[Abe Sargent]

Review of The Lair of the Star-Spawn



This review will consider only this story. Check out more on Derleth next.

This story was published in 1932. In it, Derleth’s contributions to the Mythos cannot be over-empathized. However, the story itself is no Call of Cthulhu. It has the same basic premise. Zhar and Lloigor are imprisoned, and there are people seeking to free them. But compare. Cthulhu was so powerful, that despite being imprisoned, could still impact the dreams of an entire world when his island rose. He was able to influence people across the world, and had cults everywhere. Zhar and Lloigor only have the Tcho-Tcho and that’s it. There’s no sense of scale – it’s just a local tribe of small denigrate folk that are directly descended from the seeds of evil planted by the twin entities themselves. Derleth misses the scales of horror as a result.

This is another story to suffer from “way too many unexplained/crazy things happened” syndrome. A few examples include

Spoiler

why Eric is knocked unconscious, but not slain by the Tcho-Tcho. They went out and kidnapped Dr. Lo-Fan because they needed his skills, but what did they need from Eric? Dr. Lo-Fan didn’t mention, oh, by the way, I saw you out there and asked that they keep you alive. Just that quick line would have helped. Another crazy thing – what the hell is up with contacting the Old Ones via telepathy literally millions of years later and expecting positive results, and they‘ll come right down, and be in the same place and so forth. I find that unbelievable.

With this lack of scale, some questionable decisions regarding details, and more, I can’t give this story to many props. It’s not Derleth’s best, and lacks the skill of Lovecraft. Therefore, on the merits of the story alone, I give it 2.5 outta 5 stars.