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The Evil
Crippled, unable to move, Margal moves you instead, speaks to your mind, commands you to act. There are no doors you can lock to keep The Evil out, no barriers he cannot breach. He calls to those he needs, and they must obey, just as you must obey. The Evil will not be denied!
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First published November 1, 1981
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About the author
Hugh B. Cave
248 books34 followersHugh Barnett Cave was a prolific writer of pulp fiction who also excelled in other genres.
Sources differ as to when Cave sold his first story: some say it was while he still attended Brookline High School, others cite "Island Ordeal", written at age 19 in 1929 while still working for the vanity press.
In his early career he contributed to such pulp magazines as Astounding, Black Mask, and Weird Tales. By his own estimate, in the 1930s alone, he published roughly 800 short stories in nearly 100 periodicals under a number of pseudonyms. Of particular interest during this time was his series featuring an independent gentleman of courageous action and questionable morals called simply The Eel. These adventures appeared in the late 1930s and early 40s under the pen name Justin Case. Cave was also one of the most successful contributors to the weird menace or "shudder pulps" of the 1930s.
In 1943, drawing on his experience as a war reporter, he authored one of his most highly regarded novels, Long Were the Nights, telling of the first PT boats at Guadalcanal. He also wrote a number of other books on the war in the Pacific during this period.
During his post-war sojourn in Haiti, he became so familiar with the religion of Voodoo that he published Haiti: High Road to Adventure, a nonfiction work critically acclaimed as the "best report on voodoo in English." His Caribbean experiences led to his best-selling Voodoo-themed novel, The Cross On The Drum (1959), an interracial story in which a white Christian missionary falls in love with a black Voodoo priest's sister.
During this midpoint in his career Cave advanced his writing to the "slick" magazines, including Collier's, Family Circle, Ladies' Home Journal, Redbook, and the Saturday Evening Post. It was in this latter publication, in 1959, that "The Mission," his most popular short story, appeared—subsequently issued in hardcover by Doubleday, reprinted in textbooks, and translated into a number of languages.
But his career took a dip in the early 1970s. According to The Guardian, with the golden era of pulp fiction now in the past, Cave's "only regular market was writing romance for women's magazines." He was rediscovered, however, by Karl Edward Wagner, who published Murgunstrumm and Others, a horror story collection that won Cave the 1978 World Fantasy Award. Other collections followed and Cave also published new horror fiction.
His later career included the publication in the late 1970s and early 1980s of four successful fantasy novels: Legion of the Dead (1979), The Nebulon Horror (1980), The Evil (1981), and Shades of Evil (1982). Two other notable late works are Lucifer's Eye (1991) and The Mountains of Madness (2004). Moreover, Cave took naturally to the Internet, championing the e-book to such an extent that electronic versions of his stories can readily be purchased online.
Over his entire career he wrote more than 1,000 short stories in nearly all genres (though he is best remembered for his horror and crime pieces), approximately forty novels, and a notable body of nonfiction. He received the Phoenix Award as well as lifetime achievement awards from the International Horror Guild, the Horror Writers Association, and the World Fantasy Convention. (From Wikipedia.)
Used the pseudonyms John Starr and Justin Case
Sources differ as to when Cave sold his first story: some say it was while he still attended Brookline High School, others cite "Island Ordeal", written at age 19 in 1929 while still working for the vanity press.
In his early career he contributed to such pulp magazines as Astounding, Black Mask, and Weird Tales. By his own estimate, in the 1930s alone, he published roughly 800 short stories in nearly 100 periodicals under a number of pseudonyms. Of particular interest during this time was his series featuring an independent gentleman of courageous action and questionable morals called simply The Eel. These adventures appeared in the late 1930s and early 40s under the pen name Justin Case. Cave was also one of the most successful contributors to the weird menace or "shudder pulps" of the 1930s.
In 1943, drawing on his experience as a war reporter, he authored one of his most highly regarded novels, Long Were the Nights, telling of the first PT boats at Guadalcanal. He also wrote a number of other books on the war in the Pacific during this period.
During his post-war sojourn in Haiti, he became so familiar with the religion of Voodoo that he published Haiti: High Road to Adventure, a nonfiction work critically acclaimed as the "best report on voodoo in English." His Caribbean experiences led to his best-selling Voodoo-themed novel, The Cross On The Drum (1959), an interracial story in which a white Christian missionary falls in love with a black Voodoo priest's sister.
During this midpoint in his career Cave advanced his writing to the "slick" magazines, including Collier's, Family Circle, Ladies' Home Journal, Redbook, and the Saturday Evening Post. It was in this latter publication, in 1959, that "The Mission," his most popular short story, appeared—subsequently issued in hardcover by Doubleday, reprinted in textbooks, and translated into a number of languages.
But his career took a dip in the early 1970s. According to The Guardian, with the golden era of pulp fiction now in the past, Cave's "only regular market was writing romance for women's magazines." He was rediscovered, however, by Karl Edward Wagner, who published Murgunstrumm and Others, a horror story collection that won Cave the 1978 World Fantasy Award. Other collections followed and Cave also published new horror fiction.
His later career included the publication in the late 1970s and early 1980s of four successful fantasy novels: Legion of the Dead (1979), The Nebulon Horror (1980), The Evil (1981), and Shades of Evil (1982). Two other notable late works are Lucifer's Eye (1991) and The Mountains of Madness (2004). Moreover, Cave took naturally to the Internet, championing the e-book to such an extent that electronic versions of his stories can readily be purchased online.
Over his entire career he wrote more than 1,000 short stories in nearly all genres (though he is best remembered for his horror and crime pieces), approximately forty novels, and a notable body of nonfiction. He received the Phoenix Award as well as lifetime achievement awards from the International Horror Guild, the Horror Writers Association, and the World Fantasy Convention. (From Wikipedia.)
Used the pseudonyms John Starr and Justin Case
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 28, 2022
"The Evil" is not your everyday Paperback from Hell. This is a late-career novel by the legendary science fiction, fantasy, and horror writer Hugh B. Cave, perhaps best known for his weird fiction tales during the pulp era for numerous magazines. His most famous work may be the deliciously creepy vampire story "Murgunstrum," which I also have reviewed for Goodreads. After World War II, Cave spent a lot of time in Haiti researching voodoo, and from his real-life experiences, he published the nonfiction "Haiti--High Road to Adventure," as well as voodoo-based novels like "The Cross on the Drum" and this book that I'm discussing here.
The plot revolves around two groups of related people traveling to a remote mountainous region near the Dominican border. One is an agriculturalist trying to find a professor of philosophy who disappeared while on an expedition, and the other is a nurse trying to bring a little girl with amnesia back home to her village. They are to cross paths with a dangerous voodoo priest who rules these parts with the help of extraordinary powers. The result is a mishmash of genres resembling "Romancing the Stone" and "The Serpent and the Rainbow."
It was serendipitous that I read Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Bottle Imp" just before deciding to check this one out, as clearly Cave took some inspiration from the Stevenson story and even references it in the first third of the book. Life is funny that way.
"The Evil" certainly is an exercise in realism as much as it is 80's horror pop fiction. It is clear that Cave was intimately familiar with Haiti, its people, its culture, its language, and its potholes. The characters and settings are all painted with a vivid richness and with love. Never before have I read a novel that portrays everyday life in the modern Caribbean with such matter-of-fact sympathy despite the sensational and cliche subject matter. It makes for a joy to read, as you really feel transported to the nation's heartland as an everyday joe--hanging out with the locals, eating crispy but creamy fried malangas and good spicy goat stew--rather than as a tourist getting shit faced on the beach.
That being said, horror fans might find that the attention to detail and to character slows the progress of the action. The majority of the plot is simply people plodding down primitive roads, crossing treacherous mountain passes, and spending the night in the homes of various hospitable characters. A few supernatural perils are thrown at our protagonists along the way, but for the most part the novel is devoid of any real scares. There is certainly no gore or disturbing threats of violence. "The Evil" is primarily a love letter to a country and its people.
So if this doesn't sound like quite your thing, I still would recommend checking out Cave's extensive body of work. He continued to write and publish until he was about 90 years old, and old age never kept him from constantly innovating. He was even an early proponent of the e-book. Cave is certainly an influential literary treasure.
But if you are a paperback from hell collector and are looking for an entertaining and relaxing beach read, I encourage you to give this book a try.
The plot revolves around two groups of related people traveling to a remote mountainous region near the Dominican border. One is an agriculturalist trying to find a professor of philosophy who disappeared while on an expedition, and the other is a nurse trying to bring a little girl with amnesia back home to her village. They are to cross paths with a dangerous voodoo priest who rules these parts with the help of extraordinary powers. The result is a mishmash of genres resembling "Romancing the Stone" and "The Serpent and the Rainbow."
It was serendipitous that I read Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Bottle Imp" just before deciding to check this one out, as clearly Cave took some inspiration from the Stevenson story and even references it in the first third of the book. Life is funny that way.
"The Evil" certainly is an exercise in realism as much as it is 80's horror pop fiction. It is clear that Cave was intimately familiar with Haiti, its people, its culture, its language, and its potholes. The characters and settings are all painted with a vivid richness and with love. Never before have I read a novel that portrays everyday life in the modern Caribbean with such matter-of-fact sympathy despite the sensational and cliche subject matter. It makes for a joy to read, as you really feel transported to the nation's heartland as an everyday joe--hanging out with the locals, eating crispy but creamy fried malangas and good spicy goat stew--rather than as a tourist getting shit faced on the beach.
That being said, horror fans might find that the attention to detail and to character slows the progress of the action. The majority of the plot is simply people plodding down primitive roads, crossing treacherous mountain passes, and spending the night in the homes of various hospitable characters. A few supernatural perils are thrown at our protagonists along the way, but for the most part the novel is devoid of any real scares. There is certainly no gore or disturbing threats of violence. "The Evil" is primarily a love letter to a country and its people.
So if this doesn't sound like quite your thing, I still would recommend checking out Cave's extensive body of work. He continued to write and publish until he was about 90 years old, and old age never kept him from constantly innovating. He was even an early proponent of the e-book. Cave is certainly an influential literary treasure.
But if you are a paperback from hell collector and are looking for an entertaining and relaxing beach read, I encourage you to give this book a try.
March 30, 2023
I know Mr. Cave wrote this toward the end of his career, and he was mainly known outside of the horror genre, but The Evil is probably not the best introduction to his work. While well written and paced, and had voodoo has a major theme, this just was not scary, gory, or even very suspenseful. The only thing that kept me reading it was the depiction of Haiti, especially rural Haiti where most of the 'action' took place.
Our main protagonist, Sam, worked in Haiti for a few years helping farmers make the most with what they have; he is a doctor of horticulture at I presume the University of Vermont. On his tour there, he fell in love with an American nurse at a rural hospital, but she stayed on and he went back to the states. A few years later, he returns. Why? It turns out a fellow professor at Vermont 'had a thing' for ESP, etc., and wanted to research voodoo; after picking Sam's brain, away he went. Unfortunately, he seems to have disappeared and now his lovely daughter heads to Haiti to find him and Sam agrees to help...
Interesting set up, and Cave plays with a few story lines here, the nurse's tale in Haiti and Sam and company's quest to find her dad, and of course, some powerful voodoo priest also haunts the pages. Unlike most voodoo themed tales, Cave never even attempted to depict the nitty-gritty of voodoo and such, but made do with some oblique references to the 'gods' and ceremonies. Again, if it were not for the lovingly depicted rural Haiti, I probably would have put this down. Make no mistake-- The Evil reads nicely, but the love story between Sam and the nurse was a bit painful in its predictability as was the plot in general. If you are really into voodoo and Haiti, this might be worth a read; else, worth a pass. 2.5 stars, rounding up.
Our main protagonist, Sam, worked in Haiti for a few years helping farmers make the most with what they have; he is a doctor of horticulture at I presume the University of Vermont. On his tour there, he fell in love with an American nurse at a rural hospital, but she stayed on and he went back to the states. A few years later, he returns. Why? It turns out a fellow professor at Vermont 'had a thing' for ESP, etc., and wanted to research voodoo; after picking Sam's brain, away he went. Unfortunately, he seems to have disappeared and now his lovely daughter heads to Haiti to find him and Sam agrees to help...
Interesting set up, and Cave plays with a few story lines here, the nurse's tale in Haiti and Sam and company's quest to find her dad, and of course, some powerful voodoo priest also haunts the pages. Unlike most voodoo themed tales, Cave never even attempted to depict the nitty-gritty of voodoo and such, but made do with some oblique references to the 'gods' and ceremonies. Again, if it were not for the lovingly depicted rural Haiti, I probably would have put this down. Make no mistake-- The Evil reads nicely, but the love story between Sam and the nurse was a bit painful in its predictability as was the plot in general. If you are really into voodoo and Haiti, this might be worth a read; else, worth a pass. 2.5 stars, rounding up.
February 7, 2010
This is probably my favorite of the books by Hugh B. Cave that I have read. He really evokes the wonders and mysteries of Haiti -- you can tell there is a deep, abiding love of the Caribbean and its wonders -- both dark and beautiful -- here. Like most of his stories, I find the plot lacks a little something. Perhaps I just expect a touch more traditional Gothic than I get. Cave wrote many stories over a period of many years and was World Fantasy Award Winner. He also wrote cheesy sci-fi. I haven't read a Cave in many years; but I as I remember, I usually leave his stories or books scratching my head thinking it could've been better. And yet I am irresistably drawn to read them because of their atmsophere, dark and mystical with the Caribbean heat, and yet carrying the hope of the intense tropical sunshine.
February 26, 2013
Although I enjoyed the author's descriptive writing style I didn't think the book was that creepy even though it has zombies in it.
April 20, 2015
Not bad but very predictable
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews