Houses Under the Sea

by Caitlín R. Kiernan

Since H.P. Lovecraft first invited colleagues such as Frank Belknap Long and Robert Bloch (among others) to join in his creation of what has come to be known as “The Cthulhu Mythos” (over Lovecraft’s less invocative name of “Yog-Sothery”), dozens of authors have tried their hand at adding to this vast tapestry with varying degrees of success. Some, like the then teen-aged Ramsey Campbell, used the Mythos as a starting point to his own career while still finding his own authorial voice (The Inhabitant of the Lake and Less Welcome Tenants, Arkham House 1964); others, like Stephen King and Neil Gaiman, did so at the height of their careers, paying homage to an author who had been such a tremendous inspiration to them. But no one, absolutely no one, has contributed such a body of brilliant and profoundly original work to the Mythos as has Caitlín R. Kiernan.

In this remarkable collection the author has selected over two dozen of her best Lovecraftian tales ranging from 2000s “Valentia” to her more recent classic “A Mountain Walked” as well as including the complete Dandridge Cycle, as well as a new story, “M Is for Mars.” In short, this is a cornerstone volume for Kiernan fans and Mythos devotees alike.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Fiction, Fantasy, Lovecraftian, Weird Fiction, The United States Of America

614 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 30, 2019

About the author

Caitlín Rebekah Kiernan is an Irish-born American published paleontologist and author of science fiction and dark fantasy works, including ten novels, series of comic books, and more than two hundred and fifty published short stories, novellas, and vignettes.

Reviews

[mark monday · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kiernan's mastery of tone, setting, characterization... incredible. Some stories are like tragic biographical entries in a journal found on a deserted beach, others form a tapestry illustrating a world unaware of the many hungry creatures and their various misadventures beneath the world's surface, others are like pitch-dark fairy tales told with verve and heaps of irony. All are expertly written; the prose is fabulous. The author is both dreamer and craftsman. Oh the melancholy of it all! And the ambiguity. Such strange, sinister dreams - and yet the more you read of them, the more they make a kind of strange, sinister sense.

Then I took a deep breath and stepped across the threshold, out of the shadows and into a more decided blackness, a more definitive chill, and all those mundane threats dissolved. Everything slipped from my mind...

This is very hard to acquire in its original format put out by the awesome Centipede Press, but fortunately it's also available as an e-book.



"Valentia (1994)" - troubling evidence of ancient tracks are found on Valentia Island, leading to even more troubling deaths. a excellent opening to the collection: ambiguous, atmospheric, dreamy, and finally, horrific. no doubt these will be adjectives that can be applied to many of the subsequent stories.

"So Runs the World Away" - ghosts and ghouls and vampires co-habit in a strange old house, doing their various horrid things until going their various ways, only to return the next evening. that description may sound camp or very Ray Bradbury's October Country. but it's not; Kiernan's tale is a mystery about motivation, what actually happened, when it actually happened, who it happened to and why, and what will happen next.

"From Cabinet 34, Drawer 6" - time bends forward and backward as a stubborn young paleontologist struggles with an exciting new find, competing factions with competing goals, the legend of Innsmouth, and the true nature of the classic Creature from the Black Lagoon.

"The Drowned Geologist (1898)" - Dr. Watson receives a strange letter from America, detailing a paleontologist's experience with a colleague's unusual death and a meeting with the supposedly vanished Sherlock Holmes. this was a minor piece but also an intriguing one.

"The Dead and the Moonstruck" - it's tough being a changeling among ghouls. a story set in the same world (and house) of "So Runs the World Away" and also from a child's perspective. this was lovely and affecting, despite also being about doggish corpse-eaters and stolen children and a ritual that could result in a kid's hands being eaten off. plus it has a heartwarming friendship at its core! I really liked this one.

"Houses Under the Sea" - an understandably depressed journalist reflects on his time with his dearly departed girlfriend, a cult leader. Mass suicide, an altar and what lay on it, a ghostly child, a video recording of a sigil and a face found at the bottom of the sea. Ours is not to wonder why, ours is but to do then die, or something like that. Perhaps the most perfect story of this collection.

"Pickman's Other Model" - a silent film star once did terrible things, and paid the price.

"Thousand-and-Third Tale of Scheherazade" - a sex slave tells a story to his mistress, a changeling getting ready to leave for her night's work, all about a princess who tries to protect her friend, a ghoul. another story of Ghoul World and just as fascinating as those other stories, although slight.

"The Bone's Prayer" - two women find a strange pebble, one woman goes away but remains, her body a shell for a new thing. this was haunting and creepy and dreamy and above all, melancholy. much like...

"At the Gate of Deeper Slumber" - two women find a strange box and enact a strange ritual. one woman goes... elsewhere. beautifully written and such tragedy at the heart of it. are these women and their ritual inviting in or holding off the Lovecraftian horrors that the box would like them to open? I'm not sure, but the death of a relationship due to an outside force that has changed one of them is always such a sad thing to read. but is an outside force truly responsible, if that person has welcomed it in?

"The Peril of Liberated Objects" - within a red book's pages, a lonely reader watches her secret fantasy of a meadow, a woman, and a unicorn come alive. the vile unicorn rapes and impregnates the degraded woman; the reader orgasms. this story is as dark and disturbing as it sounds.

"Fish Bride" - a creepy human loves a creepier half-breed, born of a witch and something horrible from the sea. together they contemplate the history of their broken village and imagine their eventual parting. a mood piece rather than a narrative and that works out just fine. mood: clammy.

"The Alchemist's Daughter" (fragment) - a story set in Lovecraft's Dreamlands, specifically Ulthar, city of cats. features an alchemist with many adventures behind her, her lover/servant, and a foreboding dragon's egg. it's frustrating that this enchanting story is only a fragment, when the story, character, and setting deserve a whole book! alas.

"John Four" - the biblical passage referenced by this short story's title is the one about the Samaritan woman meeting Jesus at her well. the story itself is... well, a first for me. it is set in the last human city, post-Earth invasion by Azathoth & Nyarlothotep. an exceedingly bleak, horrifying, hallucinogenic experience. unforgettable, really.

"On the Reef" - the rites of a cult worshipping Cthulhu's chthonic city are detailed. to wear the golden mask and be partnered with another mask-wearer is to be subsumed, your soul eaten, your new self an avatar for a much greater being. a happy ending for such cultists.

"The Transition of Elizabeth Haskings" - poor Ms. Hastings, a descendant of sub-mariners, prey to regular transformations, supported by her gay best friend who she imagines as her lover. a sad, tender, and moving piece punctuated by body horror.

"A Mountain Walked" - a tale of the Old West and of finding & taking things one shouldn't. this eerie and eventually awe-filled tale is especially cinematic. its ending is fantastic: a strange visitor confronting a camp of freaked-out archaeologists, as something invisible and very, very large indeed casts a gigantic shadow that blots out the stars.

"Love Is Forbidden, We Croak and Howl" - a tender romance blooms between underworld-dwelling ghoul and a seaward Innsmouth resident.

"Pushing the Sky Away" - a bold archaeologist lies dying in a strange being's arms, her use of an obliterating arcane weapon being that last temptation that she just couldn't resist. alas!

"Black Ships Seen South of Heaven" - in post-apocalyptic Chicago, after the invasion of Azathoth and the resurfacing of Cthulhu, an infected soldier betrays humanity by capitulating to Nyarlothotep's dark design. well this was bleak! and steeped in weariness and tragedy. but also a fascinating, immersive look at humanity's final convulsions after Lovecraft's gods finally break through.

"Pickman's Madonna" - the dark and horrific tale of Isaac and Isobel, twins and lovers and sadistic killers, born to rule... and so they did, conquering the great ghoul city below.

"The Peddler's Tale" - an alternate to the prior story, set in Ulthor: a fantasy of the princess Isobel, and her daughter Elspeth's battle to take back the lands claimed by her father/uncle Isaac. a surprisingly charming story.

"The Cats of River Street" - nuanced slice of life that first focuses on the quirky human inhabitants of Innsmouth, then switches to portray the life of the town's cats, brave soldiers in the ongoing war against invaders from the sea. as with the preceding story, this was entirely delightful.

"M Is for Mars" - this novella about a depressed schoolteacher on Mars, forced into a strange plot to welcome the unearthing of a Lovecraftian god that is buried there, is this collection's sole disappointment. not due to the writing - strong as usual - nor the absorbing ideas. rather, the novella should have been a novel. I finished it feeling irritated and unfulfilled. I'm a person who appreciates ambiguity, but this was a bridge too far - I needed so much more. also, the heroine was a real drag to spend time with.

"The Dandridge Cycle" - four stories detailing a human lock, set to keep the gateway between our world and another closed. the cycle comes at this idea from all angles, exploring a cult devoted to this lock, a painting of the house built above the gate (itself a palpable, eerie presence), the lure of the house & gate on a pair of lovers, and finally the tragic tale of the human lock herself, a young lady of extraordinary intelligence and bravery. this was an excellent way to close out this collection.

[Karl]

This slipcased hardcover is copy 40 of 500 produced and is signed by:

Caitlin R. Kiernan
Piotr Jablonski
Richard A. Kirk
John Kenn Mortenson
Vince Locke
S. T. Joshi
Michael Cisco

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have a complicated history with this book. When Kiernan first started talking about it on her blog (around 2014-2015 or so), I was very excited about it: even though this was before I had begun to read her short stories (that would begin in 2016), I had read most of her major novels at that point, and the idea of the bulk of her Cthulhu Mythos stories being collected in one volume was a titillating idea (also, I found the book's title nicely evocative). However, when it was finally released by Centipede Press in 2018, I found myself greatly disappointed with the cover art, so I decided to pass for the time being. I'm glad I did, because Subterranean Press released a new (and more affordable) version of its own this year, with (in my humble opinion) a far better cover. Naturally, I snapped it up.

Many writers have tried using Lovecraft's characters/monsters/locations in their own works over the last 90 or so years, but the failures often far outweigh the successes in this field (though some exceptions do come to mind: Colin Wilson's THE MIND PARASITES, Robert Bloch's STRANGE AEONS, Ramsey Campbell's COLD PRINT collection, some of W.H. Pugmire's books, and, to cite a more recent example, Alan Moore's PROVIDENCE comic book series). In S.T. Joshi's I AM PROVIDENCE it is observed that the best Lovecraftian pastiches are not the ones that seek to slavishly imitate Lovecraft, but those who use Lovecraft's work as a springboard for their own interests/philosophies/world views. I think it's safe to say that Kiernan is one of the more successful writers in this regard, and while I would not say her Lovecraft stories are better than the originals (though some of them come very close), one area in which she does Lovecraft one better is in the realm of science, because while Lovecraft was very well-informed on this subject, at the end of the day, he was still a layman. In this book's introduction, Kiernan (rightly, in my opinion) zeroes in on the importance of time (and especially deep time) in Lovecraft's work, and often turns to this in her own stories, with their emphasis on lost worlds and dead epochs. And while many writers who dabble in Lovecraft seem to focus more on Lovecraft's gods and Great Old Ones, Kiernan seems more interested in his foot soldiers: the ghouls seem to be a particular favorite, and she also have a liking for the Deep Ones as well (indeed, no less than six stories are specifically set in the world created by Lovecraft in his "The Shadow over Innsmouth," though she also sets many stories in Lovecraft's Dream Cycle).

My favorite story in this collection was "The Cats of River Street (1925)," which I first read in her THE DINOSAUR TOURIST collection late last year. It's the kind of tale that would make you sound extremely silly if you tried to summarize the plot to a friend, but in actual execution, it works beautifully. I also enjoyed "The Peddler's Tale, or Isobel's Revenge," "Tidal Forces," "The Alchemist's Daughter," and the title story, among many others. In any event, this collection is certainly highly recommended both for fans of Kiernan and fans of H.P. Lovecraft.

[nethescurial · Rating 5 out of 5]

Caitlin R. Kiernan is so damn skilled at worldbuilding that it's a wonder why other fantasy authors even try sometimes. Considering much of the terminology and atmosphere of their tales are borrowed directly from Lovecraft's playbook and the vast creative canvas of the Cthulhu Mythos, you'd think one's writing would fall back on it as a reliance rather than a fully unique creation, but the complete opposite is true. Each one of these stories builds its own atmosphere and world entirely self-contained enough to be read on its own, but with each tale layers upon layers are built and connected in subtle and electrifying ways, leading to a vision of the Mythos that is Kiernan's and Kiernan's alone, despite the surface-level terminology at use. Furthermore, their works beautifully humanize the Mythos, bringing extremely sharp emotional depth and character to a genre which often doesn't concern itself much with those things. An incredible collection from an incredible writer.

[tattwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5/5 - nie wszystkie opowiadania podobały mi w tym samym stopniu, ale żadne nie jest słabe. To co uwodzi w prozie Kiernan, wyjaśnia świetnie wstęp (przemowa inauguracyjna Kiernan na piętnastym Dorocznym Festiwalu Filmowym HPL, w Portland, gdzie była gościem honorowym):

Pracowałam jako paleontolog i kontynuowałam studia w tej dziedzinie. Wyobrażanie sobie bezmiaru czasu i przestrzeni stanowiło dla mnie część codziennego życia, choć byłam świadoma, że większość ludzi nie poświęca tym kwestiom żadnej uwagi. Oto jesteśmy, nieskończenie mała kropka w niepoznawalnym i całkowicie obojętnym wszechświecie. Oto jesteśmy, jedynie chwilowe wcielenia materii i energii. Wieczność i nieskończoność rozciągają się wszędzie wokół nas. Widzimy je w gwiazdach, w mechanice kwantowej, w skałach, które już były stare przed ewolucją wielokomórkowego życia, widzimy w obfitości roślin i zwierząt, które zamieszkiwały ten świat przed nami i przetrwały jako skamieliny. Widzimy w powstaniu naszego gatunku i we wszystkich wiekach ludzkiej historii. Dla mnie świadomość tego, co geolodzy nazywają „czasem geologicznym”, była zarówno prozaiczna, jak i cudowna. Nie przywykłam jednak do tego, że znajduję go w literaturze. U Lovecrafta znalazłam, i to bardzo dużo.
Niewielu innych pisarzy fantastycznych, a z pewnością bardzo niewielu przed Lovecraftem, tak dokładnie zrozumiało głębię „czasu geologicznego” i jego konsekwencje dla ludzkości. Lovecraft nie tylko ją pojął, ale spędził życie na pisaniu opowiadań, które między innymi starały się przekazać prawdę o naszym miejscu w kosmosie. Oczywiście potwory, rozpadające się rodowe zamki i zmutowani rybioludzie robili wrażenie. Ale dla mnie liczyło się jego docenianie czasu i umiejętność pokazania kosmicznej perspektywy w beletrystyce. On instynktownie znał potęgę tych odkryć. Czas i przestrzeń – czasoprzestrzeń – to przerażająca rzecz. Gdyby taka nie była, Galileusz nie zostałby zmuszony do odwołania swoich poglądów, a my nie mielibyśmy kreacjonistów jazgoczących o biblijnych mitach półtora stulecia po tym, jak Darwin opublikował swoje wielkie dzieło. Lovecraft nie tylko pisał straszne historie. On na swój sposób obalił religijny dogmat, mówiąc: „Posłuchajcie, jesteśmy malutcy i nie będzie nas, zanim się obejrzymy. I nikogo ani niczego to nie obchodzi. To jest przerażające, ale jednocześnie wspaniałe”.

I to wszystko wybrzmiewa u Kiernan: jej akademickie wykształcenie objawia się nie tylko w fascynacji zamierzchłą przeszłością życia na Ziemi, ale także pełną pokory perspektywą wobec ogromu i zagadkowości tejże. Po mistrzowsku oddaje klimat, duszną atmosferę niepokoju, w której pełna marazmu rezygnacja z lepszej przyszłości splata się z poczuciem nadciągającego (i/lub bezustannie obecnego) zagrożenia. Jest także tutaj to, co tak bardzo lubię u pisarzy new weird (np. u Mieville'a): obcość wykraczająca poza granice zrozumienia, sięgająca znacznie dalej niż tylko do poziomu formy, wykluczająca jakiekolwiek porozumienie, nawiązanie kontaktu. Bóstwa pozbawione jakichkolwiek rysów antropomorficznych, niespętane czasem i przestrzenią, większe i starsze niż Kosmos, który wydaje się z ich perspektywy być tylko epizodem. Takich bóstw nie da się obłaskawić, przebłagać, powstrzymać, spętać - można jedynie starać się nie zwracać na siebie ich uwagi. Historia ludzkości (a co dopiero jednostka) jest u Kiernan tylko krótką i nic nie znaczącą przygodą, ale próby spojrzenia poza jej ramy niosą za sobą ryzyko popadnięcia w obłęd. I to właśnie to narastające, pęczniejące szaleństwo przesądza o sukcesie Kiernan w kontekście rozbudowy i eksplorowania uniwersum Lovecrafta: udało jej się po mistrzowsku uchwycić to, co zagwarantowało Samotnikowi z Providence nieśmiertelność.

[celedes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kiernan po dwóch wcześniejszych, ukazanych nakładem wydawnictwa MAG powieściach pokazała, że śmiało można ją zaliczyć do jednej z ciekawszych współczesnych autorek horrorów. Wypracowała sobie bardzo charakterystyczny dla niej styl pisania, bardzo subtelny i oniryczny, a momentami matriarchalny, poprzez wypełnianie kart w większości postaciami kobiecymi. Niestety, w "Domach na dnie morza" ten styl niekiedy przełamują opowiadania jak gdyby pisane w pośpiechu, przez co znacznie tracą one na lekkości i uroku. Zdarza się też, że w zbiorze wkrada się powtarzalność świata przedstawionego, stąd warto je sobie dawkować. Ciekawa pozycja, ale ze względu na ukierunkowaną na twórczość Lovecrafta inspirację, raczej dla fanów taplania się w mitologii Cthulhu.

[Riju Ganguly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Do you love the Lovecraftian Mythos, but detest painfully unreadable stuff produced by ostentatious pretenders?
Do you want to read stories that would haunt you with questions like "Why?" "What now?", and yet wouldn’t like to strangle the author for answers to them, allowing your mind to keep conjuring images?
Do you want to read some supremely captivating prose, with nuanced horror running through them?
This, then, is THE book that you have been looking for.
Look no further.
Highly recommended.

[Renee Godding · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably the most faithful modern addition to the Cthulhu-mythos out there… minus the racism, thankfully

[Olga Kowalska (WielkiBuk) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pośród dziesiątek opowieści tego, którego zwą ojcem weird fiction, czyli Samotnika z Providence czyli H.P. Lovecrafta jest jedno opowiadanie, do którego wracam zachłannie – „Widmo nad Innsmouth”. Historia odciętego od świata miasteczka nad brzegiem morza, jego dziwnych mieszkańców, klątwy kapitana Marsha i… groteskowych, człeko-rybich istot, które widuje się nocą na rafie. To musi być też ulubione opowiadanie Caitlin R. Kiernan, bo motyw Innsmouth i tego, co krąży po jego uliczkach i wychodzi z wody, a co zagraża człowieczeństwu w ogóle, przewija się przez wszystkie niemal opowiadania w tym zbiorze.

A jest z czego wybierać! To specjalny, wyselekcjonowany przez autorkę wybór ponad dwudziestu lovecraftiańskich opowieści pisanych przez lata, nawiązujących do mitologii Samotnika z Providence, oddające im hołd i kontynuujące tradycję. A Kiernan potrafi kontynuować! Już od pierwszych stron przenosi nas na skaliste wybrzeża, na pokręcone uliczki, w miejsca zapomniane, odosobnione, które noszą ślady istot sprzed eonów czasu. Jej bohaterami są naukowcy, paleontolodzy, archeolodzy – wszyscy uwikłani w jakiś sekret, niedopowiedzenie, odkrycie, które może odmienić wszystko. Ale też istoty spoza czasu, przestrzeni i miejsca, wyklęte, obnażone na jej stronach, niesamowite w swojej potworności.

Atmosfera jest dymna, mglista i mżysta – wydaje się, że w strugach deszczu coś przemyka, zerka, obserwuje. Całość sprowadzona do odcieni sepii, gnijących murów, wybrzeży pełnych wodorostów i ziemi, która się zapada. Trochę jak kadry z innej epoki, epoki Lovecrafta, jego czasu i tamtej przeszłości. Nigdy jeszcze nie spotkałam się z prozą tak podobną i naśladującą, a jednocześnie tak osobistą i unikatową. Kiernan nadaje całości kobiecego pazura, naznacza często erotyzującą poświatą, tam widać duszę jej prozy.

Kiernan oplotła moje serce swoimi pisarskimi mackami i ja wiem, że będę czytać więcej, bo ta kobieta jest perłą dla wszystkich miłośników weird fiction.

[Marek · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mnie się podobało. Bardzo. Nie oczekiwałem kopii Lovecrafta, a oryginalnego pomysłu na kontynuację jego dzieła i dostosowania go do nowych realiów.

Plastyczne opisy, bardzo ładny język. Przede wszystkim niesamowity klimat. Czasem oniryczny, baśniowy i niedopowiedziany. Czasem dosłowny i obleśny, wbijający się jak igła pod paznokieć. Mamy tu wszystko, od Krainy Snów, przez ghule i horror sci-fi do slice of life stories. A czasem ten horror to nie to niepoznane, lecz to najbardziej ludzkie. Można przenieść niektóre z opowieści na bardziej metaforyczne tło, a wtedy stają sie bardziej prowokujące i przerażające.

To nie jest horrorowy fast-food, to wykwitne danie z owoców morza [sic!].

[Lucas Chance · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not a perfect collection, but there's enough here to cement Kiernan's reputation as one of the best writers of weird fiction

[ellie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Houses Under the Sea by Caitlín R. Kiernan

Book 4/60 of 2023

I only read the titular story of this collection and I am thinking about it a lot. My type of horror.

[Philippa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm completely in love with this collection. I'm somewhat new to short stories (only seriously started reading them over the last couple of years) and I sometimes struggle to get immersed in such a short space. But I slip into each of these Mythos Tales with zero mental friction - Kiernan's prose is lovely and each story sparkles with snippets of research pulled from a wide range of sources.

These stories (and Kiernan's writing in general) are deeply intertextual, referring not just to Lovecraft, but many other texts, art works, and films - as well as to prior stories written by Kiernan. I absolutely love this - I think I mentioned it in my review for Agents of Dreamland - as it adds to this sense of a deeper reality that all our art can only brush against, and only obliquely (two of the stories mention writing as looking at the face of Medusa through reflections and this is going to stay with me).

A fair few of Kiernan's characters (in this collection - as well as Drowning Girl, which has a few commonalities with these stories) obsess over the problem with beginnings, endings, and the shortcomings of linear narratives. I've seen reviewers mention that the stories seem to begin/end abruptly, but that's one of the things that I really enjoyed about this collection. Each story finds its echoes in another story, each like a puzzle piece making up this vast image that one can never quite put together. It's one of the things that I enjoy most about Lovecraft, too - the sense of this enormous reality that just eludes human understanding. Kiernan's characteristically time-jumbled narratives are exactly what I'd hope for in Mythos stories in which our understanding of time and space is, at best, limited; at worst, utterly wrong.

I also love that Kiernan brings to their Mythos their focus on deep time - which is why, perhaps, these stories feel like brief flashes. In the face of this cosmic perspective, there can't really be neat beginnings and ends. We can only pick up an odd stone on the shore, or find a rough sketch, or a peculiar fossil, and try to make coherent these small scraps of a much bigger truth.

Favourite stories include:
- Valentia (1994)
- The Drowned Geologist (1898)
- Houses Under the Sea
- Pickman's Other Model (1929)
- The Bone's Prayer
- Houndwife
- Tidal Forces
- Black Ships Seen South of Heaven
- The Cats of River Street (1925)
- Andromeda Among the Stones (the whole Dandridge Cycle, really)

[Marta Hildebrand · Rating 5 out of 5]

Udało mi się znaleźć opowiadania, które jednocześnie są osadzone w uniwersum Lovecrafta i w udany sposób poszerzają je, przenosząc do współczesnych czasów.
Dla mnie - bardzo mroczna lektura.
Mrok jakby w stylu serialu "Black Mirror", ale o bezlitosnych stworach i neurotycznych ludziach, które one przyciągają. Nie dałam rady "wciągnąć" wszystkich opowiadań na raz.

Dziwności dodaje fakt, że trafiłam na tę książkę przypadkiem, w przypadkowym miejscu, na jakiejś losowej wyprzedaży. So weird!

[Michelle {Book Hangovers} · Rating 5 out of 5]

*inhale* exhale 😮‍💨
Stay tuned for Review….

[Polianna (moze_booka) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lovecraft jest tylko jeden i niech tak pozostanie...

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rec. by: Creepy cover art, chance connections, and a couple of previous conspiratarian works
Rec. for: Hubristic humans haunted by HPL's horrors

I have it on fairly good authority that Caitlín R. Kiernan holds Pink Floyd's 1983 album The Final Cut in high regard—as do I, despite that record's relentlessly downbeat nature. That shared opinion is not directly relevant to Houses Under the Sea, Kiernan's massive collection of Lovecraftian tales, but perhaps it helps illuminate (with a pale and sickly light) a certain common sensibility. For although horror is not my favorite genre—these days, I prefer more hopeful fiction—much within this collection resonated strongly with the more deeply buried elements of my own (sub)consciousness, those eldritch dimensions that feed the worms writhing beneath the surface of my mind's sunnier waves...

But I digress. Kiernan's prose tends to have that effect.

Houses Under the Sea begins with an essay that has a Portland connection, too: "Lovecraft and I" (from 2010) is the text of her keynote address from the 15th Annual HPL Film Festival in my adoptive home town, a place without (so far as I know) any direct connection to the terrors that lurk below.

The stories that follow that introduction range back and forth across time (I was briefly confused by the dates following some of the titles—those are settings, not the years these were written), and across the Earth (and once, even, beyond it), but never seem to roam far from an ocean of some sort. The houses under the sea are, often, literal dwellings... though one would be hard-put to describe any of them as homes.

Kiernan excels at extracting the elements we in the 21st Century still like about Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, while cheerfully discarding his nastier traits. There is some strong stuff here—dripping, malodorous, ghoulish stuff, unsafe for consumption at mealtimes or just before going to bed—but the shivers Kiernan creates are, for the most part, the good kind...

"Valentia (1994)"
Set in the year my son was born, although (again) that's not directly relevant to this brief tale of evidence found and then—forcibly—forgotten.

"So Runs the World Away"
Dead Girl just wants to hold on to her memories—but she doesn't know whether any of the ones she has are actually hers.

"From Cabinet 34, Drawer 6"

"What are you?" she asked the fossil, as if it might tell her, as simple as that, and everything else forgotten now, all her fine coelacanths and rhipidistians, for this newest miracle.
—p.55

"The Drowned Geologist (1898)"
A letter to Dr. Watson, sent some time after "the extraordinary Mr. Holmes' death in Switzerland" (p.83).

"The Dead and the Moonstruck"
Finally, a happy ending—though it were a near thing indeed.

"Houses Under the Sea"
A worthy choice for Kiernan's title story—I'd always suspected there was more to the mysterious fog of Monterey than is indicated by the sterile tourist traps of today's trademarked Cannery Row.

"Pickman’s Other Model (1929)"
A depraved tale, this one, of an actress and model with a dark and tangled history, posing for a painter with same. We'll see Richard Pickman again—but we won't see Vera Endecott.

"The Thousand-and-Third Tale of Scheherazade"
What sort of stories might the changelings spin, in order to stay just one more day above, outside the stables where the ghül keep them locked up tight?

"The Bone’s Prayer" begins with an Annie Dillard quote:

The sea pronounces something, over and over, in a hoarse whisper; I cannot quite make it out.
—p.167

The stone came from the sea, and the writer's lover cannot put it down...

"The Peril of Liberated Objects, or the Voyeur’s Seduction" could have been the title of the previous story... like Sammie with her stone from the sea, in this vignette Arabella has a book...

But the truth, which she has not yet even begun to suspect, is that the book acquired her, as has always been, and ever shall be, its way.
—p.183

"At the Gate of Deeper Slumber"
A disordered tale—intentionally so—of the thing Suzanne found on the beach.

"Fish Bride (1970)"

I take the bait, because I almost always take the bait.
—p.214

"The Alchemist’s Daughter (A Fragment)"

Long before her birth, the burgesses of Ulthar had made the killing of any cat a crime punishable by death. On occasion, her father had sought their wise counsel in his studies and experiments, but never once had a cat been made to assist him in defiance of their own freewill.
—p.216

Unfortunately, an accumulation of copyediting errors—including multiple uses of the word "stationary" to mean letter-writing paper (the word is stationery), and "pouring" to mean "poring," as over ancient tomes—was making it harder for me to get into these stories. I blame computerized spell-checkers, which are really terrible at detecting and flagging such homophone errors.

"Hounwife"

"She will see what we cannot," the High Priestess barks. "She will walk unhindered where our feet will never tread. She will know their faces and their embrace. She will suffer fire and flood and the frozen wastes, and she will dine with the Mother and the Father. She will take a place at their table. She will know their blood, as they will know hers. She will fall and sleep, be raised and walk."
—p.233

"Tidal Forces"

"Don't do that," she says.
"All right. I won't. I wasn't thinking." I was thinking, but it's easier if I tell her that I wasn't.
—p.249

Kiernan is one of the better artists to perform bricolage on Lovecraft. Sometimes her stories are even hopeful.

"John Four"
On the other hand, it's best not to make your presence known at all to some gods.

"On the Reef"
A more traditionally Lovecraftian tale of alien geometries and human presumption, and of willing sacrifice.
For there is no god so horrible that he (she, it) welcomes no worshipers.

"The Transition of Elizabeth Haskings"

Monsters should be honest.
—p.284 et seq.

"A Mountain Walked" returns to 19th-Century palaeontology... being an account of a disturbing visitation whilst on expedition in the Wyoming Territory (1879).

"Love is Forbidden, We Croak and Howl"
This could be the start of a beautiful (?) relationship:

Elberith had always been a bold girl, and one given to questionable deductions.
—p.307

"Pushing the Sky Away (Death of a Blasphemer)"
It is as it must be, when a thief dares to steal from the Ghül what they in turn had stolen from the Djinn.
The Dedication on this one is a wonder:

For Cybin Orion Nelsen, aka Nis Talio, aka Lucy Crown.
—p.314

"Black Ships Seen South of Heaven"
This story leads off with a quote from Nine Inch Nails, a juxtaposition not often found in Lovecraftian tales (although it makes sense!).
I found some good quotes within the story as well:

Only a matter of time now, but so is everything else.
It's all winding down.
—p.317

And,

"Astronomers were always arrogant fools," the voice tells her, "thinking they could name a star."
—p.324

"Pickman’s Madonna"
Revisiting the artist as promised, although this time through an even more depraved lens... Isobel and Isaac's incest isn't even the most disturbing aspect.

"The Peddler’s Tale, or Isobel’s Revenge"
Another perspective on those same twin rulers, Isobel and Isaac, and on Richard Pickman.

"The Cats of River Street"

All the cats of Innsmouth have assembled on this muggy night{...} They've slipped out through windows left open, through attic crannies and basement crevices, all the egresses known to cats whose "owners" believe they control the comings and goings of their feline charges.
—p.374

"M is for Mars"
A radical change of venue, and of time, to a washed-up future on Mars—yes, the planet—and to Professor Babette Flanagan, a washed-up schoolteacher who's given an opportunity few of the women on Mars would have looked for—or turned down.
For some reason again, though, this one exhibited a truly frustrating number of typos and misspellings, from "Hershel" and "affects" to... "Diemos" (on p.414).

The last four stories in Houses Under the Sea make up "The Dandridge Cycle," about a seaside house on the California coast which holds a dread secret underneath...

"A Redress for Andromeda (2001)"
Being initiated is often traumatic—but Tara learns quickly.

"Nor the Demon Down Under the Sea (1957)"

The house like a grim and untimely joke, like something better off in a Charles Addams cartoon than perched on the high, sheer cliffs at the end of the road.
—p.436

And is it Anna or Julia who is the initiate this time?

"Study for The Witch House (2013)"
Another painter—Perrault, this time—obsessed with the manifestations that steered Pickman's attention. But by this time I had started to think that the Dandridge Cycle should be named after Andromeda, instead.

"Andromeda Among the Stones"
The final story in Houses Under the Sea does reach a climax, concluding the Dandridge Cycle and the book with appropriate themes of sacrifice and woe.

There are no easy exits here. But then perhaps that's true for everyone.

*

I was able to obtain and adapt the Table of Contents for Houses Under the Sea from the publisher's website, this time.

[The Artificer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply one of the FINEST collections of mythos literature ever assembled.

Ms Kiernan should be given the Diadem of Dagon and crowned the high priestess of modern Lovecraftian fiction.

It's a pity this book had such a small printing, as it should be in every mythos fan's collection.

I spent almost two years looking for an affordable copy that was in good condition. And it was absolutely worth the wait.

[Alex Budris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kiernan is a Must when it comes to Lovecraftian fiction. Not a bad story in the lot. Centipede did a wonderful job on this book with its oversized format, slipcase, and multiple autographs. Subterranean Press reprinted this volume in a more affordable edition, but that one's still kinda HTF, and not really cheap. Worth it, though.

[Lawrence Salani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Caitlin Kiernan is always worthwhile reading. This book encompasses all her Mythos tales, and she never ceases to impress. Although she borrows Lovecraftian imagery her stories are fresh and original and not mere copies of Lovecraft stories. The style is different from most contemporary authors, which makes a welcome change. I hope to read more of her work in future.

[Harris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had not read much of dark fantasy author Caitlin R. Kiernan’s fiction in the past, and what I had read was included in this hefty collector’s edition compilation of their Cthulhu Mythos work, so I was interested in seeing how they interpret Lovecraft’s themes in new ways. I am always curious about how contemporary authors explore Lovecraft’s evocative yet fraught creations, especially those from marginalized backgrounds, in Kernan’s case, genderqueer. Collecting stories originally published in various places from the 2000s and 2010s, Houses Under the Sea showcases Kiernan’s strong use of style and mood.

Kiernan approaches Lovecraft’s ideas and themes with their own specific viewpoints and styles very different from Lovecraft’s own, drawing from a gothy queer alt aesthetic and often providing a perspective to Lovecraft’s more “villainous” entities, especially his ghouls and deep ones. Whether period pieces evoking the 1920s or 1950s, set on an all woman Martian colony some centuries in the future, or the apocalyptic world after the return of the Great Old Ones, direct sequels to Lovecraft stories or their own creations, Kiernan’s work is atmospheric, at times eerie, beautiful, and disturbing. Throughout, they utilize the themes of the “Cthulhu Mythos” to tell stories more grounded in relationships, emotions, and human experiences, while preserving a surreal and unsettling cosmic scope. This is where their background and training in paleontology helps to build that overarching sense of time.

As a whole, though, I feel Kiernan’s Cthulhu Mythos short stories here, despite their unique and compelling framings, became a little repetitive. In particular, the stories often feel incomplete, vignettes that introduce a few ideas and then meander away, while others feel anticlimactic, ending abruptly, as though a chapter from longer works, maybe one of Kiernan’s novellas. Perhaps, for me, part of the issues is that, while spending so much time writing a more intimate picture of Lovecraft’s horrific beings, they do not quite humanize them, for better or for worse. For the most part, their depictions remain quite rooted in Lovecraft’s portrayal of malevolent, hostile forces, and do not really question or subvert their nature. All in all, Kiernan’s work, in spite of their more intimate explorations of encountering the cosmic than in a lot of cosmic horror, they end up straying little from many traditional Mythos interpretations.

[Henry · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was disappointed by this book overall. I was excited to find that so many people were comparing Caitlin to H.P. Lovecraft. It seemed like this collection of short stories would be a slam dunk. How wrong that was.

There were many had wonderful concepts, but very few good short stories. The writing isn't self-contained, and it felt like you were getting dropped in the middle of a larger novel. Looking at some other reviews of this, and of "The Very Best of Caitlín R. Kiernan", I am not alone in this.

It almost feels as if she overdoes the "nameless, unspeakable, unknowable horror" aspect of Lovecraft's books and you're just left confused or frustrated.

An example: In the story Fish Bride you're put in a very interesting and fresh situation, something I have rarely seen in horror literature, and it was almost more romance than horror. I was a big fan of this change. However, the story ends incredibly abruptly. Not "and then he dies" abruptly. Mid-conversation the book just stops. I thought my Kindle was messed up, and didn't download the last chapter or something. It was a conversation with two people and some exposition. There was barely anything in here I would call a story. Very disappointing. If finished, it would be a 4-5 star story imo. I don't even care what the ending is, I just want an ending.

Another example: From Cabinet 34, Drawer 6 is another one with an ending that feels like another 3-4 paragraphs could've done a lot to add an air of horror or mystery to the ending. As it is, it falls flat. This one also borrows heavily from Shadows Over Innsmouth and I venture to guess that's the only reason I found it interesting. I've read that many of her stories are not as heavily dependent on Lovecraft's work, so I still want to give her a chance and plan to pick up a few other collections when on sale.

[Vultural · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kiernan, Caitlín - Houses Under The Sea

I was keen for this collection of Kiernan’s Lovecraftian tales as soon as it was announced though I had to wait for the more affordable edition.
Fat anthology of mostly Lovecraft inspired or derived stories.

A found curio and odd encounter near a shipwreck off Scotland, spurs a geologist to write a letter to one Dr. Watson. Yes! That Dr. Watson.
In “Pickman’s Other Model,” an elusive silent film actress leaves a wake of scandal and blasphemy.

The chance finding of a prehistoric fossil sends a researcher off to the ghost town of Innsmouth.

In the title story, a mass suicide by drowning captures media attention. Briefly. Afterward, a free lance reporter digs into a sketchy history and clues that are invisible because they are conspicuous.

Unfortunately, this collection has, to my mind, some padding in the form of the Providence underworld. The supernatural underbelly of decadent vampires, abducted changelings, short tempered ghouls. These have nothing to do with HPL or the mythos. This is Southern Gothic (reference the Dancy Flammarion yarns) shoe-horned into Rhode Island. Yes, there are fans of these, but I am not part of their numbers. For me, they are akin to Fantasy Island. If you are of similar bent, these disappear midway in the collection.

More satisfaction is found in a quartet of Dandridge stories, set in the creaking house, battered by the sea. The gatekeeper, trapped between worlds, is mangled beyond recognition.

A personal favorite, “The Cats Of River Street,” set in Innsmouth, 1925. Several homes are observed, each with cats, from household members to squatters.
Cats, with whom I have shared my life with for 40+ years, can be friendly, opinionated, indifferent, yet all are highly territorial. As in this grim ode to felines, where the cats hold the line.

[aredhela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aby w pełni zrozumieć ten tom opowiadań, trzeba najpierw zapoznać się dość szeroko z twórczością Lovecrafta. Autorka nie tworzy bowiem utworów luźno opartych na mitologii Cthulhu, ale ją współkształtuje, choć opiera się głównie na dwóch/trzech motywach: Dagonie i Innsmouth oraz ghulach i Krainie Snów. Podobało mi głównie rozwinięcie pewnych wątków dotyczących Innsmouth, ponieważ opowiadanie o tej miejscowości jest jednym z moich ulubionych. Wiele opowiadań jest ze sobą w jakiś sposób połączonych – literalnie wymienioną postacią albo zdarzeniem, którego konsekwencją są następne opisane już w kolejnym opowiadaniu. Autorka jest geologiem i paleontologiem z wykształcenia – mitologia Cthulhu nabiera przez to nowej głębi.

Opowiadania są pisane w różnym stylu – od wzorowania na opisowej metodzie Lovecratfa przez klasyczną narrację po oniryczne, rwane fragmenty łączące się w jedną całość pod koniec utworu. Jest to tom bardzo przez to nierówny i w efekcie przy jednych utworach się męczyłam, a inne czytałam całkowicie w nich zanurzona. Ogólnie miałam wrażenie powtarzalności i poczucie, że ciągle czytam o tym samym - lektura trochę mnie już pod koniec nużyła.

Polecam do samodzielnej oceny.

[John Opalenik · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of people have referred to Kiernan as the successor to Lovecraft, but honestly, she's the upgrade. I'm sure that opinion is blasphemous to some, but I'm fine with that. Her writing contains all of the things I enjoy about Lovecraft's writing style with the tastefully verbose prose and evocative descriptions of the indescribable. Caitlín Kiernan's writing also improves on a lot of Lovecraft's inability to make characters much more than a window through which to view the worldbuilding, and frankly, having more cosmic horror in the Cthulhu mythos without the xenophobia that laces Lovecraft's work.

I think I would have been better off chipping away at this massive collection a little at a time though. If anyone is considering reading this, I suggest that you don't devour it all at once like I did (I couldn't help it). If I took my time with it I feel like I may have enjoyed it even more. Eventually, I'll reread the second half of the collection to give those stories a fresh look.

Highly recommended for fans of cosmic horror.

[Kot bard · Rating 5 out of 5]

najlepszy zbiór opowiadań, jaki do tej pory przeczytałom. styl Kiernan to dosłownie Lovecraft, gdyby tylko ten potrafił pisać (bo bądźmy szczerzy, ale jego narracja jest okropnie żmudna i ciężka do czytania).
jestem zachwycona, jak queer te opowiadania są; każda narratorka lub bohaterka to kobieta, która jest w relacji z inną kobietą. naprawdę, w całym zbiorze jest chyba tylko pięć opowiadań, w których bohaterami są mężczyźni (a nawet wtedy ich fabuła krąży wokół kobiet; wyjątkiem jest jedno, w którym pojawia się Sherlock Holmes. nie żartuję).

to, jak Kiernan operuje mitosami i światem Cthulhu jest cudowne. nadaje im życia - opisuje codzienne życie ghuli, osób z Krainy Snów, obrządki sekty Dagona czy Kościoła Gwiezdnej Wiedzy. ironicznie, Kiernan nadaje kosmicznemu, niepojętemu horrorowi ludzkiego elementu. znajduje słowa, by opisać nieopisane. te opowiadania mnie porwały, rozkochały, zachwyciły, przeraziły, a momentami nawet obrzydziły. i pragnę więcej.

five freaking stars.

[Kevin L · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars.

Several passive voice stories are part of this collection as they left me cold.

That said, there are several excellent stories within. For me the highlights were the Dandridge Cycle composed of 4 stories, Black Ships Seen South of Heaven, From Cabinet 34, Drawer 6 and Houses Under the Sea.

If you don’t already have these stories from various collections then this is well worth picking up.

[Gerry Adair · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are a score of Mythos based original works and pastiches. Like John Langan's novel "The Fisherman", Caitlin Kiernan's collection of short stories "Houses Under the Sea" is furiously original and satisfying. This collection primarily focuses on the town of Innsmouth and/or the cult of Dagon. Her plots are compelling and characters complex. Well worth the time of horror lovers and Lovecraft aficionados.

[Razzle · Rating 5 out of 5]

A unique voice in Lovecraftian horror. I feel single-author short story collections are best read slowly, with other reading interspersed, but I wanted to finish this one before a trip. I felt dunked beneath the waves of a terrible sea. It's more literary than terrifying, but with plenty of very disturbing moments.

[Sebastian · Rating 1 out of 5]

W 3/4 opowiadań, autorka kreuje główną bohaterkę (bo mężczyzn tu ze świecą szukać) na obraz samej siebie. O ile jakieś 3 opowiadania faktycznie były ciekawe, to reszta wydaje się po prostu bezsensownym strzępieniem języka (w tym przypadku pióra). Nie jestem wielkim fanem Lovecrafta, z tym, że w odróżnieniu od Kiernan, potrafi naturalnie stworzyć ciekawą atmosferę.