May 2023: The Shadow Out of Time

[Dan]

This month, the next to last for our Lovecraft series, we are reading "The Shadow Out of Time." Written between November 1934 and February 1935, it was first published in the June 1936 issue of Astounding Stories, a year before his death from intestinal cancer at the age of 46. Like last month we have another story about mind transfer, this time for the purpose of time and space travel.

The first sentence tells us the story's setting: "After twenty-two years of nightmare and terror, saved only by a desperate conviction of the mythical source of certain impressions, I am unwilling to vouch for the truth of that which I think I found in Western Australia on the night of July 17–18, 1935." This story takes place in what would later become known as Australia's Great Sandy Desert. I have to hand it to Lovecraft; I would be nervous setting a story in a place I had never been to or seen. I wonder if he got it right.

Unlike some of our other recent Lovecraft selections, this story is widely regarded as a masterpiece. Lin Carter calls it "Lovecraft's single greatest achievement in fiction," citing "its amazing scope and sense of cosmic immensitude, the gulfs of time it opens, [and] the titanic sweep of the narrative." Ramsey Campbell describes it as "awe-inspiring," This is clearly not the month to skip the Lovecraft reading. One online place that has the text on its website is this one: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/.... Come join us, won't you?

[Rosemarie]

I've finished a reread of this story, and even though I knew the ending, I was impressed by the pacing and build up of suspense in the story. There are also so many connections to previous stories, but it works as a stand-alone story too.
So much better than the previous month's story.

[Dan]

Despite ultimately finding the story frustrating because it failed to go where I wanted it to, I enjoyed it for where it did go. I give the story's premise five stars, its conclusion three, for its average of a four star rating. My full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Rosemarie]

I agree that the beginning was the strongest part, Dan,