Henrik Sandbeck Harksen

I loved the first book in this collection so was thrilled to see this one. The artwork is very good, brutal, full page monochromes before each story with an eerie grayscale bit lining the edges of the pages. Very cool idea that allows finding a story quickly & adds to the mood.

"Dancer of the Dying" by Jayaprakash Styamurthy Very creepy & short. A perfect way to start the anthology. 5 stars

"The Neighbors" by John Goodrich There was a bit of a twist to this, but I pretty much knew what was going to happen from the start. It was well done, though. 4 stars

"Carcosapunk" by Glynn Own BarrassExcellently done in most ways, but I didn't like the memory lapses. They were too blank, IMO. There was NOTHING indicating that he lost time that I saw. Still, it wasn't an ending that I saw coming. 4 stars.

"Architect Eyes" by Thomas Stomsholt didn't do a lot for me. I think I'm too prosaic to get it, though. 3 stars as it is well written.

"Slou" by Robert Tangiers was almost poetic & truly horrible. I could see it happening just this way. 5 stars.

"Ozeelah's Lake" by Morten Carlsen I'm sorry to say that this story, while it had a lot of potential, just left me flat & there were some problems that kept me from really getting into it.
"Everything in the room literally took an offbeat twist. Windows, tables, chairs, door cases were apparently struck by an unknown nightmare..."
Why 'literally' & 'apparently'? The man drives miles per hour, but walks meters, although that was minor compared to the constant qualifications of the horror element. It's horror, don't dither, hit me with it! He gets stung by bees that create pustules - no pain, though. It was a great idea & could be a great story with just a bit of tweaking & it plain pissed me off that it wasn't done.

If I could suggest anything to this author, I'd tell him to study some of [a:Robert E. Howard|66700|Robert E. Howard|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1210954603p2/66700.jpg]'s horror works. I'll be interested in reading more by this author. Apparently it was his first story in English. I expect far better in the future, because it wouldn't take much. As it is, regretfully this was just 3 stars.

"The statement of Frank Elwood" by Peter Rawlik was about perfect. The tone, style & everything about it made me think that it was an original period piece. Wow. 5 stars.

"The Shadow of Bh'Yhlun" by Ian Davey started out slowly for me. I wasn't sure that I liked it. Then I got to the end & knew I did. Then I thought about it some more & the horror really struck. He didn't close the door behind him, he just ran. Was this what happened to his reality? Did he bring the same doom on this one? 5 stars.

"The Screamer" by T.E. Grau Another fantastically horrible tale that was very well executed. 5 stars.

"...the guilt of each ....at the end...." by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. I don't like stream of consciousness writing. Good story, but I just didn't like the execution. I don't know how it could have been told differently, though. 3 stars.

Overall, a solid 4 star plus rating. Definitely worth reading.… (más)

An excellent collection of short horror stories. Various time periods are represented, but all Lovecraftian in nature, even those set squarely in the present.

Tomas Gindeberg is the cover designer & he did a great job, but the artwork that begins each chapter by Jørgen Mahler Elbang is fantastic. Really good & worth staring at. If I had any complaint with the book it that these pieces are a bit too small. Their quality is unmistakable.

The quality of the writing is wonderful, too. They are short stories, a dozen to 20 pages each, yet each contains a compelling new universe. All are disquieting & some hold a disturbing sort of justice, especially the last.

A bit expensive to buy for me, only being available through Lulu Press, but worth every penny, especially if you're into Lovecraftian Horror. It's a must for any collection of that.… (más)

This book started me musing about the impact of the internet and modern technology on the Cthulhu mythos community. A few years ago I read an article in the paper, opining about the problems in major publishing companies and falling revenues, and how they were less and less willing to take a chance on new authors or genre books of narrow interest. My impression over the last decade, however, has been one of unparalleled optimism! There are so many specialty presses producing quality Lovecraftian fiction it staggers me every time I think about it! Some fade away, like Lindisfarne Press. Some wane after a period of prosperity, like Chaosium. Ssome practically become juggernauts, like Elder Signs Press, and new ones spring up all the time, like H. Harkesen Productions. With James Ambuehl dedicating himself to a musical career it's practically a full time job for the rest of us to keep abreast of activity in the field. Self publication sites offer authors and small companies of lesser means to bring their work to a wider public than ever before, thanks to the explosive growth of the internet. I guess even no overhead is not a recipe for success, seeing the fate of Cthulhu Express and that there has never been a second issue of In Lovecraft's Shadow from Ron Shiflet. Actually, I was starting to lose faith in self published fiction from vanity presses. After the very good Where Goeth Nyarlathotep by Daniel Reiner, there was Cthulhu Express, a decent anthology that tanked about a month after its release. I still have no idea if GW Thomas intends to release it again. Since then it has been nothing but excruciatingly bad drivel: The Coming of T'loal. The Returner: The Book of Planes. The Eden Retrieval. Cosmic Contemplations. Leviathan's Ghost. Eidolon. The Riddle of Cthulhu and ultimate WMD. And the most abysmal of all, The Fertile Crescent. It's enough to dampen even my spirits! Well, hope springs eternal and when I saw the title hplmythos.com 1, I just had to explore it. This is a very worthwhile anthology in a number of ways.

Eldritch Horrors: Dark Tales appears to be the initial offering of H. Harksen Productions. They have an intriguing line up of forthcoming projects, including a reissue of Dan Clore's The Unspeakable and Others, and John Mayer's Hex Code and Others. This enterprising company is based in Denmark, and lulu.com offers them a chance to distribute their products in the US without much capital or overhead. The book is POD trade paperback, up to lulu's usual good production standards. I noted a fair number of typographical errors, more than I usually see from this source, perhaps attributable to the fact that the editor is not a native English speaker? For example, in some of the sentences the numbers of the pronouns or tenses in the verbs were off. I really liked the brief author biographies in the back, as well as Mr. Harksen's introduction. The amazingly attractive cover and interior art is provided by JØrgen Mahler Elbang. Even for 322 pages, the list price is a rather extravagant $26.45, and on top of that, shipping charges attach (was it higher priced because some of it is translated from the Danish?). Normally I wouldn't complain (OK, I'd complain any way), but the typesetting left something to be desired in terms of font size and spacing. The book's size could possibly have been reduced substantially and then it would have been cheaper, as I think lulu.com charges per page. Grumble, hmph, where was I? The other outstanding feature of this book is its international composition. There are some very highly regarded American mythos authors here: Dan Clore, WH Pugmire, Don Webb and Ron Shiflet, for example. There are also Australian, English and Danish writers, some of them new to me. I have great hopes that H. Harksen Productions will use this as a springboard to deluge us with Scandinavian Lovecraftian fiction. This is a great opportunity for us fans! Of course, the success of any anthology depends more on its content than anything else. Spoilers may follow, so stop reading if that bothers you. The short version of this review is that I really liked the book, perhaps more than High Seas Cthulhu, Frontier Cthulhu or Arkham Tales, perhaps as much as Miskatonic University or Eldritch Blue, and perhaps not as much as Dead But Dreaming or Weird Shadows Over Innsmouth.

Recompense of Sorrow by W. H. Pugmire is a new story set in the unhallowed ground of the Sesqua Valley. I was enthralled by the imagery, as I seem to be by all of Mr. Pugmire's fiction. With authors like Pugmire and Caitlyn Kiernan interested in Lovecraft, the prose of everyone else in the genre seems almost bloodless by comparison.

One Thousand and One Words by Paul S. Kemp (The only other story I have read by Mr. Kemp was The Signal, a very enjoyable entry in Horrors Beyond II.) is a very good apocalyptic story about Nyarlathotep, with an original twist on the 1001 faces on the Crawling Chaos.

Ashanna's Whispers by Simon Bleaken (a new name to me) is Lovecraftian rather than Cthulhu mythos. This story was very good, where a faceless office drone disenchanted with every aspect of life communes with an incomprehensible entity who offers him seemingly limitless horizons.

Devouring Darkness Hovers by Thomas Strømsholt (also a new name to me) was a pretty good read also, telling the tale of a reporter in Iraq and a US soldier who encounter something in the darkness that makes insectoid clicking noises.

The Specimen by Linda Navroth (who I believe had something appear in Lovecraft's Weird Mysteries, but darned if I can find my copy) didn't work too well for me. The prose was OK enough and it had a decent plot but I could have done without the high handed lecturing about the amorality of medical scientists. Also, what happens to a person who is charged with studying the Innsmouth heritage and Deep Ones, and the consequences of trying to anthropomorphize such aliens was already explored brilliantly by Brian McNaughton in The Doom That Came to Innsmouth.

Rest in Peace, Jeremy Randall by Gary Hill (new to me) was a pretty darned good secret conspiracy piece. It reminded me a little bit of The Arrival with Charlie Sheen. Not really mythos but it will be welcomed by all fans of Delta Green-type stories.

The Bibliophile by Henrik Sandbeck Harksen (the esteemed editor of the book; he has been active in the field of Lovecraftian criticism (where I am just active in the field of criticising...)) made me very excited to read more Danish mythos fiction. A student browsing a used bookshop finds a secret room with some rare volumes on display. Alas he cannot keep his hands to himself. I really liked this story.

A Haunting From Beyond by Benjamin Szumskyj (famous for his Power of the Writing Mind about the works of Robert E. Howard; this is the first story I've seen by him) for me was only fair. The premise and sort of Lovecraftian plot twist, about a supernatural investigator exploring a haunted house, were decent enough but the execution left me flat.

The Door to Nowhere by Blake Wilson (new to me) was pretty well written but perhaps out of place in a mythos/Lovecraftian anthology. In the Australian outback there is a door on a desolate hill that opens when the right person turns the latch. It can send the righteous to rapture and the evil...well you can guess. The idea of an eternal reward for good or evil behavior is alien to Lovecraftian themes, where the indifference of the cosmos is the rule.

Out of the Frying Pan by Ron Shiflet (well known to mythos fans, Mr. Shiflet's new collection Looking for Darla was just released by Elder Signs Press) is part of a series of entertaining, loosely linked stories he has written featuring Shub Niggurath. I really liked Seduced in Eldritch Blue, and was pleasantly diverted by Mother's Little Helper in Looking for Darla. Out of the Frying Pan takes a bungling bank robber into Shub's Woods. The poor sod can't control himself.

The Dying God by Dan Clore (who?) was excellent, a very literate Lovecraftian tale with a terrific denouement. A slightly odd, effete student gets involved in a cult that offers immortality. This story is one of the few reprints, as it already appeared in Mr. Clore's The Unspeakable and Others.

The People of the Island by Paul Mackintosh (back in 2000 I think Mr. Mackintosh posted a few times to alt.horror.cthulhu; maybe he will become active again) is a really good Deep Ones story, set in Hong Kong. The escape sequences were very tautly written and the buildup was quite atmospheric.

The Return of Zoth-Ommog by Leigh Blackmore (a pretty well known horror editor in Australia) is a story comfortably at home in the Derleth mythos. Unfortunately, I liked this least of all the contents. Apart from the prose, which didn't do too much for me, the dialogue and behavior of the characters were just not persuasive in context. Also, I dislike genealogies of mythos entities, which always strike me as ridiculous, and I am tired of the power of the elder sign.

The Jest of Yig by Don Webb may be found in his collection, When They Came. Mr. Webb is an accomplished author and I really enjoy his work, although I wish there had been something new here.

So my bottom line? I really want this venture to be a success, so that the editor will continue to bring us the works of his international collaborators. As in most mythos anthologies, there were a few clunkers (although none of them abysmal) and a few reprints I already have. There was also a very generous selection of stories, most of them quite good, most of them new, and most of them from voices new to me. I would love to read some more stories from these writers. I can't imagine that any Lovecraftian wouldn't be thrilled to spend a few evenings with this book. Collectors are advised to snatch it up as quickly as possible. The wonderful art was an unexpected bonus; I commend the production values to all small presses. If I have one caution it is that the price is rather high. Kurodahan press gives us 300+ page POD trade paperbacks for $20, and on Amazon where there is free shipping. Start saving your Cthulhu bucks now, guys.… (más)

An excellent collection of short horror stories. Various time periods are represented, but all Lovecraftian in nature, even those set squarely in the present. Tomas Gindeberg is the cover designer & he did a great job, but the artwork that begins each chapter by Jørgen Mahler Elbang is fantastic. Really good & worth staring at. If I had any complaint with the book it that these pieces are a bit too small. Their quality is unmistakable.The quality of the writing is wonderful, too. They are short stories, a dozen to 20 pages each, yet each contains a compelling new universe. All are disquieting & some hold a disturbing sort of justice, especially the last. A bit expensive to buy for me, only being available through Lulu Press, but worth every penny, especially if you're into Lovecraftian Horror. It's a must for any collection of that.… (más)