Cthulhu 2000

Another anthology of short horror stories written by people who could be said to be under the influence of HP Lovecraft. There are 18 stories in this book, some very very good, some okay, some not so hot. You'll find this to be true in any anthology, actually -- it's not just this book!

Let me point out some of my favorites:
"The Barrens," by F. Paul Wilson (which I had already read, but loved it so much I re-read it here);
"His Mouth Will Taste of Wormwood," by Poppy Z. Brite;
"The Big Fish," by Kim Newman -- let me add that this one most likely entertained me the most, because even if it was playing fast and loose with the old Innsmouth stories, it was done in pulp style with a wise-cracking noirish detective and I loved it. Not so much show more for its horror quotient (in fact, parts were downright funny), but just the style...I could see someone reading something like this in the heyday of the pulp magazines).

"Black Man with a Horn," by TED Klein...one of the creepiest stories in here, actually;
"The Last Feast of Harlequin," by Thomas Ligotti, one of my favorite authors
and
"The Faces at Pine Dunes," by Ramsey Campbell, another of my favorite writers of horror.

Overall, a fun collection and well worth the reading time. show less

Nice collection of works in the Cthulu vein. I think my favourite was the Sam Spade story. It was so well done. The best work in it as far as the writing goes was the Zelazny novella at the end of the book. It's worth reading some of the lesser stories in the collection just to get to "Views of Mount Fuji, by Hokusai". There were a few dogs in the collection though which brought the overall book down a bit.

Der Nachfolgeband des "Hüters der Pforten" schafft es mit seinen 18 Geschichten leider nicht mehr, das Niveau seines Vorgängers zu erreichen. Gut, es gibt ein paar ganz nette Erzählungen ( "Die Viper" ist eine davon ) und die Persiflage, deren Namen mir jetzt nicht einfällt, ist auch recht gelungen. Aber es gibt nur eine Geschichte in den Buch, die wirklich gut ist: Pickmans Moden - wunderbar böse, wunderbar gemein, wunderbar - aber eben nur eine Geschichte von 18. Um den Kauf des Buches kommt man aber wohl nicht herum - allein schon, um seine Sammlung vollständig zu halten. Und weil es in Deutschland eh viel zu wenig Bücher über und mit Lovecraft und seinen Schöpfungen gibt.