The Cackle of Cthulhu

by Alex Shvartsman (editor)

TOP AUTHORS POKE FUN AND PAY TRIBUTE TO H.P. LOVECRAFT'S CTHULHU MYTHOS.

Knock, knock!
Who’s there?
Cthul.
Cthul who?
Exactly! I've come to tickle your funnybone.
Oh, and also to eat your soul.

In 1928, Weird Tales debuted “The Call of Cthulhu” by H.P. Lovecraft, and the Cthulhu Mythos was born. In the 90 years since, dozens of writers have dared play within HPL’s mind-blowing creation—but never with such terrifyingly funny results. Now top authors lampoon, parody, and subvert Lovecraft’s Mythos. See Cthulhu cut short his nap at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean to invade North Korea! Watch the Unspeakable Eater of Souls solve crimes on the pulpy streets of Innsmouth! And speaking of largish Elder Gods, listen to a plastic Elvis doll dispense folksy advice straight from the heart of the Emperor of Dread! Again Ol’ Tentacle-Face is confronted by frail humans who dare defy the Incarnation of Ultimate Evil—but this time not by brave monster hunters and terrified villagers, but by fan fiction writers, clueless college students, and corporate lawyers (okay, we realize it’s hard to know who to root for in that confrontation).

Twenty-three mirthful manifestations within the Cthulhu Mythos from best-selling and award-winning authors Neil Gaiman, Mike Resnick, Esther Friesner, Ken Liu, Jody Lynn Nye, Laura Resnick, Nick Mamatas, and many more!

Guaranteed to leave you howling. Because if you look at it just right, there’s nothing funnier than a soul writhing in cosmic horror before a tentacled maw of malevolence. As HPL himself saith: “From even the greatest of horrors irony is seldom absent.”

Complete Contributor List:
Neil Gaiman
Jody Lynn Nye
Mike Resnick
Ken Liu
Nick Mamatas
Esther Friesner
David Vaughan
Kevin Wetmore
Shaenon K. Garrity
Brian Trent
Alex Shvartsman
Rachael Klahn Jones
Yvonne Navarro
Scott Huggins
Gini Koch
Aidan Doyle
Konstantine Paradias
Amanda Helms
Laura Resnick
Matt Mikalatos
Laura Pearlman
Lucy A. Snyder

Original stories by David Vaughan, Jody Lynn Nye, Mike Resnick, Brian Trent, Yvonne Navarro, G. Scott Huggins, Gini Koch, Aidan Doyle, Amanda Helms, Laura Resnick, Laura Pearlman, Lucy Snyder, and Nick Mamatas.

Reprints by Esther Friesener, Kevin Wetmore, Shaenon K. Garrity, Alex Shvatsman, Ken Liu, Rachael K. Jones, Neil Gaiman, Konstantine Paradias, and Matt Mikalatos.

Genres: Horror, Fantasy, Comedy, Fiction, Short Stories, Humor, Urban Fantasy

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 2, 2018

About the author

Alex Shvartsman is a writer, editor, and translator from Brooklyn, NY. He's the author of The Middling Affliction (2022) and Eridani's Crown (2019) fantasy novels. Kakistocracy, a sequel to The Middling Affliction, is forthcoming in 2023.

Over 120 of his stories have been published in Analog, Nature, Strange Horizons, and many other venues. He won the 2014 WSFA Small Press Award for Short Fiction and was a two-time finalist (2015 and 2017) for the Canopus Award for Excellence in Interstellar Fiction.

His collection, Explaining Cthulhu to Grandma and Other Stories and his steampunk humor novella H. G. Wells, Secret Agent were published in 2015. His second collection, The Golem of Deneb Seven and Other Stories followed in 2018.

Alex is the editor of over a dozen anthologies, including the Unidentified Funny Objects annual anthology series of humorous SF/F.

Reviews

[Riju Ganguly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book contains twenty-two Lovecraftian stories, all of them aimed at raising a chuckle or two from the depths of the readers psyche.
Cthulhu and Lovecraftian mythos has spawned more stories, novels, games and works than even the Great Old Ones can endure. Nevertheless, this collection shines brighter than most of the other muck covering the landscape by virtue of two things. Those are~
A. None of the works take themselves, or Cthulhu, or Lovecraft with any reverence. They recognise the importance of those concerned. Then they lampoon the overtly solemn while remaining entirely truthful about the human darkness.
B. Alex Shvartsman has actually curated this collection with utmost care. As a result, I couldn't find a single dud in this collection.
Some of these stories left indelible impressions upon me through their inherent darkness. Kevin Watmore's "Tales of a Fourth Grade Shoggoth" comes to mind, which is a grim tale of abuse, rape and violence— all under a sheen of juvenile thoughts. Brian Trent's "The Doom that Came to Providence" is also exceptional in that sense.
Some made me laugh and ask for more, including~
(1) Esther Friesner's "The Shunned Trailer";
(2) Alex Shvartsman's "Explaining Cthulhu to Grandma";
(3) Neil Gaiman's "Shoggoth's Old Peculiar";
(4) Amanda Helms's "The Call of Uncopyrighted Intellectual Property";
(5) Laura Resnick's "Cthulhu, P.I";
(6) Matt Mikalatos's "A Stiff Bargain".
But, I repeat, I liked all of these stories. And if you are interested in reading a bunch of humour-laced tales based on the mythos, then this book would be ideal choice.
Highly recommended.

[Mangrii · Rating 3 out of 5]

Primer relato que leo de la ficción corta de Ken Liu y aunque me ha resultado algo flojo, ya sabía que no es de lo mejor ni de lejos.

Una sátira a los mitos lovecraftianos a el poder de las corporaciones que tiene cierta gracia leyéndolo en esa clave.

[Mark Catalfano · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Shunned Trailer by Esther Friesner (reprint): A college student stumbles into a trailer park stuffed with Lovecraftian monsters, trying to summon Cthulhu. It seemed like it was just throwing as many jokes as possible at the wall and seeing what stuck.

Captain in Yellow by David Vaughn: Here's the obligatory "what if this took place in Star Trek?" story. Actually, it works pretty well with Lovecraft's setting.

My Little Old one (TM) by Jody Lynne Nye: This one was pretty fun, as a terrible toddler who never sleeps finally starts seeming to calm down when getting a Cthulhu doll. the mother's benign innocence makes the story.

Tales of a Fourth Grade Shoggoth by Kevin Wetmore (reprint): A boy wins a small Chuthulu and his brother with tentacles eats it and he turns out to be able to summon away vile creatures that want to eat kids on the playground. Didn't like it, but I tend to not like kid or YA stories.

Friday Night at Brazee's by Mike Resnick: Cthulhu gets invited over for poker in order to take the place of a man he's hunting. This one was great.

To Whatever by Shaenon K. Garrity (reprint): A pretty silly story about a roommate who has a monster living in the walls of his apartment but only communicates through letters.

The Doom that Came to Providence by Brian Trent: After the monsters win, a gangster has a secret weapon: HPL himself.

Shoggoths Old Peculiar by Neil Gaiman (reprint): An American visiting Britian wanders into Innsmouth and the Cultists there have amusing conversations but are basically inept.

HP and Me by Gini Koch: HPL leads a new group of undead students, ie vampires and werewolves, into his own world as a training exercise.

The Greatest Leader by Adrian Doyle: A group of hackers have stopped Lovecraftian monsters from coming into our world, but now in North Korea new patches are coming out.

But Someone's Gotta Do it by Konstantine Paradias: The janitor at Miskatonic University has seen--and been paid to turn a blind eye away from-- some creepy things.

The Call of the Unincorporated Intellectual Property by Amanda Helms: A movie about Vagalith is making whoever watches it go mad.

Explaining Cthulhu to Grandma by Alex Shvartsman (reprint): A pawn shop gets Cthulhu, but all potential buyers aren't really interested in paying.

The Call of the Pancake Factory (reprint) by Ken Liu: A corporate spy for a theme park stumbles on an island full of cultists.

The Innsmouth of the South (reprint) by Rachel K Jones: A Lovecraft theme park gets replaced by real monsters who give the evil park owner what he deserves.

WWRD by Yvonne Navarro: A girl gets a Cthulhu Elvis doll who gives her dating advice.

In the Employee Manual of Madness by G. Scott Huggins: A pizza company makes toppings which are more for Elder Gods and less for the poor humans who work there.

Cthulhu, PI by Laura Resnick: After retiring from the Elder God business, Cthulhu takes the streets as a detective for hire.

A Stiff Bargain, by Matt Mikalatos: A vampire and the ghost of his old servent have to stop Cthulhu from prank calling the town.

The Shadow over My Dorm Room by Laura Pearlman: The narrator's roommate is turning into a monster day by day.

The Tingling Madness by Lucy A. Snyder: A woman gets a TV with 3 new channels: two are cults and one is a Chuck Tingle channel warning about the first two.

The Girl Who Loved Cthulhu by Nick Mamatas: A writer goes to a Lovecraft convention where everyone asks how the mental hospital was.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent anthology of humorous Lovecraftian short stories. Mostly all-new with a couple of reprint selections. Loved nearly every story in this one and every story is worth a read.

I read another humorous anthology from Baen about 10 years ago, The Dragon Done It, ed. by Mike Resnick and it's got me thinking I've just got to find more of them. There is the Chicks In Chainmail series ed by Esther Friesner which I've already started reading. Hank Davis has also edited a few humorous anthologies for Baen. But I am hoping to find some more. If you know of any please let me know.

Alex Shvartsman has edited a bunch of humorous anthologies as well but for another publisher. I want to dig deep into those as well.

This book was a very refreshing change of pace. I loved this one and highly recommend it to all readers. And by the way, it is not at all tainted by the political rightwingedness that some Baen books suffer from.

[M.E. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of the stories in this collection ranged from entertaining to really quite good but there were a couple that didn't appeal to me. A nice digression for horror, especially Lovecraft, aficionados to take a break from the serious, get a few laughs and absorb all the inside jokes that abound in this tome.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you want a sample of this book before you commit, there’s four of these stories over on Escape Pod and Drabblecast. “The Shunned Trailer” by Esther M. Friesner, “To Whatever” by Shaenon K. Garrity, “The Call of the Pancake Factory” by Ken Liu, and “The Innsmouth of the South” by Rachael K. Jones are all excellent and fun stories. Give these a listen and then go purchase this book from your favorite independent bookseller.

https://escapepod.org/2013/11/01/ep42...

https://www.drabblecast.org/2013/08/2...

https://www.drabblecast.org/2014/08/1...

https://www.drabblecast.org/2016/12/1...

A number of these stories seemed to be an exercise in running through a checklist to make a Lovecraftian Ready Player One. The stories in this book work best when a single facet is considered for what it reflects. “Explaining Cthulhu to Grandma” by Alex Shvartsman was not the story I was expecting from the title. I rather enjoyed the conflict and resolution of this magical pawn shop. I enjoyed the oblivious marketing protagonist in “The Shadow Over My Dorm Room” by Laura Pearlman.

I started out giving a four to the novel “I Am Providence” by Nick Mamatas, but once I read “The Girl Who Loved Cthulhu” I upgraded it to a five, as it serves as an epilogue to the novel. This additional ten pages adds some excellent layers of unreliability, excellent Mythos touches, and more sardonic commentary. Every future printing of this novel should include this short story as a bonus.

One thing I certainly was not expecting was lovingly crafted Chuck Tingle fanfic where the buckaroos prove that love is real while defeating cultists and elder things beyond time and space. I think the blank slate / reader insert / borderline X-Reader character that provides our POV is a brilliant bit of meta-fanfic, particularly by having them being a writer of Pinkie Pie pegging our current president slashfic. This certainly is in conversation with the Hugo Awards, both with the Chuck Tingle who was intended as a puppy punchline, but also the Chuck TIngle who became the greatest performance artists of the entire puppy-Hugo saga. The whole of “The Tingling Madness” is a heartfelt love letter to the fanfic community and is noteworthy for its prescient release just before the 2019 Hugo award to AO3 for Best Related Work. This story should be required reading for all the uptight Trufans who spent a lot of time and effort telling the AO3 community that their Hugo Award didn’t really count.

[James Bowman · Rating 3 out of 5]

A adequately decent anthology of humorous stories inspired by the Cthulhu Mythos. Most of the stories are good though not great. The more interesting stories included "The Captain in Yellow" (which fuses Cthulhu with Star Trek), "My Little Old One" (whatever could go wrong with a line of Mythos-inspired toys?), "To Whatever" (being roomies with an interdimensional horror, told in letters), "The Greatest Leader" (the Mythos in North Korea), and "The Shadow Over My Dorm Room" (the tale of a marketing student at Miskatonic). On the other hand, I wasn't a huge fan of "In the Employee Manual of Madness" and "H.P. and Me", the latter feeling like it was there to promote the author's other fiction. Overall, it's worth reading once. (B)

[Brian Greiner · Rating 4 out of 5]

This a nicely done collection of stories based around the Cthulhu mythos. What makes these stories different is that they attempt (with varying degrees of success) to put a humorous spin on the mythos.
Although all of the authors are good writers, some seem to have a greater grasp of the mythos than others. A few of the stories, in fact, barely make use of the mythos at all, and some could just as easily have been an episode of the original "Twilight Zone" tv show.
Overall, I quite enjoyed this collection. All of the stories are at least well-written (although a few were not to my taste), and there are some truly fantastic ones. Well worth your time if you enjoy the Cthulhu mythos and want something in that vein that is on the lighter side.

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

H. P. Lovecraft. You can either love his creations or not, but they are part of the SFF and Horror genres. So Alex Shvartsman contacted a number of authors to write humorous tales using Cthulhu tropes and characters is setting of their choice. So you have A Star Trek/Cthulhu mashup in " David Vaughan's "A Captain in Yellow," the twisted Judy Blume tale in Kevin Wetmore's "Tales of a Fourth Grade Shoggoth," a noir piece by Laura Resnick ("Cthulhu, P.I."), and Amanda Helms's "The Call of Uncopyrighted Intellectual Property." Plus of course many other stories. So if you enjoy humor or just want to see Cthulhu in his many forms, obtain a copy of The Cackle of Cthulhu and prepare to go mad!

[Doug Lewars · Rating 5 out of 5]

*** Possible Spoilers ***

A collection of short stories taking a whimsical look at the Cthulhu myth is a great way to wile away a warm lazy summer afternoon while sitting beside a lake. Some stories were more humorous than others but they were all entertaining. This is a fun book but if you're looking for the horror genre then this isn't it.

[Arensb · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a collection, so it’s a mixed bag

A collection of humorous short stories that poke fun at the Cthulhu mythos. As expected, it’s a mixed bag. Some were excellent, others were forgettable. One, I didn’t finish. I’ll let you discover which ones you like.

[.⋆♱faint]

dnf @ 31%

I liked a few of the stories and I was initially excited for the rest of the book's premise but I bought this in 2018 and I'm not the same person who bought this book with the intention of reading it.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a good collection saddled with a terrible title.

[PeggyG]

BKV mentions in Saga #52