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Sargasso: The Journal of William Hope Hodgson Studies #3

The third issue of Sargasso: The Journal of William Hope Hodgson Studies is now available. Well, it’s actually been available for quite some time, but I only just found out about it. Like previous issues of the journal, this issue includes in-depth essays on Hodgson's life and work, including Utter Quiet in All the Land: A Recurring Motif by Ryan Jefferson, The House on the Borderland: The Ultimate Horror Novel by Liam Garriock, Ye Hogge: Liminality and the Motif of the Monstrous Pig in Hodgson’s The Hog and The House on the Borderland by Leigh Blackmore, and The House on the Burren: The Physical and Psychological Foundations of The House on the Borderland by Joseph Hinton.

There’s also poetry inspired by the author’s work, and several short stories, including my own short story A Hideous Communion. This story was previously published in Carnacki: The Lost Cases, an anthology that took the mysterious cases hinted at by ‘Ghost-Finder’ Thomas Carnacki (a fictional occult detective who appeared in a collection of supernatural stories by Hodgson between 1910 and 1912) and expands them into their own stories. A Hideous Communion was inspired by a line from The Horse of the Invisible when Carnacki references a particularly terrifying case in which ‘the hand of the child kept materialising within the pentacle, and patting the floor. As you will remember, that was a hideous business.’ One reviewer noted ‘Pain, sorrow, loneliness, horror, and an abomination from beyond combine to make [A Hideous Communion] truly frightening.’

Another review at MarzAat notes: 'What’s a journal on Hodgsonian without a Carnacki tale? And James Gracey gives us one with “A Hideous Communion”. Moderately interesting, it has the occult detective going to Ireland and investigate sightings of his friend’s dead wife. The solution to the mystery is a novel one.' You hear that? Moderately interesting! 

You can purchase Sargasso: The Journal of William Hope Hodgson Studies here and Carnacki: The Lost Cases is available here.

Cover art by Chris Ferman

Back cover art by Chris Ferman
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