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Black Wings #3
Black Wings of Cthulhu (Volume Three): Tales of Lovecraftian Horror
This third installment of S. T. Joshi’s critically acclaimed Black Wings series contains seventeen stories by some of the foremost writers in contemporary weird fiction, using the ideas, imagery, and atmosphere of H. P. Lovecraft’s tales as springboards. Jonathan Thomas opens the book with a chilling tale of biological horror set in Lovecraft’s native Providence, Rhode Island. Caitlín R. Kiernan melds brooding melancholy with Lovecraftian cosmicism in her tale, while Simon Strantzas weaves an ingenious variant on Lovecraft’s concept of the ghoul. Darrell Schweitzer and Donald Tyson probe the notion of alternate worlds in their tales.
This volume takes the reader on imaginative journeys around the world. Don Webb finds Lovecraftian horror in the wilds of Texas; Peter Cannon’s characters encounter the denizens of Innsmouth on a trip to China; Mollie L. Burleson enlivens the American Southwest with terrors out of history. Joseph S. Pulver, Sr., revivifies Lovecraft’s ancient New England seaport of Kingsport, Massachusetts, while in their collaborative tale W. H. Pugmire and Jessica Amanda Salmonson do the same with Lovecraft’s iconic Arkham. The volume concludes with a searching rumination on Lovecraft’s early tale “From Beyond” by Brian Stableford.
Black Wings III demonstrates how H. P. Lovecraft’s work continues to inspire some of the best in contemporary weird writing.
This volume takes the reader on imaginative journeys around the world. Don Webb finds Lovecraftian horror in the wilds of Texas; Peter Cannon’s characters encounter the denizens of Innsmouth on a trip to China; Mollie L. Burleson enlivens the American Southwest with terrors out of history. Joseph S. Pulver, Sr., revivifies Lovecraft’s ancient New England seaport of Kingsport, Massachusetts, while in their collaborative tale W. H. Pugmire and Jessica Amanda Salmonson do the same with Lovecraft’s iconic Arkham. The volume concludes with a searching rumination on Lovecraft’s early tale “From Beyond” by Brian Stableford.
Black Wings III demonstrates how H. P. Lovecraft’s work continues to inspire some of the best in contemporary weird writing.
400 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2014
25 people are currently reading
403 people want to read
About the author
S.T. Joshi
793 books454 followersSunand Tryambak Joshi is an Indian American literary scholar, and a leading figure in the study of Howard Phillips Lovecraft and other authors. Besides what some critics consider to be the definitive biography of Lovecraft (H. P. Lovecraft: A Life, 1996), Joshi has written about Ambrose Bierce, H. L. Mencken, Lord Dunsany, and M.R. James, and has edited collections of their works.
His literary criticism is notable for its emphases upon readability and the dominant worldviews of the authors in question; his The Weird Tale looks at six acknowledged masters of horror and fantasy (namely Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, Dunsany, M. R. James, Bierce and Lovecraft), and discusses their respective worldviews in depth and with authority. A follow-up volume, The Modern Weird Tale, examines the work of modern writers, including Shirley Jackson, Ramsey Campbell, Stephen King, Robert Aickman, Thomas Ligotti, T. E. D. Klein and others, from a similar philosophically oriented viewpoint. The Evolution of the Weird Tale (2004) includes essays on Dennis Etchison, L. P. Hartley, Les Daniels, E. F. Benson, Rudyard Kipling, David J. Schow, Robert Bloch, L. P. Davies, Edward Lucas White, Rod Serling, Poppy Z. Brite and others.
Joshi is the editor of the small-press literary journals Lovecraft Studies and Studies in Weird Fiction, published by Necronomicon Press. He is also the editor of Lovecraft Annual and co-editor of Dead Reckonings, both small-press journals published by Hippocampus Press.
In addition to literary criticism, Joshi has also edited books on atheism and social relations, including Documents of American Prejudice (1999), an annotated collection of American racist writings; In Her Place (2006), which collects written examples of prejudice against women; and Atheism: A Reader (2000), which collects atheistic writings by such people as Antony Flew, George Eliot, Bertrand Russell, Emma Goldman, Gore Vidal and Carl Sagan, among others. An Agnostic Reader, collecting pieces by such writers as Isaac Asimov, John William Draper, Albert Einstein, Frederic Harrison, Thomas Henry Huxley, Robert Ingersoll, Corliss Lamont, Arthur Schopenhauer and Edward Westermarck, was published in 2007.
Joshi is also the author of God's Defenders: What They Believe and Why They Are Wrong (2003), an anti-religious polemic against various writers including C. S. Lewis, G. K. Chesterton, T. S. Eliot, William F. Buckley, Jr., William James, Stephen L. Carter, Annie Dillard, Reynolds Price, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Guenter Lewy, Neale Donald Walsch and Jerry Falwell, which is dedicated to theologian and fellow Lovecraft critic Robert M. Price.
In 2006 he published The Angry Right: Why Conservatives Keep Getting It Wrong, which criticised the political writings of such commentators as William F. Buckley, Jr., Russell Kirk, David and Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Phyllis Schlafly, William Bennett, Gertrude Himmelfarb and Irving and William Kristol, arguing that, despite the efforts of right-wing polemicists, the values of the American people have become steadily more liberal over time.
Joshi, who lives with his wife in Moravia, New York, has stated on his website that his most noteworthy achievements thus far have been his biography of Lovecraft, H. P. Lovecraft: A Life and The Weird Tale.
His literary criticism is notable for its emphases upon readability and the dominant worldviews of the authors in question; his The Weird Tale looks at six acknowledged masters of horror and fantasy (namely Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, Dunsany, M. R. James, Bierce and Lovecraft), and discusses their respective worldviews in depth and with authority. A follow-up volume, The Modern Weird Tale, examines the work of modern writers, including Shirley Jackson, Ramsey Campbell, Stephen King, Robert Aickman, Thomas Ligotti, T. E. D. Klein and others, from a similar philosophically oriented viewpoint. The Evolution of the Weird Tale (2004) includes essays on Dennis Etchison, L. P. Hartley, Les Daniels, E. F. Benson, Rudyard Kipling, David J. Schow, Robert Bloch, L. P. Davies, Edward Lucas White, Rod Serling, Poppy Z. Brite and others.
Joshi is the editor of the small-press literary journals Lovecraft Studies and Studies in Weird Fiction, published by Necronomicon Press. He is also the editor of Lovecraft Annual and co-editor of Dead Reckonings, both small-press journals published by Hippocampus Press.
In addition to literary criticism, Joshi has also edited books on atheism and social relations, including Documents of American Prejudice (1999), an annotated collection of American racist writings; In Her Place (2006), which collects written examples of prejudice against women; and Atheism: A Reader (2000), which collects atheistic writings by such people as Antony Flew, George Eliot, Bertrand Russell, Emma Goldman, Gore Vidal and Carl Sagan, among others. An Agnostic Reader, collecting pieces by such writers as Isaac Asimov, John William Draper, Albert Einstein, Frederic Harrison, Thomas Henry Huxley, Robert Ingersoll, Corliss Lamont, Arthur Schopenhauer and Edward Westermarck, was published in 2007.
Joshi is also the author of God's Defenders: What They Believe and Why They Are Wrong (2003), an anti-religious polemic against various writers including C. S. Lewis, G. K. Chesterton, T. S. Eliot, William F. Buckley, Jr., William James, Stephen L. Carter, Annie Dillard, Reynolds Price, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Guenter Lewy, Neale Donald Walsch and Jerry Falwell, which is dedicated to theologian and fellow Lovecraft critic Robert M. Price.
In 2006 he published The Angry Right: Why Conservatives Keep Getting It Wrong, which criticised the political writings of such commentators as William F. Buckley, Jr., Russell Kirk, David and Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Phyllis Schlafly, William Bennett, Gertrude Himmelfarb and Irving and William Kristol, arguing that, despite the efforts of right-wing polemicists, the values of the American people have become steadily more liberal over time.
Joshi, who lives with his wife in Moravia, New York, has stated on his website that his most noteworthy achievements thus far have been his biography of Lovecraft, H. P. Lovecraft: A Life and The Weird Tale.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
August 1, 2019
Easy, but fun to read:
Dimply Dolly Doofy - Donald R. Burleson (about a special baby)
Spiderwebs in the Dark - Darrell Schweitzer (multiple realities)
Hotel del Lago - Mollie L. Burleson ( a ghostly town in the middle of the desert)
And the better ones:
The Hag Stone - Richard Gavin ( a stone has the power to take you in another dimension)
Waller - Donald Tyson (maybe the ending wasn`t as expected, but the ideea was great)
The Man with the Horn - Jason V. Brock ( the person next door could be an unusual neighbour)
Down Black Staircases - Joseph S. Pulver, Sr (the style was hard to follow, but you have to love the ideea and the story)
The Turn of the Tide - Mark Howard Jones ( there are strange things afoot)
Weltschmerz - Sam Gafford, nicely written and intense in the same time.
Thistle’s Find - Simon Strantzas (yep, again a machine that can send you to another dimension has a big role here)
Further Beyond - Brian Stableford (and another mysterious concoction could bring to you another dimensions, but still, a good take on the ideea)
Overall, I liked 8 stories and 3 were ok. The other 5 of them were (by the way of the story of the writing) in the "not Interested" zone. Not bad, but I felt that the first volume was better.
The overall impression could be somewhere between 3 and 3.5 stars.
Dimply Dolly Doofy - Donald R. Burleson (about a special baby)
Spiderwebs in the Dark - Darrell Schweitzer (multiple realities)
Hotel del Lago - Mollie L. Burleson ( a ghostly town in the middle of the desert)
And the better ones:
The Hag Stone - Richard Gavin ( a stone has the power to take you in another dimension)
Waller - Donald Tyson (maybe the ending wasn`t as expected, but the ideea was great)
The Man with the Horn - Jason V. Brock ( the person next door could be an unusual neighbour)
Down Black Staircases - Joseph S. Pulver, Sr (the style was hard to follow, but you have to love the ideea and the story)
The Turn of the Tide - Mark Howard Jones ( there are strange things afoot)
Weltschmerz - Sam Gafford, nicely written and intense in the same time.
Thistle’s Find - Simon Strantzas (yep, again a machine that can send you to another dimension has a big role here)
Further Beyond - Brian Stableford (and another mysterious concoction could bring to you another dimensions, but still, a good take on the ideea)
Overall, I liked 8 stories and 3 were ok. The other 5 of them were (by the way of the story of the writing) in the "not Interested" zone. Not bad, but I felt that the first volume was better.
The overall impression could be somewhere between 3 and 3.5 stars.
June 11, 2017
So, this was another fun read. First off, I thought this was going to be the weakest installment but reading the second half I found out that the quality was strangely balanced.
These are a couple of stories which didn't do much for me (but still managed to attain a certain level of quality in my eyes):
Houdini Fish - Jonathan Thomas
Dimply Dolly Doofy - Donald R. Burleson (pleasantly disturbing, but does not offer much other than that)
Spiderwebs in the Dark - Darrell Schweitzer
Waller - Donald Tyson (though I kinda appreciate the original premise and some good ideas)
Thistle’s Find - Simon Strantzas
Further Beyond - Brian Stableford (the second story in this anthology written as a reply to HPL's "From Beyond", I guess I don't care much for the original story either; I really liked Stableford's Pickman story in the first installment as well as his novel "The Empire of Fear", but this one felt too much like a straight pastiche in the vein of August Derleth which brought very little new to the table)
Hotel del Lago - Mollie L. Burleson (I loved her story in the first Black Wings, especially for its minimalistic and straightforward approach, but this one felt somehow lacking)
These are the better (or best) ones in the anthology:
The Hag Stone - Richard Gavin (Richard's story was a pinnacle of the second installment and this one was pretty good as well; I like how he uses relationships as a means for the supernatural element to surface)
Underneath an Arkham Moon - Jessica Amanda Salmonson & W. H. Pugmire (loved this one, the twisted imagery, the language, the strange poetic quality embedded in the story - these are the stories I like)
One Tree Hill (The World as Catalysm) - Caitlín R. Kiernan (Well, it's CRK, not much else needs to be said, I love her - though Pickman's Other Model still remains her best from this series of anthologies)
The Man with the Horn - Jason V. Brock (props for engaging in a dialog with TED Klein on this one, it was pretty amazing, especially the hallucinatory passages)
The Megalith Plague - Don Webb (Don Webb is probably the biggest find from all these authors, I loved both of his stories in this series immensely - this had a real Wicker Man feel to it, I enjoyed the gradation and especially the apocalyptic ending, love those if they are done right)
Down Black Staircases - Joseph S. Pulver, Sr (I was OVERMOON while reading this story of Joe's /a bit of an internal Lovecraft eZine Podcast joke/ - he has taken the experimental approach and did a brilliant job with it, I liked how the story flowed, slowly unraveling, even though it was hard to follow at times, but that's just what makes me tick)
China Holiday - Peter Cannon (this would be a pretty unimaginative story if it wasn't for the ending which made up perfectly for the kinda slow-paced description of the holiday which really takes up most of the story - the toilet scene is strangely haunting, and it's the minimalism that does the trick)
Necrotic Cove - Lois Gresh (HANDS DOWN THE BEST STORY IN THE BOOK - I was immediately drawn to this strange landscape that the author has created, and was deeply moved by the story of these two... creatures; and the style, oh man: the writing is first-class in this one)
The Turn of the Tide - Mark Howard Jones (I was captivated by the strange relationship between the three main characters, and intrigued by the (post?)-apocalyptic feel of the whole thing)
Weltschmerz - Sam Gafford (judging from this and his other story in this series, Gafford must be a blast at parties lol, but the yarn he spins immediatelly caught my attention and managed to do so right until the end)
These are a couple of stories which didn't do much for me (but still managed to attain a certain level of quality in my eyes):
Houdini Fish - Jonathan Thomas
Dimply Dolly Doofy - Donald R. Burleson (pleasantly disturbing, but does not offer much other than that)
Spiderwebs in the Dark - Darrell Schweitzer
Waller - Donald Tyson (though I kinda appreciate the original premise and some good ideas)
Thistle’s Find - Simon Strantzas
Further Beyond - Brian Stableford (the second story in this anthology written as a reply to HPL's "From Beyond", I guess I don't care much for the original story either; I really liked Stableford's Pickman story in the first installment as well as his novel "The Empire of Fear", but this one felt too much like a straight pastiche in the vein of August Derleth which brought very little new to the table)
Hotel del Lago - Mollie L. Burleson (I loved her story in the first Black Wings, especially for its minimalistic and straightforward approach, but this one felt somehow lacking)
These are the better (or best) ones in the anthology:
The Hag Stone - Richard Gavin (Richard's story was a pinnacle of the second installment and this one was pretty good as well; I like how he uses relationships as a means for the supernatural element to surface)
Underneath an Arkham Moon - Jessica Amanda Salmonson & W. H. Pugmire (loved this one, the twisted imagery, the language, the strange poetic quality embedded in the story - these are the stories I like)
One Tree Hill (The World as Catalysm) - Caitlín R. Kiernan (Well, it's CRK, not much else needs to be said, I love her - though Pickman's Other Model still remains her best from this series of anthologies)
The Man with the Horn - Jason V. Brock (props for engaging in a dialog with TED Klein on this one, it was pretty amazing, especially the hallucinatory passages)
The Megalith Plague - Don Webb (Don Webb is probably the biggest find from all these authors, I loved both of his stories in this series immensely - this had a real Wicker Man feel to it, I enjoyed the gradation and especially the apocalyptic ending, love those if they are done right)
Down Black Staircases - Joseph S. Pulver, Sr (I was OVERMOON while reading this story of Joe's /a bit of an internal Lovecraft eZine Podcast joke/ - he has taken the experimental approach and did a brilliant job with it, I liked how the story flowed, slowly unraveling, even though it was hard to follow at times, but that's just what makes me tick)
China Holiday - Peter Cannon (this would be a pretty unimaginative story if it wasn't for the ending which made up perfectly for the kinda slow-paced description of the holiday which really takes up most of the story - the toilet scene is strangely haunting, and it's the minimalism that does the trick)
Necrotic Cove - Lois Gresh (HANDS DOWN THE BEST STORY IN THE BOOK - I was immediately drawn to this strange landscape that the author has created, and was deeply moved by the story of these two... creatures; and the style, oh man: the writing is first-class in this one)
The Turn of the Tide - Mark Howard Jones (I was captivated by the strange relationship between the three main characters, and intrigued by the (post?)-apocalyptic feel of the whole thing)
Weltschmerz - Sam Gafford (judging from this and his other story in this series, Gafford must be a blast at parties lol, but the yarn he spins immediatelly caught my attention and managed to do so right until the end)
July 5, 2018
Novellsamlingar är alltid lite speciella. Det är toppar och dalar på ett sätt som inte riktigt finns när man läser romaner. I synnerhet antologier med flera författare lider av detta syndrom. Så det är imponerande att S.T. Joshi har lyckats igen för tredje gången, förmodligen bättre än i de två tidigare delarna. Genomsnittet på alla novellerna är bra och det finns egentligen bara en enda riktig dal, kanske två. Brian Stableford är tillbaka och återigen orkade jag inte ta mig igenom hans novell. Jag har bara läst hans Lovecraftiana så det är fullt möjligt att hans andra böcker är bättre. Men i det här sammanhanget så funkade han inte. Simon Strantzas "Thistle´s Find" funkar inte heller så bra. Men det finns skyhöga toppar, just som innan. Darrel Schweitzers "Spiderwebs in the Dark" är en nästan mysrysig historia med bra språk och intressant premiss. Liksom i de två tidigare delarna är hans bidrag en av de absolut bästa. Kiernan och nykomlingen Louis H. Gresh har också starka bidrag med mycket stämning och fint språk. Den sistnämnda jämför himmlen med "the color of a dead baby" och om inte det är en lovande öppning så vet jag inte vad som är. Men den som lyser allra starkast är Joseph Pulvers "Down Black Staircases" som är en briljant blandning av Lovecraft och William S. Burroughs.
Överlag så fortsätter serien starkt.
October 27, 2014
Sure, Gavin's, Kiernan's and Strantzas' are stories that could have appeared in BWI or II, also, the first and las stories are clever variations on Lovecraft's own From Beyond. The rest falls too often on a kind of generic weird-cosmic-horror not so different (not different at all, in fact) to the one you could find in any Lovecraft/Mythos anthology (and there's a lot of them).
We have come a long way fron the groundbreaking first volume and I'm sorry to say that, for a series that started with such strong statement against pastiche, BW is becoming fast its own pastiche.
We have come a long way fron the groundbreaking first volume and I'm sorry to say that, for a series that started with such strong statement against pastiche, BW is becoming fast its own pastiche.
May 22, 2025
Overall a nice addition to the ongoing Black Wings of Cthulhu series.
A couple wiffs, a couple greats, with the middle ground competently filled with interesting tales of cosmic horror.
Individual stories reviewed below;
Introduction - short and sweet, a friendly hello from the master, S. T. Joshi.
Houdini Fish. 4/5. Academic unearths a glowing device in shards from an older time, gets to work on it. Doesn’t fret the world getting weirder until people start disappearing and the police start poking around. Ends on a chilling question unanswered.
Jonathan Thomas.
Dimply Dolly Doofy. 3/5. Horrific, blissfully short. I generally hate anything about drug addicts neglecting kids but this turned it around and made it fun. Donald R. Burleson.
The Hag Stone. 4/5. Classic Lovecraftian haunted object leads to dream horrors.
Richard Gavin.
Underneath an Arkham Moon. 4/5. Witches children, grotesque and inbred devils, plan out a home invasion of an old haunted mansion. Discovering dark love inside.
Jessica Amanda Salmonson & W. H. Pugmire.
Spiderwebs in the Dark. 4/5. The Walrus and his lonely bachelor pal go on a wild adventure together around infinite space linked by invisible spider webs. They draw attention from the multiversal vermin and then the walrus burns himself in sacrifice to kill all his parasites while the protagonist gets committed for schizophrenia.
Darrell Schweitzer.
One Tree Hill (The World as Cataclysm)
Caitlín R. Kiernan. 3/5. A journalist investigating an alien that visits one spot atop a hill. She has a very personal, friendly but unhealthy relationship with the strange visitor. Then walks away for space.
The Man with the Horn.
Jason V Brock. 3/5. Otherworldly music draws an aging beauty in, only to discover a haunted hellscape in his apartment. Not much by way of plot but a good character sketch. Ends on a haunting note (pun intended).
Hotel del Lago
Mollie L. Burleson. 4/5. Fun and short, man stays at a hotel, sees cultish weirdness and flees to the next town over. That town tells him the place he claims to have seen has been closed for years. Classic horror fable.
Waller.
Donald Tyson. 5/5, fun and grim with a very well thought out metaphysics. Reminded me of The Black Barn graphic novel. This might be the best in anthology, just a chilling idea of a world adjacent to ours that's so used to us falling into it that they have a name for our lost citizens who turn up there.
The Megalith Plague
Don Webb 4/5. Small town set up by an evil genius to build stone circles and invoke the end of days? Human ascension? TBD.
Down Black Staircases
Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. 4/5. Very evocative, the protagonist has car trouble and wanders lost into a grim pocket dimension populated by obscenities from beyond our reality that try to eat him or feed him to something else. He gets away, then lives a haunted life while the dark world hunts him through our waking world.
China Holiday
Peter Cannon. 1/5. This was just a terrible story. The underlying idea was a good one, but the ham-fisted delivery and unlikeable protagonist being bored on a tourist jaunt in China was awful. The outhouse ankle grab jump scare was something a 5th grader would make up. The exposition was so clumsy as to be laughable.
Necrotic Cove
Lois Gresh. 4/5. Two aging friends, one of them dying, head to a secret cove. It's full of other-worldly energy and consumes them both, giving new life to the dying one and feeding on the healthy one. Their lies are stripped away and their lifelong friendship exposed as a comfortable hatred and mutual parasitism.
The Turn of the Tide
Mark Howard Jones. 3/5. The tide in a seaside cottage turns, putting the protagonists in their strange love triangle into a situation. Things get increasingly weird until the female lead wanders away into the ocean.
Weltschmerz
Sam Gafford. 4/5 Boring middle-aged man discovers that the years and years of hating his life have turned him into the perfect nihilist. Has a whirlwind affair with a hot goth girl, then goes on a drug and Cthulhu cult inspired murder spree.
Thistle's Find
Simon Strantzas. 3/5. Homeless young man returns to his creepy Doctor / mad scientists house looking for some money and/or a place to crash. Finds that the Dr has gone mad, created a portal to another dimension, imprisoned a ghoul and is banging her. Accidentally on purpose sets her free, lets her kill the doc then coaxes her back through the portal. Hides the evidence and uses the mad lab as a flop house.
Further Beyond
Brian Stableford. 5/5. The story was classic, but formulaic. What stood out for me and made this one great was the metaphysics of it. If there are infinite dimensions wrapped up in ours, under it, inside it, around it, then the smallest move is actually of infinite cosmic importance. So the machine that weakens the barriers between realities and overlays them also allows an act to resonate infinitely across the multiverse.
A couple wiffs, a couple greats, with the middle ground competently filled with interesting tales of cosmic horror.
Individual stories reviewed below;
Introduction - short and sweet, a friendly hello from the master, S. T. Joshi.
Houdini Fish. 4/5. Academic unearths a glowing device in shards from an older time, gets to work on it. Doesn’t fret the world getting weirder until people start disappearing and the police start poking around. Ends on a chilling question unanswered.
Jonathan Thomas.
Dimply Dolly Doofy. 3/5. Horrific, blissfully short. I generally hate anything about drug addicts neglecting kids but this turned it around and made it fun. Donald R. Burleson.
The Hag Stone. 4/5. Classic Lovecraftian haunted object leads to dream horrors.
Richard Gavin.
Underneath an Arkham Moon. 4/5. Witches children, grotesque and inbred devils, plan out a home invasion of an old haunted mansion. Discovering dark love inside.
Jessica Amanda Salmonson & W. H. Pugmire.
Spiderwebs in the Dark. 4/5. The Walrus and his lonely bachelor pal go on a wild adventure together around infinite space linked by invisible spider webs. They draw attention from the multiversal vermin and then the walrus burns himself in sacrifice to kill all his parasites while the protagonist gets committed for schizophrenia.
Darrell Schweitzer.
One Tree Hill (The World as Cataclysm)
Caitlín R. Kiernan. 3/5. A journalist investigating an alien that visits one spot atop a hill. She has a very personal, friendly but unhealthy relationship with the strange visitor. Then walks away for space.
The Man with the Horn.
Jason V Brock. 3/5. Otherworldly music draws an aging beauty in, only to discover a haunted hellscape in his apartment. Not much by way of plot but a good character sketch. Ends on a haunting note (pun intended).
Hotel del Lago
Mollie L. Burleson. 4/5. Fun and short, man stays at a hotel, sees cultish weirdness and flees to the next town over. That town tells him the place he claims to have seen has been closed for years. Classic horror fable.
Waller.
Donald Tyson. 5/5, fun and grim with a very well thought out metaphysics. Reminded me of The Black Barn graphic novel. This might be the best in anthology, just a chilling idea of a world adjacent to ours that's so used to us falling into it that they have a name for our lost citizens who turn up there.
The Megalith Plague
Don Webb 4/5. Small town set up by an evil genius to build stone circles and invoke the end of days? Human ascension? TBD.
Down Black Staircases
Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. 4/5. Very evocative, the protagonist has car trouble and wanders lost into a grim pocket dimension populated by obscenities from beyond our reality that try to eat him or feed him to something else. He gets away, then lives a haunted life while the dark world hunts him through our waking world.
China Holiday
Peter Cannon. 1/5. This was just a terrible story. The underlying idea was a good one, but the ham-fisted delivery and unlikeable protagonist being bored on a tourist jaunt in China was awful. The outhouse ankle grab jump scare was something a 5th grader would make up. The exposition was so clumsy as to be laughable.
Necrotic Cove
Lois Gresh. 4/5. Two aging friends, one of them dying, head to a secret cove. It's full of other-worldly energy and consumes them both, giving new life to the dying one and feeding on the healthy one. Their lies are stripped away and their lifelong friendship exposed as a comfortable hatred and mutual parasitism.
The Turn of the Tide
Mark Howard Jones. 3/5. The tide in a seaside cottage turns, putting the protagonists in their strange love triangle into a situation. Things get increasingly weird until the female lead wanders away into the ocean.
Weltschmerz
Sam Gafford. 4/5 Boring middle-aged man discovers that the years and years of hating his life have turned him into the perfect nihilist. Has a whirlwind affair with a hot goth girl, then goes on a drug and Cthulhu cult inspired murder spree.
Thistle's Find
Simon Strantzas. 3/5. Homeless young man returns to his creepy Doctor / mad scientists house looking for some money and/or a place to crash. Finds that the Dr has gone mad, created a portal to another dimension, imprisoned a ghoul and is banging her. Accidentally on purpose sets her free, lets her kill the doc then coaxes her back through the portal. Hides the evidence and uses the mad lab as a flop house.
Further Beyond
Brian Stableford. 5/5. The story was classic, but formulaic. What stood out for me and made this one great was the metaphysics of it. If there are infinite dimensions wrapped up in ours, under it, inside it, around it, then the smallest move is actually of infinite cosmic importance. So the machine that weakens the barriers between realities and overlays them also allows an act to resonate infinitely across the multiverse.
November 1, 2021
Another great issue of the Black Wings of Cthulhu series. I enjoyed or loved most of the seventeen tales presented in the book.
Overall I give it 4 stars. I really enjoyed my time with this book. I usually also rate the stories separately. So let's go over those ratings.
>Houdini Fish - Jonathan Thomas.
3 stars. (Interesting mystery, but nothing to special in the end.)
>Dimply Dolly Doofy - Donald R. Burleson.
4 stars. (A story about one special little baby.)
>The Hag Stone - Richard Gavin.
5 stars. (Just a great great story.)
>Underneath an Arkham Moon - Jessica Amanda Salmonson & W. H. Pugmire.
5 stars. (My favorite stories in this collection!! Fantastic writing!! The whole book is worth buying just for this story alone.)
>Spiderwebs in the Dark - Darrell Schweitzer.
5 stars. (Schweitzer has never let me down!)
>One Tree Hill (The World as Cataclysm) - Caitlín R. Kiernan.
4 stars. (have yet to read a story by Kiernan I didn't like.)
>The Man with the Horn - Jason V Brock.
5 stars. (Loved it.)
>Hotel Del Lago - Mollie L. Burleson.
3'5 stars. (Great setup, just wished it had been longer.)
>Waller - Donald Tyson.
4 stars.
>The Megalith Plague - Don Webb.
3 stars.
>Down Black Staircases - Joseph S. Pulver, Sr.
1 star. (I feel bad for saying this,.. But I hated this.. This was just so hard to read. I didn't get along with his story in Black Wings 1 either, but it wasn't as bad as this. I like Pulver, Sr work as a editor more than his actual writing. Maybe it will still change if I find the right stories. )
>China Holiday - Peter Cannon.
3 stars.
>Necrotic Cove - Mark Howard Jones.
5 stars.
>Weltschmetz - Sam Gafford.
4.stars. (Nice story. Remind me somewhat of Matt Cardin's story "Blackbrain Dwarf". With I quite like. It also had my favorite sentence in this collection, "My cubicle in hell is a clean one." For some reason I found that so hilarious.)
>Thristle's Find - Simon Strantzas.
5 stars. (Yes! Loved it. Give me more Ghouls, please!)
>Further Beyond - Brian Stableford.
3 stars.
Overall I give it 4 stars. I really enjoyed my time with this book. I usually also rate the stories separately. So let's go over those ratings.
>Houdini Fish - Jonathan Thomas.
3 stars. (Interesting mystery, but nothing to special in the end.)
>Dimply Dolly Doofy - Donald R. Burleson.
4 stars. (A story about one special little baby.)
>The Hag Stone - Richard Gavin.
5 stars. (Just a great great story.)
>Underneath an Arkham Moon - Jessica Amanda Salmonson & W. H. Pugmire.
5 stars. (My favorite stories in this collection!! Fantastic writing!! The whole book is worth buying just for this story alone.)
>Spiderwebs in the Dark - Darrell Schweitzer.
5 stars. (Schweitzer has never let me down!)
>One Tree Hill (The World as Cataclysm) - Caitlín R. Kiernan.
4 stars. (have yet to read a story by Kiernan I didn't like.)
>The Man with the Horn - Jason V Brock.
5 stars. (Loved it.)
>Hotel Del Lago - Mollie L. Burleson.
3'5 stars. (Great setup, just wished it had been longer.)
>Waller - Donald Tyson.
4 stars.
>The Megalith Plague - Don Webb.
3 stars.
>Down Black Staircases - Joseph S. Pulver, Sr.
1 star. (I feel bad for saying this,.. But I hated this.. This was just so hard to read. I didn't get along with his story in Black Wings 1 either, but it wasn't as bad as this. I like Pulver, Sr work as a editor more than his actual writing. Maybe it will still change if I find the right stories. )
>China Holiday - Peter Cannon.
3 stars.
>Necrotic Cove - Mark Howard Jones.
5 stars.
>Weltschmetz - Sam Gafford.
4.stars. (Nice story. Remind me somewhat of Matt Cardin's story "Blackbrain Dwarf". With I quite like. It also had my favorite sentence in this collection, "My cubicle in hell is a clean one." For some reason I found that so hilarious.)
>Thristle's Find - Simon Strantzas.
5 stars. (Yes! Loved it. Give me more Ghouls, please!)
>Further Beyond - Brian Stableford.
3 stars.
February 20, 2021
A decent entry into the "Black Wings" series, but compared to the first two volumes, this collection was marred by more stories that just didn't feel complete. Tyson's "Waller" is a good case in point. I really loved the premise, was engaged by the storytelling, but the whole thing just stopped with neither adequate completion nor enough compelling mystery to provoke more thought. Mollie Burleson's "Hotel del Lago" feels more like a sketch -- again enticing but just not complete as a narrative. While several of the stories involved more sex than earlier volumes, a couple of the stories pushed the limits of gratuitous sex/violence even beyond the misogynistic to the inappropriate. Gafford's "Weltshmerz" took a disturbing-enough turn toward . Strantza's story, "Thistle's Find," centered around . Spoilers be damned, there is no excuse for this kind of fantasy of male on minor-aged female sexual abuse (kidnap, torture, rape), and it has no place in this or any other anthology. Don Webb's "The Megalith Plague" was one of the main highlights of the collection, as was Pulver's "Down Black Staircases," and I thoroughly enjoyed Brian Stableford's "Further Beyond," which wrapped up the volume on a high note.
May 3, 2020
O něco lepší, než "dvojka". Vyřadit Hotel Del Lago (krátká a bezobsažná zbytečnost) a Čínskou dovolenou (brak na úrovni začátečnické fanfikce) a zbude velmi silná povídková sbírka, která ne vždy spolehlivě vyděsí, ale v mnoha momentech dokáže napnout, znechutit, zaujmout a strhnout. Někoho možná ne úplně potěší fakt, že některé povídky (Zdivnor, Kopec Jeden strom, Pavučiny ve tmě) jsou spíš než lovecraftovský horror horrorem barkerovským, ale osobně nevidím důvod přehnaně hnidopišit - rozhodujícím kritériem je jejich kvalita a čtivost, ne subžánrové zařazení. Highlighty? Černými schodišti pod zem (!!!, jeden z nejlepších kusů napříč všemi třemi díly antologie), Weltschmerz, Muž s rohem, Houdinky, Děravý kámen. A také Pod arkhamským měsícem, díky své neodolatelné bizarnosti.
March 26, 2022
Despite having Cthulhu in the title, the Black Wings short story collections feature fewer appearances of Lovecraft’s alien-god-monsters than most cosmic horror collections. They aren’t absent by any means, but S. T. Joshi tends to avoid stories that he considers to be mere Lovecraftian pastiches. Instead, he collects stories that deal with cosmic horror themes (e.g. the utter insignificance of humanity in the face of a vast uncaring cosmos) that may or may not feature Cthulhu, Nyarlathotep, Azathoth, and company and may or may not be set in Innsmouth, Arkham, Miskatonic University, etc.. That said, there is enough Lovecraftian name dropping that a person not acquainted with the mythos will probably miss the full impact of some of the stories (some of it gets pretty meta).
One of the things that I like about cosmic horror is that (unlike a lot of horror) it doesn’t usually rely on graphic gore or sex for its thrills and chills. Unfortunately, that doesn’t hold true for all of the stories in this collection, so that was a bit of a disappointment. Overall, this was a pretty typical S. T. Joshi-edited collection. Personally, I think that he is a bit of a snob who takes Lovecraft waaaay too seriously, but he does know how to pick well-written stories.
One of the things that I like about cosmic horror is that (unlike a lot of horror) it doesn’t usually rely on graphic gore or sex for its thrills and chills. Unfortunately, that doesn’t hold true for all of the stories in this collection, so that was a bit of a disappointment. Overall, this was a pretty typical S. T. Joshi-edited collection. Personally, I think that he is a bit of a snob who takes Lovecraft waaaay too seriously, but he does know how to pick well-written stories.
July 2, 2021
Like the first two Black Wings anthologies the stories within are a mixed bag, however there are enough really weird tales to make the book worth reading. Some of the short stories I found most to my liking were: Richard Gavin's The Hag Stone, Donald Tyson's Waller, Jason V. Brock's The Man With The Horn and Brian Stableford's Further Beyond. I'm not too keen on the stories that have deviant sexual ideas or themes. It's not that I am a prude but I don't think of such stories as very Lovecraftian.
March 7, 2023
Ze dvojky Černých křídel jsem tak úplně nadšený nebyl, ale z trojky je cítit ta správná nakažlivá arkhamská atmosféra. Takže pokud vás ještě netíží představy, že za nejbližším rohem na vás číhá něco zlověstného a nepochopitelného, tady si to můžete obstarat.
Dávám 3,85 Yog-Sothotha a podívám se určitě i na čtvrtou sbírku povídek z téhle řady.
Dávám 3,85 Yog-Sothotha a podívám se určitě i na čtvrtou sbírku povídek z téhle řady.
December 10, 2021
Doteraz jednoznačne najkvalitnejšia zo všetkých "Čiernych kníh"
* Houdinky 4.5/5
Pěkná panenka Popletka 4/5
Děravý kámen 4/5
Pod arkhamským měsícem 4/5
Pavučiny ve tmě 4/5
Kopec Jeden strom 2.5/5
Muž s rohem 2.5/5
Hotel Del Lago 1/5
* Zdivnor 4.5/5
Megalitická vlna 2/5
Černými schodišti pod zem 2.5/5
Čínská dovolená 3/5
Nekrotická zátoka 4/5
V cestě přílivu 2/5
Weltschmerz 4/5
Thistleův objev 2.5/5
* Zpoza neznámého světa 5/5
* Houdinky 4.5/5
Pěkná panenka Popletka 4/5
Děravý kámen 4/5
Pod arkhamským měsícem 4/5
Pavučiny ve tmě 4/5
Kopec Jeden strom 2.5/5
Muž s rohem 2.5/5
Hotel Del Lago 1/5
* Zdivnor 4.5/5
Megalitická vlna 2/5
Černými schodišti pod zem 2.5/5
Čínská dovolená 3/5
Nekrotická zátoka 4/5
V cestě přílivu 2/5
Weltschmerz 4/5
Thistleův objev 2.5/5
* Zpoza neznámého světa 5/5
September 1, 2022
Third volume of the series. About as good a hit/miss ratio as the second volume in the series, though the misses are worse than the misses in that one, prefiguring the slip in quality that would turn me off later volumes. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/201...
September 22, 2021
This wasn't quite as good as the first two volumes in the series. I liked Further Beyond by Brian Stableford the best. Waller and The Hag Stone were pretty good.
Several stories lack any overt reference to the familiar touchpoints of the Cthulhu Mythos.
Several stories lack any overt reference to the familiar touchpoints of the Cthulhu Mythos.
January 23, 2019
The worst so far, nothing impressive just the last tales are “something interesting”, the rest are really bad
February 10, 2020
Favorites:
The Hag Stone
Further Beyond
One Tree Hill (The World As Cataclysm)
The Hag Stone
Further Beyond
One Tree Hill (The World As Cataclysm)
June 16, 2022
Another better-than-average collection of mythos stories.
November 5, 2023
The Blacks Wings series remains a must-read for fans of the Cthulhu mythos.
March 29, 2024
Another fabulous entry in the series. There were a couple of storiesI didn’t love, but there were enough wonderful ones to give it 4.5 stars.
December 30, 2024
I'm biased, as I am a fan of eldritch horror, and a fan of short stories. There was a lot to love and a little bit to dislike.
January 20, 2026
Some excellent stories in this one! "Further Beyond" by Brian Stableford is among the best "sequels" to Lovecraft's stories I have ever read!
April 13, 2018
This anthology of new weird tales inspired by Lovecraft was much better than the one I read earlier this month. The book opens and closes with short stories inspired by Lovecraft's From Beyond; I thought the closing piece was the stronger one. There are a few stories here that I didn't quite care for, but overall there are some quality pieces that make this a must read for any Lovecraft fan.
February 21, 2016
THE OLD ONES ARE AT IT AGAIN IT IS...
Hello, great stories in this one. Most deserve a full length book. You've got to watch them "OLD ONES", they are always up to something. Thanks.
Hello, great stories in this one. Most deserve a full length book. You've got to watch them "OLD ONES", they are always up to something. Thanks.
June 17, 2014
An excellent Mythos anthology!
http://opionator.wordpress.com/2014/0...
http://opionator.wordpress.com/2014/0...
June 5, 2015
Perhaps it's a testament to how desensitised human beings are becoming, but I didn't find these stories scary or unsettling in the slightest. That said, they are very good stories.
October 17, 2015
I'm not really a huge fan of Lovecraft but I was surprised to find that I enjoyed this book. There were some really chilling stories in it. It's a good book to read when Halloween is coming up.
Currently reading
July 14, 2024"The Man with the Horn" by Jason V Brock - The protagonist encounters a creature possessing a horn composed of organic material in the afterlife.
"Underneath an Arkham Moon" by W. H. Pugmire - wc
"Underneath an Arkham Moon" by W. H. Pugmire - wc
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews