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New Tales of the Yellow Sign
In the dying years of the 19th century, a book changed the world—or worlds. A slim, sinister text called The King in Yellow drove those who read it to madness. Despite suppression by anxious authorities, it spread through global culture, and history itself, like a virus. Now the contagion bears hideous fruit.
New Tales of the Yellow Sign expands the classic horror mythos of weird tales pioneer and Lovecraft precursor Robert W. Chambers into new vistas of unease and imagination. Over the course of eight troubling stories, writer and visionary game designer Robin D. Laws lures you into diseased timelines, impossible pasts, and the all-too-terrifying present.
Sterilize your suicide chamber, harken to the remorseless clicking of your black box, and whistle for the monstrous creature that lives in your basement. The pallid mask awaits.
New Tales of the Yellow Sign expands the classic horror mythos of weird tales pioneer and Lovecraft precursor Robert W. Chambers into new vistas of unease and imagination. Over the course of eight troubling stories, writer and visionary game designer Robin D. Laws lures you into diseased timelines, impossible pasts, and the all-too-terrifying present.
Sterilize your suicide chamber, harken to the remorseless clicking of your black box, and whistle for the monstrous creature that lives in your basement. The pallid mask awaits.
172 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 13, 2012
15 people are currently reading
159 people want to read
About the author
Robin D. Laws
146 books196 followersWriter and game designer Robin D. Laws brought you such roleplaying games as Ashen Stars, The Esoterrorists, The Dying Earth, Heroquest and Feng Shui. He is the author of seven novels, most recently The Worldwound Gambit from Paizo. For Robin's much-praised works of gaming history and analysis, see Hamlet's Hit Points, Robin's Laws of Game Mastering and 40 Years of Gen Con.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
December 27, 2018
A good collection of tales set in the universe created by Robert W. Chambers in his Yellow King stories. A with those, the mood is often creepy and disturbing, hinting at the backstory rather than detailing it. There are scenes of visceral horror - notably in the very effective war story The Blood on the Walls of the Fortress, which could be a psychological parable set in the First or Second World War, and The Dog, where a student under the oppressive Castaigne regime discovers a creature in his cellar that leads him deeper into revolutionary action.
Full Bleed and Distressing Notifications are creepily Tales of the Unexpected-like, and Gaps is thoroughly disturbing. Pendulous is barely a genre story at all, with a single event putting it within the mythos and A Boat Full of Popes is a very effective attack on gay conversion therapy by way of alien infiltration. The only misfire is the final story, Fuck You You're Not Getting Out of This Car which is a single raging monologue I didn't get at all.
If you know the original stories, or enjoy the likes of Thomas Ligotti, I highly recommend giving these a read.
Full Bleed and Distressing Notifications are creepily Tales of the Unexpected-like, and Gaps is thoroughly disturbing. Pendulous is barely a genre story at all, with a single event putting it within the mythos and A Boat Full of Popes is a very effective attack on gay conversion therapy by way of alien infiltration. The only misfire is the final story, Fuck You You're Not Getting Out of This Car which is a single raging monologue I didn't get at all.
If you know the original stories, or enjoy the likes of Thomas Ligotti, I highly recommend giving these a read.
April 17, 2019
This started strong but eventually moved into territory that had little to nothing to do with Carcosa. The writing is good and the stories were interesting but there was nothing to compare to Karl E. Wagner or James Blish here.
February 25, 2014
Excellent collection of "King in Yellow Mythos" fiction by Canadian writer Robin D. Laws, utilizing a number of genres and formats, including procedural ("Full Bleed"), wartime-historical ("The Blood on the Wall in the Fortress"), alien-invasion actioner ("A Boat Full of Popes"), espionage ("The Dog"). In several, Laws deftly crosses genres; "Pendulous" takes chick-lit tropes and places them in a story resembling Ligotti's corporate-horror tale My Work is Not Yet Done.
Highly recommended for fans of Cthulhu Mythos/Lovecraftian fiction and nihilistic, cosmic horror. Standout stories include "Gaps," "Distressing Notification" and "The Dog"; the only one I couldn't really get into was "Fuck You You're Not Getting Out of This Car."
Highly recommended for fans of Cthulhu Mythos/Lovecraftian fiction and nihilistic, cosmic horror. Standout stories include "Gaps," "Distressing Notification" and "The Dog"; the only one I couldn't really get into was "Fuck You You're Not Getting Out of This Car."
October 1, 2016
Really solid storytelling, much more satisfying than most short-form horror. Laws tries out a different writing style in every piece. I've read a lot of short-story anthologies this year; this one was the best.
June 13, 2020
Yellow King is Ever Pervasive, is He?
Some are horror, some are weird, one or two are film noir, one’s a war story coming to darker end. Last one’s a 1984 type of story. However, “Pendulous” was an okay tale, has moments of weirdness with nightgaunt type creatures showing up. But, nothing much happens at the close. This be a subtle tale, I’m missing something. Some store shows up with strange sign. And that’s it? Overall, the collection were well written, I thought. Enjoyable.
Some are horror, some are weird, one or two are film noir, one’s a war story coming to darker end. Last one’s a 1984 type of story. However, “Pendulous” was an okay tale, has moments of weirdness with nightgaunt type creatures showing up. But, nothing much happens at the close. This be a subtle tale, I’m missing something. Some store shows up with strange sign. And that’s it? Overall, the collection were well written, I thought. Enjoyable.
January 1, 2018
Very good collection. It really captures the madness of the King in Yellow and brings it into a modern setting - as well as some exotic settings. My favourite stories were "Full Bleed" and "Distressing Notification".
April 9, 2020
A must-read for fans of The King in Yellow. "Full Bleed" and "Distressing Notifications" are by far my favorites, but most of the other stories bring something to the party as well. I'll be re-reading some of these, as well as Ken Hite's introductory analysis!
September 19, 2022
Fun. I zoomed through this in an afternoon.
I didn't quite get Pendulous.
Nice job of bringing The King In Yellow alive for the 21st century.
There's a certain amount of continuity going on here such that you can piece together an alternate history.
I didn't quite get Pendulous.
Nice job of bringing The King In Yellow alive for the 21st century.
There's a certain amount of continuity going on here such that you can piece together an alternate history.
August 19, 2017
Неплохой сборник, за исключением, пожалуй, последнего рассказа.
November 17, 2018
This has been on my reading list for a year and I'm glad I finally got around to reading it. Good book
September 11, 2019
A short story collection with more hits than misses.
March 23, 2014
It's not often you find a collection of stories with the
as the central theme, but somehow in my travels on the internet I came across this anthology and my interest was piqued. I have read 'The King in Yellow' and its subtle horror has stuck with me, so an author doing their own take on the theme intrigued me.
'New Tales of the Yellow Sign' was a wickedly amazing collection of stories. From the first sentence to the last one, I was stuck like glue to the pages. Law is an amazing writer, and his takes on the 'King in Yellow' as well as Lovecraftian horror are astounding. After the first three stories I was hooked, my brain stuck in a series of unquiet thought patterns and shivers in the dark.
Out of all the stories within 'New Tales of the Yellow Sign', only 'Pendulous' failed to eek out any sort of emotion in me. Something within that story just didn't strike a cord with me, and by the time the tale ended, I felt as if I had missed something, and very well could have. Still, out of all the stories, that was the only one that didn't bring about a response.
The others stories, however, were filled with all sorts of horrors, both subtle and blatant. No matter the subject, characters or setting, each story swept me up in their own personal tales and kept me locked in until they finally released me. Whether it was the oppression of the General in 'The Dog' and the feelings of wanting to rebel against the set government, or perhaps the feelings of confusion and almost understood happenings within 'The Blood on the Wall in the Fortress', the reader is left continually feeling like a pawn in a game they will never understand. (and that's a good thing)
'Distressing Notification' was one of the creepiest stories I have read in awhile, the relation to modern technology making it eerily realistic and close to home. One could easily imagine the app that is the title of the story making its way into society due to some of the current games and apps that are out there.
Laws has created an anthology that is something else. There are stories within that will linger with me for a very long time, and I will easily be reading this collection again in the future. I can't stress enough on how much I recommend this those who enjoy horror, those that have read 'The King in Yellow', and anyone who reads Lovecraft. You won't be let down, and like the fabled play itself, this text too might change.
as the central theme, but somehow in my travels on the internet I came across this anthology and my interest was piqued. I have read 'The King in Yellow' and its subtle horror has stuck with me, so an author doing their own take on the theme intrigued me.'New Tales of the Yellow Sign' was a wickedly amazing collection of stories. From the first sentence to the last one, I was stuck like glue to the pages. Law is an amazing writer, and his takes on the 'King in Yellow' as well as Lovecraftian horror are astounding. After the first three stories I was hooked, my brain stuck in a series of unquiet thought patterns and shivers in the dark.
Out of all the stories within 'New Tales of the Yellow Sign', only 'Pendulous' failed to eek out any sort of emotion in me. Something within that story just didn't strike a cord with me, and by the time the tale ended, I felt as if I had missed something, and very well could have. Still, out of all the stories, that was the only one that didn't bring about a response.
The others stories, however, were filled with all sorts of horrors, both subtle and blatant. No matter the subject, characters or setting, each story swept me up in their own personal tales and kept me locked in until they finally released me. Whether it was the oppression of the General in 'The Dog' and the feelings of wanting to rebel against the set government, or perhaps the feelings of confusion and almost understood happenings within 'The Blood on the Wall in the Fortress', the reader is left continually feeling like a pawn in a game they will never understand. (and that's a good thing)
'Distressing Notification' was one of the creepiest stories I have read in awhile, the relation to modern technology making it eerily realistic and close to home. One could easily imagine the app that is the title of the story making its way into society due to some of the current games and apps that are out there.
Laws has created an anthology that is something else. There are stories within that will linger with me for a very long time, and I will easily be reading this collection again in the future. I can't stress enough on how much I recommend this those who enjoy horror, those that have read 'The King in Yellow', and anyone who reads Lovecraft. You won't be let down, and like the fabled play itself, this text too might change.
September 22, 2017
It is interesting to me that some stories that are written based on classics can sometimes be more interesting than the source material itself. This always seems more likely with stories based on The King in Yellow seem to follow this pattern. While the original stories are good (particularly The Yellow Sign) most of the stories based on them are even better.
This wasn't one that was sent to us but it seems to have an undeservedly low rating count on Goodreads. The stories are varied, interesting and not derivative at all. They also share a light thread of interconnections that make them interesting.
Full Bleed seems to be based a bit on Repairer of Reputations but with a modern day update. The narrator is chilling in their madness.
Gaps is full of jagged, horrifying memories that seem to be missing after the narrator has been "yellow-rolled" into clicking on a link directing him to the fatal play.
The Blood on the Wall in the Fortress details "The War" that always seems to be ubiquitous throughout Chambers' stories.
A Boat Full of Popes takes a close look at an alien race, Hasturites, that feed on the self-loathing of humans.
Distressing Notification is an app that gives you news throughout the day. Distressing news that could be likened to depressing fortune cookies but in app form. But the app may be controlled by more than is at first apparent. This is by far my favorite story.
Pendulous describes the drastic (and potentially horrifying) steps a woman takes to make sure a skyscraper never gets built because it blocks the view of the Night Gaunts and grey skies.
A revolution is brewing in The Dog that is being undermined by within by a mole. But Walker has a secret weapon in his basement.
F*** You, You're Not Getting Out of This Car is, to me, the weakest story in the bunch. It just seems like generic psycho guy horror. I didn't feel a connection to the other stories or even the source material. Really, if this story had been left off it very well would have been a 5 Skull read for me.
Some readers might shy away from specifically titled books like this. Sometimes they wonder if they'll even enjoy it if they haven't read the source material but in this case, it's not a problem. If you've read The King in Yellow stories you might get a little more from it. However, if you haven't read it, it's not a problem. The stories are strong, well-written and stand completely on their own.
This wasn't one that was sent to us but it seems to have an undeservedly low rating count on Goodreads. The stories are varied, interesting and not derivative at all. They also share a light thread of interconnections that make them interesting.
Full Bleed seems to be based a bit on Repairer of Reputations but with a modern day update. The narrator is chilling in their madness.
Gaps is full of jagged, horrifying memories that seem to be missing after the narrator has been "yellow-rolled" into clicking on a link directing him to the fatal play.
The Blood on the Wall in the Fortress details "The War" that always seems to be ubiquitous throughout Chambers' stories.
A Boat Full of Popes takes a close look at an alien race, Hasturites, that feed on the self-loathing of humans.
Distressing Notification is an app that gives you news throughout the day. Distressing news that could be likened to depressing fortune cookies but in app form. But the app may be controlled by more than is at first apparent. This is by far my favorite story.
Pendulous describes the drastic (and potentially horrifying) steps a woman takes to make sure a skyscraper never gets built because it blocks the view of the Night Gaunts and grey skies.
A revolution is brewing in The Dog that is being undermined by within by a mole. But Walker has a secret weapon in his basement.
F*** You, You're Not Getting Out of This Car is, to me, the weakest story in the bunch. It just seems like generic psycho guy horror. I didn't feel a connection to the other stories or even the source material. Really, if this story had been left off it very well would have been a 5 Skull read for me.
Some readers might shy away from specifically titled books like this. Sometimes they wonder if they'll even enjoy it if they haven't read the source material but in this case, it's not a problem. If you've read The King in Yellow stories you might get a little more from it. However, if you haven't read it, it's not a problem. The stories are strong, well-written and stand completely on their own.
March 14, 2013
The stories vary somewhat in quality, but a decent addition to the Yellow Sign mythos. The stories explore and alternate-Earth in which the narrator of "The Repairer of Reputations" succeeded in his mad plans.
March 2, 2014
The first stories were good. Sometimes very good. But it only gets worse and the final chapter was just not good.
Read
November 30, 2015Some good Some okay
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews