Black Wings [of Cthulhu] Volume 4 (2015) edited by S.T. Joshi, containing the following stories:
Artifact by Fred Chappell
Half Lost in Shadow by W. H. Pugmire
The Rasping Absence by Richard Gavin
Black Ships Seen South of Heaven by Caitlín R. Kiernan
The Dark Sea Within by Jason V Brock
Sealed by the Moon by Gary Fry
Broken Sleep by Cody Goodfellow
A Prism of Darkness by Darrell Schweitzer
Night of the Piper by Ann K. Schwader
We Are Made of Stars by Jonathan Thomas
Trophy by Melanie Tem
Revival by Stephen Woodworth
Contact by John Pelan and Stephen Mark Rainey
Cult of the Dead by Lois H. Gresh
Dark Redeemer by Will Murray
In the Event of Death by Simon Strantzas
The Wall of Asshur-sin by Donald Tyson
Fear Lurks Atop Tempest Mount by Charles Lovecraft
Maybe not quite as good as previous installments in the Black Wings series ('of Cthulhu' is added in each case for the paperback publication; 'Black Wings' comes from a Lovecraft quotation about cosmic horror, a quotation that doesn't contain 'of Cthulhu,' whose wings I've always figured as being a dark, weird green, in case you were wondering).
Or maybe I read too many new Cthulhu anthologies in too short a time.
There are stand-outs here from Kiernan, Brock, and Schweitzer. The latter's story features the real John Dee on the last day of his life, and it's a solid piece of cosmic quasi-history. The stories range from just this side of Lovecraftian pastiche to more elusive, allusive pieces of cosmic horror.
One thing I'll note again and again is that Lovecraft's literary children tend to be a lot more depressing than their progenitor. Several stories here feature the return of the Great Old Ones and the destruction of humanity, something Lovecraft never went through with. The depiction of these apocalypses never seems to equal what I imagine in my mind, leaving me a bit cold when it comes to the depiction of The Return of the Great Old Ones. Oh, well. Recommended.
The Madness of Cthulhu Volume 2 (2015): edited by S.T. Joshi, containing the following stories:
- Foreword by Kim Newman
- Introduction by S. T. Joshi
- 20,000 Years Under the Sea by Kevin J. Anderson: Captain Nemo vs. Cthulhu.
- Tsathoggua’s Breath by Brian Stableford: Solid, quasi-historical piece set in Viking-era Greenland resembles some of Clark Ashton Smith's pieces more than HPL.
- The Door Beneath by Alan Dean Foster: Quasi-historical piece set in the 1980's involves Soviets experimenting with stuff they found in the Antarctica of Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness.
- Dead Man Walking by William F. Nolan: Peripherally Lovecraftian piece from the venerable William F. (Logan's Run) Nolan more resembles a classic Jules de Grandin story.
- A Crazy Mistake by Nancy Kilpatrick: Paranoia and madness follow a researcher doing research into the Cthulhu Mythos.
- The Anatomy Lesson by Cody Goodfellow: Biology!
- The Hollow Sky by Jason C. Eckhardt: Antarctic excavations and global warming and shoggoths in the present day.
- The Last Ones by Mark Howard Jones: A nod to the Deep Ones of HPL's "The Shadow over Innsmouth."
- A Footnote in the Black Budget by Jonathan Maberry: Action Cthulhu!
- Deep Fracture by Steve Rasnic Tem: A typically elusive, allusive piece by Tem.
- The Dream Stones by Donald Tyson: Canadian horror on the East Coast brings the star-stones of At the Mountains of Madness to Halifax. I particularly like how Tyson approximates the first-person narrative of some of HPL's especially freaked-out characters while nonetheless making the story's characters and events very much material that HPL couldn't (and wouldn't) have touched upon in the 1920's and 1930's.
- The Blood in My Mouth by Laird Barron: Rare misfire by Barron puts one of his typically damaged male narrators on a collision course with a vaguely defined alien threat.
- On the Shores of Destruction by Karen Haber: Doom!
- Object 00922UU by Erik Bear and Greg Bear: Fun, slightly overlong science-fiction piece plays with the conventions of 'spaceship finds artifact with something gooshy inside.' The threat in this case dwarfs pretty much any similar threat depicted in a movie or story, though the Bears have trouble firmly establishing the cosmic vastness of an artifact described as being as large as six Jupiters (!).
The omnipresent S.T. Joshi serves up the second volume of a two-part anthology in which many (though not all) stories have been inspired in some way by HPL's chilling 1930's short novel At the Mountains of Madness. It's fun, though a little short on actual cosmic terror and a little long on me needing to take a break from contemporary Lovecraftian fiction. Recommended.
Black Wings of Cthulhu Volume 3 (2014) edited by S.T. Joshi, containing the following stories:
Houdini Fish by Jonathan Thomas
Dimply Dolly Doofy by Donald R. Burleson
The Hag Stone by Richard Gavin
Underneath an Arkham Moon by Jessica Amanda Salmonson and W. H. Pugmire
Spiderwebs in the Dark by Darrell Schweitzer
One Tree Hill (The World as Cataclysm) by Caitlín R. Kiernan
The Man with the Horn by Jason V Brock: Weird horror with some nice stylistic touches becomes very (Harla) Ellisonian by the end.
Hotel del Lago by Mollie L. Burleson
*Waller by Donald Tyson: Interesting piece involving cosmic cancer gods and multiple realities. Great Shades of Mnagalah!
The Megalith Plague by Don Webb
*Down Black Staircases by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr.: Pulver works in a partial stream-of-consciousness mode here that's fairly unusual for cosmic horror.
China Holiday by Peter Cannon
Necrotic Cove by Lois H. Gresh
The Turn of the Tide by Mark Howard Jones
Weltschmerz by Sam Gafford
Thistle's Find by Simon Strantzas
*Further Beyond by Brian Stableford: Stableford continues the events of HPL's "From Beyond" in faithful, fruitful fashion.
Overall: Another solid entry in the ubiquitous Joshi's Black Wings series of original, cosmic-horror anthologies in the key of Lovecraft. 'of Cthulhu' is added to the title for paperback publication, for sales reasons I'd assume. Stand-outs are noted above. Recommended.
A Mountain Walked: Great Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos (2014) edited by S.T. Joshi, containing the following stories:
The House of the Worm (1933) by Mearle Prout
Far Below (1939) by Robert Barbour Johnson
Spawn of the Green Abyss (1946) by C. Hall Thompson
The Deep Ones (1969) by James Wade
The Franklyn Paragraphs (1973) by Ramsey Campbell
Where Yidhra Walks (1976) by Walter C. DeBill, Jr.
Black Man with a Horn (1980) by T. E. D. Klein
The Last Feast of Harlequin (1990) by Thomas Ligotti
Only the End of the World Again (1994) by Neil Gaiman
Mandelbrot Moldrot (2014) by Lois H. Gresh
The Black Brat of Dunwich (1997) by Stanley C. Sargent
The Phantom of Beguilement (2001) by W. H. Pugmire
...Hungry...Rats (2014) by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr.
Virgin's Island (2014) by Donald Tyson
In the Shadow of Swords (2014) by Cody Goodfellow
Mobymart After Midnight (2014) by Jonathan Thomas
A Gentleman from Mexico (2007) by Mark Samuels
The Man with the Horn (2014) by Jason V Brock
John Four (2014) by Caitlín R. Kiernan
Sigma Octantis (2014) by Rhys Hughes
[Anasazi] (2014) by Gemma Files
The Wreck of the Aurora (2014) by Patrick McGrath
Beneath the Beardmore (2014) by Michael Shea
Omnipresent anthologist S.T. Joshi offers what seems to be his 19th Lovecraftian-themed anthology of the past five years. This one combines new material solicited for this anthology with little-reprinted stories of the past 86 (!!!) years of Lovecraft's influence.
"The House of the Worm" (1933) by Mearle Prout and "Far Below" (1939) by Robert Barbour Johnson are both fine and essential texts that echo Lovecraft without necessarily occurring in 'his' universe. They're both stunners in different ways, stunners I don't want to spoil. "Spawn of the Green Abyss" (1946) by C. Hall Thompson is a fascinating 'parallel' text seemingly inspired by Lovecraft's "The Shadow over Innsmouth."
Of the later reprints, some are terrific and much-anthologized (pieces by Ligotti and Klein are all-timers). Some are terrific and under-anthologized ("The Franklyn Paragraphs" (1973) by Ramsey Campbell, though it really should be bundled with "The Truant" (1973)). Some are interesting, some are seriously wonky (I'm looking at you and your inter-species rape scene, "The Deep Ones" (1969) by James Wade).
The original stories are mostly solid, though it's always a juggling act to combine a 'Best of' anthology with new material: it can sometimes seem like those old CD's and records that did so with 'Best of' material and 'Three new songs!', all of them sort of sucky. But there's nothing sucky here.
I really like "Virgin's Island" (2014) by Donald Tyson, a great slice of pseudo-documentarian horror that reminds one of Lovecraft without aping HPL's style. And it's set off the coast of the Atlantic Provinces of Canada! Gemma Files also adds some delicious CanCon, as Toronto rocks with an insidious alien attack. Michael Shea also delights with one of the hardest things to pull off -- a nod to HPL that's funny, revisionist, and sinister.
In all, a solid anthology with distinguished cuts from the past and present. The historical selections help push A Mountain Walked to highly recommended.
