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Reanimators

by Pete Rawlik

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802332,845 (3.09)1
Two Men. A Bitter Rivalry. And a Quarter-Century of Unspeakable Horrors. Herbert West's crimes against nature are well-known to those familiar with the darkest secrets of science and resurrection. Obsessed with finding a cure for mankind's oldest malady, death itself, he has experimented upon the living and dead, leaving behind a trail of monsters, mayhem, and madness. But the story of his greatest rival has never been told.Until now. Dr. Stuart Hartwell, a colleague and contemporary of West, sets out to destroy West by uncovering the secrets of his terrible experiments, only to become that which he initially despised: a reanimator of the dead. For more than twenty years, spanning the early decades of the twentieth century, the two scientists race each other to master the mysteries of life . . . and unlife. From the grisly battlefields of the Great War to the backwoods hills and haunted coasts of Dunwich and Innsmouth, from the halls of fabled Miskatonic University to the sinking of the Titanic, their unholy quests will leave their mark upon the world--and create monsters of them both. Reanimators is an epic tale of historical horror . . . in the tradition of Anno Dracula and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.… (more)
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Let's get one thing clear from the start, I hate this novel. It is an example of the worst sort of current "Lovecraftian" writing (more on that later).

Rawlik is technically a fine, scrub that, adequate writer. He can put together sentences and paragraphs and chapters. This novel has a definite beginning, middle, and thank god, an end. But it just isn't any good. You cannot string together a bunch of Lovecraft stories, or rather pastiches of Lovecraft stories, with a hair-thin plot involving Herbert West: Reanimator as the template and have it be any good. It ends up just being a Lovecraftian "Where's Waldo?" for Lovecraft geeks to identify the bits and pieces from the obtuse, or in some cases, overt references. Not interesting or entertaining.

The chapters read like a standup comic with a one gag repertoire who keeps telling the same jokes with different words. So if Rawlik was aiming at some sort of comedy via self parody, then you have a story's worth here not a novel. Not funny then either.

This sort of thing is an example of the worst vein of ongoing Lovecraft writing: trying to write or imitate a Lovecraft story. The ability to do that properly ended in 1937. Lovecraftian writing, the best contemporary Lovecraftian writing, is being done by writers who take the themes Lovecraft created and putting their own creativity into making something different not imitative or parodying of Lovecraft's stories, something new and beyond. Something that transcends the original stories into new areas. This pastiche writing is the basement of Lovecraftian writing today. While writers like [a:Laird Barron|466494|Laird Barron|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1376696519p2/466494.jpg], [a:Thomas Ligotti|128466|Thomas Ligotti|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1371462738p2/128466.jpg], and [a:Caitlín R. Kiernan|4798562|Caitlín R. Kiernan|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1304526440p2/4798562.jpg] are writing stories that are fugues on Lovecraft's themes and concepts, this sort of writing smacks of the same sort of imitation that [a:August Derleth|20598|August Derleth|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1263314065p2/20598.jpg] and [a:Brian Lumley|20602|Brian Lumley|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1246727488p2/20602.jpg] were accused of.

If you want to do this kind of "Lovecraftian" writing you are better off with a shovel, a syringe of luminous fluid, and a one-way ticket to Providence.

( )
  Gumbywan | Jun 24, 2022 |
I liked it, basically, but wished there was more to it other than allusions to the original stories. ( )
  amuskopf | Jun 7, 2018 |
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Two Men. A Bitter Rivalry. And a Quarter-Century of Unspeakable Horrors. Herbert West's crimes against nature are well-known to those familiar with the darkest secrets of science and resurrection. Obsessed with finding a cure for mankind's oldest malady, death itself, he has experimented upon the living and dead, leaving behind a trail of monsters, mayhem, and madness. But the story of his greatest rival has never been told.Until now. Dr. Stuart Hartwell, a colleague and contemporary of West, sets out to destroy West by uncovering the secrets of his terrible experiments, only to become that which he initially despised: a reanimator of the dead. For more than twenty years, spanning the early decades of the twentieth century, the two scientists race each other to master the mysteries of life . . . and unlife. From the grisly battlefields of the Great War to the backwoods hills and haunted coasts of Dunwich and Innsmouth, from the halls of fabled Miskatonic University to the sinking of the Titanic, their unholy quests will leave their mark upon the world--and create monsters of them both. Reanimators is an epic tale of historical horror . . . in the tradition of Anno Dracula and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

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