Mike MinnisThe exceptional modern Mythos writer whom time forgot.
Sometime in the late 90s, a German gentleman by the name of Mike Minnis took pen to paper. What flowed was a heady distillate of cosmic horror in the architecture of a fictional craftsman. He published 40-odd short stories hither and yon about the burgeoning internet, mostly at small congregations of weird fiction devotees with names like “thousandyoung.net”, “netherreal.de” and “nightscapes”.
Unfortunately the internet does what it is wont to do. These sites collapsed and disappeared somewhere in the mid 2000s. I had searched for them a decade ago, and could not find hide nor hair. I read a rumor that Minnis was a casualty of the Iraq war (untrue). Perhaps there was a conspiracy against the Lovecraftian sites then? Well no, unless you consider the economics of the dot-com bust a Majestic 12 invention.
However we all know the dread couplet.
That is not dead which can eternal lie. And with strange aeons, even death may die. I found a post on good old Ligotti's forums. Thanks to those fans of weird fiction and the Internet Wayback Machine I was able to recover the full text of ten of his stories. I have copied them to pdf, and for the sake of convenience I have posted them to a file sharing service for download. As a disclaimer, I am not benefiting financially from this in any way. I have simply consolidated the pdfs so that more fans of weird fiction can discover and enjoy this great author’s work.
Let Him Rise
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/t6792v35951vg/Mike_Minnis_Wayback_Machine_ArchiveWhat will you encounter therein? A range of times and fictional voices fitting the pervasive scope of Lovecraft's Mythos.
I Walk the World's Black Rim is a Beowulf retelling.
Knuckerhole a story of England during the blitz and good neighbors. After all, the Whateley came from somewhere.
Bones of a Toad brings the harshness of Medieval life to the center stage.
One caveat friend, as I stay thy hand from the dread tome: read
Shadow Over Innsmouth,
The Dunwitch Horror and
The Thing on the Doorstep first. Necessary? No, but enlightening along the path in the dark.
If you like Mike Minnis' work, just give the man $2 for the kindle edition of Your Poisoned Dreams, a collection of ten Mythos short stories. At that price it is an absurd steal. Right now it's even cheaper than
that because of an Amazon sale.
https://www.amazon.com/Your-Poisoned-Dreams-Horror-Stories-ebook/dp/B00JPBN0DOWhen the above was posted on Something Awful, here was a response:
Thanks for this. "I walk the world's black rim "fucking ruled. I don't think the spoiler is really a spoiler since its what actually pushed me to read it. Awesome stuff.
...
The question of who is the true monster, I'm spoiling now : I walk the black rim is a retelling of beowulf, is a similar question raised in John Gardners 1984 Grendel. It's a first person, very contemporary take on beowulf from grendels perspective and while not horror, I highly recommend
...
I also wanna reiterate, dumbass Mike is literally only earning 69 cents per purchase on that kindle collection cause the mother fucker is selling below the 70% 2.99 threshold
Enjoy, dear reader.
And if you like it, for the love of the Old Ones leave an Amazon review. I can't imagine how an author of this caliber felt after walking away from his 40 odd stories. He deserves a return from essential salts.
