The Book of Cthulhu
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4.3 • 4 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
The Cthulhu Mythos is one of the 20th century's most singularly recognizable literary creations. Initially created by H. P. Lovecraft and a group of his amorphous contemporaries (the so-called "Lovecraft Circle"), The Cthulhu Mythos story cycle has taken on a convoluted, cyclopean life of its own. Some of the most prodigious writers of the 20th century, and some of the most astounding writers of the 21st century have planted their seeds in this fertile soil. The Book of Cthulhu harvests the weirdest and most corpulent crop of these modern mythos tales. From weird fiction masters to enigmatic rising stars, The Book of Cthulhu demonstrates how Mythos fiction has been a major cultural meme throughout the 20th century, and how this type of story is still salient, and terribly powerful today.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The enduring allure of H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, now nearly a century old, is evident in this representative anthology of modern tales, most of which were written in the last decade. The breadth of cosmic horrors they evoke range from the parochial fear of monsters found in Michael Shea's "Fat Face," to the apocalyptic doom forecasted in Ramsey Campbell's "The Tugging." Some of the stories, notably Brian Lumley's "The Fairground Horror" and Brian McNaughton's self-consciously satirical "The Doom that Came to Innsmouth," are ripe with Lovecraftian references. Most others, including Joe R. Lansdale's weird western "The Crawling Sky" and Laird Barron's backwoods monster tale "The Men from Porlock" (original to the book), are more oblique and allusive. To the book's credit, none of the twenty-seven stories read like slavish Lovecraft pastiche, which makes this volume all the more enjoyable.
