Song of Cthulhu: Tales of Spheres Beyond Sound

by Stephen Mark Rainey (Editor), H.P. Lovecraft, Ramsey Campbell

At the heart of the universe, the court of the blind idiot god Azathoth dances to the insane piping of demonic flute-players. The sinister music resounds across space and time, blasting the minds and ripping the souls of those who hear it. It is the melody of chaos, the sound of madness, the song of Cthulhu. This book includes nineteen stories and one essay, linked together by the alien and terrible music of the spheres.

Genres: Horror, Cthulhu Mythos, Lovecraftian

200 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2001

About the author

Stephen Mark Rainey is the author of numerous novels, including BALAK, THE LEBO COVEN, DARK SHADOWS: DREAMS OF THE DARK (with Elizabeth Massie), BLUE DEVIL ISLAND, THE HOUSE AT BLACK TOOTH POND, and others, including several in Elizabeth Massie's Ameri-Scares Series for Young Readers. In addition, Mark's work includes six short story collections; over 200 published works of short fiction; and the scripts for several DARK SHADOWS audio productions, which feature members of the original ABC-TV series cast. For ten years, he edited the multi-award-winning DEATHREALM magazine and, most recently, the best-selling anthology, DEATHREALM: SPIRITS (Shortwave Publishing). He has also edited anthologies for Delirium Press, Chaosium, and Arkham House. Mark lives in Martinsville, VA, with his wife, Kimberly, and a passel of precocious house cats. He is a regular panelist on the weekly Lovecraft eZine Podcast and an active member of the Horror Writers Association.

Reviews

[Coeruleo Luna · Rating 4 out of 5]

i have been reading a ton of the chaosium series lately, and was really looking forward to this one. the books usually have a central theme for the stories, and this one is a collection of cthulhu mythos stories with song (or sound of some sort) as the glue that binds the stories instead of a particular old one or race of creatures. this one feature's lovecrafts's own 'music of erich zann' and i am familiar with a few other sequels and pastiches that evolved from that tale. some already in print in chaosium books. they did not reprint any of those in this volume though, and went with an original collection of tales instead. some of the stories are very good. 'the plain of sound' by campbell of course is great, and the editor puts in a good tale of his own. a few others stand out from ligotti and price. but at least 3 of the stories, including the one by price don't really have anything to do with songs, or sound at all, so i don't understand why they are presented in this collection other than to beef up page count. chaosium does go back and release updated/expanded versions of this series, so maybe one day they will come out with a version that instead includes the other stories that rely heavily on music as a central theme instead of these 3. not a bad book overall, a few of the stories are kind of gore stories at the end, which is unusual for this genre, and some stories are written outside of the normal mythos formula.

[Hunter Johnson]

Song of Cthulhu, edited by Stephen Mark Rainey. Includes "Drums" by one of my favorites, William R. Trotter.

[Little Timmy · Rating 2 out of 5]

A collection of stories based on the writings of H.P. Lovecraft. These are, to me, only slightly better than the original Lovecraft stories. Just not a fan of his writings. Not recommended

[Guy Ferguson]

Much better than I expected. Some decent authors.