Review: The Devoured

The Devoured by Curtis M. Lawson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review: THE DEVOURED by Curtis M. Lawson

I am in awe of author Curtis M. Lawson, who brings to the table a towering intellect (my brain stretches reading his work) and a wide-ranging imagination. He also possesses an incredible grasp of language, laying down phrases like you wouldn't believe (but yet, here they are on the page). Often I pause to savour a turn of phrase, or a description, before continuing. I wouldn't classify his cosmology as fully Lovecraftian (he's far too clever to let his philosophy be limited) but it is Lovecraftian enough to suit this aficionado, and his writings acknowledge that Beyond so far distant from the puny concerns and miniscule concepts of humans (check out his collection BLACK PANTHEONS).

On the surface, THE DEVOURED is a tale set in California near the end of The War Between The States (and oh, the perspective author Lawson puts on that war resounds with clarity and discernment). An adolescent boy, oversized in body, with a good mind, devotion to his Paiute mother, and admiration for his Nordic father, finds himself in charge after Father travels to Texas in aid of the doomed Confederacy. His beloved mother falls ill and approaches death. When the God of Israel seems to provide no answer nor healing, he seeks out his shaman maternal grandfather, an evil man, also dying. Emmett gradually discovers planes of existence, entities, and evils not known to the majority of mortals. Not only the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

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