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Black Wings #2
Black Wings of Cthulhu 2: Eighteen Tales of Lovecraftian Horror
This second instalment of S. T. Joshi’s critically acclaimed Black Wings series contains eighteen stories by leading contemporary writers, all drawing upon themes, images, and ideas from the life and work of H. P. Lovecraft. Caitlín R. Kiernan has written a poetic reinterpretation of “The Hound,” while Nicholas Royle plays a fascinating riff on the existential horror of “The Outsider.” Three separate tales, by Jason C. Eckhardt, Brian Evenson, and Jonathan Thomas, ring changes on Lovecraft’s seminal story, “The Call of Cthulhu.” Nick Mamatas writes an ingenious elaboration of “The Whisperer in Darkness.”
The cosmic indifferentism that is the core of Lovecraft’s fiction is treated in various ways by John Langan, Melanie Tem, Tom Fletcher, Darrell Schweitzer, and Richard Gavin. The archaeological horror that we find in some of Lovecraft’s most powerful tales is revivified by Donald Tyson, while Lovecraft’s media presence is made the subject of half-comic, half-horrific tales by Don Webb and Chet Williamson. John Shirley, Rick Dakan, and Jason V Brock use Lovecraft’s life and outlook as springboards for imaginative tales of psychological and supernatural horror.
All in all, Black Wings II affords a rich feast of terror inspired by the twentieth century’s greatest writer of the supernatural.
The cosmic indifferentism that is the core of Lovecraft’s fiction is treated in various ways by John Langan, Melanie Tem, Tom Fletcher, Darrell Schweitzer, and Richard Gavin. The archaeological horror that we find in some of Lovecraft’s most powerful tales is revivified by Donald Tyson, while Lovecraft’s media presence is made the subject of half-comic, half-horrific tales by Don Webb and Chet Williamson. John Shirley, Rick Dakan, and Jason V Brock use Lovecraft’s life and outlook as springboards for imaginative tales of psychological and supernatural horror.
All in all, Black Wings II affords a rich feast of terror inspired by the twentieth century’s greatest writer of the supernatural.
378 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 19, 2011
53 people are currently reading
1055 people want to read
About the author
John Shirley
322 books463 followersJohn Shirley won the Bram Stoker Award for his story collection Black Butterflies, and is the author of numerous novels, including the best-seller DEMONS, the cyberpunk classics CITY COME A-WALKIN', ECLIPSE, and BLACK GLASS, and his newest novels STORMLAND and A SORCERER OF ATLANTIS.
He is also a screenwriter, having written for television and movies; he was co-screenwriter of THE CROW. He has been several Year's Best anthologies including Prime Books' THE YEAR'S BEST DARK FANTASY AND HORROR anthology, and his nwest story collection is IN EXTREMIS: THE MOST EXTREME SHORT STORIES OF JOHN SHIRLEY. His novel BIOSHOCK: RAPTURE telling the story of the creation and undoing of Rapture, from the hit videogame BIOSHOCK is out from TOR books; his Halo novel, HALO: BROKEN CIRCLE is coming out from Pocket Books.
His most recent novels are STORMLAND and (forthcoming) AXLE BUST CREEK. His new story collection is THE FEVERISH STARS. STORMLAND and other John Shirley novels are available as audiobooks.
He is also a lyricist, having written lyrics for 18 songs recorded by the Blue Oyster Cult (especially on their albums Heaven Forbidden and Curse of the Hidden Mirror), and his own recordings.
John Shirley has written only one nonfiction book, GURDJIEFF: AN INTRODUCTION TO HIS LIFE AND IDEAS, published by Penguin/Jeremy Tarcher.
John Shirley story collections include BLACK BUTTERFLIES, IN EXTREMIS, REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY WEIRD STORIES, and LIVING SHADOWS.
source: Amazon
He is also a screenwriter, having written for television and movies; he was co-screenwriter of THE CROW. He has been several Year's Best anthologies including Prime Books' THE YEAR'S BEST DARK FANTASY AND HORROR anthology, and his nwest story collection is IN EXTREMIS: THE MOST EXTREME SHORT STORIES OF JOHN SHIRLEY. His novel BIOSHOCK: RAPTURE telling the story of the creation and undoing of Rapture, from the hit videogame BIOSHOCK is out from TOR books; his Halo novel, HALO: BROKEN CIRCLE is coming out from Pocket Books.
His most recent novels are STORMLAND and (forthcoming) AXLE BUST CREEK. His new story collection is THE FEVERISH STARS. STORMLAND and other John Shirley novels are available as audiobooks.
He is also a lyricist, having written lyrics for 18 songs recorded by the Blue Oyster Cult (especially on their albums Heaven Forbidden and Curse of the Hidden Mirror), and his own recordings.
John Shirley has written only one nonfiction book, GURDJIEFF: AN INTRODUCTION TO HIS LIFE AND IDEAS, published by Penguin/Jeremy Tarcher.
John Shirley story collections include BLACK BUTTERFLIES, IN EXTREMIS, REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY WEIRD STORIES, and LIVING SHADOWS.
source: Amazon
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews
December 25, 2024
I read this when I was desperate for something to read because of a lock-down type situation. It wasn't bad, but it certainly wasn't memorable. I have grave misgivings about Lovecraft and have never got a hard on over his whole elder God(s?) mythos. I know some people will like this anthology - but it leaves me cold.
March 22, 2014
I received this book from a Goodreads giveaway to read and review. When I seen this collection was being edited by S.T. Joshi I was rather excited and had really high hopes for the quality of tales to be read, what I got was rather middle of the road. I felt that he would of been better able to piece together a solid book of stories than he did. With that being said, it is true every story can't be perfect, especially with such a diverse bunch of writers, and there are some really solid stories that did rise to the top. I would say that King of Cat Swamp, The Abject, And the Sea Gave Up The Dead, Casting Call, Correlated Discontents, The Skinless Face, and Appointed, are definitely the best stories in the book, which is about half of the book when I think about it. I would be interested in comparing these stories to the first volume, as well as the third one which came out a few months ago.
October 17, 2012
There are some outstanding stories here but the overall standard is slightly uneven.
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December 28, 2020
This fine collection of stories covers a good range of Lovecraftian themes, from the horrors of the cosmos to those of the backwoods. As might be expected, a good deal of intertextual references and metanarrative commentary play out, none better than Rick Dakan's "Correlated Discontents." The creepiest stories are Steve Rasnic Tem's "Waiting at the Crossroads Motel," Donald Tyson's "The Skinless Face," and John Langan's "Bloom." The best stories in the collection, with their mix of weird humor, are Don Webb's "Casting Call," which takes off on Rod Serling's "Night Gallery," a favorite show of mine since childhood, and Chet Williamson's "Appointed," which takes a dark poke at aging celebrity, conventions, and cosplay. And finally, "View," by Tom Fletcher conjured up a very authentic and troubling dream atmosphere that without worrying too much about plot (and therefore felt more dreamlike) resonated with some of my own disturbing dreams of houses with extra rooms.
All in all, the collection didn't strike me as so "hit-or-miss" as some other reviews here suggest, and I thoroughly enjoyed it from beginning to end.
All in all, the collection didn't strike me as so "hit-or-miss" as some other reviews here suggest, and I thoroughly enjoyed it from beginning to end.
January 5, 2021
As previous collection, this books offers stories inspired by legacy of H.P.Lovecraft. And as in most collections, quality varies. There are some good ones and some forgettable ones. Some of them are using verified motives of old artefacts, ancient ruins and evil gods and they are able to bring up that old school horror atmosphere. Other are more experimental and sometimes you are not sure what is actually happening - same as in some HPL stories.
February 23, 2024
When are John Langan and Brian Evenson gonna bang already?
March 18, 2015
Embryonic Lovecraft geek that I am, it was high time I tried one of the billion or so Cthulhu anthologies on the market and Black Wings of Cthulhu 2 happened to be the first to hand. Here we have eighteen authors with as many stories and as many radically varied interpretations of what it means to be ‘Lovecraftian’. The commonality here is certainly thematic rather than stylistic.
Some take it quite literally by openly discussing the author – to the extent that two stories feature characters channelling the spirit of the man himself. Meanwhile, ‘Casting Call’ by Don Webb claws gleefully at the fourth wall in its tale of an actor auditioning for a role in a 1972 television adaptation of Lovecraft’s ‘Pickman’s Model’. An adaptation, incidentally, which really happened. Suffice it say that one gets a little ‘meta’ in the modern parlance.
Then there are the more ‘in-universe’ takes. ‘Houndwife’ by Caitlin R. Kiernan is a direct sequel to Lovecraft’s ‘The Hound’ and disconcerts the reader by frequently jumping between numerous points in the timeline. Unfortunately the story underlying the experiment in narrative flow didn’t elicit more than a figurative shrug.
Cthulhu itself only comes close to appearing in two tales. ‘The Wilcox Reminder’ by Brian Evenson is an exploration of the madness induced by a statue of Big C and one of the more traditional weird fiction tales here. ‘And the Sea Gave Up the Dead’ by Jason C. Eckhardt comes closest of all the stories to the style of Lovecraft himself, being a retelling of a voyage of Captain Cook via some mysteriously re-discovered journals. As a more-or-less prequel to The Call of Cthulhu it is excellently realised.
Some stories fell rather flat as I felt they were trying a little too hard with the tentacle monsters and people driven to sudden violence and the like, even if they had some clever ideas whilst doing so. ‘Bloom’ by John Lagan for example was a competent but clichéd take on the ‘discovery of mysterious object brings gradually impinging doom’ style of horror. ‘The Skinless Face’ by Donald Tyson had a fascinating Michael Crichton-meets-Robert E. Howard setup that felt too rapidly discarded in favour of over-the-top horror.
Indeed, the stories also varied wildly as to their place on the spectrum of subtlety. ‘The Clockwork King, the Queen of Glass, and the Man with the Hundred Knives’ by Darrell Schweitzer went through an exceedingly bizarre looking glass with its themes of multiverses colliding and an even darker take on a Lewis Carroll-esque fantasy world. The openly unreliable narrator sold it perfectly though.
On the other hand you had ‘Dahlias’ by Melanie Tem, a story so subtle I feel it will take a re-read or two to comprehend what was supposed to have happened. Indeed, my favourite story of all in this collection was among the shortest and subtlest. ‘The Other Man’ by Nicholas Royle executes one of the best Lovecraftian endings I’ve yet encountered. No tentacle monsters here - simply a mundane setting, an inexplicable horror and a conclusion that offers only more questions with no hint of a resolution.
Oh and one more honourable mention if I may. ‘King of Cat Swamp’ by Jonathan Thomas wasn’t especially notable other than having the first ending to a horror story I’ve read in my adult life which genuinely discomforted me. That has to be worth a cookie.
In all, this is definitely a worthwhile read for Lovecraft fans but even for them I would stop short of calling it essential.
Some take it quite literally by openly discussing the author – to the extent that two stories feature characters channelling the spirit of the man himself. Meanwhile, ‘Casting Call’ by Don Webb claws gleefully at the fourth wall in its tale of an actor auditioning for a role in a 1972 television adaptation of Lovecraft’s ‘Pickman’s Model’. An adaptation, incidentally, which really happened. Suffice it say that one gets a little ‘meta’ in the modern parlance.
Then there are the more ‘in-universe’ takes. ‘Houndwife’ by Caitlin R. Kiernan is a direct sequel to Lovecraft’s ‘The Hound’ and disconcerts the reader by frequently jumping between numerous points in the timeline. Unfortunately the story underlying the experiment in narrative flow didn’t elicit more than a figurative shrug.
Cthulhu itself only comes close to appearing in two tales. ‘The Wilcox Reminder’ by Brian Evenson is an exploration of the madness induced by a statue of Big C and one of the more traditional weird fiction tales here. ‘And the Sea Gave Up the Dead’ by Jason C. Eckhardt comes closest of all the stories to the style of Lovecraft himself, being a retelling of a voyage of Captain Cook via some mysteriously re-discovered journals. As a more-or-less prequel to The Call of Cthulhu it is excellently realised.
Some stories fell rather flat as I felt they were trying a little too hard with the tentacle monsters and people driven to sudden violence and the like, even if they had some clever ideas whilst doing so. ‘Bloom’ by John Lagan for example was a competent but clichéd take on the ‘discovery of mysterious object brings gradually impinging doom’ style of horror. ‘The Skinless Face’ by Donald Tyson had a fascinating Michael Crichton-meets-Robert E. Howard setup that felt too rapidly discarded in favour of over-the-top horror.
Indeed, the stories also varied wildly as to their place on the spectrum of subtlety. ‘The Clockwork King, the Queen of Glass, and the Man with the Hundred Knives’ by Darrell Schweitzer went through an exceedingly bizarre looking glass with its themes of multiverses colliding and an even darker take on a Lewis Carroll-esque fantasy world. The openly unreliable narrator sold it perfectly though.
On the other hand you had ‘Dahlias’ by Melanie Tem, a story so subtle I feel it will take a re-read or two to comprehend what was supposed to have happened. Indeed, my favourite story of all in this collection was among the shortest and subtlest. ‘The Other Man’ by Nicholas Royle executes one of the best Lovecraftian endings I’ve yet encountered. No tentacle monsters here - simply a mundane setting, an inexplicable horror and a conclusion that offers only more questions with no hint of a resolution.
Oh and one more honourable mention if I may. ‘King of Cat Swamp’ by Jonathan Thomas wasn’t especially notable other than having the first ending to a horror story I’ve read in my adult life which genuinely discomforted me. That has to be worth a cookie.
In all, this is definitely a worthwhile read for Lovecraft fans but even for them I would stop short of calling it essential.
March 29, 2014
Anthologies are always a mixed bag, and this one is a mix of good stuff and great stuff. Of all of the Lovecraftian collections, these two books would be the ones I would recommend to people wanting to know what the adjective "Lovecraftian" should mean.
October 19, 2012
I read this a bit ago, during the proofing stage. Once again, Joshi proves why he is the master of recognizing the weird in modern literature. Do yourself a favor and pick up this book!
July 4, 2014
This book is a great read!
April 17, 2014
Lovely collection of Lovecraftian stories.
November 18, 2024
Overall decent but no great standouts. An anthology compiled to be either accounts from eldritch cultists living alongside us in the modern day, or stories that involve HPL in some direct way.
When death wakes me to myself- 3/5. Well written but I’m a bit sour on having HPL as a character in these stories. It flew by, so great pacing and character.
View. 5/5. Best in the anthology for atmosphere and suspense. The ever increasing ratchet of weird perceptions with everyone else carrying on as if everything’s fine. The ending is just so ominous. It’s wonderful.
Houndwife. 3/5. Nonlinear timeline of a necromancy cult, slice of life but delivered pretty deadpan.
King of cat swamp. 3/5. Another tale of a cultist. This one visits the suburban descendants of those who ousted his cult 400 years ago and buried his (Cthulhu?) statue in what would end up being their backyard.
Dead Media. 2/5. Artefact left around a Myscatonic library to lure students into a trap. The ending was a friendly toned cosmic horror joke that fell flat.
The Abject. 3/5. Such promise, great cosmic horror with a fumbled ending. If the author had stretched it out another 3 or 4 pages it could have been done much better.
Dahlias. 3/5. Pretty but pointless. Only vaguely Lovecraftian. Death comes for us all, I suppose?
Bloom. 3/5. Some good cosmic imagery with some splatter / gross out. An interesting twist at the end.
And The Sea Gave Up The Dead. 2/5. Short and ominous, but lacking any punch.
Casting Call. 3/5. Well-written but short and shallow, no characters had any depth.
The clockwork king, the queen of glass and the man with the hundred knives. 3/5. Alternate Realities and an unreliable narrator. Very good henchman point of view.
The other man. 3/5. Invasion of the body snatchers with some genuine creeping dread, the ending fell flat though.
Waiting at the crossroads motel. 4/5. Excellent short story about the descendants of eldritch “fathers” returning to the desert crossroads to be re-absorbed.
The Wilcox Remainder. 3/5. A perceived time slip in a mental institution leaves the protagonist with a clay Cthulhu he can’t dispose of in a black cat type of story.
Correlated Discontents. 3/5 Interesting AI story about sophisticated chatbot based on all HPLs writings and letters.
The skinless face. 4/5. Excellent archeological dig to scan a defaced monolith that unleashes a visual virus that infects minds.
The history of a letter. 3/5. A “non-fiction” about a long lost letter. Sort of a dead media riff on the found footage trope.
Appointment. 4/5. Strong story on its own but too meta. An aging B movie star working the convention circuit is duped by a being in yellow into opening the cosmic doors to chaos.
When death wakes me to myself- 3/5. Well written but I’m a bit sour on having HPL as a character in these stories. It flew by, so great pacing and character.
View. 5/5. Best in the anthology for atmosphere and suspense. The ever increasing ratchet of weird perceptions with everyone else carrying on as if everything’s fine. The ending is just so ominous. It’s wonderful.
Houndwife. 3/5. Nonlinear timeline of a necromancy cult, slice of life but delivered pretty deadpan.
King of cat swamp. 3/5. Another tale of a cultist. This one visits the suburban descendants of those who ousted his cult 400 years ago and buried his (Cthulhu?) statue in what would end up being their backyard.
Dead Media. 2/5. Artefact left around a Myscatonic library to lure students into a trap. The ending was a friendly toned cosmic horror joke that fell flat.
The Abject. 3/5. Such promise, great cosmic horror with a fumbled ending. If the author had stretched it out another 3 or 4 pages it could have been done much better.
Dahlias. 3/5. Pretty but pointless. Only vaguely Lovecraftian. Death comes for us all, I suppose?
Bloom. 3/5. Some good cosmic imagery with some splatter / gross out. An interesting twist at the end.
And The Sea Gave Up The Dead. 2/5. Short and ominous, but lacking any punch.
Casting Call. 3/5. Well-written but short and shallow, no characters had any depth.
The clockwork king, the queen of glass and the man with the hundred knives. 3/5. Alternate Realities and an unreliable narrator. Very good henchman point of view.
The other man. 3/5. Invasion of the body snatchers with some genuine creeping dread, the ending fell flat though.
Waiting at the crossroads motel. 4/5. Excellent short story about the descendants of eldritch “fathers” returning to the desert crossroads to be re-absorbed.
The Wilcox Remainder. 3/5. A perceived time slip in a mental institution leaves the protagonist with a clay Cthulhu he can’t dispose of in a black cat type of story.
Correlated Discontents. 3/5 Interesting AI story about sophisticated chatbot based on all HPLs writings and letters.
The skinless face. 4/5. Excellent archeological dig to scan a defaced monolith that unleashes a visual virus that infects minds.
The history of a letter. 3/5. A “non-fiction” about a long lost letter. Sort of a dead media riff on the found footage trope.
Appointment. 4/5. Strong story on its own but too meta. An aging B movie star working the convention circuit is duped by a being in yellow into opening the cosmic doors to chaos.
May 30, 2017
Det är en salig blandning även i del två av denna serie. Ibland (som t.ex. "Dahlias", som var bra men obegriplig, av Melanie Tem) undrar jag verkligen varför de finns med i en samling dedikerad till skräck i Lovecrafts anda. Men det är bra ändå, precis som den första volymen. Förmodligen bättre än den, till och med. Topparna är nog inte riktigt lika höga, utom Darrell Schweitzers (även ansvarig för fantastiska "Howling in the Dark" från förra boken) novell “The Clockwork King, the Queen of Glass, and the Man with the Hundred Knives”som nog är det bästa ur bägge de volymer jag läst hittills; en slags LSD-ig saga som faktiskt får mig att tänka mer på Roger Zelazny än på Lovecraft. Jag skulle kunna gå igenom de olika novellerna en och en men det orkar jag inte, inte ens lite heller. I korthet -
De riktigt bra är nog som följer:
“Waiting at the Crossroads Motel” av Steve Rasnic Tem. Stämningen är perfekt och språket målar upp ett öde landskap med lika öde karaktärer. Språket har nog dessutom den bästa rytmen i boken.
Nyss nämnda “The Clockwork King, the Queen of Glass, and the Man with the Hundred Knives”. Härligt skruvad och med en berättarröst som passar utmärkt.
“Houndwife” av Caitlín R. Kiernan. Ett slags minneskalejdoskop mer än något annat. Har ingen aning om vad som händer men det är bra. Förmodligen bästa prosan i boken, om än i ganska hård konkurrens med "The Clockwork...".
Det är nog dessa tre som är det bästa. Finns absolut mer som är läsvärda med. "The Abject" av Richard Gavin och "Bloom" av John Langan är bägge två egentligen inget nytt under solen men bägge lyckas ändå med läsvärda noveller. “And the Sea Gave Up the Dead” av Jason C. Eckhardt var också bra, mycket för att det är på sätt och vis en snygg blinkning åt "The Call of Cthulhu". Don Webbs "Casting Call" är lite ojämn med lyckas ro iland det ändå med ett snyggt slut som nästan blir lite svart humor, till och med. “The Wilcox Remainder” (Brian Evenson) var kort, förvirrande och genomsyras av en så tjock paranoia att man kan skära den med kniv, vilket gillas. "View" och "Dead Media" var däremot bara meh. Samma med “Correlated Discontents” av Rick Dakan
som har en snygg idé på gränsen till cyberpunk men som tyvärr inte lyckas genomföra den bra.
På det stora hela är lägstanivån högre än i föregångaren och volym två är absolut värd att kollas upp.
June 5, 2021
Like the first volume of Lovecraftian short horror stories this second entry in the "Black Wings of Cthulhu" was a mixture, some stories closer to Lovecraft's style and others not so much. All stories covered a take on a dive into madness for the main protagonists. There was one story IMHO, 'The Wilcox Remainder' by Brian Evenson, that I would have added something extra to the ending to make it even more creepy. The story that stayed with me the most was 'The Skinless Face' by Donald Tyson. Though set in modern times, this short story contained true elements from Lovecraft's nightmare world of "The Great Old Ones." 'The Other Man' by Nicholas Royle is one of those really strange stories that leaves it up to the reader's imagination to decide just how to interpret it. It would make for a great conversation piece among other readers. So now it's on to volume three of the "Black Wings of Cthulhu" series of anthologies.
January 28, 2018
This collection of short stories are not all based on the style of HP Lovecraft, but more in the tradition of spooky/eerie tales that Lovecraft explored. In other words, it is sometimes said "Lovecraft never met and adjective he didn't like." The writes of these 18 shorts do not try to mimic his writing style, but used Lovecraft's themes to create unique, updated stories based on Lovecraft (the man) , the region (New England), and themes.
I bought this book for $1.00, and got far better stories than I anticipated, but I also don't think I'll read any additional Black Wings anthologies.
I bought this book for $1.00, and got far better stories than I anticipated, but I also don't think I'll read any additional Black Wings anthologies.
July 15, 2018
Most anthologies are hit and miss. Sadly, I skipped along through this one as a good deal of it just didn't catch my fancy. I'm admittedly a fan of Lovecraft specifically and not horror generally. It's not fair of me to demand Lovecraft knock-offs from authors, but when things stray too far outside the Cthulhu Mythos I start losing interest. I was disappointed at the fact that several stories included in this lacked a Lovecraftian feel, in my opinion, which really undercuts an anthology with "Lovecraftian" in the title.
May 3, 2020
O něco slabší než první díl. Pozitivem je, že opět v podstatě absentují výrazně špatné či nekvalitní momenty, na druhou stranu je zde oproti "jedničce" o dost méně těch opravdu dobrých a vyčnívajících. Většina povídek je spíše na jedno přečtení, zpětně bych měl chuť vrátit se snad k výborným Rozkvětu, Prázdné Tváři a Vyvolenému; jakýmsi způsobem uvízly v hlavě i Konkurz, Mrtvá Média, Jiřiny a Když se smrtí probudím. Zbytek sbírky má ovšem poměrně nízkou "re-read value".
November 29, 2021
Když sa smrtí probudím 2.5/5)
Výhled 3/5
* Psova vyvolená 4.5/5
* Král Kočičího močálu 5/5
Mrtvá média 1/5
Odvrženec 2.5/5
* Jiřiny 4/5
* Rozkvět 4/5
A moře vydalo své mrtvé 2/5
Konkurz 2/5
Král na klíček, Skleněná královna a Muž se stovkou nožů 2.5/5
Ten druhý 2.5/5
Čekáni v motelu Na křižovatce 2/5
Wilcoxův odkaz 2/5
* Usouvstažněná bezobsažnost 4/5
* Prázdná tvář 5/5
Historie jednoho dopisu 2/5
* Vyvolený 4/5
Výhled 3/5
* Psova vyvolená 4.5/5
* Král Kočičího močálu 5/5
Mrtvá média 1/5
Odvrženec 2.5/5
* Jiřiny 4/5
* Rozkvět 4/5
A moře vydalo své mrtvé 2/5
Konkurz 2/5
Král na klíček, Skleněná královna a Muž se stovkou nožů 2.5/5
Ten druhý 2.5/5
Čekáni v motelu Na křižovatce 2/5
Wilcoxův odkaz 2/5
* Usouvstažněná bezobsažnost 4/5
* Prázdná tvář 5/5
Historie jednoho dopisu 2/5
* Vyvolený 4/5
April 25, 2022
S.T. Joshi is a double-edged sword. On one hand, his standards for what even qualifies as mythos fiction, let alone good Mythos fiction, make him seem like a real literary curmudgeon. This is the guy who won’t even give interviews if any of the questions are about Lovecraft’s racism.
On the other hand, his very high standards means that when he compiles an edition of mythos stories, the quality of all of them is very high. This is a great collection.
On the other hand, his very high standards means that when he compiles an edition of mythos stories, the quality of all of them is very high. This is a great collection.
March 20, 2018
A decent collection of short Lovecraftian fictions that, at times, couldn't captivate my interest or imagination. I felt a majority of the stories in this anthology just felt flat, and weren't indicative of the Lovecraftian universe. That being said, I still liked the book, and the stories were edited well, if not curated a bit poorly. Your mileage may vary.
March 12, 2025
It’s always hard to write a short story. I felt that they were a mixed bag. I would have liked slightly longer stories and less of them so that they could have been fleshed out just a little more. A lot of the stories end in a cliffhanger which I guess is intentional but I found was frustrating. I will probably revisit favourites again at some point in the future.
July 21, 2017
Another Lovecraftian anthology I picked up for $1 at a Dollar Tree (sadly, they did not have volume 1) . . . as with most anthologies, it's a little hit-or-miss, but far more hits than misses. There are some really enjoyable and wonderfully creepy stories in this one. I enjoyed it.
April 2, 2020
A collection of really excellent disturbing short stories, some of them directly linked to Lovecraftian tropes and references, but most of them just saturated with the atmosphere, but original. These are all quality stories and not pastiches or 'tribute' stories.
February 10, 2025
3.5 tbh, a nice collection of spooooky weird tales, of varying quality. At its best when it's not simply re-treading Lovecraft narratives 1-1 but using the vibes and story elements to do something new
November 21, 2017
A few good stories, a few meh
December 30, 2018
There are a few good stories in here definitely interesting and well worth reading, with twists I didn’t see coming, —- but they weren’t many.
April 10, 2019
Favorites:
Appointed
The Abject
King of Cat Swamp
Appointed
The Abject
King of Cat Swamp
June 7, 2020
Some good stories here.
November 12, 2021
None of these stories came close to Lovecraft standards and I was hard pressed to see any basis relating to the mythos. Disappointing 2nd volume.
September 1, 2022
Has a significantly better hit/miss ratio than the first collection in the series. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/201...
Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews