Agents of Dreamland, General Discussion, No Spoilers (Oct 2018)

[Whitney]

This is where it's traditional to post reviews, background, first impressions, etc. But with this book, all reviews seem to contain obvious spoilers. I will post them in the "entire book" thread, and the lion's share of the discussion will take place there as well.

Here is for very general things. Who's joining us here? Have people read other works by Kiernan? What did you think of them? Anyone attracted (or repelled) by the "Lovecraftian" description of the book? Specific Lovecraftian elements and inspirations are something we'll also save for the spoiler discussion.

Here is a link to the Lovecraft story that is the inspiration for much of AoD, Even knowing which story it's based on is a spoiler, so you may want to wait until you're at least half way through, and please save any discussion of it for the spoilers thread.
http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/t...

This is a very entertaining documentary on The Salton Sea, where the main events of the book take place. Bonus, it's narrated by John Waters!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TjGA...

And for some background, here's the Wikipedia Page on Kiernan. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caitl%C...

[Peter]

So who else has read/is reading/is going to read this? And how much background do you have with H.P. Lovecraft's Mythos?

I've read it. I've pretty much read the entirety of Lovecraft's fiction (not hard, he wasn't really that prolific), and a fair bit of Mythos fiction by other authors (and there has been a lot, including by well-known authors).

[LindaJ^]

I’m planning to read. Have limited Lovecraft exposure.

[Marc]

I aim to have this read by some time next week. I've got a few Lovecraft stories under my belt and know a tiny bit about his mythos, but not too much.

[Jessica]

I finally got my copy from the library so I will start reading this week. I also have read a few Lovecraft stories but I am not so familiar with his mythos. I also haven't read anything from Kiernan before.

[Drew]

I read this a couple weeks ago. Enjoyed it but maybe my lack of experience with Lovecraft made me like it less than I might have.

[Peter]

Drew wrote: "I read this a couple weeks ago. Enjoyed it but maybe my lack of experience with Lovecraft made me like it less than I might have."

I don't think a lack of experience with Lovecraft will make you like this novella more or less, but I believe it will change how you experience the story. Which is why it is nice that we have a variety of readers with different backgrounds in the source material to discuss it.