'Sacrifice'

Aha, we are in old-time pulp horror country with this cracking little tale in Tree Spirit...  We're in the fairly indeterminate past when a character called Wilhelm could rampage about the Near and Middle East torturing people for the whereabouts of a mysterious tower. What the despicable German magus is after, as per usual, is greater power than mere mortal can imagine. What he finds is somewhat different.

In 'Sacrifice' Michael Eisele evokes authors like Clark Ashton Smith and Robert Bloch, members of the weird fiction circle centred on Lovecraft. And yes, here are some mad Arabs, though to be fair they've got every reason to be bloody furious  with Wilhelm. As he's such a nasty person you know he will come a cropper, so the question is How? The finale is satisfying, with its clever twist on a hoary horror convention.

This is quite a jolly tale, with the added twist that the demonic being various scholars are trying to control is a Djinn. This gives a slight Arabian Nights feel to the drama, as yet another European finds out the hard way that mucking about with other folk's culture is very unwise.

Another chunk of my opinions very soon in this running review. Stay tuned for strangeness!