title: A History of Horrors: The Rise and Fall of the House of Hammer
author:  Denis Meikle 
description: Meikle provides fascinating glimpses not only into the Carrerases, James the father and Michael the son, but also the various producers, script writers and, to a lesser extent, the directors..... (Paul Legget, Autumn 2009 <i>Scarlet: The Film Magazine</i>)<br /><br />Important for a number of reasons....Enough history here to recommend the book to Hammer fans and fantasy film enthusiasts alike. (<i>Scarlet: The Film Magazine</i>)
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  HAMMER AND ANVIL
  
  
  The Time of Troubles, vol. 2
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## I
  
  
  When the younger Maniakes looked west from the governor's residence—a polite
  name for a fortress—in Kastavala, he could see only ocean. Even so, staring
  out at that ocean did not bother him unduly: he knew that beyond it lay the
  town of Opsikion, and beyond Opsikion the rest of the Empire of Videssos.
  
  
  He and his father, from whom he drew his name, had lived on the island of
  Kalavria half a dozen years now. It was exile, but polite, honorable exile:
  the elder Maniakes was governor of the island. The Avtokrator Likinios had
  named him to the post, and Genesios, after murdering Likinios and all his sons
  and seizing the imperial throne for himself, had seen fit to leave him
  undisturbed. In his day, the elder Maniakes had been a soldier to reckon with;
  Genesios was no doubt just as glad to keep him busy far, far away from
  Videssos the city, the great capital of the Empire.
  
  
  The younger Maniakes stirred restle