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eBook Category: Horror
eBook Description: Seekers after dark power are drawn to Professor Carlton Brose, who teaches a class on the occult at Miskatonic University. But ultimate power comes at the ultimate price, and there are some things that should not be adored.

eBook Publisher: Fictionwise.com, Published: Weird Tales, 2002
Fictionwise Release Date: September 2005

15 Reader Ratings: Great Good OK Poor

Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [170 KB], eReader (PDB) [26 KB], Palm Doc (PDB) [12 KB], Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [12 KB], Microsoft Reader (LIT) [74 KB] - PocketPC 1.0+ Compatible, Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [83 KB], hiebook (KML) [86 KB], Sony Reader (LRF) [39 KB], iSilo (PDB) [10 KB], Mobipocket (PRC) [13 KB], Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [40 KB], OEBFF Format (IMP) [20 KB]
Words: 3623
Reading time: 10-14 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Format:  Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED

Common to writers selective about their reading, with eccentricities well tipped towards literary fiction, my Sci-Fi repertoire was Farscape, Lord of the Rings and Star Wars (on screen--with a slab of chocolate on my tongue). Banish her, quick, you're thinking, hopefully to a dimension with no time or return. Relax. I cut my Fictionwise Sci-Fi and Fantasy tooth on David Barr Kirtley. He is an immensely readable writer whose work--blood, steel or guts--has an added dimension. 'The Disciple' is a new train of thought, exploration in superb writing. The opening paragraph draws and builds intrigue on an evil character who seems to get more evil in chilling progression. It builds to a crescendo on a black night at the deepest corner of shadowy wood amidst whirls of screaming wind and jumping stones. Anyone who enjoys this eBook will much enjoy 'The Black Bird,' 'Lest We Forget,' 'The Second Rat' and most of Kirtley whose work is unpredictable enough to build readership. That is the mark of splendid writing. Sometimes a thin line separates technology and fantasy, space ships and wizardry. For someone tired of clichés, try Kirtley; be wooed by the ... key stroke. -Eugen Bacon, Fictionwise Recommender

Professor Carlton Brose was evil, and I adored him as only a freshman can. I spent the first miserable winter at college watching him, studying the way he darkly arched his eyebrow when he made a point, or how he would flick a smoking cigarette away into a murky puddle, forgotten the instant it left his touch. I mimicked these small things privately, mercilessly. I don't know why, because it wasn't the small things that drew me in at all. It was the big things, the stories people told as far away as dear old Carolina.

You heard the name Brose if you ran with any cults, and I ran with a couple. Society rejected us so we rejected them. The more things you give up, the less there are to bind your will. There's power in that, we were sure of it, but it was damned elusive.

I knew the owner of an occult bookstore in Raleigh. He claimed he had actually met Brose. "These other guys you hang with," he said, "them I'm not so sure about. But this guy Brose, he's the real deal."

I studied the man carefully. "You believe that?"

He'd been shelving books, but then he dropped them into a pile on the floor and turned to me with a slightly crazed look in his eyes.

"I've seen it, man," he said, "personally seen it. Flies buzz up out of the rot and swirl in formation around him. He can make your eyes bleed just from looking at him. The guy's tapped into something huge."