Dagon

Dagon is a short novel written by Fred Chappell, with a copyright in 1987. I have the LSU Press edition from 2002. It is a standard 5.5" x 8.5" trade paperback with 177 pages, seemingly substantial, but the font is larger than usual with trade paperbacks so it actually reads fairly quickly. Production values are high; there is a cover illustration by Dave Ross showing a half man with a scaly lower body from behind, held captive in chains in some sort of ancient temple. Evocative but no wow factor; there is no interior art (too bad, it might have relieved the tedium). List price when I bought it was $15.95, way too expensive in retrospect. This book was manufactured according to some standard on book longevity (again too bad, it will show more take that much longer to crumble away).

Spoilers may follow, but who cares?

I tend to buy and read almost anything mythos associated so of course I lapped it up. Just after the title page there is a page devoted to Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn. Very auspicious! Unfortunately that was also the highlight.

I really did not like this book even a little bit and I have been trying to figure out why. Sometimes mythos books fall apart because the prose is poor, like Other Nations, or the prose, plot and characterizations all stink, like Island Life, or because the book has really nothing to do with the mythos and instead has to do with schlocky gross out horror, like A Darkness Inbred. This novel clearly was living and breathing in the world of the mythos, had a clearly thought out plot and had prose that was highly polished. So what was the problem?

First of all, I couldn't stand any of the characters, particularly the protagonist, I was more concerned about Thomas Covenant than Peter Leland, and I wanted Thomas Covenant to meet an unseemly early end. Second, it was dull, tedious, boring, a chore to read. There was precious little forward momentum here. Finally, although highly crafted, the prose was almost entirely devoted to Peter's tortuous and disinteresting introspection. Also there was no awesomeness of a mythos entity or any sense of terror at all. He was mostly pathetic and worth only the reader's disdain.

In a typical (mercifully only 10-15 pages) mythos story, a protagonist goes to an ancient mansion/estate/farm and falls under the influence of some evil dabbler in mythos books, or their own dabbling in mythos books, who then loses control over their free will and gets used for or comes to unseemly ends. The reader mainly sees it as either their journal entries or from a birds eye third person viewpoint. This novel rather originally places you in the mind of the victim protagonist who doesn't have any understanding of what is going on, who knows nothing of the mythos. He only catches glimpses but does not understand them or what the evil sorceror type is doing. The mythos happenings are never made explicitly clear. This *could* have been so cool. So Peter gradually loses his will and his life to the vaguely fishoid appearing Mina, with his wife an innocent bystander victim along the way. Nice premise, a slow disappointing slog to drag yourself through.

Not recommended to anyone at all anywhere anytime. Go reread Balak or something good instead. If you are not a fanatical collector I advise borrowing it from the library before you buy. show less