The Great Die Slow and Other Tales of Dark Adventure

by Harry Piper

A lost knight stumbles upon an ancient horror… A desperate lord makes a deal with an unholy, hungry power… A young girl driven half-mad by grief pursues an impossible quarry…

Set in a Dark Age Celtic landscape shrouded in myth and legend, these dark, often tragic, tales tell stories of ordinary men and women confronted by evil both human and inhuman.

Whether priest, knight, farmgirl or sellsword, they will all be forced to take up arms and fight against forces that will test their strength and their sanity to the limit, in stories that will chill you, excite you and perhaps even break your heart…

Stories included:
The Man In Chains
Manawyddan the Heartless and the Unquiet Mere
The Penitent
Cadell's Fate
The Burden
Sir Gareth and the Thing That Hid
The Great Die Slow

Genres: Fantasy

198 pages, Paperback

Published August 9, 2020

Reviews

[Jim Kuenzli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seven dark, enchanting tales from Piper. A little Sword and Sorcery, dark fantasy, and the macabre. Excellent through and through.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

DMR books has set the bar really high with some fantastic releases this year, and it doesn't look like it's going to stop anytime soon. Presented here is a collection of stories by Harry Piper that were a pleasure to read. It's not S&S per se, sorcery is not prevalent. Instead the stories concern the darkness at the edges of world, the forgotten evils, or even the darkness within. Tread lightly.

1. The man in chains

A soldier tells the tale of how his lord makes a pact with something unholy and inhuman. The cure is worse than the disease.

2.Manawddyan the heartless and the unquiet mere

A warrior with dark renown enters the service of a lord with a monster problem. It seems the creature crawls its way out of the mere and comes looking for the lord. The monster’s origin is a sad and horrible truth.

3.The penitent

Two adventurers, brothers, between jobs decide to escort a priest across a desolate land scoured by necromancy. The priest is seeking a penitent that wished to be absolved. What they discover is truly wild.

4.Cadell's fate

Knowing you will live to a ripe old age will give you the fortitude to do deeds that would seem courageous. But if you received a conflicting horoscope would you still do the right thing, knowing that it would end in your death? Cadell decides to take his fate in his own hands, predestination be damned.

5. The burden

Madoc, a knight returning from the crusades, finds his home destroyed and family murdered. He must confront an implacable adversary that dogs his steps. Alone, Madoc, must keep moving forward against all odds.

6.Sir Gareth and the thing that hid

Gareth is a knight of Camelot. Deciding to shelter with some farmers he becomes aware of something unholy. Something inhuman dwelling in the well and its horrible connection to the farmers.

7.The great die slowly

Rhiannon's family is callously murdered by a giant. A mysterious voice in her head coaches her on how to gain vengeance. The voice becomes a 'real' companion on her quest. Some monsters are created.

Seven varied tales each touched by darkness. Another jewel in the crown of DMR Books. Another fantastic collection of short fiction.

Recommended!

[Andrew Hale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Harry Piper never disappoints. His tales are introspective and contemplative, though they never really give black-and-white answers to life's questions. Despair is as tangible as demonic presence but Hope seems like a slow-moving mist upon the air. Valor is partnered with dark sacrifices; the heartless have more heart than the hearty; absolution is for the Wicked as much as the Righteous; being face-to-face with Death takes a backseat to defending the weak; reflecting how יהושוע handled the call to give up in His pain; Arthurian knights face horrors upon their honor; and our own thirst for vengeance can become more devastating than the Goliaths we chase. David leaned on Yahweh for his battle, but what happens when we lean on our inner demons?

The Man in Chains
Cymria is in turmoil, for as High King Llewellyn's death sees the lords fight over the king's lands, the Anglisc men raid the borders. Only one lord stands against the invasion: Rhaig ap Madog, of Powys. Except for his loyal warriors, Rhaig suffers alone as his countrymen nobles do nothing to help fend the people. But a mighty weapon at the Black Keep to the north is a five day journey that may stop the centuries old onslaught of Anglisc raiding. How high a cost in unholy dealings is worth the future of your people?

Manawyddan the Heartless and the Unquiet Mere
"Why is it necessary to act in a manner calculated to ease the nerves of the weak and the soft - those who prefer useless displays of emotion to simply acts of duty, plain and unadorned? I had acted as a man should. Let those who said otherwise shut their mouths and still their rotten tongues." - Manawyddan
Considered heartless by many for defending his people against the treachery of his own brother and father, Manawyddan's notoriety earns him a reputation that the ill-conditioned Lord Cadwgan notes for hiring Manawyddan to rid him of a creature from the near-by mere. Prince Geraint wants to be the savior of his father in peril, and Queen Karys somberly tends her husband's condition, but the secrets of the mere have the potential to haunt all parties involved no matter the outcome.

The Penitent
Mercenary brothers Llewellyn the bowman and Rodri (sole sword carrier), one more fearful and reverent of the saints then his brother, the other more fearful of magic and monsters, take on the job from the archbishop of a mad confessor priest, to be escorted deep into cursed land where a penitent lives, needing to unburden their sins. The land is one of horror and absolution is near for the most unlikely of candidates.

Cadell's Fate
War among the forests and fields is an exhausting, ugly endeavor, and elves are as fragile and beautiful as willows by a river or silver birches. Marching soldier Cadell of Gwyddion isn't fond of the pines they pass through on their way back to their respective homes, as the pines remind him of the war and gravestones, but he is enamored with a beautiful fortune-teller elf, marred by some facial scar due to God knows what. Though he's sure of his fate, just as the victims of war were probably sure, a dire warning pits Cadell between running far for safety or never seeing the rising dawn. Anything can happen when Righteous sincerity seeks to embrace Fate, or combat it.

The Burden
"Eloi, eloi, lama sabachthani?"
Sir Madoc carries a heavy burden, symbolic in his ever heavier armor as a knight. Fresh from the Holy Land, back home on Mount Eddlin where "[t]o believe in God - on His goodness and love - had been an easy thing at Madoc's hall", Madoc's life becomes one like Job's. Inner demons are hard to separate from outer evils, Depression calls to him to find relief in the darkness of death, but even in his weakest moments Madoc sees that "Death was merely a fact. But it was a truth, a truth eternal, that the strong should not oppress the weak; a truth, that the helpless required a protector. It was a truth that in the face of such demands, death was simply an irrelevance." Madoc will come to a crossroads of Suicide and Survival and will find an eye-opening answer in seeing how Jesus handled a similar temptation to end it all or continue on to fight for the weak. Long live Roland too.

Sir Gareth and the Thing That Hid
An Arthurian tale, 28 year-old Sir Gareth of Camelot and his horse Ceffyl head home after a strenuous Christmas feast, where memories of Arthur, Sir Gawain, Sir Mordred, and Sir Kay stay in the background of Gareth's mind. Finding a farmhouse among a rain storm, Gareth meets an odd family, and a horror-inspiring well beckons to him with visions of the future and past. Or lies. Baptized in Christ, one may find they overcome their evil influences as well as Righteous competition, just as Arthurian legend says Gareth overcame the Red Knight, the Black Knight, the Puce Knight, the Green Knight, and even Sir Launcelot ... at first at least. "Good hands" indeed.

The Great Die Slow
"People were supposed to be significant. Even in their passing they left a monument testifying to their importance - a body was a thing that demanded respect."
At an age more adolescent than adult, Rhiannon lives a reasonably uneventful life, with a loving family, butting heads as a teenager does with her mom, and seeing that "[t]he light of the stars and the moon was so strong that all the night sky seem to blaze with a great silver fire." Unfortunately, giant appetites and ghastly thirsts effect the peaceful as much as the chaotic. Rhiannon will have to face her biggest challenges yet: a Goliath opponent and her own self-depravity at seeking her own form of Righteous Judgment against Wrong.

[Theofilos · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am baffled with what some people find amazing.

This book is far from amazing, some stories were cool, but everyone was a fucking christian for some reason.

I think that the author has potential, all stories were readable but not a single one was really remarkable. This book has made me weary of DMR for sure.

[James T · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s an interesting mix of horror, dark age fantasy, and sword and sorcery.

Piper has a very minimalistic style to his writing. It reminds me a lot of William Hope Hodgson’s “The Ghost Pirates.”

The stories are very dark but not with out that defiant shine of light in them.

The standout’s to me were “The Penitent” and “The Burden.”

The Penitent managed to take several “played out” fantasy tropes and make them scary again. It was just well written and added horror back into concepts that have become trite.

The Burden was incredibly bleak but ultimately had a very powerful ending. I appreciated the message of the story.

The other stories range from decent to good. I think the Sir Gareth story deserves marks for being very creative. Trying to combine Arthurian Fantasy and Lovecraft is a unique idea. The story was okay but it’s an idea that deserves to be pursued further.

Overall, I think this collection is above average and has a unique fusion of influences. Check it out, but be forewarned, it is oppressive at times.

[Robert Jenner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very cool collection of seven Welsh and Celtic themed short stories. I'm a crusty old fart and pretty skeptical of modern fiction, but this collection is the good stuff. There's violence and some gore but it's never gratuitous and serves the story. I'm glad I had the chance to pick this one up before DMR books lost the publishing rights and it went out of print.

[RB Alley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an enjoyable series of gothic fantasy stories, the best to me being “Cadell’s Fate”. It didn’t exactly blow me away as a whole but the setting is unique and the mood is sufficiently dour.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first (The Man In Chains) and the last (The Great Die Slow) are the best stories. Great way to start and end this collection.