The Oceans of Cruelty: Twenty-Five Tales of a Corpse-SpiritBy: Douglas J. Penick One of the oldest books in the world, The Oceans of Cruelty is a sequence of twenty five tales from India whose central theme is the dark power of storytelling. At the start, a young king falls into the hands of a wicked sorcerer, who orders him to find a vetala, or corpse spirit, to serve him; the young king must do as he is told, and soon enough he is also under the sway of the no less malevolent spirit. Like a bat, the spirit