The Cthulhu Dynasty - "The Nameless City" and "The Hound" by HP Lovecraft

[Abe Sargent]

Synopsis of A Shop in Go-By-Street

The author wants to return to the Land of Dreams and rejoin his previous comrades he had adventured with previously along the river Yann and in the Bird of the River vessel. In order to facilitate this, he goes to Go-By-Street which is a unusual lane off the Strand, and finds an unusual shop, where the keeper is said to give you your dreams. The author eventually finds himself in the Land of Dreams again and moves to the river and waits for the ship to come sailing by. After three days, he explores the area and uncovers the long-dead wreck of the Bird of the River and realizes it has been around 200 years since he was last here, not the 2 in his real life. He says good bye and leaves.

[Abe Sargent]

Review of A Shop in Go-By-Street


Published in 1919 after his career was off, this was another of Dunsany’s classic tales. This is Dunsany’s sequel to a very popular story he wrote, Idle Days on the Yann, which can be seen in later works like Lovecrafts The White Ship and even CS Lewis Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Despite the quick pace, Dunsany gives this is full on style.

Take his description of a sunrise over the ridge in the Land of Dream:

Those indescribable dawns upon the Yann came up like flames in some land over the hills where a magician burns by secret means enormous amethysts in a copper pot.

That’s Dunsany for you.

There are two major conversations that really seem to have made an impression with Lovecraft. The last, when discussing the nature of reality, and the first with the shopkeep, when discussing the nature of gods, dreaming, and death.

Consider this line from Call of Cthulhu, quoted from the Necronomicon:

That is not dead which can eternal lie,
And with strange aeons even death may die.


Now compare it to this quote from the shopkeeper in this Dunsany story:

“But for three or four thousand years a god is worshipped and for three or four he sleeps. Only Time is wakeful always.”


The impact this story had on the mythos is quite significant.


3.5 stars outta 5, some of Dunsany’s stuff is a pure 5, or 4.5, but this one is not the best work of his or anything. (If you love fantasy, and the Gods of Pegana seems a bit too much, grab The King of Elfland’s Daughter instead).

[Abe Sargent]

Now, before we leave behind this idea of immediate impact, let’s take a look at another major element of impact to Call of Cthulhu, one you are likely already familiar with, but which we will reframe in a Mythos context.

Alfred Lord Tennyson’s great poem, The Kraken. Read it again for the first time.



The Kraken



Below the thunders of the upper deep,
Far far beneath in the abysmal sea,
His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep
The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee
About his shadowy sides: above him swell
Huge sponges of millennial growth and height;
And far away into the sickly light,
From many a wondrous grot and secret cell
Unnumbered and enormous polypi
Winnow with giant fins the slumbering green.
There hath he lain for ages and will lie
Battening upon huge seaworms in his sleep,
Until the latter fire shall heat the deep;
Then once by men and angels to be seen,
In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die.

The Kraken, a Norwegian myth, is clearly be seen in the nature of Call of Cthulhu. Is it just a coincidence that one of the major characters, the one who actually sees Cthulhu and survives, is Norwegian as well? The Kraken sleeps, far below the ocean, and will someday return.

Consider The Kraken against many of the other Gen 0 stories.

[Abe Sargent]

Alright, let’s do one more Gen 0 story for now, and then return. Lovecraft had a severe man-crush on Abraham Merritt. You may recall that Merritt was one of the five authors called in to write Challenge from Beyond.

In 1918 Merritt publishes a short story called The Moon Pool. He will follow with another, Conquest of the Moon Pool, and then edit them into his first novel which was also quite popular. We’ll skip the latter stuff, because the first is by far the best, and leaves behind the Lost World motif that the latter stuff mucks about with. Merritt began publishing in 1917, and this story really puts him on the map in the major way. From The Moon Pool will come a variety of major fantasy works, among them The Ship of Ishtar and Dwellers in the Mirage. Again, Gary Gygax cites Merritt as one of his favorite authors, and someone who also helped to establish D&D. We will be skipping that fantasy stuff, and focusing instead on this story, because first of how interesting it is and also how it shapes Merritt’s career, and has many proto-Lovecraft feelings.

Luckily, the story is not copyrighted and therefore is fully in the public domain.

I could not easily find just the first short story, apart from the Novelized version. Unfortunately, the novel version of these events is edited differently than the short story (which was designed to stand on its own). Frankly, the original short story is a bit better than the first five chapters of the novel because of that. (Both Lovecraft and Merritt himself agreed on that fact). So hopefully you have it anthologized somewhere and can read it there. Or maybes its online somewhere and my poor Google Fu will not discredit your ability to read the original story, which Lovecraft called one of the classics of horror literature.

Instead, we’ll have here the Project Gutenberg book in its entirety, and you only need to read chapters 1-5. That’s the Moon Pool’s original story. The rest moves away from that opening into other territory.


Moon Pools for Everyone!

[Abe Sargent]

Currently reading The Ship of Ishtar for the first time by Merritt too. When done, I'll let you know what I think

[Abe Sargent]

I read The Ship of Ishtar today, which is Merritt's best work, and also considered one of the classic fantasy novels. It's not even a little bit Lovecraft, but I'm glad to have read it.

I also read the Dealings of Daniel Kesserich by Fritz Lieber on Friday, and it was in the Lovecraft vein, but not in the Mythos, so we won;t be reading it here. There are a lot better things written by the master of the pen, good ol' Fritz-y - we'll talk about him and who he is later when we consider some of his Gen 2/3 stories.

So I wouldn;t think either was this amazing, eye-opening story. I'll not touch either one again, likely, but I was happy to have read them and opened my eyes in such a way.

[Abe Sargent]

Synopsis of The Moon Pool


A lot of plot happens in this short story. So I’ll skip some of the longer stuff and give a quick summary rather than go point by point through the tale.

In order to free Dr. Throckmarton’s reputation, one Dr. Goodwin has arranged to have these documents sent to Mr. Merritt to review and publish. Dr. Throckmartin sent a failed expedition to the Pacific to the Micronesian island of Ponape and investigate there the ruins of Nan-Matal. His wife and several others accompanied this excursion.

Dr. Goodwin runs into Throckmartin shortly after the expedition on a boat, and is acting strangely. Later that night Dr. Goodwin observes something odd in the moon light, a certain path that the moon is making on the sea. It appears to be chasing Thockmartin. Clouds pass over and the path is closed before it can pull Throckmartin fully and news come sin that the rest of the journey to Melbourne should be similarly cloud ridden. Dr. T. takes in Dr. G and begins to relate the tale.

Dr. Throckmartin begins by explaining that everyone that went with the expedition to Nan-Matal is now dead. He rips off his shirt to reveal a white ring around his chest, and in that ring, he cannot be burnt, bled, or touched – and its bitter cold. He is heading to Melbourne for the items needed to defeat it, to defeat the thing that killed them and is chasing him now – the thing that gave him that mark. After revealing a map of the area, Throckmartin explains there is a dweller in the moon pool in the ruins of Nan-Matal.

He goes back to explain the expedition. His wife and him were to make this their great work, the Venice of the Pacific, to reveal how these ruins got there and explore the customs and people that made them. They arrived, and began the archeology of their research.

Slowly a few more sensitive members of the expedition began to become aware of a strangeness of the place. The natives requested to leave the island for a festival for a few days and were granted it. That night, under a full moon, odd noise began to be heard from the ruins. Suspecting the natives were doing their rituals in the ruins, the others move out. Then something else is there. One of their number collapses after revealing there is something more sinister at work.

But they dismiss the night as the natives, and then dismiss the words of warning. Opposite the throne of the Sun King is a great moon rock, and behind it, the moon pool. They found the rock, and suspected it was a door, but were unable to open it. Lots of exploration and attempts to open the door fail.

They awaken the next morning with a nasty sleep and one of their number missing. An exhaustive search finds some of her hair and part of her handkerchief cut, right by the moon rock, which was opened. They knew they were going to wait until night, since it was likely only openable then, and gathered weapons and other things needed.

They spend the night in Nan-Matal.

The moon rose, and with it came a powerful slumber. “It was a sapping of all will to move.” The cry is heard of a creature, his wife is sleeping, and the last of their party has been transfixed by the now open door. The music swelled. After walking about transfixed for a bit, the other members is gone.

Thinking that he has solved it, Throckmartin believes there is a few minutes between the opening of the door and the activity of the creature beyond. That is the window of opportunity to strike and free their comrades or secure their own safety is that is not possible.

Night falls, and the door opens, and Throck flings himself through the door. In there is a glistening pool. Some radiant creature begins to form, and Throck shoots it with his pistol. It gurgles and the pool roils and bad stuff happens. Hearing the shots, his wife follows him into the room. The dweller in the pool sees this new person enter, and rushes her first. Edith moves to block it from her husband to protect him, and the creature absorbs her and takes her. The two disappear into the moon pool.

The rest of the story is Throck outlying his plan for action – buying dynamite. They may not be dead, just in the pool. He wrote a chart of the Pool and leaves Dr. Goodwin for Nan-Matal on Ponape, to make amends for his cowardice.

[Abe Sargent]

Review of The Moon Pool


The Moon Pool is a classic D&D story, (the stuff that happens later involves missing civilizations, frog men, odd deities, and more. ) It will turn into a very pulpy adventure yarn. That’s odd because the story here is a horror one, and yet it is turned into a Lost World one.


You can find tons of Moon Pool reviews online, but they focus on the book, not the short story.

“Goodwin,” he said,” do you know at all of the ruins on the Carolines: the cyclopean megalithic cities and harbors of Ponape and Lele , of Kusaie, of Ruk and Hogolu and a score of other islets there?


The writing is solid enough, although sometimes a bit too lurid. He never met an adjective he didn’t like. Nevertheless, this is a very fun trip through the Pacific. A common framing device in these stories is the publishing of documents or conversations after the fact. (The Call of Cthulhu does the same thing). When you have elements that are unnatural, it makes sense to try to make them seem as realistic as possible. From Bram Stoker’s Dracula to Merritt’s The Moon Pool, you use this as an effective story-telling device to enhance the level of horror.

Of course, that means the narrative has to pause for Throckmartin to wail around a bit every time something bad happens.

Anyway, one effective way this story works is because it’s mostly true:

Nan Madol - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The ruins are real, and actually on the island mentioned. That enhances the level of spookiness that is in effect.

As for the impact this story had on Lovecraft, it’s pretty evident. Is the area of Nan-Matal inspiration for R’lyeh? Merritt even uses the typical Lovecraftian word: “Cyclopean.”

The idea of something very ancient in the corners of the earth, something with a different set of rules, in the Pacific is quite resonant, and is one of the basic concepts of Lovecraft’s Mythos.


3 stars out of 5 for the book version, and 3.5 for this one the work does what it needs too, and the two maps are awesome (but missing from the book – boo hiss!).

[Abe Sargent]

Alright, let’s leave behind the Gen 0 stuff for a bit. There’s more to consider, the Archer Machen stuff is great, I agree with HP Lovecraft that The Willows by Algernon Blackwood really is one of the best horror stories of all time, and another Blackwood story, The Wendigo, is heavily tied into some other stuff we’ve already read by August Derleth. But let’s bench these folks for right now.

Let’s head back to Gen 1.

I’d like to do a trilogy of stories by Robert Bloch. To begin with, HP Lovecraft’s The Haunter in the Dark was written as a sequel to a Robert Bloch story. I’d like to begin with that story.

The Shambler from the Stars

Written in 1935, this story was published late, and then HP Lovecraft wrote Haunter the next month after publication. It’s just 8 pages in one of my collections. We’ll be reading this story, reminding you of Haunter from the Dark, and then Robert Bloch will pen a sequel and a side-story. He publishes a sequel to Lovecraft’s Haunter in 1950 called The Shadow from the Steeple. That creates a little trilogy with Haunter in the middle. But then Bloch is also fascinated by a bit of characterization in Haunter of Nephren-Ka, and ancient pharaoh. So Bloch will write the story of Nephren-Ka in a short story called Fane of the Black Pharaoh. We’ll be reading all three in this little side trip to Bloch land.

So we’ll begin with Shambler, which started everything off in 1935. Then Haunter is written in 35 and published in 36. Bloch will enjoy the info about Nephren-Ka and pen Black Pharaoh a few months later, to be published in 1937. And then write the sequel to Haunter in Steeple.


My apologies that I am unable to find any of Bloch’s stories online to link to. For authors who died later in their lives, their stuff was under copyright a lot longer and either there is an estate or there is a lingering copyright. In some cases, they have hurt the original stuff by keeping it out of people’s hands for cheaply (Clark Ashton Smith, Donald Wandrei, as examples). Bloch you can at least understand why, he’s a big name in the horror field.

But the nature of the Cthulhu Mythos, of everyone sharing and growing, feels anti-copyright to me. These stories should be available, for free, online, right now. They are not, and that saddens me. So again, hit up your library, collections, borrow from a friend, or just wait until I post the synopsis.


(Note some similarities between this one and The Space Eaters, by Frank Belknap Long we already read)

Who is Robert Bloch? Really, you don’t know? I suppose that’s how time can pass by some major names in the field. He started writing in 1934, so the stuff we are about to read is fresh from his pen, at the age of 18, and lacks some of the polish he’ll get later on. He is another avid member of the Lovecraft Circle of authors, and corresponded heavily with many of them

So, here’s what I expect you already know about Bloch – he wrote the book Psycho, which was turned into a movie by Hitchcock.

If you didn’t know that, now you’ll understand just why his estate is probably held onto so much. This is a major name in horror. He won a lot of awards in his lifetime, which Wikipedia said he published until his death in 1994.

Shambler is, in fact, a homage to Lovecraft, it is dedicated to him, and the main character seems very Lovecraftian. Bloch comes across more as a fan than a polished author like Frank Belknap Long.

Bloch published dozens of novels, hundreds of short stories, and had a real impact on the genre. His stuff, such as his take on Jack the Ripper. He also wrote a variety of screenplays in his later days, cashing in on his fame as the author of Psycho.

So let’s look at Bloch!

[Abe Sargent]

Synopsis of The Shambler from the Stars



The Narrator is an author of weird tales, because that is the only way he can earn a living, since his love of books and nature is such that little else suits him. Bored of the trite aspects of horror like werewolves and vampires, he wants to author a true work of art.

So he sets out to delve into the secrets of vari0us folks and encounters a friend in Providence who has read a few books, the Necronomicon and the Book of Eibon. He gives the narrator a list of people who may help him track them down but fails. So the narrator turns to scouring book stores for a forgotten copy here and there.

While he is unable ot find the books he wants, he does unearth a book called De Vermis Mysteriis, or Mysteries of the Worm, by Ludwig Prinn. Prinn lived for centuries and was a sorcerer, alchemist and necromancer who was entually jailed and killed. In jail he wrote this book in latin, which was surprssed and edited books made it into other languages.

Unable to read latin, he heads back to Providence to meet up with his friend. They read the book and there is a summoning ritual in Latin for a familiar from the stars. It is read, and something unseen appears from the stars. It kills the friend, draining all of his blood, and swells and becomes visible with the newly charged energy. It then leaves, and the narrator knows it will come back, unsummoned to kill him too.

[Abe Sargent]

Review of The Shambler from the Stars



There is no question that the narrator is actually Bloch and the friend is actually Lovecraft. Bloch write shim ahead of time and asks for permission to kill him off. Lovecraft provides the latin translation of the book and also the latin summoning ritual to put into the story.

We’ve seen the book before in Lovecrafts fiction – in both Haunter and Shadow over Innsmouth. Lovecraft really loved the idea of the book and it’s one of the major books in the Mythos. Bloch also creates this creature, called a star vampire for lack of a better term, which is used by other writers as well.

Nevertheless this is real fanfic. The 18 year old writer includes both himself and his favorite author in a story, they meet, the hero is killed, and he introduces his own book to the club as well. And yet, Lovecraft embraces it. Lovecraft is something else. He is so hospitable. He really transcends normal expectations for a decently well known guy. He doesn’t just reply nicely and politely to Bloch, but he outright encourages him, and helps him with the tale.

And what happens? Bloch turns around to be a highly influential writer in the genre for 60 years. That’s the sort of impact that Lovecraft had. What if Lovecraft had refused to return Bloch’s letter? Or asked kindly for Bloch to not include his aspect at all? And then Lovecraft uses Bloch’;s stuff in his own works, dedicates Haunter of the Dark to Bloch, and then kills off a character reminiscent of Bloch in his own story set in Providence.

It’s great stuff between the two of them.


It’s a dirty 2.5 stars out of 5. The writing style needs a bit of polish and work. Bloch will get there. But he’s really excited, and it shows.



Alright, next up ,The Shadow from the Steeple

[Abe Sargent]

Alright, next up ,The Shadow from the Steeple

This clocks in at 17 pages in my reader.

This story is a definite sequel to Haunter. It takes place 15 years after the first story, and a writer friend, Fiske, of the deceased Robert Blake and Lovecraft’s arrives in Providence. He has been investigating the events of the death of his friend, Blake, for some time.

After the death of Blake, one Dr. Dexter arrived on the scene, took the box and special hedron, and dumped them out in the bay. Then he absconded with the nasty works in the church to keep them out of the reach of others. Meanwhile, most of the folks in the area that were connected to the church are gone. The church was raised, and people have died, or fled Providence.

Dr. Dexter has too. He joined the lecture circuit and turned to physics. He was helping the US military during World War II and recently returned to Providence for a short period of time. Fiske comes back to Providence to visit Dexter after pinning him down.

Dr. Dexter provides the information Fiske seeks, but Fiske guesses that Dexter is really the Haunter of the Dark who took and possessed Dexter’s body. Dexter has given humanity nuclear weapons and the atomic bomb. In fact, the Haunter is Nyarlathotep, the messenger of the old ones, and trying to bring about the destruction of humanity. The Haunter/Dexter kills Fiske before Fiske can shoot him dead, and resumes his path.

[Abe Sargent]

Review of The Shadow from the Steeple


First of all, this is basically our first Gen 2 story. It was penned in 1950, and was a direct sequel to an earlier work. It also shares some similar things with other Gen 2 stories – it tones down Lovecraft.

Lovecraft’s concept of this stuff is creatures that are so nasty, so powerful, and so past humanity, that if they wanted to, humanity would be gone right now. To use, they are gods. Yet here, one is running around doing his best demon impression possessing the form of Dexter. (They merged to use the Bloch term). That’s a huge downgrade in power. The Haunter is just a normal Mythos creature, like the shoggoth, nightgaunts, star vampire, or hounds of tindalos. It’s not on the level of the super-nasties until Bloch comes along and bam!

I’m not a fan.

Now, having said that, I do like the writing better stylistically, plus the use of the previous story is a bit much if you’ve recently read it. He spends pages recapping Haunter of the Dark, and does so by adding in Lovecraft as a character in the story as well. Not the first time we’ll see that trick, and certainly not the last. Lovecraft is, indeed, a character in his own mythos. It’s both annoying and cool.

Maybe Bloch foresaw that in Shambler when he created a pseudo-Lovecraft character who dies. Now we have the real Lovecraft that follows. It’s appropriate from Bloch – no one else would get to pull that trick and have it come off genuinely.

I again give it 2.5 stars for weakening the mythos, making the cool Haunter just another incarnation of a named character, but better writing.




Anyway, there is one story left – Fane of the Black Pharaoh.

[Abe Sargent]

Synopsis of Fane of the Black Pharaoh



Captain Cartaret has returned from a long exposition away researching the dark rumored Pharaoh Nephren-Ka in works like De Vermis Mysteriis and the Necronomicon. He encounters a strange Arabic man, who reveals the Seal of Nephren-ka and offers to take the Captain to the tomb of Nephren-ka

The Captain relates what he knows. Nephren-Ka is related to be a long ago priest who took over Egypt and forced everyone to serve Nyarlathotep instead of the other gods. He raised up temples and other monuments to Nyarlathotep and outlawed other faiths.

He was ousted and all memory of him was removed from history. He fled to a place outside of modern day Cairo and created a tomb there, and ensconced most of his followers, leaving behind a small remnant to keep the faith and protect it, for in seen thousand years, he would return. Meanwhile, he slew the blood of 100 of his followers and painted with their blood on the walls of the great tomb a long time detailed pictures.

The Arab admits he is one of those priests. His ancestor placed a large tapestry on the future, and each day, the high priest pulls back to reveal the history of that date, as it relates to Egypt. Today, it was revealed that Captain Cartaret would descend into the tomb.

They head down, and the captain is astonished to see it is all true, especially the images and pictures of events. Eventually he sees himself, and as midnight hits, the priest pulls back another section of the curtain, and slays the Captain as he glimpses the picture. On the wall is the image of his death, painted there by Nephren-Ka thousands of years ago, identical to how he is dying.

[Abe Sargent]

Review of Fane of the Black Pharaoh


This is, by far, the best of the three works by Bloch, to my mind. It’s not nearly as derivative, and it has some clever moments. For example, at first, you think Bloch tells you about the cult that lasted, and will reveal that this magical Arab is one of that cult at the end as a surprise. But nope, he volunteers that information immediately – and plays with expectations of the readers, and perhaps with Captain Cataret’s as well.

The goal of this story was to flesh out the tale of Nephren-Ka. And it does. But not that much. Despite the length (18 pages), we just get a bit on the guy - ,much of which could be guessed. Here, we see Nyarlathotep being worshipped, but not in the picture – he’s not around granting boons to clerics. It just illustrates how much of a set of idiots we humans are with this stuff. So he is used better in this story than in Steeple.

Bloch has a better understanding of setting and mood than in Shambler, and it shows. So the better polish, with the nice plot and well thought out elements brings this story to a nice 3.5 outta 5.

[Abe Sargent]

What’s next?

Well, we’ve seen the Mythos in lots of places. Underground and in ruins. The Black Stone had us in Central Europe, and Thing on the Roof in Central America. We just finished a second tale in the Middle East after The Fire of Asshurbanipal. We’ve been in New England and Olde England. We been in the past and the recent past. From the South Pacific and even in Antarctica. So where are we heading next?


Sub-Saharan Africa!


I was thinking of using The Mound as our first of the revision/edit tales of Lovecraft, but instead I want to begin with a really good story – well written and fun. Not a lot of Mythos elements, but with a good amount of fun.

Winged Death, by HP Lovecraft and Hazel Heald

Hazel Heald did five such stories with Lovecraft. This have been referred to as revisions, edits, ghost-writing or co-writing assignments. We’re not exactly sure of how they occurred, but the result in this case is really good.

It clocks in at 26 pages in my novel of reprints, which is smaller than the bigger ones my collections usually are.


"Winged Death" by H. P. Lovecraft

Let’s spend some time in the “Dark Continent”

Before we begin Winged Death, quick word warning. I don’t remember any Lovecraft story written solely by him using the N word. Just this and I think one other of the edits, ghost writings, revisions, co authorship stuff. Just so you are aware.

[Abe Sargent]

Synopsis of Winged Death


The scene opens with four men, a police inspector, a coroner, a doctor and a hotel manager looking over an odd scene in a motel room in South Africa. On the floor is a dead man, on the ceiling are odd signs, and in the room are odd accoutrements including an open inkwell, a container of nasty chemicals with a dead fly in it, and a few other bizarre things. The doctor picks up a journal and begins to read.


The journal is written by Dr. Thomas Slauenwite, who has decided to kill his colleague, Dr. Henry Moore. After writing some major works in the field of science and medicine, Dr. Moore discredited him somewhat by publicly revealing some letters than their tutor had written and come up with the same ideas, but died before he could publish. Slauenwite would no longer get the promised knighthood and major university position.

But he found a path to kill Moore. There is a local fly called the devil fly that bit one of his clients in Uganda. It came with an odd spectral looking purple ring around the bite. The natives claim that the devil fly sucks out your soul, and on death, your soul transfers to the fly itself. After giving the native some medicine he survives.

In gratitude, he agrees to show Slauenwite where the devil flies are. There was an outbreak of them a while ago, and killed thousands of locals, and they are in a few journals. They pass by some ruins in Zimbabwe that even the locals fear, but arrive at the place and Slauenwite captures several of the devil flies and some tainted meat for them to feed off of.

He decides to breed them with others flies ,the tsetse, to create a hybrid that Moore will not recognize. He even dyes their wings blue with a pigment, to further the disguise. He goes on holiday, grows a beard, and ships them to Moore claiming he is a fellow insect enthusiast who has this puzzle –an unidentified fly.

Sure enough, Moore loves the parcel, opens it, and eventually is bit by one of the flies. After a year or so of fighting it, he dies. There is some suspicion on Slauenwite, who decides to go into hiding with a new identity in South Africa.

After a short while, he encounters one of the blue flies, who must have been from his original parcel to Moore. It acts oddly and stalks him, eventually chasing him to his hotel, and even jumping into his inkwell and writing numbers. The fly bites Slauenwite who dies immediately from fright.

Up on the ceiling are words written by the fly, confirming that the flies are tainted, and that they are evil. He swoops into the container to commit suicide and kill the fly.

[Abe Sargent]

Review of Winged Death


I like the story a lot. It moves quickly, it’s set in an unusual place, It introduces an interesting element, and the idea of breeding a fly to kill someone is a lot of fun. It’s a good psychological piece, actually, and you could film it today with little variation.

The only Mythos element is this paragraph on the ruins in Zimbabwe they pass:

Originally Posted by Winged Death

This jungle is a pestilential place—steaming with miasmal vapours. All the lakes look stagnant. In one spot we came upon a trace of Cyclopean ruins which made even the Gallas run past in a wide circle. They say these megaliths are older than man, and that they used to be a haunt or outpost of “The Fishers from Outside”—whatever that means—and of the evil gods Tsadogwa and Clulu. To this day they are said to have a malign influence, and to be connected somehow with the devil-flies.

And there you have it, that’s it. Because it just kisses the Mythos, I think that makes it a much better story. Shoot, if I could, I would have pulled the word cyclopean to reduce it even more and just used gigantic or titanic. Because the story doesn’t have to fit the Mythos, everyone is free to breathe and have fun with it.

So here you have a crazy scientist, cross breeding the devil fly to create a new species that is just as lethal, feeding it on the tainted meat, assassinating his colleague in this way, and then being chased by the same.

It’s written well, paced decently, and is quite an interesting yarn. Because it takes place outside and away from the usual Lovecraft places, it has some nice space. You also really want to know what those ruins mark, and what are the Fishers from the Outside. Lovecraft knows when to just drop a few hints and leave well enough alone!


I actually like this better than a lot of Lovecraft’s solo work. I give it a full 4 out of 5 stars. It’s my favorite of the revisions. Some others may be more important to the Mythos, (Horror in the Museum, The Mound, etc) but this is just the best of the lot. Good job HP Lovecraft and Hazel Heald!

[Abe Sargent]

Next will be The Tree-Men of M’Bwa, by Donald Wandrei.


Donald is a minor pulp writer in the 20s and 30s. After writing letters to Lovecraft and being a part of his circle, he hitchhikes from Minnesota in 1927 to meet Lovecraft, who shows him the sights in Providence and a few other places in New England.

All in all, over the course of fifteen years or so he published more than 30 stories, but just a trickle made it out after that, found poor markets for his stuff. Two of his stories are fully enmeshed in the Mythos – The Tree-Men and The Fire Vampires. Others hit it too - such as The Lady in Grey.

Donald Wandrei is more famous for founding publishing company with August Derleth, Arkham House, which helped to keep Lovecraft alive for decades. He encountered legal problems with Reggie Barlow, another writer who was given control of Lovecraft’s estate, and even later would sue his own company for rights and such. While Derleth freely added his stories to Arkham collections, Wandrei never did so.

Despite being a very minor author (who frankly, could have benefitted from the publicity of being in these Lovecraftian collections), Wandrei held onto his copyrights and stories very tightly, and only occasionally doled them out. Today, to buy one of two short story collections, you have to pay for a high prestige printing that costs a ton of money. Much of his stuff is either dream stories or sci-fi, horror is the minority

Now, I scoured and found Wandrei’s writing collections (which were published long ago) in the Detroit Public Library and checked them out and read them. You won’t find them, legally, online. And, due to the lack of people who care about him (in large part due to the lack of press by fighting against being anthologized), there are not a lot of people who would even care to.

Now, having said that, I actually like this story. I’m glad that I tracked it down to read. So let’s take another spin here in Africa, and read The Tree-Men of M’Bwa

(There is a fun youtube link of someone reading the story. Takes about a half hour. If you want - "The Tree-Men of M'Bwa," by Donald Wandrei - YouTube.

Anyway, if you want to buy one of his collections, The Eye and Finger, published waaaay back in 1944, here’s the page to do so on Amazon:

The Eye and the Finger: Donald Wandrei: 9789997541369: Amazon.com: Books

[Abe Sargent]

Now, while we’re waiting for you to read Tree-Men, let’s look at another Lovecraft thing really quickly. Suppose you want to know more about the Fishers from the Outside and this outpost. Excellent! Lovecraft wrote a poem, that answers your desire

The Outpost
By H. P. Lovecraft

------=-O-=------
When evening cools the yellow stream,
And shadows stalk the jungle’s ways,
Zimbabwe’s palace flares ablaze
For a great King who fears to dream.

For he alone of all mankind
Waded the swamp that serpents shun;
And struggling toward the setting sun,
Came on the veldt that lies behind.

No other eyes had vented there
Since eyes were lent for human sight—
But there, as sunset turned to night,
He found the Elder Secret’s lair.

Strange turrets rose beyond the plain,
And walls and bastions spread around
The distant domes that fouled the ground
Like leprous fungi after rain.

A grudging moon writhed up to shine
Past leagues where life can have no home;
And paling far-off tower and dome,
Shewed each unwindowed and malign.

Then he who in his boyhood ran
Through vine-hung ruins free of fear,
Trembled at what he saw—for here
Was no dead, ruined seat of man.

Inhuman shapes, half-seen, half-guessed,
Half solid and half ether-spawned,
Seethed down from starless voids that yawned
In heav’n, to these blank walls of pest.

And voidward from that pest-mad zone
Amorphous hordes seethed darkly back,
Their dim claws laden with the wrack
Of things that men have dreamed and known.

The ancient Fishers from Outside—
Were there not tales the high-priest told,
Of how they found the worlds of old,
And took what pelf their fancy spied?

Their hidden, dread-ringed outposts brood
Upon a million worlds of space;
Abhorred by every living race,
Yet scatheless in their solitude.

Sweating with fright, the watcher crept
Back to the swamp that serpents shun,
So that he lay, by rise of sun,
Safe in the palace where he slept.

None saw him leave, or come at dawn,
Nor does his flesh bear any mark
Of what he met in that curst dark—
Yet from his sleep all peace has gone.

When evening cools the yellow stream,
And shadows stalk the jungle’s ways,
Zimbabwe’s palace flares ablaze,
For a great King who fears to dream.

[Abe Sargent]

Synopsis of The Tree-Men of M’Bwa

In this story, a man arrives in a Gold Coast town in West Africa and finds a dive. He intends to explore the inner area up the Congo river and past the Mountains of the Moon. He is warned off by a man missing both legs, wrapped deeply from where they were cut off.

The man warns him to head elsewhere, and reveals that he was the co-lead of an illfated mission earlier to explore the same route. He went with a scientist and himself a geologist looking for potential mining areas. He relates his story:

After splitting up, he heads into the Mountains of the Moon and quickly finds a pass through it with his local guides and porters. After a few days, they find a spot with an unusually shaped hill and they refuse to go on, telling him that this is the place of M’Bwa, and it brings bad magic. They flee after camping for the night and he pr3esses on after securing his things.

The hill opens into another hill around a circular impression, valley-like, in the earth. There is a ring of twenty-ish trees in unusual sizes but all man-shaped. In the middle is an odd red colored object that changes shape – first a cube, then a ball, then a pyramid and so forth. He pushes inwards, and one of the trees appears to look at him with human eyes. Then he notes a very old black man. He shoots him, but nothing happens. The black man finishes a battle with him, and forces a liquid down his stomach.

He awakens in the form of an unusual tree. He is given the story by another – M’Bwa has been here for centuries, before Atlantis and Egypt, and the creature M’Bwa controls is an old corpse. A few weeks later, the scientist comes looking for him and finds the area. After failing to shoot him, he grabs his machete and hews off the corpse’s head and then hacks the bottom, bloody, stump of the tree that still has a bit of the eyes and voice of the one found here. He runs off with the tree/man and eventually is attacked again by the corpse but splits the body in half.

He flees back, and unfortunately catches malaria and dies before the geologist awakens. The geologist refuses to return to Europe and stays in Africa. The man who arrived refuses to really believe that this crazy story is the case, so in anger, the geologist pulls the bandages off his legs where tree-like growths are still growing from his body, and claims he has to hack them off once a month.

[Abe Sargent]

Review of The Tree-Men of M’Bwa


I actually really like this story. A lot. The setting is fun, the idea is sharp, and the body horror in the end goes in a different direction than is normal for Mythos stuff. In my opinion, it is one of the creepiest elements of the Mythos Stories, and they have a lot of creepy moments – this is one of the best/worst for me.

This story stays with me. Now, this is not a massively impactful story. You’ll read about M’Bwa more in things like Call of Cthulhu role-playing books that explore Africa. There are no overt Mythos elements in the story at all – no mention of the Necronomicon, Azathoth, a Hound of Tindalos, or a Shoggoth. That gives the story room to breathe and grow – which I really like.

The story is also just long enough – at 10 pages total. I want to know more about M’Bwa and his mysterious object. Is It a space ship? What’s going on? Why are some of the trees very, very tall? Were they giant people who were converted? I like these sorts of questions.

And the writing is pretty keen too. This 1932 tale is much better than the next story. I give it a strong four outta five stars.



Alright, next up is the Fire Vampires, which feels more Mythos-y in a variety of ways. Ready?

[Abe Sargent]

Synopsis of The Fire Vampires


Published in 1933, in this tale, that begins in 2341, depicts the story of an unusual comet, detected by one Gustav Norby. The unusual comet is about 18 years out from our solar system and on a course that closes near Earth. Then its disappears for a few days and reappears on the edge of the solar system on the same course. It apparently accelerated past the speed of light. As it nears the earth it angles to veer towards earth, circles around, the Earth, and then heads back for Arcturus. Before it leaves, thousands of people die to an unusual form of spontaneous combustion that seems somewhat like ball lightning.

Norby is one of the few to connect these actions to intelligence. A few years later, the comet returns and another round of death occurs. This time fiery letters appear in the sky (in the language of the local folks), that tell Earth that they are now the property of the people of Ktynga, the comet that encircles them. They will return in a few years to harvest some more humans, and they demand that four specific people be among those killed.

They return a few years later and Norby, one of the four who was demanded, refuses to show, and they kill 100000 people instead in punishment. The red fire-like creatures dance about, harvesting souls. One blueish one hovers about, calling himself FTHAGGUA, LORD OF KTYNGA.

The comet leaves and returns a few years later, with Norby offering himself this time. The blue one bends down, but he captures it in a flame trap and then shocks it with massive amounts of electricity, killing it. As Fthaggua falls, the other fire vampires disappear. Ktynga becomes another satellite of Earth, much like the moon. It appears that there was never more than one creature, and the rest were like its fingers. Gustav Norby figured it out, and saved the world.

[Abe Sargent]

Review of The Fire Vampires


This is a particularly grim story. Gustav Norby intentionally keeps himself from submitting to the fire vampires, knowing they had pledged to kill a hundred thousand people in response. There are vast rebellions, banditry, looting, and devastations to the earth after the comet arrives. It’s a dark story.

It’s also not a very futuristic one. I’m not a fan of setting a story far into the future as a plot device, and then making no major changes to the world. You are a writer of weird fiction – you can easily add flying cards, or jetpacks, or people colonizing others worlds, but nope. People are still sailing by boat across the Atlantic and reading newspapers from stands. Come on, work a little, won’t you?

That comes off as lazy. At that point, just set it in 1941, eight years after publication, and move on.

Like Tree-Men, this work has no mention of any Mythos element – although it is incorporated into it later. Fire Vampire is the name given the race by Norby, not their actual name, but it stuck in the Mythos. The character of Fthaggua would be later made the high priest of a nasty creature that will be created by August Derleth in 1944 in a particularly uncreative moment.

Just 2.5 stars outta 5 for the reasons cited above.


Anyway, there are other works by Don that either are fully Mythos (The Lady in Grey mentions Hali, Carcosa, and Cthulhu) or feel that way (Spawn of the Sea). But these two are the only stops on the Wandrei mobile we’ll make before heading back into Gen 1 land.

[Abe Sargent]

Next Stop, Ithaqua, by August Derleth – this is either late Gen 1 or early Gen 2 (1941). It uses Gen 1 stuff and fleshes out his own creation in The Thing that Walked on the Wind. This story is very important because this is where Derleth solidifies his creation and makes it more tangible (by a bit at least). Ithaqua becomes one of the more popular additions to the Mythos in the 30s and 40s. I actually think Derleth handles this character better than Lloigar and Zhar (in Lair of the Star-Spawn, which we already read)or Cthugha or a few others. So let’s look at this story that delves into the nature of the character, and explore Ithaqua!

[Abe Sargent]

Review of Ithaqua

In Canada, the mounted police have been under heavy suspicion for failing to solve a disappearance by one Henry Lucas that happened in Cold Harbor eight years previously by Constable James French. However, the case was solved long ago, and the department chooses to reveal French’s last submission and report to the department.

When investigating the area, it appears that Lucas left his house and then the footprints in the snow show him disappearing some distance from his house, and nothing else is marked in the snow at all. The investigation into Locus showed that he was generally disliked, especially by the local Native Americans. One drunken night he went out and insulted their religion, which appears to have really upset him.

After drawing a blank in his investigation, a local Priest suggests that he head out into the woods to check out some unusual rock patterns. He finds three circles of stone out there, with central altars at each, and a lot of activity by local natives. But he also finds a shoeprint identical to Lucas that appears here, and he moves around frantically before being picked up again.

Suddenly, he begins to feel something, odd. He looks about and encounters a whirling shape that is formless, but with two haunting eyes. Scared, he runs back to Cold Harbor, and the priest confirms his thoughts. This was Ithaqua, who has been worshipped by the local natives for millennia – their Asiatic stock runs deep. He explains in detail who Ithaqua is believed to be.

The local natives sacrifice their own children to the altars to feed Ithaqua. Then suddenly Lucas’s body is found, still alive, but deathly cold. They watch over him for a few hours, but he dies, but near the end, begins to spout paranoid delusions. It appears Lucas saw much that Constable French observed as well. He was taken by Ithaqua.

French orders his documents prepared and purchases dynamite to head out and blast the altars and destroy them. He is not heard from for days. Another constable is sent to destroy the altars as planned and does so, but not before French is found again, in a similar state as Lucas. Even the local Native population is rounded up and dispersed among the provinces to break up their worship of Ithaqua.

[Abe Sargent]

Synopsis of Ithaqua

Derleth actually has a really good story here. Again, I enjoy the Canadian location, the interaction with Natives, and the weak presence Ithaqua actually has. The investigation by a Mountie is fun, fast paced, and the story is decent. There are some issues and questions.

What is with this Priest? I thought all of his information might have been explained away because he was working with the Natives or a secret admirer of Ithaqua or perhaps a hunter thereof and an enemy of Ithaqua, or whatever, but nope. That’s odd.

Again, Derleth’s prose is cleaning up, he really likes the subject, and he’s not putting his foot into his mouth with his normal fluff. There are no Enemies of the Old Ones to call down (such as in Lair of the Star-Spawn), and no pulling back the curtain to explain everything. Even the stuff on Ithaqua is kept suitably solid.

So therefore, I actually think this is the best Derleth story we have read so far, and I give it a pretty good 3.5 stars out of 5.

[Abe Sargent]

Alright, next I want to move back to the Master for another key Mythos tale, The Whisperer in Darkness. It’s very long, and in my anthology, it clocks in at an incredible 57 pages, just two shy of The Shadow Out of Time. In Shadow, Lovecraft introduced both the Flying Polyp and the Great Race of Yith. Now he is going to introduce another race, the Mi-Go to the Mythos. Expect to see them later.

Published in 1931, this story shares with much of his later stuff a tendency to be more a science-fiction based story, not your typical fantasy fare with cultists (or natives) and pseudo-demons that gain power due to sacrifices. Get ready to enjoy!

"The Whisperer in Darkness" by H. P. Lovecraft

[Abe Sargent]

Synopsis of The Whisperer in Darkness


This story basically has two parts. The first accounts for two main characters and what is happening with them. The second is the subsequent story as things have shifted.

Dr. Albert Witmarth, at Miskatonic University, is a professor in linguistics and studies New England lore and culture. During a flood in 1927, a few odd things are seen in the waters in the first day washed out – in three places, odd crablike creatures are seen by backwoods folk. Dr. Wilmarth dismisses them as part of a collective myth-cycle that appears to everyone.

After he writes a particularly eviscerating article for a local paper, one Henry Akeley writes to him to detail some of his own person encounters with the creatures spoken of, and has evidence. They exchange letters for weeks, and during that time, Akeley reveals more and more about the Mi-Go, a crablike humanoid creature, with a set of wings. They have colonized part of Earth with mining colonies for minerals they don’t have on one of the local planets of Yuggoth. He shows pictures of footprints by the Mi-Go, a strange black stone goes missing when he sends it to Witmarth, and they have been attacking late at night.

As things look very rough, Akeley sends a letter letting Witmarth know that everything is now fine. He has established communication with the Mi-Go and learned so much from them. Apparently, a third party that serves Cthulthu and other old creatures have been attacking the Mi-Go, who are apparently fungoid in nature, and fly back to their outposts and planets with their wings in space. The Mi-Go just want to be left alone to mine quietly. They could take over Earth any time if they cared, but they want to mine in peace.

Witmarth is invited to Akeley’s farm and arrives to meet him, bringing the evidence to cross reference it. Akeley is falling badly, and speaks to him from a distance, and his face and hands look rather pale. There is an odd sensation in the air, but Witmarth can’t trace it. But it’s definitely Akeley, the face matches perfectly to the various pictures.

Akeley explains the universe and eventually tells Witmarth that the Mi-Go want to take them both with them to Yuggoth and beyond. They will surgically remove their brains, and then put them in these canisters, which are then hooked up to machines and sense, speak, and talk. They become immortal. He has Witmarth plug in the machine for one of the canisters and talks with someone from Tibet who has visited countless stars and planets.

Disgusted, after retiring for bed, Witmarth breaks out and seeks Akeley to find him, but cannot. He searches quietly, and searches the area. After he discovers what was on the chair he flees the place immediately. Behind was the area, lacking the sensation that he had before, and with Akeley’s head and hands, no longer attached to his body, and corpse-like. There is a container with his name on it.

[Abe Sargent]

Review of The Whisperer of Darkness

I don’t think any other Lovecraft story better demonstrates his view of the cosmos outside of Earth than this one. Allow me to demonstrate the universe, as per Lovecraft:

Even now I absolutely refuse to believe what he implied about the constitution of ultimate infinity, the juxtaposition of dimensions, and the frightful position of our known cosmos of space and time in the unending chain of linked cosmos-atoms which makes up the immediate super-cosmos of curves, angles, and material and semi-material electronic organization.

Never was a sane man more dangerously close to the arcana of basic entity—never was an organic brain nearer to utter annihilation in the chaos that transcends form and force and symmetry. I learned whence Cthulhu first came, and why half the great temporary stars of history had flared forth. I guessed—from hints which made even my informant pause timidly—the secret behind the Magellanic Clouds and globular nebulae, and the black truth veiled by the immemorial allegory of Tao. The nature of the Doels was plainly revealed, and I was told the essence (though not the source) of the Hounds of Tindalos. The legend of Yig, Father of Serpents, remained figurative no longer, and I started with loathing when told of the monstrous nuclear chaos beyond angled space which the Necronomicon had mercifully cloaked under the name of Azathoth. It was shocking to have the foulest nightmares of secret myth cleared up in concrete terms whose stark, morbid hatefulness exceeded the boldest hints of ancient and mediaeval mystics. Ineluctably I was led to believe that the first whisperers of these accursed tales must have had discourse with Akeley’s Outer Ones, and perhaps have visited outer cosmic realms as Akeley now proposed visiting them.


This is a thoroughly science-fiction story, and that makes wonderful reading in the light right now. One of the things you’ll note is the lack of true science fiction stories in many of the Mythos Stories. Sure, a knife, or rock, or entity might have once been from the stars, but then all you have to do is sacrifice a baby, innocent, virgin, etc on that altar, knife, etc and you gain power, summoning, etc. Or else you intone various words from an eldritch tome that leads to a summoning of some outer creature to punish you for your impudence. It feels very un-scifi. Even Lovecraft has stories like the evil Cultists of old (check out something prosaic, such as The Diary of Alonzo Typer by Lovecraft).

The dialogue in here is a bit tedious, and the story a bit long on the detail and short on the plot. Yet the language and content keep me going to the end breezily. I give it a 3 outta 5. Not Lovecraft’s best, but better than stuff like The Thing on the Doorstep or something)

[Abe Sargent]

Okay, next I want to do a group of stories by Henry Kuttner. Who is Henry, and how does he connect with Lovecraft?


At the young age of 20, in 1936, Henry Kuttner published his first short stories in the pulps, both of which were set in Lovecraft’s Mythos. He had been writing back and forth with Lovecraft for a few years, and it was Lovecraft that suggested he write to CL Moore ,a popular science fiction writer.

As you may recall, CL Moore is one of the early women authors in the genre of consequence ,and we’ve already read her a bit in The Challenge from Beyond, where she was probably the best actual author next to major name like Merritt, Howard and Lovecraft. Kuttner thought she was a man, and you can imagine the awkwardness of that! Anyway, both Moore and Kuttner were in the Lovecraft Circle and introduced by him. Eventually, in 1940, they would marry, and author a lot of stories together.

In fact, his pay was a bit better than hers, so sometimes they would publish her stories under his name to get the better pay. They would finish each other’s stories and help through writing block. He died early at the age of 42 in 1958.

Kuttner was an interesting author. He loved the Mythos, and wrote a variety of stories, some of which made some additions to the Mythos. He is an important Gen 1 author. He also began to write some Conan-inspired stuff with the character of Elak of Atlantis.

Now, after he cut his teeth on these homages, he began to move to hard sci-fi, and because a very talented author. His legacy is tarnished a bit by writing knock offs of Lovecraft and Howard at first (but even Lovecraft wrote knock offs of Dunsany and Poe in his early days). Some of his Sci-FI stories were downright classics that time has forgotten a bit. (Part of this reputation was covered by using a ton of pseudonyms)

Check out Mimsy Were the Borogoves, (co-written with Moore) which was so good, it made the cut by the Science Fiction Writers of America in 1965 in their Anthology of The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, 1929-1964.

CL Moore, despite living until 76 in 1987, slowed down and stopped writing soon after her husband’s death. She just wasn’t able to write anymore. She also never wrote a bunch of Mythos tales like her future husband would. (CL Moore made it in the 3rd class of inductions into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame). (A Merritt, by the way, made it in the 4th class).

We will be looking at a few Kuttner tales to examine this guy at the beginning of his writing, and see where he is, and what he gives the Mythos.

[Abe Sargent]

I picked up the Book of Iod, a collection with 13 stories, most of which were early Mythos tales by Kuttner. I want to start with a later story by him from 1939. It’s creepier and more flavorful than some of his earlier stuff, so let’s begin here, and then work our way back.

Bells of Horror

It’s a lovely story, that was never anthologized until the mid-80s. Some of Kuttner’s tales are online and available for free. Perhaps this one wasn’t. It wasn’t published under his name, so the general Lovecraft fan may not have had this in their collections since it was written in 1939 and then neither connected with Kuttner nor the Mythos generally. So unless your Google skills surpass mine (which wouldn’t surprise me at all) it’s not there. We’ll get some later stuff though, so yay!

The best I can do is a preview from Google Books that has the first three pages, and then a few here and there:

Tales of the Lovecraft Mythos - Google Books

[Abe Sargent]

Synopsis of Bells of Horror


The lost bells of the Mission San Xavier were found, and then destroyed before even being hung and rung. The California Historical Society has been accused of destroying old items without giving them their proper due. So the secretary, who was there, begins to relate the tale to end some of these whispers.

The Bells were uncovered in a cave in the Pinos Range, and there is a carving on the cave saying that no one should hang the evil bells of the Mutsune people. Some unusual things were happening, according to expedition leader Todd, and the secretary of the CHS leaves to arrive on the scene. Open arrival, the secretary notes some unusual things, including a frog who smashed his eyes out against rocks. His own eyes are itching terribly as he ascends the ridge. One of the workers stumbles down the hill having done the same thing to his eyes, gouged them out. He smashes into a tree while running full speed down the hill and dies. They suspect that gases released from the expedition are an irritant to the eyes.

Arthur Todd, the leader of the expedition, Denton is assistant, and some locals arrive at the scene. They refuse to help anymore with the expedition and leave. Todd, Denton, and the secretary head back to the three Bells of San Xavier. They found a scroll tube with parchment relating the story of the Bells – they were hung and rung, and an evil demon called Zuchequon was called from his dwelling in the darkness, and brought black night across the area. The bells were removed and hidden away.

The bells are taken down, but not before crushing another assistant dead.

The secretary does some research in the Book of Iod, translated by Johann Negus, from the Huntington Library. There is a passage from the Book that is transcribed and read, that includes the Dark Silent One on the shore of the Western Ocean. He can be called to the surface before his time, he is Zushakon to others, be he has no name.

The Bells are hung later on at the Mission of San Xavier. Soon an earthquake hits and one of the bells rings. The bells clang against each other, and soul-wrenching feelings emerge from everyone nearby, and the day begins to deepen and darken. Soon enough, light is totally exhausted. Denton leads the two to the Mission. They penetrate the church and head up the stairs, but all are feeling very disquieted. They are tempted to put out their eyes – darkness is soothing, and welcoming, and keeps one away from the bright lights and harsh sun.

Denton manages to unhinge the bells, and the darkness fades. They had nearly fallen to the suggestions of Zuquechon. The bells are destroyed soon after. A few months later, an eclipse hits California. The old sensations arise again, and Todd calls the secretary. He is succumbing to the feelings. The secretary grabs the car ,heads out, and finds Todd dead, having shot himself with his pistol after being forced to put out his own eyes. It seems like Zuchequon was not sent back as thought, but may already be here…

[Abe Sargent]

Review of Bells of Horror


One thing I don’t like about this story, and let’s get it out the way now, it the massive amount of blood and gore here. You have people [putting out their eyes, being crushed by bells, severed heads, and more. It’s not real horror, and I think its lazy writing. It hurts the story. Keep in the gouged eyes, remove the rest of the gore, and you have a better, more atmospheric story.

Kuttner will get a lot better after all, but here we see him as a decent writer. The piece has a nice mood, and it also introduces The Book of Iod to the mythos, as well as Zuchequon, who’s a minor character, but fun. Like many recent stories, it has no aspects of the old Mythos in it. There is no mention of Yog-Sothoth or Miskatonic University. But it’s fully in flavor and ensconced in the Mythos.

I like the story overall, its fun to be set in California, and have bells that ring in darkness. Fun idea. I don’t like the backstory that much of the Bells – that sacrifices were done to bring bad magic on them. Feh – too much of that in the Mythos. Nevertheless, Kuttner does a solid here.


3 stars outta 5.

[Abe Sargent]

Alright, next up will be interesting. I’m considering The Invaders, The Salem Horror, and others. But let’s shift genres a bit and move to The Eater of Souls. It’s a mighty 4 pages in my Book of Iod collection. I’ve never read it either! So let’s read Kuttner together, for the first time. I’ll even time myself!

It clocked it at 6 minutes and 14 seconds. Whoa ho! Alright, let’s discus this one quickly – it’s really a piece of flash fiction or mood writing:

[Abe Sargent]

Synopsis and Review of The Eater of Souls


This story, published in early 1937, was one of a few Lovecraft commented on that year before he died. Eater of Souls is a clear Dunsany throwback. If you like Dunsany, you’ll enjoy The Eater of Souls.

The piece is short. It begins in far off Bel Yarnak, beyond Betelgeuse and the Great Stars. A creature called the Eater of Souls has arrived, and it is the responsibility of a local ruler, the Sindara, to fight him off. After being prepared by the local hydromancers and necromancers with various weapons, he has a vision from the god, Vorvadoss, who predicts doom. After encountering the Soul Eater and losing, the Sindra gets a vision from Vorvadoss, and as he merges with the Soul eater, flings the creature and himself off the cliff and to their doom.


I was surprised by some of the well written phrases in this story. For example, take this:

“An intolerable agony ground frightfully within the Sindara’s bone and flesh; the citadel of his being rocked, and his soul cowered shrieking in its chamber”

It’s very evocative stuff.

This story introduces Vorvadoss, and is a quick stop on Kuttner Lane. I give it a surprising 3.5 stars out of 5.


I thought about swinging by his other major Dunsany-like tale, The Jest of Droom-Avista. It’s also four pages, and I’ve never read it. Let me read it really quickly, and see if I want to use it for this Mythos dynasty or not.

I actually do like it. A lot. So I’m adding it.

[Abe Sargent]

Synopsis and Review of The Jest of Droom-Avista


Set again on Bel Yarnak, a city and beautiful place of beauty, gold silver and jewels. This 1937 piece from him explores the Black Minaret, a power of the area that is worshipped and served by powerful magicians, who seek to create the philosopher’s stone and create the rarest of metals on Bel Yarnak. The most powerful mage, Thorazor, has quested his life, but failed and failed again. Frustrated, he calls:


“Not the little gods, nor the gods of good and evil, but Droom-avista, the Dweller Beyond, the Dark Shining One, Thorazor called up from the darkness.”

Droom-avista relents to the wizard’s request and leaves behind a gem. The Stone! Thorazor creates the Elixir in his golden pot, and screams in delight as the potion is completed, and turns into the rarest of metals on Bel Yarnak. It continues, and in a flash, the stand, the table are turned, as is Thorazor himself, and soon, the city of Bel Yarnak is turned, quickly and quietly, into the rare metal.

No longer Bel Yarnak, but now Dis, City of Iron.


So here we have Droom-avista and another Bel Yarnak story. Apparently there are just these two. I couldn’t find Droom-avista in my Encyclopedia Cthuliana, but the story is listed as a Mythos tale. Although Bel Yarnak is listed briefly, as are the events of this story.

Anyway, it’s another fun story, quick and easy to read, and a lot of fun.


I give it 3 stars outta 5. Not written quite as well, although I like the plot better.

[Abe Sargent]

Where to next? Let’s hit up the 18-pound gorilla. The Salem Horror.

None of Kuttner’s Lovecraft tales are as well known as this one. It was in one of the first anthologies, Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos. This book helped to launch the Mythos as a concept and kept alive a lot of names and people. Because of its inclusion in that work, it’s a seminal Mythos tale.

But before that, we need to grab something else instead. I want to swing by and pick up a Lovecraft story that The Salem Horror is evoking. We should read the master first.


So let’s interject this Kuttner fest with The Dreams in the Witch-House


You can find this work here:

http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary...witchhouse.htm

Published in 1932, it also clocks in at 32 pages in my anthology, so it’ll take a while to read. Typical Lovecraft, eh?

[Abe Sargent]

Synopsis and Review of The Dreams in the Witch House


I wanted to show you Lovecraft at arguably his lowest (either this or Thing on the Doorstep) are among his worst Mythos works. It also has a Christianization of the Mythos, as Crucifixes work and the Black Man is arguably Satan with his black robe, coal black skin, and cloven hoofed feet. So before we see this move as purely non-Lovecraft authors, we need to see this story for what it is.

It’s a normal, haunted house story. From The House with Seven Gables or The Fall of the House of Usher through The Haunting of Hill House, this is a very common sub-genre of horror. And Lovecraft begins with the ideas of mathematics and physics as the foundation to explain these things. But then quickly he derails. The language is not there, the resonance is not there, and the story lacks realistic merit.

Even August Derleth was unimpressed, calling it a poor story to Lovecraft’s face in a letter. Lin Carter calls in unimaginative and one dimensional. Others have been equally unsympathetic. I completely agree. This story reads more like a bad Gen 1 story by another author than it does by Lovecraft himself.. That’s not a good thing. I expect more.

I gave it just 2 out of 5 stars.




Now, let’s compare it to one of Henry Kuttner’s most famous Mythos talks, The Salem Horror, which is an obvious homage to Dreams . So, which one will be better? The Master’s bad tale, or the Student’s good tale?


The Salem Horror is also online!


http://www.donaldcorrell.com/kuttner/shorror.html

[Abe Sargent]

Synopsis of The Salem Horror

Centuries before, a famous witch in Salem, one Abigail Prinn, was staked and buried in the local graveyard, but not before supposedly cursing the town. Her house was always hard to rent due to rat problems. A recent renter, Carson, is a popular author who has sold several light romance novels. He has come to get some isolation and write his next novel.

One day, Carson leaves to chase down a rat, who is acting very strangely. Ultimately, Carson forces the rat into a hole, and then crosses the spot in front of the hole to place a trap later. The rat refuses to come out, and he finds a ledge with an old handhold.

Pushing it open, he reveals a small hallways that ends at a room Carson labels the Witch Room. It’s beautiful, with many ornate gems, and such in a huge mosaic on the floor, centering on a large metal disk, with some ancient writings on the wall. Carson heads up, and phones his landlord, and gets wring and such sent here – it’s a perfect place to study.

A week later, an Occultist named Leigh stops by from California. He convinces Carson to let him see the Witch Room, which Carson has gotten tired of showing. He asks some questions “what happened to the rat” and quotes some etchings about something called Nyogtha. Carson admits that his writing has been much more lucid since using the Witch Room

Leigh suggests that the Room is sort of an echo chamber for something other than echoes, and concentrates and sends out thought. Leigh leaves. The next day, Carson awakes with a vivid dream that fades ,and meanwhile, someone has opened up the grave of Abigail Prinn and exhumed her body and killed a recent Polish immigrant. Carson uncovers the scene later that day.

Leigh suggests that Carson was controlled by the powers of the Witch Room, and now an undead Prinn is moving about. He looked up Nyogtha in the Necronomicon and has a passage quoted for Carson, who refuses to believe it. Leigh offers Carson $10,000 to leave the house, but Carson refuses. Leigh tells him that that’s because he has been hooked in.

Carson falls asleep and spends most of the day in bed. He awakens to find himself in the Witch Room as a black thing has emerged. A severely mummified creature is there, Abigail Prinn. She begins the summoning to pull Nyogtha into this world, but Leigh busts in with some sort of tincture and uses it to disrupt the ceremony, free Carson from his sleep paralysis, and send Prinn back.

[Abe Sargent]

Review of The Salem Horror


It’s not the best Kuttner work, but it does introduce Nyogtha. It was edited by Lovecraft, after the original script was rejected by Weird Tales. Lovecraft mentions that the work is a bit too fast with the horror elements, and does not build up tension. He also suggests that it’s hard to believe over centuries that no one else was in the room, so did this happen every time? He suggests making some changes. The only major changes Kuttner would make were about Salem itself, and making it more realistic after additional research.

And I agree with HP Lovecraft. Kuttner’s story lacks the pace and proper speed. For example, what was the rat? It’s an important plot point, and no mistake that the witch, Prinn, is kept back by a cross just as the rat was by a cross in the ground. Is the rat Prinn? But she was in the coffin at the time. Was it a manifestation of Nyogtha? Was it something else? Why did we drop that plot point after spending a few pages with the rat?

So, it’s not exactly barn storming. It suffices. I give it 2 out of 5 stars as well.

And which one is better? Really, I’m not a fan of either. So I’ll hit up just one more tale from this Gen 1 era, and then we’ll launch forward to the really strong stories that will come later.


I want to start hitting up really, really strong stories from later writers.

[Abe Sargent]

The last story we'll be doing in Gen 1 for a while is here for the historical interest. It's "The Black Kiss" which is written by both Henry Kuttner and Robert Bloch.

Now, recall that Bloch is a major writer of horror. His books were turned into films, and he is a big name for decades (among which is Psycho). He's a powerful and popular writer of his era. Bloch is.

Meanwhile you have Kuttner, another strong writer (later on for Sci Fi) who has more like pastiches of RE Howard and his Conan in one place, and Lovecraft and Cthulhu in others starting out. Both are still young, and this is among the first works ether will publish.

First published in 1937


Like many others, these two found each other by Lovecraft, who hooked them up. Lovecraft is, in my opinion, the 20th century's greatest epistolarian. There were times when he'd skip meals to afford postage to send letters. His letters were long, deep, usually about writing, and would often be 20, 40, or 75 pages long.



Anyways, I can't find a online copy of the story, so you would need it from various anthologies and such. Kuttner died a while ago, early on in his career, but Bloch was around for ages, and thus his family held onto his stuff longer and ,much of it hasn;t become free.

[Abe Sargent]

Synopsis of “The Black Kiss”


A young artist named Dean inherited an ancient house from his family north of San Pedro, along the beach, and near a small rocky cove. He finds the place brilliant for isolation and working on his art. He is meeting with a local Doctor after suffering very lucid dreams here. He tells the doctor the story of the house. His ancestor built it when California was still Spanish, and then went home to Spain before coming back with a wife, Morella.

Rumors are that Morella was a Moorish decent, from a strain of people that practiced black magic, and that she kept herself unnaturally young by performing foul rites. As his nightmares are of the sea, the Doctor believes that the legends about the house and Morella are pushing his dreams, and he prescribes some special drugs, and on the way out, Dean tells him that the dreams started before he found out about Morella.

On the way home, he gets the drugs and uses them. Then he finds a telegram at his house from a uncle Michael, a famous occult researcher. He tells Dean that he just heard he had inherited the house and was living ther,e and for him t ooove out for now, and see a Dr. yamada. The drugs ar estarting to work, it’s late at night, and the Dr lives far away. So Dean stays the night in his house.

Later that night he has a dream of heading into the cove at night, where there is a black unlit cave, nd heading in there, and will be kissed by some unknown, unseeable beautiful lips. The black kiss makes him feel a bit wrong and evil. He wakes later.

The next day, Dr Yamada arrives after getting a call from Michael, who is flying home from India to visit. He is an occultist, and he tells Dean about the history, and these dark and evil sea people that can shift forms, haunt boats, capture minds, and more. He suspects that Morella still lives, plying her trade in the bay, and has been the source of Dean’s nightmares. Dean lies about being kissed in the dream, but agrees to let the Dr stay with him. His uncle should be heading back soon.

That night hs falls asleep and awakens swimming in the bay. For three hours he is swimming with lizard/fish like creatures that have an odd language he understands and feels at home. Then he sees the Dr and himself walking to the beach, cautiously. He looks down at his body and realizes he is in the dark, twisted, form that mimic humanity, but has scales and such. He remembers that earlier the creature brought him to the cave, and again kissed him, this time switching minds.

He heads to shore a while later, and sees his uncle, Dr Yamada, and himself/Morella move. He spies Morella in the cave, slow and still trying to get adjusted to the new body. The others arrive, and she moves out from the cave and he arrives in her body. He sees her palpable evil in his eyes. The two occultists spy him coming to shore, and grab guns. He launches himself at his own body and bites down on her neck as bullets slam into him. He slays Morella in his body as he dies himself.

[Abe Sargent]

Review of “The Black Kiss”

All reviews are spoiler free, unless otherwise mentioned, except often for the first page or two.

This is another story with light Mythos elements, the basic core is here. Having read The Shadow Over Innsmouth, you probably already suspect that Morella is a Deep One hybrid as soon as he explains the history in the first two pages. Whether or not that’ll be the case is never stated, which is nice, but again, we won’t know.

I do like that Dr Yamada, a Japanese occultist, is never caricatured, in the middle of a Yellow Peril era of Asian stereotypes all over pulps. He;s actually pretty interesting as an expert on this stuff and explains it well.

The Black Kiss is an interesting thing. Standing on its own, it’s a story written by two major writers, in their youth. So the story lacks big ideas. It’s not like other stories that have really clever or interesting ideas. And the detail in places is intentionally missing to push home points of horror. It has some minor body horror aspects, I suppose, but it’s really just a decent horror story, using a lot of conventions of the genre.

With it’s lack of ideas, weak characterization of the lead, a tendency for too much talking and not enough seeing, and the plot needing a lack of details in places, the story isn’t one I’d put in a ist of the best horror stuff of all time. In fact, I’m including it here as an interesting historical picture of the combination of two major authors. But I do think it’s better that The Salem Horror. It has an earnestness to it that works and it avoids some issues that could have been landmines in other authors pens.

So I’m giving it a 2.5 star rating.

[Abe Sargent]

If you’ll recall, I’ve discussed before my view on the Mythos:

Generation 0 – Pre-Lovecraft stories that evoke, remind, and are adopted into the Mythos.
Generation 1 – Lovecraft and his immediate circle, up until a few years after his death around 1940.
Generation 2 – Built on Gen 1 stories, and the major pusher of this age is Arham House publishing and Auguest Derleth
Generation 3 – Starting around 1960, stories that push the genre, push against Derleth, and change the Mythos. Lin Carter kind of takes things and pushes them around and popularizes them again as editor.
Generation 4 - Today. From around 1980 through today.

Now I’m giving you my personal reviews of stories in the Mythos as well. I give them on a 5 star rating. For me, a 5 is a absolute masterpiece of fiction. 4.5 nearly so, with a few flaws. I rate Call of Cthulhu as 4.5 because I think there are some pacing things, and the racial aspects of the tribes can be a bit heavy. A 4 is a great story. Even a 3.5 is very trong, but starting to show flaws, and 3.0 is a good read.

Now I put most of the high quality Gen 1 stories early. You already read Shadow Over Innsmouth or The Seven Geases. I also loaded up the Gen 0 stuff with The Yellow Sign, another 5 start master.

So we’ve used up every 3+ star story from Gen 1 I know of by someone other than HPL himself. . There’s not that many writers in Gen 1, and they are writing for just about 10-13 years. It’s all Lovecraft’s assembled Circle of Writers. We’ve read most of those here. Some didn’t write a lot of Mythos stories (like Fritz Leiber or CL Moore) and others have been all up and down this list.

So what I really want to do is to push forward. The only stuff we’ve done so far is Gens 0-1 (except for one Gen 2 piece by Bloch that’s a sequel to a Lovecraft piece that’s a sequel to a Bloch piece).

By pushing forward, I can give you some of the best stuff moving forward.

Now I’m actually going to dance around a bit in Gens 2-4, as they are sometimes very similar in theme. Although Gen 2 is Derleth;s, 3 is Carters, and 4is no one’s, there are still similar, building-on-earlier-generations concept that’s quite strong. And there are good Gen 4 tales out there that don’t mention any later works after Lovecraft’s, and aren’t building off other writers in subsequent generations

One thing I thought would be fun is to fast forward to later story to show a major name, in a recent story, that is really, really good, and to see where things are right now. There have been times when the Mythos was sort of looked down on, and many writers were not writing authentic Lovecraft pieces, just stories of major genre-fication that have a few Mythos elements tacked on (often poor stories at that with tentacles, sacrifices, and the Necronomicon).

But there are lots of stories by major authors (and some major ones by lesser known talent) that are really, really good at doing what you want. Many won major awards.

So I want to start with a recent story, that really does something odd:

Say hello to 2004. Neil Gaiman writes a short story called, “a Study in Emerald”, which combines all of the fun of the Cthulhu mythos with the Sherlock Holmes one. A detective story, straight from Baker Street to you. This story won the Hugo Award for best short story of the year.

And the best thing?

It’s actually online!

Check it out and see for yourself:

http://www.neilgaiman.com/mediafiles...es/emerald.pdf


It's a great award winning story!


Now I did not give you that much time for the Black Kiss, as it's not reallly easily available. But for this? Man you all need to read it! SO I'm taking a few days for you to.

[Abe Sargent]

So here's what I'm seeing right now.

Gen 4 stories to push stuff around, and then roll back a bit:


Neil Gaiman's "A Study in Emerald"
Lawrence Watt Evans "Pickman's Modem"
Roger Zelazny's "24 Views of Mt. Fuji, by Hokusai"

And then these are in the queue sooner or later:


Basil Copper's "Shaft Number 247" or perhaps "Beyond the Reef"
Kim Newman's "Big Fish" or "A Quarter to Three"
Neil Gaiman's "Only the End of the World Again"
F. "The Barrens"
Maybe one or two stories by Alan Dean Foster
Stephen King's "Jerusalem's Lot:"

And then a few by lesser known authors that are good

And then I suspect a slide back to Gen 3 and a serous commitment to Ramsey Campbell for a bunch of stories.

And then Lin Carter, more Derleth, stuff like that.

Anyways, that's what I'm currently looking at right now.


And that is all very flexible as well. I could add stuff, move stuff, remove stuff, etc.


I looked at some other stories, like Harlan Ellison's or Barbara Hambleys, etc.

[Abe Sargent]

Synopsis of "A Study in Emerald"



Narrator, a retired army major, returns to Albion from Afghanistan, where gods and men are savages unwilling to be ruled by London, Berlin, or Moscow. The Afghan cave-folk tortured Major by offering him to a leech-mouthed thing in an underground lake; the encounter withered his shoulder and shredded his nerves. Once a fearless marksman, he now screams at night. Evicted from his London lodgings, he’s introduced to a possible roommate in the laboratories at St. Bart’s. This fellow, whom Major soon calls “my friend,” quickly deduces his background. He won’t mind screaming if Major won’t mind Friend’s irregular hours, his use of the sitting room for target practice and meeting clients, or the fact that he’s selfish, private, and easily bored.

The two take rooms in Baker Street. Major wonders at the miscellany of Friend’s clients and his uncanny deductive powers. One morning Inspector Lestrade visits. Major sits in on their meeting and learns that Friend is London’s only consulting detective, aiding more traditional investigators who find themselves baffled. He accompanies Friend to a murder scene. Friend has a feeling they’ve fought the good fight together in the past or future, and he trusts Major as he trusts himself.

The victim lies in a cheap bedsit, sliced open, his green blood sprayed everywhere like a gruesome study in emerald. Someone’s used this ichor to write on the wall: RACHE. Lestrade figures that’s a truncated RACHEL, so better look for a woman. Friend disagrees. He’s already noted, of course, that the victim’s of the blood royal—come on, the ichor, the number of limbs, the eyes? Lestrade admits the corpse was Prince Franz Drago of Bohemia, her Majesty Victoria’s nephew. Friend suggests RACHE might be “Revenge” in German, or it might have another meaning—look it up. Friend collects ash from beside the fireplace, and the two leave. Major’s shaken—he’s never seen a Royal before. Well, he’ll soon see a live one, for a Palace carriage awaits them, and some invitations can’t be rejected.

At the Palace, they meet Prince Albert (human), and then the Queen. Seven hundred years ago, she conquered Albion (hence Victoria—the human mouth can’t speak her real name.) Huge, many-limbed, squatting in shadow, she speaks telepathically to Friend. She tells Major he’s to be Friend’s worthy companion. She touches his wounded shoulder, causing first profound pain, then a sense of well-being. This crime must be solved, the Queen says.

At home, Major sees that his frog-white scar is turning pink, healing.

Friend assumes many disguises as he pursues the case. At last he invites Major to accompany him to the theater. The play impresses Major. In “The Great Old Ones Come,” people in a seaside village observe creatures rising from the water. A priest of the Roman God claims the distant shapes are demons and must be destroyed. The hero kills him and all welcome the Old Ones, shadows cast across the stage by magic lantern: Victoria, the Black One of Egypt, the Ancient Goat and Parent of a Thousand who’s emperor of China, the Czar Unanswerable of Russia, He Who Presides over the New World, the White Lady of the Antarctic Fastness, others.

Afterwards Friend goes backstage, impersonating theatrical promoter Henry Camberley. He meets the lead actor, Vernet, and offers him a New World tour. They smoke pipes on it, with Vernet supplying his own black shag as Camberley’s forgotten his tobacco. Vernet says he can’t name the play’s author, a professional man. Camberley asks that this author expand the play, telling how the dominion of the Old Ones has saved humanity from barbarism and darkness. Vernet agrees to sign contracts at Baker Street the next day.

Friend hushes Major’s questions until they’re alone in a cab. He believes Vernet’s the “Tall Man” whose footprints he observed at the murder site, and who left shag ash by its fireplace. The professional author must be “Limping Doctor,” Prince Franz’s executioner—limping as deduced from his footprints, doctor by the neatness of his technique.

After the cab lets them out at Baker Street, the cabby ignores another hailer. Odd, says Friend. The end of his shift, says Major.

Lestrade joins our heroes to await the putative murderers. Instead they receive a note. The writer won’t address Friend as Camberley—he knows Friend’s real name, having corresponded with him about his monograph on the Dynamics of an Asteroid. Friend’s too-new pipe and ignorance of theatrical customs betrayed that he was no shag-smoking promoter. And he shouldn’t have talked freely in that cab he took home.

Writer admits to killing Prince Franz, a half-blood creature. He lured him with promises of a kidnapped convent girl, who in her innocence would go immediately insane at the sight of the prince; Franz would then have the Old One-ish delight of sucking her madness like the ripe flesh from a peach. Writer and his doctor friend are Restorationists. They want to drive off man’s Old One rulers, the ultimate act of sedition! Sating monsters like Franz is too great a price to pay for peace and prosperity.

The murderers will now disappear; don’t bother looking for them. The note’s signed RACHE, an antique term for “hunting dog.”

Lestrade initiates a manhunt, but Friend opines the murderers will lay low, then resume their business. It’s what Friend would do in their place. He’s proven right—though police tentatively identify Doctor as John or James Watson, former military surgeon, the pair aren’t found.

Major consigns his story to a strongbox until all concerned are dead. That day may come soon, given recent events in Russia. He signs off as S____ M____ Major (Retired).




Synopsis Courtesy of Tor.com

[Abe Sargent]

Review of "A Study in Emerald"


Holy Crap!


Are you serious?



That's a good story. All reviews are spoiler free, and there is no way I can discuss this story as the first page opens with major stuff happening, and things continue from there.


I will say that this story is highly evocative of the Mythos. And the Holmes one as well, and our good detective does a very good job chasing down the core mystery of the story.

Gaiman plays well with the two. He balances the sort of dual relationship between the Lovecraftian side and the Doyle-esque one. And as someone who has read both, I know the very few people I'd trust in this role. Gaiman is well suited for it. I'd trust Kim Newman, modern-day Ramsey Campell, and maybe one or two more. And that's it.


Anyways, with a great mood, story, and world crafted, Gaiman hits every single note. This story is a masterpiece, and it's one of my favorite short stories of the Cthulhu Mythos of all time.


5 out of 5 for the Hugo Winner.

[Abe Sargent]

Next let’s do another Gaiman story, “Only The End of the World Again”. Written in 1994 for the collection Shadows Over Innsmouth, commemorating the pivotal story, by Del Rey, Gaiman writes a story that’s around 15 pages or so in the collection. It’s actually the major selling point, and the first story listed on the back of the cover, for the best tales included.

This story was liked so much that it was adapted to comics by Oni Press.

So let’s read it up!


https://humblebundle-a.akamaihd.net/...ed331aa3c1.pdf

[Abe Sargent]

Synopsis of “Only the End of the World Again”


This story is set in the city of Innsmouth in the mid-90s, after a bunch of people moved in in the 80s, and then left again. The city and the main character are very squalid.

The main character awakens after a night of transformation, and then vomits up a dog’s paw and a few fingers of a small child, and then flushes them. He heads out to a local bar, and meets with the locals. A barkeeper is there, reading Tennyson. Our werewolf has been in Innsmouth for just a couple of weeks, and various folks are talking to him about remedies for lycanthropy.

After knocking back a few shots, he heads to his office where is is an “Adjuster” and finds an old fat man on the room, talking about the history of the town and the new day. He leaves, there is a salesman who calls trying to sell him siding, and then a woman who wants to hire him to track down her missing infant and dog. (These folks also tell him what to do with his werewolfism)

After refusing, he finds a young woman’s tarot card reading, and after concentrating on the tarot cards like a lover as she asks, the cards change and warp. The first one is the Warwolf, the second the Deep Ones, and the others are all blank. She forces him out and believes he damaged her card.

He heads back to the bar, downs some drinks, and the barkeeper quotes Tennyson’s Kraken poem. Then they head down to observe the commotion that people have been talking about, and the rise of the Deep Ones. After arriving, the woman, the fat man, and the barkeeper reveal they are the leaders of the movement, and need to sacrifice something better than normal to bring back the Deep Ones.

They move to slay him with a silver knife as the bright eldritch moon risers, and unexpectedly, he turns into a werewolf again (normally you only can once/month) and slays her, kills the barkeeper and then leaves to kill some deer, stopping his sacrifice and the rise of the Deep Ones.