Her Wan Embrace

by David Barker

Written in the tradition of H. P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe, Robert W. Chambers, and other classic authors, David Barker’s chilling new collection of enchanting horror fiction explores what happens when common, unremarkable people encounter “The Other” in the form of dark spirits, mysterious entities from Outside space and time, and paranormal beings from alternate dimensions. The title story “Her Wan Embrace” is part of a trilogy of tales set in Victorian Paris that tell of one man’s feverish battle against a horrific supernatural creature that has invaded his home in the historic Place des Vosges and is enslaving the minds and bodies of his wife and young children. He is about to give up all hope when the beautiful and ethereal Azrael – half angel, half ghoul – steps out from the shadows in an ancient church and begins to teach him how to defend himself against “La Limace” – the notorious monster the Parisian occultists call the Great Slug. Other tales and poems reveal shocking scenes of unutterable terror in the South Seas, Egypt, Lovecraft’s Arkham and Innsmouth, Chamber’s Carcosa, and elsewhere. Critics have expressed high praise for the three Lovecraftian books that Barker wrote in collaboration with the late W. H. Pugmire. In this stand alone collection, Barker proves he is a force to be reckoned with in the field of weird literature.

234 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 4, 2022

About the author

David Barker has published two collections of H. P. Lovecraft-inspired horror fiction written in collaboration with W. H. Pugmire: The Revenant of Rebecca Pascal (Dark Renaissance Books, 2014) and In the Gulfs of Dream & Other Lovecraftian Tales (Dark Renaissance Books, 2015). His Lovecraftian novel, Witches in Dreamland, (also written with W. H. Pugmire) will be published by Hippocampus Press in October 2018. David’s horror fiction and poetry has appeared in magazines and anthologies including Fungi, Cyäegha, Weird Fiction Review, The Audient Void, Nightmare’s Realm, Forbidden Knowledge, Spectral Realms, and The Art Mephitic. He has a long history in the horror field, having published widely in the small press during the 1980s and ‘90s when he also produced three different Lovecraft fanzines. He left the horror field in the late 1990s but returned in 2012 with the ebook trilogy Electro-Thrall Zombies (collected as Dead Guys in Packards).