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Beyond the Mountains of Madness
Antarctica. a frozen wasteland of penguins, blinding ice and snow, and blizzards to kill the unpre....
296 pages, Paperback
First published April 30, 2015
25 people are currently reading
137 people want to read
About the author
Cody Goodfellow
162 books385 followersCODY GOODFELLOW has written nine novels and five collections, and has won three Wonderland Book Awards for Bizarro Fiction. He wrote, co-produced and scored the short Lovecraftian hygiene films Stay At Home Dad and Baby Got Bass, which have become viral sensations on YouTube. He has appeared in numerous short films, TV shows, music videos and commercials as research for his previous novel, Sleazeland. He also edits the hyperpulp zine Forbidden Futures. He “lives” in San Diego. Find out more at codygoodfellow.com.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
July 14, 2015
Maybe I've been spoiled with the glut of truly excellent Lovecraftian/Mythos fiction of late, but, even taking the limited scope of this volume into account, I found this a pleasant diversion, but hardly the best of the mythos.
February 2, 2022
Favorites:
In Amundsen's Tent
Static
Into the Black
A Biting Cold
The Danforth Project
In Amundsen's Tent
Static
Into the Black
A Biting Cold
The Danforth Project
July 15, 2015
Celaeno Press seems to have come out of nowhere in trying to crack the surprisingly extensive Cthulhu anthology market. Beyond the Mountains of Madness (not to be confused with the 1999 Chaosium game book) is apparently only their second release and of the even more niche variety based on a single Lovecraft story. They obviously mean business as this is edited by he of The Lovecraft Geek podcast and a million other anthologies, Robert M. Price MD.
Thankfully, At the Mountains of Madness lends itself better than most stories to a wide range of possible sequels, and that’s essentially what’s on offer here. With the original, Lovecraft was at the peak of his powers and nailed down all the elements of the archetypal science fiction/action/survival horror hybrid story.
Countless books/films/games etc have reworked it since, not only in the obvious ones set in Antarctica or a similar location like Alaska (such as Aliens vs Predator, The Thing, Stargate SG-1, The X-Files, Helix etc), but also those that shift the location to any remote and isolated part of time and space.
All the obvious angles are covered here and some less obvious ones, too. For example:
• How would the world have reacted to Dyer’s report?
• What might subsequent expeditions have found?
• How would world powers have dealt with the region, from World War II and the Cold War to the near future?
• What else could the Elder Things and shoggoths get up to?
• What may have happened to characters like Gedney and Danforth beyond what we already knew?
• And just how much horror can be wrought from gigantic mutant penguins?
As expected the tone varies between authors. Several go for a violent, action-oriented angle and some of these are quite militaristic. Some are more traditional weird fiction with the emphasis on slowly unfolding the mystery and revealing the true horror beneath. Then there are some curve balls. ‘Tekeli-Li’ by Edward Morris is presented as a television script for a Twilight Zone episode and fell flat for me.
‘The Second Wave of Fear’ by Joseph S. Pulver Sr is the strangest story here and one of the strangest things I’ve ever read. As a kind of stream-of-consciousness narrative of the inner thoughts of shoggoths and Elder Things, it uses an unconventional staccato phraseology that largely disavows our usual understanding of grammar and syntax. It’s certainly an impressive experiment though I feel like I’d need to read an essay on it to decipher its meaning entirely.
One of my favourite stories is towards the end with ‘Static’ by Will Murray, coincidentally a mere few days after I finished his Doc Savage: Skull Island book and said I needed more to convince me of him as a writer. Consider me at least partly convinced then because this is arguably the most imaginative work of the lot, with a psychic military officer encountering an otherworldly threat strange enough to make a shoggoth seem almost ordinary.
As a neat bonus to round out the collection, there’s the 1928 short story ‘In Amundsen’s Tent’ by John Martin Leahy. This horror tale of unspeakable maddening evil at the South Pole almost certainly influenced Lovecraft in writing At the Mountains of Madness, so it’s a nice short nod to an obscure member of the Weird Tales alumni.
This is undoubtedly a collection for a niche audience, but if you’re in that niche I don’t hesitate to recommend it. Supposedly it got stuck in publishing purgatory for a number of years after a tiny initial run, so it’s good to see it being resurrected in 2015. Here’s hoping Celaeno Press continue delivering works of comparably high quality.
Thankfully, At the Mountains of Madness lends itself better than most stories to a wide range of possible sequels, and that’s essentially what’s on offer here. With the original, Lovecraft was at the peak of his powers and nailed down all the elements of the archetypal science fiction/action/survival horror hybrid story.
Countless books/films/games etc have reworked it since, not only in the obvious ones set in Antarctica or a similar location like Alaska (such as Aliens vs Predator, The Thing, Stargate SG-1, The X-Files, Helix etc), but also those that shift the location to any remote and isolated part of time and space.
All the obvious angles are covered here and some less obvious ones, too. For example:
• How would the world have reacted to Dyer’s report?
• What might subsequent expeditions have found?
• How would world powers have dealt with the region, from World War II and the Cold War to the near future?
• What else could the Elder Things and shoggoths get up to?
• What may have happened to characters like Gedney and Danforth beyond what we already knew?
• And just how much horror can be wrought from gigantic mutant penguins?
As expected the tone varies between authors. Several go for a violent, action-oriented angle and some of these are quite militaristic. Some are more traditional weird fiction with the emphasis on slowly unfolding the mystery and revealing the true horror beneath. Then there are some curve balls. ‘Tekeli-Li’ by Edward Morris is presented as a television script for a Twilight Zone episode and fell flat for me.
‘The Second Wave of Fear’ by Joseph S. Pulver Sr is the strangest story here and one of the strangest things I’ve ever read. As a kind of stream-of-consciousness narrative of the inner thoughts of shoggoths and Elder Things, it uses an unconventional staccato phraseology that largely disavows our usual understanding of grammar and syntax. It’s certainly an impressive experiment though I feel like I’d need to read an essay on it to decipher its meaning entirely.
One of my favourite stories is towards the end with ‘Static’ by Will Murray, coincidentally a mere few days after I finished his Doc Savage: Skull Island book and said I needed more to convince me of him as a writer. Consider me at least partly convinced then because this is arguably the most imaginative work of the lot, with a psychic military officer encountering an otherworldly threat strange enough to make a shoggoth seem almost ordinary.
As a neat bonus to round out the collection, there’s the 1928 short story ‘In Amundsen’s Tent’ by John Martin Leahy. This horror tale of unspeakable maddening evil at the South Pole almost certainly influenced Lovecraft in writing At the Mountains of Madness, so it’s a nice short nod to an obscure member of the Weird Tales alumni.
This is undoubtedly a collection for a niche audience, but if you’re in that niche I don’t hesitate to recommend it. Supposedly it got stuck in publishing purgatory for a number of years after a tiny initial run, so it’s good to see it being resurrected in 2015. Here’s hoping Celaeno Press continue delivering works of comparably high quality.
October 30, 2021
I love horror stories set in snow and ATMOM is one of my favourite Lovecraft tales so I was primed to love this, but in the end I was mostly disappointed by what I felt was an uneven collection of short stories all of which used Lovecraft's story as a theme. Although some of the authors I'd read and enjoyed stories from before (Rawlik and Meikle especially) there weren't any tales in this collection I loved. In the end I found there was the odd good story, a whole lot of average ones and some I DNF'd.
Never mind, one thing we're not short of is collections of Lovecraft inspired short stories and as someone who never gets bored of reading them, there'll be another along soon.
Never mind, one thing we're not short of is collections of Lovecraft inspired short stories and as someone who never gets bored of reading them, there'll be another along soon.
May 8, 2016
Excellent homages to Lovecraft world
I love The Mountains of Madness. It's unsettling mood never seems to fail no matter how often u read it. This anthology is beautifully balanced collection of stories that return us to the Antartic horror Lovecraft conjured so well. All seem to have been written with great affection and a sure understanding of the original. Thoroughly enjoyable book.
I love The Mountains of Madness. It's unsettling mood never seems to fail no matter how often u read it. This anthology is beautifully balanced collection of stories that return us to the Antartic horror Lovecraft conjured so well. All seem to have been written with great affection and a sure understanding of the original. Thoroughly enjoyable book.
September 4, 2015
Ok, technically im not done with this book yet. Im about 75% of the way through. However, this has to be one of the best Lovecraft followups that i've read.
March 14, 2016
Always a pleasure to visit the frozen wastes.
As always in anthologies, there's one or two stinkers. But this collection contained some amazing tales. Particularly Static and In Amundsen's Tent.
As always in anthologies, there's one or two stinkers. But this collection contained some amazing tales. Particularly Static and In Amundsen's Tent.
December 28, 2021
First off, I did not finish this anthology.
I started reading this anthology in 2016.
2016!
I told myself I would power through it and finish it, and every time I tried, I just got bored with it. Probably the easiest thing to sum it all up is that, when you pick an anthology concept that is a singular theme, be careful to choose one that offers up a chance at lots of diversity.
This anthology does not do that.
Yes, some of the stories vary, this is true. But they all draw from one source, and though it is a well known Lovecraft story, it's also one that is a slow burn and offers up very little.
That is not to say this anthology doesn't have good stories, just that after you have eaten cereal for a month, even changing the type of cereal won't stop you from sighing at having cereal the next day.
All in all, if this is your absolute favorite Lovecraft story, this anthology may be for you. Otherwise, you are going to get bored. Very, very bored...
I started reading this anthology in 2016.
2016!
I told myself I would power through it and finish it, and every time I tried, I just got bored with it. Probably the easiest thing to sum it all up is that, when you pick an anthology concept that is a singular theme, be careful to choose one that offers up a chance at lots of diversity.
This anthology does not do that.
Yes, some of the stories vary, this is true. But they all draw from one source, and though it is a well known Lovecraft story, it's also one that is a slow burn and offers up very little.
That is not to say this anthology doesn't have good stories, just that after you have eaten cereal for a month, even changing the type of cereal won't stop you from sighing at having cereal the next day.
All in all, if this is your absolute favorite Lovecraft story, this anthology may be for you. Otherwise, you are going to get bored. Very, very bored...
January 14, 2019
The stories in this book are almost uniformly excellent, except one. That one story was almost incoherent and painful to read, and I had to skim through large sections of it. I know the structure of that story (its incoherence) made some sort of sense in the context of the story itself, but that one story was why I could only give this book 4 stars, and not 5. (It goes without saying that you should read H.P. Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness" first before delving into this book.)
Read
April 3, 2020I stated this before, I'm not a big horror fan, its his writing style that drew me. That being said, the story was captivating, the discovery of their lost expedition found dead, was grizzly the least. I won't get into any more of the story, except for this. It's a mystery the second team must solve, before the same happens to them. I thought it was well crafted. The best part is his writing, though be it a tad bit long on the description.
January 21, 2021
Boy, it’s been a long time since I’ve read a themed anthology like this - and straight through too! I think I burned out on short stories a little bit after reading a metric booty ton of them a couple of years ago. But my hankering for them has come back and with winter I decided what better time to read a collection about those famed mountains of Lovecraft’s in the Antarctic! I already read Chaosium’s excellent Ithaqua Cycle , but I needed more frozen terrors - MORE.
Now to be fair, not allllll of them take place in the Antarctic itself, but nearly all do and those that don’t still reference the horrors that came from that mysterious frozen terrain. Robert M. Price is a fantastic editor, and though I sometimes think connections he makes between stories in his Chaosium Cycle books are tenuous at best, he has a wonderful eye for quality fiction. This collection is no different.
The one negative standout - and it’s a big negative - is Pulver’s story “The Second Wave of Fear”. I’ve always wondered if I’m alone in really very much not liking his writing style, as he seems to show up in so many of the collections I read, so the editors must all like him. But I have an intense dislike for basically everything of his I’ve read. Am I too dumb to get it? Is my hick swamp background clouding my appreciation for his artistic marvels? I’ve seen other comments on this story that seem to more line up with my views, so thankfully even if I am aesthetically barren I’m not the only one in the world who just can’t parse the gibberish.
My favorites were the ones that dealt with Elder Things’ probing attempts at interacting with humanity (often involving shoggoths, the lovely beasties), and the relationships they would have with other infamous alien races in the Lovecraftian cosmos. I wish more authors would attempt this - these are all ancient races, and after inhabiting the same planet that is our Earth you know they have opinions about each other.
Minus that one awful story, this was an excellent collection and should be of interest to any and all who like: Elder Things, Shoggoths, snow/Antarctica, winter horror.
Now to be fair, not allllll of them take place in the Antarctic itself, but nearly all do and those that don’t still reference the horrors that came from that mysterious frozen terrain. Robert M. Price is a fantastic editor, and though I sometimes think connections he makes between stories in his Chaosium Cycle books are tenuous at best, he has a wonderful eye for quality fiction. This collection is no different.
The one negative standout - and it’s a big negative - is Pulver’s story “The Second Wave of Fear”. I’ve always wondered if I’m alone in really very much not liking his writing style, as he seems to show up in so many of the collections I read, so the editors must all like him. But I have an intense dislike for basically everything of his I’ve read. Am I too dumb to get it? Is my hick swamp background clouding my appreciation for his artistic marvels? I’ve seen other comments on this story that seem to more line up with my views, so thankfully even if I am aesthetically barren I’m not the only one in the world who just can’t parse the gibberish.
My favorites were the ones that dealt with Elder Things’ probing attempts at interacting with humanity (often involving shoggoths, the lovely beasties), and the relationships they would have with other infamous alien races in the Lovecraftian cosmos. I wish more authors would attempt this - these are all ancient races, and after inhabiting the same planet that is our Earth you know they have opinions about each other.
Minus that one awful story, this was an excellent collection and should be of interest to any and all who like: Elder Things, Shoggoths, snow/Antarctica, winter horror.
January 7, 2022
a Jaw-Dropping Anthology
Even the most jaded Mythos reader will delight in this anthology that takes Lovecraft’s At The Mountains of Madness and builds on the world. The stories cover the past, the present, and the future, and all entertain and deliver their own thrills and chills of cosmic horror in the frozen wastelands of Antarctica.
Even the most jaded Mythos reader will delight in this anthology that takes Lovecraft’s At The Mountains of Madness and builds on the world. The stories cover the past, the present, and the future, and all entertain and deliver their own thrills and chills of cosmic horror in the frozen wastelands of Antarctica.
January 28, 2022
A solid anthology of Cthulhu Mythos stories set in the world of At The Mountains Of Madness.
One of the challenges authors face is how to account for what we have learned about the geography of Antarctica since the 30s.
One of the challenges authors face is how to account for what we have learned about the geography of Antarctica since the 30s.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews