The Weird of Hali Companion

[ecosophia]

I'm delighted to report that The Weird of Hali Companion, the complete reference to my tentacle novels, is now available in print and ebook versions.  If you have trouble keeping all the details straight in an eleven-novel series -- I certainly did while I was writing it -- here's your guide to the rugose, squamous, eldritch world of the Weird. Here's the back cover blurb: 

"The seven novels of John Michael Greer's epic fantasy with tentacles, The Weird of Hali, and its four companion novels take place in an eldritch universe all their own, where the rules of H.P. Lovecraft's famous Cthulhu Mythos are stood on their head and the Great Old Ones get to tell their side of the story for once. The novels of the Haliverse roam across a vast landscape of space and time, reaching billions of years into the past and future and out through the unseen dimensions of anth and ulth to the border where curved time gives way to angular time...and beyond.

 

This definitive encyclopedia of the Haliverse includes all the people, places, and things -- squamous and otherwise -- that appear or are referenced in the novels, with entries ranging from Abdul Alhazred to Zosimus of Panopolis, along with a timeline of the Haliverse from the creation of the world out of cosmic dust 4.2 billion years ago to the final extinction of life on Earth 2.3 billion years from now. Readers who have enjoyed adventuring with shoggoths, Deep Ones, and the Crawling Chaos Nyarlathotep will find this guide to their universe indispensable."

You can purchase the print version here and the ebook version here. Enjoy! 

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

You could play a drinking game every time someone meets a nameless doom. :) I also should have guessed in the book explaining the easter eggs you'd sneak in more. I got the reference to The Glass Bead Game and I'm guessing there's others. :)

Did the tomb with the lamp burning Oil of the Wise for centuries have any higher spiritual or alchemical purpose? Or was the guy just showing the future what a great alchemist he was?

[ecosophia]

I'm very fond of nameless dooms. As for easter eggs, yes, though I mostly put in hints about where I got them. Carl Knecht isn't the only Hesse reference in those two books specifically, and of course they're not all from The Glass Bead Game. Yes, I had fun writing the series; why do you ask? ;-)

As for the lamp, why, I'd encourage you to meditate on that...

[(Anonymous)]

Oh Thank God ? er ... (
no offence meant to any squamous eldritch entities; but if you're rugose I just don't care - alright !)
Almost through my 2nd run through the Haliverse - intercutting it with Whitehead's Process and Reality.
The combination is sometimes oddly compatible in a squamous eldritch (not rugose way) way.
Point is I need more halivrse for the next month or so - so thank you
I'll order it now
Lurksalong

[ecosophia]

I love it -- a Whiteheadian analysis of the Cthulhu mythos. "The universe is a process...with tentacles." I look forward to the first edition of Process and Eldritch Reality...

[(Anonymous)]

Alas -not just yet ..
I mean, I'm doing well; over the last few months there have been at least 5 paragraphs I've at least half-way understood - I think.

But yeah - The Elder Things are of course Whitehead's Eternal objects being objectified by the prehending superject.
That's obvious - right ?

[ecosophia]

But -- but -- the Eternal objects were of no prehensible shape!!!!

[(Anonymous)]

That just cracked me up - I.m still cackling :)

The eleven-tentacled monster now has a map

[open_space]

You know what I’ve found out? The novels themselves are like tentacles with high grade suction cups. When I read a chapter odd things start to happen in my life that seem to relate to the novel... As if it was a synchronicity catalyzer. Iâ, Iâ, Iâ!

Re: The eleven-tentacled monster now has a map

[ecosophia]

Good. I was hoping for that. Iâ!

pronounciation

[frank_from_germany]

Hi JMG
apart from keeping all the details straight I also have trouble with pronouncing the names of the Great Old Ones and a lot of the other words as well. Can you help with that in any way? I suppose English not not being my mother tongue doesn´t help, but words like ´Tsathoggua´ or, worse, ´G´noth-ykagga-ha´ must be pretty strange to native English-speakers, too...that being said, I still enjoyed all 11 of them very much!
greetings
Frank from Germany

Re: pronounciation

[ecosophia]

The names are supposed to be unpronounceable -- that was one of the reasons Lovecraft et al. made them the way they did! (They're supposed to be in languages that weren't created by human beings and make no allowances for human vocal apparatus.)

That said, here's the official list of pronunciations from the forthcoming roleplaying game:

Azathoth: AZZ-a-thoth
Cthulhu: k’THULL-hoo
Dagon: DAY-gone
Gnophkeh: g’NOFF-keh
Hastur: hass-TOOR
Hydra: HIGH-dra
Ithaqua: ith-AK-wa
Kyrrmi: KEER-mee
Mi-Go: MEE-go
Nodens: NO-dens
Nug: NUGG
Nyarlathotep: n’yar-LAT-ho-tep
Nyogtha: n’YOGG-thah
Phauz: FOWZ
Shantak: SHANN-tack
Shoggoth: SHOW-goth
Shonokin: SHONN-a-kin
Shub-Ne’hurrath: SHUBB ne-HOO-rath
Tcho-Tcho: CHO-cho
Tindalos: TIN-da-loss
Tsathoggua: t’sa-THOGG-oo-ah
Turanian: too-RAN-ee-en
Ubbo-Sathla: UB-boe SATH-lah
Voor: VOOR
Voormi: VOOR-mee
Yeb: YEBB
Yhoundeh: i-HOON-deh
Yig: YIGG
Yog-Sothoth: YOGG-suh-THOTH
Yuggoth: YUGG-oth