Pulver is the first to highlight female voices in Carcosan fiction with this anthology, and many of the tales included all have a distinctly female voice. Most of the stories are centered around art, as is to be expected. But stories such as Nadia Bulkin's "Pro Patria!" and Molly Tanzer's "Grave-Worms" give Carcosan mythos a political angle that is unexpected but rather overdue.What keeps me from giving this anthology 5 stars is that, while the stories are of a uniformly high quality, I'm not su...

Almost bought this at NecronomiCon 2015 when I spotted some early release dead tree copies and my only regret is that I didn't buy it then and read it sooner! This is an awesome collection of stories, and the ToC practically reads like a Who's Who of the Women of Weird Fiction - Cassilda's Sisters as it were - and every story offers an intriguing take on the mythos of the mysterious King in Yellow. Especially intriguing (for me at least, in my not-so-humble opinion) are Nadia Bulkin's "Pro Patri...

It's hard to judge a book with short stories, mainly cause despite being thematically similar, they still approach it very differently - something which worked for me and I found most of the stories very interesting and entertaining.Some stories stuck out more for me, and those were:- Black Stars on Canvas- Exposure- While The Black Stars Burn- Old Tsah-Hov- Pro Patria!- Her Beginning is Her End is her BeginningNot to say the others were bad, but some left a bigger impression on me than others.

An amazing anthology that does what King in Yellow stories do best: create a dreamlike mood and the sensation that reality is ephemeral and could fade at any moment. Individually, nearly all of these stories would be standouts in another anthology. But together the stories fit perfectly, contributing and building towards a greater whole. It begins perfectly with a story by Damien Angelica Walters about an artist and her creation. This story accomplishes several things at once: using a female art...

Perhaps the only thing more surprising than the fact that the “King in Yellow” cycle of author Robert W. Chambers consists of only four core texts—two of them only tangential in reference, and all short stories at that—is the notion that someone might endeavor to create an anthology written in tribute to and existing in the same fictional world of that cycle. But seasoned writer and editor Joseph Pulver, Sr., himself the author of his own homages to Chambers, has endeavored to do just that, and

Another great collection of King in Yellow-inspired weird stories curated by Pulver (following from A Season in Carcosa). Particular standouts for me were Nadia Bulkin's "Pro Patria!" and Selena Chambers' dreamlike "The Neurastheniac", but there are no duds.

Pro Patria! -- a newly fledged 3rd world democracy meets a certain play. With horrifying results. Interesting take on the corruption aspects of the KIY.Her Beginning is Her End is Her Beginning -- Cassilda, or possibly 2 Cassildas, travel through time on a mysterious quest. Lyrical & highly poetic, but a slow read.Grave-Worms -- An Ayn Rand heroine finds the Yellow Sign in a strangely fading NYC. Intriguing, and just long enough.Strange is the Night -- a vicious theatre critic is invited to yet

An interesting and for the most part successful anthology of King In Yellow inspired short stories by female authors, edited by Joseph S Pulver.My favourite pieces were those by Nadia Bulkin, SP Miskowski, Selena Chambers, Lynda E Rucker and Helen Marshall. But nearly all of them were engaging takes on the mythos and worthy of your time. Recommended.

LES FLEURS DU MAL by Allyson Bird“Dumas had the black tulip.”‘The Black Tulip’ (based on Dumas) is the first TV drama serial I remember watching as a child in the 1950s.And that is just the start of a dark cornucopia of artistic and literary references. Probably this Bird story is the most amazing work within this book’s fields we know that you might ever read, and need to read again, but perhaps without fully transcending its apparent personal aspects (one of the paintings discovered by a write...

I read this in bits and pieces over a span of time. I found trying to read it in one fell swoop to be a bit repetitive and lost interest in the content. After stepping away from the nook for a while and reading one story a week for a while I found the book to be much more enjoyable. The stories are well written, and the authors all share a unique perspective on the Chambers myths while still staying true to the core tenants of his tale.

The reason I like the King in Yellow and Carcosa more than other elements of what is usually called the Cthulhu Mythos is because they're terrifying on a fundamental level. Most of the horror in the Mythos comes from the knowledge that the world isn't what we thought it was, that there are secrets out there and a greater world that was hidden from us, but the expression of this often isn't any different than, say, a conspiracy thriller. Instead of secret technology, it's pre-human technology. In...

A collection of contemporary short stories by women authors, based on Chambers' "King in Yellow" stories, mostly centered around the figure of Cassilda. Short stories can be a mixed bag for me, and I didn't tear through this like I did, say, the "Behold the Undead of Dracula" collection. I'd read a few and then take a break, then read a few. Maybe I'm not steeped enough in the Chambers mythos to be invested, but also, the nature of that mythos is largely in vagueness, suggestion, and dream-like

Contents:007 - Introduction011 - "Black Stars on Canvas, a Reproduction in Acrylic" by Damien Angelica Walters025 - " She Will Be Raised a Queen" by E. Catherine Tobler037 -" Yella" by Nicole Cushing045 - "Yellow Bird" by Lynda E. Rucker055 - "Exposure" by Helen Marshall069 - "Just Beyond Her Dreaming" by Mercedes M. Yardley085 - "In the Quad of Project 327" by Chesya Burke097 - "Stones, Maybe" by Ursula Pflug109 - "Les Fleurs Du Mal" by Allyson Bird119 - "While The Black Stars Burn" by Lucy A.

A fine anthology with a wide variety of approaches to the King in Yellow theme. I was genuinely moved by some of these stories with their tones of despair and helplessness. One theme that seemed to repeat in several of these tales is how crushing everyday life is and how difficult it is to just continue on. Joe Pulver did a fine job of selecting these stories. I look forward to seeing what future works that these authors produce.

With "Cassilda's Song," editor Joseph Pulver has cemented himself as the foremost purveyor of "King in Yellow" anthologies. The stories in this collection are all wonderfully mad, and I fear this mask I've been forced to don is nothing if not a burden now.The women whose tales weave the tapestry of this warm blanket of insanity and terror are some of the very best working in the realm of the fantastic, and it's with great pleasure I find myself tittering, staring at my own reflection in the mirr...

An great anthology of stories inspired by and / or set in Robert W. Chambers 'King in Yellow' Mythos. A notable feature of this collection is the theme that each writer is a women and the focus generally leans towards Cassilda, one of the other characters in the Carcosa / KIY Mythos. Every story in this collection is good, even the least among them is still a solid tale, and a few of them rise above to the level of excellence. A definitive recommendation to fans of The King in Yellow, or anyone

(Originally posted on Mad Scientist Journal, 7/5/2017)Cassilda’s Song, edited by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr., contains 18 tales of the mythos of the King in Yellow, all written by female authors. These stories explore many facets of Cassilda, one of the characters from Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow collection of short stories. As Chambers’ stories and the purported apocryphal play revolve around madness induced by contact with the King in Yellow, so too do the stories in this anthology.At the...

A bunch of weak stories and a few good ones. My favorite was the Ayn Rand pastiche Grave-Worms. Pro Patria was also pretty good. Generally, though, I found this pretty lukewarm. Lots of dreamy and rambling stories with buzz words like Camilla, Cassilda, Carcosa, pallid, mask, King, Yellow Sign, etc. thrown in that didn't particularly seem to connect with Chambers' work. There was a story told from a dog's point of view that wasn't half bad, but it felt like a general story with a few King in Yel...

Disappointing. To me most of the stories were boring, pointless and weird. There were only two I really liked: "Black Stars on Canvas" by Damien Angelica and "While the Black Stars Burn" by Lucy A. Snyder.

I can't lie. This was a disappointment. Out of 18 stories, maybe three or four of them were particularly good. There were two or three real clunkers. And the rest was filler. I'd been very excited about this collection and was looking forward to reading it. The King in Yellow, the Yellow Sign, the Pallid Mask...It's some of my favorite stuff from the whole Lovecraft circle. Robert W. Chambers was, overall, kind of a crap writer. But his stories dealing with a cursed play and mad artists are the