To Rouse Leviathan

Cover artwork: "The Taming of the Leviathan" by Michael Hutter.

Since the early years of the twenty-first century, Matt Cardin has distinguished himself by writing weird fiction with a distinctively cosmic and spiritual focus, publishing two short story collections that have now become rare collector’s items. In this substantial volume, Cardin gathers the totality of his short fiction, including the complete fiction contents of Divinations of the Deep (2002) and Dark Awakenings (2010). Several of the tales have been substantially revised from their original appearances.

Inspired by H. P. Lovecraft, Thomas Ligotti, and other masters of cosmic horror, Cardin’s fiction explores the convergence of religion, horror, and art in a cosmos that may be actively hostile to our species. In tales long and short (including a new novella co-written with Mark McLaughlin), Cardin rings a succession of changes on those fateful words from the Book of Job: “Let those sorcerers who place a curse on days curse that day, those who are skilled to rouse Leviathan.”

Aside from his short story collections, Matt Cardin is the editor of Born to Fear: Interviews with Thomas Ligotti (2014) and Horror Literature through History (2017). He is also co-editor of the journal Vastarien.

Contents:

PART ONE: Divinations of the Deep
Preface: Divining the Darkness
An Abhorrence to All Flesh
Notes of a Mad Copyist
The Basement Theater
If It Had Eyes
Judas of the Infinite

PART TWO: Dark Awakenings
Teeth
The Stars Shine without Me
Desert Places
Blackbrain Dwarf
Nightmares, Imported and Domestic, with Mark McLaughlin
The Devil and One Lump
The God of Foulness

PART THREE: Apocryphon
Chimeras & Grotesqueries:  An Unfinished Fragment of  Daemonic Derangement
Prometheus Possessed
The New Pauline Corpus
A Cherished Place  at the Center of His Plans, with Mark McLaughlin