Objects of Worship

By Claude Lalumière

Twelve strange, eerie, sensual stories by a bold new voice in weird fiction. Capricious gods rule a world of women. Zombies breed human cattle. The son of a superhero must decide between his heritage and his religion. Young lovers worship a primordial spider god. The apocalyptic rebirth of the god of the elephants. Monstrous chimeras roam through a devastated future Earth. A retired fisherman caught in the middle of a conflict between gods and superheroes. Teenagers struggle to survive a surreal ice age.

This volume also contains interior illustrations by Rupert Bottenberg (Claude's Lost Myths collaborator) with an introduction by World Fantasy Award-winning author James Morrow and an afterword by the author.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: May 1, 2012
• ISBN: 9781926851785

Reviews for Objects of Worship

[catfantastic_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Objects of Worship is a strange book. It's weird. It's freaky. It's wonderful. From a world where every household is run by a cruel and demanding little god, to a world where zombies are intelligent and view humans as animals, to worlds of superheroes navigating the multiverse, to stories about animal gods and stories about monsters - this collection is amazing. Claude Lalumiere's writing is beautiful and gorgeous. His writing can be shockingly gory (The Ethical Treatment of Meat) or beautifully sensual and sweet. Erotic, complicated, terrifically creepy, frighteningly beautiful - this is such an unusual and thrilling collection of short fiction. It's amazing (I know I've said that a few times now, but it is.)The Ethical Treatment of Meat is one of the most disturbing things I have ever read. A world of intelligent zombies breed humans in factory farms for their meat, but a new fad is adopting "fleshy" children as pets and torturing them (the zombies misread the screams as a sign of happiness). And when you get tired of your pets you can always have a barbecue and invite the neighbors! So, hilarious yet highly upsetting and disturbing and gross? Excellent combination, IMHO.Spiderkid ties together comic book mythology and ancient gods and passionate young love. Njabo has the goddess of the elephants reborn as a little girl, and her presence is leaking into the creative mind of one of her artistic parents. Destroyer of Worlds has dimension-hopping superheroes and the apocalypse. But every single story in this collection offers something new, amazing and worth reading.One other thing I absolutely loved about this collection was Lalumiere's sensual, erotic, romantic characters - which include gay and lesbian relationships, threesomes, moresomes, everything! It's absolutely beautiful stuff in between the creepy horror stuff and the awesome superhero stuff. There was nothing I didn't LOVE about this collection.