The Weird of Hali: Chorazin

The Weird of Hali #3

by John Michael Greer

Something Sleeps Within The Hill...

A last desperate hope brings Justin Martense to the little town of Dunwich in the Massachusetts hills. Justin’s family lies under an ancient curse brought down on them by an ancestor’s terrible deed. Once in each generation, one of the descendants of Gerrit Martense is summoned in dreams to Elk Hill, near the town of Chorazin in western New York, never to return. Now Justin has received the summons; a cryptic message from Nyarlathotep, the messenger of the Great Old Ones, sends him to Owen Merrill, who might be able to solve the riddle of the Martense curse soon enough to save Justin’s life.
As the two of them travel to Chorazin and begin to trace tangled clues reaching deep into the region’s colonial past, strange forces gather, and so do the enemies of the Great Old Ones. Far below the brooding stone circle that crowns Elk Hill, one of the forgotten powers of the ancient world turns in restless sleep—and before they can unravel the secret of Chorazin, Owen and Justin will have to face archaic sorceries, monstrous beings, and the supreme nightmare chronicled centuries before in Ludvig Prinn’s The Mysteries of the Worm...

Genres: Fiction, Fantasy

255 pages, Paperback

Published February 17, 2019

About the author

John Michael Greer is an author of over thirty books and the blogger behind The Archdruid Report. He served as Grand Archdruid of the Ancient Order of Druids in America. His work addresses a range of subjects, including climate change, peak oil, the future of industrial society, and the occult. He also writes science fiction and fantasy. He lives in Rhode Island with his wife.

Reviews

[Ganesh Ubuntu · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the third book in 'The Weird of Hali' series where John Michael Greer continues to turn Lovecraftian world inside out. It is as captivating as the previous two. I simply couldn't help but use every scrap of time at my disposal to read this book until completion.

At the same time, by the third book some of the author's tropes become all too familiar and it becomes too easy to understand where the story is going and which side a newly introduced character is on, thanks to the hints that get recycled a few times over. The characters feel rather flat and too simple to be related to as actual human beings. Also, the strong side of the first two books - the ideas and the occult dimension that can be related to the world we inhabit - is not as prominent in this third novel making it a little less educational.

Said that, the book is still more than readable and it is well packed with adventure, action, and multiple cultural references and easter eggs.