This is a re-publication of Satan's Lovechild series from the 60s/70s. I'm still trying to get a copy of the original, Star Publishing, edition as my understanding is there have been actual revisions as well as possible additions/omissions and I'm curious to see what exactly that entails. I am assuming that the original, being published by Playboy under one of its imprints and from some comments made by the author over the years, is more explicitly racy than this reprint. I would be tempted to say that perhaps it is only a difference in socio-cultural norms between then and now as to what would be considered explicit sexual content, however even some of McNaughton's other works are more direct in their sexuality than this one leading me to believe that some of the changes lie there.
This falls pretty solidly into the satanic/witch cults genre of horror literature and film so prevalent from the 60s-80s. You never know if your neighbor, wife, daughter, those hermit farmers, weird hippies, or literally anyone else in society might be secret satan worshipers, looking to kidnap and/or sexually exploit children and sacrifice babies. The same ideas that the satanic panic and religious right of the 80s decided were real instead of just fiction. We get some hints that this might be a stranger, less judeo-christian, world with to the supernatural goings on than mere satan worship though. Specifically, the nature of certain brothers and sisters begins to show that perhaps this is a more Lovecraftian universe. I believe the farther one gets in the series, the more 'weird' and less just 'horrific' it gets.
As is the case with all McNaughton's work, the prose is beautifully polished throughout. He is an expert wordsmith. However, the pacing feels distinctly uneven. This is fairly short for a novel, coming in at just 144 pages, but long compared to a lot of his short fiction work. I think the pacing suffers from trying to bridge the gap between the more action oriented demands of short fiction (barring atmospheric pieces) and the internal character driven demands of long-form work. We get just enough of characters internal lives to make us want to know more, but not enough for them to feel fully developed. Engaging, more action packed scenes that seem to drop too quickly into denoument. In some of his anthologized works like Throne of Bones, we see characters more fully explored and developed over longer sequences of tales, and I think that may be where McNaughton shines. If there's every an omnibus of this series of books published, it may be better to read them that way, though I'll reserve judgment until I've read the rest of the series. ( )

Satan's Love Child by Brian McNaughton is a paperback from Carlyle Communications, dating back to 1977 (I saw the 1977 edition, not the 1980 or 1982 printings). Used copies are available for pennies online. The forgettable cover art shows a satanic face overshadowing the nude reclining figure of a woman; the artist is not identified but who cares? The author's name does not appear on the front, giving us some idea of how prestigious this publication was. Apparently the original title was Gemini Rising, and a corrected text with the original title appeared in 2000. When I first read Satan's Lofve Child I had never seen the new Wildside Press editions. I approached it from the perspective of a fan interested in the Cthulhu Mythos. Brian McNaughton wrote the brilliant collection of ghoulish stories, Throne of Bones, which cannot be recommended highly enough. It is the absolute best among stories about ghouls. He also had a few entertaining stories scattered about in other Lovecraftian collections. Unfortunately Mr. McNaughton died in 2004 so we will never see any more of his grotesque fiction. At any rate, this title appeared on a few lists as being a Cthulhu Mythos book, so because of that and my enjoyment of his other works I ran down a copy.

Marcia Creighton is a beleaguered feature writer for a local newspaper in a New Jersey town called Riveredge. She has a loser abusive architect husband, Ken and 2 young children by him. In the past she lived in a commune and has a 15 yr old daughter from those days, Melody. Melody's father is not known and Marcia's memories of those days are foggy, only gradually recovering. We meet the loser reporter she works with, Ron Green, her editor, Ken's loser mistress, their earthy granola-ish neighbor Nora and a whacked out priest Father Collins. Walpurgis Night is fast approaching and there are some weird doings about town. First of all the place is overrun all of a sudden with hippies or drifters, congregating in town in significant numbers. Also there is some monstrous beast running loose, eating livestock and killing some people. Marcia's memories are slowly coming back and they are rather alarming. Melody is taking nude sleep walks and Ken is losing himself to alcohol.

So how is this book of interest to a Lovecraftian? I'd say associations are loose at best. First of all, given the title, you can imagine Melody's parentage is somewhat suspect. She also has a supernatural twin not really of this world (a plot device well known to HPL fans from The Dunwich Horror). The hippies/coven members are heard to chant the name Yog Sothoth once or twice. Rather than Satan, they are trying to make a way for outré entities to impregnate virgins, a common enough Lovecraftian theme. I guess that's about it. Mostly this would have worked as a story about Satanists instead of Yog Sothoth cultists and not lost anything. A silver crucifix talisman had great power over the most unnatural of the twins, not very Lovecraftian. This creature could not manifest but could assume control of other bodies after a fashion, unlike Wilbur Whateley's twin. And how was it? OK enough I suppose. I zipped through it over the Memorial Day afternoon so it is a very quick read. Probably that's a testament to Mr. McNaughton's prose and plotting. The characters had more snap (even though they were all basically just caricatures) and the dialogue more liveliness than the other books I've read recently (Deeper by Moore and House of the Toad by Tierney). Compared to McNaughton's typical work, the gore was rather muted. There were, however, 4 or 5 pornographic sex scenes that each stretched over 4-6 pages, very graphic indeed. Maybe when I was in my early teens I would have found them very titillating and said, "Wow! This is even better than Doc Savage: Fortress of Solitude!" Maybe early teens were the target audience. Now, however, I found them rather exasperating and wondered tediously how long until we get back to the story. There was also a very graphic rape scene that was quite emotionally detached. My favorite part was the ending which left the possibility (indeed, necessity) of a sequel wide open.

So what is my bottom line? Not required for a Lovecraftian except those who think mentioning Yog Sothoth and lifting the basic premise of The Dunwich Horror constitutes mythos fiction (if that includes you, may I recommend A Darkness Inbred by Victor Heck.). If you are jazzed by this, get a cheap used copy for the beach.

Now I have to emphasize that when Mr, McNaughton finally had a decent editor and a sympathetic publisher, he was able to redraft the book with the original title, Gemini Rising. It is one of his final works, a Lovecraftian masterpiece. Satan's Love Child is strictly for McNaughton and mythos completists; even then I don't recommend reading it! Just keep it on the shelf but only read Gemini rising, unless you are into such comparisons.