Product Description: SFBC editor Andrew Wheeler has been a Lovecraft afficianado since his teens, so putting together Black Seas of Infinity-- the largest one-volume collection of H.P. Lovecraft's fiction ever assembled-- was a labor of love. But to those who have never enjoyed Lovecraft before, he cautions: read these tales on a sunny public beach in the middle of the day because you're in for a strange, dark and exhilarating ride.
The best single volume of Lovecraft around...but you need to check your pages. First, a handy note: if you find this collection, and you're thinking of buying it (a decision I thoroughly endorse), do yourself a favor and check to make sure that you're not missing, say, page 490-508. Because I can tell you, from experience, that getting 80 pages into "At the Mountains of Madness" and suddenly realizing you're missing 18 pages of the story? Not a fun time. It's the only sour note I can say that I have about this book, though, which is easily the single best anthology of Lovecraft's work I've found to date. Containing a wide range of the master's work, from "The Call of Cthulhu" and most of the major Mythos stories to standalone works like personal favorite "In the Walls of Eryx," editor Andrew Wheeler clearly picks from a fan's perspective, but his order (grouping stories that echo each other, setting short stories between longer ones) is great, and his choices superb. As he says in the introduction, not all of the best stories are here, but there's not a bad one in the batch. A great introduction for anyone just coming into Lovecraft's work, and a solid, spectacular collection for any diehard fans. No one unsettles and horrifies like Lovecraft, and if you've never read his surreal, nightmarish visions, you're in for a massive treat, and some of the best and most horrifying tales of all time. Any serious fan of horror owes it to themselves to find this volume - provided, of course, that it has all of its pages.
Lovecraft Heed the Call
"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear..." H.P. Lovecraft
A quiet, little hamlet that might be set down anywhere in New England, and call itself at home, but located in the rolling hills of north-central Pennsylvania. The man who rented me this house was accommodating enough, but there was something--reptilian about him, for lack of a better word. In fact, he brings to mind the word batrachian [you know, frog-like; no, not Bactrian, that's a two-humped camel] In fact, the whole town seems kind of cold-blooded. I don't mean unfriendly, just something just not quite human. I mean, it's a quaint town, and if they did a little creative marketing and were a little more hospitable, I'm sure they'd have a nice tourism industry. But the odd, shambling gait and furtive nature of the residents doesn't do much for sales, and it makes my skin crawl...
No author makes me more likely to nail shut the cellar door than H.P. Lovecraft. Never heard of him? Howard Phillips Lovecraft was born in Providence, Rhode Island in 1890. He spent his life in genteel poverty, living on small, dwindling inheritances and earning a pittance for his writing. He mostly wrote short stories, set in his native New England, for the pulp magazines of the `20s and `30s, especially Weird Tales.
One of the best known and studied American horror writers of the early 20th century, his influence is still felt seventy years after his death, though his readership was limited in his lifetime. His reputation has grown over the decades, and he is now commonly regarded as one of the most influential horror writers of the 20th Century, exerting widespread and indirect influence, and frequently compared to Edgar Allan Poe in his writing style.
Lovecraft's works are generally classified as horror, though there are science fiction and fantastical elements, a sort of weird, cosmic fiction. His better known stories came to form what is now know as the "Cthulhu Mythos", a series of loosely interconnected tales featuring a pantheon of hideous entities, as well as the famed Necronomicon, a grimoire of magical rites and forbidden lore. The stories with creepy atomsphere and dark, lurking fears, created a mythology that challenged the tradtional values of Judeochristian society and made humanity's role in the universe meaningless.
Lovecraft was an atheist and his purpose of the creation of the Mythos was to act as a background element to his stories, as well as taking advantage of mankind's greatest fear, fear of the unknown. Much of Lovecraft's work was directly inspired by his nightmares. The Mythos usually takes place in fictional New England towns and is centered on the Great Old Ones, a fearsome assortment of ancient, powerful deities who plunged to Earth vast eons ago and once ruled the Earth. They are presently in a death-like slumber, waiting silently beneath sea, sand, and snow, waiting to be released into the world again. The most well-known of these beings is Cthulhu, who currently lies "dead, but dreaming" in the submerged city of R'lyeh somewhere in the Southeast Pacific Ocean. One day, "when the stars are right", R'lyeh will rise from beneath the sea, and Cthulhu will awaken and wreak havoc on the earth.
The essence of the Mythos is that humanity and our role in the universe is utterly insignificant. Our seeming dominance is illusory. We are powerless and doomed. Mankind's only blessing is that we do not realize what lies dormant, unknown and lurking between the stars. As Lovecraft famously begins his short story, The Call of Cthulhu, "The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents."
Now and then, individuals can, by accident or carelessness, catch a glimpse of, or even confront, the ancient extraterrestrial entities which the mythology centers around, usually with fatal consequences. Lovecraft's protagonists are scholars, investigators, and every day people who desperately cling to shreds of sanity as their creeping dread transforms into shivering madness. Because of the limits of the human mind, these deities appear so overwhelming that they can often drive a person insane. They are portrayed as neither good or evil. These are concepts invented by our species as a way to explain inexplicable intentions and actions.
Lovecraft's name is now synonymous with horror fiction. He has influenced fiction authors worldwide, and Lovecraftian elements may be found in novels, movies, music, comic books, graphic novels and cartoons. Many modern horror writers -- such as Stephen King, Clive Barker, and Neil Gaiman -- have cited Lovecraft as one of their primary influences. Several authors have continued to expand and write in the Mythos, including Robert E. Howard, creator of Conan, and Robert Bloch, author of Psycho.
Ahh, it's a cold autumnal night. A good night to dive into the black sea of infinity that is the Cthulhu Mythos. I'm just going to sink under the covers and enjoy a tale of cosmic horror. What is all that noise downstairs? Hobo must be reading the paper. No, it sounds like he's coming up the stairs. He sure makes a lot of noise for cat. Now he's rattling the door. Must be wanting treats. Oh, that can't be Hobo. This isn't good. This isn't good at all......
Author of "Hobo Finds A Home" and editor "Of A Predatory Heart"
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Trevor
