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The Noctuary: Pandemonium
Psychiatrist Dr. Desmond Carter had always believed that his former patient, author Simon Ryan, was dead.
But, when a bloodstained manuscript penned by Ryan arrives at his office, Desmond begins to doubt everything he thought he had known—not just about the troubled author's past, but his own sanity. Desmond seeks the truth. Instead, he discovers the wellspring of madness.
In Pandemonium , the sequel to his acclaimed 2011 novella The Noctuary , Greg Chapman drags you deeper into the nightmarish reality of the Dark Muses—creatures forged from the very darkness in our own souls.
The words contained within will drive you mad… and damn you to Hell .
" The Noctuary is a visceral, chilling read. Good stuff. Highly recommended." - Gene O'Neill, author of Frozen Shadows and Lethal Birds.
But, when a bloodstained manuscript penned by Ryan arrives at his office, Desmond begins to doubt everything he thought he had known—not just about the troubled author's past, but his own sanity. Desmond seeks the truth. Instead, he discovers the wellspring of madness.
In Pandemonium , the sequel to his acclaimed 2011 novella The Noctuary , Greg Chapman drags you deeper into the nightmarish reality of the Dark Muses—creatures forged from the very darkness in our own souls.
The words contained within will drive you mad… and damn you to Hell .
" The Noctuary is a visceral, chilling read. Good stuff. Highly recommended." - Gene O'Neill, author of Frozen Shadows and Lethal Birds.
264 pages, Paperback
Published December 1, 2017
5 people are currently reading
14 people want to read
About the author
Greg Chapman
102 books108 followersAustralian Shadows Award-winner***, two-time Bram Stoker Award nominee** and Ditmar Awards nominee*, Greg Chapman is a horror author and artist based in Queensland Australia.
Greg is the author of the novels Hollow House, The Noctuary: Pandemonium and Netherkind and the collections, Vaudeville and Other Nightmares, This Sublime Darkness and Other Dark Stories, Bleak Precision, Midnight Masquerade and Black Days and Bloody Nights. His short fiction has also appeared in numerous anthologies and magazines.
His artistic endeavours include designing book covers for various publishers in Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. He has been creating book covers and artwork for IFWG Publishing since 2013. The first graphic novel he illustrated, Witch Hunts: A Graphic History of the Burning Times, written by Rocky Wood and Lisa Morton, won the Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel category at the Bram Stoker Awards® in 2013.
Greg was also the President of the Australasian Horror Writers Association from 2017-2020.
*** Best Collected Work, for Midnight Masquerade 2023 Australian Shadows Awards
** Superior Achievement in a First Novel for Hollow House (2016) and
Superior Achievement in Short Fiction, for “The Book of Last Words” (2019)
* Best Artwork (internal illustrations in “Polyphemus”) 2024
Greg is the author of the novels Hollow House, The Noctuary: Pandemonium and Netherkind and the collections, Vaudeville and Other Nightmares, This Sublime Darkness and Other Dark Stories, Bleak Precision, Midnight Masquerade and Black Days and Bloody Nights. His short fiction has also appeared in numerous anthologies and magazines.
His artistic endeavours include designing book covers for various publishers in Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. He has been creating book covers and artwork for IFWG Publishing since 2013. The first graphic novel he illustrated, Witch Hunts: A Graphic History of the Burning Times, written by Rocky Wood and Lisa Morton, won the Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel category at the Bram Stoker Awards® in 2013.
Greg was also the President of the Australasian Horror Writers Association from 2017-2020.
*** Best Collected Work, for Midnight Masquerade 2023 Australian Shadows Awards
** Superior Achievement in a First Novel for Hollow House (2016) and
Superior Achievement in Short Fiction, for “The Book of Last Words” (2019)
* Best Artwork (internal illustrations in “Polyphemus”) 2024
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 3, 2018
Genre - Horror/Occult
Publication Date - December 2, 2017
Pages - 266
Format - Kindle
Stars - 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
First I would like to thank Pete Kahle, owner/publisher of Bloodshot Books and an author in his own right for gifting me a digital copy of this book.
In the beginning was the word, and the word was scribed in blood. Other readers who have reviewed “The Noctuary: Pandemonium” by Greg Chapman have compared it to a Clive Barker novel or as a homage to Clive Barker...well that’s a very high bar and I’m happy to say a bar that was met and at times surpassed. This is the sequel to “The Noctuary”, but don’t fret if you haven’t had the chance to read it as I had not because it is included in this edition. With a blend of the demonic and psychological horror this book is backed with gore, demons (Meknok and his eight dark muse disciples) and mind twisting situations. It’s hard hitting fast, paced and just a really great horror read. One of the best I've read to be sure. I look forward to many more reads by Greg.
Greg Chapman is the Bram Stoker Award-nominated® and Australian Shadows Award-nominated author of a number of novels, novellas and short stories.
From back cover (The Noctuary): Simon Ryan is Hell’s new scribe…the safety of our souls will depend on his every word.
Struggling writer Simon Ryan’s life has gone to Hell.
Shadows are pouring into his reality and his words are not his own anymore. He has been chosen to become a scribe for some of the worst creatures of the Underworld–the ones whose sole purpose is to torment human souls–The Dark Muses.
As Simon writes he falls deeper into the abyss and before long he has no sense of what is real. With the help of another scribe, old and mutilated, Simon comes to discover that his writing can mould people and places–that he can write things out of existence.
To become a scribe he has to pass a test and the Muses offer him a chance to rewrite his horrible past. All Simon has to decide is how the story ends.
From the back cover (The Noctuary: Pandemonium): Psychiatrist Dr. Desmond Carter had always believed that his former patient, author Simon Ryan, was dead.
But, when a bloodstained manuscript penned by Ryan arrives at his office, Desmond begins to doubt everything he thought he had known—not just about the troubled author's past, but his own sanity. Desmond seeks the truth. Instead, he discovers the wellspring of madness.
In Pandemonium, the sequel to his acclaimed 2011 novella The Noctuary, Greg Chapman drags you deeper into the nightmarish reality of the Dark Muses—creatures forged from the very darkness in our own souls.
The words contained within will drive you mad… and damn you to Hell.
Publication Date - December 2, 2017
Pages - 266
Format - Kindle
Stars - 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
First I would like to thank Pete Kahle, owner/publisher of Bloodshot Books and an author in his own right for gifting me a digital copy of this book.
In the beginning was the word, and the word was scribed in blood. Other readers who have reviewed “The Noctuary: Pandemonium” by Greg Chapman have compared it to a Clive Barker novel or as a homage to Clive Barker...well that’s a very high bar and I’m happy to say a bar that was met and at times surpassed. This is the sequel to “The Noctuary”, but don’t fret if you haven’t had the chance to read it as I had not because it is included in this edition. With a blend of the demonic and psychological horror this book is backed with gore, demons (Meknok and his eight dark muse disciples) and mind twisting situations. It’s hard hitting fast, paced and just a really great horror read. One of the best I've read to be sure. I look forward to many more reads by Greg.
Greg Chapman is the Bram Stoker Award-nominated® and Australian Shadows Award-nominated author of a number of novels, novellas and short stories.
From back cover (The Noctuary): Simon Ryan is Hell’s new scribe…the safety of our souls will depend on his every word.
Struggling writer Simon Ryan’s life has gone to Hell.
Shadows are pouring into his reality and his words are not his own anymore. He has been chosen to become a scribe for some of the worst creatures of the Underworld–the ones whose sole purpose is to torment human souls–The Dark Muses.
As Simon writes he falls deeper into the abyss and before long he has no sense of what is real. With the help of another scribe, old and mutilated, Simon comes to discover that his writing can mould people and places–that he can write things out of existence.
To become a scribe he has to pass a test and the Muses offer him a chance to rewrite his horrible past. All Simon has to decide is how the story ends.
From the back cover (The Noctuary: Pandemonium): Psychiatrist Dr. Desmond Carter had always believed that his former patient, author Simon Ryan, was dead.
But, when a bloodstained manuscript penned by Ryan arrives at his office, Desmond begins to doubt everything he thought he had known—not just about the troubled author's past, but his own sanity. Desmond seeks the truth. Instead, he discovers the wellspring of madness.
In Pandemonium, the sequel to his acclaimed 2011 novella The Noctuary, Greg Chapman drags you deeper into the nightmarish reality of the Dark Muses—creatures forged from the very darkness in our own souls.
The words contained within will drive you mad… and damn you to Hell.
December 13, 2017
Simon Ryan was a talented writer, he had a hard life and the dark muses in the underworld want to use him as a scribe. Now he writes words that aren’t his own and every horrifying sentence he writes comes to life in the real world. With his new power, he is given the chance to rewrite his dark past but some things can’t be changed and Simon goes missing.
A few years later, Psychiatrist, Dr. Desmond Carter finds a bloody manuscript from his former patient Simon, who he thought was dead. This sets off a chain reaction of events as the police are called along with Simon’s former agent Christina. Desmond finds out that if you write the manuscript in blood, what you write will come true, but at what cost? Now everything Desmond knew about himself and Simon is making him question his sanity and could lead to his damnation.
The Noctuary Pandemonium by Greg Chapman is an unapologetic horror novel. In the beginning, Greg describes the night as a shade of blood with people walking the street being stalked by their shadows. This is being described by someone who fears to lose his mind and he may be right. If this picture of darkness that Greg Chapman paints doesn’t sell you then this line will: “There is no finer art than the prose that terrifies! Fear is Primal!” With those words you know you are in for a gruesome read and the book doesn’t disappoint.
I love the concept here of muses from the underworld looking for someone to inspire darkness and destruction in humanity. What makes it interesting is how the people the muse chooses start to do it because they want to fix a problem. Good intentions don’t always lead to good results though and the chosen ones have to deal with the darkness that has always been inside them. The most interesting aspect to The Noctuary is that the spirits of the underworld aren’t really the bad guys, read it and you’ll understand.
There is a point in this novel where I had a lot of unanswered questions but all loose ends are tied up by the end. I loved the history behind the muses and how Hell is described almost as a living place. This book also gets into the idea of how what lies in the soul of man can be much darker than Hell and there is no escaping it. This book paints a bloody disturbing portrait that you will love if you’re a horror fan. The Noctuary Pandemonium is a dark thrill ride that will have you thinking harder about the consequences of every choice you make.
A few years later, Psychiatrist, Dr. Desmond Carter finds a bloody manuscript from his former patient Simon, who he thought was dead. This sets off a chain reaction of events as the police are called along with Simon’s former agent Christina. Desmond finds out that if you write the manuscript in blood, what you write will come true, but at what cost? Now everything Desmond knew about himself and Simon is making him question his sanity and could lead to his damnation.
The Noctuary Pandemonium by Greg Chapman is an unapologetic horror novel. In the beginning, Greg describes the night as a shade of blood with people walking the street being stalked by their shadows. This is being described by someone who fears to lose his mind and he may be right. If this picture of darkness that Greg Chapman paints doesn’t sell you then this line will: “There is no finer art than the prose that terrifies! Fear is Primal!” With those words you know you are in for a gruesome read and the book doesn’t disappoint.
I love the concept here of muses from the underworld looking for someone to inspire darkness and destruction in humanity. What makes it interesting is how the people the muse chooses start to do it because they want to fix a problem. Good intentions don’t always lead to good results though and the chosen ones have to deal with the darkness that has always been inside them. The most interesting aspect to The Noctuary is that the spirits of the underworld aren’t really the bad guys, read it and you’ll understand.
There is a point in this novel where I had a lot of unanswered questions but all loose ends are tied up by the end. I loved the history behind the muses and how Hell is described almost as a living place. This book also gets into the idea of how what lies in the soul of man can be much darker than Hell and there is no escaping it. This book paints a bloody disturbing portrait that you will love if you’re a horror fan. The Noctuary Pandemonium is a dark thrill ride that will have you thinking harder about the consequences of every choice you make.
June 2, 2019
Excellent pair of horror novellas including Noctuary and Noctuary: Pandemonium. Noctuary is the story of Simon Ryan whose horror stories draw the attention of Meknok, a demonic Dark Muse, who enables the writer to rewrite his own life causing unexpected outcomes. In Pandemonium, Ryan's psychiatrist, Dr. Desmond Carter, receives a bloodstained manuscript of the missing writer. Carter also falls under the spell of Meknok, sending his own world spiraling into insanity. Awesome read. Highly recommended.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews