Acolytes of Cthulhu

The four stars are for Lovecraftians only, otherwise you may be entertained but wonder what the fuss is about - for non-Lovecraftians this is a three star job, entertaining and amusing and no more.

But for Lovecraftians, Robert M. Price has managed to find a rich vein of stories derivative of Lovecraft (or sometimes Derleth who is a very different proposition) ranging from the 1930s through to the 1990s.

Five are from the old Weird Tales stable and the stories tend (though only 'tend') to get better as the century proceeds and pulp becomes something closer to 'literature'.

There are some duds (the dreadful Dr. David Keller's being most notable in this category) but the overall standard is pretty solid.

A couple of 'sports' from the very show more young S. T. Joshi (almost a tribute to him) and from Neil Gaiman (which actually made me laugh out loud once or twice) add a bit of fun.

The two 'high literary' contributions show Borges at his most elliptic and obscure and that Meyrink was capable of writing utter schlock, showing perhaps that Lovecraftian tales should be left to the experts.

But once we put all this aside, Price has uncovered a number of writers who wrote little and one wishes had written more, notably Arthur Pendragon and Steffan B. Aletti in the 1960s.

Perhaps they simply fell into the lean years between the pulps and the later rediscovery of Lovecraftian 'eldritch horrors' as a rich seam for popular culture and literary studies alike.

The five stories by these two writers might be judged pastiches by some but the tone is almost perfect for the tradition, offering us rather fine throw-backs to the best of an earlier era.

Of the generous helping of 29 tales, I would say that at least two thirds pass muster as stories and add value to the canon, which is way ahead of most such anthologies. Nearly all have some historical value.

Definitely one for collectors of Lovecraftian material and those interested in the history of pulp horror fiction but perhaps not a book that we might expect to appear in the Times Literary Supplement. show less

From what I gather as I read this book, the authors who have contributed to this volume are all "acolytes of Cthulhu," meaning (as Price notes in his introduction) that they all have in their own way paid tribute to Lovecraft through their writings, either in style or in content. And what a fine collection this is; probably one of the better horror samplers I've ever read. Of course, this is an anthology, but imho, there's only one story in here I'd single out as a "how the hell did this get in here" type thing. Other than that one (which shall remain nameless, although I'll bet if you're along for thrill of getting the willys, you'll know which one it is), the collection here is a mish-mosh of horror that you should definitely read show more alone and with the lights down low. For the first time, I can't pick a favorite, although "The Earth Brain" and "The Will of Claude Ashur" were 2 that really spooked me.

If you are an HPL fan, not necessarily a Mythos fan since most of these stories do not directly address the Mythos, then you will enjoy this book. I wish people wrote like this nowadays -- the stories are gut-level creepy and don't have to depend on gore or slasher-type scenarios to be scary.

I am very proud to have this book as a part of my HPL/Fedogan and Bremer collection. Highly recommended, even if you just want to read the stories for their horror benefit! If you're reading it and come across stories related to the Mythos and you aren't familiar with the names, drop everything and go to the source himself: Howard Phillips Lovecraft.

contents list:
Pierce, Earl -- Doom in the House of Duryea
Brennan, Joseph Payne -- The Seventh Incantation
Eddy, CM -- Black Noon
Rimel, Duane -- The Jewels of Charlotte
Wellman, Manly Wade -- The Letters of Cold Fire
Hasse, Henry -- Horror at Vecra
Tanner, Charles -- Out of the Jar
Hamilton, Edmond -- The Earth-Brain
Powers, Elwin G. -- Through the Alien Angle
Causey, James -- Legacy in Crystal
Thompson, C. Hall -- The Will of Claude Asher
Keller, David -- The Final War
Pendragon, Arthur -- The Dunstable Horror
Pendragon, Arthur -- The Crib of Hell
Aletti, Steffan -- The Last Work of Pietro de Apono
Aletti, Steffan -- The Eye of Horus
Aletti, Steffan -- The Cellar Room
Glasby, John -- Mythos
Borges, Jorges Luis -- There are More Things
Garrett, Randall -- The Horror Out of Time
Joshi, ST -- The Recurring Doom
Mosig, Dirk -- Necrotic Knowledge
Burleson, Don -- Night Bus
Cannon, Peter -- The Pewter Ring
Kaufman, David -- John Lehmann Alone
Meyrinck, Gustav -- The Purple Death
Searight Richard and Franklin Searight -- The Mists of Death
Gaiman, Neil -- Shuggoth's Old Peculiar show less