If you are a fan of H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthuthu Mythos, you might find these novels of Brian Lumley entertaining. Lumley is best known for his Necroscope series. But early in his career, Lumley wrote these horror novels which TOR Books reprinted in the late 1990s. The books are available online and in most libraries. Titus Crow is a an amalgam of Sherlock Holmes and Indiana Jones. Volume One is an omnibus edition of The Burrowers Beneath (giant malignant worms!) and The Transition of Titus Crow (attack of the Hounds of Tindalos!). Volume Two includes The Clock of Dreams and Spawn of the Winds. Volume Three concludes with In the Moons of Borea and Elysia . Try as he might, Lumley cannot capture the trademark Lovecraft dread in these novels. Yes, scary horrible things attack our hero. But the atmosphere cannot approach Lovecraft’s best work like “The Dunwich Horror” or “Pickman’s Model.” Still, I found these Cthuthu Mythos novels amusing and you might too.
I think I may have some Lumley soties in Lovecraft anthologies but it’s been decades since I read that kind of weird fiction – thanks very much for the reminder George, shall peruse the Cthulhu Mythos again at Christmas
Sergio, the best practitioner of the CTHULHU MYTHOS is…Lovecraft. None of his imitators, including Lumley, can capture Lovecaft’s marvelous sense of dread.
They do sound like fun.
It’s been a long time since I read Lovecraft and I agree with you – no one else quite captures his ability to make you shivver.
Lovecraft could make you shiver within the first paragraph of some of his stories, Jeff. None of the Lovecraft imitators come close to his genius.
There were some Titus Crow stories in Lumley’s early Arkham House collection THE CALLER OF THE BLACK and THE HORROR AT OAKDEENE, George. They were fairly good pastiches but only Lovecraft could do Lovecraft best. Titus Crow was an early creation in Lumley’s career and it shows. He is an interesting character who is more recommended than is essential.
I found the Titus Crow books more like adventure novels, Jerry, than horror novels in the Lovecraft tradition. They’re entertaining reads, but as you say not essential.
Though I have read and enjoyed Lovecraft, generally I don’t read horror. Yet your description of a combination of Holmes and Jones caught me off guard, and interests me, plus your last comment to Jerry. I may have to try one of these. I assume the books stand alone?
The Titus Crow novels are loosely connected, Rick. If I have some extra copies down in the Bat Cave, I’ll ship them to you.
None of these are available in the library system here. That’s okay, I have lots to read on hand already.
Richard, Lumley’s Lovecraftian fiction, very much including the Necroscope novels, is indeed boy’s adventure fiction crossed with HPL to a greater degree than essentially anyone. And while I find the best of Lovecraft’s acolytes (Robert Bloch, Fritz Leiber, Fred Chappell, Ramsey Campbell, TED Klein, Thomas Ligotti…and his compeer, Clark Ashton Smith) all better at their frequent best than Lovecraft at his occasional best…but all of them are at their worst at their most Lovecraftian…they can’t do Lovecraft as well as HPL does.
Exactly, Todd! No one can do Lovecraft as well as Lovecraft does.
Lumley’s best fiction is his least Lovecraftian. Usually short fiction. “Fruiting Body” comes to mind. (Jorge Luis Borges even dedicated a story to HPL, “There Are More Things”…also better than almost all HPL, though not a top JLB.)
Avram Davidson and Fritz Leiber had a genial argument for years about HPL…Davidson con, Leiber pro. Joyce Carol Oates also on your side, George.
I have that Joyce Carol Oates edited collection of Lovecraft, Todd. Lovecraft, at his best, is unique and brilliant.
But wordy and prone to fustian. Davidson was particularly amused by how much was Indescribable in his fiction. His concepts were good…and, as you know, I’m a huge fan of how, particularly, Bloch and Leiber refined those concepts and put them to their own purposes…
The reason No one can do Lovecraft like Lovecraft?…No one else wrote in the antiquated prose Lovecraft was so fond of. Lovecraft styled himself a Victorian Gentleman, trying to recapture in his own way, the glory days of his wealthy, sheltered turn of the century youth; before tragedy struck his family and his family fortunes. He even took to wearing his father’s Victorian style clothes. His collaborators and fellow weird fiction writers, used their own voices to expand this cycle of myth. To call his contemporaries Lovecraft “accolytes” is insulting to many who were ALREADY well known weird/sci-fi/horror/fantasy writers in their own right. And comparing them to Lovecraft is like comparing Kandinsky, Rothko, Picasso, Whistler and Dali to Botticelli.
Lauren, I agree with you that Lovecraft was a unique and original writer. The “acolytes” like Robert Bloch and Frank Belknap Long willingly corresponded with Lovecraft who gave them permission to write stories set in the Lovecraft Universe. Yes, Bloch and Long were well known weird/sci-fi/horror/fantasy writers…but they wanted to play in Lovecraft’s world. And, given the dozens of contemporary writers like Lumbley, Ramsey Campbell, Neil Gaiman, and even Stephen King who write Lovecraft pastiches, Lovecraft’s Universe continues to expand.