S. T. Joshi

For me, this was a really good book, involving one of my favourite English authors, as well as the Cthulhu and Campbell mythos as it does.

There’s lots to chew on here, including analysis of each of the major works of Campbell. There is also the development of Campbell seven Valley and how he essentially outgrew the essence of those early tales written in the 1960s. coming right up to date, this deals with the whole of Campbell’s career.

For me as a mythos fan this was great fun and very interesting with Joshy using an accessible. Coming right up to date, this deals with the whole of Campbell’s career.

For me as a mythos fan this was great fun and very interesting with Joshi using an accessible writing style, that was intriguing.… (more)

I had never heard of Edward Lucas White which I suppose is not surprising considering he lived a century ago. The description intrigued me, since as a child I watched those old Vincent Price movies that were based on stories by Edgar Allen Poe and then later read everything by him that I could find in the library. I did enjoy these stories though you must keep in mind that people spoke (and wrote) differently all those years ago. I especially loved the first story Nightmare House about a man who seeks shelter in a run down house after an accident. The Message On The Slate was also very good, about a woman unhappy in her marriage who seeks advice from a clairvoyant who is a self proclaimed charlatan. I loved Lukundoo which concerned a curse. It gave me chills. In The Pig-skin belt a circus comes to town, as does a man with some strange and mysterious habits. My absolute favorite was The Picture Puzzle, in which a man and his wife find solace and perhaps something more when they occupy their time with puzzles after their daughter is kidnapped. I also loved The Ghoula, a poem about a female ghoul.
All in all well worth a read. 4 out of 5 stars from me.

I received an advance copy for review.… (more)

Like the other reviewers to date, I was not wowed by this anthology. There are some stories here that I enjoyed, but fewer than I hoped.

Also disappointing is the overall design of the book, with some weirdly distorted/misplaced lines of text (maybe from overlapping text boxes in a desktop publishing application?); an ugly, rather large typeface; and tiny margins. I know I’m overly picky about such things, but I find they yank me out of the story and get me thinking about the design (or lack thereof) rather than the text.

I also feel that I have to mention the illustrations accompanying each story, which are very sketchy (rather than polished), and felt disorganized and often barely related to the stories. Sometimes when encountering an illustration partway through a story, I found myself distracted by trying to relate the imagery to the story rather than appreciating it as either a supplement to the story or as a piece of artwork on its own.… (more)

I have both the Centipede and Dark Regions editions and while the Centipede is the much more comprehensive edition, it does not have the excellent Jason V. Brock story "The Man with the Horn," which is only in the Dark Regions edition.

The Dark Regions edition excludes the [a:T.C Boyle|7394743|T.C Boyle|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] story while adding the Brock story. It excludes the art galleries, comics, and the Lovecraft stories themselves. It does include a number of the illustrations. In a somewhat bizarre editorial oversight the author biography for the excluded story still appears!

Back to the Centipede press edition, this massive book cannot be overpraised. That given, at least for me, good as it was, the [a:Patrick McGrath|13072|Patrick McGrath|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1206557233p2/13072.jpg] and [a:T.C Boyle|7394743|T.C Boyle|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] stories seemed misplaced. Probably one of those cases where the editor wanted to get anything remotely appropriate from what would be considered more "literary" writers not necessarily associated with genre. The art galleries were strictly eh for me, the Kozowski, while creepy and well done enough, seemed to have little to do with the Cthulhu Mythos, and the Sargent was just not my kinda thing.

In a collection deep in four and five star stories, the masterful and much missed [a:Michael Shea|7213910|Michael Shea|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] delivers the best story for me, Beneath the Beardmore, which somehow manages to pay tribute to the [b:At the Mountains of Madness|32767|At the Mountains of Madness|H.P. Lovecraft|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388341769s/32767.jpg|17342821] while not being pastiche and being as scary as a Mythos story can be.

The book is a bitch to read making doorstop a euphemism. It's so massive you simply cannot read it in bed.

Unless you are a true collector the Dark Regions edition is going to be fine and you can probably find the Boyle story somewhere else. However the slipcased Centipede edition is one of the most beautiful books I've ever seen.… (more)