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Lovecraft Unbound

Ellen Datlow (Goodreads Author) (Editor/Contributor),

Dale Bailey (Contributor)

Richard Bowes (Goodreads Author) (Contributor)

Anna Tambour (Contributor)

Brian Evenson (Contributor)

Amanda Downum (Goodreads Author) (Contributor)

Joel Lane (Contributor)

Holly Phillips (Contributor)

, more…

4.25 · Rating details · 3,173 ratings · 114 reviews

The stories are legendary, the characters unforgettable, the world horrible and disturbing. Howard Phillips Lovecraft may have been a writer for only a short time, but the creations he left behind after his death in 1937 have shaped modern horror more than any other author in the last two centuries: the shambling god Cthulhu, and the other deities of the Elder Things, the The stories are legendary, the characters unforgettable, the world horrible and disturbing. Howard Phillips Lovecraft may have been a writer for only a short time, but the creations he left behind after his death in 1937 have shaped modern horror more than any other author in the last two centuries: the shambling god Cthulhu, and the other deities of the Elder Things, the Outer Gods, and the Great Old Ones, and Herbert West, Reanimator, a doctor who unlocked the secrets of life and death at a terrible cost. In Lovecraft Unbound, more than twenty of today's most prominent writers of literature and dark fantasy tell stories set in or inspired by the works of H. P. Lovecraft.

9 • Introduction (Lovecraft Unbound) • essay by Ellen Datlow
11 • The Crevasse • short story by Dale Bailey and Nathan Ballingrud
31 • The Office of Doom • [Dust Devil] • short story by Richard Bowes
43 • Sincerely, Petrified • short fiction by Anna Tambour
73 • The Din of Celestial Birds • (1997) • short story by Brian Evenson
85 • The Tenderness of Jackals • short fiction by Amanda Downum
99 • Sight Unseen • short fiction by Joel Lane
113 • Cold Water Survival • short story by Holly Phillips
139 • Come Lurk With Me and Be My Love • short fiction by William Browning Spencer
161 • Houses Under the Sea • (2006) • novelette by Caitlín R. Kiernan
195 • Machines of Concrete Light and Dark • short story by Michael Cisco
213 • Leng • short fiction by Marc Laidlaw
239 • In the Black Mill • (1997) • short story by Michael Chabon
267 • One Day, Soon • short fiction by Lavie Tidhar
277 • Commencement • (2001) • novelette by Joyce Carol Oates
305 • Vernon, Driving • short fiction by Simon Kurt Unsworth
315 • The Recruiter • short fiction by Michael Shea
331 • Marya Nox • short fiction by Gemma Files
347 • Mongoose • [Boojum] • novelette by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette
375 • Catch Hell • short fiction by Laird Barron
413 • That of Which We Speak When We Speak of the Unspeakable • short fiction by Nick Mamatas ...more

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Published October 1st 2009 by Dark Horse Books

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· 3,173 ratings · 114 reviews

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May 08, 2010 Steve rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction, horror-and-dark-fiction

I thought about rating this one 4 stars, because of a number of really fine stories. However, there are at least a 100 pages wasted on pretty lame material. I think when you get to a 100, the sin for an anthology becomes unforgivable. I have notes for the individual stories, but I left them elsewhere. Maybe I'll put them up later. In the mean time, the good stuff:

The Crevasse, by Dale Bailey and Nathan Ballingrud
Cold Water Survival, by Holly Phillips
Houses under the Sea, by Caitlan Kiernan (Best ...more

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Mar 16, 2013 Nancy Oakes added it

Shelves: weird, horror, lovecraftian

I am rating this one at 3.5, the highest rating I've given an Ellen Datlow collection so far. Having just finished four other books she's edited, I have to say that this one has a wider range of good stories than the previous four volumes of The Best Horror of the Year do individually. It's still a mixed bag though, with some stories much better than the rest, some following under the category of "good and I'd probably look for more by their authors," and some that just didn't do it for me. In ...more

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Aug 25, 2016 Mattia Ravasi rated it liked it

Video-review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eYeo...

A collection of Lovecraftian stories that are often not really Lovecraftian, and that are sometimes not that great even when they are. It's not actively bad (except in a few cases), but as douchy as that sounds, you're probably better off re-reading the actual thing, or why not, McSweeney's Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories.

Joyce Carol Oates' and Michael Chabon's stories are still both masterpieces.

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Mar 25, 2011 Sesana rated it liked it

Shelves: horror, fantasy, short-stories

This is not a collection of Mythos stories, or even stories necessarily set in Lovecraft's world. It seems the idea was to collect stories inspired by the tone in much of Lovecraft's work. Bleak hopelessness, psychological strain, that sort of thing. Oh, there are indeed things recognizable as Old Ones, but none of the familiar ones. So if you're a fan of Lovecraft, you're likely to enjoy the style the authors were aiming for, but feel somewhat mislead with what you get. Be forewarned.

...more

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May 23, 2017 Randolph rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction, strange-stories, horror, owned, lycanthropy

A most excellent anthology despite Michael Chabon's one weak entry. Everything else does swimmingly well or at least is not drowning in silliness and mediocrity

Earlier I commented about this ill advised submission or solicitation by Chabon. Datlow should have sent it back just my teachers said

I'm about a third of the way through this now and I was pretty much enjoying this until I came to the Michael Chabon story. This has to be the worst "Lovecraftian" story ever written, it's not even tongue ...more

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Oct 06, 2009 Henrik rated it it was amazing

Shelves: anthology, horror

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Probably this year's most praised book already. So far I am very impressed by this anthology! The authors have really managed to take inspiration from HPL without stripping away their own, unique voice and approach to storytelling, and--bless the Old Ones!--without descending at all into pastiches.

OCTOBER 28:

"That of Which We Speak When We Speak of the Unspeakable" by Nick Mamatas:

At first it is a little unclear what is going on, besides the three characters being in some cave, sort of hiding ...more

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Nov 23, 2013 Joe rated it really liked it

This is a collection of "Lovecraft inspired" works of short fiction by various authors. I was dubious going in because the introduction from the editor states up front that she refused to put any stories in that have direct references to famous Lovecraft stories. Great, no Lovecraft in a Lovecraft anthology, I thought.

Not to worry, the editor only half followed through on her threat. I think the added challenge of having to do Lovecraft stories without relying on his famous stories improved the ...more

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Nov 02, 2009 Crowinator rated it really liked it

Shelves: weird, genre-horror, horror-cosmic, adult, short-stories, 2009-reads, other-monsters, memorably-scary-or-disturbing, everything-is-turning-out-so-dark

I love the horror genre, especially in short story form, to which I think it’s ideally suited, but I’m not as well read in the classics as I’d like. I haven’t read any Lovecraft stories until recently: when I checked out this book, I checked out a book of Lovecraft stories to read first, so I could experience what I’d heard about his writing style and his themes firsthand. I read (more like skimmed, to be honest) five stories before giving up entirely. I hate to admit it, but even though I find I love the horror genre, especially in short story form, to which I think it’s ideally suited, but I’m not as well read in the classics as I’d like. I haven’t read any Lovecraft stories until recently: when I checked out this book, I checked out a book of Lovecraft stories to read first, so I could experience what I’d heard about his writing style and his themes firsthand. I read (more like skimmed, to be honest) five stories before giving up entirely. I hate to admit it, but even though I find the ideas behind the stories fascinating, I couldn’t get through the turgid prose. So maybe this collection is for people like me, because these stories are expressions of what the various authors appreciate about Lovecraft, written in their own style, not his.

Everything I find fascinating about Lovecraft (and couldn’t get to in his writing) is evident in these stories: the cosmic horror (yeah, I know everyone uses that phrase, but it’s such a good one); the idea that we are blind to true reality, which would drive us mad if we got a glimpse of what was really going on; the monsters that are so alien as to defy description and yet are also so entrancing; the sense of impending doom, of dread, of the end of the world lurking just over our shoulders; the sense of isolation in knowledge, of what it’s like to know the terrible truths of the universe when no one else even suspects.

I thought this was a pretty even collection; like with every book of short stories, I have favorites and I have stories I didn’t really like, but in this case, I thought they were all well written. A couple have blended together in the days since reading -- “The Crevasse” and “Cold Water Survival” were excellent stories, but they both took place in the arctic and involved an exploratory party finding evidence of nonhuman life in the ice (or are they going insane from cold, isolation, and altitude?), knowledge of which bewitches some characters into madness and death. At least one struck me as a little out of place – “Vernon, Driving” is excellent as a dark psychological tale of murder but seems only tangentially related to Lovecraft, with no supernatural elements at all.

I have several favorites, so here’s the basic list, ranked in order of favoritism:

“Houses under the Sea” by Caitlin R. Kiernan – a journalist attempts to understand (and write about) his ex-lover’s involvement in the mass suicide of a cult. This is a weird, weird, disturbing story, about people walking into the sea, the worship of unspeakable gods, and a video connecting the two, told from the point of view of someone who missed the boat (so to speak) and isn’t sure if that’s a blessing or a curse. The narrator is so haunted and distressed that it made me agitated just reading it, and Kiernan’s writing is just perfect.

“Leng” by Marc Laidlaw – a mycologist (study of fungi) traces the steps of a missing scientific duo to a temple in the mountains of China guarding Leng, a place where untold undiscovered species of mushroom are supposed to exist. I found this story really creepy and actually had to put the book down after reading and go watch something funny on TV. The wormy tendril protruding from the forehead of the “enlightened” almost did me in.

“In the Black Mill” by Michael Chabon – an archaeologist professor researching a long-dead, violent primitive society is distracted by questions about the “famous” Plunkettsburg Mill, in which all the men seem to work despite the frequency of maiming and death. This seemed to me the most straight-up horror story of the bunch, written with intensity and slow-building mystery. What I liked most about this one besides the detailed description of the mill and the creepy black train is the inevitability of the ending. Once the poor doomed narrator steps off the safe path to satisfy his curiosity, you can only wait for his mistakes to catch up to him.

“Mongoose” by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear – inter-dimensional monsters proliferate in space, and a hunter is hired to eradicate them in a space station along with his companion cheshire Mongoose, who is an alien species itself that no one really understands. People impatient with science fiction in which you must infer or wait for world-building details won’t get into this one (I like them), but otherwise it’s a good old monster hunt in space with a pretty happy ending (especially for this collection).

“Catch Hell” by Laird Barron – a couple with a strained relationship and an interest in perverse dark rites stay at a lodge in tiny backwoods community outside of Seattle, where their attempts to get pregnant end with horrific results. This is a great example of the dark turn a relationship between damaged people can take, with a sort of demonic, Rosemary’s Baby twist that I expected but then was still surprised by, because it didn’t turn out how I thought.

“The Crevasse” by Dale Bailey and Nathan Ballingrud – a scientific expedition high in the mountains (of Tibet, I believe) finds a crevasse in the ice when one of their members falls to his death, and they believe they find evidence of an ancient civilization in the crevasse but can’t seem to document it. This is the first story in the collection and it sets the scary, suspenseful mood perfectly.

“That of which we speak when we speak of the unspeakable” by Nick Mamatas – three teens hang out drinking in a cave in a post-apocalyptic world taken over by shoggoths. This story has a bleak ending (and a totally appropriate one), but what struck me the most is how matter-of-fact the teens take the end of the world. With no hope left, they cling to their blasé, cool demeanors until the end.

“Commencement” by Joyce Carol Oates – a young scholar performs the role of Assistant Mace Bearer for the first time in a large, prestigious university commencement, but what that really means slowly becomes known as the ceremony progresses. This one was predictable, but the oratory style of the telling (and the pointed commentary on overblown, self-congratulatory commencement ceremonies in general) sold it for me. Academia is full of ritual, after all.

I think the best stories in this collection either scared me or gave me an unnerving sense of reality vertigo, or both. I put stories like “Leng” and “Houses under the Sea” in the “both” category, as well as “Catch Hell”, “The Crevasse”, and “Cold Water Survival”. All of them had some truly weird imagery, a slow-building sense of dread, some really scary scenes, and disturbing endings (that were both final and open-ended at the same time, as if the story continues past the page). ...more

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Jan 22, 2010 Res rated it it was ok

Shelves: sff

I'm neither a Lovecraft fan nor a horror fan, so possibly my opinion on this book is not of much value to anybody. However, I'm going to give it anyway.

There are twenty stories in this book. I abandoned fourteen for being either boring (you have to get my attention with human desires; life-or-death adventures on the ice don't cut it), amateurish (starting way too early, thunking into the dreaded past perfect for a nice long slog through the backstory, awkwardly lurching from emotion to emotion), I'm neither a Lovecraft fan nor a horror fan, so possibly my opinion on this book is not of much value to anybody. However, I'm going to give it anyway.

There are twenty stories in this book. I abandoned fourteen for being either boring (you have to get my attention with human desires; life-or-death adventures on the ice don't cut it), amateurish (starting way too early, thunking into the dreaded past perfect for a nice long slog through the backstory, awkwardly lurching from emotion to emotion), or both.

Marc Laidlaw's "Leng" was interesting enough for me to finish it, but it did a thing I've seen in other horror stories: the horror started small, got big, got bigger, and then ... got so big that it was just funny.

Michael Chabon's "In the Black Mill" was workmanlike but cold.

Joyce Carol Oates' "Commencement" was a clever idea -- a graduation ceremony that starts giving hints of being something darker -- and she gets points for writing with some real style, unuusual in this book, but the story was as long as an actual graduation ceremony.

In Gemma Files' "Marya Nox," I felt that the form fought with the content -- the opening paragraph left me confused and expecting something much bigger than what I got, and I didn't really see any reason to tell the story in the form of a transcript and not in the form of a regular story. Once I got into it, I enjoyed the story it told.

Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear's "Mongoose" was the whole reason I requested the book at the library -- another story in the "Boojum" universe. I was charmed at cheshires, creatures from another dimension that could phase in and out at will, keeping a space station free of vermin called toves so that they won't attract something worse. Tone was smaller (less epic/apocalyptic) and more hopeful than you normally find inspired by Lovecraft. I consider that a plus.

Nick Mamatas' "That Of Which We Speak When We Speak Of the Unspeakable" reminds me of some Saturday Night Live sketches: the execution is nothing to get excited about, but the mere idea -- a Lovecraftian parody of Raymond Carver, in which people sit around drinking and airing their egos while shoggoths ooze up to where they're hiding -- is hilarious enough that I'll remember it long after I've forgotten what actually happened in the story. (Obviously I'm not a Carver fan either.) ...more

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Nov 15, 2009 Paul rated it really liked it

An all original themed anthology without a significant share of clunkers and/or telegraphed stories (telegraphed to fit the theme) is a rarity. Each author’s take on the Lovecraft’s cosmic horror obsession is varied, and yes, creepy as hell.

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Nov 17, 2011 Clint rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2011

I really wanted to like this book, and I usually love Mythos stories by other writers. The Mythos is so badass that it's kind of hard to fuck it up. But these stories, mostly they had nothing at all to do with Lovecraft. I know that one of the stated aims of the editor in the introduction was to, you know, see how far they could go with Lovecraft, but after a certain point it just becomes supernatural fiction, and you get the feeling that this book was named Lovecraft Unbound to get it to sell. ...more

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Mar 16, 2013 Heidi Ward rated it it was amazing

Shelves: weird-fiction, cosmic-horror, short-stories, own, horror, anthology, 21st-century, mythos, qpb

An excellent new-Lovecraftian anthology. Each of the tales is unique; none of them lean too heavily on a mythos pastiche, instead largely paying hommage to Lovecraft in the form of evocative squirmy things and an enormous and mindlessly carnivorous universe. Highlights come from Laird Barron, Caitlin Kiernan, Michael Chabon, and Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear.

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Oct 10, 2017 Lawrence rated it really liked it · review of another edition

"I found Lovecraft in graduate school and fell instantly in love," writes Sarah Monette, coauthor of one of the stories included in this anthology, "not only with his darkly elaborate cosmology... but also with his own love affair with the English language. And somehow, for Lovecraft and for me, the two things go together...."

Monette's point is well taken. It wasn't until I started reading Lovecraft Unbound that the following fact, obvious in retrospect, washed over me: the author that made me ...more

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Jan 01, 2011 F.R. rated it liked it

I was disappointed with this collection, but then that was partly my fault as my expectations were askew. If I'm honest I didn’t read the introduction until I’d read all of the tales. (It sounds perverse, but I never read introductions until I’ve finished reading the rest of the book. Primarily because, if you have a piece of classic fiction you’ve never encountered before, the introduction is often quite happy to ruin the entire plot). And the thing is, the introduction does make it entirely ...more

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Oct 15, 2014 Martha Sockel rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, short-story, mystery, horror, gothic, anthology, dystopian, paranormal, dark, futuristic

After I read Ellen Datlow's 'Poe' collection, I have been looking forward to picking up this book, and I have to say it didn't disappoint.

I see it's got a few low stars, but I do wonder if some people were expecting a more straight-forward collection of pastiches. The stories here are inspired by Lovecraft, but mostly not Mythos stories themselves. It is the themes of cosmic horror, the indifference of the universe to humanity and our beliefs and science, and intrusion of the unexplained and ...more

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Mar 29, 2013 Kylie rated it really liked it

Shelves: short-story-collections, my-library, cosmic-horror, horror-and-paranormal, books-about-books

Usually when I tackle a short story collections there will be at least one or two duds from my point of view, but while there were a few here that I didn't like as much as others they were all rather inventive and there wasn't a one that I felt like saying "Why did they include THAT in here?" over.

My without-a-doubt favourite is Mongoose. It's pretty much straight-out sci-fi with a Lovecraft bent, I can honestly say I was sad when it finished. Looking up Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette's work I ...more

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Oct 22, 2012 Juushika rated it really liked it

Shelves: genre-fantasy, status-owned, genre-short-fiction, genre-horror, genre-weird-and-new-weird

All short story anthologies are doomed to ups and downs; this is no exception. Lovecraft provides wide but often transparent (more often in theme than in mythos) and occasionally repetitive inspiration, especially in the stories written expressly for this collection, a problem exacerbated by post-story blurbs where authors provide two-penny insights into Lovecraft's work. But Datlow is an accomplished collator: the selection is broad, the variety of styles--sometimes ranging too far: there's a ...more

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Aug 24, 2013 Marie Michaels rated it it was amazing

This is not the collection of Lovecraftian tales that I necessarily expected, based on the title, but I really enjoyed it nonetheless. Most of the authors take a step back from Lovecraft and incorporate his themes and mood - creepiness, despair, dangerous knowledge, dangerous explorations - more than the substance of his works, although there are definite hints of the be-tentacled that lurk. I enjoyed all of the stories and appreciated that the authors took the Lovecraftian themes in different ...more

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Jan 15, 2010 H. Anne Stoj rated it liked it

Shelves: horror, anthology

I have to admit that I'm a huge fan of reading works based on Lovecraft's or influenced by him and I tend to really enjoy Ellen Datlow as she draws typically wonderful pieces together from all over the place. This, in that regard, wasn't an exception to the rule. Nearly all of the stories were well done and the influence of HP could truly be found. Oddly for me the ones that I liked best (with the exception of Mongoose which took place in space) were set in Antarctica and Lovecraft's own ...more

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Mar 04, 2015 Alison C rated it liked it

Lovecraft Unbound, edited by Ellen Datlow, is just what it says it is - an anthology of horror stories inspired by the work of H.P. Lovecraft. Some of the stories are originals and some are reprints, the oldest being Michael Chabon's "In the Black Mill," originally published in 1997. As with any anthology, there are some stories here that work for me, and some that don't; no doubt other readers will respond to stories that don't appeal to me and vice versa. In particular, I loved Richard Bowes' ...more

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Feb 05, 2011 Lea rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-2011, acquired-2011, reviews

Not being a big Lovecraft fan, I can't really say why I picked this up -- but I was pleasantly surprised with it. The quality of the writing is consistently good, with the stories being inspired by Lovecraft, rather than imitations of his work.

My favourite story was Mongoose, by Sarah Monette & Elizabeth Bear -- it was suspenseful, but had a lovely charm to it, with engaging characters.

Sadly, the weakest for me was In The Black Mill, by Michael Chabon. I really expected to love this one, but ...more

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Jun 19, 2013 Andy rated it really liked it

This was a nice little collection of Lovecraftian fiction, with a lot of variety too. It's got humor, irony, horror and a good splatter of gore when needed.

Some of my favorites:
"The Crevasse" is a great way to start the book off -- Antarctica explorers discover a staircase in a crevasse, and something more.
"Catch Hell" is a story like Arthur Machen could have written and is one of the best here.
"Mongoose" is a quirky, affectionate, feel-good sci-fi/horror tale.
"The Din of Celestial Birds" is ...more

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May 01, 2012 Dan Henk rated it it was amazing

I think Lovecraft often gets a bad rap. People read that he influenced the modern greats, everyone form authors like Stephen King and Clive Barker, to movie makers like John Carpenter and Wes Craven, and then dive into his books expecting the same fare. He wrote for a different era. His mind-bending, first person surrealistic approach to a creeping, nameless horror stunned and fascinated huge segments of early century America. The America that read, that is, which wasn't nearly what it is today. ...more

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May 10, 2014 Steve rated it really liked it

Fantastic and atypical collection of Lovecraft-inspired tales. Note that I didn't say 'Lovecraftian' because they aren't mythos, and there isn't a single pastiche among them.

My favorites in this collection are:

Brian Evenson - Din of Celestial Birds
Holly Phillips - Cold Water Survival
Caitlin R Kiernan - Houses under the Sea
Marc Laidlaw - Leng
Michael Shea - The Recruiter
Sarah Monette & Elizabeth Bear - Mongoose
Laird Barron - Catch Hell

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Apr 08, 2013 Lindzie rated it really liked it

This is my first time reading anything related to HP Lovecraft. I found the style interesting and very much my thing. I didn't care for all the stories included in this collection, but most of them were very well written. It have me a greater understanding of what to expect from H.P. Lovecraft's work.

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Jun 17, 2013 Suge rated it really liked it

I do enjoy reading stories that were inspired by Lovecraft. This was a very fun and creepy collection. Not all of them were winners, there were one or two that didn't strike my fancy but otherwise, I liked this collection.

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May 12, 2011 Brendan Moody rated it it was amazing

Once upon a time I wrote part of a dreadful H.P. Lovecraft pastiche. I mention this not because you care about the many pieces of fiction I've abandoned over the years, but to offer another small piece of evidence for the truth Ellen Datlow mentions in her introduction to this eminently enjoyable anthology: unimaginative Lovecraft imitations are everywhere. People treat his stories like a mathematical formula: strained antiquated prose plus unspeakable tentacled evil equals masterwork of horror. Once upon a time I wrote part of a dreadful H.P. Lovecraft pastiche. I mention this not because you care about the many pieces of fiction I've abandoned over the years, but to offer another small piece of evidence for the truth Ellen Datlow mentions in her introduction to this eminently enjoyable anthology: unimaginative Lovecraft imitations are everywhere. People treat his stories like a mathematical formula: strained antiquated prose plus unspeakable tentacled evil equals masterwork of horror. Well, no. Lovecraft, like another much-imitated writer born in the 1890s, J.R.R. Tolkien, wrote as he did because of who he was and how he thought. You can't re-evoke that, and the results when you try bring to mind Twain's immortal if outdated comment on a woman swearing: "She knows the words but not the music."

In Lovecraft Unbound, Ellen Datlow brings together stories that are inspired by Lovecraft without slavishly imitating him. The drawback for some readers will be that some stories seem too loosely inspired, not "Lovecraftian" enough. I admit that I thought this about one or two of the stories in this anthology, but I don't see much value in pursuing the point: Lovecraft is so influential a writer that almost any modern horror tale could be said to be influenced by him, and in any case what matters is that the stories are good. And in this volume, they are. A few struck me as underdeveloped, but even those had such strong style that it's hard to complain.

I've now read "The Crevasse," the collection's first story, twice: once in this volume and once in The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Two, also edited by Datlow. On first reading I was disappointed by the story. It seemed to me too interested in subtle effects at the cost of narrative substance. It was like reading the first twenty pages of a fine novella and then having it abruptly stop. On second reading, I was better able to appreciate the intensely evocative prose Dale Bailey and Nathan Ballingrud bring to it. For a story in which very little happens, it's remarkably atmospheric, and confronts Lovecraft's deepest themes, and some of his narrative motifs, in a new way. It's still a story I respect more than enjoy, but I respect it a heck of a lot.

"The Office of Doom" is the best kind of comic horror: it's funny without skimping on the chills factor. This brief story by Richard Bowes has surprising scope and real charm. Anna Tambour's "Sincerely, Petrified" takes a while to get going and sometimes seems to indulge in quirkiness for its own sake, but by the end it's evolved into an excellent, creepy take on the power of the imagination. Brian Evenson's "The Din of Celestial Birds" is another one that lacked the edge I was hoping for, but it's a more than competent story of a man's strange transformation. "The Tenderness of Jackals" has a protagonist who's Evil But Not Really Because He's World-Weary, which is not the sort of thing that sits well with me, but Amanda Downum writes this about as well as it can be written. "Sight Unseen" by Joel Lane starts well then ends a bit abruptly, but what climax there is creepy.

In "Cold Water Survival," Holly Phillips masters the sense of encroaching terror that pervades Lovecraft's best stories. A group of adventurers have colonized a giant chunk of ice in the Antarctic, but is there something alive down there? You know the answer, and watching the characters discover it is good scary fun. At times the stylized descriptions of action on the narrator's video camera are a little distracting, but this is a minor quirk in a great story.

"Come Lurk with Me and Be My Love" is a funny and oddly sweet comic romance about a guy in love with a strange girl. She's in this weird cult, but that won't be too much of a problem, or will it? This story has only touches of horror, but they're very well-executed, and the love story has real charm. I look forward to reading more of William Browning Spencer's work in the future.

For some reason I've been resistant to checking out Caitlin R. Kiernan's fiction, despite her high reputation among readers of dark fiction. The loss has been mine. "Houses Under the Sea" is a brilliant story, using motifs and structure reminiscent of Lovecraft but bringing a distinctive modern narrative voice in as well. Another of HPL's great talents was his ability to arrange seemingly unrelated facts to devastating gradual effect, and Kiernan has a similar gift. I've already purchased one of her novels, and look forward to seeing what other tricks she has up her sleeve.

Michael Cisco's "Machines of Concrete Light and Dark" is a little too abstract and dream-like for my taste; its style is unsettling in a way that's not only atmospheric, but just a touch annoying. Still, it's a fine creepy story that reflects Lovecraft's theme of broken-down psychic borders. Marc Laidlaw's "Leng" is a likable epistolary piece. It doesn't bring quite as much innovation as some other entries here, but that just means the joys of its elegant traditional structure are easier to savor, and it does have a couple twists to offer. "In the Black Mill" by Michael Chabon was one of the stories I was most excited about when I picked up the anthology, and it didn't disappoint. It too is closer to the bounds of "typical" Lovecraft than some, and Chabon writes in a less extreme versions of Lovecraft's typical manner, which he handles perfectly. I'm at a loss to describe quite why I'm so fond of this tale, except that Chabon is as always a master stylist.

Lavie Tidhar's "One Day, Soon" is an unsettling tale that lingers in the mind. It deals with a topic that I don't often enjoy seeing in imaginative fiction (he said vaguely, to avoid spoilers), but does so with a understatement that increases its horror. In "Commencement," Joyce Carol Oates satirizes the pomposity of the typical college graduation ceremony by describing a school where that ritual has a disturbing twist. It's not hard to see where things are going, but as always with Oates, the pleasure is in her hypnotic style and the portrait of the thought processes of her all-too-human characters. "Vernon, Driving" by Simon Kurt Unsworth is an intense, deeply-felt story of suffering, and an excellent read. Another writer could have used these elements in a weak story that felt dismissive of Lovecraft, but Unsworth's handling is just right. When looking at the table of contents to remind myself which stories were in this book, I had to think a minute about which one Michael Shea's "The Recruiter" was. It had already slipped my mind. Now that I remember it, I can't find much to say. It's a good story, with some interesting stylistic touches, I suppose, but I really don't feel much about it one way or the author.

I do love an epistolary horror story. Gemma Files's "Marya Nox" is presented as an interview with an exorcist priest, who recounts a strange experience he had in Southeastern Europe, in one of those churches that had incorporated an older pagan tradition, which seeps through in a disturbing way... The value of this format is that it removes the reader from the horror in a manner that paradoxically makes everything creepier. In "Boojum," Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear offer a fun dark science fiction story that's also an homage, not just to Lovecraft, but to Kipling and Lewis Carroll, and perhaps others that I missed. It's also about how attached one can get to an animal companion, even when that companion is, er, a trifle unusual.

Laird Barron's "Catch Hell" offers his usual distinctive, atmospheric prose, but its tale of a troubled magic and the extreme lengths to which the couple will go to help themselves is also a little longer than it might be, and the setting doesn't mesh with the characters fully. It's still a worthwhile read, of course. And the collection closes with Nick Mamatas' "That of Which We Speak When We Speak of the Unspeakable," a story that might be baffling to readers who aren't familiar with its non-Lovecraftian literary antecedents, though the author's note will help them cover this unfortunate gap in their reading. For those who know what's up, this delightful and sad story is the ultimate reminder that Lovecraft's themes aren't limited to creaky retreads of his basic forms, but can be-- and should be-- re-imagined over and over again. Lovecraft Unbound shows some of the finest modern writers of dark fiction doing just that. ...more

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Mar 26, 2018 Gray rated it liked it

Shelves: 2017-reads, h-p-lovecraft

Lovecraft Unbound is a collection of twenty short stories inspired by H.P. Lovecraft’s weird fiction. In her introduction, Ellen Datlow writes that she was looking for stories that were “subtly Lovecraftian” rather than the more obvious “pastiches” that make up a lot of Lovecraft-themed anthologies:

‘I asked for stories inspired—thematically and possibly—by plot points in Lovecraft’s mythos. What I wanted was variety: in tone, setting, point of view, time.’

Out of the twenty, the following six ...more

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Jun 23, 2010 Mouldy Squid rated it really liked it

Shelves: horror

Another excellent anthology of horror from legendary editor Ellen Datlow. Here she has collected 20 tales influenced by Howard Phillips Lovecraft, best known for his "Cthulhu Mythos" stories from the first three decades of the 20th Century. This anthology is just what I like to see from new Lovecraftian fiction, that is, these stories are new.

Lovecraft is one of those authors who are famous, not just for their own work, but for pastiche. Too often Lovecraftian fiction is but pale imitation of ...more

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Aug 11, 2011 Bethany rated it it was ok

Shelves: shorts

"ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn"

Now that that's out of the way, I admit it: H.P. Lovecraft isn't really my thing. It's not that his ideas aren't brilliant and genre-bending (not to mention a bit mind-breaking), but I've only ever been able to truly enjoy him when I consider his works in a historical context rather than as works of fiction, because otherwise I find his prose, well, purple. It is only by taking into account the era in which he was writing and the prevalent "ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn"

Now that that's out of the way, I admit it: H.P. Lovecraft isn't really my thing. It's not that his ideas aren't brilliant and genre-bending (not to mention a bit mind-breaking), but I've only ever been able to truly enjoy him when I consider his works in a historical context rather than as works of fiction, because otherwise I find his prose, well, purple. It is only by taking into account the era in which he was writing and the prevalent literary styles of the time that I can willfully disregard the two lines of adjectives that accompany every preternatural, eldritch noun he uses.

I would not have picked this book up at all if I hadn't come across it used and it hadn't had thick pages that could stand up to being sweated on while working out at the gym. The idea of reading a multi-hundred page book of short stories based on or inspired by Lovecraft fills me with a certain horror that could probably use a few more adjectives and decorative 'postrophes (for mood, you understand). Fortunately, the editor of this collection is a true admirer of Lovecraft's works and every bit as leery of allowing any old high school fanfiction into their book, which is not to say I've heard of most of the authors in the book.

In fact, I think I'd only heard of one or two, but since supernatural horror isn't my usual cup of tea I will give them the benefit of the doubt and pretend that they're very famous in their field and the only reason I don't know them is that I am an incurious neophyte to the genre. However, judged by my standards it doesn't surprise me that I've never heard of the majority of them. None of the stories particularly stand out in my mind except for one involving bandersnatches and momraths in some sort of space setting. It mostly stood out because I couldn't help thinking as I read it that they'd gotten the wrong drug-addled, brain-damaged author to base their story on. The rest were mostly forgettable and I spent my time reading them counting the pages until I could get to the next mediocre tale of the macabre.

My favorite part of the collection, to be honest, was reading the different authors' descriptions of how they discovered Lovecraft (the average age being twelve) and then going on to say which of his works was their favorite. Every author picked a different piece as his or her favorite, which probably says more about how prolific Lovecraft was than his versatility in appealing to different people with different works, but it was also the most interesting part of the book for me.

My advice with this book would be to gift it to the Lovecraft-lover in your circle of friends (I promise you, there is one) and let them decide if it's any good. If you are the Lovecraft-lover, well, don't let me influence you. As I said at the beginning, I am not, and so perhaps it will be more to your taste than it was to mine, though if you're going into expecting to hear about Dunwich horrors and all, you may be disappointed: the editor advised the contributors to steer away from borrowing directly from the Cthulu mythos. ...more

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About Ellen Datlow

Ellen Datlow

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Ellen Datlow has been an award-winning editor of short science fiction, fantasy, and horror for over twentyfive years.

She is editor of the Best Horror of the Year and has edited or co-edited a large number of award-winning original anthologies. Her most recent are Supernatural Noir, Naked City, Blood and Other Cravings, The Beastly Bride, Teeth, Trolls Eye View, and After (the last three with ...more