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Legacy of the Reanimator: The Chronicles of Dr. Herbert West
The Legacy of the Reanimator collects the original serialized H.P. Lovecraft story, “Herbert West—Reanimator” along with it’s two sequels and a bevy of short stories from some of the most renowned Lovecraftian writers. Details of Herbert West’s life from childhood to death—and beyond can be found within The Legacy of the Reanimator.
Reanimation. The process of bringing life to that which is dead. It is well known that the tow-headed fiend Herbert West came close to perfecting the process within his lifetime. It is also well known that the reanimated limbs, parts, and minions that he had created over the years eventually came back to haunt him—and dismember his body.
However, Herbert West didn’t die. Well…yes he did. The problem is he didn’t stay dead. He was brought back in two round robins edited by Robert m. Price. The first was Herbert West-Reanimated followed by Herbert West—Reincarnated. These were published in old issues of Crypt of Cthulhu, and are terribly hard to get a hold of…until now.
The Contents of this anthology include:
Thought He Was a Goner by Christine Morgan
Herbert West in Love by Molly Tanzer
Herbert West—Reanimator by H.P. Lovecraft
The Horror on the Freighter by Richard Lee Byers
A Man Called West by Ron Shiflet and Glynn Owen Barrass
Herbert West—Reanimated a round robin by Robert M. Price, Peter H. Cannon, Will Murray, Donald R. Burleson, and Charles Hoffman
Charnel House by Tim Curran
The Crypt in Key West by David Bernard
Herbert West—Reincarnated a round robin by Rod Heather, Brian McNaughton, Joseph S. Pulver, Sr., Robert M. Price, C.J. Henderson, and Michael Cisco
Cruel Heaven by Rick Lai
Blood and Guts in High School by Ed Morris
Reanimation. The process of bringing life to that which is dead. It is well known that the tow-headed fiend Herbert West came close to perfecting the process within his lifetime. It is also well known that the reanimated limbs, parts, and minions that he had created over the years eventually came back to haunt him—and dismember his body.
However, Herbert West didn’t die. Well…yes he did. The problem is he didn’t stay dead. He was brought back in two round robins edited by Robert m. Price. The first was Herbert West-Reanimated followed by Herbert West—Reincarnated. These were published in old issues of Crypt of Cthulhu, and are terribly hard to get a hold of…until now.
The Contents of this anthology include:
Thought He Was a Goner by Christine Morgan
Herbert West in Love by Molly Tanzer
Herbert West—Reanimator by H.P. Lovecraft
The Horror on the Freighter by Richard Lee Byers
A Man Called West by Ron Shiflet and Glynn Owen Barrass
Herbert West—Reanimated a round robin by Robert M. Price, Peter H. Cannon, Will Murray, Donald R. Burleson, and Charles Hoffman
Charnel House by Tim Curran
The Crypt in Key West by David Bernard
Herbert West—Reincarnated a round robin by Rod Heather, Brian McNaughton, Joseph S. Pulver, Sr., Robert M. Price, C.J. Henderson, and Michael Cisco
Cruel Heaven by Rick Lai
Blood and Guts in High School by Ed Morris
272 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 1, 2015
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88 people want to read
About the author
Pete Rawlik
93 books52 followersPete Rawlik is a frequent contributor to the Lovecraft ezine and the New York Review of Science Fiction
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
March 20, 2020
Legacy of the Reanimator: The Chronicles of Herbert West, was a good anthology of short stories about the eponymous character, but the copy editing was terrible. Also, I understand why the editors, Peter Rawlik and Brian M Sammons, opted for a chronological approach (the stories add up to a novel of sorts), but that decision led to the best non-Lovecraft story of the bunch, "Blood and Guts In High School", by Ed Morris, getting buried at the back of the book, and the original Reanimator stories written by H.P. Lovecraft appearing after two stories that appear earlier in the fictional chronology established by Rawlik and Sammons.
Those quibbles aside, both Christine Morgan and Molly Tanzer in their stories about a young Herbert West ("Thought He Was A Goner" and "Herbert West In Love") were a great start to this anthology. Filling in West's back story before he became the Reanimator was a smart choice, as were the pulp and noir inspired entries written by Richard Lee Byers and the team of Ron Shiflet and Glynn Owen Barrass, "The Horror On The Freighter" and "A Man Called West". "Herbert West: Reanimated" and "Herbert West: Reincarnated" were a mixed bag of round robin stories by multiple authors.
Last, but certainly not least, Victor Manuel Leza Moreno provided a fantastic cover illustration that really pops and got me to take a closer look at this collection when it popped up in my Kindle search results.
Those quibbles aside, both Christine Morgan and Molly Tanzer in their stories about a young Herbert West ("Thought He Was A Goner" and "Herbert West In Love") were a great start to this anthology. Filling in West's back story before he became the Reanimator was a smart choice, as were the pulp and noir inspired entries written by Richard Lee Byers and the team of Ron Shiflet and Glynn Owen Barrass, "The Horror On The Freighter" and "A Man Called West". "Herbert West: Reanimated" and "Herbert West: Reincarnated" were a mixed bag of round robin stories by multiple authors.
Last, but certainly not least, Victor Manuel Leza Moreno provided a fantastic cover illustration that really pops and got me to take a closer look at this collection when it popped up in my Kindle search results.
October 13, 2015
Very nice collection containing stories based on H.P. Lovecraft's Herbert West–Reanimator.
I bought my copy from the Chaosium table at Necronomicon Providence 2015 in August.
After reading it I am certainly glad that I picked it up.
I bought my copy from the Chaosium table at Necronomicon Providence 2015 in August.
After reading it I am certainly glad that I picked it up.
June 1, 2020
Very hit and miss collection of short stories. They seemed to get weirder as the book progressed, almost as if each writer was trying to out weird the last. Reanimated barf? Really? If you’re a fan of The Reanimator than this will be right up your alley. If not....meh. You may not be as entertained.
October 22, 2018
A mixed bag.
I really enjoyed some of these stories but others were almost unreadable. Started strong ("Herbert West in Love" was a blessing for my gay soul) and ended weak. Skip the last two stories.
I really enjoyed some of these stories but others were almost unreadable. Started strong ("Herbert West in Love" was a blessing for my gay soul) and ended weak. Skip the last two stories.
June 4, 2023
Another book that seemed promising then ended up on my Worst Books I've Ever Read list. And before you get it in your head it might be So Bad It's Good... no it's not.
The first problem is the cover. Looking at it you'd think it was mostly about the cinematic Herbert West. The logo is reminiscent of the film and the likenesses of West and Halsey are clearly based on the film. I was hoping there would be a mix of stories though and I'd get at least a little of the literary West. Imagine my surprise when the whole book was about literary West. The cover is designed to attract fans of the film and then disappoint them. Even though I'm more interested in Lovecraft's version even I was disappointed.
So now you might be thinking that as a fan of the story this collection is right up your alley. The truth is that these stories are so awful that the more you enjoy Lovecraft's story the more you'll probably hate this. Hardcore Lovecraft fans will probably set their tablet on fire during the story where the author tries to reference At The Mountains Of Madness and gets it so wrong that it seems clear they either haven't read it or haven't in a while.
The majority of the book is comprised of the two long round robin stories and a couple of other stories that same continuity. They are AWFUL. The editor says they're extremely hard to find and basically disappeared after their first publication.... well there's a reason for that. For starters the authors don't really cooperate or work well together, more than once just refusing to take the prompt the previous author left them with. For instance after the chapter where West is working with the Nazis it ends with him going to the Allies and being whisked off to work at Area 51. The next author apparently can't figure out any way to make that work and just ignores it in favor of yet another chapter of West working with the Nazis and it's not until the next author that somebody picks up the prompt. Or one author ends a chapter with the cliffhanger of West and Cain getting arrested for murder when found in the aftermath of a zombie killing spree but the next author is just like, that's dumb, clearly they'd been dead for a while and the charges were dropped... then goes on with whatever equally dumb thing they wanted to do. As other reviews have noted they're all just trying to out-wierd/gross the other authors. It's just a cartoonish story where West gets killed countless times but just gains more and more super powers, he reanimates everything from a booger to vomit and ultimately Jesus Christ. It almost sounds so outlandish it might be fun but it doesn't pull that off. As silly as the subject matter usually is the authors seem to think they're writing serious Lovecraftian fiction and the tone is kind of depressing. Or maybe it was just so awful I was depressed reading it.
Bottom line, just skip it. The majority of the book is made up of castaway Lovecraftian fan garbage that was dug back up to fill out an anthology designed to appeal to fans of a film it ignores.
The first problem is the cover. Looking at it you'd think it was mostly about the cinematic Herbert West. The logo is reminiscent of the film and the likenesses of West and Halsey are clearly based on the film. I was hoping there would be a mix of stories though and I'd get at least a little of the literary West. Imagine my surprise when the whole book was about literary West. The cover is designed to attract fans of the film and then disappoint them. Even though I'm more interested in Lovecraft's version even I was disappointed.
So now you might be thinking that as a fan of the story this collection is right up your alley. The truth is that these stories are so awful that the more you enjoy Lovecraft's story the more you'll probably hate this. Hardcore Lovecraft fans will probably set their tablet on fire during the story where the author tries to reference At The Mountains Of Madness and gets it so wrong that it seems clear they either haven't read it or haven't in a while.
The majority of the book is comprised of the two long round robin stories and a couple of other stories that same continuity. They are AWFUL. The editor says they're extremely hard to find and basically disappeared after their first publication.... well there's a reason for that. For starters the authors don't really cooperate or work well together, more than once just refusing to take the prompt the previous author left them with. For instance after the chapter where West is working with the Nazis it ends with him going to the Allies and being whisked off to work at Area 51. The next author apparently can't figure out any way to make that work and just ignores it in favor of yet another chapter of West working with the Nazis and it's not until the next author that somebody picks up the prompt. Or one author ends a chapter with the cliffhanger of West and Cain getting arrested for murder when found in the aftermath of a zombie killing spree but the next author is just like, that's dumb, clearly they'd been dead for a while and the charges were dropped... then goes on with whatever equally dumb thing they wanted to do. As other reviews have noted they're all just trying to out-wierd/gross the other authors. It's just a cartoonish story where West gets killed countless times but just gains more and more super powers, he reanimates everything from a booger to vomit and ultimately Jesus Christ. It almost sounds so outlandish it might be fun but it doesn't pull that off. As silly as the subject matter usually is the authors seem to think they're writing serious Lovecraftian fiction and the tone is kind of depressing. Or maybe it was just so awful I was depressed reading it.
Bottom line, just skip it. The majority of the book is made up of castaway Lovecraftian fan garbage that was dug back up to fill out an anthology designed to appeal to fans of a film it ignores.
June 19, 2020
This is a hard review to write. I liked the book a lot, and all the authors involved shine. It captures the pulpy feel of Lovecraft's Re-Animator stories and the tales are very imaginative. But that becomes a problem during the main sections of the book.
The book includes several stand alone tales, and two round robin sections, where a group of authors each write a chapter in a longer story. Good stuff all around, but the round robin sections go a bit overboard. It's as if each writer was trying to set up the next writer by coming up with the most outlandish situation to end their chapter.
And everyone rises to the challenge, taking the scenario they're given and building upon it. But, as some point, it became exhausting. Things got so weird, it took me out of the story.
As I said, the authors involved all did an an amazing job, and it's a fun read. But I'd suggest taking it in sections and giving yourself time to digest the weirdness, rather than plunging into the next chapter.
The book includes several stand alone tales, and two round robin sections, where a group of authors each write a chapter in a longer story. Good stuff all around, but the round robin sections go a bit overboard. It's as if each writer was trying to set up the next writer by coming up with the most outlandish situation to end their chapter.
And everyone rises to the challenge, taking the scenario they're given and building upon it. But, as some point, it became exhausting. Things got so weird, it took me out of the story.
As I said, the authors involved all did an an amazing job, and it's a fun read. But I'd suggest taking it in sections and giving yourself time to digest the weirdness, rather than plunging into the next chapter.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews