Nightmare's Disciple

by Joseph S. Pulver Sr.

Book Overview

"Joe Pulver is what you get when you cross one of Plato's Muse-maddened poets with a Lovecraftian lunatic..." Matt Cardin, author of Dark Awakenings Schenectady, New York. Winter. The mutilated bodies... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1568821182
• ISBN13: 9781568821184
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: Chaosium
• Length: 395 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.4" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

A Fantastic First Novel

The potential of Joe "Da Beast" Pulver as an author has been woefully overlooked. Looks like that will soon be changing, however; look for a first collection of short tales by Pulver in 2009. He's somewhat self-indulgent in this novel, getting a bit too much into his favorite topics of music, books, films, etc. for some mainstream readers, but there's no way this drags the book down. With some editing, this could be a bestselling thriller without any problem whatsoever! The bestselling horror authors today write 900 page books one after another, each luring the reader along with the expectation of something great to come; problem is, the climax withers on the vine and leaves the reader pissed at having been tricked into wasting all that reading time for nothing. The other reviews here make it sound as if Pulver's novel does the same thing, but it doesn't! S.T. Joshi didn't like this book but loves Pulver's recent short fiction. So look out, folks, Pulver's up and coming! And he deserves it!

Nightmare's Disciple

This is the best kind of book that has an obscure premise. It assumes that you know nothing and will bring you up to speed in a very plausable and thorough way. At it's core it is a horror/serial killer novel, that is very well plotted and compelling to read. In a nutshell itis a story about a serial killer in a small american city, of course this serial killer believes very deeply in the Cthulhu Mythos, and through a very well rendered changing of viewpoints you get to see inside his sick world along with those who are trying to catch him . . . a group as diverse as some horror shop owerns, rock musicians, the police, a voodoo ??? or whatever, the owner of a restrant, a librian, and the assorted journilists and politicians the always seem to pop up around these kinda things. This is a great read for anyone who likes well written horror/crime/occult books.

A refreshing read

I have not read a horror book in 18 years, but this was highly recommended by my wife, Ris. I tepidly aproached the idea, but the first few pages caught me. Mr. Pulver, if you read this, PLEASE make more horror stories! You have a gift. I now read horror stories whenever I can and would greatly appreciate if you would continue producing. Thank you.

Mind twisting and soul assaulting . . .

This book certainly gives a fantastic and quite contemporary view of the mythos through the the viewpoints of its quirky, interesting characters. I will admit that the story line itself carried me along on a real sunami of violence -- keeping me turning the pages and wondering. It was also a great book for someone just getting interested in the Mythos. There were a lot of explanations, etc. . . . Well, Mr. Pulver . . . Dare we expect another? I'm waiting.

Ideal marriage of genres: Cthulhu Mythos and Serial killers.

Joseph Pulver manages to pull off a fine bit of alchemy in interweaving what seems a this-worldly serial murderer crime novel with the cosmic-scope Lovecraftian epic. So deftly does he balance focal characters and their very different frames of reference that the reader is kept off balance: is the strong, apparent supernaturalism just part of the killer's delusion? Or is it real, and much more terrible than the killer himself? I have never seen anyone maintain the narrative tension of such a juggling act so well. Those familiar with the horror fandom scene will find that this book's many references to it ring true. They will readily see themselves in it. And yet the book never becomes self-indulgent fan-fiction, an excuse for in-jokes. Also noteworthy is Pulver's near-multiple personality syndrome when it comes to literary voices appropriate to a variety of moods and characters. How can he sound like Dashiell Hammett on one page and Thomas Ligotti on the next, and you don't even notice any transition? Pulver is a wonderful writer, and one can only look forward to more of his excellent fiction! (By the way, he is of course not the editor but the author, despite the listing.)