Every once in a while, I can still manage to get a review up in a timely fashion. This time it’s maybe a little too timely, as this book is debuting at SPX in a few months, but consider this a general joyful noise that a new Robert Sergel book is coming out soon. Prepare yourselves! This takes my general reluctance to use spoilers to whole new levels, but I’ll ramble as best as I know how, OK? Oh, and a gentle reminder: if you don’t already have Space and Bald Knobber, his two previous books, maybe rectify that before the new one comes out? You won’t be disappointed. Like those books, this a collection of shorter stories, several of which have already appeared either in his own comic (Eschew) or different anthologies. But there are also a few new ones, so there’s something here for everybody. First up is the title story, Satan’s Kingdom, and boy howdy is this one going to be tricky. It starts off with a man taking an impromptu drive because he heard a podcast about a place called Satan’s Kingdom. He’s underwhelmed, but things take a serious turn when he finds a body. From there he notices that the body looks awfully familiar, followed by a man coming out of the forest who also looks awfully familiar, and what follows is a terrifyingly unnerving, mostly wordless chase. Other stories deal with various Spite houses (if you’re not familiar, and I wasn’t, these are oddly shaped houses that were built purely to mess with somebody and are still around today as oddities), childhood memories from the brother of Napoleon and his chance encounter with something else entirely, a casual tale of an uncle doing some babysitting (no, of course it doesn’t stay casual, but this one will remain a mystery), having a conversation with one of those “activate your power” type motivational speaker and taking his message to its logical conclusion, a male initiation ceremony from a tribe that’s now extinct, and Shit Photographer. I’d like you to take your best guess on that last one, and you can see for yourselves how close you got to it in a few months. All of his stories have this background of unrealized dread, where you’re just waiting for the other shoe to drop, that’s difficult to quantify without showing you several more pages, or maybe a full story or two. I’m always thrilled to see a new book from this man, and he’s that rare kind of talent that still manages to surpass himself every time. This might be his best work, or maybe I just think that because it’s been a few years since I read his other books. Still, it’s absolutely worth checking out. $20
