Broken Meats: A Harry Stubbs Adventure Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

David Hambling (Author, Publisher), Gethyn Edwards (Narrator)

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Weird things lurk in the dark streets of London in 1925.

After a bizarre shooting incident, Harry Stubbs, former heavyweight boxer and sometime debt collector, is coerced into helping a visitor from Shanghai. Mr Yang, an agent of the feared Si Fan Society with unusual powers, is seeking information about a dead man.

Roslyn D'Onston was a journalist and black magician - and a leading suspect in the Jack the Ripper killings. D'Onston has been dead for 13 years. But exactly how dead is he now?

When Yang joins a cell of renegade Theosophists for a seance, things start to go terribly wrong and Harry finds himself caught in a battle between occult powers, with strange enemies and stranger friends. It will take all his deductive skills - and skill at throwing a killer punch - to survive against the all-too-real arts of necromancy....

Broken Meats is the sequel to The Elder Ice, described by critic ST Joshi as having "smooth-flowing prose, crisply delineated characters, effective portrayal of the historical period, and a powerful horrific climax".

Listening Length

4 hours and 14 minutes
Author

David Hambling
Narrator

Gethyn Edwards
Audible release date

January 12, 2017
Language

English
Publisher

David Hambling
ASIN

B01NCTZ354
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	4 hours and 14 minutes
Author	David Hambling
Narrator	Gethyn Edwards
Audible.com Release Date	January 12, 2017
Publisher	David Hambling
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B01NCTZ354
Best Sellers Rank	#287,272 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #417 in Steampunk Science Fiction (Audible Books & Originals) #2,217 in Steampunk Fiction #4,130 in Supernatural Thrillers (Audible Books & Originals)

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Byron Craft

He's Back!

Reviewed in the United States on May 16, 2017

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He's Back!
Yup, Harry Stubbs has returned in "Broken Meats," book 2 of David Hambling's Lovecraftian mystery series. Broken Meats is the sequel to “The Elder Ice.” The setting, for this story, is 1925 Norwood, England and Harry Stubbs, retired heavyweight boxer, part-time debt collector and a reluctant detective is compelled to track down one of the most notorious Jack the Ripper suspects in history, Roslyn D'Onston. Broken Meats is a little piece of fictionalized history since D'Onston was chiefly known for having been a potential suspect in the Ripper investigations. A séance that ends disastrously coupled with an eerie paradox has our hero wondering if Roslyn D'Onston was truly dead or did he escape the hangman’s noose? The conundrum leaves Harry Stubbs flanked by two warring occult powers.
Laced with HPL aha moments such as; Willie Whateley, Howard Phillips and the King in Yellow, David Hambling grabs you with every turn of the page. Besides five stars I give it two thumbs up; a great read! Don’t pass this one up, folks.

2 people found this helpful

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Randy Stafford

Another Excellent Account from the Unflappable Mr. Stubbs

Reviewed in the United States on March 26, 2016

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Between jobs after the events of The Elder Ice, ex-boxer and bill collector Harry Stubbs, our narrator, finds himself conducting Mr. Yang about the Norwood neighborhood of South London. It's a favor to his old friend and sometime patron Arthur Renville -- the "Consignment Man" who makes his money disposing of items reported as lost to insurance companies. Arthur wants to know the real reason Yang, member of the sinister Si Fan triad, has come to England in 1925.

East meets West in an adventure that brings in Theosophy, real life occultist Robert D'Onston Stephenson, Chinese politics, and a walking corpse. H. P. Lovecraft fans will come to attention when we hear about the local Whatley family and the notion that you can reconstitute the dead from their ashes.

I liked the continuing hat tips Harry gives to his literary models and his asides on the art of boxing. Unflappable, a bit naïve at times, Harry keeps on growing as a man, and I certainly look forward to his next adventure.

2 people found this helpful

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reading hound

Enjoyable Read

Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2015

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I bought this book because I really enjoyed an earlier book by the author, "Elder Ice." This book included some of the same characters, such as the main character, Harry Stubbs, which I enjoyed. Like Elder Ice, this book was based on historical events and figures. I found this book confusing at times because of so many characters and the bouncing around of the story. There was a fair amount of violence, some of which was pretty graphic. I was able to skim over a lot of the violent sections and found this to be an overall enjoyable read.

3 people found this helpful

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Compulsive Reader

Please, Mr. Hambly sir, can I have some more? Some more Harry Stubbs that is!!!

Reviewed in the United States on December 2, 2016

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Loved, loved, loved this. Intelligent, smart, fun read. This series steps out of the horror genre into mystery, historical fiction and action adventure. To top it all off, unlike a huge proportion of the writers in the thriller action adventure genre, Mr. Hambly can write and write well. Great stuff.

One person found this helpful

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Great follow-up

Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2018

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If anything, this follow-up Harry Stubbs is stronger than the last one. Mr. Hambling's writing is a delight and he includes many thoughtful historical touches. Both the characters and the story are strong and tick along nicely. I thoroughly look forward to the next book in the series. Strongly recommended.

One person found this helpful

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C.T. Top Contributor: Star Trek

An amazing follow up to the original

Reviewed in the United States on February 21, 2018

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The HARRY STUBBS series is probably the best H.P. Lovecraft fiction which is currently on the market today with the possible exception of Andrew Doran by Matthew Davenport or my own Cthulhu Armageddon (I tell it like it is). This is because it dials down the squid and the splatterpunk horror elements so many authors dial up to return to the occult mystery element that Lovecraft's best works were famous for.

Basically, the appeal of Harry Stubbs is he's actually fairly outside of the occult weirdness of your typical Lovecraft protagonist. He often encounters cultists, the weird, and the supernatural but rarely gets face-first with the horrors of Yog-Sothoth or the Elder Things. The first book, Eldritch Ice, had him mostly deal with the attempt to get a Antarctic expedition going versus actually reaching the Mountains of Madness. Yet, this actually makes it more interesting because you never know when the other shoe will drop.

In this book, it's vaguely related to THE STRANGE CASE OF CHARLES DEXTER WARD, the Theosophy movement, seances, and Sax Rohmer's Fu Manchu (except not really on that last part). Harry Stubbs is hard up for cash and ends up hiring himself out as a tour guide to a mysterious Chinese visitor who gets him involved with a man who claims to be able to raise the dead. This is after, conveniently, a local pimp claims to have murdered an already dead man in Harry Stubb's presence.

The story is good from start to finish and feels like an exceptionally well-researched Chaosium module for the old Call of Cthulhu gameline from the eighties. I prefer the audiobook version of this story to the text version but both are exceptional.

9/10

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Odinsknot

Pulpy Weird Fiction at its Best

Reviewed in the United States on December 14, 2015

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This is the second Harry Stubbs book I have read and I enjoyed this one even more than the first -- which I loved. Hambling is proving himself to be a master of pulpy, weird fiction. If you like those kinds of stories, and most of your favorite authors are dead, then be glad Hambling is carrying on the tradition.

One person found this helpful

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jim

Great, can't wait for more!

Reviewed in the United States on November 21, 2016

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I usually don't read reviews or write them. The Stubbs stories changed that...the first was a little too short, but this one is great. Well written and well plotted, you could do a lot worse than to spend some time with Broken Meats!

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Top reviews from other countries

Philip Hemplow

Exceptional: atmospheric, intriguing, thrilling, and cleverly-wrought.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 17, 2015

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I was looking forward to reacquainting myself with Harry Stubbs, and had high hopes for this, his second outing. I'm very pleased to be able to say that Broken Meats has exceeded my expectations, and that fans of The Elder Ice are going to be very, very happy with its sequel.

This time out, the encroaching menace does not originate in the South Polar seas, but in China. Fans of Sax Roehmer will find plenty to enjoy here, but David Hambling deserves a lot of credit for the way he exploits the wonderfully-evocative popular mythology and received wisdom of the time, while also quietly subverting stereotypes of the 'Yellow Peril' / 'bony-fingered menace from the East'-type. The book manages this without being 'preachy' -- just equable and fair-minded -- in large part due to the character of the narrator, Harry Stubbs.

Stubbsy is developing into a real treasure: an enormously likeable narrator, with just the right amounts of insight, fallibility, and self-deprecation. In a subgenre that is sometimes rather overstocked with protagonists who are either dusty academics or relentless nihilists, he is a breath of fresh air. Some of the supporting cast are familiar characters from the first book, and some are brand new. All are skilfully and believably written, but the Chinese visitor, Yang, (the name is no coincidence) is particularly vividly drawn, and it is clear that an awful lot of effort has gone into his portrayal.

The writing flows very well, and maintains an enjoyable pace and sense of purpose, with a constant drip-feed of plot disclosure and pleasing incidental detail. Stylistically, this is the kind of thing I like to read: expressive without being self-indulgent, creative, and with words chosen for their rhythm as well as their meaning. The story has depths that you can swim down to if you so choose, but the writer never forces your head under the water. In terms of plot, too, there is a willingness to trust the reader, and DH does not succumb to the temptation to explain every last detail, leaving a satisfying amount of mystery here and there.

The plot twists and turns throughout, leavened by numerous action scenes. However, in the hands of Stubbs I didn't feel the need to try to second-guess the author or predict what was coming next. Like 'The Elder Ice', this is a story that simply draws you along like a first-class passenger. In fact, I think it would work sensationally well as an audiobook -- it has that fireside quality to it.

As you can probably tell, I liked this a great deal. I read the Kindle version, but I believe a paperback may be in the offing at some point, and I will be picking that up too when the time comes. (Incidentally, the page count that Amazon is showing is way, way off - it actually clocks in at around 224 pages, according to Calibre.) If you are in the mood for a savoury slice of period Mythos fiction, you owe it to yourself to pick this one up. In fact, a background in the Mythos is really not necessary to enjoy this story -- it just adds the occasional little frisson of recognition to the experience. I recommend it, without hesitation.

:-)

2 people found this helpful

Ben Casey

... duck and dive to survive but he’ll need his best footwork now

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 11, 2015

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Ex-boxer Harry’s place is down where you duck and dive to survive but he’ll need his best footwork now. From the days when Britain had an Empah, doncherknow and the working class knew their place, a European has ripped off a Chinese Secret Society, attempting to cheat death with strange, deadly magic. Now comes the wily oriental bill-collector, with Harry as his guide. European and Chinese magic vie in a fresh take of London as the hub of empire, as the decent, striving, Harry must contend with Theosophy, blackest of Magic, revenants—and chopsticks.
I liked the intro, got the book and read it within the hour—more from Harry, please!

M. King

More great stuff from Harry Stubbs

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 15, 2016

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For those of a certain age in the U.K. the phrase "Minder meets Lovecraft" is probably most apt.

The ability to spin Lovecraftian eeriness and horror and have it in conflict with a lovable pugilist who does the odd job for his criminal associates but has a heart of gold is just hugely clever and entertaining.

Got to love a character who goes into battle with the Old Ones with a couple of magic charms and a set of knuckle dusters.

Robin Wagner

Lovecraft Fiction done right

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 15, 2020

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A well paced, well written story that does the right things to make a lovecraft story good. Too many writers think that lovecraft is just about tentacles and fishmen at the bottom of the sea, this guy loves the themes as much as the reader does.

After reading I immediatly bought all his other lovecraft works.

M. J. Dudley

Harry Pulls it Off!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 31, 2017

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Here we go again! A real sense of place, and great attention to local detail and authenticity. Recommended.

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