Howls from the Dark Ages

An Anthology of Medieval Horror

By: Christopher Buehlman, Brian Evenson, Hailey Piper, Cody Goodfellow, Patrick Barb, Christopher O'Halloran, C.B. Jones

Narrated by: Full Cast

Uncover the secret annals of untold history in these eighteen medieval manuscripts. Each tortured scribe will bring you face to face with ancient horrors lurking in cursed castles, wild woodlands, haunted hamlets, and mysterious monasteries.

Including a lineup of authors both established and emerging, HOWL Society Press presents the first-ever anthology of historical horror from the medieval period, fittingly introduced by the writer who arguably started it all: Christopher Buehlman, author of the medieval horror epic Between Two Fires.

Cast of Narrators:

Pandora Beatrix

• "Palette" by J.L. Kiefer
• "In Every Drop" by Lindsey Ragsdale
• "The Forgotten Valley" by C.B. Jones
• "White Owl" by Stevie Edwards
• "The Lai of the Danse Macabre" by Jessica Peter

Kyle Royall-West

• "Brother Cornelius" by Peter Ong Cook
• "The Final Book of Sainte Foy's Miracles" by M.E. Bronstein
• "The Mouth of Hell" by Cody Goodfellow
• "The King of Youth vs. The Knight of Death" by Patrick Barb
• Opening/Closing Credits

Joshua Davos

• "In Thrall to This Good Earth" by Hailey Piper
• "Schizzare" by Bridget D. Brave

Matthew Byrne

• "Angelus" by Philippa Evans
• "A Dark Quadrivium" by David Worn

Lance Lovegood

• "The Lady of Leer Castle" by Christopher O'Halloran
• "The Fourth Scene" by Brian Evenson

James Takahashi

• "Deus Vult" by Ethan Yoder

Theodore T. Truman

• "A Dowry for Your Hand" by Michelle Tang

Sonja Lademacher

• "The Crowing" by Caleb Stephens

Don LaFollette

• Foreword by Christopher Buehlman

©2022 HOWL Society Press LLC (P)2022 HOWL Society Press LLC

a few decent stories but questionable narration.

this anthology contains a few good stories. a couple of decent stories and the rest rather mediocre. several of the stories felt like they had been edited down for a word count and as such ended quickly or abruptly. the stories also aren't all about the dark ages. there are a few set in the Americas which were decent stories, but just felt out of place with the rest of entries.

what really hurts this book is the narration. there are maybe two good narrators in the group. the others it felt like they had never done this before. there is one narrator who seems to be reading the story for the first time and they did only one take. he inserts pauses in the middle of sentences and has a weird cadence to his reading. several of the narrators deliver their reading with no emotion or the wrong emotion for the story.

the last story is a very poorly written rhyming story and the narrator does a terrible French accent for some of it. honestly I wouldn't recommend this book.

Great Stories, Stinky Narrators

As the title says the stories were really good but the majority of the narrators were pretty bad at one point I wondered if one actually knew how to read. Another one just kept reading without pausing so I couldn't tell when a sentence would end or begin. They were all so inconsistent with skill and quality.

Some very strong stuff.

Not every story was for me but that’s how anthologies work. David Worn’s “Dark Quadrivium” was the standout but there’s some fun, original work in here for fans of the medieval macabre.

Stories were hit and miss, but that’s just how anthologies are. Overall quite good.

Pandora Beatrix (when doing a bad fake English accent) and Joshua Davos are two of the worst narrators I have ever heard in my life. Absolutely unbearable.

It was ok

I enjoyed the stories themselves, but I didn’t enjoy a few of the narrators and they made some of the stories tough to get through.