Weird Fiction discussion

A blurb:

"To Rouse Leviathan by Matt Cardin is a collection of short fiction that delves into the shadowy side of religious and spiritual experience. The stories are inspired by H.P. Lovecraft, Thomas Ligotti, and other masters of cosmic horror, exploring the existential terror we feel in a cosmos that may be hostile to our species. The collection includes a novella co-written with Mark McLaughlin and has been revised from its original appearances. Cardin's work has been praised for its theological and occult ideas grounded in real-world practices, and it has been nominated for the World Fantasy Award and long-listed for the Bram Stoker Award. The book is available in Kindle Edition and is highly recommended for those who enjoy interrogating the shadow of faith."

Because religion is more a part of this month's group read than it has been for any other so far, I felt it important to warn people of that fact up front here and in the masthead. I get it -- many people are either bored or offended (or both) by subjects that touch on the religious. If that's you, see you next month! As a churchgoing Christian, the fact this collection asks theological questions bothers me personally not in the least. On the other hand, I never look for religion directly in my fiction reading. Having browsed the Christian Fiction section of my local library let's just say the YA section looks downright edgy in comparison to the insipidity I saw. As if there were anything insipid about gnashing of teeth, lakes of fire, casting out demons, or the central act of suffering that establishes the new covenant. Matt Cardin's work looks anything but tame. So that makes me 100% in, even if I didn't nominate or vote for it. I just purchased the book via Kindle for six entire dollars. Let's begin our reading today.

I have begun my read of this 376-page collection. The 16 stories are all short stories by Matt Cardin (unless otherwise noted):

An Abhorrence to All Flesh (1999) novelette
Notes of a Mad Copyist (1999)
The Basement Theater (2000)
If It Had Eyes (2002)
Judas of the Infinite (2002) novelette
Teeth (1998) novelette
The Stars Shine Without Me (2002)
Desert Places (2006) novelette
Blackbrain Dwarf (2010)
Nightmares, Imported and Domestic (2006) novelette with Mark McLaughlin
The Devil and One Lump (2010)
The God of Foulness (2002) novella
Chimeras & Grotesqueries (2010)
Prometheus Possessed (2012)
The New Pauline Corpus (2010)
A Cherished Place at the Center of His Plans (2019) novelette with Mark McLaughlin

An Abhorrence to All Flesh (1999) novelette ★★★1/2

I was concerned that in my earlier description of this collection I may have overbilled its religious nature and unnecessarily turned some people off reading it. I am glad now to see that is not the case. This story is an example of a sub-genre I would (and will) call cosmic christian horror. This is my first reading in this sub-genre, one I didn't even know existed until this meeting with Matt Cardin's work.

This is a great story to start with, which I suspect is probably a rewriting of Cardin's first story written in this genre. ISFDB notes the following about this collection, the third of Cardin's three so far: Includes the contents of the earlier collections "Divinations of the Deep" (2002) and "Dark Awakenings" (2010). According to the publisher, "several of the tales have been substantially revised from their original appearances."

Cardin's take on all this in his notes before the first story sees the Void from which the world was created as preexisting even God since God created the world from it. In all seriousness, the logic doesn't necessarily fit. Why can't God have come before the Void? But okay, it's a neat starting premise, nevertheless. Cardin derives his source of cosmic horror from the unknowability of the Void.

The story started in a fun way. The protagonist, Todd Whitman, is invited to a party by his old college buddy, Darby Cole. A staple of Darby's parties is that theological debates will ensue, therefore Todd prepares by doing some reading beforehand. But this party is different. It's small, just a handful of guests, and no elaborate debates get going, just an introduction to the other guests. One couple from among the guests is a member of an odd church called the Temple of Jehovah. They say they are a reformation of the church as it was originally intended to be. A debate ensues on what that actually means and what the role of creating flesh plays in all of it. Creating flesh can be corrupted to create horror, the kind of cosmic horror the story inevitably gets to.

I found the story and party conversation interesting enough. It was not particularly suspenseful or revelatory. Still, I am curious to see where Cardin goes from this starting basis in the subsequent stories in this collection.

Notes of a Mad Copyist (1999) ★★★★1/2

One of the things I enjoy about reading fiction is being transported to unfamiliar settings. This allows me to encounter people and places I never think about much. The setting for this story is some monastery before the invention of the printing press in the 1400s. Monks are copying passages of the Bible by hand. What would that have actually been like? How did a monk's daily life go? What was his relationship like with the other monks? His boss, the guy who ran the monastery? What was his attitude about his work? Did he like sitting there copying the Bible by hand all day? This story provides an answer to all these questions. I loved it for that alone.

But that's not all that's going on. What if you're a monk supposed to be copying the Bible, but suddenly you feel inspiration and start writing your own material rather than just copying. Will others accept that, or burn you for heresy? You'll have to read this story if you want to find out.

I also really liked how Cardin expanded on his Void as chaos agent idea in this story. It's a really neat concept because it doesn't have that strong an underpinning in the Bible. Cardin can make the nature of this Void whatever he wants it to be in service of his stories. I'm interested to see where he takes this concept, and this story begins to provide an answer.

The Basement Theater (2000) ★★★

Oh my, After such a strong start, what happened here? This very short story is obscure. It's one of those stories that goes on for longer than expected without explanaion and then reveals itself with a twist at the end. I think the point is that self-awareness, or being able to see Plato's cave and the shadows on the wall for what they are, is less of a good thing than one might think. I could be wrong though. If that's the point of this story, it should be less obscure. Maybe Cardin's message or intentions in this story will be clearer to you than they were to me.

I can not locate November 2025 Group Read (Morbid Tales) to put my review there. The list https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... also is missing all the reads of 2025 so far.

Don't know what to say about the inability to locate Crisp's collection Morbid Tales. I got my copy via Kindle from Amazon. New and used copies also exist. The meta search engine bookfinder dot com is your best friend in that case.

Thanks for the reminder to update the reading list. I have added all our 2025 group reads now.

I meant the discussion thread. :) Nevermind, I found it, but I had to scroll all the way down on the main group page to find "More discussions...", click there, then again scroll down all the way to the bottom to find the thread. A bit long way to go for a previous month's group read thread. I would advise restructuring discussion page to keep recent group reads/discussions on top instead of them dissappearing in a bottomless pit once the month read is over. ;)

Romuald wrote: "I meant the discussion thread. :) Nevermind, I found it, but I had to scroll all the way down on the main group page to find "More discussions...", click there, then again scroll down all the way t..."

I actually agree with this :)

Okay. I did some file rearranging. I hope that helps reduce the clutter so we can more easily access the messages we most want to see, which I also moved closer to the top. I changed my mind about The Twilight Zone stuff I was going to start. We're starting a non-fiction group read in two days. Two things going on is as much as I want to handle.

The Basement Theater ★★★1/2
I reread this and get it better know. I think this is one of those protagonist dies, goes to hell, and doesn't realize what has happened type stories. Cardin is a bit too subtle here because it took me a second read to figure that out. The director of the basement theater has some unusual expectations of the protagonist nevertheless.

If It Had Eyes ★★★★
This is a stronger story even if shorter. I liked how the fog absorbed the unnamed protagonist, and I almost always like stories set in taverns. I give Cardin a lot of credit for originality with this one, and like how he kept it weird fiction by explaining virtually none of the how this happens.

Judas of the Infinite ★★★1/2
A person of faith learns to his surprise that God is not as supreme as he was always led to believe He was.

That finishes the stories in Part One (of three) in this collection. I must say I am really enjoying this so far. It's certainly well written, not flashy very often, just solid and competent. About the same level as Crispin's in my opinion. This is my first sampling of a sub-genre I would call christian cosmic horror, as I indicated before. Therefore, I am enjoying it partly for novelty's sake.

With all of these stories, Cardin is constantly tying the horror back to his concept of the void God creates the Earth from being prior to and therefore more powerful than God. Cardin can also make the void be anything he wants it to be, giving us a natural field for cosmic horror. It's a cool concept, but will it sustain an entire story collection?

In a way, I think it a shame Cardin is limiting himself this way. There's plenty of other concepts in the Bible, especially in the two end books, Genesis and Revelation, that one can generate some decent weird fiction from. For example, I'd explore these beings in we know nothing of called The Nephilim in Genesis 6:1-4, described as the offspring of the "sons of God" and "daughters of men." They are often interpreted as mysterious beings or giants, representing a significant moral and spiritual decline in humanity, but one can do anything with them.

Anyhoo, looking forward to reading Part II this weekend.

Teeth ★★★★

The strongest story of the collection so far, and maybe the longest. The protagonist has a college friend named Marco who lures him into a dangerous dimension through academic philosophy (Plotinus, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche) rather than religion this time. I majored in philosophy (and math) for a time in my early 20s, so I quite enjoyed the references and the juxtaposing of Lovecraft against them, bringing them all into a fascinating horror story as the protagonist loses touch. This is all classic, Lovecraftian cosmic horror. Cardin's not breaking new ground here. Good thing I like this genre so much! And it was nice to get some relief from religion, Bible quotes, and the void. My only two criticisms of the story is it went on a little longer than it needed to, and more scenes with dialog between the characters than there were would have enhanced the story even more.

The Stars Shine Without Me ★★★★

This is a wonderful short story using a well-traveled trope. The protagonist works for a large company but does not know what he does or what his purpose is. He just doodles all day, puts in the required time, and collects a paycheck. Then one day he is summoned in for a meeting with the company boss. However, you predict that meeting might go from this introduction to the story I have just provided, I bet you're mistaken. This went in a completely unpredictable but very fun direction.

Desert Places ★★★★1/2

This novelette is my favorite piece in the collection so far. It's a lovers' triangle story. I love, love, love these kinds of stories generally, for some weird reason. The happily married couple has a crisis and invites the losing third leg to join them at the hospital, pulling him away from his archaeological dig in Utah.

We have read at least two other triangle stories during 2025 that start from largely the same premise as this one. All three of them went in wildly different directions. In the most recent triangle story of this type we read, the couple needed the protagonist to help fight off the menace. This one is not that; it is the most surprising and unexpected of the three.

I really like the sophisticated way Cardin writes relationships in this story. Honestly, until now I didn't know he had it in him to do so. His stories so far have had more plot and atmosphere, less scene and drama. I like scene and drama more, hence my rating of this story. This one has particularly strong dialogue.

By the way, all the Christian sub-genre stories are in the first part only. This second part just has pure weird genre stories. I think the material is stronger for the shift, not that I didn't enjoy the first part too.

It looks like so far you are enjoying the book, Dan.
I am a little late with getting started with the book, but I should be done with it by the middle of January, I think.
I am also in favour of posting a final review only, unless specific thoughts for discussion arise - that's why not much is heard from me during the actual reading process.

But... I must say that opening the book with this quote was a good move:
"There is here involved [in the phenomenon of weird supernatural horror fiction] a psychological pattern or tradition as real and as deeply grounded in mental experience as any other pattern or tradition of mankind; coeval with the religious feeling and closely related to many aspects of it." (H.P. Lovecraft "Supernatural Horror in Literature", 1927)