Very uneven collection. ( )

Its an anthology, so there are inevitably going to be hits or misses. For me, its a surprisingly good amount of hits. Nothing swept me off my feet, but some solid entries.

The premise is that each god/creature in the Lovecraft 'pantheon' is featured in its own story, after which is an aside that provides an encyclopedia-like overview of the creature. I largely found these overviews unnecessary - presumably if you are interested in this book you already have at least a passing familiarity with the subject, and it didn't provide much beyond what the short story included.

Some of the stories were very self-aware. I know this is a Lovecraft-inspired collection, but don't include him in your story. Don't reference him as a prophet. Don't bring him up and say "But his works were all true!!" Its so, so overdone and unoriginal by this point. It snaps me out of the story. Its clunky. Its distressingly close to 'memberberries and the wink-wink-nudge-nudge-get-it? humor of Big Bang Theory. Just don't.

Stories I Enjoyed:
Call the Name by Nevill and A Dying of the Light by Caine. Different tones, different monsters, but both stories really effectively tied the mythos to dementia in a way that was sentimental and haunting. Bonus points to A Dying of the Light for how it integrated the real-world Voynich Manuscript into the story. These two were my favorites of the whole collection.

Petohtalrayn by Little was straightforward but gave its monster a vicious and otherworldly intelligence. It was okay.

The Apotheosis of a Rodeo Clown by Talley. This probably coasts a lot on novelty but c'mon, rodeo clowns and Lovecraft are so disparate ideas I kinda have to love it. Great voice to it, great action, but it doesn't quite stick the landing.

Rattled by Wynne. Short. Felt very much like a Stephen King story.

Dream a Little Dream of Me by Adventure. Noir detective meets urban fantasy meets Lovecraft. It was fun, although purists are going to bitch about the tone and the ending being wrong for the Lovecraft genre. I wouldn't mind a full-length novel of this one.

Down, Deep Down, Below the Waves by McGuire. Solid. I liked the juxtaposition of science and tradition, modern schooling and old values, different definitions of beauty and familial love.

One running theme is most, if not all, stories included a graduate student/professor studying too much and too deep and paying the ultimate price, with some being good with the cost and others not. Its always been common in Lovecraftian fiction but it stuck out to me here. I sometimes wonder, growing up on a steady diet of these kinds of protagonists in my sci-fi and horror novels, if that says something about me.
( )

Great Lovecraftian Stories

Excellent anthology focusing, one tale each, on the �ÛÏgods‰Û and alien races featured in the works of H.P. Lovecraft. Some standout stories include ‰ÛÏIn Their Presence‰Û by Christopher Golden & James A Moore, ‰ÛÏIn the Mad Mountains‰Û by Joe R Lansdale, and ‰ÛÏA Dying of the Light‰Û by Rachel Caine, though all the tales were well done. Strongly recommended to fans of Lovecraft seeking fresh new approaches to his familiar material. ( )

As a collection of short stories, it's standard fare; some stories being very good, while most being middling or dreadful. I have to give it an especially low reading because of the audiobook performance which is godawful. The narrator has very low affect, and his accents when attempted range from adequate (cowpoke), to barely-there (Caribbean), to completely baffling (Innsmouth). I struggled to finish this as a result, and only the fact that the last story in the collection was from the stellar Seanan McGuire (a name butchered by the narrator) kept me going to the end.

If you're looking for more Lovecraftian fare, maybe borrow this one from the library, but don't get the audiobook. ( )

I received this book in exchange for an HONEST review.

It took me a LONG time to finish this book. I like Lovecraft, not an addict, but I like his works well enough. I could NOT get into this book. I felt like the majority of the stories were "forced"..like an author with a good idea but no idea of where to go with the story.

Call the Name by Adam Nevill (about Cthulhu) started out OK but ended up a long, drawn out narrative that simply fizzled in the end. MOST of the stories were this way for me. All of the authors are "good" writers but they either don't know much about Lovecraft or they had no idea what they wanted to write and just started to put words on the page.

Perhaps the best story in the collection (for me) was The Dark Gates by Martha Wells (about Yog-Sothoth). It had a steampunk flavor to it and I really enjoyed the story until the ending when she seemed to FORCE Yog-Sothoth into the story to make it fit the book. If she would have continued with her story (forgot about Yog-Sothoth) I would have loved it.

I also enjoyed Seanan McGuire's story (Down, Deep Down, Below the Waves) about the Deep Ones. Not her best work but I am a McGuire fan (mainly from her zombie series written under the name Mira Grant - Newsflesh trilogy) and enjoy her first person style of writing.

The best part (s) of the book were at the end of each story...consisting of a narrative description of the god the story centered on and a decent piece of artwork. I would have enjoyed the books more if it had been an "encyclopedia" of Lovecraft with the descriptions and the art...minus the stories.

Perhaps if I was more "into Lovecraft" I would have enjoyed the book more...2 out of 5 stars is my rating. ( )