I have two that stick in my head.

Dagon's Bell, by Brian Lumley, which appears in the anthology Beneath the Moors and Darker Places. A good Deeps Ones story that expands on The Shadow over Innsmouth without stepping on it.

Richard Riddle, Boy Detective in the Case of the French Spy by Kim Newman, which appears in the pulp anthology Adventure published by Monkeybrain books, which I will not spoiler by revealing its humorous Mythos connection.

Dagon's Bell also appears in Lumley's collection Dagon's Bell, And Other Discords.

It is very difficult for me to pick out a favourite (I really like the mythos stuff that Ramsey Campbell did as well).

So I am going to pick something completely a little out of the ordinary and go for Neil Gaiman's Shoggoth's Old Peculiar which has been published as a chapbook and as one of the stories in Smoke And Mirrors. A story that is a combination of a Pete & Dud sketch and Cthulhu Mythos - what more can you want.

There's a hilarious Lovecraft pastiche in Cthulhu 2000 called "Love's Eldritch Ichor", which is, quite honestly, one of my favorites anywhere.
The first story in that collection, about De Vermis Mysteriis, is also a favorite in the more-scary less-funny category. I believe it's just called "The Worm" or something.

I liked Gaiman's story too. And I really loved this one:
http://www.neilgaiman.com/exclusive/shor...

Neil Gaiman wrote an incredible story called "A Study in Emerald" which appeared in the pastiche Sherlock Holmes meets Cthulhu anthology Shadows Over Baker Street. Really, that whole book is full of Lovecraftian gems.

Charles Stross' The Atrocity Archives. Really tickles my high-tech fancy as well as getting into serious horror.

Resume with Monsters by William Browning Spencer is my favorite.

"The Things That Are Not There" by CJ Henderson is a great one at novel length, and the same author's 'Juggernaut' is a great short story about the Hounds of Tindalos and how you kill them (hint: heavy artillery might work on just one of them, but for a bunch you need a somewhat...bigger...weapon).

I thought 'A Study in Emerald' was brilliant as well.

I have several, "A Colder War" and The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross, "Than Curse the Darkness" by David Drake, "Black Man with a Horn" by TED Klien, "The Tugging" by Ramsey Campbell, "The Star Pools" by AA Attanasio, "The Turret" by Richard A Lupoff, "Long Meg and Her Daughters" by Paul Finch, "The Barrens" by F. Paul Wilson, and "Suicide Watch" by Arinn Dembo.

Well, that is a rather long list.
David

I very much enjoyed the stories in Noctuary by Thomas Ligotti

The one I liked best, was "Shoggoth's old Peculiar" by Neil Gaiman, printed as part of Smoke and Mirrors. It's not all that mystic and horrible, but very elegant.

The Delta Green books are also rather good; i especially liked The rules of engagement.

Crouch End, by Stephen King. What could be better than combining Lovecraft and King??

"A Colder War" by Charles Stross is one of my favorites. After all, how many Cthulhu Mythos stories feature Ollie North and Fawn Hall? Plus it's just a darn good story with an interesting take on the mythos.

Strangely, I never seem to pick up the Lovecraft "feel" from the author's own works. I often struggle through them wondering where that unique atmosphere that people rave to me about is hiding (I have quite a few friends who are devotees). Yet, when I read some pastiche of the Cthulhu mythos I think "Aha! This is what they're talking about."

Specifically, a few works come to mind and yet they're not books at all, but text adventure games. I believe that the authors of each freely admit their intention on capturing a Lovecraftian feel: "The Lurking Horror" by Dave Lebling, "Anchorhead" by Michael C. Gentry, "Theatre" by Brendon Wyber and "Slouching Toward Bedlam" by Star C. Foster and Daniel Raupinto. Perhaps the experience of interacting with the story somehow clicked with me- since I myself was experiencing the feelings that Lovecraft described in his ill-fated characters.

@ twacorbies

When you said _The Lurking Horror_, did you mean the Infocom game?

Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem was a good one on the GameCube. No explicit Lovecraft references, but they captured the feel nicely.

Karl Edward Wagner's short story "Sticks." Ostensibly a pastiche or tribute, it transcends both adjectives and stands on it's own.

I'm a big fan of the Spencer and the Klein mentioned, but for a personal favorite I'd go with Ligotti's "The Sect of the Idiot".

I quite like In the Light of the Lamp by Steven Paulsen.

Strange Eons by Robert Bloch - definitely a homage to his former master. Three shorter pieces that basically thread together and work under the basic assumption that Lovecraft wrote fiction, masking his warning of the mythos deities as horror stories because no one would believe him if he wrote these truths as non-fiction.

I read anything and everything I can get my hands on that is Cthulhu Mythos related and have many favorites, but if I had to choose, I'd say Autobiography of a Necromancer by Charles Clemons. It was cool, horrorific, true to the Mythos and a slight bit funny in parts. It's a short story from a book named Funky Shrooms and Other Exquisite Delights. I got my copy at www.portalpressbooks.com. Although it is an excellent selection of work, I've still not read anything that surpasses the Cthulhu master H.P. Lovecraft

Message edited by its author, Oct 28, 2007, 8:19pm.

I'm with >12: "Crouch End" by Stephen King.

#15- Geez drwho, I guess I should have kept an eye on this thread. If you ever pop back in here, yes I did indeed mean the Infocom games. Better late than never?

Sticks by Karl Edward Wagner. One may find it in The dark descent edited by David G. Hartwell. I also really liked Poppy Z. Brite's Are you loathsome tonight? in Cthulhu 2000.

Hallucigenia by Laird Barron

"The Seven Geases" by Clark Ashton Smith. I love its cynical and sardonic humor take on the mythos, and the completely absurdist (but to me, hilarious) conclusion.

I just read 'A Study in Emerald' from the anthology Shadows over Baker Street, a story by Neil Gaiman. The story won the 2004 Hugo Award for Best Short Story, and the 2005 Locus Award for Best Novelette.

I just read 'A Study in Emerald' from the anthology Shadows over Baker Street, a story by Neil Gaiman. The story won the 2004 Hugo Award for Best Short Story, and the 2005 Locus Award for Best Novelette.

One of my favorites is a good one for Holy Week: "Acute Spiritual Fear" by Robert M. Price. It's in The Disciples of Cthulhu II.

David Conway's "Black Static" is another that really stayed with me. The collection that I read it in, The Starry Wisdom, is really outstanding all the way through.

Message edited by its author, Apr 10, 2009, 6:11pm.

#25 - It is one of my favorite games of all time - the first Infocom game I ever beat, in fact.

Hi All, I've just joined your site - cooooooooool!

#27. I agree. A brilliant story from a highly unusual collection!
#2. Shoggoth's Old Peculiar - one of my favourites. Still can't seem to find the beer, though!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jihad Over Innsmouth, by Edward Morris

Online here :-

http://www.owlsoup.com/3LBE/issue16/3lbe...

Note also the Innsmouth Free Press at http://www.innsmouthfreepress.com/

My favorite is easily "Nethescurial" from Thomas Ligotti's Grimscribe. I like how subtle and yet powerfully Ligotti works in the Lovecraft elements. I also like how it deconstructs a horror story, only to have the horror story then rebuild itself Cthulhu-like by the end.