Benjamin Adams

I have a confession to make. I am not a huge H.P. Lovecraft fan. I've read his stories (and the stories of innumerable pastiche-ists and pretenders), and I understand his importance and influence on other writers. He's just not my cuppa tea, is all. So when the time came around to review this collection, I was a little apprehensive. As it turns out, I needn't have worried. The Children of Cthulhu is a stellar collection, well worth the time and effort of reading it.

At it's best, in stories like China Mieville's wickedly disturbing "Details," James Van Pelt's "The Invisible Empire," Meredith L. Patterson's dark academic satire "Principles and Parameters," and Matt Cardin's chilling "Teeth," the reader is reminded forcibly why Lovecraft has remained popular. It's a matter of atmosphere, mostly -- a general, vague creepiness that you can't quite shake, even when nothing overtly terrible is happening. But it's also the knowledge that, no matter how horrible the incident is that is being described, there's something even worse lurking in the shadows, waiting for an opening.

Not every story is a home run. Some, like Richard Laymon's "The Cabin in the Woods" or Caitlin R. Kiernan's "Nor the Demons Down Under the Sea," are just too . . . well . . . Lovecraftian for my taste. And, yes, I do recognize the irony of saying that a story in an anthology devoted to Lovecraft is too Lovecraftian for me. What can I say? Occasionally, I’m callous and strange.

But every story is readable and each serves to highlight the sheer scope of Lovecraft's influence on modern horror. From Paul Finch's epic "Long Meg and her Daughters” to Brian Hodge's darkly thrilling "The Firebrand Symphony" to W.H. Pugmire, Esq.'s "The Serenade of Starlight" the Lovecraftian influences are clear, but the storylines and styles of the writers couldn't be more different.

If you love Lovecraft, you can't afford to pass this one up. But even if you don't, I think you'll find something here to please.
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Well, here we have an anthology of stories that are based on the original Cthulu mythos; you know, those stories that don't offer a ray of sunshine and warm fuzzies for the inhabitants of our planet. As one character noted, human beings are irrelevant to the forces from beyond, and that is as HPL envisioned the situation. The stories in this anthology continue this notion, so you won't find a whole lot of peaceful, the-world-is-safe type of tales here. While I didn't necessarily enjoy the lot, some of the stories were very good, but that is to be expected when you have an anthology of short stories to read. If you like the old HPL stories, you'll like these, set in more modern times.

If you're not familiar with Delta Green, it started out as a RPG (which I don't do, but I do like the stories that come out of the games). Delta Green is a kind of "conspiracy" group, if you will, and answers to no one but itself. It has been going since the raid on Innsmouth in 1928, and its mission is to battle the forces from beyond the stars. It's sort of like the X-files, but deals with saving the world from these creatures who want to take back the planet and the humans that are helping them do so.

Here's a list of what's in the book: (no spoilers ahead)

"Once More From the Top" -- Scott Glancy. If you've read "Shadow Over Innsmouth," by Lovecraft, then you'll recognize this as the story of the FBI raid in 1928 to which HPL and others who write Innsmouth-based stories often allude. This is the story, and it's also, I believe, Delta Green's first operation, told by the last survivor of that raid. Scary stuff!

"Night and Water" -- Dennis Detwiller. This one deals with a secret Nazi organization based on the occult called Karotechia, and a secret mission by Delta Green during WWII. This one is okay.

"Russian Dolls" -- Robert Furey. This one is different re an alien encounter. Personally, I am not a fan of alien abductee stories, so I didn't like this one very much.

"As I See It" -- Greg Stolze. I can't describe this one without giving away the show.

"Suicide Watch" -- Arinn Dimbo. Two stories, actually, and they're both very creepy. This story was one of my favorites and is actually a novella.

"The Corn King" -- John Tynes. I think you would have to have read an earlier work in the DG stories to get this one.

"Good Night, Bach Ma, Good-Bye" -- Benjamin Adams. Adams is a solid writer of Cthulhu-mythos type stories, and I always look forward to reading his work. Here the story is set in Vietnam and if you like mythos-type stories, you won't be disappointed.

"The Fast Track" -- Martin Cirulis. Very weird story but it works.… (más)

According to the editors (in an interview somewhere I noted then lost), the goal of the book was to follow in Lovecraft's original direction: "the true horror in Lovecraft’s fiction lies in the unknowable, the mystery of a vast and infinitely strange cosmos." They did not want pastiches, they did not want copycat writing or the rehashing of Cthulhu stories based largely on the mythos of August Derleth. This is a concept that I am myself just beginning to understand. Anyway, the stories that appear in this volume, as in any anthology, are a mixed bag -- but most of them have in common the notion that there is something just not quite right within the scope of the cosmos. Some are more intense than others; some, frankly, I just didn't find that interesting or appealing. My favorites included "Details," by China Mieville; "The Invisible Empire," by James Van Pelt, Alan Dean Foster's "A Fatal Exception has Occurred at...", "Red Clay," by Michael Reaves, "The Firebrand Symphony," by Brian Hodge, and "Teeth," by Matt Cardin.

If you want a Lovecraft pastiche or an imitation of HPL, you won't find it here. If however, you want to enjoy some highly intelligent, well-written, original stories, you'll like this book.… (más)