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Eternal Lovecraft: The Persistence of HPL in Popular Culture
Fantasist H. P. Lovecraft enjoys an honor shared by few other authors of imaginative fiction -- since his death, the term Lovecraftian has come into worldwide use to describe a body of work so fully realized as to influence countless generations of subsequent writers. Each author in this volume came under the Lovecraftian conjuration and then wrote a story that in some way reflects this experience, providing compelling testimony that H. P. Lovecraft is one of the most influential writers of the 20(th) century.These stories have been previously published but are now gathered together to create this excellent and diverse anthology.
Contents (view Concise Listing)
xiii • The "Shadow" over Lovecraft • (1998) • essay by Jim Turner
3 • Her Misbegotten Son • (1996) • novella by Alan Rodgers
50 • Daoine Domhain • (1992) • novelette by Peter Tremayne
70 • To Mars and Providence • [War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches] • (1996) • short story by Don Webb
81 • Weird Tales • (1984) • short story by Fred Chappell
91 • The Land of the Reflected Ones • (1995) • short story by Nancy A. Collins
102 • The Shadow at the Bottom of the World • (1990) • short story by Thomas Ligotti
111 • Sensible City • (1994) • short story by Harlan Ellison
119 • The Golden Keeper • (1997) • novella by Ian R. MacLeod
165 • Ralph Wollstonecraft Hedge: A Memoir • (1959) • short story by Ron Goulart
169 • Crouch End • [Cthulhu Mythos] • (1980) • novelette by Stephen King
194 • The Turret • (1995) • novelette by Richard A. Lupoff
221 • The Giant Rat of Sumatra • (1996) • novelette by Paula Volsky
243 • Black as the Pit, from Pole to Pole • [Frankenstein Universe] • (1977) • novelette by Howard Waldrop and Steven Utley
279 • The Other Dead Man • (1988) • short story by Gene Wolfe
299 • The Events at Poroth Farm • (1972) • novella by T. E. D. Klein
339 • The Ocean and All Its Devices • (1994) • novelette by William Browning Spencer
357 • A Bit of the Dark World • (1962) • novelette by Fritz Leiber
386 • The Perseids • (1995) • novelette by Robert Charles Wilson
Contents (view Concise Listing)
xiii • The "Shadow" over Lovecraft • (1998) • essay by Jim Turner
3 • Her Misbegotten Son • (1996) • novella by Alan Rodgers
50 • Daoine Domhain • (1992) • novelette by Peter Tremayne
70 • To Mars and Providence • [War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches] • (1996) • short story by Don Webb
81 • Weird Tales • (1984) • short story by Fred Chappell
91 • The Land of the Reflected Ones • (1995) • short story by Nancy A. Collins
102 • The Shadow at the Bottom of the World • (1990) • short story by Thomas Ligotti
111 • Sensible City • (1994) • short story by Harlan Ellison
119 • The Golden Keeper • (1997) • novella by Ian R. MacLeod
165 • Ralph Wollstonecraft Hedge: A Memoir • (1959) • short story by Ron Goulart
169 • Crouch End • [Cthulhu Mythos] • (1980) • novelette by Stephen King
194 • The Turret • (1995) • novelette by Richard A. Lupoff
221 • The Giant Rat of Sumatra • (1996) • novelette by Paula Volsky
243 • Black as the Pit, from Pole to Pole • [Frankenstein Universe] • (1977) • novelette by Howard Waldrop and Steven Utley
279 • The Other Dead Man • (1988) • short story by Gene Wolfe
299 • The Events at Poroth Farm • (1972) • novella by T. E. D. Klein
339 • The Ocean and All Its Devices • (1994) • novelette by William Browning Spencer
357 • A Bit of the Dark World • (1962) • novelette by Fritz Leiber
386 • The Perseids • (1995) • novelette by Robert Charles Wilson
410 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
July 22, 2020
From the title, I was expecting this to be a nonfiction work examining the continuing influence of Lovecraft in horror. It's not. It's just another collection of Mythos-inspired short stories. So you know.
"Her Misbegotten Son" by Alan Rodgers is set in Arkham and references several Lovecraft stories, including direct borrowing of characters from The Dreams in the Witch House. Although I don't think I've ever come across a significant child character in HPL? And the overall feels end up being not very Lovecraftian or, frankly, very interesting. To me, anyway; I can see this appealing to fans of those 70s and 80s horrors with evil seed offspring or violent demons and evisceration. I'm afraid it reminded me of what a recent editor called "Lovecraft Bingo" rather than engaging innovatively with the Mythos. And it was too long. 2 I-was-bored stars
"Daoine Domhain" by Peter Tremayne combines Lovecraft's Deep Ones with Celtic Mythology in an epistolary story-within-a-story. It also captured the Lovecraftian feeling of inevitable doom; once the eldritch forces have touched your life the chances of saving yourself are slim and require determined action. 4 stars
To Mars and Providence [War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches] (1996) by Don Webb is a sort of mash-up with War of the Worlds, a juvenile Lovecraft the main character. Cute, although the best elements were mostly lifted directly from HPL or Wells. Also, I found it oddly forgettable, perhaps because it is written as a sort of fever-dream (like actual dreams, I tend to find this fictional approach striking while reading, but hard to retain.) 3 stars
Weird Tales (1984) by Fred Chappell. Lovecraft, Hart Crane, Samuel Loveman, Sterling Croydon, et al real personages feature in what at first seems like a fairly descriptive account of a milieu. Then it shifts into a story reminiscent of Lovecraft's From Beyond featuring Croydon as Tillinghast and Loveman as Unnamed Narrator. Then an account of Crane voyaging to Mexico by sea and killing himself on the way. I don't know how to rate this one because I don't know what Chappell was trying to do and I don't know enough detail of the lives of these poets to be sure which parts were fact and which made up. I tend to find using real people's alcohol problems, suicide, career failures etc in fiction disrespectful.
The Land of the Reflected Ones (1995) by Nancy A. Collins. We all know from Lovecraft that messing around with eldritch tomes such as the Necronomicon is a consistently bad idea. Apparently the badness manifests even faster if you steal the book. I also liked how Collins gently mocked Lovecraft's snobbiness about Old, Important Families. Less bragging about genealogy, more careful reading of your magic books, would-be sorcerers! 4 stars.
"The Shadow at the Bottom of the World" by Thomas Ligotti is a strange, increasingly creepy folk-horror short story about a black stalk, an unfillable hole, the inhabitants of a small town strangely influenced... By the end I found it effective horror, but I have to force myself to keep reading because I found the ponderous prose style unappealing. 3 stars
Harlan Ellison's "Sensible City" is almost inverse of Lovecraftian horror: people do the most horrible things, and sometimes there is retribution. (If the inescapable highway stop was a specific reference, I didn't get). 3.5 stars
Ian R. MacLeod's novella set in ancient Roman Imperial Egypt was highly original and I appreciated how he clearly did lots of research and thought hard about how to fit it into the Mythos. It's a slow build to horror, and I admit I got a little bored before the end, but I still thought it one of the stronger stories. 4 stars
Ron Goulart pens a sort of "mockumentary" biographic sketch of Lovecraft as be his secretary. High on quirk, low on equivalence. Not sure what the squirrels were about. 2 stars
Stephen King's "Crouch End" is quite creepy and scary, although there was something about the horror that felt distinctly non-Lovecraftian to me.
Typically Lupoff: Interesting concepts, wandering narration, no resolution. Needlessly long for something in which neither of the plot devices ends in any explanation. 3 stars
Paula Volsky's "Giant Rat of Sumatra" is a Sherlock Holmes + Necronomicon story (why are there so many of these?!). Decent homage, but points off for promising a giant rat and not delivering it.
3 stars.
"Black as the Pit, from Pole to Pole" (1977) by Howard Waldrop and Steven Utley is labelled "Frankenstein Universe" -- I'm not too familiar with these authors so I don't know if that's a larger project that this fits into. If so, it might be better for those who had read prior installments. I didn't find it bad, per se, but I felt... not engaged? And like the structure or pacing were off. 2.5 stars
"The Other Dead Man" (1988) by Gene Wolfe is a not very Lovecraftian sci-fi story about a power struggle on a space ship. The ending is [spoiler if you've read "The Outsider"] directly lifted from a Lovecraft story but in a way that felt almost like a joke? I'm not sure why this story was in this volume...
"The Events at Poroth Farm" (1972) by T. E. D. Klein was pretty Lovecraftian with it's backwards inbred rural people and New England intellectual protagonist researching in solitude and gradual perversion of nature. Although I don't think ailurophile HP would describe such nasty violence to cats on page -- even Ulthar is pretty indirect. I thought this was well done, although it dragged on rather too long. 4 stars, bumped up because it has the bonus of a reading list.
"The Ocean and All Its Devices" (1994) by William Browning Spencer was a creepy, sad story. It reminded me of all those old poems and songs where someone makes a deal with the devil et al supernatural to . I thought the choice of narrating through a bystander who becomes involved was a good technique for withholding information. The bits with the innkeeper'd daughter led me to expect some additional horror that never manifested, so I don't know what that was included for, but still 3.5 stars.
"A Bit of the Dark World" (1962) by Fritz Leiber is set in the rocky terrain of Southern California. [Personal aside: I've never understood why people, especially rich ones, wanted to live in inconveniently isolated locales where even getting groceries is hours of driving. What if you have a medical emergency or power outage or invasion by mysterious interdimensional beings?]
Very interesting concepts. 4 stars
There was a crack in [his] head and a little bit of the Dark World came through and pressed him to death. -- Kipling
"The Perseids" (1995) by Robert Charles Wilson. A divorced man meets a young woman while buying a telescope. She dares not look through telescopes. She is also involved with some Bohemian types who bs about philosophy while experimenting with drugs. No one is likable, and things end badly. Obviously, because things always end bad in Lovecraftland. Some interesting ideas.
Maybe our neighbors had already arrived, not in silver ships but in metaphysics, informing the very construction and representation of our lives... their intangible grammar--maybe this is the evidence they left us, a ruined archaeology of cognition, invisible because pervasive, inescapable: they are both here, in other words, and not here; they are us and not-us.
I'd read this one before, although I don't recall where. 3.5 stars
"Her Misbegotten Son" by Alan Rodgers is set in Arkham and references several Lovecraft stories, including direct borrowing of characters from The Dreams in the Witch House. Although I don't think I've ever come across a significant child character in HPL? And the overall feels end up being not very Lovecraftian or, frankly, very interesting. To me, anyway; I can see this appealing to fans of those 70s and 80s horrors with evil seed offspring or violent demons and evisceration. I'm afraid it reminded me of what a recent editor called "Lovecraft Bingo" rather than engaging innovatively with the Mythos. And it was too long. 2 I-was-bored stars
"Daoine Domhain" by Peter Tremayne combines Lovecraft's Deep Ones with Celtic Mythology in an epistolary story-within-a-story. It also captured the Lovecraftian feeling of inevitable doom; once the eldritch forces have touched your life the chances of saving yourself are slim and require determined action. 4 stars
To Mars and Providence [War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches] (1996) by Don Webb is a sort of mash-up with War of the Worlds, a juvenile Lovecraft the main character. Cute, although the best elements were mostly lifted directly from HPL or Wells. Also, I found it oddly forgettable, perhaps because it is written as a sort of fever-dream (like actual dreams, I tend to find this fictional approach striking while reading, but hard to retain.) 3 stars
Weird Tales (1984) by Fred Chappell. Lovecraft, Hart Crane, Samuel Loveman, Sterling Croydon, et al real personages feature in what at first seems like a fairly descriptive account of a milieu. Then it shifts into a story reminiscent of Lovecraft's From Beyond featuring Croydon as Tillinghast and Loveman as Unnamed Narrator. Then an account of Crane voyaging to Mexico by sea and killing himself on the way. I don't know how to rate this one because I don't know what Chappell was trying to do and I don't know enough detail of the lives of these poets to be sure which parts were fact and which made up. I tend to find using real people's alcohol problems, suicide, career failures etc in fiction disrespectful.
The Land of the Reflected Ones (1995) by Nancy A. Collins. We all know from Lovecraft that messing around with eldritch tomes such as the Necronomicon is a consistently bad idea. Apparently the badness manifests even faster if you steal the book. I also liked how Collins gently mocked Lovecraft's snobbiness about Old, Important Families. Less bragging about genealogy, more careful reading of your magic books, would-be sorcerers! 4 stars.
"The Shadow at the Bottom of the World" by Thomas Ligotti is a strange, increasingly creepy folk-horror short story about a black stalk, an unfillable hole, the inhabitants of a small town strangely influenced... By the end I found it effective horror, but I have to force myself to keep reading because I found the ponderous prose style unappealing. 3 stars
Harlan Ellison's "Sensible City" is almost inverse of Lovecraftian horror: people do the most horrible things, and sometimes there is retribution. (If the inescapable highway stop was a specific reference, I didn't get). 3.5 stars
Ian R. MacLeod's novella set in ancient Roman Imperial Egypt was highly original and I appreciated how he clearly did lots of research and thought hard about how to fit it into the Mythos. It's a slow build to horror, and I admit I got a little bored before the end, but I still thought it one of the stronger stories. 4 stars
Ron Goulart pens a sort of "mockumentary" biographic sketch of Lovecraft as be his secretary. High on quirk, low on equivalence. Not sure what the squirrels were about. 2 stars
Stephen King's "Crouch End" is quite creepy and scary, although there was something about the horror that felt distinctly non-Lovecraftian to me.
Typically Lupoff: Interesting concepts, wandering narration, no resolution. Needlessly long for something in which neither of the plot devices ends in any explanation. 3 stars
Paula Volsky's "Giant Rat of Sumatra" is a Sherlock Holmes + Necronomicon story (why are there so many of these?!). Decent homage, but points off for promising a giant rat and not delivering it.
3 stars.
"Black as the Pit, from Pole to Pole" (1977) by Howard Waldrop and Steven Utley is labelled "Frankenstein Universe" -- I'm not too familiar with these authors so I don't know if that's a larger project that this fits into. If so, it might be better for those who had read prior installments. I didn't find it bad, per se, but I felt... not engaged? And like the structure or pacing were off. 2.5 stars
"The Other Dead Man" (1988) by Gene Wolfe is a not very Lovecraftian sci-fi story about a power struggle on a space ship. The ending is [spoiler if you've read "The Outsider"] directly lifted from a Lovecraft story but in a way that felt almost like a joke? I'm not sure why this story was in this volume...
"The Events at Poroth Farm" (1972) by T. E. D. Klein was pretty Lovecraftian with it's backwards inbred rural people and New England intellectual protagonist researching in solitude and gradual perversion of nature. Although I don't think ailurophile HP would describe such nasty violence to cats on page -- even Ulthar is pretty indirect. I thought this was well done, although it dragged on rather too long. 4 stars, bumped up because it has the bonus of a reading list.
"The Ocean and All Its Devices" (1994) by William Browning Spencer was a creepy, sad story. It reminded me of all those old poems and songs where someone makes a deal with the devil et al supernatural to . I thought the choice of narrating through a bystander who becomes involved was a good technique for withholding information. The bits with the innkeeper'd daughter led me to expect some additional horror that never manifested, so I don't know what that was included for, but still 3.5 stars.
"A Bit of the Dark World" (1962) by Fritz Leiber is set in the rocky terrain of Southern California. [Personal aside: I've never understood why people, especially rich ones, wanted to live in inconveniently isolated locales where even getting groceries is hours of driving. What if you have a medical emergency or power outage or invasion by mysterious interdimensional beings?]
Very interesting concepts. 4 stars
There was a crack in [his] head and a little bit of the Dark World came through and pressed him to death. -- Kipling
"The Perseids" (1995) by Robert Charles Wilson. A divorced man meets a young woman while buying a telescope. She dares not look through telescopes. She is also involved with some Bohemian types who bs about philosophy while experimenting with drugs. No one is likable, and things end badly. Obviously, because things always end bad in Lovecraftland. Some interesting ideas.
Maybe our neighbors had already arrived, not in silver ships but in metaphysics, informing the very construction and representation of our lives... their intangible grammar--maybe this is the evidence they left us, a ruined archaeology of cognition, invisible because pervasive, inescapable: they are both here, in other words, and not here; they are us and not-us.
I'd read this one before, although I don't recall where. 3.5 stars
July 5, 2008
While browsing through the stacks of the local branch library, I stumbled upon this book. Between being a fan of the Lovecraft Mythos and wanting to read some short stories, I checked and out and began to read the book.
The introduction was an interesting analysis of Lovecraft's fight against time and the evolution of the story "The Shadow Out of Time." Turner takes aspects of Lovecraft's life and applies it to the evolution of his work. Insightful and an intriguing read.
I have broken down my review by short story, since each has its own flavor and stands well on their own. Together, they are a good representation of Lovecraftian fiction.
**There may be spoilers below. Beware**
I. Lovecraft Country
"Her Misbegotten Son" by Alan Rodgers - The story definitely has a Lovecraftian feel to it. Set in Arkham and telling the story of a boy since we has given to county services, the story meanders yet has a creepy feel to it. The antagonists are threatening, but in the end, they are ultimately thwarted. At a great expense, but the story is actually more up beat than I may expect from this vein.
"Daoine Domhain" by Peter Tremayne - Though this story is still set in New England, it also takes place in Ireland and gives it more of an isolated mystique to it. My favorite of the stories in the first section, the story is excellently told and helps display the inevitability of a Lovecraftian tale. Portents and legends have a life here you cannot stop.
"To Mars and Providence" by Don Webb - My least favorite of the first set, I was immediately set off by H.P. Lovecraft as the main character of this story. Described as an awkward boy with an unhinged aunt, he finds himself in the middle of a Martian invasion and empathizing with the Martians. He is believed to be one of them, and they try to restore him to his rightful form.
The story did not draw me in, and I did not feel particularly awed of horrified by it. They story did have an interesting twist, and it was just enough to pull me through the story. Do not despair and quit reading the book though. There is much more good stuff further on.
II. Eldritch Influences
"Weird Tales" by Fred Chappell - A mock biography of the visionary poet, Hart Crane, this story does involve H.P. Lovecraft as well. However, he is a peripheral character to help establish the possible reality of the story. Quirky and off, they story approaches the nature of space and time, and the characters are lead into oblivion. Nice piece.
"The Land of the Reflected Ones" by Nancy A. Collins - A common joke among Lovecraft's readers is it is safer not to read any of the books in his Mythos. In this story, the lesson is once again enforced when a greedy man seeking the power of a long forgotten book is trapped in what he desires. A good twist for the end.
"The Shadow at the Bottom of the World" by Thomas Ligotti - Though suspenseful, the story fell flat for me near the end. Set in a rural town, they find that something has invaded their town making the seasons go out of wack. They keep to themselves about it, and in the end, it ends with the death of the person that accepted it the easiest. The story is still unexplained and leaves you wondering they why of it (also why it ended as well). Not a bad story. Just not well concluded.
"Sensible City" by Harlan Ellison - How do I describe this story? You have two public officials who torture people, are tried for their crimes and go on the lamb. While they are running, they run into a town that moves about and devours people. Though creepy and definitely an appropriate fate for the characters, it is also very much out of left field for the setting (if not the for the book I was reading, it would more of a surprise). The characters are well done. They story well executed. The end just does not join as well with the beginning as I would have liked.
"The Golden Keeper" by Ian R. MacLeod - I was surprised to find a story set in Roman Egypt in this anthology, but the narration kept me engaged and drew me in. Lucius Fabius has inherited his family estate only discover that his family was severely in debt. He manages to have the Empire send him to Egypt where he hopes to find some relic to deal with the creditors he left in Rome. In the process, he discovers ancient mysteries that predate the Egyptians. Through the course of the story, he becomes much like his father - corrupted and nihilistic.
"Ralph Wollstonecraft Hedge: A Memoir" by Ron Goulart - A mock biography about a writer named Ralph Wollstonecraft Hedge, also referred to as RWH, I had the distinct feeling I was reading a parody biography of H.P. Lovecraft. It is definitely amusing and a nice change from the series notions of the other stories. Beware of the squirrels.
"Crouch End" by Stephen King- Now, I have never read any Stephen King. Yeah, I know kind of strange nowadays, but I never felt the compulsion. However, I was not disappointed with this story. I was drawn into the setting and the characters. He was able to evoke empathy with a variety of characters and make you feel that there was definitely something wrong.
"The Turret" by Richard A. Lupoff - I was immediately drawn in by this tale. The narrator is rather conversational, it is obvious that something is going on and is wrong with the area he is visiting. I was disappointed with the ending though. Yeah, it is common for characters to die at the end of these tales, but there were hooks left that left me wanting to know more about what was going on. Otherwise, the story was very engaging.
"The Giant Rat of Sumatra" by Paula Volsky - A Sherlock Holmes tale, Volsky does a good job at maintaining the feeling of Holmes' deductive style and Dr. Watson's narrative style. The story is left at a reasonable conclusion, and it maintains enough suspense to keep one guessing. It is a nice addition to the anthology.
"Black as the Pit, From Pole to Pole" by Steven Utley and Howard Waldrop -My usual tastes would have me dislike this story, but I found myself drawn into the it and following it closely throughout. Organized into ten parts, it starts each section citing incidents that are both fictional and real, blending the two together to make one hard to distinguish from the other. The second part follows the course of Frankenstein's monster after Victor Frankenstein dies. The piece combines facets of Lovecraft, Doyle and Verne into a seamless work. Well done!
"The Other Dead Man" by Gene Wolfe - This story takes place in deep space, providing a much more science fiction feel to the story, which makes me think of HAL in 2001. However, it follows through well and keeps the reader involved. The end has a good twist to it as well. Though not my favorite story, it is strong in its own right.
III. Cosmic Realms
"The Events at Poroth Farm" by T. E. D. Klein -The story does well to capture many of the usual conventions of Lovecraftian fiction. The main character is an academic who is trying to retire to the countryside for the summer to devote himself to his reading. Through the course of the summer, an other possesses first the cat and then his hosts. The story is disturbing at points and helps promote an atmosphere of suspense. Definitely a good read.
"The Ocean and All Its Devices" by William Browning Spencer - With a strong voice, the story tells of a hotel owner and the yearly visitations of the Franklins at their establishment. You are drawn into the story quickly, and you wonder what is up with the sea. The story examines how far you will go for those you love, and it does it rather well. A strong story all the way through.
"A Bit of the Dark World" by Fritz Leiber - Though not a bad story, the long dialogues did not hold my attention as well in this story. There was a lot of discussion about the nature of reality and perception. The end was not very satisfying either. Though I understand someone dying at the end, I wonder why everyone did not die.
"The Perseid" by Robert Charles Wilson - The story has a definite sense of Other to it, but I felt that the story diverged more from the Lovecraftian feel than the other stories. However, I am not saying it was a bad story. It is excellent wrought with well through out characters that develop with the story. The exploration of the theme is well done. It is an excellent story.
Overall, I would recommend the Eternal Lovecraft to anyone interested in reading stories about the strange and otherworldly entities. There are many excellent stories in this anthology. Well done!
The introduction was an interesting analysis of Lovecraft's fight against time and the evolution of the story "The Shadow Out of Time." Turner takes aspects of Lovecraft's life and applies it to the evolution of his work. Insightful and an intriguing read.
I have broken down my review by short story, since each has its own flavor and stands well on their own. Together, they are a good representation of Lovecraftian fiction.
**There may be spoilers below. Beware**
I. Lovecraft Country
"Her Misbegotten Son" by Alan Rodgers - The story definitely has a Lovecraftian feel to it. Set in Arkham and telling the story of a boy since we has given to county services, the story meanders yet has a creepy feel to it. The antagonists are threatening, but in the end, they are ultimately thwarted. At a great expense, but the story is actually more up beat than I may expect from this vein.
"Daoine Domhain" by Peter Tremayne - Though this story is still set in New England, it also takes place in Ireland and gives it more of an isolated mystique to it. My favorite of the stories in the first section, the story is excellently told and helps display the inevitability of a Lovecraftian tale. Portents and legends have a life here you cannot stop.
"To Mars and Providence" by Don Webb - My least favorite of the first set, I was immediately set off by H.P. Lovecraft as the main character of this story. Described as an awkward boy with an unhinged aunt, he finds himself in the middle of a Martian invasion and empathizing with the Martians. He is believed to be one of them, and they try to restore him to his rightful form.
The story did not draw me in, and I did not feel particularly awed of horrified by it. They story did have an interesting twist, and it was just enough to pull me through the story. Do not despair and quit reading the book though. There is much more good stuff further on.
II. Eldritch Influences
"Weird Tales" by Fred Chappell - A mock biography of the visionary poet, Hart Crane, this story does involve H.P. Lovecraft as well. However, he is a peripheral character to help establish the possible reality of the story. Quirky and off, they story approaches the nature of space and time, and the characters are lead into oblivion. Nice piece.
"The Land of the Reflected Ones" by Nancy A. Collins - A common joke among Lovecraft's readers is it is safer not to read any of the books in his Mythos. In this story, the lesson is once again enforced when a greedy man seeking the power of a long forgotten book is trapped in what he desires. A good twist for the end.
"The Shadow at the Bottom of the World" by Thomas Ligotti - Though suspenseful, the story fell flat for me near the end. Set in a rural town, they find that something has invaded their town making the seasons go out of wack. They keep to themselves about it, and in the end, it ends with the death of the person that accepted it the easiest. The story is still unexplained and leaves you wondering they why of it (also why it ended as well). Not a bad story. Just not well concluded.
"Sensible City" by Harlan Ellison - How do I describe this story? You have two public officials who torture people, are tried for their crimes and go on the lamb. While they are running, they run into a town that moves about and devours people. Though creepy and definitely an appropriate fate for the characters, it is also very much out of left field for the setting (if not the for the book I was reading, it would more of a surprise). The characters are well done. They story well executed. The end just does not join as well with the beginning as I would have liked.
"The Golden Keeper" by Ian R. MacLeod - I was surprised to find a story set in Roman Egypt in this anthology, but the narration kept me engaged and drew me in. Lucius Fabius has inherited his family estate only discover that his family was severely in debt. He manages to have the Empire send him to Egypt where he hopes to find some relic to deal with the creditors he left in Rome. In the process, he discovers ancient mysteries that predate the Egyptians. Through the course of the story, he becomes much like his father - corrupted and nihilistic.
"Ralph Wollstonecraft Hedge: A Memoir" by Ron Goulart - A mock biography about a writer named Ralph Wollstonecraft Hedge, also referred to as RWH, I had the distinct feeling I was reading a parody biography of H.P. Lovecraft. It is definitely amusing and a nice change from the series notions of the other stories. Beware of the squirrels.
"Crouch End" by Stephen King- Now, I have never read any Stephen King. Yeah, I know kind of strange nowadays, but I never felt the compulsion. However, I was not disappointed with this story. I was drawn into the setting and the characters. He was able to evoke empathy with a variety of characters and make you feel that there was definitely something wrong.
"The Turret" by Richard A. Lupoff - I was immediately drawn in by this tale. The narrator is rather conversational, it is obvious that something is going on and is wrong with the area he is visiting. I was disappointed with the ending though. Yeah, it is common for characters to die at the end of these tales, but there were hooks left that left me wanting to know more about what was going on. Otherwise, the story was very engaging.
"The Giant Rat of Sumatra" by Paula Volsky - A Sherlock Holmes tale, Volsky does a good job at maintaining the feeling of Holmes' deductive style and Dr. Watson's narrative style. The story is left at a reasonable conclusion, and it maintains enough suspense to keep one guessing. It is a nice addition to the anthology.
"Black as the Pit, From Pole to Pole" by Steven Utley and Howard Waldrop -My usual tastes would have me dislike this story, but I found myself drawn into the it and following it closely throughout. Organized into ten parts, it starts each section citing incidents that are both fictional and real, blending the two together to make one hard to distinguish from the other. The second part follows the course of Frankenstein's monster after Victor Frankenstein dies. The piece combines facets of Lovecraft, Doyle and Verne into a seamless work. Well done!
"The Other Dead Man" by Gene Wolfe - This story takes place in deep space, providing a much more science fiction feel to the story, which makes me think of HAL in 2001. However, it follows through well and keeps the reader involved. The end has a good twist to it as well. Though not my favorite story, it is strong in its own right.
III. Cosmic Realms
"The Events at Poroth Farm" by T. E. D. Klein -The story does well to capture many of the usual conventions of Lovecraftian fiction. The main character is an academic who is trying to retire to the countryside for the summer to devote himself to his reading. Through the course of the summer, an other possesses first the cat and then his hosts. The story is disturbing at points and helps promote an atmosphere of suspense. Definitely a good read.
"The Ocean and All Its Devices" by William Browning Spencer - With a strong voice, the story tells of a hotel owner and the yearly visitations of the Franklins at their establishment. You are drawn into the story quickly, and you wonder what is up with the sea. The story examines how far you will go for those you love, and it does it rather well. A strong story all the way through.
"A Bit of the Dark World" by Fritz Leiber - Though not a bad story, the long dialogues did not hold my attention as well in this story. There was a lot of discussion about the nature of reality and perception. The end was not very satisfying either. Though I understand someone dying at the end, I wonder why everyone did not die.
"The Perseid" by Robert Charles Wilson - The story has a definite sense of Other to it, but I felt that the story diverged more from the Lovecraftian feel than the other stories. However, I am not saying it was a bad story. It is excellent wrought with well through out characters that develop with the story. The exploration of the theme is well done. It is an excellent story.
Overall, I would recommend the Eternal Lovecraft to anyone interested in reading stories about the strange and otherworldly entities. There are many excellent stories in this anthology. Well done!
October 20, 2020
Probably could have been five stars except the lead-off story by Rogers was so terribly written that I gave it up after about 15 pages. Not quite sure what Jim Turner had in mind when he compiled this collection, because with some of the stories it's a big stretch to see any specific relationship to Lovecraft. But some of them -- the Leiber, the Klein, the Wolfe, the MacLeod -- are each worth the price of admission.
August 30, 2023
Another fine collection of stories edited by Jim Turner that I've had sitting on a shelf since it came out in 1998. Overall, one of the better Lovecraft-related anthologies I have -- the other two best being Turner's "Chtulhu 2000" and Robert Price's "The New Lovecraft Circle." These sit among multiple volumes edited by S.T. Joshi and many volumes of the Chaosium imprint. As far as "Eternal Lovecraft" goes, I admire the range of writers, sub-genres, the lack of slavishly imitative Lovecraftian pastiche in favor of hints and taints of weird horror. I was pleasantly surprised by the number of science fiction entries.
There are a few older stories dating back as far as 1959 and 1962, then a couple from the '70s, a couple from the '80s, and the rest from the '90s. The tone varies greatly, from the quirky weird humor of Don Webb and Ron Goulart (this last, from 1959, the least engaging in the anthology but still fun in a kind of MAD magazine sort of way). There are also several multi-part novellas here (Alan Rodgers' "Her Misbegotten Son" and Ian R. MacLeod's "The Golden Keeper"), both of which ran just a little long for me, but which were still great stories.
Turner smartly divides the book into three sections -- "Lovecraft Country" (stories set Lovecraft locales), "Eldritch Influences" (stories with some Lovecraft-related allusions), and "Cosmic Realms" (implicitly Lovecraftian). Because they were unlike the sorts of fiction I usually read, especially in a Lovecraft anthology, two stories that jumped out of the Lovecraftian world into other fictional universes really appealed to me. Paula Volsky's Sherlock Holmes story, a Lovecraft/Doyle mash-up ("The Giant Rat of Sumatra"), was quite fun, while the "savage sword of Frankenstein's man" aspect of the Hollow Earth story ("Black as the Pit, From Pole to Pole") was one of my favorites in the collection. It had some great meta-lit references, the portrayal of the monster was full of appealing pathos, and the settings were wonderful. I didn't want this story to end and may need to seek out more by its authors, Utley and Waldrop.
As usual for me, Thomas Ligotti freaks me out, this time with the dreadful and mysterious "The Shadow at the Bottom of the World." Ligotti's thick prose always takes me a minute to sync up to, but when I do, I find it hypnotic, vivid, hallucinatory, and he always hangs out more mysteries than he can or will wrap up, which really gets these stories working at a subconscious dream-layer. So much in this weird story feels subliminal, hard to recall exactly, but the rich atmospheric details and sharp visual moments really keep it in the mind. Thoroughly disturbing and wonderful. I have a Ligotti collection queued up for some October late night reading sessions.
The "Cosmic Realms" section probably appealed the most to me, and I was really struck here by how effectively Jim Turner sequences his stories. He does this throughout the book, but here in the final section, the flow of one story to the next really does something important, threading some rich themes between the stories. I loved the bookish narrator of T.E.D. Klein's "The Events at Poroth Farm," a slow burn of a creepy backwoods narrative, with loads of appreciated allusions to classics of Gothic horror.
Fritz Leiber's "A Bit of the Dark World" is my favorite in the collection, and I'm having to force myself not to go back and re-read certain sections right away (I'd prefer to wait so that they'll hit harder when I revisit this story later on). But suffice it to say that during one key moment that our narrator experiences is absolutely, devastatingly psychedelic (enough that I spent some time trying to find out if Leiber had taken LSD early in the 1960s. My search was inconclusive.). This was a brilliant tale of cosmic horror with stark psychological portraits of crises that ebbed and flowed without too much explanation. The tender moment our narrator and his lover held each other beneath the weight of cosmic dread was one of the most beautiful events I've encountered in any Lovecraft-related anthology.
The final story, Robert Charles Wilson's "The Perseids" was another favorite, and I loved its feeling of "Mondo 2000"-era counterculture (descriptions of Goths with nipple-piercings, for instance, and using multiple TV sets to channel ghosts from the gnososphere!) creeping in to blow the mind of our protagonist, who really just wants a good look at the night sky. This story ends on a note of discord, a dissatisfying lack of resolution and yet an ending all the same, that just feels perfect.
The closing coda of a poem to entropy left me heavy-hearted, as did these last two stories.
I'll be hanging onto this anthology and revisiting several of the stories again. Highly recommended.
There are a few older stories dating back as far as 1959 and 1962, then a couple from the '70s, a couple from the '80s, and the rest from the '90s. The tone varies greatly, from the quirky weird humor of Don Webb and Ron Goulart (this last, from 1959, the least engaging in the anthology but still fun in a kind of MAD magazine sort of way). There are also several multi-part novellas here (Alan Rodgers' "Her Misbegotten Son" and Ian R. MacLeod's "The Golden Keeper"), both of which ran just a little long for me, but which were still great stories.
Turner smartly divides the book into three sections -- "Lovecraft Country" (stories set Lovecraft locales), "Eldritch Influences" (stories with some Lovecraft-related allusions), and "Cosmic Realms" (implicitly Lovecraftian). Because they were unlike the sorts of fiction I usually read, especially in a Lovecraft anthology, two stories that jumped out of the Lovecraftian world into other fictional universes really appealed to me. Paula Volsky's Sherlock Holmes story, a Lovecraft/Doyle mash-up ("The Giant Rat of Sumatra"), was quite fun, while the "savage sword of Frankenstein's man" aspect of the Hollow Earth story ("Black as the Pit, From Pole to Pole") was one of my favorites in the collection. It had some great meta-lit references, the portrayal of the monster was full of appealing pathos, and the settings were wonderful. I didn't want this story to end and may need to seek out more by its authors, Utley and Waldrop.
As usual for me, Thomas Ligotti freaks me out, this time with the dreadful and mysterious "The Shadow at the Bottom of the World." Ligotti's thick prose always takes me a minute to sync up to, but when I do, I find it hypnotic, vivid, hallucinatory, and he always hangs out more mysteries than he can or will wrap up, which really gets these stories working at a subconscious dream-layer. So much in this weird story feels subliminal, hard to recall exactly, but the rich atmospheric details and sharp visual moments really keep it in the mind. Thoroughly disturbing and wonderful. I have a Ligotti collection queued up for some October late night reading sessions.
The "Cosmic Realms" section probably appealed the most to me, and I was really struck here by how effectively Jim Turner sequences his stories. He does this throughout the book, but here in the final section, the flow of one story to the next really does something important, threading some rich themes between the stories. I loved the bookish narrator of T.E.D. Klein's "The Events at Poroth Farm," a slow burn of a creepy backwoods narrative, with loads of appreciated allusions to classics of Gothic horror.
Fritz Leiber's "A Bit of the Dark World" is my favorite in the collection, and I'm having to force myself not to go back and re-read certain sections right away (I'd prefer to wait so that they'll hit harder when I revisit this story later on). But suffice it to say that during one key moment that our narrator experiences is absolutely, devastatingly psychedelic (enough that I spent some time trying to find out if Leiber had taken LSD early in the 1960s. My search was inconclusive.). This was a brilliant tale of cosmic horror with stark psychological portraits of crises that ebbed and flowed without too much explanation. The tender moment our narrator and his lover held each other beneath the weight of cosmic dread was one of the most beautiful events I've encountered in any Lovecraft-related anthology.
The final story, Robert Charles Wilson's "The Perseids" was another favorite, and I loved its feeling of "Mondo 2000"-era counterculture (descriptions of Goths with nipple-piercings, for instance, and using multiple TV sets to channel ghosts from the gnososphere!) creeping in to blow the mind of our protagonist, who really just wants a good look at the night sky. This story ends on a note of discord, a dissatisfying lack of resolution and yet an ending all the same, that just feels perfect.
The closing coda of a poem to entropy left me heavy-hearted, as did these last two stories.
I'll be hanging onto this anthology and revisiting several of the stories again. Highly recommended.
June 14, 2013
While I was at a meeting in St. Louis I came across this collection by Golden Gryphon Press. Publication date was 1998. It was expensive but very reasonable for high quality hardcover.
First, the production values are high quality with a nice hardcover binding. The dust jacket has a wonderful painting by Nicholas Jainschigg, that depicts a glowing eye stranger walking away as some entity, perhaps Yog Sothoth, enters our dimension in the clouds. It is perhaps a little flimsy, already getting a few small tears in the edges, but then I was carrying it everywhere. The interior has some photographs of HPL. I hadn't seen them before, but maybe they are famous ones.
The editor was Jim Turner, the late former editor for Arkham House. At any rate, his introduction is a nice scholarly essay mainly about The Shadow Out of Time. At the end he describes the 3 sections he divided the stories into, ones in HPL settings or where HPL appears, ones where there is a more or less overt influence by Lovecraft, and ones that may imply a Lovecraftian cosmic view. The last is similar to the more recent excellent anthology Horrors Beyond. Yeah yeah (I thought as I was reading) let's get to the stories. This was a compilation of previously published stories, and as such there is overlap with other anthologies (grumble). By and large, Mr. Turner selected very high quality stories and I am sorry to write that this was his last Lovecraftian collection.
On to the contents, is alphabetical order, not necessarily as they appear in the book:
***There may be some spoilers below***
Weird Tales by Fred Chappell: Actually a subsubgenre I find incredibly tedious is one where HPL makes an appearance. It does less for me even than stories where the characters talk about HPL's works that supposedly depict fiction. At any rate, this one did not do much for me.
The Land of the Reflected Ones by Nancy A. Collins: I could swear I had read this before but I don't know where. Not to worry, it is a finely crafted and creepy story about the dangers involved in casting spells from a musty tome when you don't really know what you are doing. Very enjoyable and made me wish Ms. Collins has written more mythos stuff for me to discover.
Sensible City by Harlan Ellison: Nice, creepy, ghoulish, but no definite Lovecraftian allusions that I can recall. Nonetheless it reads well and does not sit out of place in such a collection.
Ralph Wollstonecraft Hedge: A Memoir by Ron Goulart: Lame attempt at humor. A low point.
Crouch End by Stephen King: Whatever anyone says, Mr. King deserves his accolades. This is a terrific tale, moody, atmospheric, tensions mounting beautifully and plain scary. It concerns a couple who wander into a neighborhood in London that ends up being very far away from where they thought they were going. A masterpiece.
The Events at Poroth Farm by T. E. D. Klein: This is only the second story by TED Klein that I have read. You can argue whether it is truly mythos or not, with no overt appearance by any of our familiar entities/creatures, but you cannot argue that it is another finely wrought story. Very creepy and tense. A professor whiles away a summer in a small farmstead and encounters an unnatural and unwelcome visitor. Eventually Mr. Klein expanded this story into a novel, The Ceremonies.
A Bit of the Dark World by Fritz Leiber: This did not have specific Lovecraftian connotations, but it did have an appropriately Lovecraftian feel, as the darkness becomes an entity, or conceals one, in an isolated California house in the mountains. Like some others in the book, it did not feel out of place in a mythos collection, although it could have been included in a general science fiction or modern horror collection. It was nice to read a story by Leiber, who was a true artist.
The Shadow at the Bottom of the World by Thomas Ligotti: Creepy and effective, not overtly Lovecraftian by name, but certainly not out of place. I guess on several of these stories you could say they felt like a mythos/Lovecraft indebted story while not making outright mention of mythos specific trappings. I was glad to read it.
The Turret by Richard A. Lupoff: Hmph! I already have Made in Goatswood! I guess all editors should consult me to see if their contents will overlap my library! Anyway, an excellent Severn Valley story.
The Golden Keeper by Ian R. MacLeod: This was quite a find. A very good mythos novella set in the 3rd century AD, as a Roman official looks for golden treasure in a remote part of Egypt. Does he find riches? You decide...
Her Misbegotten Son by Alan Rodgers: Double hmph!! I have the collection Miskatonic University, although I haven't read it yet. This story is well written and has some very creepy moments. However the ending was atypically (for goings on at Arkham) happy, and one does not normally expect Nyarlathotep to be banished by holy water.
The Ocean and all Its Devices by William Browning Spencer: A very mood moody story of the sea and some of its less pleasant inhabitants.
Daoine Domhain by Peter Tremayne: Triple hmph!!! This story is in Shadows Over Innsmouth. Moving on, this story is a highly polished jewel, an absolutely wonderful story of the Deep Ones. The writing is very moody, setting the atmosphere beautifully. I loved it. I hope Mr. Tremayne has written, or plans to write more mythos.
Black as the Pit, from Pole to Pole by Steven Utley and Howard Waldrop: It is a well written story about Frankenstein's monster finding worlds inside the earth, following the events in Mary Shelley's classic novel. The only reason it belongs in a Lovecraft collection is because of his encounter with The Great Race. The story didn't interest me too much, although it was well done.
The Giant Rat of Sumatra by Paula Volsky: Sherlock Holmes meets the mythos. The story was a fair read, put in the shade by the many high quality stories included. I haven't yet read Shadows Over Baker Street so I don't know if this story is in there.
To Mars and Providence by Don Webb: Like I said, I don't care for stories where HPL is a protagonist.
The Perseids by Robert Charles Wilson: You can argue whether this belongs in a LOvecraftian collection. It was well written and had some creepy overtones, but could easily have been left out.
The Other Dead Man by Gene Wolfe: Science fiction horror that easily fits into a Lovecraft collection and easily can be excluded, like Leiber's story. Wolfe is a great writer so it's a fun read, but there are no specific mythos references.
So my final thought is that there are some magnificent mythos stories here, ones that I was previously unfamiliar with. Based on this I highly recommend Eternal Lovecraft. The overlap with other collections is minimal. A fair number of stories had appropriate feel, even without specific overtones, and a number could have been left out. There were only a few dogs, always a risk with a mythos collection.
I am happy to have it in my library.
First, the production values are high quality with a nice hardcover binding. The dust jacket has a wonderful painting by Nicholas Jainschigg, that depicts a glowing eye stranger walking away as some entity, perhaps Yog Sothoth, enters our dimension in the clouds. It is perhaps a little flimsy, already getting a few small tears in the edges, but then I was carrying it everywhere. The interior has some photographs of HPL. I hadn't seen them before, but maybe they are famous ones.
The editor was Jim Turner, the late former editor for Arkham House. At any rate, his introduction is a nice scholarly essay mainly about The Shadow Out of Time. At the end he describes the 3 sections he divided the stories into, ones in HPL settings or where HPL appears, ones where there is a more or less overt influence by Lovecraft, and ones that may imply a Lovecraftian cosmic view. The last is similar to the more recent excellent anthology Horrors Beyond. Yeah yeah (I thought as I was reading) let's get to the stories. This was a compilation of previously published stories, and as such there is overlap with other anthologies (grumble). By and large, Mr. Turner selected very high quality stories and I am sorry to write that this was his last Lovecraftian collection.
On to the contents, is alphabetical order, not necessarily as they appear in the book:
***There may be some spoilers below***
Weird Tales by Fred Chappell: Actually a subsubgenre I find incredibly tedious is one where HPL makes an appearance. It does less for me even than stories where the characters talk about HPL's works that supposedly depict fiction. At any rate, this one did not do much for me.
The Land of the Reflected Ones by Nancy A. Collins: I could swear I had read this before but I don't know where. Not to worry, it is a finely crafted and creepy story about the dangers involved in casting spells from a musty tome when you don't really know what you are doing. Very enjoyable and made me wish Ms. Collins has written more mythos stuff for me to discover.
Sensible City by Harlan Ellison: Nice, creepy, ghoulish, but no definite Lovecraftian allusions that I can recall. Nonetheless it reads well and does not sit out of place in such a collection.
Ralph Wollstonecraft Hedge: A Memoir by Ron Goulart: Lame attempt at humor. A low point.
Crouch End by Stephen King: Whatever anyone says, Mr. King deserves his accolades. This is a terrific tale, moody, atmospheric, tensions mounting beautifully and plain scary. It concerns a couple who wander into a neighborhood in London that ends up being very far away from where they thought they were going. A masterpiece.
The Events at Poroth Farm by T. E. D. Klein: This is only the second story by TED Klein that I have read. You can argue whether it is truly mythos or not, with no overt appearance by any of our familiar entities/creatures, but you cannot argue that it is another finely wrought story. Very creepy and tense. A professor whiles away a summer in a small farmstead and encounters an unnatural and unwelcome visitor. Eventually Mr. Klein expanded this story into a novel, The Ceremonies.
A Bit of the Dark World by Fritz Leiber: This did not have specific Lovecraftian connotations, but it did have an appropriately Lovecraftian feel, as the darkness becomes an entity, or conceals one, in an isolated California house in the mountains. Like some others in the book, it did not feel out of place in a mythos collection, although it could have been included in a general science fiction or modern horror collection. It was nice to read a story by Leiber, who was a true artist.
The Shadow at the Bottom of the World by Thomas Ligotti: Creepy and effective, not overtly Lovecraftian by name, but certainly not out of place. I guess on several of these stories you could say they felt like a mythos/Lovecraft indebted story while not making outright mention of mythos specific trappings. I was glad to read it.
The Turret by Richard A. Lupoff: Hmph! I already have Made in Goatswood! I guess all editors should consult me to see if their contents will overlap my library! Anyway, an excellent Severn Valley story.
The Golden Keeper by Ian R. MacLeod: This was quite a find. A very good mythos novella set in the 3rd century AD, as a Roman official looks for golden treasure in a remote part of Egypt. Does he find riches? You decide...
Her Misbegotten Son by Alan Rodgers: Double hmph!! I have the collection Miskatonic University, although I haven't read it yet. This story is well written and has some very creepy moments. However the ending was atypically (for goings on at Arkham) happy, and one does not normally expect Nyarlathotep to be banished by holy water.
The Ocean and all Its Devices by William Browning Spencer: A very mood moody story of the sea and some of its less pleasant inhabitants.
Daoine Domhain by Peter Tremayne: Triple hmph!!! This story is in Shadows Over Innsmouth. Moving on, this story is a highly polished jewel, an absolutely wonderful story of the Deep Ones. The writing is very moody, setting the atmosphere beautifully. I loved it. I hope Mr. Tremayne has written, or plans to write more mythos.
Black as the Pit, from Pole to Pole by Steven Utley and Howard Waldrop: It is a well written story about Frankenstein's monster finding worlds inside the earth, following the events in Mary Shelley's classic novel. The only reason it belongs in a Lovecraft collection is because of his encounter with The Great Race. The story didn't interest me too much, although it was well done.
The Giant Rat of Sumatra by Paula Volsky: Sherlock Holmes meets the mythos. The story was a fair read, put in the shade by the many high quality stories included. I haven't yet read Shadows Over Baker Street so I don't know if this story is in there.
To Mars and Providence by Don Webb: Like I said, I don't care for stories where HPL is a protagonist.
The Perseids by Robert Charles Wilson: You can argue whether this belongs in a LOvecraftian collection. It was well written and had some creepy overtones, but could easily have been left out.
The Other Dead Man by Gene Wolfe: Science fiction horror that easily fits into a Lovecraft collection and easily can be excluded, like Leiber's story. Wolfe is a great writer so it's a fun read, but there are no specific mythos references.
So my final thought is that there are some magnificent mythos stories here, ones that I was previously unfamiliar with. Based on this I highly recommend Eternal Lovecraft. The overlap with other collections is minimal. A fair number of stories had appropriate feel, even without specific overtones, and a number could have been left out. There were only a few dogs, always a risk with a mythos collection.
I am happy to have it in my library.
April 25, 2020
In his introduction – or at least the part of the introduction that actually introduces the book rather than musing pointlessly about “The Shadow Out of Time” – Jim Turner indicates that this will be the last time he helms an anthology of Lovecraftiana. I hope he keeps his promise. In the anthologies he edits – notably the Cthulhu 2000 anthology for Arkham House, though the trend clearly continues here – Turner makes it abundantly clear that he appreciates H.P. Lovecraft almost exclusively for his science fiction elements. The scorn he heaps on pastiches and homages to other aspects of Lovecraft’s work is more than evident in his deliberate selection of stories that at best deliberately mock the standard “Yog Sothery” and at worst serve as earnest but exceptionally poor examples thereof. This bias may be particularly keenly noted in the second section of this tome, which features all too many awkward combinations of Lovecraftian themes with more widely-known cultural clichés – ranging from Sherlock Holmes to Frankenstein’s monster – that go together with a distinct you-got-peanut-butter-in-my-chocolate flavor. Thus the only part of the book where Turner may be taken in earnest is in the final four stories. And even here I have to wonder if I would have liked “The Perseids” a little less if I wasn’t an astronomy buff or enjoyed “The Events at Poroth Farm” a bit more if T.E.D. Klein as an author didn’t always seem to find a way to get on my last damn nerve (though to be fair he's a gifted editor). Though fans will be entertained by at least some of the HPL-influenced work included herein, this isn’t exactly a must-have volume for collectors of the sub-genre.
October 22, 2024
Eternal Lovecraft.
The Persistance of HPL in populair culture.
That persistance is undeniable. Games, tv shows, movies, other books, Lovecraft build a amazing world to play in and i love most lovecraftian style books. I found this one last year and i finally got to it. Just a story now and then. At first i thought it was a non Fiction book about Lovecraft himself, but that was just the introduction, its short stories from all kinds of writers all lovecraftian in a way. The book has three different parts. Lovecraft Country, Eldritch influences, and Cosmic Realms, all different styles of Lovecraft. Short story collections are hard to rate in my opinion, some are to short, weird or end abrupt. There are also really good ones, but how to rate if there are a couple lesser stories. This book starts with one of the very best stories in the collection. Her Misbegotten Son writen by Alan Rodgers is fantastic, there are stories from Nancy A. Collins from which i have read a brilliant underrated run on Swamp Thing, Gene Wolfe, Harlan Ellison and one of the very best Stephen King shorts, Crouch end. This was a great collection, although some stories did nothing for me, but still nice to have another Lovecraftian book under the belt.
The Persistance of HPL in populair culture.
That persistance is undeniable. Games, tv shows, movies, other books, Lovecraft build a amazing world to play in and i love most lovecraftian style books. I found this one last year and i finally got to it. Just a story now and then. At first i thought it was a non Fiction book about Lovecraft himself, but that was just the introduction, its short stories from all kinds of writers all lovecraftian in a way. The book has three different parts. Lovecraft Country, Eldritch influences, and Cosmic Realms, all different styles of Lovecraft. Short story collections are hard to rate in my opinion, some are to short, weird or end abrupt. There are also really good ones, but how to rate if there are a couple lesser stories. This book starts with one of the very best stories in the collection. Her Misbegotten Son writen by Alan Rodgers is fantastic, there are stories from Nancy A. Collins from which i have read a brilliant underrated run on Swamp Thing, Gene Wolfe, Harlan Ellison and one of the very best Stephen King shorts, Crouch end. This was a great collection, although some stories did nothing for me, but still nice to have another Lovecraftian book under the belt.
May 27, 2020
I'm setting this at one star because I have only read the intro and the first story. If I get around to reading more, I'll add to this review.
The introduction sets forth some of Lovecraft's own principles of story-telling and raises The Shadow Out of Time as the paradigmatic example of such principles.
But the first story ("Her Misbegotten Son", by Alan Rodgers) utterly violates those principles. It is wretched and pulpy, with guns blazing and blood spraying everywhere. Oh, and we've got some Holy Water in the mix! I can't fathom what motivated the editor to include this nearly comical (and arguably disrespectful) rip-off of Lovecraftian tropes. It's especially puzzling, because this is the first entry, which should set the tone for what's to come.
The introduction sets forth some of Lovecraft's own principles of story-telling and raises The Shadow Out of Time as the paradigmatic example of such principles.
But the first story ("Her Misbegotten Son", by Alan Rodgers) utterly violates those principles. It is wretched and pulpy, with guns blazing and blood spraying everywhere. Oh, and we've got some Holy Water in the mix! I can't fathom what motivated the editor to include this nearly comical (and arguably disrespectful) rip-off of Lovecraftian tropes. It's especially puzzling, because this is the first entry, which should set the tone for what's to come.
November 3, 2020
Some good stories, but mostly bad ones...
honestly, it just feels sort of uninspired and muted. It’s a shame, I really want to like this, but it’s hard to get into.
It’s a weird format for a book too as it seems it’s not sure what it is...
honestly, it just feels sort of uninspired and muted. It’s a shame, I really want to like this, but it’s hard to get into.
It’s a weird format for a book too as it seems it’s not sure what it is...
September 18, 2019
There are better things to read. Even Lovecraft fans will find some of these stories a waste of time.
April 30, 2014
After awhile, you learn the shape and taste of these collections, you wear the scars of them, you tell war stories about the nadirs and peaks of them, these "nearly the kitchen-sink" style anthologies of tales Lovecraftian, quasi-Weird, and sometimes only a bit odd. The relative twist in this tale being that Eternal Lovecraft comes from the late-90s, now halcyon days when a smattering of devotees on alt.horror.cthulhu could actually keep up with all such collections, and being, as it were, of a different time, it offers some strange insights into what might be called Lovecraftian-then, versus the Lovecraftian-now.
I read this collection in the wrong order, by which I mean that I read the stories I knew to be good, first, and then the rest after, and, gentle reader, one should not do this. Jim Turner, also of Cthulhu 2000 fame, has chosen the wise path of padding the poor with the delightful, which I spoiled in my non-euclidean ways. Apologies to him, and apologies to me because it meant I had to slog through the latter half of the book, which was a mix of the former half and sundry between.
First, though, the great. Alan Rodgers (recently passed) has "Her Misbegotten Son", something like an 80s over-the-top action movie sequel to "Dreams in the Witchhouse". You can just feel the Stan Winston effects. Thomas Ligotti's "The Shadow at the Bottom of the World" is a well-mooded piece that is available, used, here cheaper than probably anywhere else (even cheaper than the ebook). Ron Goulart's "Ralph Wollstonecraft Hedge: A Memoir" is silly in a way I appreciated while Robert Charles Wilson's "The Perseids" has an intriguing philosophy. Perhaps the two shining highlights of the book are T.E.D. Klein's "The Events of Poroth Farm" and Fritz Leiber's "A Bit of the Dark World", both snuggled into the last quarter of the book.
On the next notch down you have Stephen King's "Crouch End", Nancy A. Collins' "The Land of the Reflected Ones", and William Browning Spencer's "The Ocean and All Its Devices". And then the rest. From a-little-too-pastiche to passionless to a bit weirdly structured—Harlan Ellison's "Sensible City" feels like a teleologically driven rush to a dream-like sequence while Gene Wolfe's "The Other Dead Man" has language prone to weird starts and stops and struggles to hit a rhythm—and sometimes all three. Not all is crap, less than half is actually, truly poor, but many left me cold.
I am a little confused by the absence of Ramsey Campbell in a book that includes Stephen King's "Crouch End" (despite the Lovecraft name-drops, a perfectly Campbellian pastiche) and a story from a collection of Campbell inspired stories. I am also confused, and maybe more so, that a book trying to demonstrate the "persistence of HPL in popular culture" did not swing a bit wider in scope. Many of the included are in the auspice of the "post-Lovecraftian". I suppose it might have wrecked what structured mood there is to have tried wider, but perhaps a missed opportunity.
I read this collection in the wrong order, by which I mean that I read the stories I knew to be good, first, and then the rest after, and, gentle reader, one should not do this. Jim Turner, also of Cthulhu 2000 fame, has chosen the wise path of padding the poor with the delightful, which I spoiled in my non-euclidean ways. Apologies to him, and apologies to me because it meant I had to slog through the latter half of the book, which was a mix of the former half and sundry between.
First, though, the great. Alan Rodgers (recently passed) has "Her Misbegotten Son", something like an 80s over-the-top action movie sequel to "Dreams in the Witchhouse". You can just feel the Stan Winston effects. Thomas Ligotti's "The Shadow at the Bottom of the World" is a well-mooded piece that is available, used, here cheaper than probably anywhere else (even cheaper than the ebook). Ron Goulart's "Ralph Wollstonecraft Hedge: A Memoir" is silly in a way I appreciated while Robert Charles Wilson's "The Perseids" has an intriguing philosophy. Perhaps the two shining highlights of the book are T.E.D. Klein's "The Events of Poroth Farm" and Fritz Leiber's "A Bit of the Dark World", both snuggled into the last quarter of the book.
On the next notch down you have Stephen King's "Crouch End", Nancy A. Collins' "The Land of the Reflected Ones", and William Browning Spencer's "The Ocean and All Its Devices". And then the rest. From a-little-too-pastiche to passionless to a bit weirdly structured—Harlan Ellison's "Sensible City" feels like a teleologically driven rush to a dream-like sequence while Gene Wolfe's "The Other Dead Man" has language prone to weird starts and stops and struggles to hit a rhythm—and sometimes all three. Not all is crap, less than half is actually, truly poor, but many left me cold.
I am a little confused by the absence of Ramsey Campbell in a book that includes Stephen King's "Crouch End" (despite the Lovecraft name-drops, a perfectly Campbellian pastiche) and a story from a collection of Campbell inspired stories. I am also confused, and maybe more so, that a book trying to demonstrate the "persistence of HPL in popular culture" did not swing a bit wider in scope. Many of the included are in the auspice of the "post-Lovecraftian". I suppose it might have wrecked what structured mood there is to have tried wider, but perhaps a missed opportunity.
August 5, 2016
Interesting anthology of Lovecraft-derived and Lovecraft-inspired works. The book is divided into three sections:
1) "Lovecraft Country" includes stories most strongly connected to Lovecraft or his mythos, featuring "Her Misbegotten Son," a rather good sort-of-sequel to Lovecraft's "Dreams in the Witch-House"; "Daoine Domhain," an excellent story also available in Shadows Over Innsmouth; and "To Mars and Providence," an interesting Lovecraftian take on the War of the Worlds originally in War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches.
2) "Eldritch Influences" is the largest section of the book, including stories that allude to rather than feature the Cthulhu Mythos- the stories in this section are mainly reprints, yet some of my personal favorites, including "The Land of the Reflected Ones" by Nancy A. Collins, the nightmarish "Crouch End" by Stephen King, the cosmic "The Turret" by Richard Lupoff, "The Giant Rat of Sumatra" (a Sherlock Holmes story with Mythos aspects) by Paula Volsky, and "Black as the Pit, from Pole to Pole" featuring a certain Mrs. Shelley's famous monster.
3) The last section, "Cosmic Realms," contains stories only thematically related to Lovecraft's concepts of cosmic horror; I particularly enjoyed the creepy "Events at Poroth Farm" by T.E.D. Klein and the intriguing "A Bit of the Dark World" by Fritz Leiber.
Those I have mentioned above are my favorites, but I can say I liked every story in this anthology to some degree. Wold-Newton fans may get a kick out of "To Mars," "Giant Rat" and "Black as the Pit," Mythos fans should enjoy most of the other stories, and anyone with a taste for fine horror should find this a good read.
1) "Lovecraft Country" includes stories most strongly connected to Lovecraft or his mythos, featuring "Her Misbegotten Son," a rather good sort-of-sequel to Lovecraft's "Dreams in the Witch-House"; "Daoine Domhain," an excellent story also available in Shadows Over Innsmouth; and "To Mars and Providence," an interesting Lovecraftian take on the War of the Worlds originally in War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches.
2) "Eldritch Influences" is the largest section of the book, including stories that allude to rather than feature the Cthulhu Mythos- the stories in this section are mainly reprints, yet some of my personal favorites, including "The Land of the Reflected Ones" by Nancy A. Collins, the nightmarish "Crouch End" by Stephen King, the cosmic "The Turret" by Richard Lupoff, "The Giant Rat of Sumatra" (a Sherlock Holmes story with Mythos aspects) by Paula Volsky, and "Black as the Pit, from Pole to Pole" featuring a certain Mrs. Shelley's famous monster.
3) The last section, "Cosmic Realms," contains stories only thematically related to Lovecraft's concepts of cosmic horror; I particularly enjoyed the creepy "Events at Poroth Farm" by T.E.D. Klein and the intriguing "A Bit of the Dark World" by Fritz Leiber.
Those I have mentioned above are my favorites, but I can say I liked every story in this anthology to some degree. Wold-Newton fans may get a kick out of "To Mars," "Giant Rat" and "Black as the Pit," Mythos fans should enjoy most of the other stories, and anyone with a taste for fine horror should find this a good read.
March 24, 2012
Lukewarm at best-- only a couple of stories actually worth reading, poor editing, and a random essay on one of Lovecraft's stories in place of an introduction. The worthwhile pieces in this can be found in other, better collections. Skip this one.
February 11, 2012
A great anthology. Not all of these are particularly Lovecraftian, but they are all good. Also, most of them are not ideal for reading just before bed.
January 8, 2021
Stellar collection proves Lovecraft influence over horror writers in 20th century. Eldritch horrors shamble onwards!
March 2, 2016
Subtler than most of these collections.
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