Another book I bought at one of the mini-cons. I do wish I’d notate where I buy these books. I’m guessing it was probably the Bendigo or Ballarat one. My guess is because it’s published by Screaming Banshee Press and I think one of those places is where I saw them.
This book is set in Iraq during the fight for ‘Iraqi Freedom’ in 2005. The US Recon Marines have been sent in. We see the horror of war through the eyes of a couple of different marines. We see how they go into houses, tying up the owner so they can use the house as they wish. With different sizes of guns, bullets and grenades it is truly horror. I often wonder why I read horror when war has been written about so well. And especially with this book as war and horror are combined.
The title of this book should say it all assuming I’ve actually read any Lovecraft. Sadly, I haven’t and part of me is regretting that, part of me is also regretting not looking at Lovecraft’s life before reading.
Not only does this book have the horror of war, but it also has the horror of creatures being summoned from another realm. The words have been written down phonetically in English letters then hidden in a book in the house I mentioned earlier. But there is nothing to indicate what the words do. And yes, someone reads a phrase and summons a creature which wrecks everything. So, you know, Lovecraftian creatures. I don’t remember the descriptions and if I’d bothered to read Lovecraft first I would probably have recognised them.
Lovecraft was a racist. All of his main characters seem to be white, male and other tropes that indicate wholesome. I got a lot of my information from this YouTuber, Overly Sarcastic Productions. The video was voiced way too fast and the text on screen was probably there for far less time than I could read. I could probably have slowed it down, but didn’t think of that and at 27:06 minutes I don’t want to add an extra amount of time to hear it properly. I have no idea what demographics the characters in this book were because I don’t pay attention, and I didn’t know I needed to do this in order to figure out some Lovecraftian racist nonsense.
While I was reading I did find I had issues with the jargon. I know military jargon has to be there in order to show authenticity, but I didn’t follow it. I would have been happy to have a glossary in the back so I could flip the pages and check that the words meant what I thought they meant. I probably could reach out to someone I know in the US Army to be certain, but it’d be nice for it to be in the book.
The amount of horror is possibly just on the border of what I should be reading in today’s climate. Anything more than this and I suspect I’d be having nightmares. But some of the creatures were used for good and some for not so good.
I did enjoy some of the exposition on Lovecraft in this book. It did help explain some of the similarities. I do stress again that I should have read some Lovecraft first. On the other hand, if I’d read Lovecraft then would I have bought this book…really not sure.
Some of Rose’s phrasing was just brilliant. I absolutely loved this sentence I found on page 41. ‘Outside, the hour grants no noise but the wind.’ Sometimes he used words that wouldn’t normally be used in that context, in this sentence it works really well. In other places the word looks a little odd. Here’s one example on page 121 that I’m not really sure if it sounds right. ‘A wartime surgeon; he is a man affixed to death and decay.’ The first sentence works so well because the word ‘grant’ harks back to an older time and the phrases that were spoken to bring the creatures were certainly from an older time. In the second sentence, the word ‘affixed’ sort of works. Yes, he’s a surgeon who’s seen war so is somewhat inured to death and decay, but the word ‘affixed’ just seems strange.
Anyway, I did find this well written despite the issues. Will I read more by Rose? I’ve no idea, my TBR pile is looking a little smaller than it did at the beginning of the year, but not by much. I’m definitely not contemplating buying any more books this month. If you like horror and Lovecraft then there’s a good chance you’ll enjoy this.
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