Return of the Deep Ones and Other Mythos Tales

by Brian Lumley

Brian Lumley, author of the bestselling Necroscope and Vampire World series of novels, has for many years been a devotee' of H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos, by such nightmare fables as Dagon, The Call of Cthulhu The Shadow Over Innsmouth, Lovecraft’s legendary Deep Ones have taken their place in terror fiction alongside the vampire and the werewolf. Now they are given the Lumley treatment in—RETURN OF THE DEEP ONES!But the Mythos was not restricted to tales of oceanic horror; nightmares out of space and time—and inner earth—abound in Lovecraft’s fiction. Thus, with the addition of Beneath the Moors, Inception, and the novella, Lord of the Worms, Brian Lumley offers his latest homage to Lovecraft the Master.Now, from forbidden depths of dream and ocean, the RETURN OF THE DEEP ONES!In the field of no-holds-barred terror fiction, there’s Brian Lumley—and then there’s the rest …

Genres: Horror, Cthulhu Mythos, Short Stories, Lovecraftian, Fantasy, Anthologies, Audiobook

400 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

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 copies worldwide.

He was awarded the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award in 2010.

Reviews

[Marc *Dark Reader with a Thousand Young! Iä!* · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Oh?" He peered up at the grille. "It's not so very long ago that they used to test a woman for pregnancy by injecting a female frog with her urine. If the frog spawned, the woman was pregnant. It actually works."

IT'S FUCKING TRUE!!! I was like, what the hell, is this for real? It is! WTF science?

This is one of many collections of Brian Lumley's various shorter works, usually Cthulhu Mythos-related or at least arguably so. As I'm reading through the books I've collected of his I've been encountering repetition. This has become mildly irritating, but not all that long ago it was much more difficult than now to dig up his stories, often published in small quantities and relatively obscure periodicals. Fortunately, even his rarest stories are likely available in e-book format now, so anyone can become a Lumley completionist if they are so inclined.

My rating for this book is solely for the titular Return of the Deep Ones, which before this 1994 collection from Roc was only printed as a three-part serial in 1984. The other gem of this collection is the novella Beneath the Moors, published on its own in 1974 with only 4000 copies. Inception and Lord of the Worms are more recent and were published in The Compleat Crow, the latter also in The Taint and Other Novellas. I'm going to have to buy that one at some point, along with Haggopian and Other Stories, to further complete my own Lumley experience since there are some stories in each of those I don't yet own in another format, most notably The Sister City, one of his very earliest stories which was later expanded to become Beneath the Moors and previously only seen in an obscure 1969 Arkham House publication.

As for that Deep Ones novella: good stuff! It's a worthy British sequel to Lovecraft's Shadows over Innsmouth, drawing on The Call of Cthulhu and At the Mountains of Madness as well, and an engaging horror story even if you haven't read the source material. It is marred only by the insertion of another short story of Lumley's as a chapter, Haggopian (which first appeared in 1973 in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction). I've already seen Lumley slot an existing short story into a longer work with The Burrowers Beneath, and here at least it seems self-indulgent since it doesn't notably contribute to this story. Rather, it takes something away because the topic of its horror is barely tangentially related. I would have been more impressed if he had simply used the same journalist character as an easter egg (a term that antedates this book, certainly) for die-hard fans to discover. But, Lumley has called Haggopian "one of my personal favourites," so I'll let this go.

[William · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lumley's Mythos fictions runs hot and cold with me, and this collection was no exception.

The main meat, THE RETURN OF THE DEEP ONES is a short novel that feels like it could have been a lot shorter, given that the big reveal happens very early on and after that we're left with a lot of padding to make it up to a length.

BENEATH THE MOORS is better paced, and has a better sense of place, with its moorland and caverns setting being particularly well evoked. Again there's a bit of padding, in epistolary form, but the plot moves along quickly enough that it doesn't get in the way.

The other two tales are Titus Crow stories, one a nice origin story that was genuinely creepy, and the other the tale of Crow pitting his wits against an ancient sorceror that didn't do much for me at all.

So all in all, some hits, some misses, and nowhere near as imaginative and wild as his Necroscope work, but still, solid enough, and it passed the time well enough.

[Nate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good. Short novels written in the Cthulhu mythology. Some are sequels to lovecraft stories. Well done, entertaining and written with a lovecraftian tone without getting too purple of hackey. I’m on the lookout for more of this work from lumley. I’ve read necroscope which was excellent and he brings that talent to these stories.

[Jon Von · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my sixth Lumley and first of of his Lovecraft universe books and it seems to me his deal is taking a simple pulp plot and give you the sophisticated, semi-literary version. The result is are intelligent stories built around old pulp horror ideas. It’s got horror and mer-monsters. It’s just a damn good mer-monster book in general. Lumley lets you see Lovecraft’s universe with lots of precise description and captures the alienated academics of the author’s style. As for flaws, well it’s all a bit silly isn’t it?

[Chuck Knight · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lumley fucking rules. Nuff said.

[Γιώργος Μπελαούρης · Rating 5 out of 5]

a great collection!
i have read the other three tales and reviews i have on other editions but the title one waz a surprise
A mysterious conch sent from Insmouth gives unsettling dreams to an old professor. Few days later, a strange girl makes him feel like he haven’t felt for years. After that, a yaught club and his creepy members make him start questioning his own sanity. Nearly drown, captured, sedated, he starts changing involuntarily into a Deep-One. Will he escape? I loved it, the suspence and the atmosphere mostly and I really liked the Haggopian link.

[Arthur B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brian Lumley's output of Cthulhu Mythos fiction is extremely hit and miss, but this collection offers up the cream of the crop and leaves the chaff aside. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/201...

[Graham · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got hold of RETURN OF THE DEEP ONES AND OTHER MYTHOS TALES purely because it included two novella-length Mythos stories that I hadn't read before. I'm a big fan of Brian Lumley's Lovecraftian writing - whether it be the Titus Crow outings or his stand-alone efforts - so when I saw this volume at a car boot sale (for the princely sum of 20p!) I had to get it.

I bypassed two Titus Crow yarns - INCEPTION and LORD OF THE WORMS - as I'm already partway through tackling a separate anthology, THE COMPLEAT CROW, and I'd like to read them in correlation with the others. That leaves BENEATH THE MOORS, which I believe is Lumley's earliest piece of writing, and RETURN OF THE DEEP ONES.

BENEATH THE MOORS is an effective subterreanean adventure that ties in plenty of Mythos history with a distinctly Lumleyan narrative involving an journey deep beneath the Yorkshire moors. While it's a fairly lengthy novella, clocking in at roughly 115 pages, it moves at a cracking pace. It's quite similar to Lumley's (better) novel THE BURROWERS BENEATH, adopting the epistolary format in part in order to tell the narrative better.

The set-up and surround to the tale (including the inevitable finale) are my favourite parts, while a lengthy mid-section involves the aforementioned adventures in an underground world. While this bit of the story does have some imaginative moments, it's quite episodic in nature and could have been a little more involved. It basically involves the narrator encountering one weird thing after another, although it does build to an effectively shuddersome climax involving one of Lovecraft's most feared creations. Lumley's got better as he's gone on, but this is still a lot of fun.

RETURN OF THE DEEP ONES will be tackled in due course...

[Justin Greer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another incredible addition to the canon. Inception is one of my favorite short stories ever written. Lord of the Works and Beneath the Moors are likewise fantastic novellas. This was my first time with the titular story, and I really enjoyed it - the Innsmouth/Dagon/Deep Ones stories are always fascinatingly grotesque, and this offered a really interesting new take on one of those descents into madness. I loved it.

[Benjamin · Rating 3 out of 5]

(I listened to this title in 2024 on Audible.)

Being a fan of Brian Lumley, I wanted to like this collection more, but it could really drag at times.
It's not a bad collection by any means, but it wasn't his best.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly if you are familiar at all with the work of Lovecraft then you aren't missing anything new here. The first story is probably the best. Lumley's work is good as always but these feel incredibly predictable in terms of story telling.

[bogdan maznitsky · Rating 2 out of 5]

Лавкрафт ворочается, но спит.

[Timofey Peters · Rating 3 out of 5]

Средней пугательности роман про амфибий - прислужников Ктулху, ловко маскирующихся под нормальных людей. Г.Ф. Лавкрафту бы понравилось.

[Lucía · Rating 3 out of 5]

Terror clásico. Interesante pero algo largo m

[Jerome · Rating 5 out of 5]

Return of the Deep Ones hooked me creepy, fun, and perfect for the Cthulhu Mythos fan I am.

[Phil Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

The main title is a boring slog, others stories are ok.

[Todd · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this volume because it contains a couple of Lumley stories I didn't yet have. I'd recommend it for that reason for the Cthulhu Mythos collector. As general horror it may fall a bit flat, as each story shows Lumley's penchant for pulp-era adventure. I gave it four stars based on the Mythos collector in me.

Not being a Titius Crow fan, I'd give Inception a 3/5. It's an average Mythos story, but not memorable. Titus Crow fans may want to add a star. I liked Lord of the Worms better. Much more atmospheric and Lovecratian in feel, though just as adventure/pulp feeling as most Lumley Mythos writing. Beneath the Moors would have been better if it didn't have the middle. There seemed to be too much 'adventure' filler. Return of the Deep Ones was much better. At first the story felt disjointed. After I was further In I realized that each segment was ratcheting up the tension. I particularly liked the story of Hagoppian. By the end the story had redeemed itself and Lumley had delivered a satisfying Myhtos tale.

[Lori · Rating 1 out of 5]

This particular collection consists of one short story and three novellas. The first, "Inception," is one big, tedious chase scene. "Lord of the Worms" features Lumley's Mary Sue character Titus Crow. "Beneath the Moors" was a chore to get through: just a generic fantasy adventure story about underground fish people (the source was "The Doom That Came to Sarnath," not Innsmouth). The title piece was merely okay. I bought this because the Deep Ones are my favorite Lovecraft beasties, so that's pretty much what salvaged it for me. Sarah is the only female character in the entire book and of couse she exists solely to be a sexy temptress.

The late great W.H. Pugmire once described Lumley as "adolescent Mythos" and I agree thoroughly. There is nothing distinctively Lovecraftian about these stories beyond familiar names and clichéd references to random occult books. Completely forgettable.

[Johann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Always A Pleasure

It truly is great to have someone like Brian Lumley continue in the vein of Lovecraft's mythos and do it so well. I always thoroughly enjoy reading his short stories and also know I'm not alone.
I have my favorites and I know you'll find yours too. Pick this up, especially if you enjoy Lovecraft or if you are new to Lumley's work, this is a good start.

[Cass · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved these stories!!! ^_^ totally looking up more Mythos horror now :D

[steven duane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent mythos tales

I was not familiar with Lumley and his mythos tales. I was not disappointed. Well written, with believable characters, and great writing. I recommend.

[jerrod barentine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great reading

Love all his work and this one does not disappoint. Weaving tales in the mythos that are perfect in form and keeping honest to Lovecrafts vision