The New Lovecraft Circle: Stories

by Robert M. Price (Editor), Ramsey Campbell (Contributor), Thomas Ligotti (Contributor)

H. P. Lovecraft was the eerily prescient genius who first electrified readers in Weird Tales magazine. His tales changed the face of horror forever and inspired the bloodcurdling offerings of a new generation. These brilliant dark visionaries forge grisly trails through previously uncharted realms of mortal terror.   THE PLAIN OF SOUND by Ramsey In the beginning they could find no source for the throbbing vibrations; in the end they could find no escape. THE HORROR ON THE BEACH by Alan Dean Along the coast of Santa Barbara, the mighty Pacific Ocean can no longer contain—or conceal—an ancient, insatiable evil stirring in its depths. THE KISS OF BUGG-SHASH by Brian It mattered not how innocent the students’ motives seemed; the demon had been summoned, and the price had to be paid—every last red drop of it. THE FISHERS FROM OUTSIDE by Lin A man obsessed with unlocking the secrets of a race older than time would not be disappointed—doomed perhaps, devoured possibly, but definitely not disappointed.   AND TWENTY-ONE MORE TALES OF FEAR . . .   THE STONE ON THE ISLAND by Ramsey Campbell THE STATEMENT OF ONE JOHN GIBSON by Brian Lumley DEMONIACAL by David Sutton THE SLITHERER FROM THE SLIME by H. P. Lowcraft THE DOOM OF YAKTHOOB by Lin Carter THE KEEPER OF THE FLAME by Gary Myers DEAD GIVEAWAY by J. Vernon Shea THOSE WHO WAIT by James Wade THE KEEPER OF DARK POINT by John Glasby THE BLACK MIRROR by John Glasby I’VE COME TO TALK WITH YOU AGAIN by Karl Edward Wagner THE HOWLER IN THE DARK by Richard L. Tierney THE WHISPERERS by Richard A. Lupoff LIGHTS! CAMERA! SHUB-NIGGURATH! by Richard A. Lupoff SAUCERS FROM YADDITH by Robert M. Price VASTARIEN by Thomas Ligotti THE MADNESS OUT OF SPACE by Peter H. Cannon ALIAH WARDEN by Roger Johnson THE LAST SUPPER by Donald R. Burleson THE CHURCH AT GARLOCK’S BEND by David Kaufman THE SPHERES BEYOND SOUND (THRENODY) by Mark Rainey

Genres: Horror, Lovecraftian, Anthologies, Short Stories, Cthulhu Mythos, Fiction, Weird Fiction

480 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Robert McNair Price is an American theologian and writer. He teaches philosophy and religion at the Johnnie Colemon Theological Seminary, is professor of biblical criticism at the Center for Inquiry Institute, and the author of a number of books on theology and the historicity of Jesus, asserting the Christ myth theory.

A former Baptist minister, he was the editor of the Journal of Higher Criticism from 1994 until it ceased publication in 2003. He has also written extensively about the Cthulhu Mythos, a "shared universe" created by H.P. Lovecraft.

Reviews

[Jeannie Sloan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book.The stories did get a little redundant but the book is supposed to be about the Mythos.I read a story or two and then read something different so I didn't get sick of the theme.
All in all a nice book to have in my 'Lovecraft' collection.
The stories had the flavor of being 'older' which I much prefer to the newer Mythos stories.I liked Cthulhu 2000 but I liked this book much better.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5. The best stories I think were in the second half of the book.

[Ruth · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read a handful of the stories before I gave up. Some of them were decent. Some were mediocre. Some were downright bad. None was worth a second read. I keep hoping that I'll find Lovecraftian mythos fiction I can really enjoy, but most of it just isn't interesting.

I suggest reading Fall of Cthulhu Vol 1: The Fugue instead. It's very different but also much better.

[Bryan Whitehead · Rating 3 out of 5]

Odd title for an odd anthology. Members of the original Lovecraft circle had two things in common: a friendship (at least via correspondence) with H.P. Lovecraft and enough writing talent to take “Yog Sothery” and adapt it to their own purposes. Though no new authors can now lay claim to the first part of circle membership, I’d hoped that if anything that might leave later generations even more freedom to fulfill the second criterion. This new club has many successful members, several of whom have been anthologized by Price between other covers. But for the most part this set has been devoted to slavish pastiches not only of the master’s characters and motifs but also of his many unfortunate writing habits. To be sure, that isn’t universally true. For example, I sincerely enjoyed David Kaufman’s “The Church at Garlock’s Bend” as the sort of story Lovecraft frequently seemed to be aiming for but seldom pulled off (at least in terms of writing quality). But in general the contributors to this set are more a gaggle of slavish imitators than they are a literary circle.

[Arthur B · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ramshackle mixture of superior stories which are easily obtainable elsewhere and third-rate pastiche which doesn't deserve your time.

Oh, and apparently one of the rules of the new Lovecraft circle is "no girls allowed". Come on, Price, wasn't C.L. Moore in the original circle? Out of the 20 stories here, none are by women, and by modern standards (and this is, after all, pitching itself as a modern, up to date collection), that's pretty wretched.

Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/201...

[Michael Latiolais · Rating 5 out of 5]

A mixed bag. Some of the stories had a good hook, while others just didn't capture my imagination. I did like the parody story(Or WAS it a parody story?). Overall, a worthy read.

[7thTrooper · Rating 2 out of 5]

Två stjärnor för Ramsey Campbells Lovecraftkloner som faktiskt var bra, om än originella, och Ligottis fantastiska "Vastarien". Jag orkade inte läsa alla de andra.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with many of Robert Price’s anthologies it seems, this collection is much better in the back half. That being said, just the like the rest of his anthologies, it’s also an extremely good sampling of the second great wave of mythos writers. I’d recommend this to any big Lovecraft mythos fan.

[Tarl · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are a lot of anthologies out there that present writers who are following in Lovecraft's footsteps as they play around in his mythos. This anthology is no different, though Price states that he believes these authors to be the next circle of Lovecraft writers to follow the initial circle that were friends/wrote with with the famous author. It's a good premise for an anthology, and one that is different than a lot of the 'modern' Lovecraft writers anthologies you see around these days.

My first issue with the ebook was actually a formatting/programming error that has nothing to do with the writers and doesn't play a part in my rating. I found that while reading, if I put the Kobo into sleep mode, it would jump the story back to a previous one over and over until I passed a certain point. This happened on my KoboOriginal before it died, and again on my KoboGlow. I found it to be frustrating and annoying. Coupled with a lack of cover for the epub, I felt the anthology was a bit over priced at about $14.

I found a couple of really good stories in this collection, as well as authors I recognized among the large number of stories contained within this collection. While only one story struck me as out of place, the rest were mostly just average Lovecraftian stories. Many followed Lovecraft's style, some succeeding, some being weaker copies. Others followed Derleth's take on the mythos and I found those to be some of the lesser, more drawn out and boring, stories. Those that succeeded in presenting the mythos did so really, really well, and even some of the more average stories did a wonderful job with the material.

There was one story that stood out like a sore thumb, and it was a science fiction piece about a futuristic movie company shooting a movie about everything that happened at Dunwitch. I found that this story did not fit within the other stories presented in this anthology, and actually seemed unrelated to everything else beyond the fact that Lovecraft's story was the focal point. Not only was the general theme completely different, but so was the writing style, creating what I felt was a disharmonious piece among the others. Personally, this story would have been wonderful in one of the many sci-fi Lovecraft anthologies, but in this one felt out of place.

Overall, this was an average anthology.

As I said, there are some really good stories, and some recognizable names, but all in all the stories didn't strike me as anything ground breaking for the most part. There's still some really good pieces in there, but they get dragged down by the other stories in the collection. Still, if you are a fan of Lovecraft's works, I suggest you pick this anthology up. There are some stories you may have to slug through to get to the gems, but they are worth it, and even those average stories have elements that may surprise you.

[Jon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a bit of an unusual Lovecraft collection. A good deal of these stories are far more mythos/Derelth inspired. The hard-core Lovecraft fan is likely to be put off adventure tales of folks racing for an elder sign to stop the unspeakable horror that the cultists are trying to raise.[return][return]That being said, there's a pretty wide range of Lovecraftian inspired stories, including several humor pieces. There's also a stated goal in the introduction on using lesser published stories (at the time of this collection, at least). I don't know if I entirely agree on the editor including some of the early work of several writers. [return][return]If you're a completist of the Lovecraft mythos, this is a must-buy. There's some very good stories I haven't seen elsewhere. If you wash your hands of anything with a Derelth influence, you're probably not going to like a good chunk of the stories in this collection. [return][return]If you're a fan of Lovecraft or some of his followers, I'd say this collection is certainly worth tracking down to borrow. Just feel free to skip over the stories that aren't in a style to your liking and you'll probably find a few that are.

[The Artificer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like all Price compiled anthologies, this one is rather uneven in story quality, with Lin Carter's (as usual) and "H.P. Lowcraft"s contributions as particularly low points. Even Brian Lumley's contribution "The Kiss of Bugg-Shash" was a more than a little disappointing, and I normally quite enjoy his work.

Highlights included Ramsey Campbell's contributions (which I'd unfortunately had elsewhere already) as well as Alan Dean Foster's "The Horror on the Beach".

One thing that is happily notable in it's absence is the normally terrible spelling and editing errors that seem to accompany so many of Price's "Chaosium Cycle" books. Apparently DelRay spends more on proofreading and editing.

As another reviewer mentioned, Robert M. Price apparently theme for this collection was that these authors were to be the "New Circle" of Lovecraft's literary legacy. I thank the Great Old Ones that this did not come to pass.

If Goodreads allowed fractional stars I'd have given this collection 2.75, as is I had to settle for 3.

[John Bruni · Rating 2 out of 5]

To be honest, I went into this book with a pretty negative attitude. I'm not a big fan of Lovecraftian writing these days. I'm still cool with actual stories written by Lovecraft, but those written with the intent of emulating his? I've become bored with them. It's always the same thing, over and over again. Very few writers bring anything new to the mythos. I'm not talking about adding a monster here or a forbidden tome there; I mean the Lovecraftian tale has not changed with the times, for the most part. This book is further evidence of this. I've read some of the stories in here before, and I'm sad to say that not even Ramsey Campbell came through for me. H.P. Lowcraft's story was pretty funny. I enjoyed Alan Dean Foster's "The Horror on the Beach" a great deal. But apart from these two standouts, I'm not that impressed. It was cool to find a hidden illustration from Gahan Wilson, though.

[Jc · Rating 2 out of 5]

I guess these stories would seem fantastic and horror-filled for a 12 year old boy who hasn't read much. But, I just found them dull and repetitive. I know that many find the Lovecraft cycle fascinating, and there is a a cult (if not cultic) following. But, well, bleh. I read through the stories mostly out of respect for the editor, whom I know and whose scholarly work I rate highly. And a couple of the stories are okay, including the one Bob himself wrote. But, the worthy material takes up about 80 pages of the 450. The material that is worth reading here was done better by Poe nearly a century before Lovecraft. Most pulp fiction era novels, and most modern comic books, are written more skillfully.

[Dan McCollum · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first came upon this collection back in 2006 or so, while browsing a local bookstore back home. It was summer, and I remember tearing into it with abandon (I didn't really have much else to do, and I was still at a point in my live when devouring a book quickly as much easier than it currently is). I was taken by this collection. Not all of the stories are great, of course - but that's a problem that one runs into with almost all collections - and the editor purposefully includes a few of lesser quality to be representative. But that being said, this collection got me into Ramsey Campbell and a number of new authors. And of all my Lovecraftian collections, it's problem one of those that I come back to the most often to reread.

[Scott]

A solid collection of short stories all inspired by the Cthulhu mythos. As with all anthologies, there are some weak points (hence the three stars), but overall they are good. At times they can be a little redundant, but if you enjoy Lovecraft's style, you'll enjoy this collection.

[Craig M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mostly very good and consistent quality of the short stories contained within this collection. All of them worthy of a reading. Some of them pay more homage to Lovecraft than others, but that said they're better than average.

[John Devlin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Uneven quality w/several of these stories being bad to mediocre, and while a few are well written, they are all burdened w/Lovecraft's mythos to the point of campy sameness

[Hatebeams · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty dumb, by and large. What I don't get about the Price anthologies is a general reverence for Brian Lumley as a 'masterful' Mythos writer when he's nothing of the sort.

[Chuck Skorupski]

I've been a fan of Lovecraft and Lovecraft inspired stories since High School. Hard to explain the appeal, but it is lasting once one is hooked.

[Dustin · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with most anthologies the quality was a little uneven. That said, I did like more of them than I disliked.

[Aura · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really good collection - enjoyed almost every single story which is fairly rare. I will be reading this again when enough passes.