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The Taint and Other Novellas (Best Mythos Tales #1)
by
Brian Lumley
A collection of thrilling tales from H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos by one of horror's biggest legends. This volume contains the very best of Brian Lumley's Mythos novellas.
Hardcover, 279 pages
Published
October 31st 2007
by Subterranean Press
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The prolific Brian Lumley, a stalwart of British horror, has collected what his publisher calls his best Cthulhu Mythos tales in the first volume of what appears to be a series.
Where does it stand in the Lovecraftian canon? Well, it mostly stands as a worthy successor to Derleth, if you take the Mythos not to be the starting point for great literature but as a universe for pulp exploitation. In this volume at least, Lumley largely concentrates on tales of horrors associated with the ocean and, i...more
Where does it stand in the Lovecraftian canon? Well, it mostly stands as a worthy successor to Derleth, if you take the Mythos not to be the starting point for great literature but as a universe for pulp exploitation. In this volume at least, Lumley largely concentrates on tales of horrors associated with the ocean and, i...more
There's already a much better review of this on the website, and since I agree with most of what he says, I'm just going to leave this short and with minimal comments. As some others have said, the title story was the best, and it was the latest as well, which shows that Brian Lumley had gotten much better as a writer over the years in my opinion. But Brian Lumley at his purplest worst is still a barrel of monkeys, but I'm kind of a Lumley fanboy. And the Kindle has opened up great new realms of...more
Despite getting the impression from all the pre-publishing hypes and reviews that this book would contain the longer stories of "Cthulhu Mythos" by Brian Lumley, actual reading of the stories resulted in me being pleasantly surprised. The stories in this book are more properly describable as 'Lovecraftian', since they succed in invoking the feeling of cosmic horror without going through the hackneyed themes, words and damnable incantations! The best story in this book is undoubtedly, "The Taint"...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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I think read with the right perspective this can be an enjoyable read. The almost corny and quaint melodrama is to me very appealing but I can understand how it might turn off some people. Some of the stories were better than others naturally but I think I enjoyed the title story the least. In all I'm glad to have discovered this author (took a while I know) and I will regard him as reliable as Silverberg... not exactly earth shattering but always dependably enjoyable.
Born of the Winds really is a lovely story and more than makes up for the otherwise mediocre stories in this book.I know that this is a Mythos book but a little less using of the same old tomes in the stories would be more interesting.I like his work though but does he have to talk about him being in the service so much?It gets a little repetitive in the intros.
I would give this book a solid 3 1/2 though.If you can't get enough Mythos stuff this is right up your ally.
I would give this book a solid 3 1/2 though.If you can't get enough Mythos stuff this is right up your ally.
This collection of short stories and novellas highlights one of the weaknesses of the Cthulhu style story - they are very formulaic. Almost every one of the 7-8 stories here follows a similar pattern, and reading them over several weeks just highlighted that similarity.
That being said, Lumley does write better than Lovecraft did, and the stories were in general entertaining, even if they weren't amazingly original. Lumley explores avenues of the mythos a little different than the norm, and the s...more
That being said, Lumley does write better than Lovecraft did, and the stories were in general entertaining, even if they weren't amazingly original. Lumley explores avenues of the mythos a little different than the norm, and the s...more
I came across the work of Brian Lumley when I received a free copy of his Necroscope series - I loved it and from that day forward to have to read all he releases ( or at least try to with the number of rare and expensive collectable books he now publishes ).
anyway along with his major works are a whole raft of shorter fiction from short stories to novellas. This book is a collection of the latter and great as they are (he has written some cracking Cthulhu mythos books) there is only so much ma...more
anyway along with his major works are a whole raft of shorter fiction from short stories to novellas. This book is a collection of the latter and great as they are (he has written some cracking Cthulhu mythos books) there is only so much ma...more
Or , for an alternative title, "Lumley does Lovecraft" - & does it very well....!
I've reviewed HP on here , & said that , although his ideas are good , he went on a bit.....well , these novellas are some of Brian Lumley's work in the mythos - & he has picked up the ball & ran with it . There isn't a duff tale in the collection , but the 2 standout stories for me were "Lord of the Worms" (an early tale of Titus Crow) , & "The House of the Temple" (dark deeds in the Pentland Hi...more
I've reviewed HP on here , & said that , although his ideas are good , he went on a bit.....well , these novellas are some of Brian Lumley's work in the mythos - & he has picked up the ball & ran with it . There isn't a duff tale in the collection , but the 2 standout stories for me were "Lord of the Worms" (an early tale of Titus Crow) , & "The House of the Temple" (dark deeds in the Pentland Hi...more
Good stuff from Lumley, but mostly early stories that have pastiche feel not unlike Derleth.
"Born of the Winds", "The Taint" and "Lord of the Worms" are the standouts here.
"Born of the Winds", "The Taint" and "Lord of the Worms" are the standouts here.
I do enjoy Lumley's Mythos stories!
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Brian Lumley was born near Newcastle. In 22 years as a Military Policeman he served in many of the Cold War hotspots, including Berlin, as well as Cyprus in partition days. He reached the rank of Sergeant-Major before retiring to Devon to write full-time, and his work was first published in 1970. The vampire series, 'Necroscope', has been translated into ten languages and sold over a million copie...more
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