Celestial Seepage: Brian Fatah Steele
Reviewed by Steve Stred
I recently said it on Twitter, but I’ll say again here – Brian Fatah Steele has the most imaginative cosmic horror mind out there right now. It’s insanity.
This was my third go-around with Brian’s work – first the collection ‘Your Arms in Entropy’ and then his novel ‘Bleed Away the Sky.’ Both of these are filled to the absolute brim with fantastically complex ideas and Brian executed really well. As I said back then – if ‘Bleed Away the Sky’ had a more personally solid ending, it would have been an easy 5 star read.
KR: You can read the Kendall Reviews for Your Arms In Entropy HERE and Bleed The Sky Away HERE
With ‘Celestial Seepage,’ Steele returns with a new tale and wowsa does this thing cover a ton of ground.
We’re introduced to Harper – a librarian who has now been told she is to work at the Historical Society in order to scan and digitize all of the print articles and pictures that it houses. She’s not thrilled at the new position and after a few run-ins with the older lady who oversees the building, she’s begging to be transferred, if not she’ll quit.
Soon, Steele interjects a few things that start to show that not everything appears to be as is – a super-rich, eccentric resident, a college student who ‘feels’ the town and a brooding individual.
It’s here that Steele rips open the bandage of what’s real and what’s not and soon we get a fantastic back story, monsters that arrive from another realm and a group of strangers who must band together to save the small town.
I really enjoyed the cosmic aspects here, but Steele seems to have really worked hard to get the interpersonal dynamics down – the interactions don’t just feel like throwaway bits to fill pages or give characters dialogue, instead the tension gets ramped up on a character level as well as a cosmic level.
This story absolutely leaves the… er… um… door? wide open for Harper to return in the future, but at the same time, this could simply be a one-off that really delivered.
Thanks to Brian and Glenn aka Alien Agenda Publishing for sending this my way, really appreciate it.
If you’ve not yet read Fatah Steele’s work, this is an excellent jumping in point. For current fans – Brian delivers another masterful story that worships at the altar of the old ones.
KR: To celebrate the release of Celestial Seepage, Brian shared his 10 favourite Youtube horror channels with Kendall Reviews. To find out what they were please go HERE
Celestial Seepage
Harper didn’t want to leave the library to take the temporary position at the Historical Society. There was something unsettling about the place, something sinister. She had no idea her presence there was about to trigger the escape of monstrous entities from a higher dimension, ones imprisoned there by their own kind decades ago.
Facing primordial horrors, Harper and her friends realize there have been alien gods in their midst all along, some closer than they ever could’ve believed. Together, they must stop a cataclysm that even gods can’t walk away from.
You can buy Celestial Seepage from Amazon UK & Amazon US
Steve Stred
Steve Stred writes dark, bleak horror fiction.
Steve is the author of the novels Invisible & The Stranger, the novellas The Girl Who Hid in the Trees, Wagon Buddy, Yuri and Jane: the 816 Chronicles and two collections of short stories; Frostbitten: 12 Hymns of Misery and Left Hand Path: 13 More Tales of Black Magick, and the dark poetry collection Dim the Sun.
On September 1st, 2019 his second collection of dark poetry and drabbles called The Night Crawls In will arrive. This release was specifically created to help fund the 1st Annual LOHF Writers Grant.
Steve is also a voracious reader, reviewing everything he reads and submitting the majority of his reviews to be featured on Kendall Reviews.
Steve Stred is based in Edmonton, AB, Canada and lives with his wife, his son and their dog OJ.
You can follow Steve on Twitter @stevestred
You can visit Steve’s Official website here
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