THE CENTURY'S BEST HORROR FICTION #69: A review of "The Last Work of Pietro of Apono" by Steffan B. Aletti

It’s pretty easy to see why Pelan chose this story for the anthology, but it is sadly kind of a blah story. It’s one of those careful-what-you-learn stories which doesn’t really seem to have much of a point.



The unnamed narrator starts out by telling us about his obsession with a 13th Century scientist by the name of Pietro (or Peter) of Apono. Due to a misunderstanding, it is determined that the poor fellow is a sorcerer, and the Inquisition tortures him to death. They didn’t mean to kill him, as they were looking forward to an execution, so they decided to dig him up and burn his corpse in public. However, a family friend beat them to the punch and had him reburied in the family vault.


No one else knows this. Our narrator wouldn’t even know it if not for the fact that he’s a descendant of the friend, and in some private papers, he discovered this fact. The narrator decides to hunt down the bones, but when he does, he gets freaked out by the skull, which looks like it’s still in horror and pain. He does, however, find a scroll in the coffin, which he takes with him.


He then finds out that the Inquisition wasn’t that far off. Pietro was indeed a sorcerer, but not the bad kind. He just wanted to know more about the world, and he was able to ward off some of the evil with a few white magic tricks. This last one, however, kicks the shit out of him. The scientist translates something called the GLORIAE CRUORIS by Serpencis, which leads to all sorts of bad things.


Unfortunately, by studying this scroll, the narrator turns loose some evil on himself in pure classic form. The problem is, this story is a dime-a-dozen in the genre. Hell, even that’s a bit steep. Maybe a dime-a-gross. SPOILER ALERT: Guess how this story ends. For those born yesterday, here is the result of the narrator’s accidental meddling: he sees horrible visions. He can’t sleep or eat anymore. He spends most of his time resisting blasphemous impulses.


In typical fashion, he burns the scroll and warns anyone who might find the actual text of the GLORIAE CRUORIS to ignore its teachings. Then, naturally, he says he’s going to poison himself to end the horror. The end. END OF SPOILERS.


Yeah, nothing special here. Move along. Nothing to see.


[This story first appeared in THE MAGAZINE OF HORROR and cannot be read online at this time.]