“The Disciple” is a story I wrote right out of college. It was my very first anthology appearance, and it’s still picking up reviews, the latest of which just appeared on Horror World. Here’s an excerpt:
Some years ago a very small press did a very small print run (less than 100 initial copies, from what I heard) of a new anthology of Lovecraftian-flavored horror called Dead But Dreaming. That publisher, Dark Tales Publications, then promptly went out of business, thereby ensuring no more copies of DBD would be printed. If that book wasn’t any good then no one would have cared, and the little tome would have faded away into the horror history books without so much as a whimper. However, by all accounts Dead But Dreaming was amazing! That meant that very soon copies were being hocked on eBay for hundreds of dollars. Not bad for a small press anthology that was only a few years old. However, it was very bad news for any Cthulhuhead like me that didn’t already have a copy of what everyone “in the know” was calling the breakout book of new Cthulhu Mythos fiction.
Instead of going over all fifteen stories, I’ll just shine a light on the tales that really floored me, or the ones I had the most fun reading … David Barr Kirtley’s “The Disciple” is one of the more traditional Lovecraftian tales to be found here. However, in no way does that lessen its effectiveness or the enjoyment I had while reading it. The story takes place at the heart of higher horrific learning, Miskatonic University, and centers around a select group of students, a very special professor, and the unusual extra-credit, after-hours study group they all belong to.
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