Black Wings of Cthulhu (Volume Four)
Tales of Lovecraftian Horror
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4.4 • 7 Ratings
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
Return to the dark and macabre world of H.P. Lovecraft with this fourth installment in the critically acclaimed horror anthology series Black Wings of Cthulhu
Through his collaborations with today’s most talented and acclaimed practitioners of Lovecraftian fiction, editor S. T. Joshi has made the Black Wings of Cthulhu series essential for every library of horror and the macabre. Volume four offers up seventeen new masterpieces, each exploring the roots of fear employed so famously by the master himself, H. P. Lovecraft.
Between these covers there lies a who’s who of the supernatural, including Fred Chappell, Jason V Brock, Gary Fry, Richard Gavin, Cody Goodfellow, Lois H. Gresh, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Charles Lovecraft, Will Murray, John Pelan and Stephen Mark Rainey, W. H. Pugmire, Ann K. Schwader, Darrell Schweitzer, Simon Strantzas, Melanie Tem, Jonathan Thomas, Donald Tyson, and Stephen Woodworth.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The 20 short stories in Lovecraft scholar Joshi's fifth Black Wings anthology include some imaginative variations on familiar themes of mind-bending encounters with cosmic horrors. Nicole Cushing's "Diary of a Sane Man" is especially effective at transforming a comfortable, mundane setting a well-to-do suburban neighborhood into a nightmare realm as an academic goes for his nightly walk during a snowstorm. In Sam Gafford's "Casting Fractals," a journalist's study of a dead colleague's notes, which at first appear to be mere ravings, allows him to glimpse the hidden force behind the major tragic events of the mid-20th century, from political assassinations to earthquakes and other natural disasters. And Stoker Award winner Caitl n R. Kiernan demonstrates the effectiveness of incremental, subtle suggestion in "Far from Any Shore," about the terrifying aftermath of the unearthing of an artifact. Though there are some clunky attempts at mimicking Lovecraft's sometimes baroque prose ("Stepping out of my hateful vehicle I spoke the remembered formula, pushing spectral language into the hungry wind"), most entries are high quality. Fans of Lovecraft pastiches will be satisfied.
