Tuesday, November 7, 2017

Acolytes of Cthulhu (2001) edited by Robert M. Price



Acolytes of Cthulhu  (2001/ This edition 2014): edited by Robert M. Price:


  1. Doom of the House of Duryea  (1936) by Earl Pierce, Jr.
  2. The Seventh Incantation (1963) by Joseph Payne Brennan
  3. From the Pits of Elder Blasphemy (2008) by Robert M. Price and Hugh B. Cave 
  4. The Jewels of Charlotte (1935) by Duane W. Rimel
  5. The Letters of Cold Fire  (1944) by Manly Wade Wellman
  6. Horror at Vecra (1943) by Henry Hasse
  7. Out of the Jar (1941) by Charles R. Tanner
  8. The Earth-Brain (1932) by Edmond Hamilton
  9. Through the Alien Angle (1941) by Elwin G. Powers
  10. Legacy in Crystal (1943) by James Causey
  11. The Will of Claude Ashur (1947) by C. Hall Thompson
  12. The Final War (1949) by David H. Keller, M.D.
  13. The Dunstable Horror (1964) by Arthur Pendragon
  14. The Crib of Hell (1965) by Arthur Pendragon
  15. The Last Work of Pietro of Apono (1969) by Steffan B. Aletti
  16. The Eye of Horus (1968) by Steffan B. Aletti
  17. The Cellar Room (1970) by Steffan B. Aletti
  18. Mythos (1961) by John S. Glasby
  19. There Are More Things (1975) by Jorge Luis Borges
  20. The Horror Out of Time (1978) by Randall Garrett
  21. The Recurring Doom  (1980) by S. T. Joshi
  22. Necrotic Knowledge  (1976) by Dirk W. Mosig [as by Cemetarius Nightcrawler]
  23. Night Bus  (1985) by Donald R. Burleson
  24. The Pewter Ring  (1987) by Peter Cannon
  25. John Lehmann Alone  (1987) by David Kaufman
  26. The Purple Death  (2001) by Gustav Meyrink  (trans. of Der violette Tod 1902)
  27. Mists of Death  (2001) by Richard F. Searight and Franklyn Searight 
  28. Shoggoth's Old Peculiar (1998) by Neil Gaiman 


Excellent selection of Lovecraftian short stories spanning the years 1932 to 2001. Acolytes of Cthulhu is probably better suited to a reader well-acquainted with Lovecraftian weird fiction. Not all the stories are great. But I hadn't run across most of them, making the anthology a lot of fun as it avoids reprinting stories that have become familiar from multiple appearances.

In some stories, the Lovecraftian taint is faint -- perhaps as little as some curious tome of apocalyptic demon lore sitting on a desk. Other stories are just plain nuts, David Keller's "The Final War" chief among them. I won't even try to describe it in detail. It's just plain bananas.

Jorge Luis Borges' nod to HPL, "There Are More Things," gratifyingly appears, and is about as Borgesian a nod to Lovecraft as one could hope for. A piece of juvenilia by Weird-Fiction Historian-Supreme S.T. Joshi is a fun pastiche. 

The stand-out is Randall Garrett's tricky, fun "The Horror Out of Time." The kicker really kicks. Neil Gaiman's humourous "Shoggoth's Old Peculiar" closes the anthology with a wink. A squamous, batrachian wink.  Though the winner for best title has to be "From the Pits of Elder Blasphemy" by editor Robert M. Price and Hugh B. Cave, whose career in weird fiction began around the same time that HPL's ended in the 1930's. 

Price has done an admirable job of seeking out stories previously excluded from virtually all Lovecraftian anthologies. They may not all be great, or even good, but they are a historic delight. Highly recommended.

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