Haggopian and Other Stories

by Brian Lumley

Prior to the first American publication of Brian Lumley's ground-breaking, dead-waking, best-selling Necroscope in 1988—the first novel in a long-lived, much-loved series—this British author had for twenty years been earning himself something of a reputation writing short stories, novellas, and a series of novels set against H. P. Lovecraft's cosmic Cthulhu Mythos backdrop. A soldier in 1967, serving in Berlin with the Royal Military Police, Lumley jumpstarted his literary career by writing to August Derleth, the then-dean of macabre publishers at his home in Sauk City, Wisconsin, telling of his fascination with the Mythos, and purchasing books by the "Old Gentleman of Providence, RI." In addition, he sent a page or two of written work allegedly culled from the various forbidden or "black books" of the Mythos. Suitably impressed, the master of Arkham House invited Lumley to write something solid in the Mythos as a possible contribution to a new volume he was currently contemplating, to be titled—what else but?—Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos. And as might well be imagined, that set everything in motion.

Years have passed since then and a good many words of Mythos fiction written, including critically acclaimed and award-nominated work, stories that have appeared in prestigious magazines such as Fantasy & Science Fiction, and hardcover volumes from publishers all over the world from the USA to China and the United Kingdom to Russia.

Stories included in this
THE CALLER OF THE BLACK
HAGGOPIAN
CEMENT SURROUNDINGS
THE HOUSE OF CTHULHU
THE NIGHT SEA-MAID WENT DOWN
NAME AND NUMBER
RECOGNITION
CURSE OF THE GOLDEN GUARDIANS
AUNT HESTER
THE KISS OF BUGG-SHASH
DE MARIGNY’S CLOCK
MYLAKHRION THE IMMORTAL
THE SISTER CITY
WHAT DARK GOD?
THE STATEMENT OF HENRY WORTHY
DAGON’S BELL
THE THING FROM THE BLASTED HEATH
DYLATH-LEEN
THE MIRROR OF NITOCRIS
THE SECOND WISH
THE HYMN
SYNCHRONICITY OR SOMETHING
THE BLACK RECALLED
THE SORCERER’S DREAM

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Cthulhu Mythos, Fiction, Audiobook, Lovecraftian, Fantasy

574 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 26, 2008

About the author

Brian Lumley was born near Newcastle. In 22 years as a Military Policeman he served in many of the Cold War hotspots, including Berlin, as well as Cyprus in partition days. He reached the rank of Sergeant-Major before retiring to Devon to write full-time, and his work was first published in 1970. The vampire series, 'Necroscope', has been translated into ten languages and sold over a million copies worldwide.

He was awarded the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award in 2010.

Reviews

[Latasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would like to thank Joshua Saxton for this audio book! This is a great collection of stories and he does a fantastic job reading them!

[Michael]

review in progress

Lumley ist ein "Schüler" HPLs, der - wie viele andere auch - am Cthulu=Mythos weitergestrickt hat. Erste Veröffentlichungen bei August Derleths Arkham House.

THE CALLER OF THE BLACK:
eine / die (?) früheste Story von BL, in der Titus Crow eingeführt wird. Gut zu lesen, auch wenn spannungsmäßig mehr drin gewesen wäre.


HAGGOPIAN:
Ich=Erzähler Belton, Journalist, interviewt den armenischen Millionär, Meeresforscher und Exzentriker Haggopian. Die Story knüpft direkt an den Innsmouth=Mythos an.
Hagfish (Schleimaale) als Vampire des Meeres:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8FVp...





(Das sich ein Opfer "freiwillig" einem vampirartigen Wesen unterwirft, das dessen Lebenskraft aussaugt und sich davon ernährt, ist mir übrigens gerade kürzlich erst in C.L. Moores Story SHAMBLEAU begegnet)

CEMENT SURROUNDINGS
Eine weitere sehr frühe Mythos-Geschichte von Lumley. Ein Neffe muss feststellen, dass sein Onkel keineswegs verrückt ist, auch wenn seine Theorien so klingen.

[Al Burke · Rating 5 out of 5]

One for the Lovecraft Brigade - review here - https://www.alwroteabook.com/2020/04/...

[Γιώργος Μπελαούρης · Rating 4 out of 5]

(stories i didnt comment on, were commented/read from other collections)

Cement Surroundings

An ok cthulhu tale but pales in comparison with all his other similar tales. Things are hinted not shown and the fear of the unknown looms more than the chills of the experiencing. Meh.

The House of Cthulhu

Great story! A vi-king raids r’lyeh for riches but he and his comrades found their death from Cthulhu himself. Amazing choice of historical period, fitting prose, brought Howard to mind.

The Night Sea-Maid Went Down

A sea-rigger and his team find some star shaped rocks from the bottom of the sea ad they lift without knowing that they were seals of some kind. Everyone except the narrator find their doom.

Curse of the Golden Guardians

Orientalism, arabesque and Howard meet the cthulhu horror. The desert, the sun and the beings that lark beneath the sand. A time before technology, a barbarian and an old man in search for mythic gold and riches. Reminded me Ali Baba and the lamp and the extent of the story was big and enough to make you feel like you traveled somewhere completely exotic and adventurous. Very nice.

Aunt Hester

A weird story but a touching one! A girl switched bodies and conscience with her brother and as the years pass everyone is afraid of her and leave her alone. The nephew that always loved her visits her to learn her story and the ending is just freeky!

The Kiss of Bugg-Shash

Two inexperienced occultist summon something they cant control and they try toy get rid of it with the help of an elder magician. Things go as expected, until… they don’t. Nice tales from the crypt meet lovecraft feeling. I liked the Titus reference.

Mylakhrion the Immortal

The search of immortality by a young mage leads to the ghost of the greatest wizard ever existed. The answers and tales he gets disturb him. Mythical and in classic fantasy motives. Nice story.

The Sister City

A man embarks on a journey to find the mythical cities of the mythos. You can imagine how that goes… I liked the reference on Sir Amery.

The Statement of Henry Worthy

A man falls in a hole in the forest and after days get back to the surface with a strange plant. While researching the nature of the plant he gets infected by something only in his nightmare he ever saw.

Dylath-Leen

Very creepy tale! A man, throughout his life, in his dreams, visits a dream city. In the beginning –his teens- is magical, then it gets darker –his thirties- and finally –his forties- finds a city of horror. Caravans, evil traders, orientalism and the absence of any info of his ‘’real’’ life, give a dreamy indeed feel to the tale. I also liked a lot the reference of Randolf Carter and Ulthar Cats.

The Hymn

Seems to me that Lumley read Barker (yattering and jack) hehe. I liked the form of the tale, almost like a play and the ‘’censorship’’ or ‘’damage’’ of the ‘’recordings’’ in certain parts. An experiment on people with strange dreams and their convos. An ok story. It also had a stranger things vibe.

Synchronicity or Something

Two detectives on a missing person case and a role playing game on cthulhu that is responsible for it. A fresh take on the mythos. Nice one.

The Sorcerer’s Dream

The shortest one of the lot, a hallucination of a Mylakhrion’s pupil. It waz ok.

[Kevin Potter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here we have another fantastic collection of Mythos tales by the incredible Brian Lumley. The stories range from short stories to novelettes, and each features a different take on the Mythos and is told in a very different style.

With but two exceptions (these having no obvious tie to the Mythos), the two things all these stories have in common is brilliant characterization and a fascinating link to the Cthulhu Mythos.

I think aside from the fascinating mythology, the main thing I love about Mythos tales is how many of them end on a bleak, horrific note.

As usual, Joshua Saxon offers brilliant audio narration that sets the tone of each story wonderfully. As with his previous work, his one weakness is that the female voices are left somewhat wanting, though to be fair that is a fairly common problem.

Elsewise, his voices are varied and distinct and brilliantly crafted. His accents are damned impressive. His vocal inflections are excellent and his tempo shifts, while subtle, are very effective.

As is my wont, I'll forgo a discussion of what each story is about. I'm sure you can find other reviews that do this.

First, as was the standard at the time most were written, many of these stories start off a bit slowly while providing a lot of excellent characterization to help get to know the characters.

There are a couple of exceptions, but most of the stories are told in first person POV, which I'm not normally fond of. But here it works exceptionally well with the subject matter.

Each character throughout the stories has a unique personality and view of the world that makes their voice compelling and interesting to read.

While I do find myself wishing most of these stories were longer, each is brilliantly crafted and brings something new to the Mythos.

In particular, I find the character Titus Crow growing on me. When I first encountered him in his origin story (Lord of the Worms, I think?) contained in The Taint, I wasn't particularly fond of him. But after reading this, I find myself wanting to look up the novels about Crow and his struggles against the Elder Gods.

One of my favorite things about this collection is that it's not nearly as disjointed as most anthologies. There are some direct links tying several of the stories together, particularly the beginning and ending stories, which make for brilliant choices, especially the story that closes this collection.

On a side note, I really enjoy the introduction to each story by Lumley. There is a lot of insight into the stories themselves as well as their publication history that I find fascinating.

[Spencer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A better collection than The Taint, the stories are shorter, more focussed and concise. This suits the Lovecraftian style well, Brian's writing and understanding of the mythos makes it feel as though he channelled Lovecraft when writing these. The unnameable horrors, insanity inducing creatures, numerous tentacles and antiquated dialogue makes this a perfect read for those looking for some authentic Lovecraftian tales.

[Johan Thilander · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kul novellsamling med berättelser kring Cthulhu-mytologin. Lumley lyckas väl med att emulera Lovecraft, även om detta inte alltid är till hans fördel: "The shocks are too heavy... To o hea vy... Int erfer in g with m y t yping".

[Dollie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the 34th Brian Lumley book I've read, which means that I’m irreparably brain-damaged or that Lumley was a genius. Of course, both may be true, but I believe he was definitely a genius. He is one of those authors (like King and Koontz) that make me feel like I’m visiting with an old friend when I read one of his books. I loved this book, not just because he dedicated it to the memory of one of his first publishers, but also because he introduced every story with a description of how the story came about and what he was doing at the time. As for the stories, I didn’t love all of them, but that’s okay, because I was still impressed with his excellent writing. I like Cthulhu Mythos stories (although I prefer Harry Keogh stories) and after reading these 24 stories feel that Lumley writes them better than Lovecraft ever did. I can’t really be very objective because I just love his style and characters so much that I re-read his books as many times as I re-read King’s. After Lisa N. (who has a lot of chutzpah) let me know that Lumley had died, I got on Amazon and bought half a dozen of his books I haven't read yet so that I’ll have them when I feel like reading them. I would recommend his Necroscope series to anyone who loves horror. He's really just one of the best.

[Darren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brian Lumley is an overlooked treasure. And a worthy conspirator to the rest of the Lovecraftian Universe.

[Melissa Levine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is my fourth batch of short stories by Brian Lumley I've listened to. I can't even remember how I came across him, probably from a free audiobook offer, but I'm glad I did. I stated in my first review (I think) that while I'd attempted to read some of H.P. Lovecraft's stories a few years ago, I just couldn't connect to them. Like I was trying to read something that was written for a much smarter person. With Mr. Lumley's versions, I'm kept entertained. Yes, there were a couple of stories that didn't really pull in as much as the rest, but overall, I like his work. I keep trying to get my husband to give his books a listen-to as he's a fan of Cthulhu, maybe one day.

A big plus was that Mr. Lumley provided a little backstory regarding each story. I loved that! I'm always a fan of learning more about the author and how he/she came up with their story ideas.

As for Joshua Saxton... What can be said about him? He does a great job narrating and definitely adds a little something extra to each story that he works with.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great collection.

[Laurence · Rating 4 out of 5]

My third Lumley collection, the guy consistently writes great stories.
Stand outs for me:

Haggopian 5/5 (read before)
The famous yet elusive sea explorer has been infected by something that is turning him into a hybrid sea thing that should not be, but was it his family lineage that this was his destiny?

Curse of the Golden Guardians 5/5.
The Lovecraftian fantasy of prehistory humanity struggles is quite a unique flavour of his work and here Lumley carries the style perfectly. The wider world of cities and cultures is quickly and effectively built, the treasure hunt and the trust questions make for a page turner.

Statement of Henry Worthy 4/5
Henry's nephew Matthew finds some strange unknown plant on the moor and becomes infected and is transformed by something contained within. A classic Lumley theme.

Dagon's Bell 3.5/5
Strange ancient subterranean tunnels found in England, seems linked to Innsmouth and other locations around the world.

The Thing from the Blasted Heath 4/5 (read before)
Recall liking this when I read it before, didn't reread this time. A take on the Colour Out of Space.

Dylath-Leen 4/5
Building on the dream cycle and the cities and strange fantastic things there is always welcome. Over years of visiting the dream city of Dylath-Leen things change ever darker as evil grows in strength, until it's so horrific our dreamer no longer visits.

The Second Wish 5/5 (read before)
My favourite in this collection. While touring around Hungary a not especially happy husband and wife go up to a ill reputed castle and meet the count and his preserved mummy who grants a wish if you shake its hand, and when he shakes the hand he inadvertently wishes he could have seen the mummy when it was alive. So later that evening when the wife has gone to bed with a splitting headache, he goes to the local festival and meets an enchanting and mysterious young woman.

The Hymn 3.5/5
Researchers have put two men who have some kind of paranormal visions together in a cell as they research them. They don't much like each other, being polar opposites aside from their gifts. Then things go bad.

Synchronicity or Something 3.5/5
Lumley pokes a bit of fun at the HPL RPG community. Easy to read, lighter entry. The private dicks are well written without being annoying noir stereotypes. Thankfully there are no dames in distress here, gangsters or jazz clubs.

The Black Recalled 3/5
Don't much care for the Titus Crow stuff. Still well written. Titus Crow's house is a place of strong magic even after he has departed this world.

The Sorcerer’s Dream 3/5
A sorcerer dreams of Cthulhu.

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

I went through a *big* Lovecraft phase in the early nineties. I somehow picked up a collection that opened with his delirious fever-dream of a story "The Rats in the Walls", and I was immediately mesmerized by the genre that has since been dubbed "cosmic horror", in which a narrator, either by ignorance or morbid curiosity, taps into some kind of forbidden knowledge. Through them, you learn that mankind is a mere flea on the back of an eons-deep, universe-spanning secret mythology of malevolent inter-dimensional gods and other unspeakable horrors that will literally drive you mad, merely by grasping how small you really are in the vast scheme of things.

For all the sheer ambition that this genre holds, its originator, H.P. Lovecraft, didn't live long enough to produce much. He was very generous with his creations, however, and openly invited other authors to come play in his literary universe full of ancient alien god-monsters like Cthulhu. That's how we got the whole secondary constellation of later "mythos" writers such as August Derleth, Robert E. Howard, and the author of this particular collection, Brian Lumley.

It was the search for a Lovecraft proxy that led me to this volume, one of two (the other being the unfortunately-named "The Taint and Other Stories") where Lumley collects the assorted Lovecraft-inspired pulp stories that he wrote for collections and weird fiction magazines between the sixties and the eighties. And while there are still some elements missing that I enjoy in a good Lovecraft story, I think Lumley gets what lies at the center of a good Lovecraft story better than just about any other author that seeks to emulate the master.

So, what does it take for a writer to effectively enter into the Lovecratian realm? A lot of it is atmosphere. These stories usually take place out on the fringes of civilization, in a place where it's possible for ruins or decrepit old cities to have lain unchanged and undisturbed for centuries, and you need someone oblivious or curious enough to gain access to the hidden, secret reality of the world that can be found there. Also importantly, you need the sheer vocabulary to access the sense of unnamable dread that permeates Lovecraft's prose. It's old-fashioned, it's wildly overwrought, and necessarily paranoid ("eldritch" and "foetid" are good words to know how to use effectively). You also have to be able to resist falling on the old trope of always ending a story with an horrific revelation all in italics with many exclamation points!!!. Lumley doesn't always fire on all cylinders when it comes to these elements, but what he does have is the one thing that I think is most crucial for one of these types of stories...

Lovecraft always doubled down on the fact that good horror hinges on the reader being able to figure out ahead of time what the narrator is blindly stumbling into, and what they will eventually come to understand before being dragged into the abyss. The clues need to be laid out step by step, but we should always be the ones connecting the dots first. And that's why Lumley is best when he stays away from his occult-fluent character Titus Crow, who stars in a half-dozen of the author's other novels, and sticks to stories like these. As an author, he understands the structure, and often gives us that delightfully creepy sense of not so much reading a horrific tale, but being dragged toward the doom-laden ending right along with the protagonist. In a world where H.P. has been gone for more than eighty years, you can certainly do much worse than Brian Lumley to get your cosmic horror fix.

[Sabooski's Meow · Rating 3 out of 5]

At a minimum Brian Lumley deserves a recognition as one of a core of authors who through various magazines; numerous anthologies, articles etc has helped expand the Lovecraftian concepts, places, entities of HPL's fiction through the decades. The stories here are an 'odds & sods' assortment of pulpy "fan boy lite" adventure. A small amount are above average tales however most cover mythos ground in a practical 'spot the references' fun sort of way. So Lumley can be pulpy fun here. These Mythos stories are Lumley's entry point into Weird Fiction. Other BL fiction is better overall and it is in his other numerous series (Necroscope, etc) that he really shines. Recommended Weird Pulp best served after a firm meal of HPL himself.

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent collection of short stories revolving around the HPL universe of monsters and myth. I loved the authors notes before the each story. I have read\listened to so many of these and they don't get old. Some of my favorite stories were Cement Surroundings, House of Cthulhu, De Marigny's Clock, Mylakhrion the Immortal, and What Dark God?

I received this free review audio book for my honest and unbiased review.

[Theofilos · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is 6/5 actually.

Some people may like what Lumley did for the Mythos, namely that people can actually fight back, they still don't have much of a chance, but being able to fight blends heroism with horror, and I think that's a great contribution to the Mythos right here.

Others will hate exactly that, the fact that people can fight back against the Mythos.

Personally I can digest both the heroics of Lumley and the totality of the cosmic indifference of Lovecraft.

[Myles · Rating 4 out of 5]

With each story written Brian Lumley makes me a bigger fan of his for life. I've read two of his anthologies and he proves time and time again that he is an author that Lovecraft would have been a fan of. 4.5/5

[Tracy Griffin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good!
Weird and scary tales.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice selection of Mythos enriching stories. Worth a listen. I did so on Audible.

[Autumn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lumley’s Mythos stories are among the first outside of the original Lovecraft works that I enjoyed almost as much as HPL.

[Arsen Lazursky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this in Russian, and whoever was translating the last 5 or 6 stories screwed up big time. The rest is good tho...

[Michal Neckař · Rating 4 out of 5]

One tentacle better then The Taint. This was cosmic fun to read.

[kuusela harry-pekka · Rating 2 out of 5]

Haggobian and Syncronisity or something are good horror short stories. Haggobian is really horrific. But the rest are not.

[Chuck Knight · Rating 5 out of 5]

More Lumley’s Mythos tales. Nuff said.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

For those who have already read through Lovecraft's oeuvre--or those who might find him too difficult--Lumley is a good one to turn to. I enjoyed all 25 of these stories.

[Todd Howell · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent collection. A lot of good and very few I was 'meh' about.

Will be reading more of his work next month and looking forward to it.

[Carla Beck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another collection of short tales. Always a pleasure to read Brian and expand on the Cthulhu Mythos

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lovecraft fix but not as good as the other collection with The Taint etc.

[Chuck McKenzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another wonderful collection from one of the undisputed masters of Lovecraftian fiction. A must-read for fans of the subgenre.

[Guy Haley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part two of a comprehensive collection covering Brian Lumley’s Cthulhu Mythos short fiction.

Of all those who followed in HP Lovecraft’s footsteps embroidering the Cthulhu Mythos built from his work after his death, Lumley is the most prolific and the most consistent. There’s a lot of creepy fun to be had herein.

In enjoying Lumley, it is imperative to leave aside that much of the ‘Mythos’ as coherent universe was the work of publisher August Derleth. Derleth pretty much single-handedly saved HP for future generations, but in doing so cast a more occult-magical light on the material where religion plays a greater role, overpowering the rather science-fictional nature of Lovecraft’s originals. Lumley’s stories are set firmly in Derleth’s milieu, so it is both unfair and unwise to compare him to Lovecraft.

A crucial departure from Lovecraft is that his characters fight back (like his hero Titus Crow, who crops up several times in this collection). In this way he has an affinity with the work of Dennis Wheatley and his anti-Satanic occultists, and indeed a further distancing factor is the very Britishness of these stories. Lovecraft affected a faux Englishness, this here’s the real deal.

Lumley can strike fear from what often is predictable material, but much is samey. The title story – man bitten by weird eel undergoes transformation into Lovecraftian ‘Deep One’ type aqua-freak, is but one of several similar. It’s when Lumley’s furthest away from Lovecraft that his scares are the best – ‘Aunt Hester’ for example, is a fine, Roald Dahlian tale of ill-used telepathy. He also has a surprising flair for Clark Ashton Smith-type sword and sorcery, much in evidence here with ‘Curse of The Golden Guardians’ and others.

The sheer number of stories – 24 – presented make it more fun than the novella collection that preceded it, and great value too.