The Burning Ember Mission of Helldorado

by Manuel Arenas, Mutartis Boswell (illustrator)

100 pages, Paperback

Published September 16, 2024

About the author

Manuel Arenas is a writer of verse and prose in the Gothic Horror tradition. His work has appeared in various anthologies and journals including Spectral Realms, and Penumbra. He currently resides in Phoenix, Arizona, where he pens his dark ditties sheltered behind heavy curtains, as he shuns the oppressive orb which glares down on him from the cloudless, dust-filled sky.

Reviews

[Hayley · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Burning Ember Mission of Helldorado by Manuel Arenas is such a fun, spooky, gothic read. I really enjoyed the whole book. This is a slender volume, perfect for reading whenever you want to evoke a dark atmosphere.

The book includes a short introduction by the author, the title story, a super creepy follow-up vignette to the title story, Zwartenberg the Necromancer; Other Southwestern Gothic Tales, which includes three lusciously dark poems and the short story, Féretrina.

The title story is the Southwest's answer to Sleepy Hollow, where the supernatural is entwined in the landscape and the lives of the inhabitants. Arenas' characterizations and descriptions are so clear that even a few days later I can still see his dark creations in my mind's eye. If you liked his first release, Book of Shadows, you'll definitely want to get his macabre second, The Burning Ember Mission of Helldorado.

[Zach · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delicious short collection of gothic weird fiction set in the Southwest. Beautifully illustrated, too. A few of the stories are in poetry form also, and it's inspired me to start thinking seriously about writing fiction again for the first time since 2013.

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