Spawn of Inferno by Hugh B. Cave Episode #298

Hugh B. Cave | December 11, 2024

Spawn of Inferno by Hugh B. Cave Episode #298
Hugh B. Cave

SPAWN OF INFERNO

Episode #298 · Written by Hugh B. Cave · Narrated by Scott Miller

In 1840s Darbury, Massachusetts, an impossible noon-day darkness drops over the town, turning familiar streets into a hunting ground for thieves, killers, and something far worse. As bodies pile up in the black and a hideous presence feeds unseen, Dr. Bruce Moller races to a bitter recluse’s forbidden machine that may have opened a doorway to the Dimension of Death.

In the respectable 1840s mill town of Darbury, Massachusetts, Dr. Bruce Moller expects his days to be ruled by routine ailments and quiet evenings in his rooms off the square. Instead, a gray envelope arrives with a simple promise: he has less than twenty-four hours to live—and he’s not the only doctor in town to receive the same threat.

When an impossible darkness drops over Darbury at mid-morning, swallowing sunlight, streetlamps, and every familiar landmark, the city erupts into panic. Hidden in that suffocating black are looters, murderers…and something far worse, an invisible presence that breathes, stinks of decay, and leaves only mangled corpses and slime behind. Following the trail of terror, Moller is drawn back to the brooding house of Antone Sergio, a reclusive scientist who boasts of a crystalline “gateway” to the Dimension of Death—and a machine powerful enough to let its hungry inhabitants through.

“Spawn Of Inferno” is Hugh B. Cave in full command of his strange, nerve-tightening art: a fusion of science fiction and uncanny horror that feels like a lost case file from the age of gaslight and galvanism. Cave builds dread step by step, from whispered threats and asylum records to a desperate dash through lightless streets and a final confrontation with a machine that has no business existing in our world. If you enjoy atmospheric New England settings, cosmic menace just beyond the veil, and ordinary professionals caught in nightmare circumstances, this story will scratch every eerie itch.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Hugh B. Cave (1910–2004) was one of the most prolific storytellers of the 20th century, selling hundreds of stories to the legendary pulp magazines and later to paperback publishers around the world. A regular presence in pages like Weird Tales, Astounding, and Unknown, he moved effortlessly between science fiction, horror, fantasy, mystery, and adventure, always grounding his wildest ideas in vivid characters and tangible, lived-in settings.

Over a career that spanned more than seven decades, Cave wrote everything from jungle thrillers and Caribbean voodoo tales to thoughtful, character-driven novels and award-winning horror. Yet readers keep coming back to pieces like “Spawn Of Inferno,” where his gift for pace, mood, and mounting unease is on full display. Hearing this story performed brings out all the crackling tension in his dialogue and the creeping dread in his descriptions—an ideal way to experience a master craftsman of vintage speculative fiction at work.

LISTEN TO THE STORY

Listen to Spawn Of Inferno by Hugh B. Cave — a vintage science fiction nightmare where a New England town is smothered in living darkness and hunted by something from beyond.

ABOUT THE LOST SCI-FI PODCAST

The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast is the most listened-to vintage science fiction podcast in the world. Ranked the #1 Science Fiction Podcast in 34 countries and heard in more than 190 countries, the show has surpassed 3.7 million listens.

Each episode features carefully selected stories from the Golden Age of science fiction, professionally narrated. Timeless storytelling the way it was meant to be heard.

What listeners are saying:

★★★★★ “A vintage treat. It’s simultaneously a step back in time as we look forward.”
— JBFR 76

★★★★★ “The Lost Sci Fi Podcast is such a joy... Scott Miller is a master storyteller, truly inhabiting each character in a way that makes you forget there is only one narrator! I appreciate all the research that goes into every episode, from finding these obscure gems to the interesting biographical notes about the authors. Thank you for making me look forward to my commute!”
— Someone

Vintage science fiction. Professionally narrated. Carefully curated.