All Reviews by C. Alan Loewen

The Place of the Lion

by Charles Williams

Charles Walter Stansby Williams (1886 – 1945) was a British poet, novelist, theologian, literary critic, and a member of the Inklings which put him in intimate contact with many prominent authors of his day.

Though a prolific writer of essays and poems, Williams is best known today for his seven novels, published from 1930 to 1945.

Considered by many to be supernatural fantasies set in modern day, the novels are not to be considered light reading. One does not read Williams as much as invest in him. Because of his literary depth, his writings have had a profound effect on many authors, notably C.S. Lewis, T. S. Eliot, W.H. Auden, and Tim Powers.

In The Place of the Lion (1931), Platonic archetypes begin to appear throughout England wreaking havoc and death as unsuspecting humanity attempts to deal with the manifestations and their spreading influence.

Readers who are willing to work at reading instead of being spoon-fed by the author will find a veritable banquet in the pages of any Charles Williams novel.

Craig Alan Loewen
http://literary-equine.livejournal.com/

The Calvinistic Doctrine of Predestination Examined and Refuted

by Francis Hodgson

Christianity, like many other religions, is divided into sects that, though they all hold to basic core beliefs they all agree to, differ widely in other specifics. One such arena is the ongoing debate between Calvinists (followers of the teachings of John Calvin who believe that God's sovereignty is so great that humanity has no free will) to Arminians (followers of the teachings of John Arminius who taught that though God is sovereign, he allows humanity to exercise free will, especially in the arena of choosing for or against the offer of salvation).

The Calvinistic Doctrine of Predestination Examined and Refuted, by Francis Hodgson (1781-1852) is one of the best books I have ever read refuting Calvinism. His arguments appeal to sound logic and he quotes extensively from well-known Calvinists of his day making sure the reader knows what he is arguing against.

However, the book suffers from a complaint very common to Arminians in that Hodgson spends little time refuting the determinism, fatalism, and caste system of Calvinism using Scripture itself.

This is not, as Calvinists maintain, because Arminians cannot back up their beliefs with Holy Writ, but that Arminians believe that God and Christian theology is based on the ability of people to comprehend logically the simple teachings of Scripture and interpret it from simple, sound reason.

Calvinists maintain that the seeming contradiction between God's sovereignty and Scripture's appeals to the free will of humanity cannot be understood by humanity and that the paradox is an antinomy, a contradiction or opposition between two laws or rules.

It is evident the tensions between the two camps have not been settled by Hodson's brilliant defense (at least in this reviewer's opinion), but readers interested in the debate will do well to start here.

The Go-Getter

by Peter B. Kyne

The Go-Getter by Peter B. Kyne (1880-1957) was a classic in its day having sold over 500,000 copies since it was first published by William Randolph Hearst in 1921.

The tale is quite dated in atmosphere and language, but the philosophy behind it is timeless.

Cappy Ricks, a character from a series Kyne wrote from 1916 to 1935, is now partially retired from Rick's Logging & Lumbering Company. Cappy is approached by Bill Peck, a disabled World War I, for a job so Cappy puts him to the test.

Read side-by-aide with Elbert Hubbard'sA Message to Garcia, also available from ManyBooks.Net, the story of tenaciousness and determination in the face of difficulty is highly motivating.

The Familiar

by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

The Familiar by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu was part of an anthology entitled In a Glass Darkly, a collection of tales all sharing the theme as being posthumous papers of the occult detective Dr. Martin Hesselius.

The collection includes:

How to Read the Crystal

by Walter Gorn Old

How to Read the Crystal is one of several occult treatises written by Walter Gorn Old (1864-1929), the pseudonym of Walter Richard Old who also wrote under the name, Sepharial.

Old is best known for his works on using astrology to predict events on the stock market and horse racing.

In How to Read the Crystal, Old attempts to teach the reader how to use any type of reflective device such as a crystal ball, mirror, or dish of water to divine the past, present, and future.

This reviewer freely confesses skepticism concerning such activity, using such works as Old's as nothing more than resource material for writing his own fantasy stories.

In essence, he is teaching self-hypnotism where the viewer sees symbols within the reflective surface that are subjectively interpreted. In the process, he relates stories and experiences of seers and also advertises the best places to buy crystal balls.

The author is also kind enough to extend a warning to the new student about symptoms which they may experience as they indulge in reading the crystal ball:

Loss of memory, hysteria, absentmindedness, unconscious utterance of one's thoughts, illusions and hallucinations, irritability, indifference to one's surroundings, and similar perversions, are among the products of the newly-evolved psychic faculty.

Caveat emptor.

Alien Within

by Richard Allen

Richard J. Allen’s Alien Within is a story of his life as he endured a lonely childhood only to discover he was a “Star Seed” and an alien and the path that the discovery led him to.

As a reviewer, I have found Alien Within a hard book to critique. I have finally come to the decision not to critique the worldview expressed within the book’s pages, but the technical aspects of the work from the viewpoint or an avid reader and a published writer.

Technically, Alien Within is a train wreck and shows the worst excesses of self-publishing. Typographical errors are rife, grammar mistakes are everywhere, and the repetition of the main points is beaten into the reader with all the subtlety of a crowbar.

In the first chapter you quickly learn that the writer is a lonely person, is very shy, one who loved the night sky, but was afraid of the dark, and has a deep animosity toward institutionalized religion and society as a whole. You will be told this and other factoids again, and again, and again, and again until you realize that Alien Within is not an autobiography.

It is a therapeutic journal.

If not, then Alien Within is nothing more than The Eye of Argon for the New Age set, but as a therapeutic journal, the work is only of interest to voyeurs and those who work within the mental health field.

Nonetheless, therapeutic journals are private works and should never be released to the public. For this reviewer, the quality of the work is so poor that the story of Allen’s life has only alienated me (pun unintended) from his main points and message.

Two Thousand Miles Below

by Charles Willard Diffin

There is very little information about Charles Willard Diffin (1884-1966) out there, except that he was a prolific author of science fiction pulps.

Two Thousand Miles Below would have been worthy of a 1950's adventure film about two men who attempt to tap into the geothermal power of the Earth only to find that the Earth is hollow and occupied. And not everybody down there is friendly.

Though its science is dated, if you enjoy pulp fiction as I do with its bigger-than-life plots, its heroic, muscular men, and where every woman is beautiful and desirable, this is an enjoyable diversion.

--
Craig Alan Loewen
http://literary-equine.livejournal.com/

The Rosicrucian Mysteries

by Max Heindel

Max Heindel (1865-1919) was a Christian occultist, astrologer, and mystic. In 1907, Heindel claims he was visited by a spiritual being that revealed to him a number of mystical truths and eventually Heindel began an organization called The Rosicrucian Fellowship in California.

The Rosicrucian Mysteries is a condensation of esoteric Christianity as understood by Heindel. Based much on a medieval understanding of life and the cosmos, Heindel expresses some interesting beliefs such as Uranus not being an actual part of our solar system and that an atom in the left ventricle of the heart is a recording device that is played back after our death (a statement made before heart transplants would have put this dogma into serious question).

In the book, Heindel promotes strict vegetarianism, the abolition of capital punishment, and the abolition of corporal punishment in the raising of children.

However, Heindel suffers from a total misunderstanding of basic Christianity, interpreting the statements of the New Testament gospels without the vaguest understanding of the cultural milieu and the world view in which those statement were made.

The result is a Christian viewpoint that is more Gnostic than orthodox.

His Robot Girlfriend

by Wesley Allison

Man buys robot. Man falls in love with robot. They live happily ever after.

There are two types of books: character-driven and plot-driven. Allison's His Robot Girlfriend is an example of the former.

Much of nothing happens in the story. There is a hint of intrigue, an aroma of conflict, a lot of sensuality referred to but not, thank heaven, described blow-by-blow which would make this simply bad porn. Basically the first sentence of the review is the novella in its entirety.

The dialogue is written well, which is a plus for works put out into free domain. The character of Mike Smith is rather well fleshed out though Patience remains ... well, a robot and doesn't have much of a personality as she is basically a Gal Friday with sexual services attached. The settings are intriguing. It is interesting to see what of our culture the author believes will survive in the near future, and and as credit to the author's craft, I did read the novella in its entirety.

However, reviewers are as varied as wildflowers in a meadow. Personally, I like a strong, well-crafted plot with intriguing lines of conflict, no matter how subtle or blatant they may be. If you like just character vignettes and what people may do in the privacy of their homes with a novel toy, then this might just be your five-star story.

The Celestial Omnibus

by E.M. Forster

The Celestial Omnibus and Other Stories was written n 1911 by Edward Morgan Forster (1879 – 1970), an English novelist, short story writer, essayist and librettist.

The best way to enjoy these stories is like that of an experienced traveler to foreign lands. The mature wanderer knows that you cannot demand the country change itself for you, but that one must adapt to the country to discover its riches and wonders. True enjoyment takes work.

There truly are riches and wonders in this collection of six short stories, but to appreciate their essence, one is going to have to give up the hard boiled cynicism of the 21st century and embrace the romance, mystery, and pure wonder of fin de siècle Great Britain. The mature reader who will let Forster speak for himself is surely in for a treat. In these tales you will meet a spoiled young man whose life is changed by a visit from an ancient god (The Story of a Panic), question whether life is a rat race or maybe something more (The Other Side of the Hedge). If you are willing to pay for the ticket, you'll visit a land where the works of great authors (if not the authors themselves) have a Heaven all their own (The Celestial Omnibus) and that classic myths can be repeated again and again (Other Kingdom) to great tragic effect. You'll also meet an irreverent faun who becomes the best friend of a reverent clergyman (The Curate's Friend) and discover that the call to wonder can be found in the strangest places (The Road from Colonus) as well as the price that must be paid to ignore it.

So pack your bags and get ready for a trip. The ticket is free, but if you truly have a soul that is sensitive to what C. S. Lewis called the numinous, like all good travelers, you may bring back more from the trip than what you left with.

In the Fog

by Richard Harding Davis

In the Fog was written by Richard Harding Davis (1864—1916), a popular writer of fiction and drama in turn-of-the-century Great Britain.

In the tale, members of The Grill, a highly prestigious and private club decide to tell a round robin mystery in an attempt to stop one of their members from reporting to the House where he would play an important role in passing an unpopular bill. As he is addicted to penny dreadfuls and vulgar mysteries, the temptation to delay his trip to the House to hear the story unfold may be irresistible.

Spirit Island

by Henry Toke Munn

Henry Toke Munn (1864-1952) was by nature an adventurer and his writings demonstrate his love for Canada and the Arctic, his respect for the native Inuit's, and his love of a good yarn.

Spirit island is a short read about a man hired to find deposits of valuable ores in the Arctic Region. Taking along three Eskimos, their wives and one young boy, they end up at the Spirit Island of the title where they are mysteriously attacked at night. As the body count rises, the identity of their attackers and their flight to survive makes for a good pulp fiction read.

Sielanka: An Idyll

by Henryk Sienkiewicz

Henryk Adam Aleksander Pius Sienkiewicz (1846–1916) was a Polish journalist and Nobel Prize-winning novelist. He was one of the most popular Polish writers at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, and received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1905 for his "outstanding merits as an epic writer."

Modern readers are not going to enjoy much of Sielanka: An Idyll as it is a product of another time when life was lived at an easygoing, predictable pace instead of gobbled up as life is lived today.

A true idyll, this work is a pastoral poem in prose, a rustic picture painted in words rather than oils.

Written during a time when God was in His heaven and all was right with those not saddled with crime and guilt, the two stories deal with young lovers, the first a young Polish boy and girl deep within a Polish forest.

The sudden jump to Anaheim, California creates a sudden disconnect until the theme once again asserts itself of two young children living out their lives by working in a circus run by a cruel ringmaster.

Most notable is this reviewer discovered within this word picture a tale within a tale that sounds very familiar to lovers of children's storybooks. Though it could be a coincidence, it is possible that Margaret Wise Brown found her inspiration for The Runaway Bunny first within the pages of Sielanka.

Child-Life in Japan and Japanese Child Stories

by Matilda Chaplin Ayrton

One of the challenges in writing reviews for ManyBooks.net is chasing down references to obscure authors and resurrecting them from the dead.

Matilda Chaplin Ayrton (1846-1883) was a British physician, one of the earliest women to become a doctor. She spent her life pioneering the cause of women in medicine. She studied at London Medical College for Women, the University of Edinburgh and the University of Paris. She married William Edward Ayrton (1847-1908), in 1872. Their marriage had taken place while William was on home leave from India and Matilda was involved in the Edinburgh Seven campaign to open medical education to women. William was appointed to a professorship at a College in Japan, where Matilda followed. She wrote several books on Japan, before returning to England where she died, aged 37.

Her book, Child-Life in Japan and Japanese Child Stories was written for English children and later adapted for an American child audience. This is the version available here.

The book gives an interesting look into mid-19th century Japan and tells a few Japanese fairy tales, but through time it has been superseded by better books that are more detailed and with less of a English colonial mindset.

Is civilization a disease?

by Stanton Coit

Stanton Coit’s essay Is Civilization A Disease? first appeared in 1917 as part of the Barbara Weinstock Lectures on The Morals of Trade and delivered at the University of California.

It is difficult to boil Coit’s philosophy down to a simple soundbite, but if I may try, Coit believed that civilization was defined as the exercise of power of the mighty few over the weaker many. This state of affairs came about by the discovery, believe it or not, first of speech, followed by the discovery of fire, arrows, earthenware, the domestication of animals, and finally, the smelting of iron.

Now Coit was not alone in his belief that humanity’s breakthrough in walking upright and speech was the downfall of the species. Some years previously, Edward Carpenter (1844-1929) wrote Civilization: Its Cause and Cure (also available on ManyBooks.net) which advised people to return to nature by becoming the 19th century versions of sandal-weaving, philosophy-spouting hippies.

Coit believed that once people had tasted civilization, it was impossible to turn back the clock like Carpenter desired to do. Therefore, the entire world was to follow the example of the United States that promoted the equality of humanity regardless of gender, race, creed, or personal wealth. However, to make everything even better, the distribution of wealth, the ethical operation of trade and commerce, should be conducted by elected men and women who, while in office, were given absolute power including the use of eugenics to make sure the world population never grew beyond a certain number and that genetic undesirables were never given a chance to bear children.

Sitting in the fading first decade of the 21st century, today’s readers will be anywhere from amazed to appalled at Coit’s misplaced idealism, but first it is important to understand that he writes after the end of the first World War. Born in 1857, Coit died in 1944 at the age of 87, in the closing years of World War II, and this reviewer especially is interested if his religious humanism survived the horrors of Nazism and the deaths of millions of people, or, heaven forbid, he would have found in the horrors of the Nazi death camps his own ultimate solution to the disease of civilization.

Camping with President Roosevelt

by John Burroughs

John Burroughs (1837-1921) was a prolific essayist and American naturalist. At the age of 69, he traveled to Yosemite with President Theodore Roosevelt and recorded his experiences and impressions in this short essay.

Though the accounting of the wildlife is fascinating,. even more fascinating is Burroughs impressions of Theodore Roosevelt.

For this particular reviewer, this adds great value to the book as though I disagree with some of Roosevelt's political views, the man was certainly one of the greatest lights of the 20th century. A sickly lad who grew up into both wealth and tragedy (his wife and mother both died in his house on Valentine's Day), his strength of character, his dedication to virtue, his soaring intelligence, heroic courage, and love for life made an impression on everybody who encountered him. To see this reflected in the essay of another great man is a refreshing read into a time and life long gone and one that will most likely be never seen again.

C. Alan Loewen
http://literary-equine.livejournal.com/

The Solar Magnet

by Sterner St. Paul Meek

Sterner St. Paul Meek (1894-1972) was a US military chemist, early science fiction author, and children's author.

The Solar Magnet is the 10th story in a series of Meek's adventures that feature Doctor Bird and Operative Carnes in their quest to defeat the evil Russian genius, Ivan Saranoff. It is also the first appearance of Feadrovna Androvitch, who will become Bird’s seemingly untrustworthy “Girl Friday.” Typical pulp adventures, the stories consist of our two heroes defeating the mad genius at his own game as he uses arcane technology to subdue the world for Mother Russia.

The complete list of stories in the order as they were written follows, many available on Manybooks as individual stories or part of magazine collections:

1. The Radio Robbery (1930) [also as by Capt. S. P. Meek ]
2. The Thief of Time (1930)
3. Cold Light (1930)
4. The Ray of Madness (1930)
5. Stolen Brains (1930)
6. The Sea Terror (1930)
7. The Black Lamp (1931)
8. When Caverns Yawned (1931)
9. The Port of Missing Planes (1931)
10. Solar Magnet (1931)
11. Poisoned Air (1932)
12. Vanishing Gold (1932)
13. The Great Drought (1932)

The Mind Master

by Arthur J. Burks

The "suspension of disbelief" is defined as "a tacit agreement between yourself and the author that you will, for the time being, believe everything you are told."

In Arthur J. Burks’ (1898-1974) The Mind Master, disbelief has to be dragged kicking and screaming into a nearby alley and bludgeoned into unconsciousness.

The Mind Master is evidently a sequel in which Lee Bentley and his fiancée, Ellen Estabrook have traveled to New York City after having escaped the clutches of Caleb Barter in a previous story. Barter, the Mind Master of the story, has the ultimate goal of every mad scientist: turn everybody into the world into gorillas.

Unfortunately for our hero and heroine, Caleb Barter has followed them to the Big Apple to continue his nefarious work.

With a high body count both human and ape, The Mind Master is a guilty pleasure for those who enjoy the great pulps of old when men were men, women were women, and scientists were either noble gods in the making or evil geniuses as mad as a hatter.

The Game of Rat and Dragon

by Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger

The Game of Rat and Dragon is a popular addition to many science fiction anthologies illustrating not only the Golden Age of Science Fiction, but of the gifted talent of writer Cordwainer Smith (1913-1966)

This story deals with a far future where interstellar spaceships are crewed by humans telepathically linked with cats to defend against the attacks of malevolent entities in space.

The characters are memorable and the battle scene, though way too short, is exciting enough for the most jaded reader.

A Gold Hunter's Experience

by Chalkley J. Hambleton

Chalkley J. Hambleton's A Gold Hunter's Experience, is a short, true account of one man's quest for gold in the Colorado gold rush of the mid 19th century and covers the era from 1860 to 1862.

It is a tale of an America long, long gone and one that will never be again, talking about herds of buffalo that held millions of animals, and virgin wilderness untouched by the hand of man except the Native American. It is also a tale of how much men can endure and survive. Shorter than most novellas, it is a quick, but very satisfying read of true western adventure and of great interest to all including historians and writers of historical fiction.

Bygone Punishments

by William Andrews

Bygone Punishments is a short, anecdotal history of all the horrors humanity has brought upon their fellow men and women.

Here you'll get to read of hanging, the art of being drawn and quartered, being hung alive in chains, beheading, and other versions of capital punishment that was practiced in Britain from its early history to the 19th century.

Not bedtime or dinner time reading, but a great resource for armchair historians and writers of historical fiction.

C. Alan Loewen
http://literary-equine.livejournal.com/

Beautiful Red

by M. Darusha Wehm

Beautiful Red is a cautionary, low-key, cyberpunk tale that though it lacks the action of a William Gibson novel, it well makes up for it by posing some interesting questions about humanity when flesh and circuits are fused together.

Jack's job is network security in a near future when the Everywherenet reigns supreme. A boring job due to advanced security making life very difficult for hackers, Jack discovers that somebody might be uploading a trojan program into peoples heads that is causing a fate worse than death.

Young Swaigder, or The Force of Runes

by George Borrow

George Henry Borrow (1803 - 1881) was a prolific English author who collected and translated ballads from many European lands. His list of works here at ManyBooks is one of the largest.

Young Swaigder, or The Force of Runes is a collection of several medieval Danish Ballads:

1. Young Swaigder, or The Force of Runes
2. The Hail Storm
3. Rosmer Mereman
4. The Wicked Stepmother

Stories in rhyme, the short collection is of interest to folklorists.

Palos of the Dog Star Pack

by J.U. Giesy

Palos of the Dog Star Pack is part of a trilogy written by John Ulrich Giesy (1877-1948), the other two books being Mouthpiece of Zitu (1919) and Jason, Son of Jason (1921) and all available on ManyBooks.

The story is about Jason Croft, a young American occultist who masters the art of astral projection. Sending his incorporeal form to a planet that orbits Sirius, he meets the girl of his dreams--a common event in the romantic science fantasies of the early 20th century--and to win her, possesses a body whose inhabitant has died. Unfortunately, he has possessed the body of a commoner and as there is a caste system on Palos and the girl of his dreams is a high caste princess, Croft has to work overtime to get his chance to win her love.

The prose can be florid at times and the descriptions verbose, but all in all, the story is one worth your investment of time.

The Copper-Clad World

by Harl Vincent

Take real science and drop kick it out the window and suspend all belief.

Now you're ready to enjoy this pulpish tale of two ham-fisted, red-blooded, alien-women-seducing human heroes on their quest for a good cigarette while escaping from the artificial moon Io as it orbits Jupiter.

Dwarfish aliens, tiger women, man-eating plants, death rays, and a very high body count make for one very entertaining read as long as you're willing to leave commonsense and a basic understanding of physics behind.

A New and Comprehensive Vocabulary of the Flash Language

by James Hardy Vaux

Players of fantasy games and avid readers of the fantasy genre know what thieves' cant is, a combination of language and slang to allow communication to pass between two people who want their conversations to be private even if overheard by the uninitiated.

A New and Comprehensive Vocabulary of the Flash Language is a dictionary of thieves' cant from the turn of the century used in the British Isles and Australia. The dictionary is certainly fascinating for linguists and historians, but for the casual reader, the main surprise is how much slang has entered our own language little knowing its origin in the dark streets and alleys of London and Newcastle.

Farewell to the Master

by Harry Bates

Farewell to the Master is a tale that has one major shortcoming in the technological arena, but it makes an intriguing companion to the 1951 film. The differences between the story and its film version does make for an interesting comparison. In this reviewer's opinion, the ending of the story is much superior to the 1951 film.

Hands down, even with its flaws, the story is still superior to the 2009 anti-humanity film travesty.

The Three Impostors

by Arthur Machen

Arthur Machen (1863 – 1947) was a leading Welsh author best known for his influential supernatural, fantasy, and horror fiction.

The Three Impostors is a convoluted tale about three individuals who we meet in the opening paragraphs who are searching for a "young man with spectacles" who has inadvertently stolen something of great importance to a secret society of which they are members.

The story then goes back in time before the opening scene where the three impostors assume various personas and roles, weaving stories about their prey in an effort to attract attention to him and gain the aid of unsuspecting people.

Two of the stories Novel of the Black Seal and The Novel of the White Powder have been anthologized many times apart from The Three Imposters and may be read alone in their offerings by ManyBooks.Net. These two stories are considered by many to be Machen's best and had a profound impact on many authors including H. P. Lovecraft.

Machen's horror is many times subtle especially when compared to today's graphic splatterpunk that passes for contemporary horror. To truly experience the full impact of the end of the novel's horrific ending, the reader is encouraged to return to the beginning of the book and reread the opening scene.

C. Alan Loewen
http://literary-equine.livejournal.com/

Carnacki, The Ghost Finder

by William Hope Hodgson

William Hope Hodgson (1877-1918) is better known for his truly terrifying horror/romance House on the Borderland. In Carnacki, The Ghost Finder he takes on a slightly lighter tone.

These six short stories were first published between 1910 and 1912 in two magazines and then printed together as an anthology in 1913.

The stories all share a similar thread: Thomas Carnacki occasionally invites four of his friends over for dinner and over after-dinner cigars regales them with tales of his latest adventures as a sort of paranormal detective. The stories are quite original, but the solutions are not always supernatural.

Nonetheless, they are well worth the investment of time to read and for this collection I give a rare 5-star approval.

C. Alan Loewen
http://literary-equine.livejournal.com/

About the Holy Bible

by Robert Green Ingersoll

Colonel Robert Green Ingersoll (1833–1899) was a Civil War veteran, American political leader, and orator, noted for his broad range of culture and his defense of agnosticism.

His writings also represent the last dying gasps of the Golden Age of Freethought before the horrors of two World Wars put an end to secular humanism once and for all.

About the Holy Bible is your typical Ingersoll rant composed of logical fallacies such as straw men and arguments by outrage. His hatred for the Old Testament is thinly disguised anti-Semitism, a philosophy very acceptable to 19th century skeptics until the Holocaust showed them the fruit of their labors.

Ingersoll’s most hilarious statements are that the Judeo-Christian religion has never produced anything of beauty or worth to the human race, a statement that will come as a surprise to those who know names such as Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms or scientists such as George Washington Carver, James Clerk Maxwell, Gregor Mendel, Michael Faraday and a host of other prominent scientists who had no trouble combining science with their Judeo-Christian faith.

In the end, the book only serves as a source of comfort to skeptics who, in the late hours of the night, as they stare at the ceiling pondering the bogeymen of metaphysics can reach for Ingersoll’s screed so as to avoid dealing with the big questions, a sort of mental thumbsucking.

Judeo-Christian theists can be amazed that in the century between Ingersoll and the likes of Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, skepticism has failed to come up with a single original thought that theists haven’t already dealt with for two millennia.

Darkness and Dawn

by George Allan England

The Darkness and Dawn trilogy is composed of three separate novellas, all available here as one document, or as separate manuscripts:

• The Last New Yorkers

• Beyond the Great Oblivion

• The Afterglow

Written by George Allan England (1877–1937), an American writer and explorer, the story introduces us to Allan Stern and Beatrice Kendrick who have miraculously survived an Earth-destroying cataclysm by going into suspended animation in the same office and waking up a millennium later at the exact same time for no definite reason ever explained.

They then wander through the rest of the story having incredible adventures to rival the pulps of the classic age, express their love for each other (for pages and pages and pages), have more incredible adventures they survive by the skin of their teeth, express their love for each other for many more pages, express their disdain for religion and capitalism, face death square in the chops, express more of their love for each other, express how the new world they are going to rebuild will be a socialist paradise, fight to the death with a monster or two, express their love for each other, and ... well, you get the picture.

Along the way we learn that concrete and steel are eternal, that 1,000-year-old food in the tin still tastes good, that Allan can rebuild a pre-WWI plane from deer hides, that fur coats stored carefully for a millennium can still be worn, that people can go into suspended animation and wake up with the clothes rotting off their bodies without any harm to themselves (or even feeling hungry), that a ten-century-old bullet can still fire without any problem, that air pressure does not change to any serious degree if you go to the bottom of a canyon that is well over 50 miles deep, and did I mention that concrete will outlast the heat death of the universe?

And along the way, you'll probably read that Allan and Beatrice are rather fond of each other.

And saints preserve us, but writing this review, I just realized that the author and the main character share the same name which means this story is a type of Mary Sue tale!

Regardless, if you like pulp adventures with lots of action and high body counts, then you have just found paradise.

Just don't analyze the tale too closely.

Craig Alan Loewen
http://literary-equine.livejournal.com/

The Hunter Cats of Connorloa

by Helen Hunt Jackson

Helen Maria Hunt Jackson (1830 - 1885) was an American writer who was deeply burdened by the plight of Native Americans and spent much of her life trying to change their situation by political involvement and educating the public through her literary work, Ramona being the most famous of her work.

These sentiments are also evident in The Hunter Cats of Connorloa, a book written for children and in this work, Jackson's respect for people of color extends also to African Americans and Chinese immigrants even though there is some shading of her perspective through the culture of the mid 19th century.

In the book, a sickly bachelor takes charge of his niece and nephew on the death of his sister. Moving them from Italy to California, the book is an intriguing look at life in 19th century California.

Though people of all races are treated with respect, the animals are not, so if you're a PETA supporter, best look elsewhere.

The body count in this children's book is incredibly high and readers learn how to hunt and kill linnet's, how to use cats to keep the gopher and rabbit population down (and that by near starving them), as well as how to poison skunks.

Today, this book would be banned from most school libraries due to its treatment of animals, but it is still an interesting look at life in a time which is rather different from ours.

C. Alan Loewen
http://literary-equine.livejournal.com/

Deathworld

by Harry Harrison

Deathworld was written by Harry Harrison (born Henry Maxwell Dempsey, March 12, 1925) in 1960 and is the first of four novels (the last actually a short story).

Jason dinAlt (that is not a typo) is a professional gambler who uses his latent psionic powers to beat the house odds. Approached by a resident of the planet Pyrrus to turn a large sum of money into a huge sum of money, he accompanies his employer to what is known as the most deadliest planet in known space.

Wikipedia describes Harrison's work as "often hinges around the contrast between the thinking man and the man of force, although the "Thinking Man" often needs ultimately to employ force himself," and the story is a fun read as dinAlt struggles to solve the mystery of Pyrrus through brain and not brawn.

The novella is well worth the read.

Tokyo Zero

by Marc Horne

I am delighted to read works released under a Creative Commons License that are actually very professional, readable, and thoughtful.

I very much enjoyed what I must assume is the author's familiarity with Tokyo as he weaves a story of a young man who infiltrates a secret society to bring about his own personal aims.

C. Alan Loewen
http://cloewen.livejournal.com/

The Bog Monster of Booker Creek

by Wayne V. Miller

Let me straight up and tell you this is an excellent novel,but it isn't horror and it isn't science fiction.

The Bog Monster of Booker Creek is a story of John Densch, a husband and a father who gets sucked into a story that becomes a series of events bigger that sweep him along.

Those hoping for a foray into a monster novel or an excursion of cryptozoology are going to be disappointed. This tale is about metaphysics: what we know and how we know it as well as the nature of reality and and other heady stuff.

This reviewer could have been disappointed as I like my literature firmly escapist, but this well-written novella captured me from the first page with very believable characters dealing with issues not far from our own concerns.

C. Alan Loewen
http://literary-equine.livejournal.com/

An Account of Some Disturbances in Aungier Street

by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

An Account of Some Disturbances in Aungier Street is a classic ghost story told in a way that sweeps you into the mystery and brings to mind Shakespeare's quote, "The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones."

A Solemn Caution Against the Ten Horns of Calvinism

by Thomas Taylor

Though Christian groups mostly adhere to the same dogma, the basic fundamentals of the Christian paradigm, there is difference of opinion in doctrine which fleshes out how one lives the dogma.

In the Protestant church, there are basically two main camps:

1. Calvinism (sometimes known as Reformed theology) which follows the writings of John Calvin today's most well-known adherents being Baptists and Reformed Presbyterians.
2. Arminianism that follows the teachings of Jacobus Arminius and John Wesley (the latter adherents sometimes called Wesleyans). Today's Arminians are found in the Mennonite, Brethren, and United Methodist churches.

The two camps are often viewed as rivals within Evangelicalism because of their disagreement over details of the doctrines of divine predestination and salvation and this argument has proceeded at various levels of intensity for the last 400 years.

This work is an open letter to John Wesley from a Thomas Taylor who composes ten arguments against the Calvinist position of unconditional election. These arguments have been bandied about ever since and will probably be debated for another 400 years. Nonetheless, for readers interested in Christian doctrine, the pamphlet sums up in clear and succinct points, the classic arguments of Arminianism against the theologically enforced caste system of Calvinism.

Graveyard Rats

by Robert E. Howard

Graveyard Rats is a remarkable tale from the golden era of pulp fiction when action was always over the top and characters were always bigger than life.

This mystery from the pen of Robert E. Howard of Conan fame has a high body count and enough gore to rival today's splatterpunk tales (but with the notable exception that Howard can actually tell a story).

Taking place in the Great Depression, a detective tries to solve a killing that appears to be nothing more than a blood feud between two rival families in what I think is the Black Hills of South Dakota. Entering the mix are headless corpses, what appears to be the vengeful ghost of an Indian chief, and rats that can strip a man to a skeleton in minutes.

Muriphobics had better pass on this story.

Minor Detail

by John Michael Sharkey

Minor Detail is a protracted joke--a shaggy dog story with one punch line that proves the oxymoron of "military intelligence."

My Father, the Cat

by Henry Slesar

I read My Father, The Cat many years ago in an anthology and thought it long lost until it was resurrected on ManyBooks.Net.

Written by Henry Slesar (1927-2002), an American author, playwright and copywriter, the story is a gentle fairy tale about the love between a father and his son and the lengths some parents will go to so the happiness of their children is assured.

The story has its charm that it has retained over the years.

C. Alan Loewen
http://literary-equine.livejournal.com/

The Great Gray Plague

by Raymond F. Jones

Run for your life.

This is not a story, but a humanistic sermon loosely disguised as a science fiction tale.

If The Great Gray Plague was an essay, I wouldn't complain. In fact, I would most likely praise it.

What you have here is a story that frames a long, long discourse about a man who has had a near-death insight into the nature of scientific research and the sermon goes on and on and on.

I give it five stars as an insomnia cure.


C. Alan Loewen
http://literary-equine.livejournal.com/

Holocaust House

by Norbert Davis

Norbert Davis (1909-1949) perfected the craft of mixing humor and the detective-noir genres and Holocaust House is a very good example of the marriage.

Sadly, he committed suicide at the age of 40 and missed his opportunity for recognition as a talented pulp writer.

Doan, the "hero" of this story is a small-time detective with a dry, sardonic wit, a huge Great Dane, and the ability to defend himself quite well if the situation demands it. In Holocaust House he is given the job of protecting a young heiress who is on the verge of inheriting millions.

If you like the adventures of Doan, they are continued in the following stories:

The Mouse in the Mountain (1943)
Sally's in The Alley (1943)
Cry Murder! (1944)
Oh, Murderer Mine (1946)


C. Alan Loewen
http://literary-equine.livejournal.com/

The Blood of Belshazzar

by Robert E. Howard

Most people are only aware of Robert E. Howard's (1906-1936) literary invention of Conan the Barbarian, but he had a number of bigger-than-life characters in his stable of pulp tales.

Cormac Fitzgeoffrey only appears in two of these tales: Hawks of Outremer and The Blood of Belshazzar, both written in 1931.

In the latter, Cormac seeks for help in rescuing his leader from barbarians from barbarians even more fierce and evil than those that hold his friend captive. There is lots of blood and body counts and is well worth the time if you like your pulp fiction well seasoned with action and adventure.


C. Alan Loewen
http://literary-equine.livejournal.com/

The Daughter of Erlik Khan

by Robert E. Howard

Most people are only aware of Robert E. Howard's (1906-1936) literary invention of Conan the Barbarian, but he had a number of bigger-than-life characters in his stable of pulp tales.

The Daughter of Erlik Khan is the first literary appearance of El Borak who also appeared in five other stories:

Hawk of the Hills
Blood of the Gods
The Country of the Knife
Son of the White Wolf
The Lost Valley of Iskander

In The Daughter of Erlik Khan, El Borak, a former American, leads two Englishmen far into what appears to be Afghanistan of the early 1930's to rescue a friend. However, the motives of Pembroke and Ormond are far more sinister and lead El Borak into an adventure of an ancient city, an ancient people and a more ancient evil.


C. Alan Loewen
http://literary-equine.livejournal.com/

The False Gods

by George Horace Lorimer

The False Gods by George Horace Lorimer (1868-1937) is somewhat of a cheat.

Though Lorimer was the editor-in-chief of The Saturday Evening Post from (1899-1936), this tale of what first appears to be a murder mystery turns out only to be a rant against the evils of yellow journalism and how an amoral journalism can destroy people's innocent reputations.

Not that I deny the point, but a story that becomes a bully pulpit seldom tells a good tale.


C. Alan Loewen
http://literary-equine.livejournal.com/

The Spectre Bride

by William Harrison Ainsworth

The Spectre Bride was written by William Harrison Ainsworth (1805–1882) a rather prolofic English historical novelist.

This morbid little gothic tale lacks charm, a point, and any redeeming qualities unless you like your stories depressing bully pulpits of nihilism and rants on the total ineffectiveness of goodness and purity.

Nonetheless, if you find yourself happy and carefree, I cannot think of a better story to change your mood, so sit in a dark room with a tall glass of absinthe at hand, and read this morose, unredeemed tale by candlelight.

Just be sure to hide all the sharp objects beforehand.

When Super-Apes Plot

by Anthony Wilder

A rather odd little pulp adventure tale.

The tale follows the adventures of a man who is primarily a banker, but has more than enough time to take a seaplane to a deserted island with his wife, his wife's uncle, and their servant/friend/Man Friday and research a tribe so recently evolved from apes they are suspected to still have tails.

I don't want to take away from the fun, but I suspect this is the first time in literary history, erstwhile explorers ended up being a sacrifice to a volcano god. We surely know it wasn't the last.

The action flows quickly and its length is just right for an hour's diversion.

--
C. Alan Loewen
http://literary-equine.livejournal.com/

The Veils of Isis

by Frank Harris

The Veils of Isis is a collection of eleven short stories from Frank Harris (1856 – 1931) was a naturalised American author of British origin.

The stories are quite mixed in theme and quality, a number suffering from very blunt endings giving the reader the impression that the entire story was not actually completed.

Nonetheless, there are some true gems:

The Veils of Isis is a fantasy that takes place in ancient Egypt and centers on one young priest's devotion to the ancient goddess.

Several stories deal candidly (for the day) with sexual themes from The Yellow Ticket (prostitution in Moscow) to A Miracle and No Wonder which is little more than a very long and protracted dirty joke.

A Daughter of Eve and Within the Shadow are in this reviewer's opinion, the most powerful of the collection, the former dealing with tensions aboard a small boat between a woman and the rest of the male crew and the latter which deals tells the tale of forbidden love between a westerner and the young wife of a Chinese mandarin.

C. Alan Loewen
http://literary-equine.livejournal.com/

The Murder Monster

by Emile C. Tepperman

I love the old pulps; Doc Savage, the Spider, the Shadow, and here is another one of the classics: Secret Agent X.

The Murder Monster was the tenth story to appear in the 41 issues of Secret Agent X Magazine published between February 1934 and March 1939. Written by several different authors, the stories always appeared authored under the name, Brant House. However, the real authors were Paul Chadwick, G. T. Fleming-Roberts, Emile C. Tepperman or Wayne Rogers.

The Murder Monster is a tale of Depression-era New York City where "robots" led by a mechanical man that can make people burst into deadly flames terrorize the Big Apple with lots of crime and a huge body count.

If you like bigger than life heroes and tales with lots of action, The Murder Monster is well worth the read.


C. Alan Loewen
http://literary-equine.livejournal.com/

The Wondrous Child

by Bram Stoker

"The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them."

It's amazing that such an emotionally melodramatic tale was written by the same author who in 1897 would pen his most famous work, Dracula.

"The Wondrous Child is a children's fairy tale written by Bram Stoker and published in 1881 in an anthology of other children's fairy tales entitled Under The Sunset.

The tale is quite saccharin by today's standards and is basically a morality tale about Sibold and May, a young brother and sister who travel in a dream to an island where they encounter the Child spoken of in Isaiah 11:6: "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them."

It's amazing that such an emotionally melodramatic tale was written by the same author who in 1897 would pen his most famous work, Dracula.

C. Alan Loewen
http://literary-equine.livejournal.com/

Plain Facts

by G.A. Bauman

Plain Facts is basically a pamphlet of good advice on the Puritan work ethic and money first compiled by Bauman in 1921 from pamphlets he had published in1993, 1894, and 1897.

The result is the only legacy G. A. Bauman has left the world summed up in 15 pages of pithy advice where the Gutenberg Project license and information dwarfs the work in sheer content. TPersonal Finance (the word Bauman uses is "Financiering"), and Common Sense.

For students of self help literature and works on life management, there is nothing earth shattering in this short work, but I doubt if any reader can read it without the ironic knowledge that if the U.S. Government had followed this old common sense, we would not presently be in an economy in such serious transition.

--
C. Alan Loewen
http://literary-equine.livejournal.com/

The Desire to be a Man

by Auguste de Villiers de l'Isle-Adam

The Desire to be a Man by Auguste de Villiers de l'Isle-Adam (1838-1889) is like eating bitter herbs: you know they are good for you, but the taste leaves much to be desired.

The Desire to be a Man is a story not easily understood on the first reading. The tale centers on Esprit Chaudval as he seeks to overcome years of acting out the lives of others on the stage and for the first time enjoy a true human emotion that is truly his and not played out for an audience on the stage.

The action he takes to become a human being is unspeakably evil and in the end, a story that seems to simply focus on a tawdry little man becomes more than a horror tale with the final sentence, but also a critique of our times when our cultural heroes are Hollywood movie stars and shallow politicians whose only true gift is hiding their real faces.

Evening Dress

by William Dean Howells

Evening Dress is a comedy in the form of a short one-act stage play and written by the prolific William Dean Howells (1837-1920), an American realist author and literary critic.

The only problem with Evening Dress is that it shows a glimpse into a world of values and social mores so long gone that I would suspect many a modern reader will not be able to grasp the humor in the tale. The reader who understands this comedy will have to enter another world where problems considered minor to nonexistent in this era were once understandably socially disastrous.

Give this short play a try, but read it slowly. You will have to sip it, not gulp it.

Shadows over Nothross

by Urpo Lankinen

I take no pleasure in presenting a bad review from a young author who shows evidence of some talent and obviously tries to tell a good tale, but this novella should never have seen the light of day.

Reading like a bad Dungeons and Dragons game converted into fiction, the names are unpronounceable, the action almost nonexistent, and the characters so one-dimensional and the milieu so inconsistent, the book is just too painful to read.

Of course, looking at the advertising blurb, the author appears to be aware of the serious flaws in the story, but if you want to download and read Shadows over Nothross, please know that when the author says the story is "ordinary," rest assured that he is not joking.

Five O'Clock Tea

by William Dean Howells

Five O'Clock Tea is a delightful little farce in the form of a stage play and written by the prolific William Dean Howells (1837-1920), an American realist author and literary critic.

Five O'Clock Tea was written in 1894 and the interaction between the characters is going to be greatly misunderstood by those not familiar with the cultural and social mores of the time. In today's society when conversation is to the point and direct, the interaction between the widow, Mrs. Amy Somers and Willis Campbell will frustrate the modern reader as they dance all around the main question, "Will Amy accept Willis' proposal of marriage?"

Also, the conversation between all the guests is quite witty by the standards of the day. Amazingly, there are quite a number of insults and jibes flying about, but so subtle by today's standards, the modern reader may miss them.

Give this short play a try, but read it slowly. You will have to sip it, not gulp it.

Gospel Mysteries

by Anonymous

Normally I do not review anonymous works of non-fiction, especially, when the work is not truly anonymous. The handle "Lonely Soul" gives me some inkling this is possibly a work with some emotional baggage attached.

Nonetheless, for people who have a passing interest in New Testament curiosities, the work is a passable way to spend the evening neither challenging belief or unbelief if the reader has already spent some time with C. S. Lewis, N. T. Wright, Norman L. Geisler, or any Biblical scholar who goes beyond the fluff of Christian writers Joel Osteen or T.D. Jakes.

The work shows some evidence of scholarly research, but the book is weakened by the author's belief that Jesus was nothing more than a great moral teacher (evidently he never read or heard of C.S. Lewis' trilemma argument), along with his fascination for gnostic gospels that very few serious scholars take seriously.

The author's website is located at http://www.gospel-mysteries.net/ and he retains his anonymity due to fear of death threats from fanatics of all stripes. Sadly, religion and politics can bring out both the best and the worst in people. If a reader becomes upset over this particular work (or even this review), I would encourage psychotherapy.

Revenge

by Arthur Porges

A revenge fantasy is the form of a science fiction tale.

A biochemist invents a method to permanently end the drug war, but all the thanks he gets from government bureaucrats and the public is nothing but a cold shoulder.

His revenge is rather cruel if unique.

The Sound of His Horn

by Sarban

Sarban was the pen name of John William Wall (1910 – 1989), a thirty-year veteran of the Great Britain diplomatic corp.

Sadly, Sarban did not write much, but what he wrote appears to be very much worth reading.

The Sound of His Horn is Sarban's best known work, an alternative-history tale taking place a century after Hitler has won World War 2. The protagonist, a WWII prisoner of the Nazi's finds himself thrust forward in time into an alternate reality where he finds himself on a German game farm where he is the prey and the predator is a ranking German official who uses biologically-altered humans to hunt him down.

Readers of Ringstones will find great similarities between the tales, but both books are worth reading even if the endings are quite abrupt.

The Mouse and The Moonbeam

by Eugene Field

It truly stuns the mind that the prolific Eugene Field (1850-1895) who is basically known as a writer of humor and children's poetry would turn out a child's morality story so dark and grim that today it would be viewed as literary child abuse.

This is Victorian gothic children's literature at its worst with death and sadness laid on with a trowel. Good children (mice) get to dance in the moonbeams (even if all the moonbeam talks about is death and depression and sounding as if its in the last stages of senility) and bad little children (mice) die horribly at the claws of a cat, especially if they don't believe in Santa Claus.

If you have gothic tendencies and like to read by moonlight with a glass of absinthe at hand while you ponder all things dismal and tragic, then this story will be your version of heaven.

Just remember to be good or the cat will get you.

Or something far, far worse.

Zendyne

by Han Li Thorn

Zendyne is a rather good foray into the world of cyberpunk and worth the time for a reading if you like the genre.

Admittedly, there are some minor plot holes, but these are forgiven for a fast paced story, interesting, if rather predictable, characters, and some nice imaginative visuals into a cyberpunk world.

Not for the kiddies as it does contain language and some sexual situations, but I appreciate the author's restraint in keeping the story a thriller and not as an excuse for porn.

Indian Conjuring

by L.H. Branson

Very little is known about Major Lionel Hugh Branson (1879 - 1946) except that he wrote three known books on stage magic, the first two written under his pen name, Elbiquet.

It is assumed from his writings that he was known in the magic community as a hobbyist more than a performer.

There is some debate when Indian Conjuring was first written and I have seen 1909 and 1922 given as conflicting dates.

In this short work, Branson examines and explains how some of the more popular street magic from the late 19th to early 20th century is performed by Indian fakirs. However, his overpowering condescending and smug, superior air toward them negatively colors his work.

For those interested in some simple tricks or in the history of magic as performance art, the book does make a small contribution.

Ringstones

by Sarban

John William Wall (1910 – 1989), writing under the pen name Sarban, was a British writer and diplomat.

His diplomatic legacy is certainly greater than his literary legacy, but what he did write is worth noting.

Ringstones is a dark fantasy that takes place in a desolate English countryside at a remote manor called Ringstones after the local stone circle. Daphne Hazel becomes a summer governess to three children who seem unworldly and fay.

In a manner reminiscent of Arthur Machen (The Great God Pan, The White People), the horror grows so subtly, you don't know it is on you until almost the very last page.

If your taste runs to the weird and fantastic, Ringstones is well worth the time and patience.

Mistress of the Undead

by Lazar Levi

A rather confusing ghost tale from Lazar Levi. A man rushing to get a doctor for his friend's dying wife becomes lost in a swamp and lost in a recurring haunting of a plane wreck some years before.

Can he fetch the doctor in time to not only save his friend's wife, but the ghost of a young woman condemned to repeat her death every night?

Béla Kiss

by William le Queux

In 1912, a Hungarian by the name of Bela Kiss moves to England with a young and beautiful and unfaithful wife.

How he resolves his wife's infidelity and what it makes of him is the thrust and purpose of this story that reads more like a Time or Newsweek report than a fictional tale.

Enquire Within Upon Everything

by Anonymous

From Wikipedia:

"Enquire Within Upon Everything was a how-to book for domestic life, first published in 1856 by Houlston and Sons of Paternoster Square in London, and then continuously reprinted in many new and updated editions as additional information and articles were added. The book was created with the intention of providing encyclopedic information on a topics as diverse as etiquette, parlor games, cake recipes, laundry tips, holiday preparation and first aid."

For those looking to recreate a Victorian atmosphere, study domestic English history, or be more accurate in their writing of historic fiction, this lengthy encyclopedia on English home life is priceless.

A word of warning: some of the advice will shorten your life, not lengthen it. Take it all with a grain of salt.

The Burial of the Rats

by Bram Stoker

The Burial of the Rats by Abraham "Bram" Stoker (1847–1912) is a truly suspenseful tale of a young man who finds himself in a very bad part of Paris and must flee for his life.

And the rats are the least of his worries.

That this has never been made into a movie, especially with today's taste for thriller and "slasher" films, is quite a surprise.

The Sand-Man

by E.T.A. Hoffmann

Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann (1776–1822), better known by his pen name E.T.A. Hoffmann, was a German Romantic author of fantasy and horror. The Sand-Man is a tale of a young man who believes himself pursued by an evil man out of his childhood, a man who killed his father.

His descent into madness, a strange romance with a beautiful woman who seems less than human adding to his mental fragility, creates a harrowing tale for the patient reader willing to invest time into understanding the cultural milieu of the tale.

Has Freethought a Constructive Side?

by Robert Green Ingersoll

Oh, for the innocent, halcyon days of pre-fin de siècle atheism before two World Wars and the Great Depression ended freethought naiveté forever. Or, at least, it should have. Human memory is painfully short.

Colonel Robert Green Ingersoll (August 11, 1833 – July 21, 1899) was a Civil War veteran, American political leader, and orator during the Golden Age of Freethought, noted for his broad range of culture and his defense of agnosticism.

Ironically, Ingersoll who condemned Christian evangelists for speaking for money, at the height of his fame, audiences would pay $1 or more to hear him speak, a giant sum for his day. Evidently, there was a difference in his thinking between being a Christian evangelist and an evangelist for secularism.

In this short screed, Ingersoll writes, “… there are still wants and aspirations, and freethought will give us the highest possible in art – the most wonderful and thrilling in music -- the greatest paintings, the most marvelous sculpture -- in other words, freethought will develop the brain to its utmost capacity. Freethought is the mother of art and science, of morality and happiness.”

No. Not at this point at least.

Still, this short piece is an interesting rant that teaches the fallacy of logic: argument by outrage, appeal to consequences of a belief straw men, etc. For a short work, it is a wonderland of logical fallacies.

Black Eyed Susan

by Joseph Devon

From a reviewer who hates love stories, this very short love story is delightful.

I also liked the frame of the story with the husband and the wife telling their love story to their child independent of each other. The subtle twists in difference of perspective add a subtle humor to the entire work.

Well worth the download and the time.

The Cavern of the Shining Ones

by Hal K. Wells

I actually found this SF nod to H. P. Lovecraft quite fun.

Giant slugs from space attempt to take over the world!

Hellhounds of the Cosmos

by Clifford Donald Simak

This tale of battle in the Fourth Dimension was a little too bizarre for this reviewer's taste.

Good start, interesting middle, and an ending that will have you scratching your head.

However, it is a short read and the individual reader may enjoy this pulpish venture into the field of SF.

The Principal Teachings of the True Sect of Pure Land

by Yejitsu Okusa

Pure Land or Amida Buddhism is the most popular school of Buddhism. A subset of Mahayana Buddhism, it enjoys more adherents than all other schools, such as Theravada (Hinayana) Buddhism and Vajrayana Buddhism or the other schools of Mahayana such as Tian Dai (Tendai) Buddhism or Zen Buddhism to which Pure land is closely related.

Written in 1912, this book gives a quick summary of the religions principle beliefs from the perspective of a true believer and is a valuable book for those who study comparative religions.

Under the Andes

by Rex Stout

Rex Stout (1886-1975) is most famous for his fictional detective, Nero Wolfe, but in 1914 he wrote Under the Andes, a “scientific romance” of the pulp adventure variety.

Though the book is rather tame by modern standards, the innuendo of the travails of the heroine at the hands of a dwarf Incan king in a subterranean kingdom were quite shocking for the day.

Independently wealthy Paul Lamar and his not-so-bright brother, Harry team up with femme fatale Desiree Le Mire to tour the world. Ending up in the Andes, they get lost in the Cave of the Devil where they encounter the aforementioned dwarf Incans. Thousands of them.

Of course, one has to suspend a lot of belief for this story. One must believe nobody ever dies from hypothermia in caves especially when they are wet and naked and even where the sun never shines, your eyes will eventually become accustomed to the total absence of illumination and you can actually see, though dimly.

The story is actually a fun read, but the ending is a cheat. If Stout had stopped before the chapter entitled Conclusion, the result would have been a mildly entertaining journey into pulp fiction. Instead, the reader will feel rather cheated if s/he reads all the way to the end.

English Walnuts

by Walter Fox Allen

First published in 1912 this work offers advice for potential Walnut growers of the era in the United States.

It is the opinion of this reviewer that until our economy reaches stabilization, the average landowner is going to have to view his/her property from a perspective that goes way beyond the aesthetic of a neatly trimmed lawn and look at their land as part of their economic package. Growing shade trees that also produce fruit as well as raw timber (in 1912, one mature English Walnut tree sold for $3,000) is a wise investment of one's property.

Though this little pamphlet is almost a century old, the information is valuable and is a good stepping stone toward making your lawn profitable as well as beautiful.

As a Man Thinketh

by James Allen

A unique combination of liberal Christianity and Buddhism, James Allen (1864-1912) has written a book that has been read by millions even though he himself was dissatisfied with it.

The reader must bear in mind that there are a number of suppositions in Allen's book that were obvious to the reader of the early 20th century, that there were universal, true north, moral principles that were absolutes. Adherents to today's situation ethics will find little of value in this work and it may even do damage as there is an infinite distance between the moral absolutes held by Allen and the "If it feels good, do it" attitude of today.

Bat Wing

by Sax Rohmer

Bat Wing is the prequel to Fire Tongue and is a welcome introduction to the character of Paul Harley, an English consulting detective, more along the literary lines of Poe's C. Auguste Dupin than Doyle's Sherlock Holmes.

This well-written mystery deals with Haitian Voodoo, the death sign of a bat wing, and the lengths people will go through for vengeance.

Though Rohmer is best known for his literary arch villain Fu Manchu, the non-Fu Manchu stories are usually better written with more satisfying plots and more interesting characters. Bat Wing and its sequel are a worthy investment of time.

Planetoid 127

by Edgar Wallace

If you are familiar with the 1969 film, Journey to the Far Side of the Sun, then you are already familiar with the plot of Planetoid 127.

Today's sensibilities may not appreciate the pace, characterization, and technological gewgaws that make up the story, but if you put yourself in the shoes of those who read it for the first time when science fiction was still a young discipline, it is a worthy read.

The Ghost Whistle

by Eugene K. Jones

Reminiscent of Manly Wade Wellman's style of the Silver John stories, The Ghost Whistle is the story of Bob Holman, a murderous rascal of a Blue Ridge Mountain hillbilly who loses his beloved railroad engineer son in a train accident.

Committed to revenge, one night he hears the whistle of the train blowing in the manner his son used to blow for him. Is it a sign, a coincidence, or a sign from his son from beyond the grave?

The Bound Man

by Mary Robinette Kowal

Imagine Robert Howard writing tales of Conan the Barbarian with all the genders reversed.

The warrior woman, superior in every way to the weakling creatures with XY chromosomes, battles her way across a fantasy landscape threatening every male (both human and monster) within reach of her broadsword.

A Full Description of the Great Tornado in Chester County, Pa.

by Richard Darlington

On July 1, 1877, a swath of Chester County, Pennsylvania was devastated by a rare tornado.

Richard Darlington, the president of Ercildoun Seminary, wrote this pamphlet after interviewing eyewitness accounts.

The seminary itself was destroyed and eventually rebuilt as the Darlington Seminary some miles away from the original site.

This little booklet is an interesting glimpse into another life and culture long gone and how it dealt with natural tragedy.

The Vampire

by Jan Neruda

This tale from the early part of the 20th century is part travelogue of Prinkipo, a Greek island, part traveler's memoir of the interesting party he travels with, and part vampire tale with a rather odd, artistic vampire.

The story is short and the ending is abrupt, but does bring a different aspect of the vampire legend.

Fire-Tongue

by Sax Rohmer

Written early in his career, Fire-Tongue is one of Rohmer’s best and, in this reviewer’s opinion, even better than his Fu Manchu series.

The story contains several characters: Paul Harley, an independent investigator; Nicol Brinn, a renowned world adventurer, and Philomena Abingdon, an English beauty whose father dies under mysterious circumstances.

This pulp mystery combines them and several other characters into the strange world of Fire-Tongue that may be the name of a cult, the name of a prophesied Zoroastrian god-messiah, or simply a cold-blooded assassin.

Or maybe all three.

In spite of its abrupt ending and its glossing over of some dramatic moments that this reviewer believes Rohmer should have embellished, Fire-Tongue is well worth the time if you like pulp mysteries. However, be aware that the racist and sexist overtones, common for the day in which the novel was written, may be offensive to some.

Lord of Samarcand

by Robert E. Howard

Unlike the film Wanted and its lame attempt to make a "point," (the moral being, "Life is meaningless. Go do something violent."), Robert E. Howard could write a piece of heroic fiction and touch on existential themes of purpose and meaning and do so with such masterful effect, that the writers of Wanted should take vows of literary silence for the rest of their lives.

Lord of Samarcand is historical fiction about Timur, commonly called Tamerlane or Timur the Lame, a 14th century Turco-Mongol conqueror of much of western and Central Asia, and founder of the Timurid Empire and Timurid dynasty (1370–1405) in Central Asia. In this fictional retelling, Timur's right hand man turns out to be a Dark Ages Scottish mercenary who got sidetracked during the Crusades.

Military buffs will enjoy the detailed battle scenes, Howard fans will enjoy an epic that is based on real history instead of fantasy, and people who enjoy literature will enjoy the thought that goes behind the story. Though this particular reviewer does not share in the existential philosophy of the story, I cannot deny it is well woven into the tale.

Years from now, long after Wanted is a reject in the Wal-Mart DVD discount bins, people will still be reading and enjoying Howard.

A World Called Crimson

by Darius John Granger

Darius John Granger (ManyBooks has it accidentally reversed) was the pen name for Milton Lesser and this story was originally published for Amazing Stories in September, 1956.

Pure pulp, A World Called Crimson has a boy and girl marooned on a planet that has the unique ability to take their thoughts and make them real.

And then the adults come to mess up their childhood fantasy.

Think Lord of the Flies in reverse.

Disturbing Sun

by Robert Shirley Richardson

Disturbing Sun is a sci-fi tale in the guise of an interview with a scientist who believes that solar activity triggers violence in humanity.

An interview-type format is an odd little way of telling a story and it is up to the individual reader to judge f the reading is worth the time.

For this particular reviewer, it wasn't

The Beast of Space

by F.E. Hardart

The Beast of Space has an interesting premise ... that something may have evolved on the larger asteroids. Something that is also sentient and knows how to attract spaceships--and the tasty morsels that operate it.

Of course, we have no idea what the thing lived on before humanity went into space, but this story doesn't survive an indepth analysis.

This reviewer found it to be an interesting diversion for a quick, entertaining read.

Three More John Silence Stories

by Algernon Blackwood

This is the second anthology of Algernon Blackwood's John Silence stories (the first also available at ManyBooks) and it continues the adventures of the world's first psychic doctor.

Secret Worship deals with a man returning to his hometown in Germany to discover that reality is not exactly as he remembered it.

The Camp of the Dog is the best of the trilogy as Blackwood shines whenever he gets to set his stories in a natural setting. An avid outdoorsman, his love of nature and the weird shines through in this rather unusual romance.

A Victim of Higher Space is the last of the series and more of an apologia of Secret's psychic world view than a story as he explains the physics behind his occult paradigm. As to how much Blackwood actually believed in what he wrote is open to conjecture.

Nightmare Abbey

by Thomas Love Peacock

Thomas Love Peacock (1785 - 1866) was a brilliant satirist and author and Nightmare Abbey is a wonderful example of his work.

Part Swift, part Bunyan, the inhabitants of Nightmare Abbey are foils for Peacock's observations on the zeigeist and fads of his day with a wit so sharp you can shave with it.

I never knew a work from 1818 (though I suspect the version here is the revised one from 1837) could actually make me laugh.

The Monster

by S.M. Tenneshaw (Randall Garrett)

Originally published in the April 1949 issue of Amazing Stories, The Monster is an inadvertently hilarious tale that would have made great fodder for the typical 1950's SF monster movie warning of the terrors of unethial science.

The story is unintentionally hilarious because to the modern sensibilities, the transformation of man into monster does not convey horror as much as hilarity.

The Spider Strain

by Johnston McCulley

Johnston McCulley (1883-1958) was the author of hundreds of stories, fifty novels, numerous screenplays for film and television, and the creator of the character Zorro.

The Spider Strain was published in the April 8, 1919 edition of Detective Story Magazine, the fourth and last story in the Spider series and has all the elements any reader of pulp fiction has come to expect. However, to this particular reviewer, the affected speech of the protagonist to make him sound like a dandy becomes cloying after awhile

Almuric

by Robert E. Howard

Almuric is the ultimate he-man pulp from Robert Howard in a tale so laden with testosterone that you don't read the story as much as it jumps off the page and gnaws on your leg for awhile.

Esau Cairn is a man who makes Conan the Barbarian look like a pantywaist. Escaping from a charge of murder, Esau finds a scientist who sends him on a one-way trip to a far-flung and primitive planet.

Much blood, gore, and grunting ensues.

The Golden Scorpion

by Sax Rohmer

From the creator of Fu Manchu (who makes an unnamed cameo in this story), The Golden Scorpion is a tale of 1920's England and Dr. Keppel Stuart who is sucked into the investigation of an international conspiracy group headed by the Golden Scorpion.

Fortunately, our hero has a greater hero helping him: Gaston Max, a French forerunner of James Bond.

The result is a rather exciting tale of cliff hangers and otherworldly beautiful women.

Pulp fiction at its most pristine.

The Hollow Land

by William Morris

William Morris (1834-1896) was a member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood whose ideals are centered in this short story.

Morris was obsessed with medieval world. In the prose fantasy The Hollow Land (actually published in 1856) an unjust knight enters an eartly paradise. He departs it, becomes aged, and finally regains the land through devotion to pictorial art.

It's airs appear extravagent and verbose for today's tastes, but this story works as an excellent example of 19th century romantic fiction.

Xelucha

by Matthew Phipps Shiel

Xelucha is Matthew Phipps Shiel's (1865 – 1947) somewhat unsuccessful attempt to compose a Poe-type pastiche. The plot is either a ghost story or the narrator's descent into madness or the unfruitful search for the feminine ideal in a nihilistic, decadent world.

Or maybe all three.

Whatever, make sure you have a dictionary and an encyclopedia on hand as the story is not so much linguistically gifted as much as it is simply verbose.

Cat and Mouse

by Ralph Williams

Cat and Mouse originally appeared in the June 1959 edition of Astounding Science Fiction and was nominated for a Hugo in 1960 in the short story category.

The author, Ralph Williams (1914-1959) was the pen name of native Alaskan Ralph Slone, and is memorialized in the Ralph Williams Prize for Speculative Fiction.

Cat and Mouse takes place in Alaska where recluse Ed Brown discovers a door to another world and discovers the threat of an alien invasion.

King's Evil

by Avram Davidson

Avram Davidson (1923 – 1993) was an American Jewish writer of fantasy fiction, science fiction, and crime fiction, as well as the author of many stories that do not fit into a genre niche.

King's Evil is a fascinating tale that takes place in 18th century London when hypnotism (called mesmerism) was just starting to become a legitimate tool of the medical profession. The hypnotizing of a test subject in the back room of a London pub makes for an interesting ending when the subject's true identity is revealed, not through hypnotism, but through another rather interesting event.

Lady into Fox

by David Garnett

David Garnett (1892–1981) was a British writer and publisher who received literary recognition when his novel Lady into Fox was awarded the 1922 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction.

This particular work is as enigmatic as its writer and this particular reviewer failed to understand the work. The plot is simple enough: Sylvia Tebrick, the 24-year-old wife of Richard Tebrick, suddenly turns into a fox while they are out walking in the woods. The rest of the story is the tale of Richard dealing with the transformation.

Is the story a morality play? Essay? Eccentric novella? The last gasp of scandalous English yellow literature? Each reader will have to judge for his or her own.

The Hand of Fu-Manchu

by Sax Rohmer

Sax Rohmer was the pen name of Arthur Henry Sarsfield Ward (1883 - 1959), a prolific English author best known for his Fu Manchu series.

The Hand of Fu Manchu is the third book in the series and was also published under the title, The Si-Fan Mysteries. Readers interested in the series should start with The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu also available on Manybooks.net)

This novella reads more correctly like a related collection of short stories about the adventures of Commissioner Sir Denis Nayland Smith and Dr. Petrie in stopping Dr. Fu Manchu from becoming the ruler of the civilized world.

I do love the series for its sheer pulp, much better than any Doc Savage tale (though not as good as The Spider series), but Dr. Petrie's many failings gets old after awhile and one wonders why Smith puts up with him.

Nonetheless, the series is an interesting trip into an England that never existed outside of cheap paperbacks, but is still a wonderful literary visit.

The Green Eyes of Bâst

by Sax Rohmer

Sax Rohmer, better known as the author of the infamous Fu Manchu stories, wrote a number of paranormal mysteries, The Green Eyes of Bast being one written in 1920.

This is not one of Rohmer's best. Though I accept the 1920's insistence that all violence take place off-screen, the investment the reader puts in the story at least demands a little bit of a closer look at the antagonist at the end.

The result is a rather interesting tale, but with a very unsatisfying ending as the solution to the mystery is put into the protagonists' hands without much deducation on their part. Then the ending builds up into an ending that could have had the reader gasping, but ends with a "That's all?"

If you're a fan of Rohmer or a fan of 1920's mysteries, enjoy, but the Fu Manchu series is probably a better investment of your time.

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Sax Rohmer (1883-1959) was born in Birmingham, England under the name, Arthur Henry Ward, later changed to Arthur Henry Sarsfield Ward. However, it is under then name Sax Rohmer, we have learned to appreciate the world of Fu Manchu, Rohmer's most famous literary character.

In 1950, Rohmer published "Wulfheim", a mystical play he had written in the 1920s and and rewritten as a novel, but he published it as Michael Furey, using his mother's maiden name.

Wulheim is a strange little work. Part dark gothic romance, part horror, part occult treatise, the novel concerns the domain of Wulfheim and Rohmer made sure no clue was present in the work as to where and when the story takes place.

With its large cast of characters, various subplots, an occult worldview forming the foundation of the story, and the author sometimes breaking the third wall, this is a tale that requires some investment on the part of the reader.

However, the tragic tale of Otto Wulfheim and his half-sister Fragia makes for an interesting read, even if somewhat shocking to 1950's sensibilities due to its sexual themes and its occult worldview.

Caveat emptor. the book is very much a dark gothic romance with strong supernatural and sexual themes. First time readers of the gothic novel will not be impressed, while fans of the genre will enjoy the tropes and the themes.

The Thing from the Lake

by Eleanor M. Ingram

One of the joys of ManyBooks.Com is they introduce me to books that have been lost through the ages. As a fan of early 20th century dark romantic fantasy, Eleanor M. Ingram’s The Thing From The Lake is a priceless find and until I found it available here, I never knew of the author or her work.

The Thing From The Lake makes an interesting triumvirate with Abraham Merritt’s The Moon Pool and William Hope Hodgson’s The House on the Borderland, all available from Manybooks.com. In each story, a man battles an otherworldly horror for the love of an otherworldly woman. Though Ingram’s story is the weakest of the three because of its literal deus ex machina ending, by no means should one hesitate to add this pearl to your collection.

Interestingly, though Ingram only lived to her mid-30’s (1886-1921), she was a prolific author with at least four novels and over 20 short stories to her credit. She lived to see four of her works made into films (one directed by Cecil B. DeMille) yet surprisingly, the researcher will have great difficulty in finding any biographical information on her. Therefore, kudos to Many books.com for playing an important part in rescuing this writer from a death by obscurity. She deserves to be read and enjoyed.

The Thing in the Upper Room

by Arthur Morrison

In 1933 Arthur Morrison (1863 - 1945), a prolific English writer better known for his stories about the detective Martin Hewitt, released an anthology of his stories entitled Fiddle O'Dreams and More (1933). The Thing In the Upper Room appeared there for the first and last time.

In this short story, an unnamed narrator rents a room in an older section of Paris with tragic repercussions. Though horror aficionados will see the ending coming, to the readers of the 1930's, the horror genre was still young and full of shocks that seem mild by today's comparison.

Nonetheless, it is an interesting read of a lifestyle and time long gone even if dressed in the "haunted room" genre.

The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath

by H.P. Lovecraft

The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath was published posthumously and many scholars believe if Lovecraft had lived long enough, he would have rewritten the story. Nonetheless, even in its raw form, the novella is a powerful entry into the dark fantasy genre and I find myself rereading it often just for the sheer joy of the wonderful mental imagery the story evokes.

There are a number of references to the Cthulhu Mythos and Lovecraft borrows generously from his other works.

A master of description, the reader will remember the cities of Sarkomand, Dylath-Leen, Ulthar, as well as the Plateau of Leng, the Vale of Pnath, and the city of the the gugs long after the book is done. You also get to meet Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos, the emissary of the Other Gods in his 1,001th form (and the only one in which he appears human).

All in all, a very satisfying read.

The Incubus

by Achmed Abdullah

Achmed Abdullah is the pseudonym of Alexander Nicholayevitch Romanoff (1881–1945), a writer of mystery, crime and adventure pulps. The Incubus first appeared in The Blue Book Magazine in 1920.

The Incubus tells the story of a man who becomes lost in Africa and is driven almost to the brink of insanity by the solitude and alien environment. It's deus ex machina ending leaves one a little dissatisfied as well as some of the racial comments about the native inhabitants he encounters, but such was the culture when this story first appeared.

This reviewer sees it as an interesting entry in the history of pulp adventure fiction, but struggles to understand what the title has to do with the story.

The Lost Room

by Fitz-James O'Brien

The Lost Room is an odd little tale told by author Fitz-James O'Brien (1828 - 1862) who is considered by many to be the father of the science fiction genre. The Lost Room originally appeared in the September 1858's edition of Harper’s New Monthly Magazine.

In the tale, the unnamed narrator relates a tale where he literally loses his room in a surreal situation that sounds more like a rather unpleasant version of Alice in Wonderland. To tell more would ruin the story, but as it makes a nice 15 minutes of diversion, the short tale is worth the time.

The Mistakes of Jesus

by William Floyd

William Floyd (1871 - 1943) Editor of The Arbitrator, a New York atheist magazine and signer of A Humanist Manifesto I (1933) wrote The Mistakes of Jesus in 1932.

Sadly, an extensive search for Floyd's credentials was fruitless so I am incapable of commenting on his authority to make such statements as expressed in this secular sermon. Though Floyd does raise a few questions of merit, in all he personally shows ignorance of the world, customs, and mores of the Ancient Near East which explains much of Jesus' actions through the perspective of the culture and time in which he lived. Also, new archaeological discoveries that Floyd would not have been privy to, have shown some of his assertions about Jesus' "errors" to be incorrect, such as the discovery of manuscript fragments that move the authorship of the Gospels from the fifth century solidly into the first.

Nonetheless, The Mistakes of Jesus is an interesting work from the declining years of the Golden Age of Atheism before World War II and the bloody regimes of Hitler and Stalin put an end to the idealism of secular humanism once and for all. Atheists and skeptics of all stripes will find the work to be comforting bed time reading while Christian apologists will find hardly a question worth considering once they have wandered through all the arguments by outrage and blind appeal to authority without identifying said authority.

The Pale Ape

by Matthew Phipps Shiel

Matthew Phipps Shiel (1865 – 1947) wrote The Pale Ape in 1911 as part of a collection of other stories.

Readers will notice the tropes of the standard gothic romance: the young lady in distress, the old house, the family secrets, insanity and death. Like a well-known recipie, they are all there.

The story takes place in 1908 when the unnamed heroine takes the role of governess to a precocious 12-year old girl at Hargen Hall, ruled over by the child\'s eccentric older brother, Sir Philip Lister.

Like we have seen in so many gothic romances over the years, the story becomes a mystery with peeping toms that may not be quite human, dark halls with guttering candles, a family mystery, and a tragic ending.

It\'s a very short read and if interested in the gothic romance genre, it makes for an interesting 15 minutes of diversion.

The Creature from Beyond Infinity

by Henry Kuttner

The Creature From Beyond Infinity is a typical 1940's pulp novella that can stand right next to any other Sword and Spaceship tale from the era.

In this story, told in a rather rushed fashion, there are two co-running plots of an alien searching for human geniuses throughout time and one of those geniuses striving to contain a pandemic that is turning people into life force vampires.

With the standard pulp tropes of muscle or brain-bound men, strong-willed beauties helpless in the arms of strong men, and lots of action, Kuttner's story is good for a quick diversion.

Just don't waste time looking for any creature from beyond infinity. Like a typical 1940's pulp, the title has nothing to do with the story.

Journal of a Young Lady of Virginia, 1782

by Lucinda Lee Orr

In 1782 at the estimated age of 22, Lucinda Lee kept a journal for two months for her friend, Polly as she traveled through southern Virginia visiting friends and family.

The journal provides an account of the homes of various relatives, with descriptions of neighborly visits received and returned, games played, novels read and walks taken, and the arrivals and departures of relatives and courters.

It is an delightful and fascinating glimpse into the daily world of a young woman of the Colonial era, an invaluable resource for glimpsing a time long gone through the eyes of one who lived in it.

Islands in the Air

by Lowell Howard Morrow

Written in 1929, this short story is a rather dated, urbane tale of two scientists in competition with each other over designing large rafts that would float above the ground. The ultimate goal would be to create "service stations" in the air for airplanes (which at the time of writing was a fascinating new technology). This gives the story a rather light "steampunk" feel to it.

However, the ending discourse on how man is not yet ready for the marvels of science turns the story into a soapbox that contradicts the original positive emphasis of the story.

The Power of Darkness

by Edith Nesbit

Two friends in competition over the hand of a pretty girl dare each other to spend a night in a wax museum, the loser promising to give up and and all attempts at future courtship.

The locale of Paris, the claustrophobic moments in the darkness of the wax museum, and the typical Victorian ending make this a rather charming period piece with an element of horror suitable for a lighter palate.

The Stone Image

by Seabury Quinn

A wife buys a Far Eastern idol for her home and mayhem ensues. However, the story refuses to take itself seriously so what should have been a rising crescendo of horror is turned into a rather droll tale with a very unsatisfying ending.

However, it is an interesting view into another time when in literature men and women interacted differently before the era of political correctness and the reduction of masculinity into the pathos of Homer Simpson.

Aerophilia

by Tobias Buckell

This little cyberpunk tale of rebel ids, derigibles, and living miles above the crushing atmosphere of a planetary gas ginat in massive floating cities has its quirks, but all-in-all, it works because the characters are fascinating.

Well worth the ten-minute investment for this little SF short story.

Pigeons from Hell

by Robert E. Howard

Quintessential pulp horror from the master.

Two traveling friends spend the night in a deserted southern mansion only to have the night end in murder, a walking corpse, and a terrified flight through dark woods in the middle of the night. Arrested on suspicion of murder, the lone survivor is forced to return to the mansion with a tough southern sheriff.

Though the detour to Jacob the voodoo man seems a rather contrived method of relating background information to the reader, the story is a delight for connoisseurs of the macabre.

The Epworth Phenomena

by Dudley Wright

The family of John and Charles Wesley, the founders of Methodism, experienced over a period of a few months, the phenomena of a poltergeist. Author Wright has compounded letters from the family to each other discussing the experiences and the impact of the haunting on their lives.

Included are brief sections of John Wesley's journal as he notes his adventures exploring paranormal events and his interviews with those who experienced them.

For lovers of paranormal mysteries, the book is a fun read. For those wishing to explore the interests and thoughts of John Wesley, the book adds a little known perspective on the great evangelist of what became known as the Great Awakening.

The Witch-cult in Western Europe

by M. A. Murray

This is no fly-by-night sensationalist book written for the masses. It is a college-level study of anthropology and a knowledge of Latin and the medieval versions of French, English, and German are not an option.

Murray’s thesis is that an ancient pagan fertility religion (aka The Cult of Diana) thrived and prospered throughout western Europe and even reached the States up until the early 1700’s and that it had a universal form and structure. Using witch trial transcripts, the pagan theology was dressed up in Christian terms by the courts, but in essence, Murray’s description is as follows:

Groups of covens limited to 13 members met weekly for Esbats for business meetings and on high holy days (aka Sabbaths) for ritual religion. A costumed area leader representing the fertility god (called Satan in the witch trials) would lead the worship services basically consisting of ritual worship, feasting, dancing, and orgies.

Individual adherents would practice divination and ritual magic that occasionally would require the entire coven. Each adherent would have a familiar (animal) used for divination and for the casting of curses.

Being a secularist, Murray attributes no genuine supernatural powers to cult members attributing their experiences and claims to coincidence, hallucinations caused by using psychoactive herbs, and blind faith. When cultists carried out curses, they usually poisoned their victims directly or just killed them outright with any means at hand (strangling, stabbing, etc.) and attributing their success to their god.

It is suspected that many of the lower classes followed some tenets of the old fertility cults via local practices and superstitions, but for a radical few the cult continued in its old form as an expression of rebellion against the oppressive political and religious structure of the day.

Most intriguing is Murray’s supposition that Europe was populated by dwarf races that retreated from civilization and until they died out completely around the 16th to 17th centuries, the legends of the fairies came from peoples sporadic encounters with them.

Another controversial supposition is that Joan of Arc embraced both faiths, acting as liberator more through pagan motivations than Christian.

The reader should be aware that the book is very controversial to many groups, both Christian, neopagan, and secular historian alike.

The Farm That Won't Wear Out

by Cyril G. Hopkins

Originally serialized in The Country Gentleman, the four articles were released in book form c. 1913 and go into great detail proving a farmer raises nothing first unless it be the soil on which his farm resides.

Though almost a century old, this little book carries with it some remarkable statistics about the nutrients of the soil and goes into detail about experiments carried out over decades to prove what plants need from the soil in which they grow.

The following quote sums up Hopkin's thesis perfectly:

" ... it is not the land itself that constitutes the farmer's wealth, but it is in the constituents of the soil, which serve for the nutrition of plants, that this wealth truly consists."

Inferences from Haunted Houses and Haunted Men

by John Harris

Imagine, if you will, living in a post-Victorian world being harassed and vandalized by groups of evil, criminal hypnotists and ventriloquists that can put you into an insane asylum, make you think your house is haunted, or even kill you! Add the Jesuits and the Freemasons into the mix and the result is a delightful, rambling, sometimes incoherent, paranoid descent into serious, pseudo-scientific lunacy.

This is fun.

However, do remember that at one time hypnotism was considered an occult art (called mesmerism) to the point people considered assault by criminal hypnotists a genuine reality and it was expressed in the literature and films of the day (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, 1919 and Svengali, 1931).

The fear of criminal hypnotists continues today, but we have modernized the legend into tales of alien abduction.

The Other Gods

by H.P. Lovecraft

Lovecraft is well known for his Cthulhu Mythos, but few know of his other cycle which centered around the Dreamlands, uneartly stories of horror and beauty that found their apex in his novella The Quest For Unknown Kadath.

In The Other Gods, Barzai the Wise decides to climb Hatheg-Kla to spy on Earth's gods. However, there are worse things on Hatheg-Kla than the meek and mild gods of earth's distant past and the resulting short story is a satisfying read.

The Vampire Maid

by Hume Nisbet

Vampires are now all the rage, but imagine what it was like when the genre and tropes were brand new and you will enjoy this now very dated entry into the library of vampire stories.

The title gives all away and you'll see the ending coming before you're halfway through this short story, but for its length, it has satisfying rewards for the reader willing to go along for the ride.

The Mansion

by Henry van Dyke

Henry Jackson van Dyke (1852-1933) at­tend­ed Prince­ton Un­i­ver­si­ty, then served as pas­tor of the Brick Pres­by­ter­i­an Church in New York City. Se­ven­teen years lat­er, he re­turned to Prince­ton as a pro­fes­sor of En­glish lit­er­a­ture. Af­ter­ward, he held a num­ber of em­i­nent posts: Amer­i­can am­bas­sa­dor to the Netherlands and Luxembourg, mod­er­a­tor of the General Assembly of the Pres­by­ter­i­an Church, Com­mand­er of the Legion of Honor, and Pres­i­dent of the Na­tion­al In­sti­tute of Arts and Let­ters. He is also author of the well-known hymn Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee as well as several others.

The Mansion (c. 1901) is a morality tale little respected in today's secular atmosphere, but in the time it was written it served as a cautionary fable about the balance between living in the secular world and being spiritual. Though the plot is obviously modeled on Dicken's A Christmas Carol, The Mansion is more like a sermon illustration. However, it also serves as a window to the world of New York and the Victorian mores of 1901.

The King of the Dark Chamber

by Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore's The King of The Dark Chamber was staged in 1914 originally in the Bengali language (the version here was translated into English by Kshitish Chandra Sen). It's popularity grew internationally and it is said to have been staged repeatedly in Russia during Tagore's lifetime.

The play itself is hard to categorize: part morality play (the author insisted the play is not to be seen as an allegory), part martial drama, part romance, part archetypal myth and a large helping of oriental philosophy, the Western mind struggles to properly interpret the author's actual intent. This reviewer saw in its essence that the play is a dramatic portrayal of the third of Buddhism's Four Noble Truths, that the cessation of suffering comes from the cessation of desire.

However, another reviewer described the play's main thesis as, "The moment Sudarshana realized that in enjoying the outer beauty alone the true fulfillment of life can never be attained, she utterly surrendered herself to the king and in no time she discovered the secret that in the offering of oneself there lies the key of true fulfillment."

One is tempted to believe that like most mythical plays, the meaning will be different for each member of the audience.

Hypnos

by H.P. Lovecraft

Lovecraft, that great Old gentleman From providence, is well known for his Cthulhu Myhtos, but he is also well known for a series of stories known as the Dreamlands Cycle, a stable of stories that ultimately resulted in his Dreamlands masterpiece The Quest For Unknown Kadath. Hypnos is an early story in the cycle of a man who plunges to far into the mysteries of dreams and pays a price. Not one of Lovecraft's best, but an enjoyable twenty minute diversion.

The Monster of Lake Lametrie

by Wardon Allan Curtis

What do you get when you combine elements of Frankenstein, the Hollow Earth Theory, and the Lost World? A rather dated weird tale that you will read with mixed emotions. Originally published in the August, 1899 edition of Pearson's Magazine, the story carries with it some unintentional hilarity due to the dated science and medical knowledge.

The Lurking Fear

by H. P. Lovecraft

Lovecraft's The Lurking Fear is not one of his best. Lovecraft indulges in all his literary vices: trying to create atmosphere through the use of adjectives, dues ex machina events, and coincidence stretched past the breaking point. Yet for the thirty minutes it takes to read, the story is well worth the time. There are some genuine shocks worthy of modern horror literature and Lovecraft is always the master of creating a rich visual world, the sense of emotional claustrophobia, and the shock ending.

The story centers around an old, deserted house in the New York Catskills and the horror that lives within its walls and under its foundations. There is a rather large body count which, except for one dramatic incident all takes place off stage, and though the reader may see the ending coming, it's still well worth the trip.

The Deserted House

by E.T.A. Hoffmann

Hoffman's The Deserted House is a fin de siècle gothic tale that may be a difficult story for modern readers to truly understand. Victorian sensibilities are considered quaint and archaic by today's standards and the early horror writers told their tales disguising the horror in innuendo. In this case, the narrator becomes involved through coincidence in the lives of a family that centers around a deserted city house. Though tame by today's standards, if the reader can grasp the true lineage of the Countess Edwina and the Victorian mores that were broken and how they viewed those poor unfortunates struck by mental illness, only then can you understand just how shocking this tale of psychic lust and desire would have been to the reader when this tale was first published.

Adopting an Abandoned Farm

by Kate Sanborn

Though not a book to teach you how to actually operate a farm, Sanborn's 1894 essay on her three-year adventure on renting, rebuilding, and renewing a farm in Massachusetts is a delightful and humorous read on late-19th century farm life.

For her time, Sanborn is a surprising curmudgeon who has no difficulty in poking fun at herself, her neighbors, and turn-of-the-centry farm life. Her comments on horses, chickens, peacocks, and potatoes sometimes border on hard sarcasm and each chapter starts with a prosaic and idealistic quote on farm life followed by reality as she experienced it.

The book is short, but a wonderful read and a welcome glimpse into a world and lifestyle long gone.

The Great God Pan

by Arthur Machen

H. P. Lovecraft praised this novella of gothic cosmic horror and Machen's story lives up to the praise of the Gentleman of Providence. Anybody who is a fan of Lovecraft's literary body of alienation and horror will enjjoy this tale of an experiment gone wrong and its aftermath.

The Great God Pan met sharp criticism in its day for its sexual overtones and was condemned for its perceived misygonism, but by today's standards with its violence and sexuality taking place well off-stage, the horror is actually increased because of its sublety and because it leaves so much to the imagination.

My only criticism is that Machen leaves so much unsaid, the story can be rather confusing on its first reading, but if read as a sequel to The White People (even though the latter was written a decade later), the aborted horror that overtook the woman-child in that tale comes to full fruition in The Great God Pan.