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Carnival
Venice, 1933.
After agreeing to take on what seems like a mundane story about the unique city and its planned road bridge, journalist James Maynard finds himself uncovering a disturbing underbelly to the local customs, and a hideous core to the notion of Venetian pride.
Not even the might of Mussolini can truly kill the Carnival.
Carnival is an atmospheric weird fiction novella set in a time of European upheaval, where the past and the future collide.
For updates visit and 'like'.
Main website - jakeprytherch.wix.com/main
After agreeing to take on what seems like a mundane story about the unique city and its planned road bridge, journalist James Maynard finds himself uncovering a disturbing underbelly to the local customs, and a hideous core to the notion of Venetian pride.
Not even the might of Mussolini can truly kill the Carnival.
Carnival is an atmospheric weird fiction novella set in a time of European upheaval, where the past and the future collide.
For updates visit and 'like'.
Main website - jakeprytherch.wix.com/main
ebook
First published March 14, 2014
21 people want to read
About the author
Jacob Prytherch
28 books12 followersJacob Prytherch has been making up stories since he was a child, even when he should have been paying attention in school. His influences include Ray Bradbury, William Gibson, and Neil Gaiman. His first novel The Binary Man, published in 2012, has since gone on to be the #1 cyberpunk bestseller on amazon.co.uk on two occasions. He currently lives in Birmingham with his wife and two daughters.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 7, 2015
Pretty impressive. Carnivals like circuses are just such good settings on their own and Prytherch only improves upon it. His Venice of 1933 is a place of opaque beauty, danger and mystery. A place where a british reporter finds out a entirely too much about the locals, the real venetians. Atmospheric story that draws on Venetian history and traditions and makes the innocent question of What will you eat sound genuinely unsettling. Quick entertaining well written read. Recommended.
November 19, 2025
Would have given this a 4.25/5 if that is an option.
I came here after learning about Mr. Jacob Prytherch's adventure game adaption of this same novel. I had very much enjoyed watching the playthrough on YouTube, and decided to check out the source material to see how the game differs from his work over 10 years ago.
This won't be a very detailed review, but I do find the time spent reading this novel to be fruitful and worthwhile. The prose is very good, although Prytherch has a tendency of writing run-on sentences. I believe the game adaption does not have this issue anymore, but I may have to check it again. The story is short, concise, and keeps up the suspension up until the very end, much like the game adaption. However, the original story's resolution is not to my taste, hence the lower rating.
You can tell the author has put in the work to make both the prose and the story as engaging as he can. And this does show when I compare his story to novels that have much better sales, but overall worse prose and story. I guess he should have focused more on marketing his works, although I admit I have not published any novels yet.
One thing I have appreciated from this original novel is how concise the story is. The game adaption adds a few new characters to the story, but most of these new characters and events are not necessary, only help build up the tension and atmosphere. However, the adaption has a much better resolution, which I feel is more thematic to what the story is going for. Should the original novel have followed this ending, I would have given it a 4.5/5.
I do believe that Abscission has a better plot and story compared to Carnival. Hopefully Mr.Prytherch will consider releasing the original script of Abscission online, since I believe he had not published any new novels since 2020. Hopefully he sees this review and knows that his effort spent on this work is appreciated, even if it has low sales.
I came here after learning about Mr. Jacob Prytherch's adventure game adaption of this same novel. I had very much enjoyed watching the playthrough on YouTube, and decided to check out the source material to see how the game differs from his work over 10 years ago.
This won't be a very detailed review, but I do find the time spent reading this novel to be fruitful and worthwhile. The prose is very good, although Prytherch has a tendency of writing run-on sentences. I believe the game adaption does not have this issue anymore, but I may have to check it again. The story is short, concise, and keeps up the suspension up until the very end, much like the game adaption. However, the original story's resolution is not to my taste, hence the lower rating.
You can tell the author has put in the work to make both the prose and the story as engaging as he can. And this does show when I compare his story to novels that have much better sales, but overall worse prose and story. I guess he should have focused more on marketing his works, although I admit I have not published any novels yet.
One thing I have appreciated from this original novel is how concise the story is. The game adaption adds a few new characters to the story, but most of these new characters and events are not necessary, only help build up the tension and atmosphere. However, the adaption has a much better resolution, which I feel is more thematic to what the story is going for. Should the original novel have followed this ending, I would have given it a 4.5/5.
I do believe that Abscission has a better plot and story compared to Carnival. Hopefully Mr.Prytherch will consider releasing the original script of Abscission online, since I believe he had not published any new novels since 2020. Hopefully he sees this review and knows that his effort spent on this work is appreciated, even if it has low sales.
July 10, 2015
Although not billed as a Lovecraftian tale, it is possibly one of the best of that sort that I’ve ever read. Prytherch does an amazing job of painting a city with a dark undercurrent just below the surface; the reader is left wondering what it is exactly until the end. The author uses subtlety quite effectively to accomplish this feeling. I should also note that Prytherch does not borrow any of the usual Lovecraft deities, but instead creates a whole new interpretation of the traditional Venetian boogeyman, the Babau.
Choosing to set the tale in Venice is nothing less than genius. I never thought of the ancient canal laden city in this way, but Carnival brings out the hidden dark side that could be lurking beneath the waters.
All of the characters are well-developed and interesting. They all feel very real and very human—until the conclusion anyway. The ending is surprisingly unexpected; although you think you know what it’s leading up to, and you are mostly correct, the real twist does not come until the very last pages.
This is a great novella all around and is well worth reading. I hope Mr. Prytherch writes more in this vein!
Osie Turner
The Forlorn Press
Choosing to set the tale in Venice is nothing less than genius. I never thought of the ancient canal laden city in this way, but Carnival brings out the hidden dark side that could be lurking beneath the waters.
All of the characters are well-developed and interesting. They all feel very real and very human—until the conclusion anyway. The ending is surprisingly unexpected; although you think you know what it’s leading up to, and you are mostly correct, the real twist does not come until the very last pages.
This is a great novella all around and is well worth reading. I hope Mr. Prytherch writes more in this vein!
Osie Turner
The Forlorn Press
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews