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The Nickronomicon
This vile tome collects thirteen blasphemous Lovecraftan tales of a certain scribe named Nick Mamatas. Warning: May contain shoggoths, martial arts, weirdness, Nyarlathotep, fish people from Innsmouth, and copious literary references. With an introduction by Orrin Grey and a bevy of disturbing alchemical illustrations by GMB Chomichuk. Side effects may include hallucinations and a steep descent into insanity.
290 pages, Paperback
First published November 17, 2014
6 people are currently reading
477 people want to read
About the author
Nick Mamatas
186 books248 followersNick Mamatas is the author of the Lovecraftian Beat road novel Move Under Ground, which was nominated for both the Bram Stoker and International Horror Guild awards, the Civil War ghost story Northern Gothic, also a Stoker nominee, the suburban nighmare novel Under My Roof, and over thirty short stories and hundreds of articles (some of which were collected in 3000 Miles Per Hour in Every Direction at Once). His work has appeared in Razor, Village Voice, Spex, Clamor, In These Times, Polyphony, several Disinformation and Ben Bella Books anthologies, and the books Corpse Blossoms, Poe's Lighthouse, Before & After: Stories from New York, and Short and Sweet.
Nick's forthcoming works include the collection You Might Sleep... (November 2008) and Haunted Legends, an anthology with Ellen Datlow (Tor Books 2009).
A native New Yorker, Nick now lives in the California Bay Area.
Nick's forthcoming works include the collection You Might Sleep... (November 2008) and Haunted Legends, an anthology with Ellen Datlow (Tor Books 2009).
A native New Yorker, Nick now lives in the California Bay Area.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
December 14, 2014
I wrote the introduction to this book, so you can read it to see what I thought! (Actually, that's a trick, the introduction doesn't really tell you what I thought, it's basically just a bonus short story, only by me instead of Nick.)
November 30, 2014
Up until yesterday I didn't expect to read a piece of weird fiction as exquisite as Jeff Vandermeer's ending of Annihilation, or Thomas Ligotti's Red Tower in 2014.
But then I read the final short story in the Nickronomicon. "On the occasion of my retirement" is most probably the best short story I've read this year, an absurdist piece of dark fiction that makes some surreal stories I've read in the past look as straightforward and mundane as IKEA instruction manuals. And it works. Lord have mercy, it works.
Even if the book was comprised of just that final novelette, I would have recommended this to anyone I know, but Mamatas managed to bring a whole host of great stories in its 290 pages.
Don't expect to wallow in Shoggoths or Deep ones. Oh, they're there alright, and it's important for you to know a little bit about the Cthulhu mythos beforehand, but it becomes apparent as the stories go by that the Mythos is just the foundation. Mamatas knows his subject, that's for sure; what I loved in all the stories is that, even though they are seeped in Mythos lore, you can still tell that it's he who's leading the story, not Lovecraft's ghost. Many Lovecraftian tales are basically retellings, the writer coasting it, waiting for HPL's allure to do the work for them. Not here. And that is for me, the biggest difference and strongest point of this whole collection. There can be no better or more literal title for this than the NICKronomicon. The man went all out and made it his own 100%.
If you are familiar with Lovecraftian tales, you will enjoy this book immensely. But expect much more than that. Weird fiction has come a long way since the 1920s, and this is one of its finest samples.
But then I read the final short story in the Nickronomicon. "On the occasion of my retirement" is most probably the best short story I've read this year, an absurdist piece of dark fiction that makes some surreal stories I've read in the past look as straightforward and mundane as IKEA instruction manuals. And it works. Lord have mercy, it works.
Even if the book was comprised of just that final novelette, I would have recommended this to anyone I know, but Mamatas managed to bring a whole host of great stories in its 290 pages.
Don't expect to wallow in Shoggoths or Deep ones. Oh, they're there alright, and it's important for you to know a little bit about the Cthulhu mythos beforehand, but it becomes apparent as the stories go by that the Mythos is just the foundation. Mamatas knows his subject, that's for sure; what I loved in all the stories is that, even though they are seeped in Mythos lore, you can still tell that it's he who's leading the story, not Lovecraft's ghost. Many Lovecraftian tales are basically retellings, the writer coasting it, waiting for HPL's allure to do the work for them. Not here. And that is for me, the biggest difference and strongest point of this whole collection. There can be no better or more literal title for this than the NICKronomicon. The man went all out and made it his own 100%.
If you are familiar with Lovecraftian tales, you will enjoy this book immensely. But expect much more than that. Weird fiction has come a long way since the 1920s, and this is one of its finest samples.
February 23, 2017
I am a bit torn over this collection of elaborate little exercises in post-Lovecraftian horror. The word “exercise” is rather suitable here, me thinks, for this is not your classic pure-adoration-of-Howard sort of text(s). Nick Mamatas takes slices off the Lovecraftian corpus, dips each of them in an original idea, and then eviscerates them with a barrage of dense language, while occasionally performing a subtle critique upon the shady spots of HPL's character (In “The Dude Who Collected Lovecraft” irony rules supreme, having Lovecraft corresponding (via mail) with a black man, without HPL knowing it).
All this sounds quite interesting, and it is, up to a certain point. For instance, “Brattleboro Days, Yuggoth Nights” which starts the collection, is based on an excellent idea: a conversation between Lovecraft and a friend of his, taking place on the back of a postcard going back and forth, each iteration taking place in smaller characters (since space was getting rather crowded). The conversation itself is concerned with the Whisperer in Darkness. As far as the story goes, I'd say that form is what shines here, and not content (not that it is mediocre, but it is nothing spectacular).
Unconventional form and structure is a big element in here. There are interview-like stories (Hideous Interview with Brief Man), the Q&A conversation already mentioned, even first-person narrations of the HPL himself (Jitterbuggin'). There is also a big thing with grand endings, of the sort that rise like ominous and omniscient dark entities above most of the text. Blending a plethora of contemporary world elements is evident. “Wuji” for example mixes martial arts movies with eastern mysticism and a Mythos topping, while “Real People Slash” sprinkles Mythos with anarchism and left-wing politics. Also, the protagonist in several stories is the author himself, rhus resulting in a sort of fragments of pseudobiography.
There are also a couple of shortcomings. The intertwining of Mythos and setting does not always work. For instance, “Real People Slash” feels like two stories (or maybe two settings) juxtaposed with not much gradient material between them. This is not an isolated case; “That of which we speak when we speak of the unspeakable” is also suffering from a discontinuity between the narration of everyday-life events and the oncoming storm of damnation that has fallen upon the world, ending up in minimizing any horror effect that it might have had upon me. One other thing is the language, which sometimes tends to be extremely elaborate (as a nudge to the man himself probably) with less than stellar results - ending up droning.
And finally I get to the last (and larger) story, “On the Occasion of my Retirement.” Which as conception is brilliant. Whose ending is grandiose to say the least. A text permeated throughout with post-structuralist linguistics (and a hint of the Sanitarium adventure game – as far as I am concerned). Yet, its realization was somewhat tiring for me, especially its second part. The apposition of pure theory next to alien landscapes and insectoid shapes was a bit too much, disrupting the flow of the story – though I do not deny that this could certainly be the author's way of celebrating the postmodern.
To sum it up: extremely powerful endings most of the time, a mishmash of contemporary ideas and world, Cthulhu Mythos, with a postmodern take as mortar. As a whole, the book is not for everyone, especially for traditionalist Mythos lovers (though parts of it certainly are). What it is above all, is an extravagant take on the Mythos, by a man that has obviously assimilated it to a more than satisfactory degree. If one manages to flow with the language (something that I was unable to do at certain points), the experience will be rewarding. Proceed with caution ye who enter here.
3.5/5
All this sounds quite interesting, and it is, up to a certain point. For instance, “Brattleboro Days, Yuggoth Nights” which starts the collection, is based on an excellent idea: a conversation between Lovecraft and a friend of his, taking place on the back of a postcard going back and forth, each iteration taking place in smaller characters (since space was getting rather crowded). The conversation itself is concerned with the Whisperer in Darkness. As far as the story goes, I'd say that form is what shines here, and not content (not that it is mediocre, but it is nothing spectacular).
Unconventional form and structure is a big element in here. There are interview-like stories (Hideous Interview with Brief Man), the Q&A conversation already mentioned, even first-person narrations of the HPL himself (Jitterbuggin'). There is also a big thing with grand endings, of the sort that rise like ominous and omniscient dark entities above most of the text. Blending a plethora of contemporary world elements is evident. “Wuji” for example mixes martial arts movies with eastern mysticism and a Mythos topping, while “Real People Slash” sprinkles Mythos with anarchism and left-wing politics. Also, the protagonist in several stories is the author himself, rhus resulting in a sort of fragments of pseudobiography.
There are also a couple of shortcomings. The intertwining of Mythos and setting does not always work. For instance, “Real People Slash” feels like two stories (or maybe two settings) juxtaposed with not much gradient material between them. This is not an isolated case; “That of which we speak when we speak of the unspeakable” is also suffering from a discontinuity between the narration of everyday-life events and the oncoming storm of damnation that has fallen upon the world, ending up in minimizing any horror effect that it might have had upon me. One other thing is the language, which sometimes tends to be extremely elaborate (as a nudge to the man himself probably) with less than stellar results - ending up droning.
And finally I get to the last (and larger) story, “On the Occasion of my Retirement.” Which as conception is brilliant. Whose ending is grandiose to say the least. A text permeated throughout with post-structuralist linguistics (and a hint of the Sanitarium adventure game – as far as I am concerned). Yet, its realization was somewhat tiring for me, especially its second part. The apposition of pure theory next to alien landscapes and insectoid shapes was a bit too much, disrupting the flow of the story – though I do not deny that this could certainly be the author's way of celebrating the postmodern.
To sum it up: extremely powerful endings most of the time, a mishmash of contemporary ideas and world, Cthulhu Mythos, with a postmodern take as mortar. As a whole, the book is not for everyone, especially for traditionalist Mythos lovers (though parts of it certainly are). What it is above all, is an extravagant take on the Mythos, by a man that has obviously assimilated it to a more than satisfactory degree. If one manages to flow with the language (something that I was unable to do at certain points), the experience will be rewarding. Proceed with caution ye who enter here.
3.5/5
March 26, 2017
There's a keen intelligence at work in Nick Mamatas' fiction, and he's not afraid to let it show. This collection of Lovecraftian works of his shows off his various talents in great fashion. His voice is distinctive, with noir touches mingling with philosophical musings, and a hint, and often more than a hint, of razor sharp sarcasm.
There's tentacles here, and Mi-Go, nameless dread and ancient books, but it's the shifting nature of reality that gets much of the focus in these stories, and the ground is rarely solid underfoot.
It's a great collection, and heartily recommended to anyone wanting to see how Lovecraft's vision can be molded into fiction relevant for a new day and age.
Great stuff.
There's tentacles here, and Mi-Go, nameless dread and ancient books, but it's the shifting nature of reality that gets much of the focus in these stories, and the ground is rarely solid underfoot.
It's a great collection, and heartily recommended to anyone wanting to see how Lovecraft's vision can be molded into fiction relevant for a new day and age.
Great stuff.
November 14, 2015
I've read a lot of Lovecraftian pastiche, written a fair amount of it myself. What sets Mamatas's work apart from most of this ilk is a) his sterling prose and b) the way he smashes radically different concepts into Lovecraft's concepts.
Only Nick Mamatas could invoke Santa Claus in a Lovecraftian story and lay the groundwork of the story so well that it's still creepy. Mamatas also captures the voice of Lovecraft himself the best. The conceit behind the story "Brattleboro Days, Yuggoth Nights" is an exchange of a postcard between Lovecraft and Arthur Goodenough. It's quite convincing.
The stories are varied, and each one has a very different approach than the rest. There are no ruts, no reused ideas. Well recommended.
Only Nick Mamatas could invoke Santa Claus in a Lovecraftian story and lay the groundwork of the story so well that it's still creepy. Mamatas also captures the voice of Lovecraft himself the best. The conceit behind the story "Brattleboro Days, Yuggoth Nights" is an exchange of a postcard between Lovecraft and Arthur Goodenough. It's quite convincing.
The stories are varied, and each one has a very different approach than the rest. There are no ruts, no reused ideas. Well recommended.
October 25, 2018
I have little patience with the vast majority of recent Lovecraftian fiction (whatever that means) that I stumble across these days. And I'm not a fan of the more bizarro pieces here. But the more restrained pieces are well-written and clever, and often pretty funny. (Not qualities that I tend to associate HPL's fictional descendants today.)
I mean, just consider this title: "That of Which We Speak When We Speak of the Unspeakable". I don't think it needs the two (?) "shoggoth" references though. And I have a (umm) soft spot for the Mi-Go as much as most people, but a tiny portion of flying crab goes a long way.
I do believe Dungness season is in full swing here.
I mean, just consider this title: "That of Which We Speak When We Speak of the Unspeakable". I don't think it needs the two (?) "shoggoth" references though. And I have a (umm) soft spot for the Mi-Go as much as most people, but a tiny portion of flying crab goes a long way.
I do believe Dungness season is in full swing here.
November 25, 2014
The Nickronomicon is a collection of Lovecraftian tales by author Nick Mamatas that are modern, unique spins on ye old Yogsothery, introducing ingenious takes on Lovecraft’s mythos, and a signature style all Mamatas’s own. Nick Mamatas is a legend of Lovecraftian fiction, anyone who has read Move Under Ground can testify to that, but I think with the cleverly, and fittingly titled, The Nickcronomicon, the author’s voice and ideas truly proves to be one of the most vital, and relevant in the Lovecraftian genre.
One of the best examples of this vitality, and relevancy can be found in the novella that closes the book, On the Occasion of my Retirement (original to this collection) where we have a professor at Miskatonic University embroiled in a sex scandal with a student. After his termination from his position his money starts to dwindle, and he attempts to sale an artifact, a mysterious blacker than black stone, or bas-relief through online markets. His attempts to get a clear picture for the online markets has him calling in favors and blackmail from Miskatonic‘s A.V. department. Through a series of events he is forced into the artifact where he suffers insectoid-existential angst of a Kafkaesque variety. Oh, and our protagonist is a black guy by the way, the type of protag rarely seen in Lovecraftian stories. This story is a great example because it combines modern, relevant subject matter, and relatable characters with Lovecraft’s signature antiquarian-related themes, and philosophies in regards to man’s place in the universe…Oh, and there is a brilliant homage to Lovecraft’s The Thing On the Doorstep that you never see coming!
A few other standouts, Inky, Pinky, Blinky, Nyarlathotep, a bizarre mix of the Old Ones and Pac-Man! Seriously, and it works!
And Other Horrors written with legend Don Webb, a gritty story about a thief who switches bodies with a member of the Great Race of Yith!–This is a very trippy tale, genius in its execution.
And Then, And Then, And Then a short tale about a guy who finds religion, so to speak, in the town of Innsmouth…I could go on, there is really not a dud in this collection. All things Lovecraft are here, including creepy epistolary tales that come off believable even, but carry Mamatas’s unique signature.
The Nickronomicon also contains some beautifully cryptic artwork by GMB Chomichuk that would do the Mad Arab himself proud!
If you are a fan of W.H. Pugmire, Joseph S. Pulver Sr., Laird Barron, and generally very different, and interesting ideas, and voices in Lovecraftian fiction, The Nickronomicon is required reading, it doesn’t get much better than this!
One of the best examples of this vitality, and relevancy can be found in the novella that closes the book, On the Occasion of my Retirement (original to this collection) where we have a professor at Miskatonic University embroiled in a sex scandal with a student. After his termination from his position his money starts to dwindle, and he attempts to sale an artifact, a mysterious blacker than black stone, or bas-relief through online markets. His attempts to get a clear picture for the online markets has him calling in favors and blackmail from Miskatonic‘s A.V. department. Through a series of events he is forced into the artifact where he suffers insectoid-existential angst of a Kafkaesque variety. Oh, and our protagonist is a black guy by the way, the type of protag rarely seen in Lovecraftian stories. This story is a great example because it combines modern, relevant subject matter, and relatable characters with Lovecraft’s signature antiquarian-related themes, and philosophies in regards to man’s place in the universe…Oh, and there is a brilliant homage to Lovecraft’s The Thing On the Doorstep that you never see coming!
A few other standouts, Inky, Pinky, Blinky, Nyarlathotep, a bizarre mix of the Old Ones and Pac-Man! Seriously, and it works!
And Other Horrors written with legend Don Webb, a gritty story about a thief who switches bodies with a member of the Great Race of Yith!–This is a very trippy tale, genius in its execution.
And Then, And Then, And Then a short tale about a guy who finds religion, so to speak, in the town of Innsmouth…I could go on, there is really not a dud in this collection. All things Lovecraft are here, including creepy epistolary tales that come off believable even, but carry Mamatas’s unique signature.
The Nickronomicon also contains some beautifully cryptic artwork by GMB Chomichuk that would do the Mad Arab himself proud!
If you are a fan of W.H. Pugmire, Joseph S. Pulver Sr., Laird Barron, and generally very different, and interesting ideas, and voices in Lovecraftian fiction, The Nickronomicon is required reading, it doesn’t get much better than this!
August 25, 2022
Unconvincing collection of short stories. Mamatas clearly has a good imagination and alright prose skills, but I just can't get on with his stylistic choices about how he uses those. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/201...
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October 19, 2020More clever than creepy, but consistently interesting.
October 14, 2023
This author has an interesting and unconventional take on the Cthulhu Mythos.
September 8, 2024
Nick does an excellent job of writing Cthulhu mythos stories that aren't pastiche.
April 15, 2015
I’d been hearing about this collection of short stories for a few moons, so I was excited when it made its way to the top of my To Read pile. The Nickronomicon is a collection of thirteen short stories that drink from the squamous and rugose well of H.P. Lovecraft’s work. Mamatas’ contributions, however, seem to draw more upon Lovecraft’s capacity for creating a sense of dread in an atmospheric sense rather than relying completely on just hoping unspeakable tentacled thingies will carry the day. There are direct tips of the hat in the collection, such as “The Dude Who Collected Lovecraft” co-written with Tim Pratt which plays with HPL’s “Let’s visit the old hermit out in the middle of nowhere, what could go wrong?” trope and “Real People Slash” that revolves around everyone’s favorite Yuggothics, and these are great stories by all rights. The real treats in my opinion are the stories that retain the Lovecraftian aesthetic in forms that reach beyond what the source material could be considered capable of. “Wuji” is an excellent foray into cosmic horror mixed with martial arts, and “Inky, Blinky, Pinky, Nyarlathotep” draws upon the now-ancient video game Pac-Man to weave a story of futuristic, post-human dread. Funny title, utterly disturbing story.
The true gem of the collection I feel is the last one, “”On the Occasion of my Retirement”. This one is a perfect mixture of Kafkaesque tribute, social commentary, and uncharted territories of horror that pull together into one of the more genuinely multi-faceted and messed up stories I’ve read in awhile. This story is worth the price of admission alone.
I also have to mention the book’s artwork by GMB Chomichuk. Chomichuk’s panels provide a visual disquieting that is incredibly complimentary to the written work it resides with. The overall package is amazing.
The Nickronomicon is a beautiful, disturbing, and eclectic collection that is worth the time and money of anyone who enjoys horror in general, or wants to see how wonderfully weird an idea can be ran with. 5 stars.
The true gem of the collection I feel is the last one, “”On the Occasion of my Retirement”. This one is a perfect mixture of Kafkaesque tribute, social commentary, and uncharted territories of horror that pull together into one of the more genuinely multi-faceted and messed up stories I’ve read in awhile. This story is worth the price of admission alone.
I also have to mention the book’s artwork by GMB Chomichuk. Chomichuk’s panels provide a visual disquieting that is incredibly complimentary to the written work it resides with. The overall package is amazing.
The Nickronomicon is a beautiful, disturbing, and eclectic collection that is worth the time and money of anyone who enjoys horror in general, or wants to see how wonderfully weird an idea can be ran with. 5 stars.
March 4, 2015
This was a bumpy, uneven, weird collection of stories. Right from the get-go something rubbed me wrong about it, with a little extra story thrown in the front as an introduction, about how these stories were sent in by a deranged Nick Mamatas, etc. It was funny and neat, but just weird too.
These stories, hmmm, some of them are just torture to get through (usually the shorter ones), some of them are really really really awesome, and they all have a common Lovecraft theme. Mamatas does something though that I also didn't like in a lot of other Lovecraft-type fiction, bringing Lovecraft himself in as a character, or a historical figure.
The Mi-Go feature a lot in these stories, which I liked a lot, "The Whisperer in the Darkness" was always my favorite Lovecraft story. And the repetitive way they come up, so often, is kind of funny. The whole book is written with this kind of jaded, cynical, punky feeling, there's all this "the fucking Mi-Gos" and "the brain canisters," I don't know, it's done so matter-of-factly, it was hard to think of this as a horror collection.
The story "That of Which We Speak When We Speak of the Unspeakable," which was a short end-of-the-world piece with some nihilistic wanderers getting drunk in front of a cave on their last night on earth, and the final story, the fucking badass "On the Occasion of My Retirement," were really good, and made the book worth getting.
But a lot of it is just, I don't know, geek-humor filler. If you aren't already a big Lovecraft fan and don't already have a good understanding of the place in pop culture that the Mythos has today, I don't know how you could read this book.
These stories, hmmm, some of them are just torture to get through (usually the shorter ones), some of them are really really really awesome, and they all have a common Lovecraft theme. Mamatas does something though that I also didn't like in a lot of other Lovecraft-type fiction, bringing Lovecraft himself in as a character, or a historical figure.
The Mi-Go feature a lot in these stories, which I liked a lot, "The Whisperer in the Darkness" was always my favorite Lovecraft story. And the repetitive way they come up, so often, is kind of funny. The whole book is written with this kind of jaded, cynical, punky feeling, there's all this "the fucking Mi-Gos" and "the brain canisters," I don't know, it's done so matter-of-factly, it was hard to think of this as a horror collection.
The story "That of Which We Speak When We Speak of the Unspeakable," which was a short end-of-the-world piece with some nihilistic wanderers getting drunk in front of a cave on their last night on earth, and the final story, the fucking badass "On the Occasion of My Retirement," were really good, and made the book worth getting.
But a lot of it is just, I don't know, geek-humor filler. If you aren't already a big Lovecraft fan and don't already have a good understanding of the place in pop culture that the Mythos has today, I don't know how you could read this book.
December 20, 2014
excited to receive and read this book, big fans of the genre as well as my room mates, looking forward to sharing it with them, thank you!!! i will update review once received and read.
killer cover art so so looking forward to reading this book. hopefully i will be able to discover what the many interestingly named creatures and lands fate hold. just as soon as i receive this book i will add it to my to read list and get to reading it. thank you thank you
hopefully i will get this book in soon, i am looking forward to being able to read it over the holidays
killer cover art so so looking forward to reading this book. hopefully i will be able to discover what the many interestingly named creatures and lands fate hold. just as soon as i receive this book i will add it to my to read list and get to reading it. thank you thank you
hopefully i will get this book in soon, i am looking forward to being able to read it over the holidays
August 19, 2015
A mostly fun and smart but not particularly exceptional collection of Lovecraft pastiches. Many of the stories have great concepts and elements but fall flat at the end... Except for the concluding story "On the Occasion of My Retirement"- a monologue that mixes Lovecraft and semiotics brilliantly. If you can find the collection for cheap, it's worth picking up on the basis of that story alone- though the rest is worth a read too.
December 11, 2014
That last story tho…
December 27, 2014
I don't know what the hell I expected from this but it was beyond that. Most of the stories were extremely well done in a modern way, a couple kind of lost me but I'm very niche in my tastes.
July 8, 2016
Excellent stories. The only one I didn't care for was the Pac Man themed story.
February 4, 2019
Many of the stories have a lightly humorous tone. So, in the stories where everybody dies in the end, it kind of comes across as a punchline. I liked that.
Most of the protagonists were competent enough for my taste. Even if they lost, they fought or investigated well.
I feel that Nick avoids lots of cinematic descriptions of events and favors showing complex thinking in action. His discussion of a semiotic analysis of a stop sign is a good example. Nick balances the two approaches in a way that provides good profluence.
Most of the protagonists were competent enough for my taste. Even if they lost, they fought or investigated well.
I feel that Nick avoids lots of cinematic descriptions of events and favors showing complex thinking in action. His discussion of a semiotic analysis of a stop sign is a good example. Nick balances the two approaches in a way that provides good profluence.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews