Holy FUCK this one was boring. It really made me question my youthful enjoyment of "The Devil Rides Out," which warped my young brain towards Lucifer pretty early on - I think my dad gave it to me when I was 14 or 15? Anyway in The Satanist, devil-worship is connected to Communism (hahaha, it was written in 1960).
Wikipedia: "Another prominent 19th century anarchist, the Russian
Mikhail Bakunin, similarly described the figure of Satan as "the eternal rebel, the first freethinker and the emancipator of worlds" in his book
God and the State.
[97] These ideas likely inspired the American
feminist activist
Moses Harman to name his anarchist periodical
Lucifer the Lightbearer.
[98] The idea of this "Leftist Satan" declined during the twentieth century,
[98] although it was used on occasion by authorities within the
Soviet Union, who portrayed Satan as a symbol of freedom and equality. "
I don't know if promoting Satanism "as a symbol of freedom" still counts, but the Commies do have a history with the Prince of Darkness, and you can add Saul Alinsky to that list.
*tinfoil hat engaged*
Dennis Wheatley - Strange Conflict
This author is starting to sound surprisingly metal. I'll have to add Wheatley to my growing list of shit to I read. Same goes for Potion Mercenary adventures if I run out of ultra-violent sword-fighting fantasy to read. How is Potion-fighter compared to Black Company, Witcher or Conan.
A Voyage to Arcturus - David Lindsay: One of the inspirations for the weird lovecraft-and-planet world of Carcosa. I'd read it long years past and considered it almost impenetrable then but it is actually a deeply unsettling, creative work of proto-cosmic horror that transports the reader to the young and untamed world of Arcturus with the voyager Maskull, where he encounters various bizarre characters. Each land and its inhabitants is more a physical representation of some 19th century philosophy complete with new facial organs, a strange odyssey of metamorphoses, death, murder and disillusionment across a savage, strange and wondrous land in a quest for the meaning of existence. I don't know anything weirder, but the title masterpiece does apply.
The Mahabarata (inferior shit version) - I picked up and loved it only to discover mine is an inferior version without a glossary, some errors with the names, an index of the 100+ characters, no notes from the translator and a semi-arbitrary cut-off that does not resolve the conflict. I essentially read the heavily cropped version which is still 680 pages or so. Prepare for a fantasy epic that makes the Illiad look puny and constrained by comparison. A multi-generational epic involving the Kauravas and the Pandavas, with two billion other myths and events folded into the narrative. Heroes regularly archer-duel with 1000 combatants simultaneously, women get impregnated by rivers, men grapple with gods and asuras, sages acquire super-powers through ascetic penances, brahmana's wax rhapsodically about the nature of duty and virtue and heroes on both sides meet in conflicts that devour the world. Hopelessly confusing without any sort of notes even WITHOUT the Mahabarata's penchant for characters with identical names as well as characters with multiple names, an open webpage to the Hinduism Wiki is a virtual requirement. The story resolves with the battle between two great heroes, the invincible Arjuna and the immortal Bhishma firing arrows and celestial weaponry into eachother for ten days and killing tens of thousands of soldiers. About as close to Dragonball Z as mythology is going to get. Recommended but get the Penguin version.
Bran Mak Morn (Robert E Howard) - Its good to see Howard's other tales are just as good as his Conan stuff. Bran Mak Morn, last king of the Picts, takes place in doom-haunted, fog-shrouded Britain, and is one part brooding, three parts ancient sorcery and nine parts blood-red savagery in fourth century Britain. Britons and Celts and Picts fight the soldiers of Imperial Rome! Hideous powers that dwell in the darkness beneath the earth are invoked in quests for vengeance. My favorite tale in the collection is the superb 'Worms of the Earth,' a more atmospheric short work of dark fantasy you will seldom find.
The Curse of the Wise Woman (Lord Dunstany) - I'm digging into the old stuff and I am digging it hard. About as far from any Appendix N as you are likely to get, the novel is more of a forlorn love letter to an Ireland that once was and a tragic reflection on the cost of progress then anything weird or S&S related. Dunstany's prose is hypnotically beautiful as he describes days of hunting on the Fen or encounters with the proto-IRA, until all is rudely shattered by the arrival of a Peat-Plant near the Swamp. An old woman living in a hut might have a solution...
I just started in two hard to find paperbacks by Karl Edward Wagner. Kane - Dark Crusade and Kane - Death's Shadow. Gloriously dark S&S pulp.