply in Krall's book.
But make no mistake -- NIGHTMARES FROM A LOVECRAFTIAN MIND is as Lovecraftian as it sells itself. From Krall's fusion of contemporary and archaic language (often derived from Greek words -- e.g., "Acherontic;" "Xnoybis") to the schizophrenic, hallucinatory dream logic and surreal images throughout the text to Krall's brilliant use of magical realism (or, more accurately, magical Lovecraftianism) to his astounding use of repetition of object, idea, and characters which serves to tie Krall's disparate narratives together with enormous, muscular power... Krall utilizes these elements effortlessly and seamlessly and confidently, concluding with a powerful prose poem sequence reminiscent in structure and scope of a greatly condensed version of HPL's "Fungi from Yuggoth."
Cosmic horror, in Krall's book, infects and mutates what looks at first glance like "real world," familiar situations (a door to door salesman selling his wares; a man sitting in an idyllic looking park; college kids in a college library; an insomniac spying from his bedroom on his neighbor). What results is a brilliant collection of closely linked stories--infused with decay and depravity and mutation and obsession.
In conclusion, I'm reminded of Mary Shelley's quote from Roger Corman's FRANKENSTEIN UNBOUND. If I may mangle it a bit: "Certain horror writers preach Weird Fiction. Jordan Krall practices it."
On the surface, the only thing the unlucky characters in Krall's linked stories have in common with the stereotypical Lovecraft protagonist is an obsession with/horror of books which hold nightmares within their covers. Even this trope Krall subverts and makes his own. Real or imagined run of the mill, harmless sounding books (e.g., A Brief History of Industrial Parks) or otherwise nameless tomes are infused with esoteric power and horror and are just as likely to be monsters in and of themselves than they are to evoke them. Otherwise, Lovecraft's typical cast of characters and plot devices are in short supply in Krall's book.
But make no mistake -- NIGHTMARES FROM A LOVECRAFTIAN MIND is as Lovecraftian as it sells itself. From Krall's fusion of contemporary and archaic language (often derived from Greek words -- e.g., "Acherontic;" "Xnoybis") to the schizophrenic, hallucinatory dream logic and surreal images throughout the text to Krall's brilliant use of magical realism (or, more accurately, magical Lovecraftianism) to his astounding use of repetition of object, idea, and characters which serves to tie Krall's disparate narratives together with enormous, muscular power... Krall utilizes these elements effortlessly and seamlessly and confidently, concluding with a powerful prose poem sequence reminiscent in structure and scope of a greatly condensed version of HPL's "Fungi from Yuggoth."
Cosmic horror, in Krall's book, infects and mutates what looks at first glance like "real world," familiar situations (a door to door salesman selling his wares; a man sitting in an idyllic looking park; college kids in a college library; an insomniac spying from his bedroom on his neighbor). What results is a brilliant collection of closely linked stories--infused with decay and depravity and mutation and obsession.
In conclusion, I'm reminded of Mary Shelley's quote from Roger Corman's FRANKENSTEIN UNBOUND. If I may mangle it a bit: "Certain horror writers preach Weird Fiction. Jordan Krall practices it."
September 27, 2017
This book is now definitely one of my favorite works by Jordan Krall. The Lovecraftian title is, perhaps, a bit misleading, as none of the usual tropes show up; no elder gods or cultists, no dreamlands, resurrectionists, or alien beings. Krall introduces the 'other' in a much more subtle and insidious way; by placing us in a jigsaw puzzle of people, places, and events where not only are the pieces scattered, but the image on the box perpetually shifts and changes. There are glimmers of something recognizable, but the whole image remains mutable and obscured. Elements familiar to his work, like poetic, almost musical repetitions and variations, and the structurally experimental chapters come in to play, but the stories overall do take a far more linear approach, which makes this a good starting-point to new readers as well. Highly recommended for fans of unsettling weird fiction.
May 19, 2016
This is a very original and disturbing take on lovecraftian fiction and I must say I really enjoyed it. It was a surreal journey which leaves you blood spattered and yet contemplative by the end!
March 27, 2022
A fever dream of hallucinating interlocking chapters that plays under the Lovecraft genre using the language and well-written prose. Jordan Krall at his best.
February 19, 2013
I have no idea what I just read. I'm pretty sure I liked it. The stories crawl over each other like maggots and nest in your head. Good stuff.
July 23, 2013
Jordan Krall impresses me. Yea verily, I am impressed by Jordan Krall.
Known primarily – at least to me, for a long period of time - as a Bizarro author, which is a limiting label in my even more limited opinion, I find Krall to be a bang-up Lovecraftian in that new jack Subtle School, and therefore someone I see as essential to a genre often cluttered by too many Cthulhu cameos and robed cultists who all somehow possess a copy of the Necronomicon. The stars are always right, and everyone’s favorite Great Old One is on the verge of rising once again to… do whatever he’ll do when he rises from that watery sleeping bag, jammies all soaked, pissy as hell. That’s Lovecraftian Pastiche 101. I've done it. Lots of us have. Jordan Krall could teach that class, if he wasn’t already admitted into the Miskatonic Graduate Program, where all the banners have been removed from the wall, and only those who are attending know on which campus they really are.
In his recent novella, Nightmares of a Lovecraftian Mind, published by Dunhams Manor Books, Krall cuts clean a Double Live literary concept album, where each titled chapter acts as a song that breathes on its own, but nods to the heaving collective. Pink Floyd on Yuggothian acid come to glistening life. This is post-Ligotti, impressionist Lovecraftianism – suggestive, urban, monumentally Weird, spontaneously murderous, and totally lacking in incomprehensible alien gods or even recognizable monsters, except for those who live down the block, or hang around the playground reading manuals on industrial parks. Krall creates vignettes that are familiar yet cold and otherwordly. Askew. Like when a movie crew films something that is supposed to be set in New York on the streets of Toronto to save a nickel and ruin America. We’re TOLD that we’re in SoHo, but none of the streets seem to fit. The landmarks are all absent.
Krall is a stylist as much as a storyteller, creating interesting, intersecting characters that could shoulder their own novels, based on their own internal cataclysms and the doom that follows each step. Osman and Xynobis, Roux and the nameless schmuck who fears an infestation of ants in his apartment - all of these doomed souls are begging for more pages. Themes prevail, following a wriggling through-line. Father issues and DEEP DENDO. Milk and alcohol (that's right - not scotch, not whiskey, but alcohol). These are a few of the unifying buzzwords and concepts that weave overarching throughout this work of sublime dread. Figure it all out, buddy. I have my theories. Pour me a double shot of alcohol, milk back, and you’ll get my interpretation, but it feels like Nightmares from a Lovecraftian Mind is a set up to be an encyclopedia mortis of KrallCraftian tomes. One can only hope.
The world he presents is a stark, threatening one, where every stranger and friend are bonded immediately by their shared wish for demise. Characters are disaffected, and for good reason, as chance encounters and innocent proximity often have dire consequences. And madness is everywhere, as everywhere is madness. From the doilies of the suburban home to the jerk-off booths in Times Square. The common is made dangerous, like Hitchcock run amok in a Steadman painting. This is Krall’s umbrella shielding a cosmic rain, yet the rivulets fall, making mad those dampened, one breath and random conversation from murder, or worse.
Krall’s prose is clean but rich, interesting in its word selection. He’s mature and jaunty. Saucy, weaving just a honey drop of poetic flair and dollop of HPL purple into his narratives. He’s the smart kid in the back of the room, who’s read more than you and knows the best dirty jokes. His chapters show that he is well versed in the trappings of the baroque, but prefers to downplay the baubles in favor of a cleanly wrought sentence. It’s quite the balancing act, and is seamless, with nary a stumble on the wire. Krall is joining his contemporaries in the genre in helping show us where Lovecraftian writing can go, without being chained to the increasingly played-out confines of the Cthulhu Mythos. Eerie, unsettling, smooth yet complex. Layered, odd, and infinitely quotable. These things are Nightmares of a Lovecraftian Mind.
That said, I feel like his title nods to the Cyclopean elephant not in the room, and will disappoint dilettantes who are expecting inscrutable chants, bloodied altars, and imminent global destruction, only to find a slow, ablated meltdown of a strange, cruel world. As the better Lovecraftian fiction continues to stray from the proud yet now prosaic roots of its birth, plumbing the depths of madness and fear rather than monsters in the sky, writers like Jordan Krall keep the cavalcade healthy and hale. As noted above, this is Grad School, kiddies, not 101.
Lynchian, Lovecraftian, Krallian. Can I make “Krallian” a thing? I sure as shit hope so, as I’m trying like the dickens to get Barronic as a certifiable adjective, so let’s work on Krallian next. The unformed Contempo Weird World is ours now, folks, so let’s start nailing down the lexicon and shoring up the perimeter.
I know he’s a hit in the Bizarro world, but I hope Jordan Krall stays and plays in County Lovecraftiana, as he adds so much to the geography. If he loves his readers – and Baby Jesus - at all, he’ll start writing a novel starring the oddly necromantic Osman tomorrow. If not, he’s a fucking dick.
January 30, 2024
This is a book about industrial parks, our father, esoteric books (“as ancient as bloodlust and fatherhood”), milk and alcohol, unknowing, bloodshed in a park, Xnoybis, and darkness.
November 24, 2013
This book is one hell of an eerie journey. Built by several chapters written through the eyes of different characters, the stories builds up, links and twists together into what becomes a creepy tale that made me think of how what it might feel like to be utterly insane. It oozes with paranoid and delusional schizoid madness and I totally agree that this fine work could grade into the term Lovecraftian fiction, but in a whole new way. I got the same sense of creeping unsettled thoughts from what lies between the written lines. Almost like when looking at a black and white form and only focus on what shape the less dominant pattern creates. Great. And then there's the language which is flowing beautifully and flawless, imagery that blows my mind and is spot on. I LOVED this book and am sure any fan of eerie surreal writing will too.
This is yet another great book from DUNHAMS MANOR PRESS which is an imprint of DYNATOX MINISTRIES who publishes limited cult fiction work from the most interesting authors around.
If you can find a copy, I advice you to haul up those cash and snatch it right away!
This is yet another great book from DUNHAMS MANOR PRESS which is an imprint of DYNATOX MINISTRIES who publishes limited cult fiction work from the most interesting authors around.
If you can find a copy, I advice you to haul up those cash and snatch it right away!
September 25, 2016
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.
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.
June 9, 2021
A collection of horror short stories, from small scares to the cosmic, featuring urban sprawl and incongruous elements.
Overall, the stories were weird and had dream-like qualities as advertised. However, I didn't find them too nightmarish, nor emotionally striking. The diction was incoherent at times, which made the plots hard to follow, yet sentence syntax was too simple to resonate. There were a lot of repeat vocabulary words within some stories and between stories, making me aware the narrator is the author, although that is to be expected in a collection like this.
I did read Krall's introduction, where he says his prose isn't as good as H. P. Lovecraft, so this probably tainted my perception and became a self-fulfilling prophecy. Since I'm not familiar with cosmic horror, I can't say if this type of writing is on par for the genre, and this is my bias speaking.
For sure, Krall had a unique perspective and vision for all his stories, even if his tales could use polishing. The section *A Reptant Hell* is a group of stories that follow the same timeline. The payoff was satisfying because of all the random actors that came together in the end. "Hail Desire and Bodies of Cold Gentlemen" seemed to allude to "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, an introspective piece taking place in a single room, which I thought was unique compared to the others which were more external conflicts.
Overall, the stories were weird and had dream-like qualities as advertised. However, I didn't find them too nightmarish, nor emotionally striking. The diction was incoherent at times, which made the plots hard to follow, yet sentence syntax was too simple to resonate. There were a lot of repeat vocabulary words within some stories and between stories, making me aware the narrator is the author, although that is to be expected in a collection like this.
I did read Krall's introduction, where he says his prose isn't as good as H. P. Lovecraft, so this probably tainted my perception and became a self-fulfilling prophecy. Since I'm not familiar with cosmic horror, I can't say if this type of writing is on par for the genre, and this is my bias speaking.
For sure, Krall had a unique perspective and vision for all his stories, even if his tales could use polishing. The section *A Reptant Hell* is a group of stories that follow the same timeline. The payoff was satisfying because of all the random actors that came together in the end. "Hail Desire and Bodies of Cold Gentlemen" seemed to allude to "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, an introspective piece taking place in a single room, which I thought was unique compared to the others which were more external conflicts.
October 18, 2013
To suggest that literary horror has been severely lacking in new voices and talent is an understatement. With a flooded market of cheap Kindle porn and video-game zombies, underground literature is a growing genre meant for readers who enjoy art and the beauty of the imagination. This collection of nightmares is brought to you by a brain dipped in paint and smeared upon a canvas of nude Hemingway caricatures. When we think of body-painting, we should also think of brain-painting as a legitimate medium of expression that doesn't require or adhere to literary rules or conventions that serve as fodder for the social media, reality-TV junkie masses (me included).
Many of the stories in this collection have been published elsewhere; I mention this because when it comes to any type of collection or anthology, the book's composition is just as important, if not more so, than any individual story. Although many of these pieces would be interesting on their own and wouldn't suffer for it, I felt like the dynamic between the selections served as something of a psychic connection... a psychosis of artistry and spherical infinity.
Repetition is a hallmark of many a good poem or rendition of madness, and here we have images and ideas manifested through different mediums. Each piece is different than the other, yet there is a semblance of consciousness which indicates these are, indeed, nightmares from one imagination, the mental expulsion of lingering confessions or ruminations on literature that might be revealed on Freud's couch.
One has to wonder if sleep is an inspiring medium, a dream-state in which the mind can be tapped and explored, a vast ocean of stars as inescapable or oblivious to definition as outer space. There may or may not be a message or theme, a coherent plot or purpose, but rather there is the journey through breaking hallways or hallways that are seemingly repairing themselves. The prose seems an organic construction that lives and breathes, as if it were never typed but rather mentioned in a confessional in which nobody is there to hear the words.
Obviously, I feel like this work is beautiful and relevant. The afterword illustrates the progression of a Lovecraftian art-philosophy that doesn't follow the conventions of a monster mythos, but rather the idea of darkness and shadow joining forces to rape goodness and light to spawn a brain-shaped creature that is gray in color and composition. "Nightmares of a Lovecraftian Mind" is a collection that lives and breathes, an inspiration to writers everywhere who have no wish to join forces with the current ruination of vomit-lit that plagues our culture. Here is something both contemporary and ancient, something unearthed and worth burying again in a time capsule in a temple dedicated to the resurrection of the sun. Highly recommended
Many of the stories in this collection have been published elsewhere; I mention this because when it comes to any type of collection or anthology, the book's composition is just as important, if not more so, than any individual story. Although many of these pieces would be interesting on their own and wouldn't suffer for it, I felt like the dynamic between the selections served as something of a psychic connection... a psychosis of artistry and spherical infinity.
Repetition is a hallmark of many a good poem or rendition of madness, and here we have images and ideas manifested through different mediums. Each piece is different than the other, yet there is a semblance of consciousness which indicates these are, indeed, nightmares from one imagination, the mental expulsion of lingering confessions or ruminations on literature that might be revealed on Freud's couch.
One has to wonder if sleep is an inspiring medium, a dream-state in which the mind can be tapped and explored, a vast ocean of stars as inescapable or oblivious to definition as outer space. There may or may not be a message or theme, a coherent plot or purpose, but rather there is the journey through breaking hallways or hallways that are seemingly repairing themselves. The prose seems an organic construction that lives and breathes, as if it were never typed but rather mentioned in a confessional in which nobody is there to hear the words.
Obviously, I feel like this work is beautiful and relevant. The afterword illustrates the progression of a Lovecraftian art-philosophy that doesn't follow the conventions of a monster mythos, but rather the idea of darkness and shadow joining forces to rape goodness and light to spawn a brain-shaped creature that is gray in color and composition. "Nightmares of a Lovecraftian Mind" is a collection that lives and breathes, an inspiration to writers everywhere who have no wish to join forces with the current ruination of vomit-lit that plagues our culture. Here is something both contemporary and ancient, something unearthed and worth burying again in a time capsule in a temple dedicated to the resurrection of the sun. Highly recommended
May 12, 2013
When I read "Penetralia" by Jordan Krall, it was a bit of a revelation. I felt a bit of kinship with where his mind went when he set it free and wrote. I told myself several times during that reading that Mr. Krall had definitely been influenced by H.P. Lovecraft. In truth, I don't think that there is anyone writing horror today who has NOT been influenced by Mr. Lovecraft, either from reading him directly (which Mr. Jordan admits is true for him) or through reading the many authors who were inspired to write by HPL's works. This book is something of a paean to Lovecraft.
While none of the pieces (I don't know what else to call them) reads like an emulation, the tribute is there in the creativity, the mystery, the grossness, the haunting sense (which Lovecraft had mastered, imho) that this is perhaps all real, no matter how outlandish. I'm realizing as I write that I do find Mr. Krall's works horrific, they are, somehow, not frightening. Perhaps I'm jaded.
I do believe JK does have a true gift for writing, at least for "bizarro" fiction prose and prose/poetry. His prose poems are very nice if read aloud, as poetry should be, I believe.
I suppose if this was the 60's, this writing would be called, "trippy", or something like that. It would be considered psychedelic. That is why, I believe, JK will find a devoted but relatively small coterie dedicated fans/followers. This is good, grotesque, sometimes shocking stuff. The pieces intertwine to some degree but each can stand alone as well.
Sorry for the short review, but, hey, it's a short book. Recommended for those with non-compulsive minds and the stomach for creative grossness.
While none of the pieces (I don't know what else to call them) reads like an emulation, the tribute is there in the creativity, the mystery, the grossness, the haunting sense (which Lovecraft had mastered, imho) that this is perhaps all real, no matter how outlandish. I'm realizing as I write that I do find Mr. Krall's works horrific, they are, somehow, not frightening. Perhaps I'm jaded.
I do believe JK does have a true gift for writing, at least for "bizarro" fiction prose and prose/poetry. His prose poems are very nice if read aloud, as poetry should be, I believe.
I suppose if this was the 60's, this writing would be called, "trippy", or something like that. It would be considered psychedelic. That is why, I believe, JK will find a devoted but relatively small coterie dedicated fans/followers. This is good, grotesque, sometimes shocking stuff. The pieces intertwine to some degree but each can stand alone as well.
Sorry for the short review, but, hey, it's a short book. Recommended for those with non-compulsive minds and the stomach for creative grossness.
October 7, 2013
The Dunhams Manor Press limited edition follows the Kindle version with the exception of a couple of new stories and an afterword by T.E. Gray but there were only 32 copies printed and they're all gone.
A review of Nightmares is what you wanted to read so here it is. If you're a fan of Krall's bizarro fiction Nightmares may come as a shock to you. This isn't a bizarro novel and if you came here looking for some Squidpulp or a fistful of feet you're reading the wrong book.
Jordan Krall has evolved into a writer you can't really fit into a category. Nightmares is a nod to Lovecraft and weird fiction and hits a home run. If you've ever read a book by Lovecraft you'll love this book because it feels as if Krall has channeled the spirit of H.P. while putting his own unique spin on weird fiction in general.
These are are dark stories devoid of any real hope but Krall is a great storyteller so it doesn't really matter. These are all solid stories that grab you by the throat and push you into a world that exist only in nightmares or after ingesting a large amount of drugs.
If you read Penetralia this is a continuation of that style of writing. Darker in tone and more cerebral. A review really doesn't do the book justice. You should read it for yourself. Form your own opinion.
A review of Nightmares is what you wanted to read so here it is. If you're a fan of Krall's bizarro fiction Nightmares may come as a shock to you. This isn't a bizarro novel and if you came here looking for some Squidpulp or a fistful of feet you're reading the wrong book.
Jordan Krall has evolved into a writer you can't really fit into a category. Nightmares is a nod to Lovecraft and weird fiction and hits a home run. If you've ever read a book by Lovecraft you'll love this book because it feels as if Krall has channeled the spirit of H.P. while putting his own unique spin on weird fiction in general.
These are are dark stories devoid of any real hope but Krall is a great storyteller so it doesn't really matter. These are all solid stories that grab you by the throat and push you into a world that exist only in nightmares or after ingesting a large amount of drugs.
If you read Penetralia this is a continuation of that style of writing. Darker in tone and more cerebral. A review really doesn't do the book justice. You should read it for yourself. Form your own opinion.
November 18, 2014
When I first saw the title, I was sure that there would be the usual Lovecraftian stories about Yog-Sothoth, Cthulhu, Nightgaunts, the familiar locales of Dunwich, Arkham, and the like. Imagine my surprise that these stories do not take the usual spin on Lovecraft but takes it to a newer and darker level. Lovecraft and many of his "disciples" through the years have woven stories that will chill your bones or make you think about our place in the cosmos. Jordan Krall has taken the "otherworldliness" of Lovecraft and how minuscule we are in this infinite sea of blackness and put them into words that read like a constant fever dream that you cannot wake up from. It is hard to describe the story lines of each one. They are poetic and disturbing in a way that cannot be described. The closest I could come to describing them would be an feeling of unease I once got looking at the artwork and drawings of Richard Corben. Jordan has a way of distorting this world into a place of alien, tortured visions that will haunt you and make you doubt your place in this, or any other world. That is what great weird fiction does. Mr. Krall accomplishes that in many ways.
August 2, 2013
I actually have not read anything of lovecrafts, so that reference is kinda lost on me. But I certainly didn't feel like I needed to know his work to appreciate this book.
When I try to think of something to say about this book, I cant. There is so much going on it's almost like my little brain cannot process it into words. It's good. Just read it.
I felt this sentence in the description summed the book up perfectly.
'This is a collection of cryptic weird fiction... dreamlike and ominous in its style and subject matter.'
When I try to think of something to say about this book, I cant. There is so much going on it's almost like my little brain cannot process it into words. It's good. Just read it.
I felt this sentence in the description summed the book up perfectly.
'This is a collection of cryptic weird fiction... dreamlike and ominous in its style and subject matter.'
January 10, 2014
Pro tip. Don't read before bed. This stuff will swirl around in your head while you sleep.
September 12, 2013
Review (or thereabouts) forthcoming...
May 11, 2014
Some good stuff, especially toward the beginning of the collection. It eventually dissolves into story-free Lovecraftian word salad, but it does have its moments.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews