In my recent review of Hardboiled Cthulhu I wrote a very churlish comment about Weird Shadows Over Innsmouth. After I did that, I began to feel guilty as I had not actually essayed more than the first few stories. And then I took another look at the author list and started over from the beginning. The short version of this review is that while Hardboiled Cthulhu is a tasty dessert, Weird Shadows Over Innsmouth is more like a really fine porterhouse served medium rare with a great cabernet, immensely satisfying.

Weird Shadows Over Innsmouth was just published by Fedogan and Bremer in 2005. F&B has a strong association with Arkham House and has released such venerable collections as The New Lovecraft Circle, Acolytes of Cthulhu and Tales of the Lovecraft Mythos. More to the point they also released the title Shadows Over Innsmouth in 1994. I never saw the original hardcover and only got the book when the paperback was produced by Del Ray. Weird Shadows Over Innsmouth is a follow on to Shadows Over Innsmouth, perhaps resulting from the success of the previous book. The history of the two anthologies is laid out very nicely in the very useful editor's note by Stephen Jones. Whereas Shadows Over Innsmouth was based perhaps on the history of decaying Innsmouth itself, Weird Shadows Over Innsmouth more follows the trail of the Deep Ones away from Massachusetts mostly to wherever they may have gone years later. Clearly Lovecraft's masterwork, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, maintains a grip on the imagination of fans and authors everywhere.

Here is the housekeeping: This is among the most beautiful books in my collection. The quality of all the other F&B hardcovers I have is also quite high. The price from Amazon is $35.00, unfortunately not discounted but available for free shipping. The cover art is by Bob Eggleton. It is a gorgeous picture of Cthulhu rising amidst worshipful Deep Ones, and is very reminiscent of his wonderful cover for Cthulhu 2000. The numerous interior drawings are by Randy Broeker, Les Edwards, Allan Servoss and Mr. Eggleton, and they are wonderful, adding greatly to my enjoyment of the book. Page count is a generous 297, including the excellent editor's note and the very useful authors' notes at the end. These notes are a model for such an anthology, as they not only give a minibio and bibliography of the writers, they also have descriptions of how HPL inspired a given writer, or what influenced their story in the book. Editing was flawless; I did not note any typos. One thing I liked generally about the stories was that the authors assumed the reader had read and was familiar with HPL's The Shadow Over Innsmouth, and they didn't feel it was necessary to recount the basic chronology, biology and social/religious order of the Deep Ones and their human allies all over again. Generally. All of the stories were new to me, with 9 of 12 being newly published in this anthology. I doubt most readers would have encountered them anywhere else. Stories by Basil Copper, Kim Newman (writing as Jack Yeovil), Michael Smith, Ramsey Campbell and Brian Lumley had also been featured previously in Shadows Over Innsmouth.

Here is the table of contents:

Introduction - Stephen Jones
Discarded draft of The Shadows Over Innsmouth by HPL
The Quest For Y'ha-nthlei - John Glasby
Brackish Waters - Richard A. Lupoff
Voices in the Water - Basil Copper
Another Fish Story - Kim Newman
Take Me to the River - Paul McAuley
The Coming - Hugh B. Cave
Eggs - Steve Tem
From Cabinet 34, Drawer 10 - Caitlyn Kiernan
Raised by the Moon - Ramsey Campbell
Fair Exchange - Michael Smith
The Taint - Brian Lumley

Spoilers may follow so stop reading if that will bother you********

The first three stories are what kind of turned me off on my first few attempts at this book. HPL's draft ultimately was not used in his final story and really only of interest to completists and those who want to know how the story evolved. It's a few small fragments and didn't really charge me at all.

The Quest For Y'ha-nthlei - John Glasby - Mr. Glasby has apparently written a number of mythos based works that I am unfamiliar with. I'll have to seek them out. This story tells about the military operation that took place after Glenn Williamson fled Innsmouth in HPL's original story. For me it was just OK, nothing too exciting. In particular, this is the second attempt I know of to describe these events and the first , Once More From the Top by A. Scott Glancy in the Delta Green anthology Dark Theaters, was a much more exciting read.

Brackish Waters - Richard A. Lupoff - Mr. Lupoff has a new collection out from Elder Signs Press, Terrors, that contains a substantial number of Lovecraftian stories. They are mostly reprints so I haven't been able to force myself to review it yet. Frankly, this next story confused the heck out of me and contributed to my setting the book aside a few times until this past week. The story isn't really about what it's about. It is set in the time of WWII, and the true story of the munitions explosion of the Quinault Victory and the E.A. Bryan in Port Chicago. The racial overtones are explored briefly. It seems Mr. Lupoff really wanted to write about this event which is not well known today. Furthermore he wants to speculate it was really a test of a nuclear bomb on real live people, almost all of them black and therefore expendable in the eyes of the US government. Do an internet search about Port Chicago explosion if you want to know more. This true life part is a backdrop for the story about a university professor, 4F, gradually turning into a Deep One, not really knowing any of his own kind and not really understanding what is happening to him. Then he blows up with everyone else. The we get an afterward that explains what the author was really trying to do.

Voices in the Water - Basil Copper - Mr. Copper wrote Beyond the Reef, an enjoyable work in the previous anthology. Voices in the Water centers around an artist who builds a house with a studio in an old mill over a river. Something in the river starts calling to him to come join them. This was a well crafted story, with tension developed to a very taut level. I really liked it and it finally put the current book back on track for me.

Another Fish Story - Kim Newman - Mr. Newman's The Big Fish was a terrific hardboiled PI story in Shadows Over Innsmouth. Another fish story involves a character familiar to his fans, used in other takes, Derek Leech. I don't know if the author would agree, but Derek Leech is sort of like the Walkin' Dude in King's The Stand, slowly spreading devilry wherever he goes. Here Derek purposefully crosses paths with Charlie Manson. Man can this guy write! What a story!

Take Me to the River - Paul McAuley - I was unfamiliar with Mr. McAuley's work before. This was also simply a great story. A third rate rocker down on his luck has a fourth rate friend small time drug dealer who gets a new drug from a rather repulsive fishy woman. Excellent prose.

The Coming - Hugh B. Cave - Mr. Cave just died a few years ago, and is a highly respected horror writer. I wonder if he was the model for the deceased author in JF Gonzalez' The Watcher From the Grave in Hard Boiled Cthulhu. Alas, I thought this story was only OK, as a strangely deformed, mutated humans attack some people on a religious retreat.

Eggs - Steve Tem - Mr. Tem has written four other Lovecraftian stories. I would love to find copies of them! The Deep Ones hybrid offspring hide within human society, trying to subvert it. Their bodies slowly transform into alien creatures. The protagonist here has a cancer that is slowly eating him away from the inside. His wife is pregnant, slowly creating new life inside herself, also altering her appearance. Strange eggs from the sea appear all around them in an almost deserted shore side community, gradually isolating them. The overtones here were quite rich, the suspense suitably horrific and the story highly enjoyable.

From Cabinet 34, Drawer 10 - Caitlyn Kiernan - Goodness me, can Caitlyn Kiernan write! Her prose is fabulous, her descriptions vivid. Her characters jump off the page and become alive. Ms. Kiernan is an archaeologist who has explored the Massachusetts coast searching for the setting in Innsmouth. I view this story as something of a companion piece to Valentia in To Charles Fort, With Love. From Cabinet 34, Drawer 10 describes how a hard working archaeologist uncovers a fossil in a museum collection that has radical implications for vertebrate development. Wonderful stuff!

Raised by the Moon - Ramsey Campbell - Mr. Campbell has immense prestige and impeccable Lovecraftian credentials. I am glad to see the Old Gent still has appeal to such a fine author. Just hope your car doesn't break down near some (unfortunately not so) deserted sea wall.

Fair Exchange - Michael Smith - Mr. Smith wrote the wonderful, ghostly To See the Sea in Shadows Over Innsmouth. Fair Exchange just blew me away! It crackled with vitality. The main protagonist simply came to life under the author's pen. I bet he was chuckling to himself to whole time as he wrote this marvelous story about a thief on the job who comes across some very odd New England jewelry of an unusual alloy. Alas thieves are greedy.

The Taint - Brian Lumley - Mr. Lumley also has a lot of fame in the horror industry, and also has time honored Lovecraftian credentials. The Taint was terrific, about some individuals who may have antecedents in a certain Massachusetts town but don't know it.

So in summary, almost all of these stories are inspired successes. I don't know if Mr. Jones will repeat his previous triumph but he deserves to. This book belongs on the shelves of all fans of HPL's mythos. Maybe if it sells enough copies Del Ray will print a paperback, and if that sells well enough, Stephen Jones may compile another anthology for us! ( )