Full disclosure: Carl D. Smith has contributed articles and a wonderful set of short stories to this website in the past.
I’ve been sitting on this review for about 8 months now, so let’s get to it.
Despite being a novella, there is a wonderful world created in the pages of Darkness out of Carthage and I sincerely hope that Carl D. Smith can write a follow up in the future.
The story takes place over 100 years before the assassination of Julius Caesar, when the Roman Empire was in the final stages of the war against Hasdrubal. It does a wonderful job of mixing historical fact with themes that would fit in any Lovecraft tale.
The strength of this novel lies in the beauty of its prose. Imagine that HP Lovecraft wrote an epic poem and you have Darkness out of Carthage. Despite how short it is, every paragraph and every word are expertly crafted to build up a fascinating universe.
The one complaint I do have is the length, but that’s only because I wanted to read more about Carthage and the evil that was contained within. I was fascinated by the rituals and impressed with all of the history that Carl D. Smith was able to mix together.
I highly recommend this novella and encourage all of you to pester him about writing a prequel, a sequel and an entire series of books based around this idea.
You can buy it from amazon here.