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Title | Summoned
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Author | Anne M. Pillsworth
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Cover Art | ---
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Publisher | Tor - 2014
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First Printing | Tor - 2014
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Title | The Madonna of the Abattoir
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Author | Anne M. Pillsworth
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Cover Art | Sam Wolfe Connelly
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Publisher | Tor - 2014
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First Printing | Tor - 2014
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Download | Tor.com
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Title | Fathomless
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Author | Anne M. Pillsworth
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Cover Art | Bastien Lecouffe Deharne
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Publisher | Tor - 2015
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First Printing | Tor - 2015
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Title | Unmortal
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Author | Anne M. Pillsworth
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Cover Art | ---
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Publisher | ---
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First Printing | ---
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Category | Lovecraftian
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Warnings | None
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Main Characters | Sean, Eddy, Redemption Orne, Helen, Geldman, Daniel
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Main Elements | Wizards, demons
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Website | annempillsworth.com
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 Summoned
When the Elder Gods extend an invitation be wary of the strings attached.
Sean is just an ordinary teenager, living in a small town in Rhode Island with his dad, working a part-time job, and avoiding homework. He mostly spends his time playing MMORPG's, or hanging out with his best friend, Edna ("call-me-Eddy-or-else").
While browsing in a used book store in Arkham, Sean finds an occult book with an ad seeking an apprentic sorcerer, from a newspaper dated March 21, 1895. Even more intriguing, the ad specifically request applications reply by email.
Sean's always been interested in magic, particularly the dark mythology of the Lovecraftian style. Against Eddy's advice, he decides to answer the ad, figuring it's a clever hoax, but hoping that it isn't. The advertiser, Reverend Redemption Orne, claims to be a master of the occult, born more than three hundred years ago. To prove this legitimacy, Orne gives Sean instructions to summon a harmless and useful familiar - but Sean's ceremony takes a dark turn, and instead he accidentally beckons a bloodthirsty servant of the Cthulhu mytho god Nyarlathotep. The ritual is preemptively broken, and now Sean must find and bind the servitor, before it grows too strong to contain. But strange things are already happening in the town of Arkham.
Fathomless
Sean Wyndham has tried to stay away from the lure of magic—the last time he tried to dabble in the dark studies, he inadvertently summoned a blood familiar, wreaking havoc on his town and calling the attention of the Elder Gods.
Still, Sean has been offered the chance to study the occult with a proper teacher and maybe gain a handle on his tempestuous callings. And it seems like a safe choice—overseen by Helen Arkwright, a friend of Sean’s father and heir to an ancient order of much power, founded to protect New England from that which lurks in the coastline’s unseen depths. But will learning theory be enough, when there is a much greater magical secret hidden in Helen’s vaulted library?
Accompanied by his best friend, Eddy, and their enigmatic new friend, Daniel, Sean wades out deeper into mystical legend and shadow. With hints and secrets buried long in family lore, they turn to the suspicious Reverend Orne once more for assistance. But as Sean deepens his understanding of his power, the darkness is waking.
I'd heard so much about the Cthulhu mythos that I always planned to read Lovecraft some day, but as of now I didn't get around to it, in fact I actually had to double check that this mythos really was a creation of Lovecraft as this book implies the mythos was around a lot longer and all too real as Sean was about to discover.
Sean accidentally summons a demon...well not completely accidental, he sort of knew what he was doing, but being kid, not fully believing what he was doing was real and being manipulated by a freaking god one could sort of excuse him for his mistake. Thus he summons a Servitor, one super creepy demonic creature that nearly gave me nightmares.
Pros - interesting premise, good world building, engaging characters, mysteries, danger, magic, and creepy if you like that kind of thing. I liked how the adults were involved, unlike so many other middle grade books where adults are either the bad guys or just get in the way (though once they all saw the Servitor they could hardly deny it was real!) The quirky potion shop was definitely a plus, Sean should hang out there and avoid that Reverend...
And that Reverend, one gets pedophile vibes off of him, but at the same time, he doesn't do anything to outright harm Sean, providing him with a spell to summon a harmless creature, it was Nyarlarthotep that has other plans for the boy. An elder god that comes off as evil, but perhaps something one cannot categorize by our own ideals of good and bad. Wouldn't want to learn magic from either of them though, that's for sure. I like it when villains are not pure evil, cackling about drowning kittens and torturing children. Orne was quite concerned when the spell went wrong, but he was on a leash of his own...
Cons - It could be a little slow at times, especially at the beginning as Sean and Eddy try to convince themselves that what was happening was real, and then have to go and convince multiple adults.
I'd continue with this series, maybe after I read a little Lovecraft.
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Well I discovered there was a short story free for the reading, The Madonna of the Abattoir, about Reverend Orne and his demonic wife Patience in Victorian New England. I enjoyed the historical background of the characters, and as Redemption is the narrator we get to learn a little more about him, and confirms the fact that while bound to a dark master he wasn't himself evil. The same could not be said of Patience.
I wouldn't rate the short story as middle grade (meaning for elementary school students), not with the sexual undertones and the vast quantities of blood. It was definitely interesting though, if rather dark and disturbing. Wonder if Patience is still wandering about in Sean's time, I didn't get that impression from Summoned.
Now I really want the read the next book!
November 2021
I finally found a copy of the second book on OpenLibrary!!!!!!
Since that had taken seven years, I decided I would reread Lovecraft and Summoned. It did a good job of continuing the story. Sean goes to Arkham to be trained as a magician (nobody want's him taking Orne as his mentor if no one else will help him) and we are introduced to a new character Daniel who is also there to learn magic. This book is full of twists and turns, some I wasn't surprised would get woven in (i.e. bringing in more of Lovecraft's lore), and other twists, especially the one right at the end, I never would have seen coming. I can't go into details since I don't want to leak those surprises, but if you don't mind reading an ebook version, anyone can now go and borrow from OpenLibrary. And with that ending, having learned so much more in this book about Orne (who is either really good at manipulating people, including the reader, or is, just maybe, not such a bad guy really) and Sean and the world in which they exist, I sooooo badly want to read the conclusion.
Which just makes it so frustrating that the third book is in some very weird publishing limbo. I have seen several different dates for when it was supposedly published, but if you try to buy it on Amazon.com it doesn't even exist. Lucky for me I'm Canadian, and it does exist there, but I can only pre-order it for 2029, 8 years from now? I take that as Amazon saying "we have no clue". The only person to review the book on Goodreads is the author herself. I thought perhaps she might have had a falling out with the publisher, it's happened before with other series I'm reading, but she's still publishing on the Tor blog on the topic of a Lovecraft re-read (pretty interesting BTW, since I was in fact re-reading Lovecraft I've been reading a few of those articles too).
Well, I'll keep looking, never know if it might pop up one day as an ebook or OpenLibrary or something. One can hope! Anyway, just happy I got to read this one.
And yes, I think I enjoyed the first book more having read Lovecraft *first*, not after.
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