Black Easter

Continuing their tradition of disentombing lost horror gems, Valancourt Press resurrects Blish’s singular 1968 diabolical thriller, together with its sequel The Day After Judgement. Cloyed with a surfeit of sowing devastation around the world, wealthy arms dealer Baines and his enablers contract with arch-sorcerer Theron Ware to perform a ritual of supernatural murder, in anticipation of a more bloodthirsty commission aimed at unleashing literal pandemonium on the world. Harried spiritual bureaucrat Father Domenico is dispatched to intervene, but can the straitened resources of good hope to compete with the obscene bankroll of evil? Envisioning “what real sorcery actually had to be like if it existed,” Blish deromanticizes the usually sensational gothicism of satanic horror, depicting the arcane tradecraft and realpolitik of Black and White Magic with the cool matter-of-fact precision of a spy novel. These detailed infernal mechanics lull and prime readers for a crescendo certain to shock and awe.