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Gemini Rising Kindle Edition

by Brian McNaughton (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
3.7 3.7 out of 5 stars 13 ratings
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The 1970s, small town Amerca. A woman reporter whom no one takes seriously...a Manson-style cult living on the edge...a hippie love child born in a drug-fueled orgy -- to this Satan's brew, add a deadly monster on the loose, then stir. The result? One of the great lost horror novels of the 1970s! This is the Secret Master of Horror's first horror book -- a rare delicacy, certain to thrill fans of Dean Koontz and Stephen King!
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  1. Print length
    146 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Wildside Press
  5. Publication date
    January 14, 2014
  6. File size
    1296 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  10. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

The Secret Master of Horror's first horror novel — a rare delicacy.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00HV2BEF0
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Wildside Press (January 14, 2014)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ January 14, 2014
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1296 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 146 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.7 3.7 out of 5 stars 13 ratings

Customer reviews

3.7 out of 5 stars
3.7 out of 5
13 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Dylan Day
4.0 out of 5 stars Author's Preferred Version of Satan's Love Child
Reviewed in the United States on September 5, 2012
Verified Purchase
I picked up this book on the basis of a recommendation from Edward Lee in the forward to his The Haunter of the Threshold so I was curious, as I find Lee's work sort of a guilty pleasure, but hesitantly, since Lee is far from a wordsmith himself.

So, this is really and outstanding book for what it is. It's a short, fast paced, intense, and surprisingly well written little horror story about a young woman getting hit on all sides by forces beyond her control. This book is very much a novel of the 70's and its heroine Marcia is very much a 70's style young woman. She's a former hippie turned dissatisfied housewife married to a drunk whose on the verge of midlife crisis in a small town that the women's lib movement hasn't quite reached yet. So, in her side job as a "newspaperwoman" she has a hard time convincing people to take her seriously as a reporter. She stumbles upon a story after tripping over a brutally murdered hermit, killed by some kind of a monster as we learn in the novel's opening, and she quickly learns that she is an integral part of her own story. Her daughter, fathered while she was in a drug induced orgy at a hippie commune years earlier, is also involved. So is a Manson Family-ish cult that recently popped up in town.

Mcnaughton, in a broad sort of a way, reminds me of Stephen King. His writing is very descriptive and not overly indulgent when it comes to the horror stuff. His character feel real and fully formed, a true rarity in horror fiction, and his story is suitably engrossing and dark. Overall, for horror fans starved for content in a market comprised almost entirely of stories about vampires and zombies, this a truly worthwile read.

Also, for anyone wondering about this book's checkered past, the author was hired to write a knockoff of the recent blockbuster The Omen. He wrote his own story and was then told by his publisher that they need more sex, hardcore, porn style sex. He reluctantly added this and the novel was published as Satan's Love Child. Gemini Rising removes those extraneous scenes so, depending on your personal inclinations, read one or the other. But do read it because this a really solid lost novel.
6 people found this helpful
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Joel Hacker
3.0 out of 5 stars Maybe needs to be combined in an omnibus
Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2020
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This is a re-publication of Satan's Lovechild series from the 60s/70s. I'm still trying to get a copy of the original, Star Publishing, edition as my understanding is there have been actual revisions as well as possible additions/omissions and I'm curious to see what exactly that entails. I am assuming that the original, being published by Playboy under one of its imprints and from some comments made by the author over the years, is more explicitly racy than this reprint. I would be tempted to say that perhaps it is only a difference in socio-cultural norms between then and now as to what would be considered explicit sexual content, however even some of McNaughton's other works are more direct in their sexuality than this one leading me to believe that some of the changes lie there.
This falls pretty solidly into the satanic/witch cults genre of horror literature and film so prevalent from the 60s-80s. You never know if your neighbor, wife, daughter, those hermit farmers, weird hippies, or literally anyone else in society might be secret satan worshipers, looking to kidnap and/or sexually exploit children and sacrifice babies. The same ideas that the satanic panic and religious right of the 80s decided were real instead of just fiction. We get some hints that this might be a stranger, less judeo-christian, world with to the supernatural goings on than mere satan worship though. Specifically, the nature of certain brothers and sisters begins to show that perhaps this is a more Lovecraftian universe. I believe the farther one gets in the series, the more 'weird' and less just 'horrific' it gets.
As is the case with all McNaughton's work, the prose is beautifully polished throughout. He is an expert wordsmith. However, the pacing feels distinctly uneven. This is fairly short for a novel, coming in at just 144 pages, but long compared to a lot of his short fiction work. I think the pacing suffers from trying to bridge the gap between the more action oriented demands of short fiction (barring atmospheric pieces) and the internal character driven demands of long-form work. We get just enough of characters internal lives to make us want to know more, but not enough for them to feel fully developed. Engaging, more action packed scenes that seem to drop too quickly into denoument. In some of his anthologized works like Throne of Bones, we see characters more fully explored and developed over longer sequences of tales, and I think that may be where McNaughton shines. If there's every an omnibus of this series of books published, it may be better to read them that way, though I'll reserve judgment until I've read the rest of the series.
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Melvin
5.0 out of 5 stars The best horror author there ever was
Reviewed in the United States on August 11, 2021
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He's literally the best author I've ever read. I've finished Throne of Bones, Nasty Stories, Even More Nasty Stories, and now this one. Moving on to the next one. I could spend my time reviewing this book, but I'm instead just going to say that it's fantastic and I love it to death. Sure, it's a little bit of "early McNaughton" compared to Throne of Bones, but the man's mind and taste in horror is still there. There are some moments from this book that have been burned into my brain and still keep replaying in my head even a year later. But that seems to happen with many of his stories. Start with Throne of Bones and then make your way here!
One person found this helpful
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Matt Parsons
4.0 out of 5 stars Good Cthulhu Tale
Reviewed in the United States on September 21, 2011
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I had read a number of authors who had written lovecraftian tales who praised Mcnaughton's work. I found this book to be interesting and well-writen Cthulhu horror. I'd recommend it, if you like the genre.
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Earnest Sludge
1.0 out of 5 stars boring fluff
Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2017
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This book s 98% fluff and 2% nice touches. This was a huge disappointment after reading "The Throne of Bones". The first "Nasty Stories" collection has some nice gems in it, as well. This book here seems to have been written to make a quick buck. There are a couple hardcore sex scenes which I found utterly boring. I don't imagine the publishers who released this book as "Satan's Lovechild" had to twist McNaughton's arm too hard to get him to agree to their porno additions since money is the only excuse for this junk to begin with. I was going to read the other McNaughton novels, but not now. I'm certainly not going to pay $7 for a kindle version of any of them.
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