James Blish: Black Easter

While primarily known for sci-fi stories, including various Star Trek stories, James Blish also wrote one of the greatest works of occult fiction: Black Easter.  From what I have read, Blish developed the idea for Black Easter by deciding to write something where magic is definitely real and works just as it is supposed to, but using only magical tomes that really exist, rather than any invented ones, such as The Necronomicon.

Paperback edition by Dell

The story is quite simple, but also rather fascinating.  It revolves around a practitioner of magic, Theron Ware, who performs various rituals for hire.  He is approached by an arms dealer who wants to try something of an experiment.  After Ware performs some smaller feats for him, convincing him of the efficacy of magic, the arms dealer says he wants to free all the demons of hell for one night.  Ware finds that he is actually quite interested in this idea, so he agrees.

The bulk of the story deals with Ware proving that he can do exactly what he says he can do and then with the preparation for the planned freeing of the demons upon the world.  This particular event is scheduled for Easter Sunday, hence the title, Black Easter.  Once the planned day arrives, the main characters gather and Ware begins the ritual.  This culminates with a procession of the various demons appearing and venturing forth.  From where they remain, the characters can hear the chaos of what goes on once the demons are freed, likely feeling they might have made a huge mistake. 

Black Easter was followed up with The Day After Judgment, which continues the story after the night of the demons being freed.  Together, they were also published as one volume under the title The Devil's Day, which is how I first discovered the story.  Neither Black Easter nor The Day After Judgment is very long (as such, neither is this post), so when put together, they form a very reasonable length novel.  While I believe Black Easter is the clearly superior part, The Day After Judgment is still worth a read, especially if you pick it up as The Devil's Day.

Hardcover edition of The Devil's Day


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