When They Came

by Don Webb

When They Came is a collection of 23 dark fantasy stories by Don Webb. The contents include magical realist tales of life in Texas, altered states of consciousness, the effects of imaginary drugs, forbidden knowledge, and the perilous attraction of books. Several stories pay homage to H. P. Lovecraft.

Genres: Fantasy, Lovecraftian

222 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Don Webb teaches High School English in a reform school in rural Texas by day, Creative Writing for UCLA Extension by night. He has a had a mystery series at St. Martin's Press, a series of books on contemporary and Late Antique magical practice from Runa Raven Press, and more than 300 published short stories of SF/F/H. His work has been translated into 11 languages.

Reviews

[Carpentermt · Rating 5 out of 5]

When They Came is a collection that includes a generous number of Cthulhu mythos stories by Don Webb. I don't know much about Don Webb; I was not sure if I read anything by him before I acquired this book, although mythos maven James Ambeuhl says he is a highly respected author. The publisher is Temporary Culture, one of myriad small presses active on the horror scene. Page count is 222, pretty much in the typical range for this type of book (compare this to Dark Wisdom by Gary Myers which only has 120 pages vs all the Kurodahan Press books with > 300 pages). However, the book was at least an inch shorter in height than other trade paperbacks, so there was some skimping on material. Now we come to my greatest difficulty with this book: I absolutely hated the font. I despised it so much I had real problems finishing the book, irrespective of the content, which I enjoyed. There is a little serif between the letters s and t, and c and t whenever they are adjacent in a word. This, with an artsy kind of slight blurriness to the letters on the page, made it a chore to read. The editor should be fired. What were they thinking? Sheesh! I can't say I wouldn't buy any other mythos books from Temporary Culture but I'll do so grudgingly. It took months for me to get through the book and then write the review because of this.

Just about all of these stories were new to me. I had read "The Sound of a Door Opening" and "Serenade at the End of Time" before, but had no recollection of them. I don't know if Mr. Webb has any additional Lovecraftian tales to his credit. Like Terrors by Lupoff, Lovecraft Slept Here by Dumars or Twice Dead Tings by Attanasio, not all or maybe even most of these are mythos tales, but this is still a pretty good buy for a mythos fan. Mr. Webb is a gifted writer and there are many little original flourishes and turns of phrase that make all of his work engaging. If you can get over the sucky font. Although the stereotypic expectation from a mythos story is a pastiche, today there are many talented writers who keep stretching the boundaries of the genre, like Kiernan and Pugmire. Don Webb has his own unique voice, offering Lovecraftian themes from new perspectives. One recurring invention of his is the text, the Typhonian Tablets, which plays a role in a number of the stories, and is a worthy addition to the eldritch library. More thoughtful than unnerving, most of these stories are somber fantasy rather than straight up horror. The disquiet they induce is just a bonus! Here are the story titles.

Souvenirs from a Damnation - A very promising start to the book! The story is glimpsed in fragments relating to a list of disparate items. Al Azif is mentioned, as it is in several other fantasy stories here.
The Shiny Surface - A modern fantasy piece about a mirror that perhaps reveals too much.
Ool Athag - Under the influence of the Typhonian Tablets, a mystic seeks the knowledge of all things in Ool Athag. I thought this was a very good and moody fantasy worthy to be included in a Dreamlands anthology. Perhaps it owed more to Clark Ashton Smith than HPL.
Mission to Monnat - Too brief, but very evocative. A ship carries a message to a strange country across the sea. Of minor interest to mythos fans is a passing mention of Dagon.
The Jest of Yig - Of direct interest to mythos fans, this cautionary tale shows that just because you can communicate with an eldritch being doesn't mean it has any regard for you. It was among the better modern Yig stories I have read.
The Agony Man - A sculptor causes effects by the uncanny realism of his creations in this well written non mythos horror story.
The Sound of a Door Opening - A direct tip of the hat to Lovecraft here, as dreams beget reality and vice versa. What did HPL dream of? Can you recreate reality starting from a dream of reality, starting with cynical expectations?
The Lamp - Mr. Webb is fascinated by how imagination can influence reality, how perception creates the world around us.
The Heart of the Matter - Somewhat unusually for the Cthulhu mythos this is something of a love story; it turns of de Juntz of The Book of Eibon had been given a key to eternal life by Ludwig Prinn, only to fall for a faithless woman. He becomes more a figure of pity than fear.
The Prophecies at Newfane Asylum - I know of only a few mythos stories set in the time of the Revolutionary War. The Fungi from Yuggoth were collecting even back then.
It Sounded Angular - Very well written! A group of friends are offered eternal life and wealth if they dare to seek it. It has more of a Dreamlands than mythos feel.
The Yellow Flower - A man down on his luck meets a new girl who tells him about a self help book called The Yellow Flower. If you can find this book its influences on you may not be all that helpful.
Pig - Pig was a talented loser artist known to the narrator of the story, who seems to have turned his life around with the help of The Yellow Flower. Now his sculpture subjects are pain and humiliation depicted in exquisite detail. Finding a copy of The Yellow Flower could be difficult and the results of reading it not what you'd expect.
The Fourth Man - Although the Necronomicon is mentioned by name, this story is contains more allusion than specific reference, perhaps owing more to Chambers than Lovecraft, not just because of the color of the flower. A self help book seems to inspire destruction in those who read it. For now, I guess, this concludes the series of stories centered on The Yellow Flower. I found these three stories fascinating in aggregate and engrossing individually. I hope Mr. Webb continues in this vein in some future works.
The Collector - This story is dedicated to Zealia Bishop but that's as close as it gets to mythos. Instead it is a pretty darn good modern fantasy about an art collector. Who the collector is might surprise you.
The Flower Man - Al Azif is mentioned but this is actually fantasy instead of mythos as a young girl with healing talents is compelled to join a strange sect. It was absorbing like most of the stories in the collection.
The Idiot God - The title is a clear allusion to Azathoth. What would Azathoth use for sustenance, if you really think about it? The prose was not terribly explicit but it sure made me squirm and the story was one of my favorites in the book.
When They Came - Somewhat hard to properly categorize or even describe, an explanation is offered for the origin of fantastic beasts for our legends. Again I was struck how the imagery and thought behind the prose stuck with me long after I finished reading.
The Skull: A History - Very brief, a man really wants to see through Lovecraft's eyes. Good enough, but I would have liked another longer work
Key to the Mysteries - A wizard chooses an apprentice in this well written fantasy.
Meeting the Messenger - An excellent mythos story! A paleographologist comes across The Yellow Text of Thanos Kon, Contacting the Messenger. Mythos fans, of course, know who the Messenger is. One thing that never makes too much sense in Yog Sothothery is just why the Great Old Ones would want to come to this particular little sliver of reality or why they even deign to notice humanity. Don Webb's explanation is as good as they come. Maybe this was my favorite from the whole book.
A Little Night Music - This reads almost like a fairy tale or a folk tale. Mr. Webb could no doubt write a very good high fantasy. A poor thief meets an acolyte of the god of music and pain, and learns about both.
The Source and the Stone - More fantasy than anything else, a Grecian princess from a tiny isle makes a supreme sacrifice for her people.

I was left in a bit of a quandary. I found Webb's prose to be well crafted; it lingered on my imagination. As noted, there are enough mythos stories in here to tempt a serious Lovecraftian. I liked just about all of the stories and disliked none of them. I recommend the prose highly but as I noted at the start of this review, the font was a major downer. Also if you like seething tentacular obscenities this won't be your cup of eldritch tea.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

I came to Don Webb through his nonfiction, then got to know him a bit as a (mostly online) friend, and I’ve struggled a bit to get into his fiction. I believe he actually sent me my copy of this book a few years after it was published, and (typical for librarian me) I’m only getting to it now. This is why writers don’t send me their books anymore.
This is an anthology of short stories, about half of them published previously, evidently, that Don wrote from 1989-2006. It seems like whenever I think I “get” a Don Webb story – oh this one is based on “Whisperer in the Dark,” ah this one is an attempt to imitate Clive Barker, right this one is about New Age occultniks, or whatever – he turns around and does something I wasn’t expecting. This is a good thing, but it means I start out almost every story feeling a bit disappointed before I get to the good part. All of these stories fit the horror genre in some sense or another, most of them are to some extent “Lovecraftian.” Three of the stories involve a book called “The Yellow Flower” which is fairly obviously a riff on Robert W. Chambers’ “The King in Yellow.” There are references to Machen, M.R. James and Dunsany as well. But there’s always something surprising thrown into the mix. Don has difficulty writing about places when he sets stories outside his home region – but the stories set in Texas, Oklahoma, or elsewhere in the Southwest have a definite presence. Most of his narrators are frustrated men about whatever age Don was when he wrote them – some of the real horror of the book comes from Don confronting his own fear of failure through them.
This book was published more or less at the beginning of the Createspace self-publishing/digital vanity period, and it shows. The binding is a bit better than most, but the overall package is unattractive, with a cover that looks like clip art and a very unfortunate choice of typeface (small publishers: PRINT IS TO READ, don’t make it harder than it needs to be). I don’t usually comment on this sort of thing, but it’s a little painful to see someone I know and like presented like this. Don deserved better.

[Larry McCloskey · Rating 4 out of 5]

"When They Came" is a collection of 23 short stories which pay homage to varying degrees to HP Lovecraft.

As with any such collection of stories, some are stronger than others. Also, some much more closely approximate Lovecraft's style. While many include elements of the Cthulhu mythos, others take one step too many toward impersonation. "Oll Athag", for instance reads less as an homage and more as bad attempt at copying Lovecraft's Dream Quest stories. Others, however, do a fine job of using such landmarks as Arkham, such elements as the 'Necronomicon' and even the likes of Dagon while still maintaining a sense of self. Webb also intertwines his own unique mythology into tales such as "The Yellow Flower" and "Meeting the Messenger" which integrates themselves well into the Lovecraftian mindset, if not his particular mythos, lending them added credibility. "The Skull: A History" is perhaps the greatest tribute to what Webb was trying to create - the tale of one man's quest to retrieve the skull of none other than HP Lovecraft, to learn his secrets.

There are a few really good tales and a few really bad, but the good outweigh the bad and the majority of the stories fall closer to the good end of the spectrum. Yes, it's largely derivative, by August Derleth and others have made their careers from borrowing from Lovecraft, who himself borrowed from the likes of Dunsanny. For true fans of Lovecraft and his work, you can do far worse.

[C. · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is quite noticeable where Webb's inspiration comes from. The entire collection is rife with Lovecraftian references and narrative style. But where one might accept Lovecraft's faults in writing and storytelling this is not the case here. Webb's short stories are repetitive, unimaginative and in a way too short. There are valiant efforts now and again and his attempt at creating his own mythology comes close to something original. There is more of a point to read his books about the Left Handed Path and not this collection of tired stories.