Dark Gods

by T.E.D. Klein

T.E.D. Klein's highly acclaimed first novel The Ceremonies - which Stephen King called "the most exciting novel in my field to come along since Straub's Ghost Story - established him in the top rank of horror writers. Now, with the four novellas gathered here, Klein proves himself to be a master of this classic shorter form.

The collection opens with "Children of the Kingdom", a beautifully crafted chiller that gradually reveals the horrors that lurk behind the shadows of the city. In "Petey", George and Phyllis and the die-hards at their housewarming think that their new rural retreat is quite a steal - unaware that foreclosure, in a particularly monstrous form, is heading their way.

In the insidiously terrifying "Black Man with a Horn", a homage to Lovecraft, a chance encounter with a missionary priest over the Atlantic lures a traveller into a web of ancient mystery and fiendish retribution. And in "Nadelman's God", the protagonist discovers, degree by shocking degree, that the demons of our imaginations are not always imaginary.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Fiction, Lovecraftian, Weird Fiction, Fantasy, Collections

261 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

Reviews

[Char · Rating 5 out of 5]

First, I would like to say thank you to my friend Ryan Cagle for so kindly sending me a copy of this book. Thanks, Ryan!

Second, this collection of 4 novellas was a fine example of literary horror fiction. The stories were well written, dripping with creepy atmosphere, and thought provoking. There were some Lovecraftian references that I enjoyed, as well as a few shudder provoking scenes; most especially with the first novella, Children of the Kingdom. Well done!

Highly recommend for fans of literary horror fiction!

[Danielle The Book Huntress · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dark Gods is a collection of novellas that bring to mind something that I could imagine HP Lovecraft writing if he was a baby boomer. Or maybe that isn't quite right. Because I think T.E.D. Klein has a subtle, grounded approach that distances him from Lovecraft's style in a crucial way for this reader. Klein seems to eschew melodrama, and Lovecraft embodies it in his writing. The similiarities to Lovecraft lie more in his overall fatalistic viewpoint and his character choices. I had to say I wasn't quite comfortable with the way race is handled in these stories. Characters are labeled far too quickly by race and ethnicity, also by social status. That definitely made me think of how Lovecraft would view the melting pot of NYC in the modern age. I want to say that this was done on purpose. That these characters in the stories are people who don't see the world in a rosy way. They don't look past skin color, ethnicity, or social status. They are way too disenchanted, too immersed in the world's darkness to see things in a higher way. The worldview also brings to mind Lovecraft. His fatalistic view of the world, in which doom is certain, in which goodness cannot prevail, and mankind is merely going through the motions. And then there are the references to those in the know when it comes to the occult and the arcane, those who have pierced the veil. The doomed fate of those who seek to know more than they should. That's here as well.

How is this different from Lovecraft? Well, I touched on that in the writing style. Mr. Klein has a smooth writing style, a modern (well at that time, which is like the late 70s/early 80s or so?) feel to his work. His ideas might bring to mind some of the pulp notions, but they are entirely his own. I'm not much for the dark, sure doom approach when it comes to horror, but for that type of story, he writes it well. Mr. Klein has a way of building atmosphere in a very subtle manner. Before I know it, I feel my stomach tighten with unease, just by a mere sentence. Things seemed normal and 'okay', and suddenly there is that suggestion of dread where I didn't see it before. And before I knew it, the point of no return had passed for the character in the story. Maybe he didn't intend for some aspects to be funny, but they were. I guess it's my weirdo sense of humor at work, because I laughed out loud at some parts, and then I almost shuddered at some other part.

What I thought about each story

"Children of the Kingdom"

This story was just kind of twisted. Some aspects were pretty sick, but kind of absurd, in that way that has you wanting to laugh until the idea that this is not played for laughs hits you. It's not so funny if you're actually in this story, and this utter weirdness is playing out around you and involves you in ways you really don't want to be involved. This story makes me think that Klein writes in a subversive way to bring race relations to the reader's mind and to make one consider how absurd racism (largely due to unfounded fears behind it) is. In this case, the main characters fear the blacks and what they seem to represent (seen as the arbiters and cause of social decay) in the neighborhood. What they should fear is lurking in the sewers, and they aren't black, and hardly even human. They are a primitive version of humanity that could care less about race, other than furthering their own once great civilization. This was an eerie and disturbing, like a stomach ache, story.

"Petey"

"Petey" seems to be a look at the Yuppie drive to 'have' and to 'flaunt' what one has. In this case, George and Phyllis have gotten a huge mansion way out in the boondocks for a song, and they throw a party to show it off. Actually they got the mansion for a 'steal', and they will find it's going to cost a lot more than they bargained for. Klein shows just how different his writing is from Lovecraft, even with a story that could have come out of the master of horror's imagination. In this case, this story is so subtle, it takes some careful reading to look for the threads of threat and horror. (My personal opinion is that Lovecraft is not a subtle writer) They are there, but the social commentary seems to be more of a focus in this story. However, careful reading assures the reader that they are not mistaken about the wrongness of it all. This is definitely a horror story. I felt the ending was too abrupt, and that disappointed me. But it was a good story overall.


"Black Man with a Horn"

Definitely a story that could have come out of the pulps with the fears of the Yellow invasion and the antiquated views towards black people (bestial, subhuman, you name it), also that fear of native/tribal cultures. This story felt the most like Lovecraft to me, and probably in the ways that make his stories hardest to read as far as racist elements. What I liked about this story is that the narrator is a contemporary of Lovecraft, who was seen as a protege of Lovecraft instead of a respected colleague. That smarts, and you find out more than once as you read the story. He views the world through an aging lens. One gets the impression that his views on race are expected for a man of his age, even if they made me uncomfortable. This one is a double-edged sword for me, as I liked the pulpy feel, although not the undesirable aspects (see above sentences) of pulp literature. You have an idea of what's going on here, but there's still an ambiguity to the threat. And when the story ends, that is a huge component of the unease that is left behind. It's as though you can only see what you have seen, and no more, without losing your grip on sanity. That's very Lovecraft right there.

"Nadelman's God"

This story was the most interesting, and the most disturbing one in the collection. Heavy shades of black magic here. It makes one afraid of what lurks in your imagination. Could I create something with this malevolent force behind it? On one level, I could wonder if it's Nadelman's very lack of positive belief and optimism that created the spark that brought this creature to life. If religion is seen as an opiate, could it not also serve as a protective force against something much darker, much more detrimental to mankind? Instead of belief hurting, maybe belief could protect. And its absence opens a doorway to a dark force that hates all good in the world. When this story concluded, I felt that fear like a weight on my back that it left behind.

Dark Gods is a good book to read around Halloween. It will have you reaching for lighter fare afterwards, though.

[P.E. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Connecting the Dots

Fitting Soundtrack


Read on Tara's suggestion, this collection of four weird, horrific short stories turned out to be a deligthful surprise!

In each of the four stories, the development is aptly done in an impressionistic, meandering way leaving much to imagination. Actually, it's only once you have fished a certain mass of apparently isolated factoids and micro-events that you can catch a glimpse of the whole picture... But then, the whole picture is made much more efficient as you are the one piecing it together, and it won't leave you anytime soon... ;) Clever trick if there ever was one!

My reservations mainly concern the sometimes protracted length of characterization and description due to the use of this narrative technique, but in the end I have found all four short stories evidently worth the time taken to make it through the development, since it worked wonders in every one of them! :)



- Children of the Kingdom ****

Quote:
'On a certain spring evening several years ago, after an unsuccessful interview in Boston for a job I’d thought was mine, I missed the last rain back to New York and was forced to take the eleven-thirty bus.'

See also:
The Abominations of Yondo
I Am Providence: The Life and Times of H. P. Lovecraft, Volume 2
Ravage
Gyo
The Nightfarers
Life: A User's Manual


- Petey ****

Quote:
'His way to the cabinets was blocked by the dilapidated wreck of a bureau and, propped against it, the shell of a medicine chest, its door sagging open, the mirror somehow intact. He avoided looking at his image as he stepped past it: an old fear, resurrected in the faint attic light, to see some other face looking back at him.'

See also:
The Dunwich Horror and Others
Esprit d'hiver
The Bone Factory


- Black Man With a Horn ***

Quote:
'Here the tale degenerates into an unsifted collection of items which may or may not be related: pieces of a puzzle for those who fancy themselves puzzle fans, a random swarm of dots, and in the center, a wide unwinking eye.'

See also:
Poésie du gérondif
Gyo
The Chill - Junji Ito
Earthly Powers
Beyond Sleep


- Nadelman's God ****

Quote:
'By the time he'd reached high school, he'd discovered that, with a little intellectual effort, he could justify damned near anything—and it certainly helped stave off despair.'

See also:
Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures
La sombra del viento
Il colombre e altri cinquanta racconti
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch / Faith of Our Fathers - Philip K. Dick
Sensor
Les Chants de Maldoror
La nausée

Flavorful and strinking buddy read with True Enthusiast of Spooks ;)

[Marc *Dark Reader with a Thousand Young! Iä!* · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned of T.E.D. Klein through my casual interest in Lovecraft's stories. I can't cite a particular source for where I first heard, but Klein is often hailed as a great modern Cthulhu mythos author, despite his (very) scant output. I read his Events at Poroth Farm in The Cthulhu Mythos Megapack: 40 Modern and Classic Lovecraftian Stories and it was one of my favorite stories from that anthology. Eventually it became time to track down Klein's other work, which requires some minimal online legwork. His single novel, The Ceremonies, is available as an audiobook now, but neither that nor Dark Gods is in e-book format, as far as I can tell. I watched this title until a copy about half the price that it usually goes for materialized.

The four novellas/long stories contained herein show a mastery of modern Lovecraft-inspired horror, with an exceedingly light touch when it comes to revealing the presence of things to the reader. These stories are from the 1970s and early 1980s and make use of social and cultural landscapes particular to those times exceedingly well. Unfortunately this includes thoughts and feelings about non-white races; racist mindsets are very much part of these stories. I have seen some reviews that attempt to portray this as Klein highlighting or poking fun at Lovecraft's now well documented racism, but I did not see it in this light. There were absolutely zero efforts made to suggest that the racism in these stories was wrong or countered in any way. This, regrettably, remains part of Lovecraft's legacy that is further perpetuated decades later.

Children of the Kingdom : Racial fear and disgust is a powerful part of this story. The narrator's terror of non-white people in New York City is palpable, and this fear of the urban other's presence tearing down civilization, bringing crime and violence into his world, is intricately part of the mounting tension and fear of actual monsters that slowly, oh so slowly enters the tale, climaxing with the real-life 1977 New York blackout and subsequent looting spree. The urban tension and racism were certainly part of people's lived experience at that time and place and they are an essential part of this particular story, but still it left a bad taste in my mouth reading this in 2019.

Petey : In a way this is the scariest story in the book, because I would fear being stuck at this party with these upwardly-mobile middle-class extroverts more than facing any of the monstrous creatures in this collection. There is no real horror to speak of, other than the couples with their brash proclamations and thinly-veiled resentment of others' success and the political machinations that allowed the house owner to acquire this property.

Black Man with a Horn : Again, racial fear is essential to the story, particularly fear of African Black people. The protagonist is an old, barely-accomplished writer and one-time friend of H.P. Lovecraft himself, who finds himself embroiled in a mystery after he sits on a plane next to a mssionary fleeing a particular African tribe and whatever god or vengeful creature has been set loose by it. Set in New York and later in Florida, where aging New Yorkers apparently have to eventually move. Again, anything actually otherwordly or supernatural is very subtly and slowly introduced and has practically no physical presence until very late.

Nedelman's God : Best story in this collection, and not only because it is the only one to not openly incorporate outright racism. Instead another theme ascends, one of social class and fear of being bothered or invaded by those of a lesser class. This is not the main point of the story, but it bears mentioning as a common theme thoughout these stories. "Satanic Panic" is much more front and center, with a mature story that refers to heavy metal music and lyrics, sophomoric college literary aspirations, advertising agencies, and other elements that make its early-1980's time period stand out. This is the third of four stories to make reference to writers, specifically "failed writers" here, clearly an identity issue for Klein who has cited severe writer's block as a reason he has not produced more output.

The afterword mentions that Klein was working on another novel (this collection came out after The Ceremonies), but such a thing was never completed or at least never published.

[Jadranka · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5⭐

[Orrin Grey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is more like it! While Reassuring Tales was something of a let-down, Dark Gods was exactly what I was looking for. It was reading "Black Man with a Horn" for what I thought was the second time but was actually the first that drove me to pick this up. I was pretty sure I'd read it before, but I turned out to be dead wrong. Everything in it was new to me (except "Black Man," which I'd just read in The Book of Cthulhu), and everything in it was pretty much superb.

Now if someone would just package these up with "Events at Poroth Farm" and then take my money, please.

[Ivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

4 stories out of which only one is less than 5 stars (Petey)

[TAP · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reality is never enough for some people.

Subtle horror Realism. Truth can kill.

[Barry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Upon this, my second read of my first experience with T. E. D. Klein, I have to say that the four novellas herein are even better than I remembered. Klein has a way of sprinkling hints of impending terror into the layers of each tale’s narrative, very reminiscent of the works of Ramsey Campbell, with whom he shares a very special place in the formative years of the 1980s horror boom, not to mention my most favorite living horror writers. Each tale is as different from one another as they all are from other authors’ works, creating not one, but four, unforgettable excursions into unease. And after far too long being out of print, this collection is once again available in paperback, thanks to a 2021 reprint by PS Publishing imprint Drugstore Indian Press.

In “Children of the Kingdom,” which author Victor LaValle has acknowledged as his call to writing, as well as “the greatest New York City horror story of all time,” Klein shares a story about aging, gentrification, and secret histories. Taking place in the summer of 1977 in NYC, the narrator’s father, having gotten up in his years, is spending his senior years in an assisted living building, where he’s made friends with a few other residents and locals. Hints of terror manifest in the most mundane and unrelated of passages and settings, from a Cuban immigrant priest’s writing that hint at a Creationary story that goes against Biblical histories, to the states of laundry machines in the building’s basement. Truly horrifying incidents are mentioned in passing, with as much disconnect from urgency as hearing about your coworker’s neighbor’s vandalized mailbox. But slowly the horror creeps in from the edges of the page and into view, and oh yes…the buildup pays off in the chaos of the very real ’77 blackout. This tale is easily one of the scariest stories I’ve ever read (I am proud of the fact that yes, I do let myself get scared by effective horror fiction), and upon this re-read, this is only more true than ever. And if you live in a city apartment building, with laundry machines in the basement, you too may be left a bit unsettled by the events in this tale.

“Petey” is a bit of an odd duck, especially for this collection. It is a blend of two separate narratives, one focusing wholly upon the conversations between orderlies in a mental hospital, and a recent patient who has violently rendered himself silent, and a very busy housewarming party where a couple by the names of George and Phyllis have increasingly diverging experiences over the course of the evening. Phyllis is happy to show off their massive manor and all its features and belongings from its previous owner, numerous guests become curious about some of the more occult-oriented findings that they discover, most prominently a very real Tarot deck…one of which does not seem to belong to the major or minor arcana. George, on the other hand, is increasingly anxious and distracted by the house’s belongings, as well as his feelings of owning it all—and as with “Children…,” his perusals and excursions drop subtle hints of the horror to come, which is brilliantly presented in its conclusion. The sheer number of upper-class guests to keep track of can be a bit overwhelming, with many separate conversations overlapping and crowding in over one another, but this only serves to create a sense of snooty realism to this upper-class party that blankets the terror creeping up through the cracked foundation and into view.

“Black Man with a Horn” is simultaneously a tribute to the works of, and a postmodern love letter to, H. P. Lovecraft. The narrator is a writer who knew and used to correspond with Howard and is presently traveling when he meets a former missionary, who seems to be running from his past transgressions—in more ways than one. Because of this, the narrator soon begins to get glimpses of the eerie legacy that the missionary had stumbled upon…and it is glimpsing back. By treating Lovecraft as the real person that he was, and his fiction as mere fiction, the creeping horror of this tale becomes a breeze of postmodern uncanny. Unlike the majority of Lovecraft’s stories, this one does not escalate into a fearful confrontation of unspeakable horrors; rather, it very quietly settles upon the reflections of its elderly narrator, who is faced with the endlessly hungry maw of not (necessarily) a monstrous entity, but of time. For all that it may be a tale of occult horror, it’s ultimately a tale of perhaps the ultimate horror: the increasing loneliness of aging.

And finally, “Nadelman’s God” is a rock ‘n roll and occult drenched tale about the power of language. A lyricist named Nadelman, whose lifelong infatuation with the occult has led to the infusion of evocative words and intents into the lyrics of an extreme rock band. This, in turn, has led to a fan to reach out to Nadelman with a strange announcement: he has deciphered the lyrics into Nadelman’s unintentional instructions to creating an avatar for a literal god. As with the other stories, there are hints planted throughout the narrative for the reader, and not so much the characters within, of what is going on. It’s a slow-burn tale of life imitating art imitating life, with Klein deliberately laying out the groundwork of its dark nature with grim intent, building to a climax that takes the form not of bombastic horror, but of introspective acceptance.

As stated earlier, although this collection, along with Klein’s only novel, The Ceremonies, has been out of print for several decades, it (as well as The Ceremonies), it is thankfully once again available as a newly-printed title. Unfortunately for some readers, it is unavailable as an ebook, but at least it is once again available in a format other than highly expensive used copies—and considering the significant reverence of its four tales, this new edition is worth every penny.

Dark Gods is a fascinating, darkly humorous, and terrifying novella collection, one that sets high the bar of late 20th century horror. And now that it’s available again after far too long of being a legendary ghost on shelves, it is waiting for new generations of fans of the weird and the horrific to experience the legacy of a master author.

[S̶e̶a̶n̶]

Today the world was changed, or rather, it was he who had changed; he felt as if everything he gazed upon—the boardwalk, sea, and sand—were doomed to pass away with the dying light, and that the passing would be bitter.

—'Nadelman's God'

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four horror novellas that were influenced by the works of H. P. Lovecraft. Though many Lovecraftian themes are present in these stories, the author has his own distinct and modern writing style. One of the better examples of this horror sub-genre.

Children of the Kingdom - 4 stars. An ancient race of hidden Old Ones, living in New York City. Set during the 1977 Blackout.

Petey - 3 stars. Revenge for a shady real estate deal.

Black Man With a Horn - 3 and 1/2 stars. A writer who was a protege of H. P. Lovecraft finds himself in a real-life drama involving characters from a Lovecraft story.

Nadelman's God - 4 stars. An old occult poem, written by Nadelman back in his college days as an act of rebellion, is taken very seriously by a fan who's into witchcraft.

[Brian Sammons · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book. Mr. Klein, if you read this, please write more. Horror fans need you.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

The lack of T.E.D. Klein material out there is one of the grave sadnesses of the publishing world. He's not a particularly prolific author, I'll grant that - a handful of stories and a single (great) novel over 30 years is not exactly a Dickensian output. But it should really all be in print, starting with this. Four novellas that surpass the normal expectations of "horror fiction" by being smart, original and genuinely unsettling. It contains "Children of the Kingdom," set during New York's apocalyptic summer of 1977, and the eerie meditation on mortality "Black Man With a Horn," which uses postmodern pastiche techniques in its loving homage to Lovecraft.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the very best collections of horror short stories I've ever read. I think short stories are where Klein really shines, which makes sense, since there are many who say that horror works best in the short form. Unfortunately, this is pretty much it for Klein. I wish he would of written more.

[Canavan · Rating 5 out of 5]

✭✭✭✭½

“Children of the Kingdom”(1980) ✭✭✭✭
“Petey”(1979) ✭✭✭✭
“Black Man with a Horn” (1980) ✭✭✭✭✭
“Nadelman’s God” (1985) ✭✭✭✭✭

[Luka Jovanović · Rating 5 out of 5]

1. Deca kraljevstva 4🌟
2. Piti 5🌟
3. Crni čovek sa rogom 5🌟
4. Nejdelmanov bog 5🌟
5. Događaji na farmi Porotovih 5🌟

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a hard book to rate because the 1st and the 3rd Novellas are INCREDIBLY rascist....but Petey and Nadelman's God are ALL time classics.

We're just going to put it at a 3 for now.

[Darryl Sloan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Four novella-length horror stories that are slow-paced and over-descriptive, with key events sometimes happening off-stage and merely being reported on. I can tolerate all that if there's a decent payoff at the end. There isn't - universally. In fact, the stories tend to end just short of something climactic - the author, in effect, saying to the reader, "I've set the stage. You know what's coming next. Imagine it for yourself." All I feel is frustration.

Imagine "Cujo" ending with the mother and son trapped in their car, rabid St. Bernard right outside the door. Mother turns key in engine. Car won't start. The end. Or imagine "The Shining" ending with Jack Torrance going mad, but his wife hasn't yet realised it. Credits roll. Klein's stories are like that.

There's a heavy Lovecraft influence, but I much prefer to read Lovecraft.

[Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

CW: Racism and Sexual Assault

So, I guess I should just jump into talking about the biggest elephant in the room: the racism.

First, I totally get writing all sorts of characters. I don't think that an author should be limited to only writing about good people, or avoid writing characters that think or act a certain way. I also totally get that authors are conditioned by the times that they live in. Again, I also get how an author might want to emulate a style or form overriding the consideration of a segment of their audience. BUT, I feel like these can be used as excuses to facilitate an author's biases, even if they are self-aware or even self deprecating.

In two of the four stories we get two main characters who are pretty racist. In horror, I'm used to seeing someone cast in a negative light so that you don't mind when they get offed. But that's not what's going on here.

In a lot of ways T.E.D. Klein is laying the groundwork for a lot of contemporary horror stories where they are more personal mundane storytelling with the occasional monster or impending doom to apply pressure. I would say he's a vanguard in the change of form. When you compare him to someone writing weird tales like Robert Bloch where you get a touch of character, you get supernatural conflict and then a twist or reveal at the end, the point is the supernatural. With Klein he's really character focused, and the mysteries kind of reveal themselves in the background. Honestly, he's a very compelling storyteller because he lets you live in the space of the characters for a while, he throws in a little mystery, and then whammo. This is something that I feel Laird Barron, Jon Lanagan, and Nathan Ballingrud adopted from Klein to their benefit.

Because of that when you have characters that are racist, you live in their head and you feel what they think. But, what's important is to create a distinction between the internal world and the reality of the world that the author is creating. I feel like Ballingrud pulled it off in North American Lake Monsters: Stories with his neo-nazi failed recruitment story. But Klein regularly fails for me because in addition to character's language and actions, he is also injecting racism into the stories himself as an author.

One story about a racist author (Black Man With a Horn) has him throwing out Asian slurs, but then also has a scene focused around the Asian spilling Chinese duck sauce on a plane, as if Asians just carry duck sauce around (and the person in question was Indonesian, yet they had Chinese Food for some reason). There is a scene where for no great reason a Black guy on a plane started yowling and it was presented like some vaudevillian routine where he'd dropped a cigarette on his lap and the whole thing took a weird left turn for yucks. The story called for a distraction to delay the narration, but the author chose to use a historically racist approach. So when the story starts with Asian and Black stereotyping when it gets into the horror of the story by exoticising a culture and a people it put me in a place where I was feeling uncomfortable with having a mysterious generically evil boogeyman monster that was just a black native whose lips were so big that they made a horn who has no motivation other than to break into people's homes and kill them.

Some stuff was also so ambiguous, that if there was no foundation for weird othering of cultures that maybe you'd think he wasn't saying a mysterious Asian character was a pedophile, but who knows after all the other stuff that was said prior.

The lead story (Children of the Kingdom) focuses on a character terrified of Black people, and as an upper middle class guy in Manhattan he's forced to interact with the melting pot. And while the story is told from his perspective, outside of the persistent descriptions of squalor attributed to Black people, the "lazy" black security guard, and Black people being the only guilty party vandalizing/ rioting in NY it felt like the author was injecting his own bias into the story. I felt like the story was supposed to be cathartic for him where he is confronting his own racism and working through it, acknowledging the flaws in the way that he is thinking, but still thinking and living it.

The big problem for me is that everyone paints Black people as being the issue, and that the twist is that there are white monsters running around raping women. But the author is issuing a point counterpoint saying while it looks like Black people are the monsters of this story, the real monsters are these imaginary things. What he does is just paint Black people in a terrible light trying to use his perception of reality. Presenting imaginary monsters as a counterpoint doesn't work for me because, well, they aren't real. So the take away from the story might be there are worse things than Black people, but we haven't found it in the real world yet.

Both of these stories rely heavily on a Lovecraftian pastiche, but of all things to emulate why prop up the racism? The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle takes all the worst elements of the racism of Lovecraft's Horror at Red Hook and turns it on its ear beautifully. If an author isn't going to tackle it full on it's going to just sound like Joe Rogan justifying why he can say the "N" word over and over again.

I think Children of the Kingdom also suffered a bit because it opens with what I'm assuming is a rape quip buried in with the opening author quotes, and then kind of sexually fridges one of the characters. As a side note I thought the ending was kind of lame and didn't make any sense in the context of the story.

That said I really liked two of the stories quite a bit. Strangely, they are the two stories that aren't usually lauded in the collection: Petey and Nadelman's God. I thought they were finely crafted cosmic horror stories.

Contrary to that, Petey really struck me, I thought it was a perfect little tale. I loved how it developed and revealed itself as people milled around each other. It was like one of those plays where all the actors are interacting with each other in a house and audience members can move from room to room to see what's going on with all the different characters.

Nadelman's God was kind of absurd, but I thought it was a lot of fun. Again there was some weird minor incidental racism in it with the weird fetishizing of a "negress". But nothing like the other ones. It had a great pace and sense of mystery.

Is this collection important? I think so. Is the writing great? Yes. But on whole, I have to put a big fat asterisk by any recommendation I'd give.

[Rabid_Scanner · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the finest examples of horror I have ever read. This collection stands along side ‘In a lonely place’ as my favourite book in the horror genre.

[Ian Casey · Rating 5 out of 5]

It seems that supernatural horror enjoyed a resurgence in the late 70s and 80s, with the likes of Stephen King, Ramsey Campbell, Clive Barker and Thomas Ligotti achieving varying degrees of critical and commercial success. Perhaps there’s no better example of the spirit of this revival though than here in Dark Gods, a 1985 collection of four short stories by T.E.D. Klein which reads like a veritable love letter to the heydays of supernatural and weird fiction.

That in itself wouldn’t count for much unless the work was quality, and I’m pleased to say that quality is here in abundance. Indeed if not for the surprisingly small quantity of his output, Klein’s name may now be more often spoken of less as a disciple of the horror masters and more as an equal.

Klein does not hide from his influences but rather proudly displays them. Shameless mentions of the likes of Robert W. Chambers, Arthur Machen and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein are merely the tip of the iceberg in this regard.

The first story, ‘Children of the Kingdom’, clearly owes a great deal to Robert E. Howard and I should be very surprised if its title was not a wink and a nod to Howard’s ‘Children of the Night’. He even makes a point of comparing one of his characters to one of M.R. James’. That said, in this as in all his tales Klein distinctly has his own voice. In this case it’s put towards the tale of a handful of characters going about their unremarkable lives around the time of the New York City blackout of 1977.

Speaking of James, his literary spectre haunts the second story ‘Petey’. There is for the duration of this tale no explicitly or overtly supernatural occurrence whatsoever. All we have are a pile of allusions and inferences as to something bubbling away behind an otherwise thoroughly mundane tale of a housewarming party, then a thoroughly Jamesian conclusion wherein the final paragraph ties the disparate threads together and ends before their significance can be entirely comprehended.

The third tale, ‘Black Man with a Horn’ ramps up the referencing into overdrive, as the main character is based on Frank Belknap Long and Lovecraft is frequently mentioned and quoted. I love the self-awareness with which Klein delivers this pastiche of a traditional Lovecraftian tale in which a horror from a far-flung corner of the globe (one might call it a ‘dark god’) gradually asserts itself. Also, the introduction reflecting on the nature of a first-person past tense narrative is worth reading on its own merits.

Finally we have ‘Nadelman’s God’. Whereas the other stories were first published around 1979/80, this one is new to the collection and it shows. Klein surely must have seen ‘This Is Spinal Tap’ shortly before writing this story, as it’s packed with tongue-in-cheek references to hair metal bands which veer dangerously close to displaying overt humour for the only time in this book. Judas Priest rate a couple of mentions relating to their trial for alleged Satanic messages found in their records when played backwards, which was a fun easter egg as an avowed fan of the band.

The story itself is of a stuffy advertising executive who leads a humdrum existence outside his extra-marital affair. But once upon a time he’d been an edgy college student writing an execrable and blasphemous poem about an adversary to the Judeo-Christian God. Was it all the product of an over-exuberant imagination, or was something else at play? This one I found to be a top-shelf take on that well-worn Lovecraftian trope of the barriers between dream worlds and reality being hazier than we’d care to believe.

In their totality the four stories left me with certain impressions. For one, Klein is masterful in his subtlety and that is a quality at the heart of at least some of the greatest weird fiction. For another he had a certain vivid realism to his settings and characters which I think was aided by his limited scope. For the most part he wrote contemporaneously and within the environs of his New York home (that is to say both the city and the state more broadly). At times there is an uncomfortable degree of racism on display, but it is framed as if to suggest how silly it is to fear our fellow man when there are much more insidious things in the world.

I could go on, but the bottom line is that Dark Gods proves Klein was both an enthusiast of weird fiction and a master of the form in his own right. If the genre appeals to you in the slightest then do not hesitate to read it.

[Alex Budris · Rating 4 out of 5]

The immediate realities of these stories - initially so prosaic - becomes increasingly hostile as everything succumbs to the encroaching conclusion. These characters, with their petty dramas and seeming importances are - initially, at least - only subliminally aware of the weirdness, the Otherness, that is threatening their stable environment. In or out of the city, New Yorkers enact their petty dramas, their seeming importances, with a black background static of dread as a constant accompaniment. By the time the menace becomes overt it is already too late… The monster turns around. A secret is revealed - and in a moment of black epiphany they realize that "the planet, all nature, all creation, the very fabric of reality, [is] inimical to beings of [their] kind."

I’ve read these stories before. Some of them a couple times. But I have this really nice signed Chiroptera Press edition that just came out (2024), and you know how it is… I had to take her for a spin. And the stories are well worth rereading. The image of the house party in ‘Petey’ has stuck with me for years, and the city-wide blackout at the end of ‘Children of the Kingdom’ is one of the most memorable denouements in weird literature. ‘Black man With a Horn’ is a freakin’ masterpiece, and I usually don’t like Lovecraftian stories that feature Lovecraft himself as a character. ‘Nadelman’s God,’ a man haunted by his own creation, is my least favorite, but it’s still a great story.

These are slow burns. Yog-Sothoth is not going to materialize from the Void and swallow the world while Harry Dresden booms out anti-summoning spells… The subtle build up is the whole point here. It's a difficult thing to do in today's day and age, but these stories demand that the reader pay close attention. The horror gradually reveals itself through hints, intimations, and atmosphere. The stories in this book are all carefully crafted and fine-tuned for effect. A true classic of the genre.

***

On a tarot card, playfully pulled at a drunken housewarming party: "... a amorphous mass of grey like the back of some huge animal, illuminated as if by moonlight..."

"The Sloth"
"The Beast"
"Ah, I've got it, Satan!"
“That's what it is, it's a skinned bear!"

[Christian Buttner · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is not a review so much as a pronouncement: Klein comes off as racist as Lovecraft, only it's 1984 not 1924...it's blacks this and blacks that. His characters are vapid and uninteresting. He does manage to create a few unpleasant horrors beyond his unintentional ones but they are ruined by his lack of candor, to put it mildly.
I was extremely disappointed since several writers I admire mentioned this book of four stories as their "go to" for ideas etc...one writer in particular who is leagues above Klein wrote that he keeps this book on his desk as he writes!
I won't waste my time with any more of his works.

[Aric Cushing]

Fantastic short stories. T.E.D. Klein said,"I will do anything to NOT write." Unfortunately, he created his own fate, and we are only left with 1 novel and this collection of unbelievable short stories.

[Nebojša Petković · Rating 4 out of 5]

Klajn piše odličnim stilom i bilo je pravo uživanje čitati ga. Ponekad naglašeno deskriptivan, dozirano humorističan i introspektivan, gradi svoje priče vodeći ih od realnosti do tačke neverovatnog i strašnog na autentičan način sa kojim se savremeni čovek lako poistovećuje. Jasno je da je temelj njegove proze lavkraftovski, ali nikako u smislu pukog kopiranja, već originalne nadgradnje. Ako smem da se usudim, a da ne zvučim nadobudno i pretenciozno, to je način pisanja koji na daleko siroviji način i sam pokušavam da praktikujem.
Ipak, krajevi pojedinih priča, za moj ukus, prilično su neubedljivi. Ne zato što ih ostavlja nedovršenim, jer oni to nisu i nije problem u oslanjanju na isključivo naznačenje stravičnog, jer mu je to upravo cilj, već deluje da bi morao taj postupak da zaokruži na konsekventniji način. Ubedljiviji, ako ćemo precizno.

Deca kraljevstva - dobra naracija, zanimljivo otvaranje drevne pripovesti o alternativnoj istoriji, no neubedljiva poveznica sa sadašnjim trenutkom. Zašto, kako, na koj način je ta davna rasa tlačitelja ljudi u savremenom trenutku nastanila kanalizaciju Njujorka? Ocena 3

Piti - Savršeno građena priča od koje sam očekivao mnogo, da bi kraj neopravdano bio zbrzan u odnosu na njenu bogatu strukturu do tog trenutka. U njoj čak i gradnju strave pomalo ubija naglašeni socijalni aspekt priče - te kritike malograđanske i skorojevićke američke srednje klase. Često je zanimljivije pratiti taj momenat od onog strašnog. Dva narativna toka uopšte nisu iskorišćena za kulminaciju, pa mi je onaj drugi savršeno nepotreban. Ocena 3

Crni čovek sa rogom - najlavkraftofskija priča i u onom najboljem, ali i najgorem. Opet suviše loš kraj. Misterija koja se u fragmentima otkriva je odlična, ali nju ne prati konstantno povećavanje strašnog ka kulminaciji. Ono jednostavno dolazi na kraju, jer mora. Ocena 3

Najdelmanov bog - savršena priča u kojoj je sve kako treba i svi elementi Klajnovog raskošnog pripovedanja su tu. Od realizma i skepticizma, preko introspekcije i deprimiranog stava prema čovečanstvu do istinske strave. Ocena 5

Događaji na farmi Porotovih - još jedan biser od kojeg je nastao i jedini Klajnov roman koji me itekako zanima. Osećaj postepenog i laganog uvođenja u stravu je još precizniji nego u prethodnoj priči, a posebnu poslasticu čine brojne reference na klasike horora, koje glavni protagonista, sticajem svoje profesije, neprestano čita. Ocena 5

Sve u svemu, štivo za preporuku svakom ljubitelju horora, sa izvanrdnim Ognjanovićevim zaključkom na kraju knjige u kome piše o autoru.

P.S. Setih se i genijalne misli koju Klajn u poslednoj priči izgovara kroz protagonistu i pripisuje je nekom japanskom narodnom verovanju - o insektima kao fizičkoj manifestaciji demona ili zlih ljudi Valjda kao jedinom logičnom objašnjenju njihovog postojanja u odnosu na sveopštu ljudsku odbojnost (sa izuzetkom bubamara i svitaca :))

[Mehmed Duhović · Rating 4 out of 5]

Za razliku od Lovecrafta ili Kinga koji na samom pocetku price (najkasnije u prvoj trecini) upoznaju citaoca sa supetnaturalnim hororom, Klein suptilno skriva karte do samog kraja. Ili ih nikako ne pokazuje. U momentima u kojima ocekujemo veliko otkrovljenje ili neki zadovoljavajuci epilog se ne desi nista. Sto i nije lose. Samo je neispunjavajuce. Upravo zbog toga mi je u ovoj zbirci mozda i omiljena prica "Najdelmanov Bog", koja uprkos komicnoj premisi izaziva osjecaj trajne nelagode.

Doduse sam Kleinov horor je unikatan, isprepleten sa svakodnevnim, dosadnim, sto ga i cini mocnim, jer se nosi porukom da ovo, sto glavni lik prozivljava se sutra moze desiti i nama.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection is book-ended by two outright masterpieces of horror and suspense, the two middle stories aren't quite as impressive perhaps, but they're better than most horror I've read. Ever since I read Klein's great "The Ceremonies" this has been on my "to read" list.

These often an urban, gritty feel like the horror stories of Fritz Leiber, the last novelette has some definite influences of Leiber's "Smoke Ghost." Klein writes in a clear, simple style -- none of the overly hallucinogenic, hazy "WTF Just Happened?" stuff we find in most modern weird fiction.

These are long, "leisurely" stories which takes their time. Klein keeps his cards pretty close to the chest, but an experienced reader of horror (I guess I can call myself such) can see where things are headed, but not always. This is the case with most horror after you've read enough, but Klein makes the ride far more fun, even if you suspect the destination.

Children of the Kingdom - This is prime horror. It's got a great tone of urban grit and crime built up throughout, with a queasy sexual theme. Half through the creepy details start to add up to a nasty, but not entirely predictable, picture. In the last quarter there's quite a few downright scary moments. Some charmingly dated references; Kojak, Mark Spitz, etc. After a man moves his grandfather into a NYC rest home he starts to suspect residents of it, and other areas are being terrorized by something far worse than just urban crime.

Petey - I've never read a story that spent so much time in build up and then suddenly cut off, and was still completely satisfying. As with the previous story, this too is excellent, prime horror. Here we know even less than the other stories and the horror is kept at bay for longer. Its got a message too; it's full of materialistic people, showing off and we can't help rooting for them to get theirs. A couple showing off a large house they bought in the country from an insane hermit, start to get increasingly disturbing signs of the homes' dark past.

Black Man With a Horn - This was another great story, a bit of a mystery/horror. I couldn't tell where things were going, it keeps you guessing, with it's disparate elements and details which present a picture, only vaguely until much later in the story. An author meets an old missionary on an airplane who is planning to retire after venturing into the realm of an evil, forgotten tribe in Malaysia. After a series of disappearances the author starts his own investigations into the tribe's history and folklore.

Nadelman's God - Like the first story, this too is excellent. It has a lot of depth; exploring themes of disillusionment with one's youthful pursuits; a suitcase full of youthful aspirations and rebellion now shamefully hidden away. It's a very nostalgic story too. The horror theme shows some definite influences of Leiber's "Smoke Ghost" -- a horror created out of the grit and grime of the city itself. The horror and paranoia is skillfully mounted throughout what is a fairly long story. Nadelman is somewhat pleased to discover a irreligious poem he published in his old college newspaper (poetry being a long-abandoned pursuit) is being used in a song by a heavy metal band, until he starts receiving letters from a man obsessed with creating the horrible being spoken of in the lyrics.

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I give this collection of four novellas seven stars. I have read and reread them over the years, and they remain masterpieces of deep yet understated horror. The combination of Lovecraftian scope with minute contemporary detail and character-driven narrative is breath-taking. I especially admire Klein's settings -- I could live in the house described in "Petey," for example, and I feel that dreadful Florida humidity on my skin in "Black Man with a Horn."

Truly, Klein's work is an inspiration.

[Viktor Tanaskovic · Rating 5 out of 5]

fenomenalna kolekcija slowburn horor prica, jednako zabavnih i kvalitetnih. "deca kraljevstva" mozda iskace kao najbolja. dugo nisam osetio takvu nelagodu i napetost dok sam nesto citao.

[Paulo "paper books only" · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an amazing book. Why did the writer only wrote one book and two novellas? For what I know they were well received by the critics. Maybe he is lazy, like Wikipedia says he is.

Now you've got four stories in this anthology. Each one with, around 60/70 pages. Believe me when I say each story has a Lovecraftian theme or characteristic.

The first story is Children of the Kingdom. New York City blackout of 1977 is the setting. The sewers and ghettos of Manhattan conceal a race of faceless mutants connected to the Gnostic Gospels and MesoAmerican lore. Only the last pages brought a feeling of dread. The rest of the tale is the bulding but unfortunally it felt short.

The second story was Petey a tale about a haunted house. A couple have a party with some friends to show them their new big house and we start learning some of it's secrets. In the beginning I thought "-Unfortunally it ended way short. What?? Who was..? No, what? Darn time lost for a weak finale. I thought that it was missing a page somehow..." Now that I think back I thought it ended like the first. You really have to think about it. It's not those tales of horror or not that it ended, good or bad. No, here you have to think about it and draw a conclusion yourself. Nevertheless the weakest story of the bunch, nevertheless way better than most writers out there.

Black Man with a Horn the third story. Here not only has some Lovecraftian theme but also as a protagonist of some sorts. This tale is told in first person perspective. The writer even say that "There is something inherently conforting about the first person past tense. it conjures up visions of some deskbound narrator puffing comtemplatively upon a pipe amid the safety of his study, lost in tranquil recollection, seasoned but essentialy unscathed by whatever experience hes about to relate. its tense that says: "I am here to tell the tale. I lived through it."

Its a tale about a old writer, like many others out there than are told in the same way of what this writer says... "So this is what I was reduced to - a lifetime work shrugged ff by some blurb-writer as "Worthy of the Master Himself," the creations of my brain dismissed as mere pastiche. And the tales themselves, once singled out for such elaborate praise, were now simply - as if this were commendation enought - "Lovecraftian." Ah, Howard, your triumph was complete the moment your name became an adjective."

It's a funny because the writer creates a satire about the pastiche by creating one. Almost every horror writer knows Lovecraft. It's impossible not to know him. Most of our contemporaneous writers of horror have written something with a lovecratian theme. King, McCammon, Little, Lumley, Robert Howard, Ramsey, Frank Belknap Long, Charles L. Grant, Clark Ashtom Smith, Robert Bloch and many many others. So did they create something or merely copied? My belief is that they create. They use a theme to their purpose. What's so wrong about that? Any fantasy writer created anything after Tolkien? And even Tolkien created something or simply used Folklore and Myth Tales or even Lord Dunsany tales? Sci-fi? Any writer created something after Verne or HG Wells? I think so.
They use but create something new. That's life. Everything in life works that way.

Now the tale itself. A elderly man talks to a priest on his way back from Malasya where he learns of his discoviries of an ancient race living there that was the backbone inspiration of something Lovecraft created. Maybe the tales by Lovecraft were not merely fiction. Then the story change to a kind of detective tale and the ending was equal to many the master created. The unease - the unknown. Are we losing sanity to think things that are not really there? Excelent story.

Nadelman’s God is the last story and it ends with a BANG. Excelent. What are we? Our thoughts exist? Yes. So when I put something on paper does it exist? Yes. So what is written down is it real? Are we all creators? Gods? What are myths and legends and religion? Either based on a book or told from father to son. So what makes it more "real" than a horror writer creating a being and setting loose on a world? Excelent premises. Excelent execution. TED Klein should have written more because he is a excelent writer and creator.


Overall, the writing is similar to pulp fiction from the thirties. Some people will be upset with the characterization of black people. Don't forget that Racism always existed but in 1920/1930/1940 this kind of behaviour was accepted.

The characterization of the main characters is at times lacking but wasn't Lovecraft doing the same? What's important is the tale. The horror behind. The atmosphere od fread and the sense that the story was moving to something that will make you crazy if you would understand it.

Would I advice this anthology? YES. Undoubtly YES. To anyone who wants to enter the horror genre or likes Lovecraft writing style but modernised.

This book will stay with me and I bet I will be reading it again after ten or twenty years.