The Ultimate Haliverse Bundle!

[ecosophia]

As previously noted, Founders House Publishing is preparing a series of bundle deals for the novels of mine that are set in the Haliverse, my quirky reimagining of H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos that redefines the tentacled horrors and their cultists as the good guys. Here's the latest bundle -- the complete Haliverse series, all seven novels of The Weird of Hali, plus The Shoggoth Concerto, The Nyogtha Variations, A Voyage to Hyperborea, and The Seal of Yueh Lao, all for a single deeply discounted price -- S149.99 for the trade paperback editions or $39.99 for the ebook editions. If you feel like hiding from a world that's become considerably more crazed than anything H.P. Lovecraft ever dreamed of, and would rather curl up on the couch and spend your time with shoggoths, Deep Ones, and Great Cthulhu himself, well, here's the eldritch, rugose resource of your dreams!

Interested? Mesmerized? Ready to join the Esoteric Order of Dagon, sprout tentacles, and start chanting "Iâ! Iâ! Cthulhu fhtagn!"? You can order your copies here. 

Comments

[avalterra]

JMG,

I just finished "The Seal of Yueh Lao." I know you are done with the series but I would like to think one day you might suddenly have an idea or an urge and write more.

I do have a question. Is it intentionally ironic that Sennie is a worshiper of Phauz and also has a kyrrmi companion?

AV

[ecosophia]

Not so much ironic, but a reflection of the fact that things in the Haliverse don't necessarily have to make sense!

[(Anonymous)]

Sounds just like our world! ;)

[ecosophia]

One of the fun things about fantasy fiction is that you can say things about our world in a slightly more colorful way. ;-)

You know I'm almost tempted

[(Anonymous)]

But the truth of the matter is I already bought all the Kindles.

The only one that I'd be looking at is the trade paperbacks and I just don't want a cart those around.

But congratulations John. I think you can milk this for a couple more books I think you should go for it.

Re: You know I'm almost tempted

[ecosophia]

Duly noted. As for more books, at the moment I'm (a) out of ideas, and (b) working on two other fiction projects -- a sequel to my first novel The Fires of Shalsha, and a hefty trilogy in which all the magic is the kind of magic people can actually do. So the Haliverse is complete, at least for the foreseeable future.

Re: You know I'm almost tempted

[(Anonymous)]

John,
Wow. Those two new projects sound fantastic. Particularly the reference to “hefty”;) You have also given me an excuse to read your first novel!. I will impatiently wait on the new ones.
Regards
Averagejoe

Re: You know I'm almost tempted

[ecosophia]

"Hefty" is the only word for it. I expect each volume to be significantly longer than A Voyage to Hyperborea or Star's Reach, which are my longest fictional works to date. I've got a lot of story to cover, with timelines dating back to the 12th century and a lot of reincarnating characters!

Re: You know I'm almost tempted

[(Anonymous)]

The prospect of reincarnating characters, well that’s me hooked already! I’m sure I read you were considering a novel involving Merlin although I may have imagined that.

Averagejoe.

Re: You know I'm almost tempted

[tunesmyth]

A sequel to Fires of Shalsha! That’s unexpected! I must admit I never expected our friendly neighborhood “death of progress” archdruid emeritus to pen another tale of interstellar colonization. (Presuming that it shares the first’s setting.) I’m looking forward to it.

Re: You know I'm almost tempted

[ecosophia]

Yes, it's still set on Eridan. I actually started the sequel quite a few years ago, then set it aside, largely because I wasn't sure anyone would want to read a story that deals with the very troubling moral themes I want to develop. I discussed it on a post here a few months back, though, and several readers expressed enthusiasm over the sequel; I'd just finished Yueh Lao, so I pulled the first two chapters of Journey Star out of deep storage and decided to go ahead. I still expect it to be my least popular novel.

Re: You know I'm almost tempted

[lincoln_lynx]

The world needs more stories that deal with "very troubling moral themes".

Re: You know I'm almost tempted

[ecosophia]

This is a bit more troubling than most. One of the background factors of my fictional colony world Eridan is that there are tribal peoples on the fringes of settlement, called "outrunners," who are cannibals -- protein is the main limiting factor for human settlement, since the native biochemistry is radically different and you can get carb-equivalents but not amino acids. Obviously the settled population is not interested in being eaten. What if the only alternative is genocide? And that's where the story starts...

Re: You know I'm almost tempted

[yuccaglauca]

I'm excited for the hefties and I'm a fan of all your fiction, but it's the Fires of Shalsha sequel that perks up my ears the most. The Fires of Shalsha has a special place for me as it always seemed to exemplify a certain quality that I can never find enough of in fiction. It's hard to place, and the best I can do is to describe it as a kind of gritty uncertainty stemming from the nature of things--as opposed to stories where good is as clean as it is heroic, or where the uncertainty stems from nothing but the protagonist's personal angst. All of your books have it, but most of them are more gentle, so when you say, " I wasn't sure anyone would want to read a story that deals with the very troubling moral themes I want to develop," you can be sure that you've already sold a copy.

Re: You know I'm almost tempted

[ecosophia]

Interesting. Shalsha is among other things an exploration of moral ambiguities -- I got profoundly tired of the kind of fiction where there's no uncertainty, no ambivalence, just good guys and bad guys and (as you noted) the sole obstacle to easy victory is that the protagonist spends eleven chapters wallowing in his own emotional state. Journey Star goes deeper into the same territory -- or at least that's my intention.

Re: You know I'm almost tempted

[thuley]

"...and a hefty trilogy in which all the magic is the kind of magic people can actually do."

I'm very excited for this, ;D

Re: You know I'm almost tempted

[degringolade]

I think that I might be interested in the Shalsha pieces (translate here: Get back to work ;) ) . Not to seem critical, but your writing has improved greatly since I read that back in 2009.

As a piece of unsolicited advice, you might want to do a brief skim of L.E. Modesitt's "Recluce" series for how magic is done. One of the problems with magic is most books is that it makes no sense whatsoever. I really think that "fictional" magic has to be grounded in plausibility for the fiction to work. I really feel that Modesitt has done a solid (B+ to A-) job of making the acts of magic believable.

As an aside, I am finally prepared to accept the idea that humans can perform "magic". Now comes the hard part. Deciding whether or not such a thing is a good idea.

Re: You know I'm almost tempted

[ecosophia]

Thank you, but that's the last thing I want to do. The magic in the trilogy I'm writing is the kind of magic that I've been studying and practicing for the last forty years -- classic Western ceremonial magic and occultism, with a good helping of hoodoo on the side. Its effects will be those that I and other occultists can reliably get, and it will make exactly the kind of sense that actual magic makes. That's what I mean by "the kind of magic people actually do" -- you know, in this world, where people have been practicing magic in every known society since before the beginning of recorded history.

Re: You know I'm almost tempted

[(Anonymous)]

Hooray for Journey Star! I'm one of those who expressed enthusiasm and will ensure you sell at least one copy ;)

[(Anonymous)]

More tentacles! Full speed ahead!

[ecosophia]

[avalterra]

Even moar tentacles!

Daihua sanqiong

[ecosophia]

Awwww. Now that's genuinely cute.

;-)

[peter_van_erp]

I've been sending them one by one to my niece for Christmas & birthdays. Now I just need another person to gift them to!

[(Anonymous)]

"...and start chanting, "Iâ! Iâ! Cthulhu fhtagn!""
Hmmm, I sometimes have enough trouble pronouncing English! And it's my native language!

Is this offer good for only a set amount of time? I couldn't find any info on that at the Founders website. I just didn't want to wait, only to later discover that the offer had ended.

Joy Marie

[ecosophia]

I'll have to check with Shaun to find out.

Fun for Newbies?

[(Anonymous)]

If I have never read Lovecraft (I know, yikes), will I still enjoy these? I assume some details will fly over my head, but hopefully not enough to feel totally lost? Thanks.

Re: Fun for Newbies?

[ecosophia]

You don't have to read a word of Lovecraft to enjoy these stories -- I've had a beta reader who isn't into Lovecraft or weird tales at all, so I know that for a fact. You'll miss some of the in-jokes -- I dropped a lot of references to stories by Lovecraft and other weird-tales authors into the novels, more or less for the fun of it -- but the story doesn't depend on them, and what you need to know about Lovecraft is actually discussed by the characters. (Lovecraft himself is a very minor character in the stories, for what that's worth!)

Re: Fun for Newbies?

[(Anonymous)]

That's wonderful, thank you. I'll give these a try.

Re: Fun for Newbies?

[(Anonymous)]

I was one of those who had never read a word of Lovecraft, and I literally read each of these straight through, barely putting them down to mind essentials! Then pining for weeks waiting for the next one to be released! 😂

[(Anonymous)]

Dear Mr. Greer,

I’m really excited about your future projects especially the trilogy!
I was wondering if you still have any plans to write a novel length story set during the decline of Atlantis?

[ecosophia]

That's still in the hopper, though it's going to be a while -- I need to do a lot more research on the Atlantis legend and the various other lost continents, as well as on what the world was like in 9600 BC. Still, it's a great theme and I want to explore it.

[(Anonymous)]

That is great to hear that it is still a possibility!

Haliverse

[(Anonymous)]

I'd certainly be up for reading more stories in the Haliverse, but long before current time. See the rise and fall of Hyperborea or the struggles of those from the flooded lands. Perhaps the rise of the Radiance and the desecration of the 7 shrines?
I'll be waiting for your occult trilogy as well.
Thank you for the books,
Ryan

Re: Haliverse

[ecosophia]

Well, we'll see. At the moment I'm pretty satisfied with the Haliverse series as it stands.

Last Four Bundle?

[joelcaris]

Hi JMG,

Do you know if Shaun is going to put together a bundle of The Shoggoth Concerto, The Nyogtha Variations, A Voyage to Hyperborea, and The Seal of Yueh Lao? I have the original seven books of the series and am piecing them out for full enjoyment (just started the fifth) but I haven't yet picked up the above four. I would be happy to hold off to grab them all in a special bundle if there's a plan for that in the future.

Also, add me to those very excited for the hefty magic trilogy!

Re: Last Four Bundle?

[ecosophia]

I know there's a shoggoth bundle on the way -- as far as I know the other two won't be bundled with them, or together.