One of Lovecraft’s simpler tales. It’s the story of a man - native to Appalachia - who seemingly went mad and killed someone. He is acquitted by reasoOne of Lovecraft’s simpler tales. It’s the story of a man - native to Appalachia - who seemingly went mad and killed someone. He is acquitted by reason of insanity and sent to an asylum. The man has incredibly intense and vivid waking dreams. A young doctor there does experiments on the man, trying to link their minds, so that he too may experience these dreams. He suspects - rightly it turns out - that they may be much more than just dreams.
This is Lovecraft at his simplest and most effective. No frill, but creepy as hell. It bringing you a vastly expanded sense of the universe and an equally diminished sense of your self in it.
One thing to add about this tale is that is argues somewhat against HPL’s notorious well known racism. The dreamer in the tale is a white, poor, unlettered Appalachian. It is clear that Lovecraft has an equally disdainful view of these white folk. A fair amount of his racism may really have been an almost equally unpleasant classism or grotesque snobbery. Just a thought. ...more
It’s hard to know where to start when reviewing this book. Let me just start by saying it is awesome. You need to buy it. Like now.
Ok. Got that out oIt’s hard to know where to start when reviewing this book. Let me just start by saying it is awesome. You need to buy it. Like now.
Ok. Got that out of the way. Let me highlight a couple of things that really stick out as reasons why I feel you should part with your hard earned cash.
1. Prudence Osgood - formerly Pru, now Os. She’s a queer (very queer), smart-talking, paranormal investigator with a troubled past. She suffers from depression, has more than a few substance abuse issues, and I totally fell in love with her within a few pages. Her differentness from the stereotypical Raymond Chandler knock-offs that haunt most investigative novels is a breath of fresh air. 2. The Trio - Os undergoes her journey with two companions, Audrey and Zack. Audrey is the estranged bestie who comes back into Os’ life with a back story that adds depth and complexity to the mystery and Os both. Zack is the techie geek no investigator can be without these days. He is loyal, loving, and the perfect companion for Osgood’s witty and snarky repartee. It seems these three are here to stay for sequels and that only makes me want to read them more. 3. The Mystery - I won’t say too much about this. I don’t want to drop spoilers. Suffice it to stay that it involves 80s Rock, vinyl LPs, occult symbolism, conspiracy theories, possession, and trans-dimensional beings. Beckett takes you carefully through the unraveling, teasing you along the way, and the brings it to a crescendo that does not disappoint. 4. The Ending- This deserves its own number. While the mystery is really cool and compelling from the get go, Beckett takes it to a place that lives more in the horror genre than mystery novels. (Particularly, I smell some strong Lovecraft aromas in this brew.) For me, a confirmed Lovecraft nerd, that made the novel go from damn good to freakin great.
This novel was fun as hell. It had a great mystery and better ending. It will make you want to read the next ones (coming soon, I hope). If you love it half as much as I did, your time and money will have been well spent. ...more
This book was something of a special surprise to me.
From the description and marketing, I thought I had this book pegged: a ghost hunter reality showThis book was something of a special surprise to me.
From the description and marketing, I thought I had this book pegged: a ghost hunter reality show that did not take itself seriously, which lands a gig in a real haunted house, doesn't think it is really haunted, slowly finds out it actually is haunted, the body count mounts, and a few survivors get out just when you think all hope is lost.
Yes, in a way, that's exactly what you get. However, you get an awful lot more. It's that "lot more" that makes all the difference. In stead of supplying the perfunctory ghost story, David Longhorn spins a vision of reality and intersecting worlds which is squarely within the cosmic horror tradition. My short, run-of-the-mill haunted house story slowly turned into a dark world building exercise right before my eyes... and it was great.
This has all the hallmarks of the Lovecraftian spirit. Lovecraft didn't really write ghost stories and - it seems - did not really care for them all that much. But this is exactly the sort of meta narrative he would have loved. You're left going to bed with he distinct feeling that the world is not safe, not right, and not going to go on well either. ...more
From the publisher description, The Sister Verse and the Talons of Ruin by Amelie C Langlois should have been everything I look for in a book. HoweverFrom the publisher description, The Sister Verse and the Talons of Ruin by Amelie C Langlois should have been everything I look for in a book. However, for reasons that are a little hard to place, I did not love this book.
The story starts with a police detective who seems pretty washed up and is having an epically bad day at the office. Early on it is clear he is living in a world a lot like ours, but which definitely isn’t out. The early chapters read almost like a dream sequence, skipping from one scene to another. Sometimes they are very jarring and it is unclear for a while what relation they have to one another. They evolve, pretty cleverly I think, into an encompassing world view involving monsters, alternate dimensions, and so much more. I really enjoyed the story and the way it spiraled out from small beginnings.
In terms of a world building epic, I think this book shows great promise. Few writers have the capacity to build worlds which are both very different and strangely compelling. Langlois clearly has the chops to make that happen. This is the first of a planned trilogy and it will be interesting to see how the world unfolds from here.
The promotional material links this book to Lovecraft and that’s a fair assessment. The writing has a formality which he would recognize and approve of. Also, the use of multidimensionality, alien monster gods, dream sequences, and more (which I can’t speak of without spoilers) would have pleased the Old Gentleman from Providence. If you like Lovecraftian story telling, you will find a lot to like in this book.
The mystery for me is why I didn’t fall in love with this book from page one. The main issue I had with the book was it’s pacing. The pacing is so relentless it will leave you mentally breathless. You go from fight scene, to car chase, to big reveal, to mass murder scene, to flashback, to assassination, to interrogation, to… The book doesn’t give you you a chance to pause and digest what happened before it gives you the next big shock to the system. At nearly 700 pages, it is already a big book. Yet, I was left with the impression that it must have once been a few hundred pages longer and was a little over-redacted. Personally, I can get frustrated with long descriptive paragraphs. Oddly, this is the first time I’ve ever read a book and wished there were more.
On a final note, readers should be warned that this book is pretty gory. Even within the realm of horror aficionados, the levels of blood and gore in this book are not for everyone. That said, I would like to add that I did not find the gore gratuitous. It was called for and added to the story Ms. Langlois was trying to tell.
*My thanks to NetGalley for the free copy of this book in exchange for my honest feedback.*...more
Kirk Battle's 70 page novella is a whole lot of fun. It should please both long time fans of the Lovecraftian-Cthulhu mythos and novitiates alike. It Kirk Battle's 70 page novella is a whole lot of fun. It should please both long time fans of the Lovecraftian-Cthulhu mythos and novitiates alike. It follows the journey of a Miskatonic University student who, taking a leave of absence, goes on a working voyage into the coldest, iciest regions of our planet. While there, he comes across - what else? - some sort of odd cultic object lodged in the ice. Hey, it wouldn't be a Lovecraftian story if someone didn't find an odd little statue connected in some way to the permanently frozen parts of our planet. There are rules people! Rules!!!
The majority of the story takes place on two islands just off "the Deep South", not far from antebellum Charleston. The islands are a plantation controlled by a wealthy slave holding family. The protagonist's ship gets stuck on a sand bar not far from the island with the manner house and he is forced to make landfall in order to seek what help is available. Our young student then gets suck into a world of cultists and cosmic horror that will be familiar to all lovers of the Cthulhu mythos. I have not read the sequel yet, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the statue found is the same one mentioned in Lovecraft's Call of Cthulhu as being in Louisiana. (I could be wrong.)
There is a lot to love in this story. First of all, it should be highly accessible to folks who aren't big into Lovecraftian tales. It avoids the pitfalls of many Mythos writers, where they seem to assume you're a total nerd who's real 300+ Cthulhu short stories before you come to their tale. That's fine for the well initiated, but really off putting to most readers. There is a fun section where you get a brief primer on the Mythos. Even if you are a total Lovecraft nerd, you will still enjoy that part because there are a few fun ways that Battle has tweaked the over arching narrative of that shared world.
The Mythos has inherited a tradition of using very old fashioned ways of writing and vocabulary. It is tricky to do this well. Again, many Mythos tales can come off as stodgy, stilted, or inaccessible. Battle seems to be one of the few practitioners who knows how to do this well. You have all the flavor and feel of reading a nineteenth century university student's papers, but without any of the hangups modern readers would actually have doing it for real. ...more
There is a lot to love about this collection of Lovecraft tales. Many anthologies are very uneven, but not this one. Every story is strong. Every storThere is a lot to love about this collection of Lovecraft tales. Many anthologies are very uneven, but not this one. Every story is strong. Every story is on point with what the anthology is trying to do. There don’t seem to be any submissions that were accepted to add bulk to the volume.
I appreciate the way all of the stories are thematically Lovecraftian, but avoid repeating Lovecraft’s work after him. Mythos lovers will know what I’m talking about here. There’s only so many mythos tales you can tell that take place in New England in the 1920s. It gets tiresome after a while. Ms Jones seems to agree and has done a service in finding stories that offer new places and ways to be weirded out.
Another feature I liked is that most of the tales are relatively short. Again, it irks me when a tale looks like it’s adding bulk to meet a word count or page number requirement. They should be as long as they need to be to tell the story right. Some stories are very short. I think nearly any one of them could be read in about a half an hour or less. (G K Lomax’s story being the only possible exception.) It made the book perfect to bring along and read a chapter here and there as I carted by girls to their activities.
I would also like to add this: the book is almost worth purchasing alone for the excellent afterwords by Joshi. It’s one of the finest summaries of Lovecraft’s work and unique point of view. ...more
Anthologies are typically a mixed bag. This one, however, was unusually strong. It is an excellent collection of ten short stories which are all in thAnthologies are typically a mixed bag. This one, however, was unusually strong. It is an excellent collection of ten short stories which are all in the tradition of “cosmic horror” as written by Lovecraft and his circle. I recommend this tales to anyone who loves good, old fashioned pulp laced with great old ones and tentacles.
I especially liked that, while they were all Lovecraftian in style, none of them were written to be part of the Cthulhu mythos. They are all effort at providing something new to the realm of weird fiction. That was refreshing. ...more
This was only my second foray into the writings of Ambrose Ibsen. While the first book I read was somewhat average, I found this one far more successfThis was only my second foray into the writings of Ambrose Ibsen. While the first book I read was somewhat average, I found this one far more successful.
The plot revolves around a series of protagonists and the events that transpire following a breakthrough at a chemical laboratory, the disappearance of the main researcher, and suicide of his assistant. As the book when on, it evolved into a delicious Lovecraftian nightmare, a real celebration of the cosmic horror tradition.
This was a good read, left open for a sequel which I hope the author one day writes. ...more
This series has been languishing. I see why they eventually didn’t keep it going. Most of the reinterpretations, by recasting the stories in the 1990s
This series has been languishing. I see why they eventually didn’t keep it going. Most of the reinterpretations, by recasting the stories in the 1990s, managed to add something to the originals. This is the first that fails to manage what has been the only significant redeeming quality of this series.
This installment loses more stars with the poor artistry. It frequently looks like something a boy in his early teens would draw. It is often confusing and hard to follow the sequences from one frame to another. The characters have a weird pseudo-70s style, especially the men’s facial hair. That’s been constant through out. ...more
The seventh installment in this series, retelling classic Lovecraft short stories. Dagon was HPL’s first published short story and it one of his mostThe seventh installment in this series, retelling classic Lovecraft short stories. Dagon was HPL’s first published short story and it one of his most iconic. The composers of this graphic rendition have recast it in the 1990s, allowing story add ons involving submarines and the US Navy. All of that works pretty well, as far as the story goes.
Where this installment loses stars is with the poor artistry. It frequently looks like something a boy in his early teens would draw. It is often confusing and hard to follow the sequences from one frame to another. The characters have a weird pseudo-70s style, especially the men’s facial hair. That’s been constant through out. This installment of the series takes an especially puerile turn. A sequence where a woman is stranded on a treacherous deserted island involves her getting more and more scantily clad as one event or another tears her clothes from her. Very groan-worthy.
With a different illustrator, this would have been an excellent reinterpretation of Dagon. ...more
The last few installments in the series were really good, but this one is back to the form of the first few installments. The art is poor. The narratiThe last few installments in the series were really good, but this one is back to the form of the first few installments. The art is poor. The narrative sequencing from one frame to the next is awkward and - at times - hard to follow. The story is great, of course. It’s Lovecraft. But this is a better example of how the art and the narrative arrangements really don’t do justice to a great tale. ...more
The Music of Erich Zann is my favorite H P Lovecraft tale, so I am a little biased on this one. I think this is the finest installment of the series yThe Music of Erich Zann is my favorite H P Lovecraft tale, so I am a little biased on this one. I think this is the finest installment of the series yet. The stories is great (did I say that already?). The updating of it to a SETI specialist at a conference in Paris and a holocaust survivor not only work, but manage to add something to the original tale. The poor art actually seems to work in favor of the dreamy, surreal quality of the story. And unlike the other tales, there’s nothing here that would so demonstrably be better in color than I feel something was lost by the black and white. ...more
Like the previous one in the series, I think this issue doesn’t work for two reasons. Firstly, it really isn’t the strong tale by Lovecraft to start hLike the previous one in the series, I think this issue doesn’t work for two reasons. Firstly, it really isn’t the strong tale by Lovecraft to start hooking readers. The original tale is tight and straight, never attempting too much, and thus succeeding because it is a simple idea well executed. But it has little to excite the imagination of a reader of graphic material. Most of the story takes place in labs, with people doing research, and conversations being had among clinicians.
The second short fall is the art again. It isn’t very well done in my opinion. Also, the only two artistically evocative scenes (which should have made its conversion to graphic form worth the effort), are hurt by the art being in black and white. If ever there was a reason to use color, it’s in relating the birth of a new portion of the cosmos. And yet, no.
I’ll keep reading ahead with the hope of improvement. There are some of my favorite Lovecraft tales coming up in the series. If only for their sake, I’ll chug along. ...more
It isn’t exactly the strongest of Lovecraft’s tales to start with. It gets points for being tight and straight forward. Back in the day, it was a newIt isn’t exactly the strongest of Lovecraft’s tales to start with. It gets points for being tight and straight forward. Back in the day, it was a new trope to be sure, but it’s brilliance has been copied so many times since that it’s become cliche. It isn’t really a mark against “The Alchemist”. In fact, it’s a mark in favor of it’s genius and originality. But it makes it come off as tired now to folks who can’t appreciate what it is and represents.
The main deduction of stars for me is that the art work isn’t really very good. Maybe it just isn’t my style, but really I think it just wasn’t very good. I expected more. I will keep reading to see how this series goes from here. I love Lovecraft and think he translates well into visual media like comics and graphic novels. ...more
Andrew “The Weirdling”
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