Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos: Stories

by H.P. Lovecraft

Book Overview

"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown." --H. P. LOVECRAFT, "Supernatural Horror in Literature" Howard Phillips Lovecraft forever changed the face of horror, fantasy, and science fiction with a remarkable series of stories as influential as the works of Poe, Tolkien, and Edgar Rice Burroughs. His chilling mythology established a gateway between the known universe and an...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 034542204X
• ISBN13: 9780345422040
• Release Date: September 1998
• Publisher: Random House Worlds
• Length: 480 Pages
• Weight: 0.87 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.4" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Surprisingly Strong Additions to the Cthulhu Mythos

The weakest of the lot here are two by Brian Lumley: "The Sister City" and "Cement Surroundings". As usual, one part of your mind, while reading, is noting which Lovecraft stories and ideas Lumley is recombining this time -- and he believes in reusing all of Lovecraft. Yes, these are pale imitations of his model and provide only a tiny bit of Lovecraft's cosmic paranoia, but they're still more engaging than August Derleth's work. Plotwise, the teenaged Robert Bloch's 1934 effort, "The Shambler from the Stars", doesn't have much to offer. However, there is the fun of a thinly disguised Lovecraft who meets a grisly end. The master returned the favor with his last story, "The Haunter of the Dark", which has one Robert Blake meeting a horrible end after uncovering a fearsome alien artifact in a Providence church. Bloch's 1951 story "The Shadow from the Steeple" completes the trilogy and shows how much Bloch developed as a writer in those 17 years. There's no imitation of Lovecraft's style here, but Lovecraft and his characters from "The Haunter of the Dark" show up and Cthulhuian horrors are effectively moved to the atomic age. Bloch also makes nice use of Lovecraft's poem "Nyarlathotep". Another Bloch work, "Notebook Found in a Deserted House", uses an old Lovecraftian standby -- a journal desperately documenting horrors closing in on its writer. But here the narrator is a type Lovecraft never used: a twelve year old boy telling us about the monsters in the woods around his aunt and uncle's farm. J. Ramsey Campbell aka Ramsey Campbell started out with Lovecraft pastiches set in England, but the style of his "Cold Print" isn't Lovecraftian nor is its unseemly, vague linking of sexual taboos with Cthulhu entities. Here a teacher is lead to a mysterious London bookstore where something a mite stronger than the bondage and discipline porn is offered. James Wade's "The Deep Ones" brings Lovecraft into the sixties with a John Lily-like researcher studying some decidely sinister dolphins, a Timothy Leary-like professor warning against it, and a telepath with some family ties to Innsmouth. It's quite good. Surprsingly an even better story is Colin Wilson's "The Return of the Lloigor". Surprising because Wilson's earlier attempt at writing a Mythos story, _The Mind Parasites_, was so bad. Wilson uses his erudition to create a plot melange of Welsh crime, Mu, Arthur Machen, H. P. Lovecraft, the Voynich Manuscript, the Kabbala, Aleister Crowley, and Charles Fort. Mixed in is some delightfully absurd metaphysics about the sinister and congenitally pessimistic Lloigor. This clever story may use some of the themes and furniture from Lovecraft and his work, but it's no accident that the hero is a Poe scholar because the tone is that of the latter author in his hoaxer mode.

The Stars Are Right

This is my favorite of the Lovecraft anthologies. I enjoyed the interaction between the stories of Bloch, Lovecraft, and Leiber. It is great to see how writers have bloomed stories from the works of previous authors. With Stephen King adding a story to the mix, this book is a must for Lovecraft fans.

Every horror fan should read this book

One of my best friends is a huge Steven King fan. I loaned him this book and he returned it the next day, he said he couldnt read it because it gave him the creeps. I greatly enjoy Lovecrafts writing and stories in the Cthulu Mythos are by far my favorite. Lovecraft and the "Lovecraft circle" of writers blur the lines between the fictional world and the readers real world better than anyone else. These stories are wonderfully writen and truely entrancing.

Sharing the Wealth

This is an excellent update of this volume (I have the 70s Ballantine 2-volume edition), and is recommended to fans of horror in general and of the Cthulhu Mythos in particular. Most of the stories contained herein would be familiar to even a casual HPL fan, though there are surprises like Joanna Russ' fine tale from the pages of F & SF, a Philip Jose Farmer tale, and Lupoff's sf reinvention. There isn't a clinker in the bunch! My personal favorite is Cold Print, but you can't go wrong with any one of these stories, in a variety of styles and settings neatly encompassing the range of the Mythos. A great book to introduce to those who aren't familiar with this unique shared universe.

Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos

This is the BEST book i have EVER read! If you love sci-fi/horror books, you'll LOVE it. When i read this book i couldn't put it down! THIS IS A MUST READ FOR EVERYONE!