Grab the eBook: UK: www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CGXFZCH5 USA: www.amazon.com/dp/B0CGXFZCH5 CA: www.amazon.ca/dp/B0CGXFZCH5 AUS: www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0CGXFZCH5 Bandcamp link: horrorbabble.bandcamp.com/album/the-weird-adventures-of-peter-van-melsen-van-melsen-mythos-book-1 0:00:00 - Introduction CASE 1: THE SOUL STEALER During a visit to the old city of York, Van Melsen happens upon a young girl possessed by a most unusual and macabre compulsion. 0:00:44 - Soul Stealer Preface 0:08:14 - Soul Stealer One 0:12:56 - Soul Stealer Two 0:19:58 - Soul Stealer Three 0:33:14 - Soul Stealer Four 0:43:32 - Soul Stealer Five 0:49:44 - Soul Stealer Six 0:56:54 - Soul Stealer Seven 1:05:04 - Soul Stealer Postface CASE 2: THE COLOUR OF THE FOREST Van Melsen heads into the wilds of Scotland, in order to investigate the presence of mysterious doorways found in the furthest reaches of Galloway Forest Park. 1:07:50 - Colour Foreword 1:10:08 - Colour of the Forest 1:59:44 - Colour Afterword CASE 3: THE POM-POM SPOT Van Melsen stumbles into a strange situation in the Lincolnshire town of Louth, centering around the discovery of a bright blue pom-pom in the hills nearby. 2:02:33 - Pom-Pom Spot One 2:23:57 - Pom-Pom Spot Two 2:37:33 - Pom-Pom Spot Three CASE 4: THE KNAVESMIRE VAMPIRES Van Melsen, with a little help from his oldest friend, Norman Cane, investigates a series of unusual killings in York’s South Bank. 2:50:37 - Knavesmire Vampires One 2:57:18 - Knavesmire Vampires Two 3:08:50 - Knavesmire Vampires Three 3:29:16 - Knavesmire Vampires Four 3:50:22 - Knavesmire Vampires Five CASE 5: THE STONEGATE HORROR Tasked with the retrieval of a rare and powerful object, Van Melsen descends into the hidden catacombs of York... But what else might be waiting for him down there? 4:14:22 - Stonegate Horror CASE 6: THE LURE OF THE DREAMSCAPE Van Melsen undertakes his most ambitious case to date: a quest involving a curious black box, and a missing dreamer by the name of Jason Murphy. 4:52:05 - Dreamscape Prologue 5:18:17 - Dreamscape One 6:09:55 - Dreamscape Two 6:47:21 - Dreamscape Three 7:42:27 - Dreamscape Four 8:11:09 - Dreamscape Epilogue 8:20:08 - Further Listening HorrorBabble, Fiction, Audiobook, Horror Written & Narrated by Ian Gordon Feat. Gary Gordon as Norman Cane Feat. Jennifer Gordon as Ellen Moore, Agatha Winston Feat. Gareth Wynne as D. C. I. Mark Brent (www.garethwynne.uk/narration) Music & Production by Ian & Jennifer Gordon Illustrations by Duncan Kay: duncankayartwork.artstation.com
Wow Ian, how awesome it is to see such a long body of work from you!! What a pleasure. I really enjoy the Carnaki series myself, and to see you have your own creation is a great privilege to delve into.
Ian, on Amazon Australia, I currently get "This title is not currently available for purchase. Have you moved recently? You may change your country/region on the Manage content and devices page." I am most certainly logged in with the correct account and my Australian address. Is this just a temporary hold-up until Amazon catches up?
@@michaelhoffmann2891 Sorry about the late response! Are you still getting the same message? It should certainly be available over there by now (it was released September 16th 2023).
When I first found this channel 2 years ago this month, I had just become the reluctant owner of 4 cats. I needed to come up with some names for them and couldn't think of anything good. Well, that's when I came across two different series and I might have "borrowed"(stolen) a couple names from them. 2 of the cats are boys and form the outstanding detective duo of Carnacki & Van Melson. Nacki is a medium and is sensitive to ghosts. Or at least he chases things that I can't see so I assume it is spectral in nature. Van Melson is a calm calculated operator who thinks most cases are simply a "two pipe problem". Color me surprised to find out that they were writing down their adventures and even more so that they found someone to print and distribute the work. I appreciate you publishing it for them. They were over the moon. Lol.
@@tamsintarshish3905 Well, there are an additional 5 in total. 6 kids and mom. I still haven't gotten a good name for her so she is just Mama. From the first batch we have Carnacki, Van Melsen(I had that name autocorrected so many times I had to add it to my dictionary) and Chasni. Chasni is a short plump Asian woman that manages all the secretarial duties at the firm. From the second batch we have Mongo(he will only respond to "my friend" but his Christian name is as stated), Sunday and Karen(she also goes by Carrot). Mongo works for Mr. Headly Lamar obviously but does engage in some wet work if needed by the firm. Sunday is the honey pot when necessary but mainly spends her time looking for interesting cases to bring in. Rumor says she is tight with Ascot Kean but I can't verify that one way or the other. Finally, we have Karen. She doesn't do anything other than complain about how she wants a refund. She doesn't have a receipt, she doesn't care that she needs one and she isn't moving until she sees the manager. It never helps when I tell her I am the manager, she just keeps whining "bring him here now. Do you know who I am". That is the team. I often talk gibberish to them so they all have developed a bunch of nicknames but I don't think they would want that information so freely shared. Lol. If you want to know more I can ask, just let me know.
Hahahahaha. So after I left the previous reply with the names and positions of the other cats, I came across some character sheets that I made for the first 3. They're from Feb 19 '23. I think I made some for the other 3 and if I find them I will put them here too. Enjoy!! Lol Name: Carnacki Aliases: Mimple, Mimp Jon, Mine-Do, Nacki, Big Man's Age: 1 year Weight: 17 pounds Skills: Break rope, Greater speed, Grand affection, Lesser deep speech Name: Chasni Aliases: Lemidgets, My Tomens, Nahshemps, Chamimin Age: 1 year Weight: 11 pounds Skills: Grand Regurgitation, Locate Insect, Greater Meditation, Purge Toxins Name: Van Melsen Aliases: Dex, My Buuuudy, That Guy, Dextarius Age: 1 year Weight: 19.5 pounds Height: 13 feet Skills: Tall as shit A note about the cats. Nacki is swole. He kinda looks like a bulldog. Van Melsen is the tallest cat I've ever seen. He is the size of my torso and I'm 6' tall. His arms are over a foot long. It's actually crazy.
I tried to add some more cat related stuff but it doesn't seem to have posted the comment. I will try again but who knows why it didn't work or if it will this time. I sent them to a sick friend to cheer them up. The context is I am just learning that Mama places witnesses for the Marshal's. The bits are about the former identities and reason that they are in the program. I have more than this but I haven't been able to find all of them. My friend enjoyed them so I hope you do too. Just some nonsense Chasni stories Also, another shoe has dropped over here. Chasni has been implicated in some fraud and identity theft cases. She had stolen the identity of one Cindy Chassburg and used it to open several dozen lines of credit. Of course she's broke now. Blew the cash on tuna believe it or not. I had wondered why she gained so much weight Turns out it's lymphoma? Yikes! Tune in next week where we will find out if she can purge those toxins by combining the master class abilities known as "Purge Toxins" and "Grand Regurgitation" into the sage class ability known as "Full Remission" or it's lesser known variant called "Expel Internal Evils". Join us next time for more on "The Tropics are Cancer" Sunday stories Turns out Sunday was a playwright named Ella Horn prior to turning states evidence in a rash of cult murders involving the deaths of 19 understudies across the lower Adirondacks. You learn new things more about people when you live with them and Sunday just dropped a bombshell. Turns out, Sunday is an alias. She is in witness protection for testifying against the Russian mob. Her actual name is Svetlana or just Lana to her friends. You never know what others have been through! Don't spread that around too much please. I thought you would want to know for your Indexes and record keepings naturally VM stories My buddy seems to have had a second life just like Chasni. He was a hitter for the mob. His name was Dex "The Limb" Cositti. He is in witness protection as well. Apparently mama is involved with placing witnesses for the Marshal's. Records show his favored method of dealing with people was to beat them to death with their own arm. I have assurances that he is done with that life but I got a feeling it's still in him to do so.(This was accompanied by a picture of his eyes. The look made me think he could see whoever viewed the photo! Lol) Mongo stories Mongo used to moonlight as a male stripper with the stage name Le'Baron. He was quite popular with the 50 and up crowds. That is until a fellow dancer turned up dead wearing his work thong and holding a set of keys to a Chrysler. A frame job is my understanding but he rarely speaks let alone about himself
Cthulhu only knows how deeply I've embedded myself in this channel. Ian, you have not only spoke directly to my soul with your cadence but you have put me to sleep every night for almost a decade. What started out as reading from the public domain evolved into captivating a worldwide audience with this generation's variant of Carnacki and John Silence. Peter Van Melsen is a lined with layers of character... and I'm sure we still haven't scratched the surface. Your original works would make Lovecraft proud. Keep it up.
I don’t comment much, but as a lifelong fan of the supernatural/gothic horror genre, I love this channel-especially the collections of supernatural detectives.
Van Melsen mythos, Book 1. Love knowing there will be many more. Van Melsen is one of the coolest characters in fiction and I mean that. He wouldn't be the character he is without Ian's marvelous writing, characterization, and superb narration. I want to say thank you to Ian for bringing this wonderful mythos to us. We aren't just hearing tales of Van Melsen, we are hearing them from Van Melsen, in a strange way.
A hard to find author in the style of the weird pulpy tales. Not mired in agendas or politics. Hope you'll support this writer as long as he doesn't sell out. He has an ebook.
8 hours of Van Melsen is beyond what could be called a treat. A boon, perhaps? More like a blessing. Throughout all the tales you've recorded, these have always been my favorite.
Wow!!! Now I have an entire compilation to get me through an entire day at the arcade on my weekends. Thank you Ian, Jennifer and everyone at Horrorbabble. 💀
In the 90th day in the Taklamakan desert with the Arab caravan, Warren knew he was well and truly screwed. Daily the caravan departed early in the morning til it reached the same brackish little well with its nasty alkaline tasting water - always from a different direction. The Arabs watered the camels and replenished their water skins then carried on. Every evening a fierce sandstorm blew up to peter off in the late evening. Every night they set camp, ate, slept until the early morning to start off again. Rinse; repeat ad nauseam. He wasn't getting out. _Nobody_ got out. He knew that by the bewildering array of characters who showed up along the way. So many small adventuring groups happened by Warren wondered if he'd fallen into a D&D world. Though they were hardly the most unusual. His caravan encountered Hoplites from Alexander the Great, Mongol, Hun, Scythian, and Pecheneg tribesmen on pony sized horses, and more camel caravans carrying the wealth of multiple Eurasian civilizations. Chinese troops from the Song, Han, Qin, Zhou, Ming, Shang, Yuan, and Tang dynasties and even Warring States paraded or straggled by in unit sizes ranging from 10 to 10,000. Indian traders, Russians, Roman, Persian, and Byzantine envoys, Armenian and Ukrainian knights, Christian missionaries, and Buddhist monks crossed their path. An American Army Air Corps flight crew from a crash landed cargo plane eagerly asked Warren directions when they found he spoke English. He couldn't help them though he traded info on the 1944 World Series winner (Cardinals 4 games to 2 over the Browns) for a pack of Lucky Strikes and a dented Ronson. A likewise stranded gaggle of Chinese and Russian airline passengers wandered about. The Arabs thought they were imploring vainly to their sky gods for aid with their shiny box religious symbols. Warren didn't bother explaining they were checking for a cell phone signal. At one point he practiced his Latin with a Roman Legion Centurion. He did so poorly the brute chased him with his _vitis._ Fortunately the desert proved so enervating conflicts sputtered out quickly. The Centurion faltered then returned grumbling to his Century. Abbasid Empire Imams tried to convert his caravan to Islam for apparently the millionth time. As did multiple denominations of Christian missionaries. All with no success. It seemed with such Woodstock level throngs _somebody_ would know where the hell they were going. But it wasn't so. GPS, magnetic compasses, gnomons, sextants, star charts, radios, and astrolabes proved useless. Radio signals were a thing at night. But they were intermittent signals from multiple sources such as a Rio de Janeiro AM radio station playing Bossa Nova, independent TV station news from Phoenix, Arizona, Communist propaganda from Stalingrad circa 1956, Radio Caroline out of Essex in the UK, military radio traffic from a 1980s REFORGER exercise. None were very clear or lasted very long. For the umpteenth time Warren's caravan stumbled upon the lost Red Army squad. Sweating Chinese troops pushed a dusty Dongfeng EQ2050 truck through the sand as their NCO alternated between screaming incoherent Cantonese at them and incoherent Cantonese into a radio. Meanwhile their junior lieutenant examined a tattered map while juggling a GPS and compass. As always, the lieutenant looked up at the caravan through coke bottle spectacles as it passed and asked about Warren in high pitched Mandarin. As one the Arabs laughed and chorused back *"You fool! Warren is dead!"*
It is known that I am a lover of Van Melsen stories. So, I wellcome this compilation. The only difference is that Ian imagines him as Peter Cushing while I imagine him as Andre Morell
I've been listening to the PVM mythos at night before bed and he came to me in my dreams last night! He seemed a rather mysterious steampunk gent in dark velvets and quiet shoes. I think I'm in love!
Thank you! It's on its way to Audible, Spotify, etc as we speak. It's also on our Bandcamp shop: horrorbabble.bandcamp.com/album/the-weird-adventures-of-peter-van-melsen-van-melsen-mythos-book-1
These are so great. Some of the best writing I've seen/heard in years. I have it on a list of other HB stories I go to sleep to at night. Thank you for this wonderful addition to the greats. PS. My sister and I agree, can't help but see Oeter Cushing as Van Melson.
Honestly, "Looth" was just a mispronunciation! However, perhaps calling it Looth rather than Louth makes more sense given that it's a fictionalised version of the town.
As a lifelong martial artist I have to ask…. Was this a good lesson from the father? “Son, you couldn’t defeat your adversary so I’ll beat his father…”
Will there soon be an audio version of this to purchase to help fund this also? I will buy the e-book but I would also like to be able to purchase an audio version please.
I thoroughly enjoy your readings. Good stuff, well read. However, I have one slight comment: you appear to dwell unnecessarily on these people smoking. I get it - they smoke. I used to smoke. I'm not judging. But do we really need to be told of every cigarette lit, smoked, and tossed away?
VM's smoking was always intended to highlight the exaggerated nature of his character. His addiction is a reflection of his approach to detective work. He *is* however, trying to get off the old death sticks -- he's on the herbals in Hammer & Nails! Old habits die hard...
