His Black Tongue by Mitchell Luthi is a collection of short horror stories set in the medieval period. Unfortunately, they were less than average stories. To be fair, though, I’m not a big fan of reading “monster” novels and horror, so take this review with a giant pinch of salt. While monsters appearing in the story are fine, it’s once the characters start battling them that I usually roll my eyes. What I do like are stories dealing with weirdness, creepiness and sometimes the unthinkable. Usually, these would involve cults of some kind or mysterious dreams and hallucinations suffered by the characters. In a way, Lovecraft stories are more my type. Fortunately, there were some stories here that revolved around those themes and were the few highlights of this short story collection.

The Devil never runs upon a man to seize him with his claws until he sees him on the ground, already having fallen by his own will.

Saint Thomas More

My likely favorites of the bunch would be The Bone Fields and The Breeding Mound. Both stories contain Norse mythology. The lingering question of whether the characters are really alive or in some type of purgatory made for some unique reading. The least favorite would have to be His Black Tongue. While the setup in the beginning was great, I just rolled my eyes at the anime-type battle scene towards the end. What I will say is that writing horror stories can be challenging. What exactly is considered horror to a reader?