{"id":2845,"date":"2015-12-31T13:28:28","date_gmt":"2015-12-31T21:28:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/?p=2845"},"modified":"2015-12-31T15:58:34","modified_gmt":"2015-12-31T23:58:34","slug":"the-miskatonic-manuscript-reviews-part-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/?p=2845","title":{"rendered":"The Miskatonic Manuscript, reviews part 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DelSignoreBlog\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Following a slow Christmas week, when most folks presumably had other things to do, additional reviews of The Miskatonic Manuscript<\/strong> are starting to flow in.<\/p>\n

Oliver Del Signore, webmaster for Oregon-based Backwoods Home magazine (though he actually lives somewhere in the frozen wastes of Massachusetts), offers his take on the latest adventure of Matthew Hunter and Chantal Stevens at www.backwoodshome.com\/book-review-the-miskatonic-manuscript-by-oliver-del-signore\/<\/a> .<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to give you only the barest of plot outlines,\u201d<\/em> sayeth Mr. Del Signore, \u201cbecause when you read the book, as I hope you will, I want you to be as continuously surprised (and hopefully delighted) as I was. I want you to encounter ideas that might make you rethink the way we live, love, govern, and even worship in modern America. . . .<\/p>\n

\u201cAs you can tell from the jacket, inside you\u2019re going to encounter some strange places, some dinosaurs, and a naked woman or two, but don\u2019t let any of that put you off the story. It\u2019s not just science fiction and not especially racy. It is well-written, engaging, and each time you think you know where it\u2019s going, it surprises you. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe tale begins with Windsor Annesley, leader of the Church of Cthulhu, on trial. He and his church use mind-enhancing plants and chemicals as sacraments, sacraments those in power misclassify as narcotics as part of their War on Drugs. But unlike most accused \u2018drug dealers\u2019 facing the modern equivalent of a \u2018hanging judge,\u2019 Windsor doesn\u2019t seem particularly worried. On the contrary, he\u2019s downright defiant as he makes his final statement before sentencing. . . .<\/p>\n

\u201cAs with the characters in The Testament of James<\/strong>, those you will meet in The Miskatonic Manuscript<\/strong> are well-drawn. Many are folks you\u2019d love to have as friends. . . . When you\u2019ve finished the book, you\u2019ll . . . have experienced an imagination that takes you on a trip you might well wish you could take for yourself. . . .”<\/em><\/p>\n

Thanks, Oliver!<\/p>\n

\u2018I was put off by much of this . . .\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Of course, not everyone is going to enjoy Vin\u2019s work. On his RAW Illumination site -\u2013 www.rawillumination.net\/2015\/12\/a-psychedelic-novel-from-libertarian.html<\/a> — Tom Jackson, Illuminatus fan and a member of the Libertarian Futurist Society, acknowledges \u201cThere’s plenty of action in the book, including sequences in which Stevens gets to blast away with her firearms at dinosaurs and giant spiders, and a lot of heartfelt discussion about the evils of the war on the drugs. . . . Anyone interested in the war on drugs and in psychedelic drugs will likely find the book interesting. The book moves along at a good clip.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Beyond that, though, Mr. Jackson finds little to like in all this \u201cgun toting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s quite a bit of violence in which the pro-drug forces murder authorities involved in the war on drugs. I was put off by much of this, and also thought the writing could have been better,\u201d<\/em> Mr. Jackson opines. \u201cThe quality of the prose is not the best part of the book.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

As ever, feedback and discussion from all perspectives is welcome; readers are invited to post comments or questions below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following a slow Christmas week, when most folks presumably had other things to do, additional reviews of The Miskatonic Manuscript are starting to flow in. Oliver Del Signore, webmaster for Oregon-based Backwoods Home magazine (though he actually lives somewhere in the frozen wastes of Massachusetts), offers his take on the latest adventure of Matthew Hunter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[65,53,13,54,55,66,64],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bibliomystery","category-books","category-drug-war","category-entheogens","category-fiction","category-psychedelic-fiction","category-science-fiction"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pWqFl-JT","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2845"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2852,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2845\/revisions\/2852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}