A complex, disturbing and original take on cosmic horror. The more Hodge I read, the more I like him. 5 stars.(It also just clicked that Hodge authored perhaps my favorite, certainly top 5, New-Lovecraftian story of the last few years -- "The Same Cold Waters as You.")

Damien’s Mother didn’t invest one little shred into his childhood, in fact she tied him to the steering wheel of her car while she went with his brother off into the countryside. That’s his earliest memory of his Mother, in fact he ends up being taken in by his best friend’s family and an end to his so called family. Years later he’s an astronomy student when his brother shows up wanting to repair their relationship and with amazing tales of the unbelievable. Soon Damien is off searching for the...

Damn, but this was one hell of a read. Whom the Gods Would Destroy is relatively short, coming in at under a hundred pages, but it starts creeping you out from page one and completely intrigues you by the end of that first chapter. Brian Hodge successfully manages to blow your mind around the halfway point, and then holds your interest beyond, with a climax that delivers on just about every level.On the surface, this is the oddest mix of genres, but deep down it really works. Hodge dips his lite...

4.5 starsThanks to Charlene for recommending this wonderful story about the cosmos and mankind's fate and place in it all. This story touches on many of my favorite things in a horror/sci-fi story. I will be on the lookout for more of this author's books.

Have you ever looked up at the stars and felt inspired? Awed? Terrified? This one gets pretty deep and makes you think about what lies beyond the realms of our universe. Damien studies astronomy and has always been fascinated by other galaxies. Perhaps his head is in the stars because he is running from his past. Unfortunately for Damien, severing family ties will not erase the painful past and he may just find out that he is a bigger part of the cosmos than he ever could have bargained for. Ver...

This is the first book I have read by Brian since Without Purpose, Without Pity. The story starts out with Damien thinking about his early memories of how badly he was treated by his mother. And how much better his half brother Cameron was treated. He leaves his family at a early age and then the story moves to him as a grad student with a girlfriend named Ashleigh. Then one day Cameron shows up and tells him he needs help and he has to show him something. This is where the story takes off. He l...

This well-crafted bit of cosmic horror is a fine example of why the novella is an ideal length for the dark stuff. There’s no flab here to get in the way of Brian Hodge’s storytelling, though there is – and needs to be – a considerable amount of scientific information and theoretical speculation. (Have you ever heard of a von Neumann probe? I hadn’t, either.)Although I wouldn’t call this story strictly Lovecraftian (it names no Names, & certainly doesn’t commit pastiche), I caught echoes of seve...

I liked this book - good character development throughout, story was interesting, and the cover art was superb. Mr. Hodge is definitely a gifted wordsmith. Believe it or not, his style reminds me a lot of Bradbury, although no one quite measures up to the master. The weird part for me was the middle, where things kind of switch gears. I wish there could have been a little more description about what happened to the brother - it was a little confusing. I thought the ending was cool - doesn't leav...

4.5 stars!WOW! That was my first thought. Let's see if I can elaborate on that. This story begins with Damien relating his first memories, and what horrible memories they were. Memories of a mother who neglected and mentally abused him. A mother who favored Damien's half brother Cameron over him. A mother that chains her son to the steering wheel and takes off for hours at a time.After a start like that, the reader is already invested in Damien and is hoping that he will one day gain the love an...

He fumbled with his keys at the building's steel back door. "You must know the Arthur C. Clarke quotation about technology and magic. Don't you?" I did:Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. "Well," he said, and had to steady one hand with the other to get the key in the lock. "There's at least one good variation of it that was waiting to be coined. Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from godhood."Fantastic cosmic horror. I am a big fan of

For most of his childhood, Damien was shunned by his sinister mother in favor of his older half-brother. Decades later, Cameron shows up, wanting help. Will Damien help him?When I read the blurb saying this was HP Lovecraft meets Carl Sagan, I jumped on it since that's a pretty clever-sounding elevator pitch. Plus, I've loved some of Brian Hodge's short stories so I was itching to see what he'd do with a novella. He did pretty well.Damien is an astronomy student with mother who was a little too

This story starts out with young Damien's first memory: being handcuffed to the steering wheel of a car while his mother and brother go off to do something. Worried about their safety, he escapes and chases them only to find something horrifying. Fast forward 13 years and his brother shows up wanting his assistance with something. Something that he has to see to believe. Little did Damien know, it isn't just his brother that needs help; it's the entire human race. I have heard several times abou...

Brian Hodge has long been one of my favorites, ever since Nightlife from the now defunct Dell Abyss line, and for those who haven't read him, you really should. Quite simply, Hodge is a master craftsmen with words, and one of horror fiction's brightest dark stars.This novella from Darkfuse deals with an astronomy grad student, Damien, and his dysfunctional family, who he'd thought he long left behind...until his half brother, Cameron, shows up inexplicably, with the promise of something big and

This was a very thought provoking read that masterfully mixes science fiction and horror. Damien is the central character in the tale and the author does a great job in fleshing him out, creating a sympathetic but flawed man and one who is still trying to make peace with his turbulent upbringing.The writing was beautiful, the pace was steady but still drew you in to the story although at times the science descriptions got very detailed. I think the author also wanted readers to really think abou...

I'm not sure how Brian Hodge managed to squeeze an abusive childhood, a strained sibling relationship, elements of the science of astronomy, and a whole lot of cosmic horror into one 85 page novella, but I know he did it and did it extremely well.Taking the first person POV of Damien, a young man who never knew his father and only escaped his critical and neglectful mother as soon as he was able, Whom the Gods Would Destroy details his search for answers when his half-brother shows up on his doo...

"I tried to believe that my place in the world remained unchanged—or at least unchanged until further notice—and that I still had contributions to make that would help the world know itself and its place in the cosmos a little better, even though all the evidence showed that most people were content to muddle through each day in willful ignorance, choosing to believe in a god that took sides in the Super Bowl and a devil who’d hidden dinosaur bones in 6000-year-old rocks to test the faithful."Ho...

I won this book, the tiniest HC signed edition, from a live author event. My previous experience with Hodge was limited to his absolutely terrific short story collection Picking The Bones. This book was every ounce as good as Hodge's short stories have prepared me for. Original, interesting, wild, fascinating premise, perfectly realized (especially for such a small book) characters combined with sparse yet very moving emotionally honest writing created for a dark, unsettling and pretty terrifyin...

4.5 starsBrian Hodge has a terrific horror/sci-fi blended novella in WHOM THE GODS WOULD DESTROY. The story begins with our first person narrator, Damien, exploring his first real memory. Right from the beginning, you begin to feel for this person who was ostrasized by his own mother--who only felt that her older son, Cameron, was worth anything. To break away from his sorrowful upbringing, Damien takes to studying the stars and other galaxies in order to "feel" as far away from his own as possi...

Brian Hodge is such a terrific writer. I just wish this story was a little bit longer.