The Weird of Hali Companion
Feb. 24th, 2021 04:57 pm
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!
I'm pleased to report that my forthcoming title The Weird of Hali Companion is now available for preorder as an ebook. Once it's out, there'll be a single link to buy it, but for the moment you'll need to preorder it from your preferred online ebook vendor: Amazon (Kindle)(USA) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08W2B4VC3
Barnes & Noble (Nook) https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-weird-of-hali-companion-john-michael-greer/1138766714;jsessionid=9D3602DBC544E7AC5DDC787ABC0FF194.prodny_store02-atgap11?ean=2940165303432
Tolino/Thalia.de https://www.thalia.de/shop/home/artikeldetails/ID150893586.html
(If you prefer to use Amazon but don't live in the US, check your own country's Amazon website -- it should be available there.)
If you somehow missed the earlier post here, The Weird of Hali Companion is an encyclopedic guide to all the people, places, and (squamous, rugose) things in my epic fantasy with tentacles, The Weird of Hali, and the four additional novels set in the same eldritch cosmos. I'm also delighted to report that sometime fairly soon I'll have another announcement to make, along similar lines, to the accompaniment of strange gibbering noises -- the image on the right may be considered a useful hint. Yes, the small print in red says Roleplaying the Other Side of the Cthulhu Mythos...
Back To Work...
Jan. 31st, 2021 01:55 pm...and I'm pleased to announce, first of all, a pair of books now available for preorder, and a pair of graphic novel projects now available as e-comics.
Let's begin with the one that's likely to stir up the most discussion, debate, spluttering indignation, and blind rage. The King in Orange: The Magical and Occult Roots of Political Power is my book-length exploration of the occult dimensions of the Trump era and its aftermath. The Cthulhu mythos reference is of course deliberate; the history of the last five years has been shaped by the rise of squamous, rugose realities that sane, sensible, comfortable people thought were buried forever. Those of my readers who've followed my blogging through the last five years or so know a good many of the ideas I discuss in this book, but not all. It will be released in print and ebook formats in May. Interested? You can read about it here -- the distributor has a good publicity site, unlike some -- and preorder a print copy here.
Also in a tentacular vein, but considerably more lighthearted, is a project I've been working on for some time: The Weird of Hali Companion, an encyclopedia of the people, places, and (ahem) things that feature in my epic fantasy with tentacles, The Weird of Hali, and its four companion novels. Puzzled by sidelong references to the Kitab al-Azif? Not sure why a book by Zosimus of Panopolis was in Charles Dexter Ward's library? Wondering where you met Tom Gilman before that scene in The Weird of Hali: Arkham? Here's your guide. (It's also going to be a fine resource for the Weird of Hali roleplaying game, which is most of the way through the intricacies of production -- I expect to have an announcement to make in the not too distant future.) As a lifelong fantasy geek, I kept copious notes while working on my tentacle novels, and it seemed unfair not to inflict their gibbering horror on fans of the series. Interested? You can preorder copies in print and ebook format here.
In the realm of graphic novels, meanwhile, I know many of my readers have admired (and purchased) copies of the two graphic adaptations of my stories "Winter's Tales" and "The Next Ten Billion Years" by Wormlamp Productions. I'm delighted to report that both of them are now available online from Comixology, the largest online sales venue for e-comics. Those readers who haven't been following my blogs since the dawn of time will want to know that Winter's Tales is a very capable graphic adaptation of a three-part story from the very earliest days of my former blog, The Archdruid Report, tracing a family's journey through three generations in the declining years of industrial civilization, with a slide rule providing the thread that ties the tales together. The graphic adaptation is by Marcu Knoesen and Walt Barna. You can get the digital comic here, and the print version (originally published in the Summer 2018 issue of Into The Ruins) can be bought here.
10 Billion is based on a future-history vision from the later years of The Archdruid Report, adapted by Marcu Knoesen with art by Daryl Knickrehm You know how authors so often grumble about visual adaptations of their work? This is that rare exception, a visual rendering that's better than the original. With an original frame story and vivid imagery, it's astonishingly good. You can get the digital comic here, and the print edition here.
(And if you're interested in reading the original stories on which these were based, together with the rest of my short fiction from The Archdruid Report, it's available in a single volume as An Archdruid's Tales, which you can order in print and ebook formats here.)
There will be more announcements coming in due time. Stay tuned!
Let's begin with the one that's likely to stir up the most discussion, debate, spluttering indignation, and blind rage. The King in Orange: The Magical and Occult Roots of Political Power is my book-length exploration of the occult dimensions of the Trump era and its aftermath. The Cthulhu mythos reference is of course deliberate; the history of the last five years has been shaped by the rise of squamous, rugose realities that sane, sensible, comfortable people thought were buried forever. Those of my readers who've followed my blogging through the last five years or so know a good many of the ideas I discuss in this book, but not all. It will be released in print and ebook formats in May. Interested? You can read about it here -- the distributor has a good publicity site, unlike some -- and preorder a print copy here.
Also in a tentacular vein, but considerably more lighthearted, is a project I've been working on for some time: The Weird of Hali Companion, an encyclopedia of the people, places, and (ahem) things that feature in my epic fantasy with tentacles, The Weird of Hali, and its four companion novels. Puzzled by sidelong references to the Kitab al-Azif? Not sure why a book by Zosimus of Panopolis was in Charles Dexter Ward's library? Wondering where you met Tom Gilman before that scene in The Weird of Hali: Arkham? Here's your guide. (It's also going to be a fine resource for the Weird of Hali roleplaying game, which is most of the way through the intricacies of production -- I expect to have an announcement to make in the not too distant future.) As a lifelong fantasy geek, I kept copious notes while working on my tentacle novels, and it seemed unfair not to inflict their gibbering horror on fans of the series. Interested? You can preorder copies in print and ebook format here.
In the realm of graphic novels, meanwhile, I know many of my readers have admired (and purchased) copies of the two graphic adaptations of my stories "Winter's Tales" and "The Next Ten Billion Years" by Wormlamp Productions. I'm delighted to report that both of them are now available online from Comixology, the largest online sales venue for e-comics. Those readers who haven't been following my blogs since the dawn of time will want to know that Winter's Tales is a very capable graphic adaptation of a three-part story from the very earliest days of my former blog, The Archdruid Report, tracing a family's journey through three generations in the declining years of industrial civilization, with a slide rule providing the thread that ties the tales together. The graphic adaptation is by Marcu Knoesen and Walt Barna. You can get the digital comic here, and the print version (originally published in the Summer 2018 issue of Into The Ruins) can be bought here.
10 Billion is based on a future-history vision from the later years of The Archdruid Report, adapted by Marcu Knoesen with art by Daryl Knickrehm You know how authors so often grumble about visual adaptations of their work? This is that rare exception, a visual rendering that's better than the original. With an original frame story and vivid imagery, it's astonishingly good. You can get the digital comic here, and the print edition here. (And if you're interested in reading the original stories on which these were based, together with the rest of my short fiction from The Archdruid Report, it's available in a single volume as An Archdruid's Tales, which you can order in print and ebook formats here.)
There will be more announcements coming in due time. Stay tuned!
Two New(ish) JMG Books
Jun. 15th, 2019 12:16 pm I'm pleased to announce that one of my forthcoming titles is now available for preorder, and one of my backlist titles is available again in a new, updated edition...
The Shoggoth Concerto is a fantasy set in the same fictive universe as The Weird of Hali -- the Haliverse, as some of my readers have taken to calling it. Here's the publisher's blurb:
The Shoggoth Concerto is a fantasy set in the same fictive universe as The Weird of Hali -- the Haliverse, as some of my readers have taken to calling it. Here's the publisher's blurb:*****
Brecken Kendall doesn't plan on becoming a composer. She also doesn't expect to encounter one of the eldritch realities H.P. Lovecraft borrowed for his weird fiction. A sophomore at Partridgeville State University on the edge of the New Jersey pine barrens, she’s trying to leave behind the bitter memories of her childhood and get a degree in music education. Lovecraft? He’s just one of the authors discussed in a class she’s taking that semester, where she learns about the polymorphous monsters called shoggoths. Those are nothing but an old legend, she thinks...until a young shoggoth, traumatized by a night of fire and death, appears in the kitchenette of the converted garage where Brecken lives.
A lucky chance—or is it more than that?—allows Brecken to communicate with the creature, and she decides to give it the food and shelter it so desperately needs. Over the weeks that follow, an unlikely bond grows between them. Brecken will need all the help the creature she nicknames Sho can give her, for her plans for her future are shattered by the awakening of an unexpected talent for music composition; her selfish and abusive boyfriend is seeking power in strange tomes of eldritch lore; the secret organization that annihilated all but one of the shoggoths under Hob’s Hill is still hunting for survivors of that terrible night; the living darkness the old books name Nyogtha, The Thing That Should Not Be, is weaving its own cryptic plans—and from beyond the boundary where curved time meets angular time, the terrible Hounds of Tindalos have scented their prey...
*****
The Shoggoth Concerto will be shipping on July 17 of this year; you can order advance copies of the print or ebook editions here.
And in other publishing new, my novel Twilight's Last Gleaming is back in print in an updated new edition. For those who didn't read it in its earlier incarnation, I should mention that this is not fantasy at all -- it's a fast-paced political/military thriller about an all-too-likely future, in which America's imperial overstretch has disastrous consequences. Here's the publisher's blurb:
And in other publishing new, my novel Twilight's Last Gleaming is back in print in an updated new edition. For those who didn't read it in its earlier incarnation, I should mention that this is not fantasy at all -- it's a fast-paced political/military thriller about an all-too-likely future, in which America's imperial overstretch has disastrous consequences. Here's the publisher's blurb:*****
A chilling high-concept geo-political thriller where a declining United States and a resurgent China come to the brink of all out nuclear war.
The year is 2028. Oil is the black gold that controls the fortunes of all nations and the once-mighty United States is down to the dregs. A giant oil field is discovered off the Tanzanian coast and the newly elected US President finds his solution to America’s ailing economy. While the US blindly plots and plans regime change in this hitherto insignificant African nation, Tanzania’s allies – the Chinese – start their own secret machinations. The explosion that follows shatters a decades-old balance of global power and triggers a crisis on American soil that the United States may not survive.
Political conspiracies, military manouvers, and covert activities are woven together in this fast-paced, gripping novel that paints a stark warning of an uncomfortably likely future.
*****
Twilight's Last Gleaming is now in stock and ready to ship, and you can order copies here. Enjoy!