Customer Reviews

Al Azif: The Necronomicon

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

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Given the fact that I expected any publication called "Necronomicon" to be a fake, I thought this one would at least be an /interesting/ fake, in that it might be fun to translate.

I was wrong.

1. It's purportedly in "Duriac," a nonexistent language, supposedly descended from Akkadian. Duriac is actually just a relatively uncommon French surname, as well as a type of wheat.

The script appears to be a fairly heavily modified version of the Estrangelo script of Syriac, which is a genuine descendant of Akkadian. Unfortunately, "heavily modified" in this case means "unreadable" - even to transliterate - thus assuring its apparent mystery.

2. Worse:

the text contains 4 distinct pages at the beginning.

it has 15 unique pages at the end.

in between, 16 pages are repeated, without variation, over and over to produce a book which appears to be a few hundred pages, but is in reality a cheap facsimile of an utterly meaningless 35-page text.

=(

I just want to point out to everyone that aside from the preface, there is nothing in english. The entirety of the Necronomicon text is in a psuedo-arabic script referred to as "duriac", and except for a few differing pages at the beginning and end, the rest is just "filler" that repeats every 8 pages (physical pages... or 16 "numbered" pages). It's an obvious hoax, and the authors have admitted as such from what I hear. Nevertheless, it can be a good purchase for Cthulhu-Mythos and Lovecraft completists, and it looks real enough that you can freak out your friends, or use it as a LARP prop or halloween item. I'm satisfied with my purchase, but it's important to know what you're getting before you spend your money. My understanding is that one of the major reasons this was created in the first place was to have a Necronomicon on record at the Library of Congress. :)

* ...and a lot of these people still remain clueless that the NECRONOMICON is a *fictitious* book created by American horror writer H.P. Lovecraft to use as a story-device. Other authors, many of whom were friends of Lovecraft, started using the NECRONOMICON in their stories (as well as other aspects such as his god-like aliens Cthulhu and Yog-Sothoth) of what has come to be called the "Cthulhu Mythos". This book was original published in a limited hardcover edition for one main reason: to get the Library of Congress to catalogue it! Thus, an official library record came into existence for the NECRONOMICON. It was part of a joke, people! If you look closely at the pages of this edition, you will find that the non-existent "Arabic" language it is written in is just random writing which was pasted together and that the same pages of "text" are repeated over and over again in the book. Oh, yes, there are books publsihed which claim to be the NECRONOMICON. There are always people ready to cash in by using a famous name and there are also some people, saddly, who do believe everything they read. For those not convinced of the fictional nature of the NECRONOMICON, here is something you can do: go to a library, or use the internet, and try to find ANY mention of the NECRONOMICON in books or newspapers or magazines or anything that was published BEFORE 1900. Keep looking and looking. You will never find it mentioned -- because the title NECRONOMICON did not exist until Lovecraft created in AFTER 1900. How do I know all this? Read the "name" on this review!

While this back-to-front read might be an interesting conversation starter to place on your coffee table, Achron's Oct. 7 review is correct -- the text comprises a preface by L. Sprague de Camp (which is also reprinted in the more useful http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1568820704/002-9569671-8448844 ) and 16 repeating pages of fake language.

Don't be fooled. The Necronomicon doesn't exist, and de Camp's preface is available in a book that contains more you can actually read.

at least I thougth I'd get an interesting book that the author had put some work into. Am I the only one who have noticed that, except for the preface and a few pages at the beginning and the end of the book, there's only 8 DIFFERENT pages repeating throughout the book?!

This book makes for a good shelf decoration, at best. While it is intriguing that the bulk of the text is in Arabic, the Necronomicon is indeed a work of fiction. For those skeptical of the truth, merely go to http://www.necfiles.org/

As this site in particular says, "the Necronomicon is a book of evil lore which first appeared in the works of the writer H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937). This book became so popular that people started to write more stories featuring it, creating hoaxes, and finally writing entire Necronomicons (at the present writing, almost a dozen have appeared). The most popular of these is the Simon Necronomicon, first published in 1977, which is mainly Sumerian mythology with a little Lovecraft and Aleister Crowley thrown in for good measure. Another, the Hay Necronomicon, came out in 1978 and claimed to be a deciphered work by the Elizabethan thinker Doctor John Dee. None of these date to the specified period, and some (such as the Hay work) have been admitted to be hoaxes."

Everyone is so quick to say that the Necronomicon does exist, and begs for others to disprove its existence. That has been done. If you want to scream from the rooftops that it does, you should have evidence to back you up. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR PROVING YOUR CLAIMS.

Although I would recommend this book, it would be amongst peers that understand that it is purely a work of creative fiction.

This book is all in an Arabic language with the only English text being the preface by L. Sprague De Camp .

While the English versions of the Necronomicon should be obvious cheap fiction to you this "original" version shouldn't even be considered more than a novelty. I thought it would be fun to flip through this because I enjoyed Lovecraft's Necronomicon references (I was wrong).

The writing is original alright... totally made up nonsense. It ISN'T Arabic or any related language, it's just artistic scribbles.

On top of that the pages just repeat themselves. The exact same pages are seen throughout the book. You could make this book yourself by creating your own symbols, writing them on a few pages to look like words, and then photocopying those pages over and over until you have enough to look like a book.

It's just something to look at... like a poster or something. It's nothing mysterious, nothing anyone can translate or even read. There is more fun to be had with a phonebook than this (at least every page is different in a phonebook).

To recap... You can't read this. No one can read this. No one ever could read this. There are not that many pages and the ones that are there just repeat themselves. There will never be and "original" because the Necronomicon isn't real. If you buy this book, buy it knowing that it's a prop, it's just there to look neat or to talk about (you could see if a friend notices that there are so few unique pages in it).

I at least thought the book would be written in English. It isn't, nor is it written in any known language, so there is no way to translate the book. I know it is a work of fiction, but why not a work of fiction in English? Why wasn't this little piece of information given to the customer? No one in there right mind would bother to purchase a book written in a make believe language. I'm disappointed ...

People like to slander the various editions of the Necronomicon as vicious hoaxes and money making schemes at the expense of a gullible populace. I admit, after first reading Lovecraft's short essay on the history of the Necronomicon, I was a believer. He had me, hook line & sinker... for about half an hour, until I did some rudimentary research. I think it should be obvious to people that the Necronomicon was the product of a very gifted author, and nothing more. In my mind, though, all subsequent editions are not equal. The English "translations" may be entertaining fictions, but they are somewhat dangerous in that they actually do convince people that they are reading thousand-year-old necromantic truths, truths many people in fact swear by. This edition, however, has no such pretensions. It is a well intentioned work of fiction, and, I think, a work of art. The calligraphy may be fake, but it is beautiful, and the preface is riveting. The fact that the book reads back-to-front simply adds to flavor. I too have examined one of the original limited edition hardback copies of this book, number 276, held here in the UCSB Davidson Library's Special Collections department, treated just like the real thing, which goes to show how well and completely done this charming work of fiction is.