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    Southern Gods
    Southern Gods
    Southern Gods
    Audiobook9 hours

    Southern Gods

    Written by John Hornor Jacobs

    Narrated by Eric G. Dove

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    Recent World War II veteran Bull Ingram is working as muscle when a Memphis DJ hires him to find Ramblin' John Hastur. The mysterious blues man's dark, driving music — broadcast at ever-shifting frequencies by a phantom radio station — is said to make living men insane and dead men rise. Disturbed and enraged by the bootleg recording the DJ plays for him, Ingram follows Hastur's trail into the strange, uncivilized backwoods of Arkansas, where he hears rumors the musician has sold his soul to the Devil. But as Ingram closes in on Hastur and those who have crossed his path, he'll learn there are forces much more malevolent than the Devil and reckonings more painful than Hell...

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateAug 16, 2011
    ISBN9781455825202
    Author

    John Hornor Jacobs

    John Hornor Jacobs' first novel, Southern Gods, was shortlisted for the Bram Stoker Award for First Novel. His young adult series, The Incarcerado Trilogy comprised of The Twelve-Fingered Boy, The Shibboleth, and The Conformity, was described by Cory Doctorow of Boing Boing as ""amazing"" and received a starred Booklist review. His Fisk & Shoe fantasy series composed of The Incorruptibles, Foreign Devils, and Infernal Machines has thrice been shortlisted for the David Gemmell Award and was described by Patrick Rothfuss like so: ""One part ancient Rome, two parts wild west, one part Faust. A pinch of Tolkien, of Lovecraft, of Dante. This is strange alchemy, a recipe I’ve never seen before. I wish more books were as fresh and brave as this."" His fiction has appeared in Playboy Magazine, Cemetery Dance, Apex Magazine. Follow him on Twitter at @johnhornor.

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    Reviews for Southern Gods

    4/5

    125 ratings9 reviews

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    • 3/5
      It had a good setup but there was no real sense of mystery or horror as everything played out.
    • 5/5
      Just wow! If you like the Cthulhu Mythos, you’re going to love this read. The only fault that I can find with this book is that it’s not the first of an anthology.
    • 5/5
      Excellent story! Dark and Lovecraftian, well paced and engaging storytelling.
    • 5/5
      This was great! The narrator was great! Characters were great! A well-balanced supernatural gift that flows with vim and vigor. The visual descriptions were vivid and offered the reader layered imagery of the authors vision. Finished it in record time, couldn't stop listen...the narrator is one of the best. Perfect combination of author and narrator. Do it.
    • 5/5
      A harsh, spare little chunk of Lovecraftian brutality. What it lacks in polish it makes up for in full-on speed.
    • 4/5
      Southern GodsAuthor: John Hornor JacobsPublisher: Nightshade BooksPublishing Date: 2011Pgs: 270Dewey: F JACDisposition: Interlibrary Loan - Central Library IFICW via Irving Public Library - South Campus - Irving, TX_________________________________________________REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERSSummary:Recent World War II veteran Bull Ingram is working as muscle when a Memphis DJ hires him to find Ramblin' John Hastur. The mysterious blues man's dark, driving music - broadcast at ever-shifting frequencies by a phantom radio station - is said to make living men insane and dead men rise. Disturbed and enraged by the bootleg recording the DJ plays for him, Ingram follows Hastur's trail into the strange, uncivilized backwoods of Arkansas, where he hears rumors the musician has sold his soul to the Devil. But as Ingram closes in on Hastur and those who have crossed his path, he'll learn there are forces much more malevolent than the Devil and reckonings more painful than Hell... In a masterful debut of Lovecraftian horror and Southern gothic menace, John Hornor Jacobs reveals the fragility of free will, the dangerous power of sacrifice, and the insidious strength of blood._________________________________________________Genre:Gothic FictionHistorical FantasyDark FantasyLovecraft MythosBlues MusicCrossroads MythINSERT HEREWhy this book:The Blues and Cthulhu. A many tentacled trip to the crossroads._________________________________________________The Feel:Eerie AF.So after we start off with a Crossroads vibe, it picks up both a Lovecraft Country and an American Gods kind of vibe. Very nice.Favorite Character:I like Bull Ingram, but no one would ever accuse him of being the most intelligent character.Favorite Concept:Music that will raise the dead.Hmm Moments:Arkansasylvania? Transylsas? I expect Hickthulhu any second.At the least, this book is a fellow traveller with Lovecraft Country. It definitely shares roots in the part of the country that it's taking place in and in Lovecraft.So within the space for an hour she saw a bedridden sickly old woman start speaking in tongues and lashing out and, then, sees a shadow staring at her from the bottom of the stairs and doesn't tell anybody about it, not the smartest character in the world. Course I guess she could already be under Hastur's spell. She has been translating the Little Book of Shadows and sitting with and listening to the old lady speak in tongue. What could possibly go wrong?Juxtaposition:The scene in Ruby’s on the Bayour: Grover's introduction of Hastur reminds me of King's Man in Black. Interesting juxtaposition, Hastur and Flagg.So, Sarah belittles the Father Andrez and makes fun of him and, then, runs away from him. Then, she remembers Uncle Gregor telling her stories that line up with what the priest was talking about. Dreamcasting:Peter Dinklage as Father Andrez._________________________________________________Pacing:Once Bull, Sarah, and Father Andrez gather at Gethsemane the pace picks up a lot.Last Page Sound:Damn...that ending was both horrible and awesome...mostly horrible, in a horror movie way. And that epilogue...that's not really a happy ending. It’s awesome. But...damn.Questions I’m Left With:So...Wilhelm survived the boat...or was that Hastur in another form?Author Assessment:Very good. Will read more by this author._________________________________________________
    • 4/5
      This is more than a 3 star read, but not quite enough to round up to 4 stars. The potential for a fabulous story carried me through until a sudden shift in point of view. The main character, Bull, seemed to take a back seat to Sarah and the action became hers, with Bull fading into the background like a supporting actor. I lost a bit of interest at that point. Bull's character and background were more interesting, and though I was sympathetic to Sarah, she would have been better as a support to Bull. In fact, the dynamic between Bull and Ramblin' John Hastur was excellent. With Sarah, the tension was lost since she never actually met Hastur. The story abruptly changed focus to her family and background.

      As for zombies, and gore - the horror elements were all there. For some reason I was less drawn into those scenes than I have been with other horror stories, such as HORNS by Joe Hill. I'm not certain why - just saying. On the positive side, SOUTHERN GODS plot and characters, especially Hastur and Bull, were very well drawn. This was quite a decent book, and one I'll remember for several elements, such as oily mouth'ed zombies.

    • 3/5
      Horner's promising debut serves up its best parts front and centre, leaving the book marred by a few rookie mistakes and a climax that struggles to deliver on its initial promise. Whether that's enough to get you across the line depends on your yen for Lovecraft. World War II veteran Bull puts his massive frame to use as an enforcer, but an odd request from a record label puts him on the hunt for elusive blues musician, Johnny Hastur. Coming from a pirate radio in rural Arkansaw, Hastur's music makes you *feel* things. Bad things. Bull will find himself coming face-to-face with threats that are thousands of years old, threats that could make a man lose his mind, or find an altogether different kind of mind...Firstly the good: Jacobs has taken an atypical setting and really made the fusion with Lovecraft feel natural and interesting. His melange of the 1950s south and nameless horrors from the great beyond works terrifically well, and it's nowhere near as cute or gimmicky as it sounds. His handling - at least early on - of the Lovecraft mythos is deft and ladles on just enough. I find writers working with hefty IP like this - or Holmesian pastiche - have a tendency to pile it on a bit thick in a misguided effort to prove their credentials; Jacobs avoids that and the mythos propels a story rather than the story being an excuse for it. The atmosphere of a south so deep you need breathing apparatus is also effective. I mean, he's no Carson McCullers, but there's a febrile, tactile sense that works well. But there are a few things that don't work so well. Firstly, Bull's story is only one winding through the book, and the other - about a woman named Sarah is nowhere near as well-written, both in terms of pacing and characterisation. The simple, reactive thoughts of Bull are replaced by needless explanation. Not only are you told every single thing that Sarah thinks, but they are mostly cliched, and weirdly also mostly unbelievable. Where Bull's story builds up a sense of mystery and dread so effectively, the sections with Sarah serve to knock it down. Naturally, this affects the ending where both strands combine. The other thing Jacobs struggles with is his level of violence - he seems torn between a Lovecraftian level of explicitness, and a level more in line with contemporary horror. The first time the book explodes into violence, it's unexpected, shocking and quite effective. As the body count and gory descriptions pile up, however, it loses its horror and becomes somewhat tawdry. This is extended to the climax which features a genuinely distasteful and absolutely gratuitous scene of child violence. So all in all, there's a great book hiding out in Southern Gods, but it's stymied by Jacob's abilities as a writer, especially in regards to characterisation and narrative. I was left feeling that a stronger editor could have re-set the course and kept a novel that lived up to its terrific mood and solid ideas. As it stands, however, I found myself trying to recapture the fire of the first 100 pages, and only to be denied - despite a few sparks, it's consistently dampened by mistakes.
    • 5/5
      Southern Gothic doesn’t begin to cover it!I just re-read this fantastic book by John Hornor Jacobs as I never got around to writing this review the first time (extenuating circumstances) and it certainly bears reading again.Set in the deep south of Arkansas in the early 1950s, this is part road movie, part historic plantation and family story with a generous helping of dark forces and blood.‘Bull’ Ingram, ex-marine, finds people and collects money his employer is owed for a living. That is, until a Memphis DJ hires him to find a mysterious blues musician being played on a pirate radio station over the border in Arkansas, one Ramblin’ John Hastur, who’s music is reputed to have supernatural powers. When he plays a sample of the music hastily recorded off the radio, Bull finds himself building into a killing rage - entirely brought on by the music.Meanwhile, Sarah Williams and her daughter Franny return to the Reinhart Estate in the town of Gethsemene. Known as ‘The Big House’, the mansion has a bloody history, where Sarah’s grandmother, a cook and an uncle were all killed by her uncle Wilhelm. How he did it, as he was dying of tuberculosis was a mystery, but the heart of his brother was missing, cut from his chest, a sacrifice of blood with significance with gods.Obviously, Bull’s quest brings him to the Big House, but not as you’d expect and I’d rather leave it there than give away too much of the plot. Let’s just say Hastur’s music has properties that can animate the dead and leave it at that.I thought the book was a bold, engrossing tale told well from the two viewpoints - to be honest, I didn’t want to stop reading it, either time! John’s descriptions are so vivid there were times I could almost smell the blood. I have to say I’m looking forward to reading more of his work, based on this fine debut, as I enjoyed this and would heartily recommend it to anyone who likes a scare in the vein of H P Lovecraft, more than a King or Barker style.Not for the faint hearted, as a warning. If a good horror story isn’t your thing, I’d give this a miss.
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