Lonely Power Polls

Almost more of a poem, Azathoth is I think the shortest Lovecraft piece I’ve read. Reminding me a bit of Memory not just in length but in theme, Azathoth seems to describe a time where “wonder went out of the minds of men;” and a solo unnamed figure (are they supposed to be Azathoth perhaps??) lives a strange meagre life in some form of city apartment that overlooks the windows of other…

I quite like my Chuck Wendig so was very happy to pick up an ARC copy of The Calamities on Netgalley. For the most part this book was right up my alley – sinister supernatural horror mixed with an Illuminati-like mob family and a none-too innocent protagonist trying to make sense of it all. And the story certainly starts with a bang, while initially Wendig doesn’t shove too much lore and magic…

The inspiration for this post was a random Reddit threat (which is a red flag in itself 😅) Brooks is one of the most tragic characters in cinema. byu/0Layscheetoskurkure0 inFIlm For a bit of backstory (I was going to assume that everyone knows the plot of Shawshank Redemption but that might be showing my age a bit), Shawshank Redemption is a relatively unread novella by Stephen King, adapted…

What the Moon Brings begins with probably my most favourite opener in literature: “I hate the Moon – I am Afraid of it-” But its actually the strange depth of the rest of the line that I like: “for when it shines on certain scenes familiar and loved it sometimes makes them unfamiliar and hideous.“ Obviously in context things can look scary at night time – but the deeper subtext, the idea that…

So just read Hypnos – and its uh…. surprisingly horny? No, not that one Don’t get me wrong – I know there can be a lot of interesting interpretations of Cosmic Horror, but let me share some of the quotes from this story and you can make your own mind up. BTW the context is that MC opens the story lamenting that death is preferable to dreams, because death you don’t have to come back – a pretty…

“By leave of the Judge, I sentence you to-“ Harry didn’t even hear the word ‘life.’ He would recall his ear popping and a sharp ringing, like the judge had done something to him immediately. Once he’d grasped what had happened, Harry started trying to talk to his lawyers and was met with monosyllabic answers and the clack of brief cases closing. “But I thought the Death Penalty was on the…

The Other Gods is a brief but surprisingly dense work, directly tied into the series through mentions of Kadath and the Cats of Ulthar. The first few paragraphs are simply lore describing how the Gods once hung out on mountains but gradually retreated higher and higher to avoid humans (global warming anyone?) Eventually buggering off to Kadath… but sometimes getting homesick and returning for a…

I received this book directly from the author reaching out for ARC reviews (although I awkwardly confess to not finishing the book in ‘advance’ of its release) still thankful for the opportunity though, as overthinking is 100% something I need to work on 😅 The Relief of Not Knowing is essentially a treatise against overthinking, not quite a step by step guide, more an eloquent piece of prose…

Arguably my favourite Futurama moment (next to STINKPIG) The Outsider is a short but sweet piece, introduced to a lonely protagonist we are stuck in a moldy castle surrounded by an impenetrable forest. There is little purpose in the narrator’s life but to build up courage to explore the most rickety and tallest tower of all the castle. After a visceral climb, the narrator is surprised to find a…

The Moon-Bog reads as a more classical horror story, with a stiff dose of Lovecraft closer to the end. In the story an unnamed Narrator tells of ‘Denys Barry’ an old friend who has made a killing in the U.S. and come back to develop the lands of his ancestors, a Kilderry Bog. The narrator comes to visit as Barry is midst a project to drain the whole thing, but complains of his workers and…

I was going to start this review by saying “The Quest of Iranon is a strange one” and then I was like who am I kidding? Something that stands out about Iranon is its set firmly in the Dreamlands, no incursions or visits to Earth in this one. The MC in question Iranon is introduced mid-quest;, visiting the grim town of Teloth the youth Iranon comes with songs and story about a far city he can…

If you’re keeping up with my posts you’ll know that I recently(?) chatted about my nostalgia dive into Transformers, the OG comic. It was an absolutely blast jumping back into a series that I’d only really touched on every other issue, and thusly had big gaps in my lore of the story – there is something to be said about returning to stories like that. But I’m here to (100%) nostalgia wax, I…

I seem to have potentially crazy anti-social protagonists in my algorithm or something. Not that I’m complaining by Alligator Bones is another one with an MC with a suspicious past and non many social connections. This time we’re on an Alligator farm (well empire of farms really) with ‘Dart’ having been recently reunited with her Grandmother ‘Gazzie.’ The vibe is highly untrustworthy with Gazzie…

So after a Previous Post all about The Boys in Comic form we finally have the finale of the TV show! If this is somehow the first piece of online media you’ve seen about it – the ending has been received somewhat controversially…. Oi, SPOILERS AHEAD I won’t rehash all my past post (although its interesting that some people are complaining about the same thematic worries I was) but I will recap…

A very very short piece by Lovecraft, I initially was a little cynical and let down – on first brush it sounded like an undercooked rehash of Randolph Carter’s Dream Quests but after a couple of reads I started to see the poetry of this one. “When the last days were upon me” Described by an unknown narrator with just enough ambiguity to question it, we hear about MC’s solace in dreams. It…

For the past few years I’ve been avoiding Kickstarter after being burned a few too many times (giving side-eye to YOU Darkest Dungeon Board Game) but last year I backed one particular project: The entire friggin Transformers comic book series!! This is especially nostalgic for me – not just having grown up with Transformers being a big deal, but that my late Grandfather had a wee collection of…

Nyarlathotep . . . the crawling chaos . . . I am the last . . . I will tell the audient void. . . . It’s actually a little hard to summarize Nyarlathotep, perhaps non-ironically. The tale is describes as a ‘prose-poem’ and while short does have a (even moreso than typcial Lovecraft) vagueness to it that defies clarity. The first paragraph begins with an unnamed narrator telling us “I do not…