Shadow of the Serpent: Mon Dieu Cthulhu! Book Three
Jolly Big Publishing
John Houlihan
It’s always a good day here on The Scifi and Fantasy Reviewer when I get a chance to review a new release by John Houlihan – and doubly so when it’s the next novel in the Mon Dieu Cthulhu! series, which continues to be one of my favourite adaptations of the Lovecraftian Mythos in the entire genre. Houlihan is a deeply talented author who has demonstrated time and again that he has mastered a variety of genres, from straight-up horror all the way through to hard science-fiction (see my review of his short story collection The Constellation of Alarion for more on those particular genres); but I believe the way he’s crafted his own unique take on the Mythos is by far his greatest achievement, deftly blending the pulpier aspects of the sub-genre with worldwide conflicts in the form of the Second World War and, more recently, the Napoleonic Wars.
I first encountered the Mon Dieu Cthulhu! setting in Houlihan’s 2018 novel Feast of the Dead, itself a spin-off from the Second World War-set Achtung Cthulhu! setting, part of the identically-named roleplaying game setting published by Modiphius Entertainment. Although the novel featured Houlihan’s mysterious (and apparently ageless) Major Seraph, a British soldier-spy, who has featured in a number of 1940s-set adventures, Feast of the Dead is firmly set within the Napoleonic era. And as the setting name would indicate, its protagonist was in fact not British but French – the gallant, genial, albeit slightly dim, French Hussar Gaston d’Bois: a cavalryman who may not have quite understood the tentacled, multi-dimensional horrors that he faced in the depths of the French-occupied Spanish countryside, but never failed to face them with blade and pistol in hand.
Between the two of them, Seraph and d’Bois were successful in foiling a complicated and quietly horrifying ritual that could have led to the devastation of swathes of Spain and the armies currently fighting across it; and Houlihan neatly ended the novel with d’Bois free to fight both the Spanish, the British and the strange, eerie cultists that lurked and plotted in the background. It was a superb read that gripped me from start to finish, and one that I couldn’t wait to see continued in a sequel.
As such, it was fantastic news to hear that Shadow of the Serpent was about to be released, and I was lucky enough to be sent a pre-release copy by the author – allowing me to review it just before it was officially released. Once again illustrator Dmitiri Martin has delivered a superb piece of cover art, on par with the amazing piece he did for Feast of the Dead; for Shadow of the Serpent we have been given a gorgeous, watercolour-style cover that depicts d’Bois in the middle of a deadly sword duel against a sinister Spanish aristocrat, and which perfectly sets the mood for the story to come.
As with the previous Mon Dieu Cthulhu! stories, Shadow of the Serpent makes use of the pulp-like (and slight tongue-in-cheek) framework that sees an elderly, retired d’Bois recount the many tales of his career as a cavalryman in Napoleon’s Grand Armee over innumerable pints of ale to an anonymous English visitor who is recording them for posterity. It’s an interesting set-up for the stories that naturally allows for Houlihan to blend together intense, pulp-style action and more introspective elements, as well as the framework for the quiet humour that runs through the novel – and the series as a whole – as the effusive old hussar attempts to translate his adventures into his less-than perfect English. It can take a little getting used to as a reader, but I find that it really accentuates the story and the action as they unfold, and the humour really helps to underline the horrors to be found as the plot progresses.
Shadow of the Serpent opens a little time after the end of the previous novel, with a young d’Bois chafing at the bit from his Hussars regiment being placed into winter quarters. Boredom leads the hussar to drinking and romancing, with the former leading to the latter; and the latter leading to a sudden duel with an irate Spanish nobleman. For d’Bois this causes two problems: not only must he fight to defend his honour despite the duel being against the Grand Armee’s rules, but during the clash of blades he discovers that the man is not only supernaturally strong, but also seems to bleed a strange, green substance when cut. Exiled from his beloved hussars once the outcome of the duel is discovered, d’Bois and his faithful sergeant – the redoubtable and grizzled Sergeant Sacleaux – find themselves reassigned to a dragoon regiment. Not only is this a great blow to his honour, d’Bois rapidly discovers that the dragoons are an understrength and poorly-commanded regiment full of apparent troublemakers, and led by officers more interested in drinking and whoring than actually fighting the Spanish partisans all around them. Determined to find his way back to his original regiment, d’Bois takes it upon himself to revitalise the dragoons under his command and whip them back into shape – only to discover that he has enemies both outside and inside the walls of the regiment’s winter quarters.
In Shadow of the Serpent John Houlihan has delivered another Lovecraftian masterpiece, a perfect blending of Bernard Cornwell and H.P. Lovecraft that combines the thrill of Napoleonic warfare with the multi-dimensional, unknowable horrors to be found lurking just outside of humanity’s perception. The story-telling is second-to-none, with Houlihan’s crisp writing style effortlessly bringing us into the snow-cloaked hills and villages of the ‘Spanish Ulcer’ that ground Napoleon’s forces into fragments; and the characters are well-written, engaging and delightfully three-dimensional in a manner that many Mythos stories fail to deliver. d’Bois is, as always, a charming protagonist who easily pulls you along through the plot, and Houlihan accompanies him with a skillfully-written supporting cast that you come to be interested in. And Houlihan finishes it off with a stunning cliffhanger that had me genuinely concerned for d’Bois’s fate and which has me eagerly awaiting the release of the sequel – which I understand shouldn’t be too far off! If you enjoy the novels of Bernard Cornwell, Allan Mallison or Kim Newman then you could do no better than picking up a copy of Shadow of the Serpent – and then diving into John Houlihan’s numerous other accomplished stories.
You can read more about John Houlihan here on The Scifi and Fantasy Reviewer by reading the Author Interview I did with him back in 2021. Or you can go straight to his website to see his latest updates – and even potentially win a copy of his Mon Dieu Cthulhu series!
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