The New Lovecraft Circle

This is a bit of an unusual Lovecraft collection. A good deal of these stories are far more mythos/Derelth inspired. The hard-core Lovecraft fan is likely to be put off adventure tales of folks racing for an elder sign to stop the unspeakable horror that the cultists are trying to raise.

That being said, there's a pretty wide range of Lovecraftian inspired stories, including several humor pieces. There's also a stated goal in the introduction on using lesser published stories (at the time of this collection, at least). I don't know if I entirely agree on the editor including some of the early work of several writers.

If you're a completist of the Lovecraft mythos, this is a must-buy. There's some very good stories I haven't seen elsewhere. If you wash your hands of anything with a Derelth influence, you're probably not going to like a good chunk of the stories in this collection.

If you're a fan of Lovecraft or some of his followers, I'd say this collection is certainly worth tracking down to borrow. Just feel free to skip over the stories that aren't in a style to your liking and you'll probably find a few that are. ( )

Amazon.com
Price invokes Susan Sontag on camp, and Jacques Derrida on writing, to support his incisive view of what works and what doesn't work in contemporary Lovecraftian fiction.
The basic idea of a Mythos tale . . . is an interior skeleton like a mammal's, a frame on which to grow . . . It forms the baseline against which the new variations may be measured. It is not a denial of flexibility; it is something to be flexible with.
Preface by Ramsey Campbell, fascinating introduction by Price, beautiful cover art by Gahan Wilson, and 26 tales by Campbell, Lumley, Sutton, Wagner, Tierney, Lupoff, Ligotti, Burleson, Rainey and others. No overlap with previous anthologies. ( )