Shadows over Innsmouth

Shadows Over Innsmouth #1

by Stephen Jones (Editor), H.P. Lovecraft (Contributor), Kim Newman (Contributor)

Librarian Note: Please do not confuse this anthology with the original novella "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" by H.P. Lovecraft. Although "Shadows Over Innsmouth" includes the said novella, the book is a collection of Innsmouth-related stories by a number of later authors and not a single story or novel. You might also consider moving your personal rating and/or review to the appropriate page if you have read only the novella.

SEVENTEEN CHILLING STORIES, INCLUDING THE ORIGINAL MASTERPIECE OF HORROR:

“THE SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH” by H. P. Lovecraft

Inspired by H. P. Lovecraft’s classic, today’s masters of horror take up their pens and turn once more to that decayed, forsaken New England fishing village with its sparkling treasure, loathsome denizens, and unspeakable evil.

“ONLY THE END OF THE WORLD AGAIN” by Neil Gaiman: The community of Innsmouth performs a blood sacrifice–with shocking, terrifying results.

“THE CHURCH IN HIGH STREET” by Ramsey Campbell: In the crypt of a derelict church, a sensible young man meets a bestial, unthinkable fate.

“INNSMOUTH GOLD” by David Sutton: An adventurer searches for buried treasure–and discovers a slithering hell on earth.

“THE BIG FISH” by Jack Yeovil: A few months after Pearl Harbor, a mobster and his floating casino lie under water, teeming with the stuff of nightmares.

AND THIRTEEN MORE TERRIFYING TALES!

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Short Stories, Fantasy, Lovecraftian, Anthologies, Cthulhu Mythos

468 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Stephen Jones is an eighteen-time winner of the British Fantasy Award.

Reviews

[Quirkyreader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five stars all around for this one. I am glad that I read this series backwards. I was able to see how the stories of the mythos had evolved over the years.

[Jonathan Briggs · Rating 1 out of 5]

For an ostensible expert on the horror genre, Stephen Jones can pick some real duds for his anthologies, and this is one of his dudliest. The inclusion of some of these clunkers -- lousy even by the low standards of Mythos imitations -- reeks of cronyism. D.F. Lewis contributes his standard nonsense. The guy might as well just string random sentences together, and perhaps that is his style. At least he writes short. Basil Copper goes to excruciating lengths in "Beyond the Reef," a novella that has a few unintentionally hilarious moments that reach a so-bad-it's-good level, but more often it's just plain bad. Ramsey Campbell's graceless prose makes me want to whip out my editor's pen, and in "The Church in High Street," he manages to rip off just about every Lovecraftian trope EXCEPT Innsmouth. Go figure. Even the cornerstone story, the original "The Shadow Over Innsmouth," isn't one of Lovecraft's best. Not one, but two overextended monologues spotlight Lovecraft's utter cluelessness about the way flesh-and-blood people talk. Kim Newman appears twice. Slumming in the guise of Jack Yeovil, he turns in "The Big Fish," an entertaining, though slight and sloppy, addition to his Genevieve stories. Later on, he returns under his own name with "A Quarter to Three," an insubstantial extended pun. In "The Innsmouth Heritage," Brian Stableford takes an interesting but slightly clinical and talky look at the genetics behind the Innsmouth mutations. But once he lays out his concept, he just stops. End of story. It's like driving off a cliff. A better editor might have said, "Hey, great start, Brian, finish it up, and I'll buy it." But "Heritage" runs as is. Neil Gaiman is the only author present who takes Lovecraft's original idea and runs with it though he doesn't seem quite sure where he's headed. His "Only the End of the World Again" brings wolfman Larry Talbot to Innsmouth, a monster mash to set any horror hound salivating. But the results are addled and unfocused -- less werewolf than spastic puppy peeing all over the furniture. The best the anthology has to offer is the art. Jones called on a trio of talented illustrators to deliver dynamic drawings of various crustacean creepy-crawlies. There should have been more of them, and it's a shame the words never live up to the pictures.

[Felix Zilich · Rating 2 out of 5]

Почти все лавкрафтианские сборники - коллективный могильник, где редко можно откопать по-настоящему годный рассказ, криповый и атмосферный. Несмотря на присутствие полудюжины знаменитых и уважаемых бриттов, антология Стивена Джонса 1994 года про славный город Инсмут тоже не становится откровением. Половина из 15 новелл - обычный мусор, пусть и безобидный. Истории Майкла Маршалла Смита и Брайана Ламли - читабельные, но совершенно без изюминки. Рассказы Кима Ньюмана (их аж два, шуточный и снова про Женевьеву Дьёдонне) написаны симпатично, но с передозом неймдроппинга даже по стандартам автора. Нил Гейман, в свою очередь, придумал, казалось бы, отличный концепт (вервольф Ларри Тальбот против культа Дагона), но что с ним делать - сам не представляет.

В итоге, лучшие рассказы написали Брайан Стейблфорд (про любовь генетика) и старик Бэзил Коппер (про туннели под Мискатоником). У первого он интригующий и даже новаторский, но явно недописанный. Второй - единственный из команды, кто постарался родить хоть что-то страшное, пусть и сомнительного качества. Есть в этой антологии также рассказ-звезда, который потом выдвигали на World Fantasy Award, и он, наверное, раздражает в контексте сборника больше всего. Николас Ройл отзеркалил рассказ Лавкрафта на актуальную повестку. Политическая беженка возвращается в Бухарест после падения режима Чаушеску, но понимает, что древнее зло все еще живо, а соседи по прежнему считают её обычной предательницей. Настоящий кошмар либерала.

[George K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Πολύ ωραία και χορταστική ανθολογία διηγημάτων, που αναφέρονται άμεσα ή έμμεσα στο τρομερό Ίννσμουθ της Μασαχουσέτης, ένα ψαροχώρι που δημιούργησε ο Λάβκραφτ για να μας κάνει να βλέπουμε εφιάλτες τα βράδια. Ειλικρινά, τόσο με το εξαιρετικό διήγημα του Λάβκραφτ όσο και με τα υπόλοιπα, χώθηκα σ'ένα σύμπαν φρίκης και παράνοιας, το οποίο ευτυχώς αποτελεί φαντασία. Ελπίζω δηλαδή, γιατί αλλιώς χαθήκαμε...

Λοιπόν, το βιβλίο περιέχει την κλασική και εξαιρετική ιστορία "Η σκιά πάνω από το Ίννσμουθ" του Λάβκραφτ, καθώς και άλλες δεκαέξι ιστορίες από δεκαέξι συγγραφείς του χώρου του Φανταστικού, τόσο από μαιτρ του είδους όσο και από λιγότερο γνωστούς. Τα λόγια είναι περιττά για την ιστορία του Λάβκραφτ, η οποία είναι ένα πραγματικό διαμάντι και πρέπει να διαβαστεί από κάθε λάτρη του καλού τρόμου. Είναι άκρως ατμοσφαιρική, τρομακτική και ανατριχιαστική και συνάμα ιδιαίτερα ευκολοδιάβαστη και συναρπαστική. Είναι μια ιστορία που και την μέρα να διαβαστεί, πάλι θα σας στοιχειώσει.

Όσον αφορά τις υπόλοιπες, καμία δεν φτάνει την ιστορία του Λάβκραφτ, κάποιες όμως είναι πραγματικά πολύ καλές και αξίζουν την προσοχή σας: "Πέρα από την Ξέρα" (Μπασίλ Κόπερ), "Ο χρυσός του Ίννσμουθ" (Ντέιβιντ Σάτον), "Η κληρονομιά του Ίννσμουθ" (Μπράιαν Σταμπλφορντ) και "Το μεγάλο ψάρι" (Τζακ Γέοβιλ), είναι μερικά καλά παραδείγματα. Η ιστορία του Κόπερ μου φάνηκε εξαιρετικά ατμοσφαιρική και καλογραμμένη και αυτή του Γέοβιλ άκρως ψυχαγωγική με το μάγκικο και γκανγκστερικό στιλ γραφής, που έδωσε άλλον αέρα στην όλη κοσμοπλασία του Ίννσμουθ.

Γενικά πρόκειται για μια ανθολογία ιστοριών τρόμου που θα ικανοποιήσει σε πολύ μεγάλο βαθμό τόσο τους λάτρεις του Λάβκραφτ όσο και τους λάτρεις του τρόμου. Προσωπικά πέρασα εξαιρετικά και διάβασα το βιβλίο μονοκοπανιά, καταφέρνοντας να μην βαρεθώ ή να κουραστώ από κάποιες αναμενόμενες και αναπόφευκτες επαναλήψεις. Η έκδοση της Jemma Press είναι ένα πραγματικό στολίδι για την βιβλιοθήκη κάθε τρομολάγνου.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Titan Books are re-releasing this series of books, originally from 1994 by Fedogan and Bremer. The first,Shadows over Innsmouth, would make a terrific Halloween read, if you were looking for something this year.

The book starts big. After an introduction by Stephen, we’re off and running with the inspiration for this collection, one of HP Lovecraft’s longest tales (about 64 000 words), The Shadow over Innsmouth. If you haven’t read it before, it’s an impressive read, showing all the strengths (and weaknesses) of Lovecraft’s writing.

At times it can be a little overwrought, a little repetitive and over-dramatic, and yet, with its details of creepy Innsmouth, New England, its weird religions and slimy otherworldly inhabitants, its florid language and relentless sense of unease (not to mention the oft-derided tone of racism), it must be said that even after 75-plus years since its original publication, there’s no denying that the tale still has a certain power, even when there are places where it appears that ol’ Howard Phillips has merely stumbled across his typewriter keys. The bar is set quite high.

It’s certainly no mean feat, but there’s a broad and rich collection of authors chosen to attempt the task, such as Ramsey Campbell, Neil Gaiman, Kim Newman, Brian Lumley, Basil Copper, Michael Marshall Smith and others.

You might think that a book with seventeen stories all about the same place in New England might be a little limiting. And it may be, although Lovecraft’s detailed setup means that even after 60-odd thousand words there’s a lot of places that the rest of these tales could then go, from the rich historical background of the town and surrounding New England area to the present day weariness that seems to be part of the culture, the undoubtedly creepy back-story of Innsmouth’s inhabitants and their attempts to keep strangers out or alternatively catch unwary visitors.

Some of the tales here take the Cthulhu mythos further: to England (Brian Mooney’s The Tomb of Priscus Brian Lumley’s Dagon’s Bell and Michael Marshall Smith’s To See the Sea), to Ireland (Peter Tremayne’s Daoine Domhain), to Romania (Nicholas Royle’s The Homecoming) and even internationally, over the internet (David Langford’s Deepnet).

The story following Lovecraft’s tale must be a tough choice, because it must stand perhaps the closest comparison to the original.

Thankfully, Basil Copper’s lengthy story, Beyond the Reef, doesn’t let us down. It is a pleasantly surprising read, similar in tone to HPL’s tales and a great follow on to the original, but set twenty or so years later. I loved the strange goings on at Lovecraft’s mythical University, Miskatonic U. Sadly Basil died this year. I wish I had read more of his work before his death.

After that, the other fifteen tales go past in some speed, but no major loss of quality. Particularly liked were Kim Newman’s A Quarter to Three (mainly for its horribly bad pun at the end), Ramsey Campbell’s The Church in High Street and Dagon’s Bell by Brian Lumley. All of these writers are as good as I expected, with Campbell and Lumley being well known for their own versions of Lovecraft’s tales. Neil Gaiman’s Only the End of the World Again is an interesting tale combining Deep Ones and lycanthropy.

Of the lesser-known authors, Jack Yeovil’s* The Big Fish is an abrupt change of gear from many of the stories in the collection, written from the perspective of 1942 as a weary and cynical Chandler-esque story (with added Cthulhu). Not to be taken too seriously, and good fun to read. David Sutton’s Innsmouth Gold is also good, and a bit more serious, but leaves matters rather unresolved at the end. In Daoine Domhain Peter Tremayne broadens the Mythos by transporting most of the tale to Ireland to show the mythical origins of the Cthulhu story. Michael Marshall Smith’s To See the Sea tells of a Wicker Man-type event on the English coast, Peter Mooney’s The Tomb of Priscus gives the Cthulhu background a historical and archaeological feel, Brian Stableford’s The Innsmouth Heritage a scientific dimension.

Not all are quite as good, though none are really bad. Guy N Smith’s Return to Innsmouth does well to recap the original Lovecraft story before giving it its own minor twist. If I had not read the original one hundred pages or so previously, I think I would have enjoyed this one more, but in the end my abiding impression was that it mainly summarised Lovecraft’s original tale. DF Lewis’s tale (Down to the Boots) was rather short and thus left little impression.

Nevertheless, the writing on the whole in this collection is pretty strong. There’s enough here to keep the reader happy with more ‘hits’ than ‘misses’ overall. What I also liked was that this is also a collection that pays attention to the extra little details, clearly ‘a book’ rather than an e-book product. The book is profusely illustrated throughout by some admirably ghoulish Cthulhulian drawings from artists Dave Carson, Martin McKenna and Jim Pitts, to whom the book is dedicated. These set off the text grandly.

Finally, to round the collection off, there’s some biographical notes in the Afterword about each of the contributors, updated from the 1994 version. Jack Yeovil’s (aka Kim Newman) biography is quite an imaginative entertainment in itself.

So: fancy giving Lovecraft a try but never got round to it? Or how about having read Lovecraft but wanting to read more contemporary writers’ varied takes on the Lovecraft canon? This book caters to you both. It’s a terrific collection, and worthy of Halloween reading. (Had I not read it already…!)

Well done to Titan for re-releasing this one.

There’s a companion volume, Weird Shadows over Innsmouth, which I’m now going to track down, also due October.
Iä-R’lyeh! Cthulhu fhtagn! Iä! Iä!

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me a while to get through this collection. I would say this is not something you'd read cover-to-cover and I can't imagine tackling the other collections "Weird Shadows Over Innsmouth" or "Weirder Shadows Over Innsmouth" anytime soon. Three collections on this theme, are you kidding me?

These stories can be quite creepy, a few are even scary, But what struck me about some of them was the emotional, somber nature of them. Characters which people love are changing into fish, leaving their life behind and disappearing into the sea. The quality of this collection is uneven, but I was surprised how good some of the stories were, only a few here I didn't care for.

My main issue with this collection is that after a while the stories get too predictable, it's not necessarily the author's fault, but they are being asked to draw from a well which frankly isn't that vast to begin with.

Basil Copper's "Beyond the Reef" is a great story, or novella. It's got some very effective, creepy moments, and also lots of more “cozy mystery” type moments. This was definitely one of the better Lovecraftian stories I've read lately. But I will say the monsters are a bit over-the-top: fire-breathing snake slugs, really? After a series of strange events occurs at Miskatonic University, a cross collapses, revealing a network of underground tunnels.

Jack Yeovil's "The Big Fish" was a great little story. It’s written in a witty, pulpy, private eye way. Lots of memorable scenes, lots of good stuff here, and quite creepy when it wants to be. A private detective is hired by an actress to discover what has become of her husband, a gambling racketeer who became involved with a cult and has gone missing. Many of his associates have all been found dead – drowned.

Guy N. Smith's "Return to Innsmouth" is a brief story, not bad but just not too eventful really, just a quick replay of HPL's original in a lot of ways. A man is lured to Innsmouth after he learns that his family has a connection to it. Along the way he sees his shadow has a oddly fish-like appearance. During the night a group of foul, fish-smelling men try to enter his room.

Adrian Cole's "The Crossing" is a decent story, but not great. It does have some creepy moments as far as the chase scenes, and a really creepy scene on a beach at night. A man who never knew his father travels to a seaport town after receiving a strange postcard from there, and discovers his father has been in service to Dagon all of his life.

D. F. Lewis' "Down to the Boots" is one I didn't get, so it's so short I re-read it and loved it. It's a very weird, dreamlike and quiet story. A housewife living in a shack in Innsmouth, in a field full of mud and pools thinks about her husband leaving to go into the sea.

Ramsey Campbell's "The Church in High Street" is one I read years ago, I recall liking it but little else.

David Sutton's "Innsmouth Gold" is a good horror tale, I feel like this author could hone his writing just a bit. There's a few good scares and decent atmosphere build-up. A man comes to suspect that after Innsmouth was torpedoed by the government, a large cache of gold was found and hidden somewhere, and he's determined to find it.

Peter Tremayne's "Daoine Domhain" is good but rather predictable. It establishes a good sense of place, and although the horror is never fully revealed I felt it lacked subtlety. A man gets a letter his grandfather wrote before he disappeared many years ago. It seems he went to the small Irish island of his birth and tangles with the Deep Ones.

Kim Newman's "Quarter to Three" provides some comic relief. I like the writing style here, expressive and noir/hard-boiled. We know what's coming, but the author knows we know, so she plays along. A man working in an all-night diner on a lonely seacoast has a strange customer, a girl who was impregnated by a very weird creature indeed.

Brian Mooney's "The Tomb of Priscus" is a decent story that kept me interested, but I found it a bit predictable even though a few moments are so well-described that they still manage to surprise. A priest and his friend look into an archaeological dig into an ancient Roman tomb which seems to be much dreaded by the locals. After they open the tomb the man in charge of the dig is taken over by a long-waiting presence.

Brian Stableford's "Innsmouth Heritage" was one of the better stories here, it's got a smart idea in it for explaining the "Innsmouth Look," original, and it's got an ending that is actually pretty sad and affecting. A geneticist travels to Innsmouth to try and study the genes of those with the Innsmouth Look who are quickly disappearing, and to woo his old friend Ann who has inherited most of the town. He discovers it's not just the look that troubles the people there, but their dreams as well.

Nicholas Royle's "The Homecoming" in my opinion is one of the best stories; dreamlike and nightmarish, depressive, dark and dystopian. I detect a bit of Ligotti influence here. The end left the whole affair a bit unclear, and the story only has a rather mild affinity with the whole "Innsmouth theme." Some might find the whole idea a bit untenable, but I was able to suspend disbelief and enjoy it. After the fall of Romanian dictator Ceausescu, Daniella returns to Bucharest, a much-changed, eerie city, ravaged by the revolution, and the people themselves seemingly afflicted by something which has emerged from the "tunnels."

David Langford's "Deepnet" is a very imaginative story and one of the better stories of the very short ones. A man speculates that the software company DeepNet located in Innsmouth (with a supposed cable that goes into the the sea) has caused female programmers to give birth to fish-like children.

Michael Marshall Smith's "To See the Sea" is another one I liked, despite find it playing out a little too predictably. Like several other stories here, there's an undercurrent of sadness to these tales, people taken by the sea. A couple travels to a desolate seaside town where the woman's mother was almost drowned when a ship she was on went down for several hours off the coast. They start to suspect the whole town celebrates the downing of the ship.

Brian Lumley's "Dagon's Bell" is one of the best here. It's got a great set-up and an action-packed conclusion, and some pretty scary moments at the end. After a man buys the farm of a hermit who disappeared, he finds the place is very ancient, cursed by creatures which emerge from the sea at the call of a great subterranean bell.

Neil Gaiman's "Only The End Of The World Again" is a nice little hard-boiled story, I loved the style of it, and it brings some humor. A werewolf tries to stop the invocation of the Deep Ones in Innsmouth.

[Roger · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought I had found a real gem when I found Shadows Over Innsmouth. Not only did it feature the original HP Lovecraft tale but apparently used it as a springboard for a series of all new stories regarding that haunted city. Let's break this review up into two parts: First let's talk about the original story and then we'll chat about the new stories in this collection.

The Shadow Over Innsmouth is a favorite story of mine. I first finished reading it when I was fourteen. Having reread it thirty six years later I can honestly say my perspectives are a bit different-you cannot step into the same river twice. Do you remember the first time you watched the original Planet of the Apes? How that ending hit you like a ton of bricks, and then no matter how many times you watched it since it never had the same impact? Rereading this story was like that. There were a lot of things I did not pick up on the first time I read it (The Gilman hotel? *snort*) but you really cannot go home again. So though the story was still atmospheric it was not as enjoyable-I knew where the devil was driving, as it were. As for the remaining stories in this anthology....

Apparently if a story manages to mention Innsmouth or its' denizens in any way it becomes eligible to be included in this collection. Sometimes that worked, sometimes it didn't. I basically felt cheated as a reader-I did not sign up to read about Romania or some quaint but sinister English village. Very few of these stories were actually scary. Some pieces really worked such as those by Ramsey Campbell, Peter Tremayne, Brian Mooney, Brian Lumley, and Neil Gaiman. The rest of the book felt like so much filler. Sad to have to include Kim Newman in that category but even a sneaky Anno Dracula reference did not delight me. There was too much miss and not enough hit for me to be able to give this book more than three stars.

[Kay]

[سیما تقوی · Rating 2 out of 5]

ملالت‌بار بود!

[Mir]

[Lyndon Perry · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you aren't familiar with the word "furtive", you will be by the time you finish this anthology.

What can I say about Shadows over Innsmouth. It's a compilation of authors and as such there were parts I enjoyed more than others. It was my first time reading Lovecraft and the same can be said for every other author here, save Gaiman.

And well, I gotta say, I struggled with Lovecraft a bit in the same way I tend to struggle with most literature that can't really be classified as contemporary. So while I really appreciate his original ideas and masterful understanding of horror, I can do without the overly detailed visual descriptions and persistently formal tone.

A few of the other stories were really fun and entertaining but several were boring and pointless. Basically the original Lovecraft story minus the originality.

[Bogdan · Rating 4 out of 5]

O antologie Lovecraftiana foarte buna cu povestiri la inaltimea originalului.

Surprinzator Neil Gaiman a contribuit cu o povestire destul de dezamagitoare.

Restul au fost numai de la bine in sus.

Buna ideea, reusit rezultatul!

[Dion Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a huge fan of H.P. Lovecraft’s work, and this was a good collection of Innsmouth related stories, some of these stories I loved, while others not so much, but overall an enjoyable read.

And the artwork on the cover and inside is outstanding.

[Noah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like the silly fish people, also i hate the bloodborne boss orphan of kos why is he so hard, why was the fishing village inspired by this book, anyways this and bloodborne are 10/10

[Marcus de Melo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Saudades do Glub, da Glub e da carangueja Carol.

[Jon · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me a long time to get through this. It starts out great with the original H.P. Lovecraft short story, but after the next one or two stories, I pretty much knew what I was in for. It's not necessarily the writers' faults, since their job is to use the source material, but it started to feel stale after a while. I can think of about 2 in addition to the original that I really liked (one that I loved,) a few that I really did not like, and the rest were generally good, but in the end I'm afraid I'll forget them.

[KaruzelaNaKoparce · Rating 2 out of 5]

Opowiadania same w sobie nie takie złe, ale format wariacji na temat tego samego jednego opowiadania Lovecrafta mnie wynudził.

[Anna Richey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of the stories are very spooky and left me with a delightful sense of unease - and since I read in bed, nightmares.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

The usual hit-and-miss collection of Lovecraftian-inspired short stories, many with a English flare given it place of publication. The highlights are from the expected authors (Campbell, Lumley, Gaiman), but "The Big Fish" is a hidden gem among the sea foam. A worthwhile read if you're a fan of "The Shadow over Innsmouth," but otherwise a mediocre collection of Mythos- and oceanic-themed tales.

[Tim Pendry · Rating 3 out of 5]

H P Lovecraft's 'The Shadow over Innsmouth' was not much liked by HPL himself but it was the only book (in this case, a novella rather than a short story) of his published in his life time - his objections were stylistic rather than ones of content. In the event, it became one of his most influential tales.

A lot of attention has been paid to the implicitly racial and more explicitly genetic degeneration themes in the story but this represented a common fear amongst Anglo-Saxon Americans in the interwar period. Family and species degeneration were common trope in a post-Darwin world.

The story is also a throw-back to the lost cultures and humanoid species of nineteenth century theosophical fantasy. The undersea world of Dagon/Cthulhu is just a late variant of pseudo-scientific tales of Atlantis, Lemuria and Mu.

Whatever the cultural origins of the story, it has lasted as the trigger for a particular type of horror - the horror of the monstrous 'other' amongst us, the 'other' that infiltrates through sexual activity and seduction (material and hypnotic) despite its horrible aspect and inhuman aspects.

There is the implication of a 'plot' - the patient readiness to move from sea to land and destroy the human race. Obviously this has unnerved liberals who rightly see a sub-text about migration but the general idea has been useful in some of the subsequent stories in the book.

It also reintroduces us to another ancient theme - excessive curiosity leading the intelligent man into peril of his very soul albeit that, in this case, the last part of the book becomes little more than an 'escape and chase sequence' down a (hopefully) deserted railway track.

Finally, the menace (for which there is not the slightest sympathy as another species close enough to us to breed) is justifiably (in the light of the period) exterminated by the federal authorities in a way that makes the current homeland security fanatics look positively benign.

So, when the idea for a series of stories drawn from the tale came up, it would have been reasonable to see opportunities for expansion of the mythos and of the themes in order to produce new variants of the tale for our own time. Unfortunately the challenge was not taken up as it might have been.

Equally fortunately, the anthology was produced in the 1990s before woke neurosis would have killed off the project as inappropriate ('racist' which is definitely is not) or demanded woke stories to correct HPL's record. The heart sinks at what might be written today by half wits.

Like all anthologies, it is mixed bag from the truly dreadful to genuine attempts to take the story and make it work for our age. Unfortunately, some of the stories are rather leaden attempts at humour or pastiche. When these are combined, they are not very interesting at all.

Whatever the final quality of the work, HPL took his stories seriously although he was not without humour himself. We are not supposed to find the batrachian threat to be absurd, ridiculous or funny. It is supposed to make us uncomfortable and disgust us, even to provoke an insidious terror.

There is one story that does manage to use humour to take us over the line into some form of integrity. This is Jack Yeovil's 'The Big Fish' which succeeds because it is witty in its precise balancing of pastiche of HPL and Raymond Chandler. He gets away with it only because of this precision.

The second to worst is Kim Newman's short tale that ends with the most atrocious pun and deflates everything that HPL should mean within the horror tradition. The worst tale is a heavy-handed politicised version about Ceaucescu's Romania which turns tedium into an art form.

Neil Gaiman too seemed unable not to think like a comic book. He provides us with a very silly story involving a werewolf and the end of the world that we assume is supposed to be humorous but falls as flat as a pancake from its knowing obscurity. Such writers are being either lazy or arrogant.

The other error is implicitly to introduce the supernatural. HPL was a scientific materialist (not in the Marxist sense). The implication of the supernatural without adequate scientific background (even of weird angles) jars as much as humour. Some experimental writing also fails.

This applies to only a very few stories but perhaps we can trace this to the influence of Derleth (about whom HPL purists have a less benign view today). There is over half a century between HPL and this anthology but nearly three decades between it and us.

All the contributors are British. Their stories (with the exception of Ramsey Campbell's young work of 1963 undertaken with advice from Derleth) were copyrighted some time between 1988 and the date of the volume (1994). Many were published previously in obscure journals.

In the event, this 'Britishness' can prove fertile. It allows stories to enter into the English folk horror tradition and, in one case, the Irish supernatural tradition. This is the point where the book managed to escape pastiche and offer reasonable additions to the canon.

The two stand-out stories really do extend the range and are near the end of the book - Michael Marshall Smith's 'To See The Sea' and Brian Lumley's 'Dagon's Bell', both take HPL's story seriously, shifting it to the bleak North Sea with male protagonists themselves 'at sea' amidst horror.

In both, as in the standard folk horror tradition, communities are either complicit or knowing and fearful of what is in their midst and, in both, the true victim is the subject of batrachian lust, a young woman who is drawn hypnotically to their own terrible fate.

An honourable mention, in this folk horror aspect of the case, must be made of Brian Mooney's 'The Tomb of Priscus' which, although something of a throw-back to the classic trope of the knowing investigator, manages to insert itself in the tradition with consummate skill.

This last story has as much Nigel Kneale and even Christopher Priest about it as HPL as well as the character of the professional man seduced by occult desire and becoming evil that we see in MR James, Somerset Maugham's 'The Magician' or even Clive Barker's movie 'Hellbound'.

There are other good stories. Perhaps Basil Copper's 'Beyond the Reef' is far too close to the Weird Tales story line and so always teetering on the edge of pastiche but it is sincere in its attempt to mirror the traditional HPL atmosphere. Sutton's 'Innsmouth Gold' is also perhaps too close.

The Ramsey Campbell tale. 'The Church in High Street', for all its 'youth', managed to channel another great influencer of weird fiction M R James while retaining the tropes of HPL. It may not be a masterpiece but it is a solid effort.

But all this, where not pastiche, is still looking backwards within the tradition. Only two stories grasp contemporary reality (HPL's story is set in his own time) through something closer to science fiction (which is well within the territory of Lovecraft).

Brian Stableford, always a player, takes the miscegenation issue and brings it into the age of genetic science (as seen in the early 1990s) in 'The Innsmouth Heritage' while David Langford's paranoid 'Deepnet' moves the batrachians neatly into the world of software, picking up on the 'hypnotic'.

In general, the writing is solid rather than spectacular with one or two true duds but Marshall-Smith and Lumley manage to reach a very much higher standard with characterisation that expresses a world more real and so more disturbing than the exercises being undertaken elsewhere.

As anthologies go it has its moments. I was pleased that it had been produced but a bit more discipline in cutting out obvious pastiches, bad writing and absurd humour (even at the cost of alienating 'big names') would have served it better.

[AJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fantastic collection of short stories for those who enjoy horror. Oddly enough, I was not that impressed by the Shadows over Innsmouth. The remaining tales, however, took on an interesting twist and great reflections of imagination and creativity. Each short story kept the basic monster and added time and characters. They took the basic sea monsters out of the ocean and created a history and other dangerous, malevolent tales of garnering control over the human race. I think the eeriest part of the tales are the fact that they fit in so well with each other that it almost appears as if each were drafted relevant to the previous. They move from regular ordinary groups of people trying to make sense of the craziness to the groups clamoring to rid the society of these beasts. Then, they move to individual stories of familial members of those who were taken to those that are monstrous themselves and go into battle against the creatures as they are destroyed by failure of ritual completion. Each tale does justice in its own rite. I think you should read this book. I actually have pictures from my travels down into the Sunny Jimmy Cave that reflect some of the dense darkness in these stories.

[Tarl · Rating 3 out of 5]

An anthology centered around Innsmouth, authored by British writers?
Sounds interesting, and that's what initially drew me to this collection.

'Shadows over Innsmouth' collects together some pretty well known writers, and each of their personal takes on the whole Innsmouth setting are all interesting and unique. (the last story containing a werewolf of all things!) Combined with the unique writing styles and personal voice of each of the authors, the reader is sure to find something to tickle their fancy.

As with any anthology, there are stories that I didn't find as interesting as the others. However, even these stories kept my interest with their own take on the theme for the anthology. I will state that none of the stories struck me as a bad story, but rather, as I said, just weren't as interesting as some of the others.

Jones has done a really good job constructing this anthology, and I have already bought the next collection of his themed around Innsmouth. This collection is a must for any Lovecraft fan, more so if you have any interest in the Innsmouth theme like myself.

[Arthur B · Rating 2 out of 5]

In his introduction to the follow-up anthology to this one, Jones states that his intention with this wasn't so much to pay tribute to Lovecraft as it was to honour August Derleth. This may explain why this collection is so shaky - regardless of Derleth's accomplishments as an editor, when it comes to Derleth as a Mythos author he's miserably bad, and anyone holding up his work as worthy of tribute has taken leave of good taste.

The fact is that a good few of these stories are absolute clunkers - and worse, some of them veer towards uncritically restating the racist feelings about "miscegenation" underpinning the original Shadow Over Innsmouth uncritically.

In addition, it feels like a slice of nepotism is at work. Many of the authors collected here are regulars in Jones' other anthology series, so this may be a "jobs for the boys" sort of deal. I say "boys" deliberately, because Jones elects not to include any story written by a woman whatsoever.

Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/201...

[William Cherico · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lovecraft, Lumley, Stableford, and Gaiman are unfortunately the only reasons to read this book. Every other story seems to lack a certain something that makes a cosmic horror story good, and as a result most of the stories were absolute chores to get through (it took me over a month to read this because there would be times where I'd finish a story, put it down, and just not want to pick it back up again). Most of the authors do nothing to expand on Lovecraft's themes of the slow and somber nature of time and how humans decay, and the ones that do try and lean into the Innsmouth setting wind up feeling soulless, a cross between fan service ("they'll remember Innsmouth, right? And they go crazy for the Cthulhu namedrop") and pure laziness (most of these stories are very unsatisfying narratively, which would be fine if they were at all thought provoking. They are not). I would really only recommend the original story of all of the works in this collection, the rest were so rough.

[Bryan Whitehead · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovecraft’s “The Shadow Over Innsmouth” wasn’t originally one of my favorite pieces of his work. It just struck me as sort of mediocre, especially the ending. But after reading this collection of stories by authors exploiting the Deep Ones in a variety of settings, I must admit that the tale and its progeny are growing on me, fungus-like. To be sure, this collection of British tales based on Lovecraft’s original is a mixed bag, including one or two stories with only vague Mythos allusions (the close-personal-friend-of-the-editor-and-desperately-needing-a-sale sort of anthology entry). But overall Stephen Jones has done an admirable job of assembling a combination of stories that mimic the flavor of the original intermixed with tales that take the basic theme into new and amusing directions. Innsmouth aficionados should enjoy these efforts immensely.

[Sabella Daiabczenko · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great book - the Shadow Over Innsmouth is one of my favorite Lovecraft stories (and Dagon is one of my favorite movies), and this is a lovely little collection from others who were also as inspired as I was by the ruin of a sleepy little seaside town. Love the cover art, also (By Michael Whelan, of all people!)

[Gabrielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

A series of short stories based around the Innsmouth novella by HP Lovecraft. They were mostly enjoyable and creepy, though an overwhelming number focused on storyline a where an unknowing descendent of the deep ones returns to the ocean. I particularly enjoyed "Beyond the Reef", which is based at Miskatonic University.

[Colin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was fortunate enough to pick up this volume at a Dollar Tree store for $1 (plus tax). A fascinating collection of stories more-or-less inspired by H.P. Lovecraft's "The Shadow Over Innsmouth," which is the first story in the collection. The stories range from the truly inspired to the merely enjoyable, and I quite enjoyed the collection.

[Patrick Kiernan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love these stories, they all really had that H.P Lovecraft feel.

[Camille · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was surprised at how much I liked it!