Lovecraft's Monsters

4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars | 452 ratings

Price: 26.21

Last update: 06-30-2024


Top reviews from the United States

Fred S. Lubnow
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Collection of Lovecraftian Tales!
Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2016
Lovecraft’s Monsters is a collection of Lovecraftian tales edited by the great Ellen Datlow that was published in 2014. Some of the top names in weird fiction are included in this collection and it delivers the goods! As Robert Price has said, there is a difference between Cthulhu Mythos stories and Lovecraftian stories. Cthulhu Mythos stories are pastiches of H.P. Lovecraft; such tales typically involve a specific set of tropes such as referencing forbidden tomes and uncovering the existence of ancient alien civilizations and entities that are so advance and different from us that some would consider them gods. If you are looking for pastiches of the Cthulhu Mythos then Lovecraft’s Monsters is not for you.

However, if you are looking for interesting and different Lovecraftian tales, again applying Price’s terminology, then this is the book for you! Lovecraftian tales are broader in scope and presentation, focusing more on the cosmic horror of Lovecraft’s themes and monsters. Also, these tales are not limited to stuffy New England academics uncovering eldritch horrors. Many of the tales are set in different times and cultures but at the same time explore the cosmic horror associated with Lovecraft’s entities.

While all of the tales are good, some really stand out. For example, I have not read Thomas Ligotti’s “The Sect of the Idiot” since the 1990s and I forgot how powerful it is in its cosmic horror. “Red Goat Black Goat” by Nadia Bulkin is a loose interpretation of Shub-Niggurath from different culture perspective and is absolutely fascinating. Another favorite of mine is by Brian Hodge called “The Same Deep Waters as You” and involves the Deep Ones and Cthulhu. Other authors contributing toward this excellent collection include Neil Gaiman, Laird Barron, Fred Chappell, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Joe R. Lansdale and John Langan, just to name some of them. Ms. Datlow put together a first rate collection of Lovecraftian stories focusing on the old gent’s entities and I can’t recommend the book enough!
Josh Mauthe
4.0 out of 5 stars A fun anthology that brings a lot more variety and imagination to the table than you might expect
Reviewed in the United States on October 10, 2016
Any serious fan of horror probably has some connection to the works of H.P. Lovecraft. Maybe more than any horror writer other than Edgar Allan Poe, Lovecraft has influenced just about every major horror author alive. With his weird mythos, his alien worlds, his unutterable horrors just beyond the realms of sanity, Lovecraft wrote horror like no one else, for better or for worse. And you’d be hard pressed to find a serious craftsman in the genre today who hasn’t tried their hand at an homage to Lovecraft’s work. And by and large, while there are some good ones out there (Laird Barron has done some remarkable ones, for instance, and the remarkable and hilarious Freaksome Tales by William Rosencrans does a fantastic, clever pastiche with tongue firmly in cheek), many just feel like pale retreads or weak imitations.

All of which gets to why Lovecraft’s Monsters is such a solid collection. Rather than filling a collection with writers imitating Lovecraft’s (often overwrought) prose, editor Ellen Datlow chooses selections that play off of Lovecraft’s mythos and works, finding something new to do with the material while still staying true to the spirit of it all. For instance, Neil Gaiman’s “Only the End of the World Again” drops a werewolf in the middle of Lovecraft’s isolated Innsmouth, and lets him get caught up by the machinations of a local Elder God cult. “The Same Deep Waters as You, by Brian Hodge, takes on Innsmouth as well, but does so through the eyes of a government agency that’s been monitoring the town’s inhabitants for a long time. (And man, does this one take an appropriately nasty turn right at the end.) The aforementioned Laird Barron, meanwhile, brings Lovecraft to the Pinkerton era, turning in a nasty little yarn in “Bulldozer.” And Joe Lansdale brings his usual style and drawling slang to bear in the nightmarish tale of a blues musician who’s struck one seriously Faustian bargain in “The Bleeding Shadow.”

Not every story works, of course. Kim Newman’s “A Quarter to Three” basically uses a Lovecraft setting as a shaggy-dog joke with a groaner of a punchline. Caitlin R. Kiernan’s “Love is Forbidden, We Croak and Howl” feels like the first act of something larger, and leaves you feeling like you’re missing something; the same, honestly, could be said about Steve Rasnic Tem’s “Waiting at the Crossroads Motel.” Fred Chappell’s ambitious post-apocalyptic “Remnants” has some neat ideas, but ultimately suffers from weak writing and worse dialogue. And the poetry selections all feel pretty thrown in – not bad, per se, but pretty forgettable.

And, of course, there are the outliers, which are pretty good stories, even if they don’t quite feel like they fit into the anthology. Howard Waldrop and Steven Utley’s “Black as the Pit, from Pole to Pole” is equal parts sequel to Frankenstein, Jules Verne tribute, literary alternate history, and adventure story, and while I’m not sure that it quite fits the theme, it’s certainly a wild ride. John Langan’s “Children of the Fang,” meanwhile, is a fantastic story of family ties, guilt, and shadowy evil, and while there’s a bit more Lovecraft to it, it still feels more like its own thing. And William Browning Spencer’s “The Dappled Thing” presents a steampunk jungle adventure that turns into horror only towards the end. None of them are bad – indeed, all three are among the most interesting, engaging stories – but they all feel a bit “off-topic,” for lack of a better term.

All in all, it’s a satisfying, fun anthology, and one that’s more varied and wide-ranging than you might expect given the Lovecraft theme. Sure, there are some hits and misses, but that’s the name of the game when you read anthologies. And while few of these quite manage to be all out great, there are none that are truly bad on the whole, and a lot that are pretty fun and enjoyable. And as a fan of horror, creativity, and Lovecraft, I found a whole lot to enjoy here.

Best Sellers in

 
 

A River Enchanted: A Novel (Elements of Cadence, Book 1)

4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 5263
25.19
 
 

Liar

4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 16472
13.55
 
 

The Road of Bones: The Ashen Series, Book 1

4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 3394
43.74
 
 

Missing Molly

4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 8070
23.54
 
 

The Stranger in Her House

4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 7988
26.33
 
 

This Impossible Brightness: A Novel

3.7 3.7 out of 5 stars 6731
26.33
 
 

All the Colors of the Dark

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 39593
19.69
 
 

A Love Song for Ricki Wilde

4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 2076
19.1