Eric Malikyte is the author of several of our favorite Cthulhu and cyberpunk novels. We recently enjoyed his latest occult horror novel, Cthulhu: Grimoire and jumped at the chance to sit down and chat with him more about Cthulhu: Grimoire, the Cthulhu mythos in general, and what is up next in the world of Eric Malikyte. 

[GdM] Hi Eric! Thank you so much for agreeing to chat with us. For readers who may not know, can you tell us a little more about Cthulhu: Grimoire ?

[EM] Cthulhu: Grimoire is a detective noir cosmic horror story that uses the trappings of both genres, plus some influences from other horror movements like analog horror, to ask the all-important question of…what would happen if Cthulhu got His hands on an AI, and how might that effect the already messed up world we live in?

It takes place in Los Angeles and the San Bernardino Valley right in the middle of a forest fire that paints everything in this sickly yellowish tone that gradually transforms as the cosmic horror unravels into a nightmare-scape that would make H.R. Giger proud. 

[GdM] What separates Cthulhu Grimoire from other examples of the Cthulhu mythos and horror fiction?

[EM] One thing I set out to do while writing Cthulhu: Grimoire was to take advantage of Cthulhu’s status as a public domain entity and really have fun with it. I’ve felt for a while that a lot of Lovecraftian horror feels like it’s got to honor the “canon” established by Lovecraft and his contemporaries. But part of the fun of a public domain IP like the Mythos is that it doesn’t have a set continuity. 

I love continuity and canon, but I feel like storytellers also must know when to let go of canon to do something new and fun (or in this case, new and terrifying). Where a lot of other amazing cosmic horror authors will create their own Lovecraftian entities and grimoires (I do this too), I wanted to take something familiar and transform it, while keeping to the elements that make Cthulhu and the Shoggoths so iconic. 

There’s something really cool about getting to play with a character as big as Cthulhu. And I really wanted to focus on making Him as terrifying as possible, to really lean into the subjective nature of his form, the idea that Cthulhu isn’t a physical being, that he’s both there and not there at the same time. Alive and dead. Dead and dreaming. I really wanted to lean into the idea that we don’t know what Cthulhu really looks like, that we project our assumptions on an unknowable entity.

[GdM] Is this a standalone project or does it link to some of your other works?

[EM] It can be enjoyed as a standalone, but it is a sequel. Readers do not have to have read Mind’s Horizon (the first book featuring the mad Doctor Weber/Webber and the OEI) to enjoy Cthulhu: Grimoire but reading the first book will give them additional context to a certain character and her relationship to this world’s version of Doctor Webber.  

All OEI Archives stories will be designed to be standalone stories, but they will still be connected, either by continuity in the form of the characters who made it out of Mind’s Horizon, or by OEI lore, but they are all being written so that they can be read in any order. In that way, it’s an anthology series. 

[GdM] Can you pitch its plot in thirty seconds or less?

While investigating a series of suicides at a for-profit art school, Detective Hunter and his unlikely ally, art student River Gonzales, stumble upon a computer virus that is driving people mad. All it takes is a single glance for it to fill your mind and bend you to its will. 

Detective Hunter and River must find a way to break the virus’ hold on the San Bernardino Valley and stop a looming apocalypse. 

But with the shadowy hand of a secret government agency and one Doctor Webber looming over them, can they?

[GdM] Who is the main character? River or Hunter? 

[EM] This story is just as much about River as it is Detective Hunter. They get equal “screen time” if you will, and their partnership and unlikely friendship is what drives the book. 

[GdM] What draws you to writing set in the Cthulhu Mythos?

[EM] I mean, there’s so much to it. It’s so much more than the tentacle monsters, though those are unique among other horror genres.

Cosmic horror as a genre is one of the few that doesn’t treat humanity like it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread and dares to unravel our assumption that we are the center of everything. But, even though he was a raving racist, there is just something so unique and fun about Lovecraft’s creations. I mean, there’s a reason why Cthulhu is everywhere (I mean, he’s a freaking plushy now…and now I just realized I don’t have a Cthulhu plushy, and I probably need to fix that), and even people who have never read a single Mythos story know who he is. 

But, also, despite Lovecraft’s reputation for having less than developed characters, the Mythos offers atmospheric storytelling that can, at times, make you feel like you’re spiraling into madness right alongside the narrator, and that’s pretty cool, I guess.

[GdM] Is it hard writing Cthulhu Mythos fiction set in the modern day?

[EM] Not really. There’s a subset of Lovecraftian horror fans that think it only works in the 1920s and 30s, but really, I think that’s a bit of a literal approach. While the universe certainly looked a lot smaller in Lovecraft’s day, and the sciences were just getting started, there’s still so much of this universe that we don’t understand. There is no theory of everything, so it’s not all that hard for us to worry that the unfeeling cosmos might be hiding some cosmic force of nature that could wipe us out in the blink of an eye. 

I’ve done a lot of science communication as part of my professional writing career, but simultaneously I’ve had many strange experiences in my life. Things I can’t explain. As a child, I saw the Hat Man lurking at the sliding glass door of my childhood home, I’ve felt the presence of things watching from the dark in many of the places I grew up, heard disembodied footsteps in many places that were described as “haunted” both during my time growing up in So Cal, and on the East Coast. I’ve experienced so many things that I can’t explain. And that’s part of the fun, right? We have so many mysteries to unravel as a species. 

Personally, cosmic horror is a very young genre, and there’s so much potential for stories set in all kinds of eras. I mean, I’ve got a bunch of Call of Cthulhu scenario books that take place all over different time periods and they all offer something unique. 

[GdM] What makes the Mythos scary in this book?

[EM] I think it’s the idea that you can wake up one day and the people you thought you knew so well, whether they are family, friends, or spouses—people you love dearly—are suddenly be gone, absorbed into a cult. That there are people who have been lured into cults and have been transformed into worse versions of themselves. I think that’s something that people can really relate to, and it’s terrifying, because it’s real. 

[GdM] The book has a strong political context. Is that a good thing or a bad thing for a writer in 2025?

[EM] All the best stories are political in some way. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is about a fascist regime in America that burns books to prevent the proletariat from becoming too educated. 

1984 is terrifying and iconic. 

Cyberpunk as a genre is intensely anti-corporate and political. 

Robocop is one of the most iconic dystopian science fiction movies of all time and it’s one of the most anti-corporate things ever made. 

Alien centers around a bunch of working-class space truckers who are inevitably determined to be expendable by their employer. 

Even something like the Cthulhu Mythos is political. The idea that humanity’s obsession with exploring the unknown could one day cause its own destruction asks whether science as a whole is a double-edged sword? 

Like it or not, politics shapes our world, and your personal politics shapes your world view. To quote the legendary progressive rock band, Rush, “If you choose not to decide, You still have made a choice.”

There’s also an argument that this obsession we have in the West of remaining “non-political” has done a greater harm than good. Did our complacency and focus on civility politics only pave the way for the return of fascism? That’s a question we as a society and species have to ask ourselves for the sake of the world our children and their children will have to grow up in.

[GdM] Other than Cthulhu: Grimoire, what are some of your other works that our readers could go and find?

[EM] Obviously, there’s Mind’s Horizon, which is the precursor and the blueprint for the OEI Archives series. There’s the OEI Files series which is a great entry point into the OEI multiverse, the first of which is free everywhere ebooks are sold (It’s called In Its Shadow, by the way). 

There’s Echoes of Olympus Mons, which is a fusion of cyberpunk and cosmic horror. I’m working on two sequels to it that will expand the horrors the Corporate Confederacy is capable of committing.

And the Ego Trip is the first book in the Neo Rackham series, set about 60 years after Echoes of Olympus Mons. I’ll have two sequels to Ego Trip coming out next year in Bad Omens, and a 3rd book that needs to be titled. 

Then there’s Suleniar’s Enigma books 1 and 2. It’s a combo of dark fantasy, Lovecraftian horror, that was heavily inspired by shonen battle manga, off the wall JRPGs like Chrono Trigger, Tales of Symphonia, and Roger Zelazny’s Chronicles of Amber series. I’m still drafting the third book and mapping out books 4 and 5.

[GdM] The world of the indie writer seems to differ greatly from author to author. How has your experience as an indie author been so far?

[EM] I’ve apparently been authoring on “hard mode” as some of my friends have suggested. By writing in so many different genres, it makes marketing things a bit challenging. Maybe it’s the ADHD, maybe I’m just crazy, but I can’t really help where my creative energy wants to go. My hope is that if readers really enjoy what I’m offering, if they see the quality of it, they’ll be curious to look outside their genre preferences. But who knows?

But the most important thing about any creative project is the passion and love of the artform, and that’s not going anywhere for me. 

[GdM] Thank you so much for talking with us today Eric, hopefully you’ve enjoyed it as much as we have! One final question, what can we expect from you next?

[EM] Sequels to Ego Trip, Echoes of Olympus Mons, and Suleniar’s Enigma. I’m also working on drafting the next OEI Archives book, but it’s still in the early stages of writing and ideation.

I’m also working on a cyberpunk battle manga that serves as a loose sequel to Suleniar’s Enigma that will also have a tabletop RPG attached to it that is 90% done. The comic is also fairly far along in the creative process, but you can see some of the pages I’m working on on my Cara account.

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