In rapid succession Permuted Press has released two anthologies of wildly original Cthulhu mythos fiction, throwing down a tentacled gauntlet to other genre small presses that there's a new sheriff in town. I loved Cthulhu Unbound #1 and #2 is even better. Congratulations are due to the editors John Sunseri and Thomas Brannon, and the whole zombified crew at Permuted Press for an anthology that stretches the usual limits of Lovecraftian fiction. Cthulhu Unbound #2 is a high quality trade paperback with 276 pages, listing for $14.95 but discounted by Amazon, and eligible for free shipping if you order > $25 worth of stuff (#1 and 2 would make a neat little combo package). The attractive cover art by Michael Dashow, circulating on the net for a few years, shows a boss Cthulhu taking an employee to task and emphasizes that in this book, anything goes. Editing was tight, with few typos, and production qualities were high. I have only two gripes. First, I would have liked minibiographies of the authors. Many of these names were new to me, even if they are well known in their established genres. More importantly, I would have loved authors' notes. Sometimes the genre merged with mythos is obvious, be it spies or noir, but sometimes it wasn't. Hopefully some of the authors will make comments about what they were aiming for.

One other thing different about this anthology is the greater contribution from women authors, not too common in the Cthulhu mythos genre. I wonder if maybe we will now see a new wave of women writing in the mythos. The brightest women luminaries in the mythos genre for years have been Ann K. Schwader and Caitlyn Kiernan. Now in this volume and its predecessor we have Lisa Hilton, Inez Schaechterle, Sheila Crosby, Kiwi Courters and Linda Donahue. The future looks bright: Elizabeth Loiler (Cthulhu's Chosen) and Margaret Carter (Windwalker's Mate) have begun to explore mythos romances. The widely respected Ellen Datlow is editing the upcoming Lovecraft Unbound (she may be the first woman to edit a mythos anthology), and I keep hoping for more mythos from Denise Dumars.

My bottom line is I cannot imagine anyone with the least bit of inclination toward tentacular fiction not liking this anthology. Minor spoilers may follow, so skip to the end if that bothers you.

Passing Down by Inez Schaechterle - All I know about Ms. Schaechterle is that she is an assistant professor of English at Buena Vista University who has done research on feminism and RPGs. As far as I know this is her first mythos outing in print. Maybe she plays Call of Cthulhu? Passing Down explores another angle on the taint of the Deep Ones, this time using a mob enforcer. There is an interesting twist on the nice girl attracted to the bad boy sometimes seen in hit man stories. This was absorbing, a good start for the book.

The Tenants of Ladywell Manor by Willie Meikle - Mr. Meikle is a well known author of mythos and other dark fiction. I have not yet read The Watchers; my favorites of his works are the Midnight Eye Files books, which are terrific reads. Here the mythos meets Jane Austen, and the heroine really has her mettle tested. Being English, can you doubt she will succeed? I was pleasantly entertained. I guess if you want more horror in this vein, try Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

The Hunters Within the Corners by Douglas P. Wojtowicz - Mr. Wojtowicz has a story on Robots Beyond, which I have but haven't read. He also writes pulps in the Executioner series under the pseudonym Don Pendleton. I have not previously read anything by him. This masked avenger story was mostly OK, showing the author's pulp roots, but invoked a few too many mythos tropes perhaps, perhaps showing superficial acquaintance. All the critters looked like Brown Jenkin, and the Hounds of Tindalos are supposed to be able to move through angles and be stymied by curves. The hero gave his everything and took some lumps, but in the end this story was only fair for me.

Surely You Joust by Patrick Thomas - I was not able to find out anything about Mr. Thomas. This is a story from days of old when knights flew Byakhee. A dwarf knight-jester and Merlin's sister investigate strange goings on in Lyonesse before it submerged. I was reasonably engaged by the story, even if the fate of the protagonists never seemed in doubt. I wondered if these characters have been used by Mr. Thomas before. The title implied a humorous story but it was more S&S adventure.

References in Cthonic, Eldritch, Roiling Creations are Recondite by Warren Tusk - This is another author I could not find out anything about. Here is where I really really missed authors' notes. I am not sure what this story was modeled after; I hope someone can enlighten me. I think I should recognize it but I just can't place it. Anyway, this is a dialogue between an exhausted hero and a turtle after the apocalypse of the Old Ones. I found it absorbing. (Mr Tusk wrote to me: "The dialogue in RICERCAR is a reference to the inter-chapter dialogues in Douglas Hofstadter's Goedel, Escher, Bach, which include as main characters Achilles and the Tortoise from Zeno's famous paradox. ")

New Fish by Kiwi Courters - I think A. Kiwi Courters has written a few zombie stories for other Permuted Press anthologies. New Fish is a prison yarn and a damn fine story. The new fish of the title is a prisoner transferred to Alcatraz after being picked up in a certain raid in the late 1920s.

Tomb on a Dead Moon by Tim Curran - Mr. Curran may be the most famous dark fiction author in this anthology with many mythos titles to his credit. This wonderful space opera mythos story is my new favorite by him, as prospectors/surveyors come across a moon floating in space where it has no business being has an artificial structure on it that has no business being there. Moody and intense, it was almost my favorite story in the book.

The Long, Deep Dream by Peter Clines - Mr. Clines is another new member for the latest Lovecraft Circle. In this noir story, a gumshoe is given a case and it turns him about in directions he couldn't suspect. In some ways the end echoed Charlie Stross' A Colder War. I thought this was brilliant, clearly my favorite story here.

Santiago Contra el Culto de Cthulhu by Mark Zirbel - Mr. Zirbel has actually published Double Maim Event, a book of wrestling horror. Maybe that's why he did such a fine job with this tongue in cheek look at a masked Mexican wrestler. Is this a real subgenre of wrestling fiction? The only related story I know is Nacho Libre and I kept visualizing Jack Black as the protagonist who books a bout in Innsmouth.

Stomach Acid by David Conyers and Brian M. Sammons - Once again we and Australia's finest, Major Peel, have been asked to do the impossible, given no choice but to risk life and limb (or other organ) and sanity at the intersection between humanity and the unknowable cosmos. In some ways I feel like I haven't been keeping up with the Major. The last I saw him was at the end of The Spiraling Worm where he, and the US' Jack Dixon and Joss Plenary were forming an agency essentially devoted to thwarting the Crawling Chaos. Now he is set down in the remote areas of South America encountering a new US operation and there just has to be some intervening story somewhere. I wish the story had been about double the length so we could have had more exposition; I think the initial assault on the Fungi would have made for some good story telling and came across as a little rushed in the flashbacks. Oh well, I'm a big fan of both Conyers and Sammons and I have to be grateful for what we have (feel free to expand it for the next collection, guys). Stomach Acid was a fine edition to their ongoing story arc.

Sleeping Monster Futures by Brandon Alspaugh - I don't know much about Mr. Alspaugh. I think he has written a few science fiction stories in other anthologies. I loved this funny and gritty story of Wall Street greed trying to corner the market on all things eldritch.

Nemo at R'lyeh by Joshua Reynolds - Joshua Reynolds also has a story in Robots Beyond (that I also have not read). I sheepishly confess that when I read the title I suspected it would be Nemo from Finding Nemo at R'lyeh. Instead we are treated to an excellent story involving the captain of the Nautilus confronting the mythos.

What's a Few Tentacles Among Friends? by Sheila Crosby - I am unfamiliar with Ms. Crosby. Too bad! This is amusing story of a poor shoggoth who finds it difficult to make it in the human world and in politics.

An Incident Occurring in the Huachuca Mountains, West of Tombstone by Gary Vehar - Mr. Vehar is another new voice to me. This story would not have been out of place in Frontier Cthulhu. Wyatt Earp confronts mythos spawn just outside of Tombstone. I had a bit of an anachronistic bone to pick with this story. Would an army officer have referred to information as classified back in those days? Would they have referred to Plan B and Plan C? I really enjoyed the first part of the story, which focused on Earp and his cronies, and had some good action. The latter part was a bit disconnected and seemed much more passive, with a bit of a let down in the ending.

Abomination With Rice by Rhys Hughes - Mr. Hughes is a well known Welsh writer of absurdist and progressive fiction, having published many short stories. I am so glad he looked at the mythos to close this book. It starts out as a sort of WWII espionage story and then veers off into a very odd direction. I loved it.

So what else is there to say? I loved these books: great cover art, lots of new authors, generous page counts and high production qualities all in the service of excellent story telling. They give me great hope that the publishing future for the mythos is bright, and that it will not stay ingrained in a few old tropes. By turns, thrilling, intense and humorous, these stories are essential reading for all Cthulhu mythos aficionados. I hope they are monster hits and that Permuted Press can be prevailed upon to give us volume #3 in short order. ( )