« The Hollow Earth » Steve Savile

THE HOLLOW EARTH is an authentic, atmospheric throwback to the Victorian London of heavy fogs and Hansom Cabs, gasogenes and private Gentleman’s Clubs; when Britannia ruled and gentleman’s gentlemen were almost as common as gentlemen — the nostalgically revered London of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, Professor Moriarty and Jack The Ripper.“Savile makes sure to give these gentleman protectors of the natural world all they can handle with some choice villains; from the evil human Necromancer, Nathaniel Parker, to the demon, Meringias, that acts as a sort of Captain and advance scout for the huge mass of horrors currently imprisoned within the bowels of the Earth (hence the Chapbook’s title), that Parker seeks to set free upon an unsuspecting and very unprepared humanity, to a truly unforgettable and horrid homunculus. There are no wasted words in this fast–moving story. Savile manages to successfully evoke a wonderful sense of atmosphere and place, while contemporaneously managing to constantly build the conflict and tension, and swiftly move the action forward to a satisfying conclusion. The book, as is the Greyfriar’s Gentleman’s Club, is a successful m?lange of a Victorian English version of X–Files and Torchwood, with perhaps just a soup?on of Arthur Machen for flavor. Fear Zone This edition contains the stories The Hollow Earth, A Madness of Ravens, and The Mechanisms of Grief.