Through the Groaning Earth — Joel Jenkins

An unnatural storm arises with great fury and breaks the spine of a foreign warship upon the reefs of Bathos, casting the few survivors into the merciless machinery of the City of Corruption; A silver mine haunted by the vengeful dead; An Assassins Guild that will stop at nothing to slay one that was formerly their own--the woman known as the 'siren of slaughter'; a perilous journey through the bowels of a mountain where lurk the half-breed children of man and demon. Welcome to the City of Bathos!

Through the Groaning Earth picks up where the groundbreaking cult novel of paranoid fantasy, Tales from the City of Bathos left off, introducing us to new characters, visiting old acquaintances (would you ever want to call any of these characters friends?) and bitter enemies, and leaving us stranded in the streets of Bathos, The City of Corruption--which is really the central character of the novel.

With a Tarantino-esque story structure, Leiber-like characterizations, Lovecraftian elements, Howardian-style verbiage and a grim dollop of the Orwellian dystopia that has overtones of modern Socialist government, Through the Groaning Earth is a thought-provoking as well as an entertaining read.