The Space-Eaters

by Frank Belknap Long

"The Space-Eaters" by Frank Belknap Long. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.

Genres: Horror, Science Fiction, Short Stories, Lovecraftian, Aliens, Fiction, Cthulhu Mythos

30 pages, ebook

About the author

Aka Lyda Belknap Long.

Frank Belknap Long was a prolific American writer of horror fiction, fantasy, science fiction, poetry, gothic romance, comic books, and non-fiction. Though his writing career spanned seven decades, he is best known for his horror and science fiction short stories, including early contributions to the Cthulhu Mythos. During his life, Long received the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement (at the 1978 World Fantasy Convention), the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement (in 1987, from the Horror Writers Association), and the First Fandom Hall of Fame Award (1977).

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novelette was first published in Weird Tales magazine's July 1928 issue. It's a fun piece of Cthulhu-inspired cosmic horror Lovecraftian fanfic, though it's easier to read than Lovecraft. It's been often reprinted in various anthologies and collections, and though I've read it several times I enjoyed hearing it again via this nicely done LibriVox reading. The two characters are horror writers named Frank and Howard. The evil eldritch horror is banished when they make the sign of the cross at it, which we're told is older than religion, which is... interesting. It's fun, but if you want Lovecraft you've got to read Lovecraft.

[Amy Mills · Rating 3 out of 5]

This works better if I think of it as a meta-analysis-parody of Lovecraft, rather than as an actual horror story. It's ridiculously overwrought in places, with bizarre logical leaps, and almost nonsensical structure. But it works as a parody.

I can't help but note that FBL came up with the idea of Howard as a priest of the Others long before Alan Moore used it in his Providence series.

[Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A classic short story. The author was a friend of HP Lovecraft and the main character of Howard, the writer, seems to be based on HPL. The suspense builds beautifully, revolving around the notion of an alien menace from another dimension that cannot be seen until it's already too late. Unfortunately, the ending, in which the aliens are defeated by a very common human symbol, is probably a bit weak.

[Marcos Ibáñez Gordillo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buen relato sobre la estética del horror cósmico, de manos del autor de "Los perros de Tíndalos".
Además, Lovecraft aparece como personaje principal, como también haría Bloch con su "Vampiro estelar".

"Lenta, dolorosamente, alcé los ojos y miré de frente la habitación. Habría sido preferible, creo, haberme arrojado inmediatamente y haberme entregado a la monstruosidad que se alzaba en el centro. La visión de esa terrible forma oscuramente velada se interpondrá entre mí y los placeres del mundo mientras viva."

[Gilbert Adesiji · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story is rather weakly conceived and executed.
Lots of repetition and over the top behaviour, makes for a funny read though.
Don‘t expect too much sense, for their is almost none, the premise was promising but the narration goes nowhere.
I d say a typical pulp story nothing more nothing less.

[Megan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The meat of this story, including pretty much all information about the monster, is given by a character who has no real reason to know any of it and is just straight up telling another guy. I wasn't able to feel the creepy atmosphere because the story just doesn't work on so many levels.

The first victim is able to function despite visible brain damage (he's spooked, but not suffering any signs of actual brain damage, which makes the monsters seem pretty nice and thoughtful in their aim, really), the doctor pretty much says that he sees into hell when he looks into the wound, but there's no description given. In fact a lot of observations that seem like they should be included are just missing and instead we're told things are too horrible to describe by characters who seem overly dramatic at best. It's so common in this short story that I felt, while reading, that the author just wasn't great at coming up with actually creepy images and so was blanking them out instead. The ending was also kind of a let down.

I will say that I agree with one of the other reviewers here, that this short story is probably most interesting from a meta perspective, so if you are an HPL fan and are interested in the man himself and his writing style this is worth a read.

[MH · Rating 1 out of 5]

"It is indescribably foul! It is terribly, unspeakably obscene!"

That's how "Frank", the protagonist, describes his horror-writer friend "Howard"'s attempts to describe a monster near the end of this story. Its also a fair assessment of the story itself. Its like a parody of Lovecraft in its purple prose. It has gibbering insanity and brain-eating monsters. That's all bad enough, but then in the end, its all defeated by the sign of the cross - a most un-Lovecraftian solution. The result is... unsatisfactory. I think I prefer my Mythos literature materialist.

[Станислав · Rating 1 out of 5]

Читается как какая-то пародия.плохая. Учитывая что писателя зовут Говард, я не могу думать ни о ком кроме Лавкрафта. Он истеричен, переменчив и злобен - очень рад что в конце его скушали. Всё действие нелепо. Самое смешное когда оказалось что тварей из иных миров надо покрестить и они исчезнут. Это просто смешно.

[Sascha Nolte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Long befindet sich hier fast auf einer Ebene mit seinem Freund Lovecraft, den er nicht nur inhaltlich komplett kopiert, sondern auch noch zur zweiten Hauptfigur der Erzählung macht. Dabei spart er einen Teil des Pathos aus, der Lovecrafts Geschichten in meinen Augen oftmals etwas tranig werden lässt.

[Filbi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exceptional cosmic horror, though I think that having the sign of the Cross (even with the rationalization that it was "older than religion") ward off monstrosities from beyond space a little trite. The sense of powerlessness and inability to fully comprehend the titular creatures was truly chilling.

[Suki St Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Weird Fiction Book Club 13-Story Challenge
#9: Frank Belknap Long

The Space-Eaters by Frank Belknap Long
Weird Tales: Volume 11, Iasue 1
4.6 ⭐

https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/The_...

[Bookweevil · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good points: clearer writing style than Lovecraft's. Bad points: everything else. Unless you're intent on reading everything written by authors in Lovecraft's circle of author friends, give this a miss.

[Jake Longstaff · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 maybe a 4 for me even. The story itself is such a loveletter to lovecraft and belknap fans because both are actually in the story and in it belknap does a good job of weirding/freaking you our a little. The headholes, wringking space jelly worm things.

[Costin Manda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is quite a spooky story for 1928, with Lovecraftian overtones, but unrelated. First person, with interesting and refreshing concepts. I liked it!

[Flora · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was great, plenty of very intense moments and the underlying idea is wonderfully horrible 👌

[John Esse · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.7 - "horror stories, we need to have a talk. this is an intervention. you need to stop having eldritch monsters be defeated with the power of jesus..."

[Giallo Julian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Christ comes in clutch yet again.

[HoePlayaBookReader · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

[Eli · Rating 1 out of 5]

oh no

[Ευθυμία Δεσποτάκη · Rating 3 out of 5]

Κάθε 5-10 χρόνια, αναρωτιέμαι γιατί κανείς δεν αναφέρει με πάθος τον Λονγκ όποτε μιλάμε για το Cthulhu Mythos, και διαβάζω ένα κείμενό του. Ε, μου λύνεται η απορία.

[Tony Ciak · Rating 5 out of 5]

great science fiction horror story by a master.

[Tristan Severs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly an earlier and less impressive take on the same themes as the famous Hounds of Tindalos, but with distinct pop-culture influence on the Mindflayers and Evil Dead.

[Per · Rating 2 out of 5]

https://archive.org/details/WeirdTale...
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Sp...

The cross is not a passive agent. It protects the pure of heart, and it has often appeared in the air above our sabbats, confusing and dispersing the powers of Darkness.
—John Dee's Necronomicon

The first Cthulhu Mythos story not written by Lovecraft himself, although, both Howard and Frank are characters in the story. That's not the only meta aspect of the story.

One of his tales, "The House of the Worm," had induced a young student at a Midwestern university to seek refuge in an enormous redbrick building where everyone approved of his sitting on the floor and shouting at the top of his voice: "Lo, my beloved is fairer than all the lilies among the lilies in the lily garden."

Lovecraft never(*) wrote this, but Mearle Prout did for the October 1933 issue of Weird Tales. So did Gary Myers later on as part of his contribution to the Dream Cycle.

(*) https://tentaclii.wordpress.com/2020/...

The Space-Eaters is far from Frank Belknap Long's best story in Weird Tales, but it is noteworthy for being the first Cthulhu Mythos story not written in collaboration with Lovecraft. And, just for reference, the cross mentioned in John Dee's edition of the Necronomicon is not the Christian version, so there's that...

It is older than the world, I thought, older than all religion. Before the dawn of civilization men knelt in adoration before it. It is present in all mythologies. It is the primal symbol. Perhaps, in the dim past, thousands and thousands of years ago, it was used to—repel the invaders. I shall fight the shape with a high and terrible mystery.

https://www.tor.com/2019/02/27/ten-th...

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This isn't Steven Spielberg's ET, or even Lovecraft's Cthulhu; this is altogether different. First published in 1928 in Weird Tales, the story begins with a horror writer experiencing writer's block. The narrator, Frank, and his horror writer friend 'Howard' (wink, wink) are interrupted one night by Frank's neighbor, Wells, who has had an uncanny experience in an eerie woods. Howard, who is described as a writer of tales that are so disturbing he has definitely ruffled some feathers with them, immediately rails because Wells has blithely rattled off a horrifying story and Howard is jealous. Weirdness ensues. This is an enjoyable creepy tale. The weakest part is the use of symbology to slay the monster. It is akin to H.G Wells' ending of War of the Worlds, though perhaps that was an intentional nod to Wells, the writer and not the character.
FB Long was a prolific writer of weird tales, horror, fantasy, sci-fi, as well as other genres. He was a long time friend of HP Lovecraft and contributed to the Cthulhu Mythos. Available in HorrorBabble's Weird Tales Collection, narrated by Ian Gordon.

[Tihana · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5, but I rounded it up to 4 stars. I enjoyed this a lot, despite some parts of the story being a bit illogical or confusing. It was just a really fun read. I've been reading a lot of stories revolving around ghosts, demons, curses and so on, so this was a nice refreshment. I gotta say, some lines were a bit comical and I chuckled at them, but that just added to the fun. The scene with the doctor was so eerie and atmospheric, though. Loved that part. Was a bit let down by the ending, but oh well. I don't regret reading it.