Review
"Know how to handle a gun, Calder?" - Dirke Maximilian Calder, ex British military, has taken a job high up in the Peruvian mountains to get away for a bit. The job seems harmless enough, guard a mining site from local natives, and keep the employees of New World Incorporated safe and sound. Naturally things don't go as easy as Max may have wanted with the mining camp coming under attack the morning after he arrives. The Guards are sent into the surrounding bush to hopefully capture one of the renegades firing on the camp. Under Max's leadership two tribesmen are captured, though Max is intrigued by a cave he discovers while out in the bush. And just who is the flutest apparently playing from within the earth? Max and his colleagues have stumbled upon something they were never meant to see, and when an ancient evil threatens to engulf those who come into contact with it Max springs into action in an increasingly hair raising race to stop the evil being delivered to the nefarious Lang Fu in San Francisco. I just have this picture in my mind of Mr Cummings humming the theme song to one of those Indiana Jones movies as he finished his editing of Requiem For The Burning God. Like the aforementioned Jones, Max Calder is operating just prior to John Wayne's Big One, there are Germans up to no good, and the spills and thrills are going to be coming at you in rapid succession. Guess I would liken Max Calder to a cross between our intrepid Archaeologist and Biggles. Okay so that's set the scene right? The novella is coming at you like a cross between a Boys Own Adventure yarn and a cthulhu mythos story, all wrapped up in solid pacing that keeps things moving to the outstandingly over the top ending. There's probably a whole art form to writing a period action piece that recalls when the British Raj held sway over the world. A number of Writers have released books, stories, and comics taking this approach, generally to good results as who doesn't like a ripping yarn. Mr Cummings has his Brit Empire on with this one. Max Calder is for ever the English Gentlemen forced to give no quarter to various Germans as they fail to fight in a fair and noble fashion. You get the feeling Max enjoys giving one to Jerry, while still retaining his belief in cricket and fair play. Marvellous stuff capturing an era when our own troops were noble and above reproach, while also highlighting the venal nature of Johnny Foreigner. As we have come to expect from Shane Jiraiya Cummings there's a real visual style to the writing in this novella. Like King, Cummings writes with an almost overwhelming influence from the movies so that the reader can not only enjoy the prose but also have this film playing in their heads while reading. Or maybe that's just me, anyone else get the same result? So when Pendle meets his fate in the caverns of the elder god I was for sure envisioning the scene, not the most pleasant way to go and it would make an excellent money shot in a movie. Anyone optioned this one yet? Which I guess is the right place to mention that the Author isn't backward in adding some gore to the story, our burnt god sure does like his/her pound of flesh. Strangely for a Cthulhu yarn, this stuff is normally as formulated as a Mills and Booms romance, Cummings has come up with a new visage for an Elder God. I for one appreciate the effort being put in here, as we get something different on the monster front for a change rather than a retelling of The Mountains Of Madness or other Lovecraftian standards once again. While Cummings' burnt god is not named, we have moved along from the standard “run like hell” to a new vantage point where a god can be overcome with resolve and resourcefulness, something Max Calder has by the bucket load. Before anyone accuses me of trying to sweep things under the carpet, yes Mr Cummings has delivered a pulp fiction tale here that is firmly fixed in the world of the penny dreadful. There isn't an attempt at interpreting the human condition or shedding light on some foible of society, the tale is everything let's not deviate from that adage. While I enjoy the subversive nature of the dark genre I also like the fact that it can get down into the trenches and simply entertain. Let's face the piper here kids, while we all like the sound of crystal we use glass for everyday drinking. As long as a story is well written, as indeed Requiem For The Burning God is, then I'm happy with life. Not everything needs to have some inherent underlying text, sometimes simply reading an entertaining yarn is exactly what the doctor ordered. Okay I've rambled on enough, and you should have the gist of what this excellent novella is about by now. For those wanting to get their read on two options, both of which are well worth exploring, depending on budget and overall interest in the Cthulhu Mythos. Firstly Requiem For The Burning God is available in print form via David Conyer's excellent collection Cthulhu's Dark Cults, advantage there is you get a whole bunch of other Cthulhu tales. If wanting an e-book standalone version then set your browser to smashwords and for the princely sum of $1.99 you can get the tale in your choice of format. For the purposes of this review I went with the pdf download from Smashwords.com.
ScaryMinds Rates this read as ... Further Max Calder stories are being demanded!
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