I’m attracted by faux-H. P. Lovecraft stories. Jim Turner’s Eternal Lovecraft: The Persistence of H. P. Lovecraft in Popular Culture collects a wide range of Lovecraft pastiches. I liked Fritz Leiber’s “A Bit of the Dark World.” I’m a big fan of Fred Chappell’s work and “Weird Tales” is one of best stories in this volume. Other favorites are Stephen King’s “Crouch End,” Harlan Ellison’s “Sensible City,” and Richard A. Lupoff’s “The Turret.” If you’re a fan of H. P. Lovecraft, you’ll find plenty of entertainment in this Golden Gryphon Press classic from 1998.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
The “Shadow” over Lovecraft By Jim Turner
I. Lovecraft country
Her misbegotten son / Alan Rodgers
Daoine Domhain / Peter Tremayne
To Mars and Providence / Don Webb
II. Eldritch influences
Weird tales / Fred Chappell
The land of the reflected ones / Nancy A. Collins
The shadow at the bottom of the world / Thomas Ligotti
Sensible city / Harlan Ellison
The golden keeper / Ian R. MacLeod
Ralph Wollstonecraft Hedge : A memoir / Ron Goulart
Crouch end / Stephen King
The turret / Richard A. Lupoff
The giant rat of Sumatra / Paula Volsky
Black as the pit, from pole to pole / Steven Utley and Howard Waldrop
The other dead man / Gene Wolfe
III. Cosmic realms
The events at Poroth Farm / T. E. D. Klein
The ocean and all its devices / William Browning Spencer
A bit of the dark world / Fritz Leiber
The perseids / Robert Charles Wilson.
You know Rick will be rushing to order this…not! It’s amazing how big the Lovecraft industry has become lately.
Great seeing you and Diane and Patrick last night. Thanks for a delicious dinner!
A great line-up here, George. Of those I’ve read, the Leiber and the Klein stand out over a very crowded field.
I’m gonna have to look for this. I absolutely love Klein’s “The Events at Poroth Farm”, which works equally well as a standalone story and as a part of his great (and nearly forgotten) novel, “The Ceremonies”. More than thirty years after its publication it still stands as the best Lovecraft inspired novel I’ve read. This collection contains a goodly number of stories I haven’t read.
Michael, I’m going to have to reread THE CEREMONIES. I read it years ago.
No grande? No, this isn’t “up my alley” as the saying is, but I can see it’s appeal to those who want more Lovecraft than Lovecraft gave them.
That was “no grade”