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Lairs of the Hidden Gods #2
Inverted Kingdom
This massive collection of original stories and articles inspired by the 'Cthulhu Mythos' created by H.P. Lovecraft was published in Japan in 2002 as a two-volume set under the name Hishinkai. The list of contributing authors is a who's-who of Japanese horror fiction, featuring some of the finest writers in Japan today. In cooperation with Tokyo Sogensha, the Japanese publishers, and the anthology editor, Mr. ASAMATSU Ken, we are proud to present this second volume of the series. Here you will find new vistas of horror - some stories with shock you, others force you to look at your daily life through new eyes. Each story is accompanied by a thought-provoking introduction by Robert M. Price, the recognized master of the Mythos.
314 pages, Paperback
First published November 15, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 13, 2013
This is volume 2 of a planned 4 volume collection of translated original short fiction by Japanese authors, These have been previously published in Japan but are basically completely new works and completely new authors to us English speaking westerners. I thought the first volume was brilliant, a stunning triumph. My impression is more tempered this time but I also give this volume a resounding recommendation. We simply must have more of this Japanese fiction! I do hope Kurodahan Press, the publishers, reaps in lots of yen so they will be encouraged to keep us supplied with a steady stream of Japanese mythos fiction, not just these 4 volumes.
Some housekeeping: Page count was a just short of phenomenal 357, so quite a bargain really. This includes a 4 page introduction by Asamatsu Ken, a 10 page introduction by Robert Price (a familiar figure to all of us), 2 pages for titles in front of each story, another 2 page introduction by Price in front of each story, and the last 24 pages devoted to an essay on mythos role playing games and notes about the authors. No calculator available, but this left 291 pages for 7 stories, an average about 42 pages each. This book is generally longer than most homegrown mythos collections and has fewer stories. Some amount to novellas. Is that the Japanese way? Are short stories less short than in the US? In any event, the authors were allowed sufficient page count that characters and plot could be developed at leisure, imagery could be lingered over. The same lotus scented surreal atmosphere seemed to exude from this volume as from the earlier one. A special note must be made of the cover art by Yamada Akihiro. It is simply lovely, one of the most gorgeous mythos covers ever. An octopoidal thing drifts dreamily in the seaweed, but don't venture too close! The book is, I think, POD, and my copy was flawless. Alas it is already a bit beat up but it hasn't been handled too gently here. Mostly I have only grateful praise for the translators except in two instances that I will note later.
I think the forward by Asamatsu Ken, "Life with Gills" set the mood for the book perfectly. This time, however, I was not enamored of the Price's introduction. He was off on his pet themes regarding the mythos, now about mythos cult members. It was a trifle (or more) long winded and didn't really add to my appreciation of the subsequent stories. I did not read his individual story introductions until I had finished each one, as there were sometimes minor spoilers. Mostly I felt neutral about them.
My comments about the individual stories may contain spoilers so please skip the rest of this if that will be a problem for you.
Ashibe Taku: "The Horror in the Kabuki Theatre" translated by Sheryl Hogg
I believe this was the longest story in the book, practically a novella. I had some heartburn with it. A group in Japan has a copy of the Necronimicon and are trying to invoke the power or presence of the Great Old Ones by inserting chants or imagery about them into performances in the Kabuki theaters bear Edo in 1806. The premise that these entities can manifest into existence from thoughts or words on a page dovetails nicely with many mythos stories or themes here in the US. The spin here that was original that by writing a play about their defeat, humans, the playwrights and the players can combat the Great Old Ones using words, just as they are trying to be manifested through words. Unfortunately I found this tale somewhat dry. The background is true history of Japan and Kabuki, with much discussion of the names of playwrights, actors and prop makers, and listing their work. Here is where a detailed introduction could have done real service to the uninitiated westerner. I have no context for this story historically or culturally. I think I have only ever seen a minute or two of Kabuki on TV or in movies. The same is true for Chinese opera but in the film Farewell My Concubine the screen imagery was vivid enough that I could at least catch glimpses of what it must have been like. This text did not do the same thing for me (except the ceremony where the world was decreed), and I don't know whether the blame lies with the translator or the author (or me, for that matter). For example, as creatures manifest and swallow whole theaters full of patrons and performers there was no sense of fear or tension in the prose. The people who were there who were not swallowed up didn't evince much reaction at all. I wonder if I wrote a story for a Japanese periodical and listed the names of Shakespeare's plays, and the major actors and set designers of the period if it would read like so much word salad to my audience. I feel a bit guilty that I didn't Google Kabuki and read up on it instead of just griping about my lack of context.
Matsudono Rio: "Taste of the Snake's Honey" translated by Erin S. Brodhead
This is a Yig story and was quite fine. A young man with tastes for ghoulish and violent kinky sex gradually achieves self realization. His detachment from the atrocities inflicted for his enjoyment ends up internally consistent and necessary to the story. I would love to read some more of Mr. Matsudono's fiction. Initially I thought there were unusual juxtapositions of present and past tense, but this was only in the first part of the story. Author or translator? I dunno.
Matsuo Mirai: "Inverted Kingdom" translated by Usha Jayaraman
This was a superb story of a woman living a mundane existence as a housewife who then finds her destiny is not so mundane after all. Realization comes to her and the reader gradually, at first dimly glimpsed and then more clearly. If not for "Terror Rate" it would have been my favorite in the book.
Konaka Chiaki: "Terror Rate" translated by Kathleen Taji
Goodness, this was wonderful! A young lady in need of supplemental income agrees to participate in a scientific experiment where she merely has to spend the night in a house where her fear will be measured. Well plotted and deftly written it has pride of place in this anthology.
Tanaka Fumio: "Secrets of the Abyss" translated by Bruce Rutledge and Enomoto Yuko
In this nifty story a man in search of a cure for his gravely ill wife comes across an unusual fish in a nearby flooded quarry, after observing a dog eating something from the old mine. The flesh from this creature has perhaps less than salutary effects on her and him. It was a very agreeable read.
Nanjo Takenori: "A Night at Yuan-Su" translated by Usha Jayaraman
A man wanders one night through the streets of Yuan-Su in search of who knows what. Who is real? What is real? Is anything real? You might wish to reread "He" by HPL before reading this story. It was dreamlike and well crafted, another fine addition to the mythos. I really liked it.
Hirayama Yumeaki: "Summoned by the Shadows" translated by Sheryl Hogg
A family settles into a house where the rent is unexpectedly low just because there's a grave in the back yard. Complications ensue. Not a bad premise, not a bad story, it just did not knock my socks off the way some of the others did.
Yasuda Hitoshi: "The Cthulhu Mythos in Gaming" translated by Edward Lipsett
This essay was diverting enough, but seemed rather generic to me. I would have been interested in more complete or detailed description of homegrown Japanese mythos gaming or of the gaming community.
That's about it! I was not as completely won over as I was for Night Voices, Night Journeys. In particular I think "The Horror in the Kabuki Theatre" was too long and too dry, and, well, too obscure for me. On the other hand I would not part with my copy. Four of the stories were superb gems, rating with the best of modern Lovecraftian fiction. 1 was very good and 1 was OK. I think everyone should have this book on their shelves. It is indispensable reading for serious mythos fans. Heck you can't beat the value for the money so go for it! I await other opinions with interest. Even more so, I impatiently await volume 3!
Some housekeeping: Page count was a just short of phenomenal 357, so quite a bargain really. This includes a 4 page introduction by Asamatsu Ken, a 10 page introduction by Robert Price (a familiar figure to all of us), 2 pages for titles in front of each story, another 2 page introduction by Price in front of each story, and the last 24 pages devoted to an essay on mythos role playing games and notes about the authors. No calculator available, but this left 291 pages for 7 stories, an average about 42 pages each. This book is generally longer than most homegrown mythos collections and has fewer stories. Some amount to novellas. Is that the Japanese way? Are short stories less short than in the US? In any event, the authors were allowed sufficient page count that characters and plot could be developed at leisure, imagery could be lingered over. The same lotus scented surreal atmosphere seemed to exude from this volume as from the earlier one. A special note must be made of the cover art by Yamada Akihiro. It is simply lovely, one of the most gorgeous mythos covers ever. An octopoidal thing drifts dreamily in the seaweed, but don't venture too close! The book is, I think, POD, and my copy was flawless. Alas it is already a bit beat up but it hasn't been handled too gently here. Mostly I have only grateful praise for the translators except in two instances that I will note later.
I think the forward by Asamatsu Ken, "Life with Gills" set the mood for the book perfectly. This time, however, I was not enamored of the Price's introduction. He was off on his pet themes regarding the mythos, now about mythos cult members. It was a trifle (or more) long winded and didn't really add to my appreciation of the subsequent stories. I did not read his individual story introductions until I had finished each one, as there were sometimes minor spoilers. Mostly I felt neutral about them.
My comments about the individual stories may contain spoilers so please skip the rest of this if that will be a problem for you.
Ashibe Taku: "The Horror in the Kabuki Theatre" translated by Sheryl Hogg
I believe this was the longest story in the book, practically a novella. I had some heartburn with it. A group in Japan has a copy of the Necronimicon and are trying to invoke the power or presence of the Great Old Ones by inserting chants or imagery about them into performances in the Kabuki theaters bear Edo in 1806. The premise that these entities can manifest into existence from thoughts or words on a page dovetails nicely with many mythos stories or themes here in the US. The spin here that was original that by writing a play about their defeat, humans, the playwrights and the players can combat the Great Old Ones using words, just as they are trying to be manifested through words. Unfortunately I found this tale somewhat dry. The background is true history of Japan and Kabuki, with much discussion of the names of playwrights, actors and prop makers, and listing their work. Here is where a detailed introduction could have done real service to the uninitiated westerner. I have no context for this story historically or culturally. I think I have only ever seen a minute or two of Kabuki on TV or in movies. The same is true for Chinese opera but in the film Farewell My Concubine the screen imagery was vivid enough that I could at least catch glimpses of what it must have been like. This text did not do the same thing for me (except the ceremony where the world was decreed), and I don't know whether the blame lies with the translator or the author (or me, for that matter). For example, as creatures manifest and swallow whole theaters full of patrons and performers there was no sense of fear or tension in the prose. The people who were there who were not swallowed up didn't evince much reaction at all. I wonder if I wrote a story for a Japanese periodical and listed the names of Shakespeare's plays, and the major actors and set designers of the period if it would read like so much word salad to my audience. I feel a bit guilty that I didn't Google Kabuki and read up on it instead of just griping about my lack of context.
Matsudono Rio: "Taste of the Snake's Honey" translated by Erin S. Brodhead
This is a Yig story and was quite fine. A young man with tastes for ghoulish and violent kinky sex gradually achieves self realization. His detachment from the atrocities inflicted for his enjoyment ends up internally consistent and necessary to the story. I would love to read some more of Mr. Matsudono's fiction. Initially I thought there were unusual juxtapositions of present and past tense, but this was only in the first part of the story. Author or translator? I dunno.
Matsuo Mirai: "Inverted Kingdom" translated by Usha Jayaraman
This was a superb story of a woman living a mundane existence as a housewife who then finds her destiny is not so mundane after all. Realization comes to her and the reader gradually, at first dimly glimpsed and then more clearly. If not for "Terror Rate" it would have been my favorite in the book.
Konaka Chiaki: "Terror Rate" translated by Kathleen Taji
Goodness, this was wonderful! A young lady in need of supplemental income agrees to participate in a scientific experiment where she merely has to spend the night in a house where her fear will be measured. Well plotted and deftly written it has pride of place in this anthology.
Tanaka Fumio: "Secrets of the Abyss" translated by Bruce Rutledge and Enomoto Yuko
In this nifty story a man in search of a cure for his gravely ill wife comes across an unusual fish in a nearby flooded quarry, after observing a dog eating something from the old mine. The flesh from this creature has perhaps less than salutary effects on her and him. It was a very agreeable read.
Nanjo Takenori: "A Night at Yuan-Su" translated by Usha Jayaraman
A man wanders one night through the streets of Yuan-Su in search of who knows what. Who is real? What is real? Is anything real? You might wish to reread "He" by HPL before reading this story. It was dreamlike and well crafted, another fine addition to the mythos. I really liked it.
Hirayama Yumeaki: "Summoned by the Shadows" translated by Sheryl Hogg
A family settles into a house where the rent is unexpectedly low just because there's a grave in the back yard. Complications ensue. Not a bad premise, not a bad story, it just did not knock my socks off the way some of the others did.
Yasuda Hitoshi: "The Cthulhu Mythos in Gaming" translated by Edward Lipsett
This essay was diverting enough, but seemed rather generic to me. I would have been interested in more complete or detailed description of homegrown Japanese mythos gaming or of the gaming community.
That's about it! I was not as completely won over as I was for Night Voices, Night Journeys. In particular I think "The Horror in the Kabuki Theatre" was too long and too dry, and, well, too obscure for me. On the other hand I would not part with my copy. Four of the stories were superb gems, rating with the best of modern Lovecraftian fiction. 1 was very good and 1 was OK. I think everyone should have this book on their shelves. It is indispensable reading for serious mythos fans. Heck you can't beat the value for the money so go for it! I await other opinions with interest. Even more so, I impatiently await volume 3!
August 17, 2008
Definitely a freaky collection of mythos-type stories from Japanese "disciples" of HP Lovecraft. Very well written and a must if you're a collector such as myself. My rule of thumb is generally that when you pick up an anthology, you have to take the good with the bad, but there weren't any bad stories in this group.
Here's the contents list:
1. Ashibe Taku - The Horror in the Kabuki Theater: a novella-length story set in historical Japan in which writers of Kabuki horror have a lot more power than they realize and must use that power for good when the visitors from the angles of time and space begin to appear. Maybe a bit long, but still good.
2. Matsudono Rio - Taste of Snake's Honey: another somewhat lengthy offering, featuring a young man with some bizarre tastes in life and how his penchant for things strange came to be. This one will definitely hold your interest, keeping you turning pages until the very last word.
3. Matsuo Mirai - Inverted Kingdom: This one was a bit confusing, but still terrifying, in which a young woman fears she is losing her sanity when different events trigger her memories.
4. Konaka Chiaki - Terror Rate: IMHO, the scariest story in this book. A young woman, needing an extra job answers an ad -- and finds out exactly what the meaning of terror can be. Very creepy; this one raised the hackles on my neck.
5. Takana Fumio - Secrets of the Abyss - In which a man will do anything to save his dying wife, and pays the price.
6. Nanjo Takenori - A Night at Yuan-su - Stepping out of his home, a man meets up with modernity, while the modern world meets up with him. Very well written.
7. Hirayama Yumeaki - Summoned by the Shadows - Another quality story complete with creepy atmosphere and page-turning terror. Extremely well written; I hope to find more in translation by this author. Another one of my favorite stories in this volume.
There's also a section on Mythos gaming at the end of the story collection.
Overall...a fine read, recommended for anyone even remotely interested in mythos-based fiction.
Here's the contents list:
1. Ashibe Taku - The Horror in the Kabuki Theater: a novella-length story set in historical Japan in which writers of Kabuki horror have a lot more power than they realize and must use that power for good when the visitors from the angles of time and space begin to appear. Maybe a bit long, but still good.
2. Matsudono Rio - Taste of Snake's Honey: another somewhat lengthy offering, featuring a young man with some bizarre tastes in life and how his penchant for things strange came to be. This one will definitely hold your interest, keeping you turning pages until the very last word.
3. Matsuo Mirai - Inverted Kingdom: This one was a bit confusing, but still terrifying, in which a young woman fears she is losing her sanity when different events trigger her memories.
4. Konaka Chiaki - Terror Rate: IMHO, the scariest story in this book. A young woman, needing an extra job answers an ad -- and finds out exactly what the meaning of terror can be. Very creepy; this one raised the hackles on my neck.
5. Takana Fumio - Secrets of the Abyss - In which a man will do anything to save his dying wife, and pays the price.
6. Nanjo Takenori - A Night at Yuan-su - Stepping out of his home, a man meets up with modernity, while the modern world meets up with him. Very well written.
7. Hirayama Yumeaki - Summoned by the Shadows - Another quality story complete with creepy atmosphere and page-turning terror. Extremely well written; I hope to find more in translation by this author. Another one of my favorite stories in this volume.
There's also a section on Mythos gaming at the end of the story collection.
Overall...a fine read, recommended for anyone even remotely interested in mythos-based fiction.
October 28, 2021
Having finished the second volume of the collected horror stories by Japanese authors, I am now starting to wonder what the original editors were thinking when they decided to include certain entries in these volumes. Were they trying to give us a cross-section of Japanese works: the good and the bad? Because just like in the first book, the stories in this one range from atrocious to good, but the overall impression remains unfavourable.
Just like before, Robert M. Price wrote a foreword and short introductions to each story, and I'm actually curious if we both read the same works, because his gushing, pretentious commentary feels like he must have read stories with similar plots that were actually good.
---***some spoilers may follow***---
This book begins with a story that I actually didn't finish - The Horror in the Kabuki Theatre. The story takes place in early 19th century Edo and begins with a monster appearing during a kabuki performance, devouring the actors and the audience, and then disappearing without a trace. I was unable to finish this story for several reasons: 1) the dialogues were impossible to follow because not a single character is apparently capable of uttering a complete sentence or finishing a thought; as a result, dialogues in this story look something like this:
"Ah, hello..."
"Oh, you're..."
"Long time no see..."
"So that's how it is..."
"I suppose..."
"Was that...?"
"If you must ask..."
And I am not exaggerating the ellipses. Every other sentence ends with an ellipsis. Reading those "conversations" felt like watching some bad anime, with characters deliberately speaking in this way to hide information from the viewer. 2) Those stilted, clipped pieces of dialogue are constantly interrupted by excessive, completely unnecessary pieces of exposition about kabuki; the reader is spammed - yes, spammed, there is no other word for it - with paragraphs of names of kabuki playwrights, actors, patrons, theatre owners, lengthy play titles repeated ad nauseam, and kabuki customs, which completely kills the pacing of a story that was going nowhere fast anyway. All this unnecessary information could have easily been removed, which probably would have reduced the padding by a good 60%. It honestly felt like the author was trying to say "Look at all the research I did! Praise me!" 0/5
The second story is entitled "Taste of Snake's Honey" and is marginally better than the first, which really isn't hard to achieve, but it immediately put me off with the protagonist feeling obliged to tell the reader what a depraved, sadistic piece of human trash he is, as if the very graphic description of his deviancies that followed didn't illustrate that much better. Some elements of this story reminded me a lot of the first volume's "Necrophallus": instead of trying to scare the reader, the author goes for shock value, culminating the story with incestuous necrophilia. The things that happened to the protagonist's father and his associate were actually more interesting than the things happening in the present. 2/5
The eponymous "Inverted Kingdom" completes the hat-trick of bad stories in this volume. Robert Price extols the literary genius of the author, but when I finished reading it, I only found myself scratching my head in confusion. The plot is impossible to follow as it jumps all over the place and time, to the point where it's impossible to tell if every other chapter were the protagonist's dreams or things that were happening to somebody else. It didn't help that the writing was plodding and ponderous, and the protagonist dull as dishwater and completely devoid of personality. 1/5
With those three stories behind me, I was resigned to accepting that the rest would be just as poor, but to my surprise "Terror Rate" turned everything around. The author did a marvellous job combining cosmic horror with a classic Japanese, folklore-based haunted house story. The writing is gripping, the storytelling genuinely scary. I just wish it was a little longer, because it's somewhat on the short side. But I loved the ending and its message that "the times may change but the horror never ends." Absolutely brilliant! 5/5
With "Secrets of the Abyss" we are back to the mediocre. While not as bad as the first three, the premise and the writing are naive at best, puerile at worst. It feels like something written by someone just taking their first steps in the literary world. Suspension of disbelief can only go so far before the events that take place become ridiculous even in established realities of the story. 2/5
This volume is a real roller-coaster, because next we get to "A Night at Yuan-Su", which is once again actually really good. At first it feels like we're just following a misanthrope on a nightly walk, listening to him talk about how things used to be better back in the day, but once he starts meeting people and we see their reactions to him, we realise that not everything is as it seems. And once realisation struck, I couldn't help but crack a smile and how cleverly the whole thing was structured. Well done! 5/5
What do you get when you combine "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Yellow Wallpaper"? You get "Summoned by the Shadows". The interesting aspect of this story is that it's not the protagonist who's slowly descending into madness. He is only a helpless bystander, though perhaps he does contribute to the ultimate tragedy through his constant passivity and inaction. I couldn't help but feel bad for the wife in the end, though. 3/5
Overall, this is a really weak collection of short stories, and the two great tales are unfortunately incapable of allowing me to recommend it. I fully expect the remaining two volumes in this series to be in the same vein. What the editors should have done is only collect the really good stories into a single volume and publishing that instead of subjecting the readers to the torture of all the horrible writing and forcing them to find the diamonds themselves.
Just like before, Robert M. Price wrote a foreword and short introductions to each story, and I'm actually curious if we both read the same works, because his gushing, pretentious commentary feels like he must have read stories with similar plots that were actually good.
---***some spoilers may follow***---
This book begins with a story that I actually didn't finish - The Horror in the Kabuki Theatre. The story takes place in early 19th century Edo and begins with a monster appearing during a kabuki performance, devouring the actors and the audience, and then disappearing without a trace. I was unable to finish this story for several reasons: 1) the dialogues were impossible to follow because not a single character is apparently capable of uttering a complete sentence or finishing a thought; as a result, dialogues in this story look something like this:
"Ah, hello..."
"Oh, you're..."
"Long time no see..."
"So that's how it is..."
"I suppose..."
"Was that...?"
"If you must ask..."
And I am not exaggerating the ellipses. Every other sentence ends with an ellipsis. Reading those "conversations" felt like watching some bad anime, with characters deliberately speaking in this way to hide information from the viewer. 2) Those stilted, clipped pieces of dialogue are constantly interrupted by excessive, completely unnecessary pieces of exposition about kabuki; the reader is spammed - yes, spammed, there is no other word for it - with paragraphs of names of kabuki playwrights, actors, patrons, theatre owners, lengthy play titles repeated ad nauseam, and kabuki customs, which completely kills the pacing of a story that was going nowhere fast anyway. All this unnecessary information could have easily been removed, which probably would have reduced the padding by a good 60%. It honestly felt like the author was trying to say "Look at all the research I did! Praise me!" 0/5
The second story is entitled "Taste of Snake's Honey" and is marginally better than the first, which really isn't hard to achieve, but it immediately put me off with the protagonist feeling obliged to tell the reader what a depraved, sadistic piece of human trash he is, as if the very graphic description of his deviancies that followed didn't illustrate that much better. Some elements of this story reminded me a lot of the first volume's "Necrophallus": instead of trying to scare the reader, the author goes for shock value, culminating the story with incestuous necrophilia. The things that happened to the protagonist's father and his associate were actually more interesting than the things happening in the present. 2/5
The eponymous "Inverted Kingdom" completes the hat-trick of bad stories in this volume. Robert Price extols the literary genius of the author, but when I finished reading it, I only found myself scratching my head in confusion. The plot is impossible to follow as it jumps all over the place and time, to the point where it's impossible to tell if every other chapter were the protagonist's dreams or things that were happening to somebody else. It didn't help that the writing was plodding and ponderous, and the protagonist dull as dishwater and completely devoid of personality. 1/5
With those three stories behind me, I was resigned to accepting that the rest would be just as poor, but to my surprise "Terror Rate" turned everything around. The author did a marvellous job combining cosmic horror with a classic Japanese, folklore-based haunted house story. The writing is gripping, the storytelling genuinely scary. I just wish it was a little longer, because it's somewhat on the short side. But I loved the ending and its message that "the times may change but the horror never ends." Absolutely brilliant! 5/5
With "Secrets of the Abyss" we are back to the mediocre. While not as bad as the first three, the premise and the writing are naive at best, puerile at worst. It feels like something written by someone just taking their first steps in the literary world. Suspension of disbelief can only go so far before the events that take place become ridiculous even in established realities of the story. 2/5
This volume is a real roller-coaster, because next we get to "A Night at Yuan-Su", which is once again actually really good. At first it feels like we're just following a misanthrope on a nightly walk, listening to him talk about how things used to be better back in the day, but once he starts meeting people and we see their reactions to him, we realise that not everything is as it seems. And once realisation struck, I couldn't help but crack a smile and how cleverly the whole thing was structured. Well done! 5/5
What do you get when you combine "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Yellow Wallpaper"? You get "Summoned by the Shadows". The interesting aspect of this story is that it's not the protagonist who's slowly descending into madness. He is only a helpless bystander, though perhaps he does contribute to the ultimate tragedy through his constant passivity and inaction. I couldn't help but feel bad for the wife in the end, though. 3/5
Overall, this is a really weak collection of short stories, and the two great tales are unfortunately incapable of allowing me to recommend it. I fully expect the remaining two volumes in this series to be in the same vein. What the editors should have done is only collect the really good stories into a single volume and publishing that instead of subjecting the readers to the torture of all the horrible writing and forcing them to find the diamonds themselves.
July 31, 2021
There are some nice stories here, some of which are genuinely creepy, and I would have awarded the book four stars but for the longest tale, "The Horror in the Kabuki Theatre". At 93 pages, it's just way too long and drags out an interesting idea to the point of tedium with endless lists of the names of characters, actors and play titles. Possibly it's of more interest to a readership familiar with the history of Japanese theatre, but it ruined the book for me as I slogged through to the end and was disappointed that the real effort of actually finishing reading it really wasn't worth it.
October 7, 2025
The Horror in the Kabuki Theater: 2/5
Taste of Snake's Honey: 5/5
Inverted Kingdom: 4/5
Terror Rate: 2/5
Secrets of the Abyss: 3/5
A Night at Yuan-Su: 3/5
Summoned by the Shadows: 3/5
Taste of Snake's Honey: 5/5
Inverted Kingdom: 4/5
Terror Rate: 2/5
Secrets of the Abyss: 3/5
A Night at Yuan-Su: 3/5
Summoned by the Shadows: 3/5
February 6, 2025
Asamatsu, Ken - Inverted Kingdom: Tales Of The Hidden Gods 2
The opener, “The Horror In The Kabuki Theatre” is the longest and most challenging work in this collection. Challenging because it is filled with names I was not familiar with. Aside from the artist Hokusai, most were playwrights and performers, along with a producer or two. The story explains how evil or misguided souls misused the theater to crack a fissure into another reality, allowing older gods a foothold back into this world. Fans of HPL will recognize this all too well. And hey! the title seems like a riff on “The Horror In The Museum.”
“Taste Of The Snake’s Honey” is a decadent stroll into drugs, slavery, debauched sex, and jaded attempts to relieve excruciating ennui. Our protagonist inherits his father’s international trading firm, as well as his father’s long time Shanghainese partner. All is permitted, including the corpse.
I imagine all cultures share certain taboos. Such as, no matter how cheap the rent, living next to the cemetery may not be wise. Or, once family members exhibit deteriorating symptoms, do not tarry departure. Of course, many horror franchises rely on individuals ignoring warnings, as does our hero in “Summoned By The Shadows.”
He is an overworked, unlucky taxi driver. As his wife spirals, he clutches the hope things will improve, that they will save enough money to move. Just a little more time.
The opener, “The Horror In The Kabuki Theatre” is the longest and most challenging work in this collection. Challenging because it is filled with names I was not familiar with. Aside from the artist Hokusai, most were playwrights and performers, along with a producer or two. The story explains how evil or misguided souls misused the theater to crack a fissure into another reality, allowing older gods a foothold back into this world. Fans of HPL will recognize this all too well. And hey! the title seems like a riff on “The Horror In The Museum.”
“Taste Of The Snake’s Honey” is a decadent stroll into drugs, slavery, debauched sex, and jaded attempts to relieve excruciating ennui. Our protagonist inherits his father’s international trading firm, as well as his father’s long time Shanghainese partner. All is permitted, including the corpse.
I imagine all cultures share certain taboos. Such as, no matter how cheap the rent, living next to the cemetery may not be wise. Or, once family members exhibit deteriorating symptoms, do not tarry departure. Of course, many horror franchises rely on individuals ignoring warnings, as does our hero in “Summoned By The Shadows.”
He is an overworked, unlucky taxi driver. As his wife spirals, he clutches the hope things will improve, that they will save enough money to move. Just a little more time.
June 8, 2020
An excellent collection of material inspired by H.P Lovecraft from Japan. Each tale while grounded in the mythos of Lovecraft work has its only unique take on it whether its the setting for example "The Horror in the Kabuki Theatre" , a unique take on one the gods such as Yig in "Taste of Snakes's Honey" or the element of cosmic fear "Summomed by the Shadows". This collection has something to offer fans of Lovecraft looking for something different but familiar to them
April 26, 2008
Two stories made this collection memorable: The Horror in the Kabuki Theater and Terror Rate.
Want to read
January 13, 2010For the wishlist
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