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Abe Sargent · 04-05-2014, 07:00 PM

Review of The Space-Eaters

This story is another of the first by another person in the Mythos. One of the things FBL got right about the Mythos was this sense of wrongness with creatures such as the Space-Eaters and the Hounds of Tindalos. He gets that to you, and what else is the job of a horror writer, but to convey horror?

A lot of people celebrate this story as nice, and yet others as too trite. One of the traditional attacks against the story is that by including a character similar to Lovecraft, it’s too hard to keep your sense of the real world. For all of that, Lovecraft himself did it several times. Klarkash-Ton is his name for Clark Ashton Smith and the main character in The Haunter in the Dark is designed and named after Robert Bloch.

Now I do have a lot of issues with this story, so don’t get me wrong. I don’t like the

Spoiler

In addition to that, I find the incident with the

Spoiler

Finally, a common complaint is the Christianization of the Mythos, which I agree with completely. In fact, I find the whole thing a bit hypocritical. In one paragraph, a character is

Spoiler

Anyway, Long has a great potential about him, but he’s young and misses some stuff too. The story’s fine and a bit energetic. It’s not a bad read, but it’s not exactly a major classic, you know?

2.5 stars out of 5

04-05-2014, 07:00 PM	#77
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	Review of The Space-Eaters This story is another of the first by another person in the Mythos. One of the things FBL got right about the Mythos was this sense of wrongness with creatures such as the Space-Eaters and the Hounds of Tindalos. He gets that to you, and what else is the job of a horror writer, but to convey horror? A lot of people celebrate this story as nice, and yet others as too trite. One of the traditional attacks against the story is that by including a character similar to Lovecraft, it’s too hard to keep your sense of the real world. For all of that, Lovecraft himself did it several times. Klarkash-Ton is his name for Clark Ashton Smith and the main character in The Haunter in the Dark is designed and named after Robert Bloch. Now I do have a lot of issues with this story, so don’t get me wrong. I don’t like the Spoiler coincidental nature of the story. How come what they are talking about just happens to occur? That defies logical consistency. I kept waiting for Long to explain it away, but he never did. Perhaps their thinking about it actually caused it or something – but nope. In addition to that, I find the incident with the Spoiler doctor to be a bit outlandish. How would the doctor tell from an unknown mark what he was looking at immediately with such exactness? Finally, a common complaint is the Christianization of the Mythos, which I agree with completely. In fact, I find the whole thing a bit hypocritical. In one paragraph, a character is Spoiler chastising traditional horror writers and then in another, making a cross drives off the creatures! If that was intentional irony, then it didn’t seem like it. Anyway, Long has a great potential about him, but he’s young and misses some stuff too. The story’s fine and a bit energetic. It’s not a bad read, but it’s not exactly a major classic, you know? 2.5 stars out of 5 __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent