This is a collection of five stories, presented in chronological order, with two being reprints.

Old Nathan is an old man. But he’s a feared old man with a reputation for working magic that his neighbors in the Appalachians sometimes seek out. Nathan’s not a man to turn down a challenge, whether issued by a mere man or something else.

He’s spent his whole life in those hills. He never got further than King’s Mountain where, in a battle in the Revolutionary War, he got his testicles shot off.

That seems to be where he picked up the ability to work magic. Unfortunately, Drake never really gives us his origin story or why he considers himself the Master of the Devil.

Besides a self-imposed celibacy, he can talk to animals – which proves useful in gathering intelligence, but it also means he only eats fish and plants. He also can, when needed, pull a jacknife from another dimension.

“The Bull” actually involves two bulls, Nathan’s own beloved Spanish King and a ghost bull that seems to be preventing a field from being plowed. It’s a tale of sacrifice to keep a promise.

“The Gold” has Nathan getting involved in a family feud between two brothers, one of them being dead. It’s a wry commentary on how greed is the road to Hell.

Not all the stories are horrific or grim. “The Bullhead”, like the first story, features Bully Ransden, son of the woman Nathan once intended to marry. His attractive wife Ellie asks for Nathan to help with would be philandering ways with a new woman from New Orleans who has shown up in the area. It’s not only light hearted in its ending, but for the conversations Nathan overhears between animals. Use is also made of the old ballad “Matty Groves”.

Nathan is not real fond of how a local family of sorcerers has been exploiting the locals but also the genial and innocent Eldon Bowsmith, a retarded man Nathan likes. His efforts to help “The Fool” lead to some very unexpected results.

“The Box” startlingly changes Nathan’s life in its conclusion. The woman he was once to marry, Sarah Ransden, Bully’s mother, gives us the back story to her former husband. It seems he wasn’t a bad man but “the divil rode him”. And, it seems that, according to Ellie, the devil is now riding his son too.

I found the book a pleasant diversion, the book more memorable for the character than the individual stories.

The books is dedicated Drake’s friend Manly Wade Wellman, and I suspect it’s something of an homage and that I may have liked it better if I had read more than a couple of Wellman stories.

Looking at David Drake's blog, I see I completely missed the fact the stories are “Appalachian versions of classic English folk tales”. ( )

This here were one uv the strangest fant’sy books I’ve ever read. Sort uv a country-western tale with a bit of magic. Now I ain’t much uv a fan uv thet country-western stuff, so I had some trouble gettin’ into the book et first. This is rilly more a collection uv five related stories thin one single story. The stories started off plum silly, what with the main plot uv the first one bein’ about a bullfight an’ all. But them characters, they stuck in my head they did. Most times I put down the book, I’d hear myself thinkin’ in their blasted dialect instead uv my own fer a while after. At first I thought it like to drive me mad, but after a while I decided it didn’t signify.

The stories, they got more entertainin’ as they went along. Or maybe I jes’ went mad and thought they did. I laughed myself silly et some uv the dialogue ‘tween the cunning man and his animals. Yes, you heard me right, dialogue between a man and animals. If that don’t jes’ take the cake! This book were far better than I thought it'd be when I first started it, but I can’t say as I enjoyed it as much as other books I would give four stars so I went with three and a half. Iffen yer lookin’ for somethin’ unique, this book might be jes’ the thing.

(If trying to read my review was really annoying, you might find this book annoying too. However, maybe not as annoying. The author did it way better than I did!) ( )

Old Nathan... the cunning man is not nice. He's not young. He's not particularly pleasant. But if you have a problem of the supernatural nature that needs solving, he's the man you want to see. But cheaters and welshers, beware - you get no second chances from the cunning man.

What can I say, I liked it. ( )

Some of the most original fantasy ever. ( )

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