Customer Reviews

Beneath the Moors

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It's strange -- I seem to remember this book having more than just the title novel between it's covers -- but I must be remembering Brian's second Arkham House collection, THE HORROR AT OAKDEENE. BENEATH THE MOORS is an interesting if not completely successful novel of the Cthulhu Mythos that incorporates within its text one of Lumley's finest short stories, "The Sister City." It's frightfully British, which added to its charm for me -- I'm so used to Mythos fiction set in America. I liked the novel very much when I first read it as a kid when this Arkham House book was first published. It is structured as only Lumley would have structured it. The chapter titles may be of interest to potential readers:
I: DISCOVERIES IN CONVALESCENCE
---(From the Notebooks of Professor Ewart Masters)
II: EPISODE AT BLEAKSTONE
---(From the Notebooks of Professor Ewart Masters)
III: THE SECOND FIGURINE
---(From the Notebooks of Professor Ewart Masters)
IV: THE SISTER CITY
---(Being the Statement of Robert Krug)
V: CORRELATION
---(From the Notebooks of Professor Ewart Masters)
VII: UNDERGROUND, DREAM-PHASE ONE
---[The Master Case: From the Recordings of Dr. Eugene T. Thappon]
VIII: BOKRUG, DREAM-PHASE TWO
---[The Masters Case: From the Recordings of Dr. Eugene T. Thappon]
IX: THE CREATURE'S STORY, DREAM-PHASE THREE
---[The Masters Case: From the Recordings of Dr. Eugene T. Thappon]
X: LH-YIB, DREAM-PHASE FOUR
---[The Masters Case: From the Recordings of Dr. Eugene T. Thappon]
XI: REFLECTIONS IN A NEW ENVIRONMENT
---[The Masters Case: From the Recordings of Dr. Eugene T. Thappon]
XII: SINGERS OF STRANGE SONGS, DREAM-PHASE SIX
---[The Masters Case: From the Recordings of Dr. Eugene T. Thappon]
XIII: THE CALCIUM LABYRINTH, DREAM-PHASE SEVEN
---[The Masters Case: From the Recordings of Dr. Eugene T. Thappon]
XIV: THE CAVE OF WHITE GRASS, DREAM-PHASE EIGHT
---[The Masters Case: From the Recordings of Dr. Eugene T. Thappon]
XV: THE FROGS, DREAM-PHASE NINE
---[The Masters Case: From the Recordings of Dr. Eugene T. Thappon]
XVI: THE SPAWNING PLACE, DREAM-PHASE TEN
---[The Masters Case: From the Recordings of Dr. Eugene T. Thappon]
XVII: TAKEN BY THE THUUN'HA, DREAM-PHASE ELEVEN
---[The Masters Case: From the Recordings of Dr. Eugene T. Thappon]
XVIII: SACRIFICE, DREAM-PHASE TWELVE
---[The Masters Case: From the Recordings of Dr. Eugene T. Thappon]
XIX: LETTER OF A HARLEY STREET PSYCHIATRIST
XX: IN CONCLUSION
---[From the Notebook of Jason Masters]

The novel benefits from Lumley's lifelong interest in exploration of hidden places, be they underground or beneath the waves. He was in youth and middle age an adventurer, an experience that he brings, brilliantly, to his Lovecraftian fiction. I can still read the first many chapters of this book with much pleasure. The beginning is reminiscent of Lovecraft's "The Shadow out of Time" with it's suffering professor. Professor Ewart Masters, suffering from the effects of a near-fatal car crash, is taking some time off from teaching and relaxing in a very Lovecraftian way. Under the concerned eye of his nephew Jason, Masters finds his relaxation in casual study.

"Jason has left nothing to chance, laying in a batch of the latest archaeological journals and papers, a copy of Walmsley's NOTES ON DECIPHERING CODES, CRYPTOGRAMS AND ANCIENT INSCRIPTIONS, a complete report on the newly opened Mediterranean and Ahaggar digs, and two new illustrated paperbacks taking a refreshing look at old 'forgotten civilization' themes."

In a wonderful and authentic Lovecraftian touch, Masters stumbles upon a mystery concerning "a miniature sculpture of some reptilian 'god' -- as being as much as twelve thousand years old: yet photographs in the magazine showed its features to be as clearly defined as if cut only yesterday." Writes the professor, "My interest in speleological charts sprang from the fact that the green lizard-like figurine had been found in a stream where it appeared to have been washed from some underground region through a resurgence at Barby-on the-Moor. This, plus a mention in Walmsley's death-notes of a mythical city named Lh-yib (the location of which the professor had supposedly traced to a well known but completely bleak and barren area of the moors), intrigued me tremendously." Thus we see the kind of plotting that is extremely reminiscent of that which H. P. Lovecraft crafted in "The Call of Cthulhu." An ancient figurine leads to nameless mystery on mystery. This leads to the smooth incorporation of an earlier story, "The Sister City" (which had its first publication in August Derleth's 1969 edition of TALES OF THE CTHULHU MYTHOS), one of Lumley's finest weird tales. The following narrative weaves many Lovecraftian threads, and for the young Mythos fanatic that I was when first I read this book, it was a fascinating feast. Suddenly we come across this eldritch yet questionable morsel:

"Suddenly there flashed into my mind something I saw as being particularly relevant, yet at the same time paradoxically obscure; some lines by E. P. Derby, from his book of nightmare lyrics: AZATHOTH AND OTHER HORRORS.
...for cleverer Gods by far
dream 'neath the moorland moss;
Whose kin the night-things are, who scorn the Christ-Child's cross;
Who journeyed from afar--
wen earth was young and gross--
Whose ken is on a par
with Daemon Azathoth's...
Who fear the Pentik Star..."

Alas, one feels intuitively that the poem was written on one of Derby's off-days--the mention of Christ is too utterly Derlethian.
The novel begins to lose its way mid-point, for the aura of rich mystery is expelled by one of Lumley's weaknesses as a Mythos writer -- bald explanation. When finally we meet and hear a conversation with the creature who is the living model for the antique statue, all sense of mystery and realism in the novel is lost. It's still a fun novel, yet wretchedly weakened. The fun comes from knowing the little Lovecraftian touches. Lumley was one who loved the Cthulhu Mythos, and this novel, although not a success, is a vastly entertaining expression of his admiration for the genius of H. P. Lovecraft, Esq.

This book is a prime exmaple of the influence H.P. Lovecraft had on the early writing style of Brian Lumley. Published by Arkham House who first published H.P. Lovecraft in hardcover this book is an excellent example of Lovecraftian horror. Worshippers of Cthulu Unite for the world is ours tonight!!