Now here's a great idea...take a book that someone (in this case, HP Lovecraft) totally made up and only makes reference to in his stories, then reproduce that book in its entirety in different versions! Ah, the wonders of post-modernism...where text takes on a life of its own! And after researching this quite a bit on the internet, I discovered that there are a multitude of people out there who firmly believe that the Necronomicon is a real book and who practice the spells to call forth the Elder Gods! These people should probably go read Foucault's Pendulum and get a life all at the same time.

In addition to Lin Carter's Necronomicon, (annotated by him but purportedly translated by Dr. Dee, that famous Elizabethan alchemist, spy, and whatever else he's supposed to have done!) and the other tales of the mad Arab, there are a set of stories that reference the Necronomicon. Each one of these is very good (I'll grant that the story "The Terrible Parchment" didn't really do it for me, but okay), especially "Settler's Wall," which boggled my head and which I had to give an incredible amount of thought to.

If you're into the Cthulhu mythos, don't miss this one! Luckily, it's still in print, so you don't have to pay through the nose to own a copy. Highly recommended! ( )