While I’m not normally politically engaged (politics are like assholes…no…wait…politics are filled with assholes, that’s it…), I found myself suddenly inclined to get drunk, read a good book, and broadcast my love for the newly announced candidate.
Cthulhu believes in equal liberties for all…as long as liberties means destruction and death.
Cthulhu Attacks! by Sean Hoade
“The Call of Cthulhu” introduced us to the potential that a beast of unimaginable horror could be released on our world.
Cthulhu Attacks! shows us a world where that potential is realized.
As a roleplay-focused GM, some of my best games involved very few dice rolls and lots of delicious, scary, tension-building narrative that made the players squirm in their seats. For these sorts of stories, a good game moved away from mechanics and doubled down on rich settings, character interaction and pure story.
Book of the Dead by Greig Beck.
For years, my colleague and overseas pal, David Hambling, has been trying to encourage me to write a Lovecraftian story that has at least some part of the setting in the area that I’m living in. I’ve been hesitant, but after reading Book of the Dead by Greig Beck, I’ve learned that setting doesn’t matter, it’s the story that drives a novel.
Following in the footsteps of the Chaosium classics, The Cthulhu Companion—Ghastly Adventures and Eldritch Lore and Fragments of Fear—The Second Cthulhu Companion, Golden Goblin Press is proud to present Island of Ignorance—The Third Cthulhu Companion, a collection of articles and scenarios for the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game.
Island of Ignorance: the Third Cthulhu Companion is another gem from the good folks at Golden Goblin Press. This supplement is for keepers whose players demand more. This is the first supplement to carry trigger warnings. How’s that for pushing the horror envelope? You have been warned. It is far more a collection of scenarios. In the style that we have come to expect from Golden Goblin, this book starts with a collection of eight articles. Each of which is an excellent keeper resource. Continue reading
Sex and the Cthulhu Mythos by Bobby Derie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
If nothing else is said about it, I’ll say that this book is exhaustively researched. It doesn’t seem that a stone is unturned or an avenue unwalked in this exploration of Howard Philips Lovecraft’s love and sex life and how they may have affected his fiction, and by extension, that of many others who have followed in his footsteps.
The tone is dry, scholarly. It can be offputting if you’re used to the jauntiness of professional fiction. It took me a while to get used to it, and to dig deeply into the book. That’s not a knock-it is what it is.
This is a sober discussion of the subject(s) at hand, and the tone is the right tone.
Citations and quotations from members of the “Lovecraft Circle” and others who knew him well jostle for space with opinions from people outside the circle but in the know, and information from other professionals fleshes put the lot.
The book starts out exploring Lovecraft himself and then moves on to his fiction, that of others, and the influence of both on the “current state of weird fiction”, if there is such a thing.
If you’re into juicy, there’s enough information there to choke a Gug. Definitely worth the read if you’re interested in the world behind the Cthulhu Mythos, and interesting as a research subject even if not.
It isn’t for everyone, but is an excellent example of its type.
Four stars. Sex and the Cthulhu Mythos
The Sea of Ash, by Scott Thomas
Lovecraft Ezine Press. Afterword by Jeffrey Thomas.
Zounds! I’ve had this slim novel for quite some time (referring to the Kindle edition). It has languished in my to-read queue for an unconscionable period…but at long last I’ve given it a couple of reads, two weeks apart, and have survived to tell the story.
Reading, I was minded so much of Wells that I hd to keep checking the authorship. The Crystal Egg and the Time Machine came repeatedly to mind-the former because of the style and the latter because of a quaintly Victorian device that figures in the narrative. But Wells didn’t go in so much for the supernatural.
MR James, Walter de la Mare, those would be perhaps more suitable names to conjure with, trying to encapsulate or compare the style and subject matter of this most singular work.
Not that comparison comes anywhere close to capturing the essence of the piece, but I feel compelled to try.
There is that of the ghostly(Fractured Harry himself and several other apparitions appear), and that of the steampunk (the general Victorian air and appurtenances), and that of the strictly naturalistic, all bundled together loosely and interdependent upon one another to form the whole of the structure, like one of Clive Barker’s Cities in the Hills, or a Wicker Man.
The work deserves every accolade that comes to it. I’ve seldom beheld such a work of the imagination in a long career of reading fantastical fiction.
I just bought a copy of the Sea of Flesh and the Sea of Ash, to have the original work(s) together.
Five stars plus.
Shadows Over Main Street, edited by Doug Murano and D. Alexander Ward.
This anthology proceeds from the premise of Lovecraftian horror taking place in smalltown America and goes on from there. Lovecraft himself set many of his tales in that kind of environment, so it’s a viable concept.
It is mostly successful-stories from experienced hands Nick Mamatas, Mary SanGiovanni and Gary Braunbeck are particularly effective.
A couple of the pieces don’t fare as well. One of the stories conflates Nyarlathotep with Cthulhu, using the famous invented-language couplet from The Call of Cthulhu to invoke the Crawling Chaos. No matter what you think of canon, Nyarlathotep doesn’t sleep in R’lyeh, except perhaps on vacation. Continue reading
Chaosium’s “Secrets of” series of sourcebooks give Keepers an opportunity to expand their games outside of Lovecraft Country and into other locales around the world. Sometimes these places are closer to home, such as with Secrets of New York, and sometimes they are in exotic locations, such as in Secrets of Kenya. The newest “Secrets of” sourcebook, Secrets of Tibet, takes Keepers and players on a journey to dark and mysterious Tibet. Continue reading
Tales of the Crescent City: Adventures in Jazz-Era New Orleans
Tales of the Crescent City: Adventures in Jazz Era New Orleans by Golden Goblin Press LLC is a must have supplement for any Keeper, novice or seasoned, who wishes to explore the Mythos undercurrents of the Big easy. This supplement ranks with the very best in the genre. I’ve been playing Call of Cthulhu for decades and rarely have I been this excited to Keeper an entire work. The scenarios stand alone but they really shine together as a campaign. Continue reading
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