A Feast of Infinite Rot
Author: Andrew Van Wey
Publisher: Greywood Bay
Date: 2012
Pgs: 106

REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS

Summary:
A traveller walks a haunted road through a series of stories. He tells his tales, storytelling in payment for a place to lay his head and food for his hungry stomach. Witchcraft in the forest, an old woman hermit twisted by life, and a childish prank lead toward vengeance and a reckoning. Magic and science collide in a dying vineyard. A wine made perfect with arcane science, spoiled children, and a murder grace the story of the Elder. Forbidden love turns to terror and blood as a tutor comes calling. The traveller has seen and felt things. He is haunted by these tales and he shares them in a unsettled little inn amongst the tavern dwellers. Food, wine, and a good story told in a dark night.

Genre:
Adventure
Fantasy
Fiction
Horror
Short stories
Thrillers

Why this book:
Came to me through a read for review program.

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The Traveller:

Favorite Character:
The Traveller is a great character. Weary of the long travels he has taken, ready to settle down, but wanting to get to a tropical land where the gods may be strange, but, hopefully, the clothing is reduced...or optional.

Least Favorite Character:
The two challenged men, the one in the field and the one carving the ham...I already suspect that they were previous visitors who fell victim to the inn and her mistress.

Hmm Moments:
As world weary and well travelled as the traveller seems to be, he should see that there is more to the inn where he’s found lodging than meets the eye. Where are the pigs? Where did all that ham and bacon come from? Pumpkins...cats? Not nearly as suspicious as he should be, I think. Has a very Hansel and Gretel feel.

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The Hag’s Reckoning:

Least Favorite Character:
Viktor is a fool. He learned the wrong lesson when the crone caught him stealing from her garden, threatened him, and, then, let him go. He’s the worst kind of “valiant” knight from their game of Knights and Giants.

The Feel:
The Salem witch trials feel is predominate with a bit more of that Hansel and Gretel feel from the previous story.

Favorite Scene:
The jawbones and the flaming woman. Wow. Just wow.

Hmm Moments:
That’s a well constructed tale.

In light of the other things that he has encountered, his easy discounting of the carved geode as a mythical device makes you wonder at the Traveller’s sense of self preservation.

Why isn’t there a screenplay?
This could totally go to the screen, big or small.

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The Elder of Aldricht:

Favorite Character:
The Traveller caught up in circumstances beyond his control...all because he was lured in by one of those geodes with dancing lights inside.

Least Favorite Character:
The Elder’s son is a dandy and an ass.

Favorite Scene:
The son’s cold reckoning. Wonder if it was the Elder following the Traveller as he made his run for the rune stone wall...or if it was something else.

Pacing:
The pace of this short was great.

Plot Holes/Out of Character:
I am left wondering if it was just the Elder or if something else was there with him. Would have been out-of-character for him to try to get the Traveller to stay whispering over his shoulder as he ran.

Hmm Moments:
The Elder’s laboratory being bigger on the inside than seemed possible based on how the house was laid out. I love a good Doctor Who reference.

Why isn’t there a screenplay?
Would be awesome.

Casting call:
John Malkovich would be great as The Elder. Keanu Reeves could be awesome as The Elder also.

Maybe Jonah Hill as the Elder’s son.

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The Timberman’s Daughter:

Favorite Character:
In this tale, both the Traveller and the Timberman’s Daughter are great characters cloaked in love not to be a tragedy. Very Romeo and Juliet.

Least Favorite Character:
I thought of Clement as a Disney villain while reading the tale...until we got to the climax and I realized how un-Disney he was.

The Feel:
This was a tragedy beginning to end. I could feel it coming from the moment the Traveller mentioned their divergent social standings.

Favorite Scene:
His book saving her from the killing blow even though cleaved almost in two.

Pacing:
The flow of this story is awesome. The three tales that the Traveller tells are all well paced.

Hmm Moments:
The illusions that the moment thrusts upon us and we accept.

“...when the mind tired it often left the door open for the supernatural.”
...ain’t it the truth.

Wow...just wow. The perceived juxtaposition is more than that. All the darkness of his past is coming for him.

Why isn’t there a screenplay?
This one while I liked it probably wouldn’t lend itself to a screenplay as well as the others. Though, if this were taken as a vignette within the larger Traveller story, it would work on the big screen.

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Last Page Sound:
There’s a mirroring and a juxtaposition between the stories the Traveller is telling and his three dinner companions...and the guy out in the field who he saw first when he approached. Being the worldly man that he is, it seems that he should have noticed.

I wanted the Traveller’s tales to be true...more true than what they turned out to be.

But everyone’s truth is different.

Author Assessment:
Great stuff. I’ll definitely read other stuff from Andrew Van Wey.

Editorial Assessment:
Well edited. No complaints.

Knee Jerk Reaction:
instant classic

Disposition of Book:
e-Book

Would recommend to:
friends, family, kids, colleagues, everyone, genre fans ( )

I received this ebook from the member giveaways. I really enjoyed the authors story telling and it subtle creepiness. An edge of your seat book, dark and creepy in such a good way. I look forward to other works by this author ( )

Right off the back I knew this was going to be a good story. I loved the author’s writing style and it was so easy for me to imagine what was happening. As the story progressed I was drawn in even more, wondering what each of these stories had to tell. They were dark and gruesome but yet so enticing to see where things were going to go.

Nothing could have prepared me for the ending though! I was just speechless as I flipped through the final pages. I had to just sit there for a moment to soak in what had actually happened. Even now I’m still just baffled.

The novella keeps you interested throughout the entire story and then near the end you start creeping towards the front of your seat. And finally the seat is just ripped out from beneath you and you’re just sitting there wide eyed and a dropped jaw.

A gruesome and wonderfully told story and a great introduction to Andrew Van Wey’s writing style.

http://thebignerdofthree.wordpress.com/ ( )

Excellent tale, LOVED the end. ( )