The Whisperer and Other Voices

by Brian Lumley

The Whisperer and Other Stories contains a complete short novel, The Return of the Deep Ones , as well as eight more weighty slices from the dark imagination of Brian Lumley. Here are several of Lumley's best H. P. Lovecraft-inspired tales, including "The Statement of Henry Worthy." Also included are "The Luststone" and "The Disapproval of Jeremy Cleave," proving that Lumley can make one laugh even while the hairs on the back of their neck are slowly coming to attention. . . .

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Fantasy, Collections, Fiction, Audiobook, Weird Fiction

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

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

[Rob Mensch]

A great collection of Lumley's short stories. Unfortunately, they have all been in other collections as well so nothing new here. Still a great read though.

[hotsake (André Troesch)]

This featured a mixed bag of short stories and an overlong and underwhelming novella.
3.5/5

[Thomas]

DNF. All of Lumley’s stories involve a woman with no personality aside from enjoying sex gets topless and screaming while something kinda spooky happens. I could forgive this if he had even one woman in this book who wasn’t a sex-doll, but he doesn’t. It’s trash. Horrible way to kick off 2023 reading.

[MB Taylor]

I really enjoy Lumley's short fiction. I haven't read (or even bought) any of his Necroscope books. I think I'm afraid of the sheer volume of the series...

[Emily L]

Sadly, I expected better. I haven't gotten into the Necroscope series, because I have commitment issues. I thought this book would be excellent. I have read several of his short stories before. I figured I would read this one to get a little better acquainted with Lumley's work.

The stories were good, pace was good, they were well written. I did however find them very forgettable. I just didn't find myself thinking about them once I was done reading them. In truth, I was just happy to be done. Mostly what you see is what you get with these stories and they dont inspire any additional thought after you finish them. Its full of good stories that are somewhat superficial in that sense.

The order of the stories was also sort of clunky. I can only explain it by saying that the tales didn't have a good flow in the sequence that they were placed in. It may have made the book more enjoyable if the order of the stories was switched around. Sometimes a small change like that can make a big difference. I am definitely willing to acknowledge that possibility. Especially because I really did expect much better work from this author.

By the time I was done with this book, I was just really ready for it to be finished. It was a relief to be done reading this.

I want a book that I cant put down - not a book that I cant wait to put down...

[Guy Lloyd]

Short stories were great, didn’t feel the deep ones story though

[Benjamin]

Enjoyable Collection

There were a few in here I hadn't read before, and a few I have. Overall, it's a decent collection, and I'd recommend it to any other Lumley fan.

[Connor]

DNF. Tapped out a couple chapters into Return of the Deep Ones but The Luststone is probably the biggest pile of dogshit in here

[Chuck McKenzie]

Another wonderful collection from one of the undisputed masters of Lovecraftian fiction . A must-read for fans of the subgenre.

[GD]

I think I decided last night that I'm going to renege on my former assertions that Clive Barker is/was the best horror writer. It's Brian Lumley! I started reading them about the same time, when I was 13 or so, and I have to say that Brian Lumley has been far more consistent. Most of the stories in this collection are really old, but, beside the point!

Of course he's most known for the Necroscope books, which are excellent, and the only vampire novels in the world I can read. They're creative, gory, scary, complex, and they scream along at like a million miles an hour. But his other books and stories, particularly the Lovecraft stories, are just as good, if slightly overlooked.

There are two overlaps between this book and Haggopian (did I spell that correctly?), which I read last year, and one of them, Haggopian, ended up being just a part of a larger story, Return of the Deep Ones, in The Whisperer.

Brian Lumley has a great pulp feel to his language that never makes me roll my eyes, you can tell all his over-the-top lines and punctuation are really heartfelt, and come from the mind of a mature man who never let the part of his brain that loves monsters and suspense grow up after the age of ten, and that is a very, very good thing. He's 75 this year, and I hope he can smash out a few more books before he himself joins the Deep Ones in their temples under the sea.

[Jason Gusman]

I haven't read any H.P. Lovecraft. A lot of Lumley's style is spurred by Lovecraft and the novella at the end of this book is set in Lovecraft's Mythos world. It was a good story, but without a background in it's foundation I found myself floundering a bit and thus, didn't enjoy it as much as I probably would have otherwise. The other stories were set outside the Mythos and more enjoyable, but overall, simply average for me with the exception of 'The Whisperer'. This story was totally encompassing.and is now one of my favorite short stories. All I can say is read it! You won't be disappointed. I cannot say anything else about it as it isn't long enough to discuss without completely ruining it's plot. But I can say that it is eerie and a great horror story that keeps you thinking about it well after you have read it.

[Aaron Meyer]

I had very high hopes going into this book but unfortunately I was let down for the most part. Many of the stories were very second-rate and seemed at times to be shadows of stories told in "Fruiting Bodies and Other Fungi". The best of the short stories in this volume were "Aunt Hester", and "No Sharks in the Med". The former was just a messed up thing to happen and the latter while not much a horror story was just a damn good tale of some evil natured folk. The final story was the one that got me the best and I wavered on giving the book a three stars because of it but think this is definitely a two-and-a-half for sure, and that was the story "The Return of The Deep Ones". Purely Lovecraftian in its story and though it lacked the suspenseful buildup of horror that I would of enjoyed the telling of the tale was nonetheless well done.

[R.]

The best stories were the horror/humor crossbreed "The Whisperer" (it reminded me of something out of Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark - an NC17-rated version of the campfire favorite, "The Viper", let's say) and the Hitchcockian "No Sharks in the Med" (happy couple on vacation get more than they bargain for from a psychotic travel guide)...also, the short novel, Return of the Deep Ones had just the right shadows of Lovecraft (with a shade or two of Alan Moore).

[Barry]

This was worthwhile, though I found the novella at the end a bit of a slog. I apparently like my H. P. Lovecraft homages quick and not drawn out. Maybe that's because I've never read any H. P. Lovecraft.

I'm not a horror reader in general, and maybe that's why nothing in here frightened me. Though I did appreciate the fantasy aspects of the stories, and several were quite effective at that.

[Michael]

'the return of the deep ones' was a somewhat decent story. part of the cthulhu mythos, it does a good job building suspense, though the ending wasn't exactly satisfying.

the rest of the book can be safely ignored.

[Coeruleo Luna]

another great collection of lumley's lovecraftiana. features the complete short novel 'return of the deep ones' that is part of the innsmouth myth cycle that is otherwise hard to find in hardcover in america.

[Jon-michael]

it had good short storys and was prity scary sometimes.

[Amanda and tony schmidt]

Tony