Book Review: HomosJarra

[TheEldritchGod]

@Notadate - Here ya go. Your Review:

Having glanced at the cover, I have reviewed this book and wish to give my review

I was not expecting it to be about a terrarium in a land-locked Lighthouse, but the symbolism strikes home. It is a very interesting character study into the nature of a man hired to watch a lighthouse in the middle of a Scottish moor. The lighthouse is never lit at any time, and, well, I don't want to spoil it, but I do have to mention the reason it is there is because it is an access point to the hollow earth.

The use of the Audio Tour as played back on a cassette tape was absolutely brilliant. Here. I will let you read for yourself.

[beep]





Welcome to the timeline! This little hutch has the entire timeline of the Gallowtree Lighthouse at your disposal. We will be discussing events in detail as we proceed with our tour, and we will begin with the pre-history of Gallowtree.

We start back in the Neolithic where we believe that for some reason, there was an outbreak of White Cedar trees in this area. We are uncertain exactly how this took place, but evidence shows that the area was remarkably boggy at the time. The only known examples of the tree were found on this hill. Although the name of this place is Mount Fiendsfell, it is actually technically termed a hill and not a mountain. Still, it was once one of the highest locations around, surrounded by a seemingly endless desolate moor. The mountain was the only place where the white cedar grew and became known as a sacred place to Neolithic humans.

Archeologists have found many nearby graves with multiple different burials indicating that either many burial rites had taken place here, or that the fanciful stories of ancient pagan worship of dark powers were true and these are the remains of the human sacrifices.

The truth of the matter is that the area remained in isolation from the rest of the world for quite some time up until the Roman Iron Period, when in approximately 300 AD, during the Diocletian Division, rumors of a devil cult reached the ears of the Vicar of Britain who then dispatched roman troops to deal with the problem. Surviving records speak of a great battle with infernal creatures and a great gaping hole that descended into the earth that closed up when a demon belching fire exploded and caused a great conflagration.

It is believed that these fanciful reports were merely propaganda for the means of converting the local population. What is known is that a survivor informed the Romans that the location required annual human sacrifice or the hole would open back up and the monsters would become free again.

The Romans were not the type to sacrifice humans to any pagan god, however, the location was ideal for the location of a prison. Its inaccessibility and the difficulty of moving through the surrounding terrain provided natural barriers for escaping prisoners. Plus its reputation as a place haunted by monsters served it well to discourage visitors. So the prison and a surrounding town sprung up where Gallowtree now stands.

As for the sacrifices, from time to time prisoners had to be put to death. The tree stump you saw before was the largest tree in the area. As you can see by the picture on the wall to your left, an Easter White Cedar is a rather ghastly-looking tree, often missing bark and looking quite dead, even though it is still alive and growing. That stump was at one time the largest tree remaining on Mount Fiendsfell. Thus it was on this tree that most hangings took place.

Over the centuries, the fortunes of The British Isles would wax and wane, but the town of Gallowtree remained practically the same. Cut off from the outside world, it became a privately run prison that would hold any prisoner that anyone wanted, as long as the price was paid. If you failed to pay the cost of upkeep for your prisoner, the prisoner would be sent to "Feed the Crow".



Please pause the tape and move to marker three.

Later on, he weaves in references to The Earth Expansion Theory, The Lost Continent of Mu, and references to my favorite cultist John Cleves Symmes who believed that the world was shrinking, but the amount of water would remain the same and so all would be swallowed up by the ocean.

The use of symbolism tying the Caretaker's sanity with the terrarium was brilliant. I don't want to spoil the ending, but the curious method by which he combines alternate-world timelines and how quantum decay causes other parallel worlds to shrink was quite a terrifying concept. Only one version of all timelines survives, and all others die horribly is an interesting concept, considering that because the other worlds "dwindle" then escape from the other doomed timeline would only be possible if you were high enough off the ground when you go from one world to another.

The scene where he descended into the warrens under the lighthouse to find all those people trapped inside the stone they materialized in will haunt me for quite some time. Quite chilling.

I would have liked to have had more about the side character James Dove. I think he was quite well written, but I understand he was written to be a tragic character, so his fate was immutable. However, as the counterpoint to James Symmes was very well done. I especially liked the line:

"The Earth as well as all the celestial orbicular bodies existing in the inverse, visible and invisible, which partake in any degree of a planetary nature, from the greatest to the smallest, from the sun down to the most minute blazing meteor or falling star, are all constituted, in a greater or less degree, of a collection of spheres."

Which is some amazing foreshadowing.

To explain anymore, would ruin the story. I suggest you glance at the cover for yourself.

I give it a Tankard of Ale/5

 

[Notadate]

*opens mouth* *closes mouth*