The Collaborations of H.P. Lovecraft

by H.P. Lovecraft

The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society has produced the definitive audio recording of Lovecraft's collaboration tales. These are not dramatizations like our Dark Adventure Radio Theatre - rather, this is an audiobook of the stories, in all-new, never-before-heard recordings made by the HPLHS' own Andrew Leman and Sean Branney exclusively for this collection.

Working from texts prepared by Lovecraft scholar S.T. Joshi, this collection features stories HPL wrote with other authors and includes, "The Curse of Yig" (with Zealia Bishop), "The Horror in the Museum", "The Mound", "The Night Ocean" (with R.H. Barlow), and many others. All tales include original music by HPLHS composer Troy Sterling Nies. This collection features 33 stories adding up to more than 23 hours of Lovecraftian listening fun, professionally performed and recorded for your enjoyment.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Short Stories

Audible Audio

Published December 9, 2019

About the author

Howard Phillips Lovecraft, of Providence, Rhode Island, was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction.

Lovecraft's major inspiration and invention was cosmic horror: life is incomprehensible to human minds and the universe is fundamentally alien. Those who genuinely reason, like his protagonists, gamble with sanity. Lovecraft has developed a cult following for his Cthulhu Mythos, a series of loosely interconnected fictions featuring a pantheon of human-nullifying entities, as well as the Necronomicon, a fictional grimoire of magical rites and forbidden lore. His works were deeply pessimistic and cynical, challenging the values of the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Christianity. Lovecraft's protagonists usually achieve the mirror-opposite of traditional gnosis and mysticism by momentarily glimpsing the horror of ultimate reality.

Although Lovecraft's readership was limited during his life, his reputation has grown over the decades. He is now commonly regarded as one of the most influential horror writers of the 20th Century, exerting widespread and indirect influence, and frequently compared to Edgar Allan Poe.
See also Howard Phillips Lovecraft.

— Wikipedia

Reviews

[Johanna Murray · Rating 3 out of 5]

The narrators make it very clear from the beginning that some of these stories are great and some are...not so great. And they are correct. This is clearly a compilation for devout Lovecraft fans (which they also warn you about during the opening credits) and I think I would have enjoyed this more if I was more than just a passing Lovecraft listener.

However, there really are some exceptional stories in here - and it's fascinating to see some of the edits made from draft versions to final versions of the same story. But there are also some really boring, clunky, and in true Lovecraft fashion, problematic stories.

I think if you're a Lovecraft fan, you'll love this collection. If you're a writer and enjoy the process that writers go through when drafting and working with other writers, you may also enjoy this. However, if you're not a Lovecraft fan or only have an average interest in his stories, you should pass on this.

[Cesse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just as good, or bad for that matter, as the other audiobook by tHPLHS, the complete fiction of H. P. Lovecraft that I finished not that long ago. Like I said back then, It seems H. P. Lovevraft's writings was a phase I went through in my teenage years and a bit into my 20's and nowadays I've come to realize that I'm simply not into his stories anymore. I'm more interested in the person Lovecraft was, his mythos in general and the overall cultural aspects of his writings and the impact it has have on our literary history. Going back and listen to his stories have been such a drag. I did it almost like a chore, just to be able to say I've done it.

[David M. M. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed the audiobook of the Collected Fiction of H. P. Lovecraft I listened to last year and the year before, so when I found that the same team did an audiobook of Lovecraft's work as a collaborator, editor, or ghostwriter, I was awfully excited. The audiobook begins, however, with an unscripted disclaimer by the narrators. In this, they provide a warning that this collection is mainly for completionists and hardcore fans. There's a lot in here, as they said, that was either phenomenally racist or just outright bad on its own merits. And they were right! Notoriously xenophobic Lovecraft, even at his worst, was never this direct about it on his own. Whether that is because of his collaborators' opinions or because he could hide behind their names, it is difficult to say. However, repeated collaborators tend to show similar biases that are not consistently shared with other writers, so that is possible. It is important to note that Lovecraft reportedly became much more open minded as he aged and recanted his previous prejudices. Unfortunately, he also stopped writing as a result, so it is difficult to say what he would have produced in fiction as he became less horrible. There's still some beautiful passages here, especially in The Night Ocean and Poetry and the Gods, and there's plenty of interest for fans of the general mythos. The performances, as always, are dynamite. But by no means can I recommend this to anyone who isn't fully prepared for what it contains, meeting it with the skepticism it requires. And even then, I could only recommend parts of it.

[Laurence · Rating 5 out of 5]

Impressed to see that this collection is pretty close to the calibre of Lovecraft's own body of work.
Highly recommend this version read by The HP Lovecraft Historical Society.

The Automatic Executioner (Alphonso's first draft) 2/5
The Battle that Ended the Century 3/5
The Challenge from Beyond 5/5
Collapsing Cosmoses 4/5
The Crawling Chaos 3.5/5
The Curse of Yig 3/5
The Diary of Alonzo Typer 3.5/5
The Diary of Alonzo Typer (Draft) *Did not read
The Disinterment 3/5
The Electric Executioner (Alphonso's revised version) 3.5/5
Four O'Clock 2/5
[Fragment] 3.5/5
The Green Meadow 3/5
The Hoard of the Wizard-Beast 4/5
The Horror at Martin's Beach 3.5/5
The Horror in the Burying Ground 3.5/5
The Horror in the Museum 3/5
In the Walls of Eryx 4/5
The Last Test 5/5
The Man of Stone: 2/5
Medusa's Coil 2/5
The Mound 5/5
The Night Ocean 3/5
Out of the Aeons 4/5
Poetry and the Gods 4/5
A Sacrifice to Science (The Alphonso first draft of The Last Test) 3.5/5
The Slaying of the Monster 4/5
The Sorcery of Aphlar 3.5/5
Till A' the Seas 3/5
The Trap 4/5
The Tree on the Hill 5/5
Two Black Bottles 5/5
Winged Death 4/5

[Malum · Rating 5 out of 5]

lovecraft fans will likely really enjoy this; everyone else will probably find a few stories that they like.
This thing is fully loaded, but it's worth noting that it is missing the Houdini story "Under the Pyramids" and the E. Hoffman Price story "Through the Gates of the Silver Key" as those are already present in other Lovecraft Society releases. It is also missing all Eddy stories, as the Eddy estate declined to have them included here.

[David Sastre · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit of a mixed bag as far as anthologies go, with a very weird note from the editors. Still, definitely enjoyable - more good than bad!

[Tom Nicholson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really glad I read this but, as the HPLHS say, some of these stories are real stinkers. But there's a couple of really great stories in here which feel true to form

[Taneli Repo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amerikan HPLHS:n jälkimmäisessä HPL-ääninovellikokoelmassa on koottuna HPL:n yhteistyössä eri ihmisten kanssa kirjoittamia kauhunovelleja. Jo esipuheessa varoitetaan, että kaikki tarinat eivät kuulu HPL:n parhaimmistoon, ja varoitus on erittäin aiheellinen.

Vakavalle ja tosikkomaiselle HPL-harrastajalle vanhan pitkänaaman yhteistyönovellit ovat kuitenkin pakollista luettavaa, ja niissä harhaillaan ajoittain aihepiireihin, joista HPL kirjoitti harvemmin omalla nimellään. Itse nostaisin mieliinpainuviumpien joukkoon mm. novellit "The Mound", "The Curse of Yig", "The Horror in the Museum" ja "In the Walls of Eryx". "In the Walls of Eryx" jää mieleen varsinkin siitä, että muista Lovecraftin novelleista poiketen se on melko puhdasta scifiä.

Suosittelen tosiharrastajalle.