Brood of the Witch-Queen

Now,I have read quite a few "weird" tales in my time,from R.W.Chambers,HPL to Merrit or even H.H.Ewers-but this story,presented in a very fine manner,is one of the best and weirdst weird tales I have ever read.It combines locality,with horror and thus takes us from a secret chamber-tomb in an old english castle,to a horrible egyptian pyramid,from London to Cairo and back-and this whole quest is vividly imaginative,lurid and enchanting in its sheer strangeness.Though Ward could write things of no quality at all,like his "The Blue Monkey",where a good seting is incinerated almost the very second it is established-and the only other solution to the "mystery",which we get,is not only anticlimatic,but also boring and it is a shame-the sting of the pit, the strange barman monkey statue,these all could equal for a great story-but Ward chose a horrible one,with litle imagination,a murder mystery with a false,suposd and uterly untrue un-natural element.It is on of the most horrible letdowns,like reading "Eggs of the Silver Moon",or beter yt,having to wade through all the four lovey-dovey french fin de siecile bohemian scene set tales in the end of Robert W. Chambers' "King in yellow",praying endlessly for something strange to happen-this is exactely what a reader,after readign "Brood of the witch queen" will think after digesting "the blue Monkey"-the very notion of a comparison between "The Brood" and "The King in yellow" must showcase its qualities-yet for all its magnificence,its sole point of resurection from obscurity is being mentioned in a by-line with two other works,Marsh' "The Beetle" and Bliss' "The Door of the Unreal" as being spawned from Dracula by Lovecraft in "Suprnatural horror in litrature" (thats not fully true,though,for "The Beetle" came out just the same year as the Stoker tale and even outselled it then,having 15 editions in 16 years) th very by-the-way means of mentioning the tale are themselves prophtic of the novels status-while enjoying popularity with a selct few,it is virtualy unknown and overshaded by Ward's "yellow peril" novels,which, however cant hope to match this tale.This book doesnt get discused , not even on the internet,its like trying to find an etext of such wonderfull-sounding stories like "The Mine of the Desert" by David J. Footman (dealing ,suposedly,with a degenerate peoples descended from roman slaves living in a pit in the sahara) or "Supernatural Tales" by James Platt-its just not there,though it SHOULD (both tales being Public Domain-ed for decades),just like there should be more radily acessible editions of Hanns Heinz Ewers novels. My only gripe with the novel is slight,but towards the end,the horrid elemental,described,or hinted as utterly menacing is defeated in a very anti-climatic way-by throwing wax balls to melt on the rooms curtains. Other then that,the whole novel atains peaks of strangeness only seldomly reached or surpassed in modern literature.

"It was a bat, a fairly large one and a clot of blood marked the place where its head had been." The most gripping adventure story I've read in some time. More thrilling than the Indiana Jones movies; If Spielberg hasn't carefully studied this, he should! I especially liked the circa 1918 view of the occult sciences, and their practitioners. Rohmer creates a consistent and creepy supernatural world. Rohmer's works are mysteriously absent from my entire county library system, but are thankfully back in print.

Good pulp adventure story that spans from the homes of London's elite to the ancient pyramids of Egypt. Contains many vivid and exciting scenes. What begins as a murder mystery turns into the hunt for a diabolical villian with supernatural powers. Fans of the Indiana Jones movies, and of the recent remake of "The Mummy", would probably like this book. The only thing that spoilt the fun for me was the abrupt ending. But, it's still worth reading.

Sax Rohmer is one of my guilty pleasures. He may not be politically correct, but he really knew how to pack atmosphere and suspense into what were essentially written movie serials. The Fu Manchu stories are great fun, but his absolute best is 'Witch Queen'. A friend told me years ago that this was the scariest book he had ever read and I have to agree with him. This is easily the eeriest book I have ever read. And when the characters start crawling around in the pyramid of Meydum...well! The claustrophgobia goes up by a factor of ten. If you want a great scary read (and want to know where the inspiration for Indiana Jones probably came from) please, don't be put off by what may sound like a silly title - buy the book, put your feet up and scare yourself senseless!