The Book of Iod: Ten Tales of the Mythos (Cthulhu Cycle Books) [Paperback]

Henry Kuttner (Author), Lin Carter (Author), Robert M. Price (Editor)

Product Details

• Paperback: 228 pages
• Publisher: Chaosium, Inc. (July 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568820453
• ISBN-13: 978-1568820453
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,097,250 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good choice for Mythos fans, February 19, 2002

By 

Peter F. Guenther (Detroit, MI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Book of Iod: Ten Tales of the Mythos (Cthulhu Cycle Books) (Paperback)

This book contains a number of stories by one of the lesser-known disciples of Lovecraft, one Henry Kuttner. Although the stories are not classics of the genre, showing development in a new direction, they rise above pastiche and provide good reading. Kuttner is certainly able to grab the reader's attention and hold onto it, and tells a good tale while he has it.

"Bells of Horror" is the high point of the volume; it is a fine story set in California, a locale the author clearly enjoys. It is this setting in a number of stories that gives the stories a unique flavor; Kuttner's descriptions create a new millieu for the eldritch horrors that are the center of the Cthulhu Mythos.

It is also "Bells of Horror" that first mentions The Book of Iod, a volume which belongs on the shelf with the usual suspects--De Vermis Mysteriis, Unaussprechlichen Kulten, Cultes des Goules, the Book of Eibon, the Pnakotic Manuscripts, and, of course, (all together now) the horrible Necronomicon of the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred.

Kuttner's ability shows itself most in his ability to create a mythology. Instead of a few separate stories, the contents of this anthology fit together in intriguing ways--but they don't fit together seamlessly, just as other myth cycles don't. All in all, this collection is a very worthwhile read.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Different Atmosphere, September 6, 2004

By 

Alexander Scott (Birmingham, AL) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Book of Iod: Ten Tales of the Mythos (Cthulhu Cycle Books) (Paperback)

Reading Henry Kuttner's stories, I was struck that they seem to have a different atrmosphere from the Lovecraftian canon - rather than dank New England graveyards there are dusty Western towns, ancient lands, or interstellar worlds. It was previously noted that some of these stories are more fantasy than horror, but I think that the variety makes THE BOOK OF IOD more readable.

"The Secret of Kralitz" - A family has an evil generational secret. The induction into the secret is horrible, but so is the grounds for induction.

"The Eater of Souls" - Dunsanian fantasy, I believe.

"The Black Kiss" - I felt that this was a new interpretation on the Deep Ones and their transformation.

"The Jest of Droom-Avista" - Another Dunsanian fantasy, dealing with the peril of scientific progress at any cost

"The Spawn of Dagon" - A story of Deep Ones in Atlantis; it seems to be a pastiche combining Robert Howard and Howard Lovecraft.

"Hydra" - A great story about two men who use a drug to see past our dimension into another. Unfortunately, it springs a trap that allows a horror to steal the head and soul of a famous writer and scholar of the occult. Then, the scholar wants amends to be made...

"Bells of Horror" - set in California, "Bells" is about a cursed set of bells discovered in an archaeological dig. They have an effect of madness on living things around them, but the madness really begins when they ring.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent collection of Kuttner's Tales in Cthulhu Mythos, April 23, 1998

By 

Steven A. Armstrong "Steven" (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Book of Iod: Ten Tales of the Mythos (Cthulhu Cycle Books) (Paperback)

Robert M. Price and Chaosium Books have another winner in this collection of the Cthulhu Mythos tales of Henry Kuttner, pulp author from the heyday of Weird Tales. Price's erudite and clever intros to the tales are filled with bibliographical, theological and historical commentary of outstanding value. The 10 tales of the original Khut-N'hah Mythos (Lovecraft's coinage) are augmented with a Bloch-Kuttner collaboration, and one story each by Price and Lin Carter. This is a fine addition to the ever-growing Series of "Call of Cthulhu Fiction," and like the other volumes, is a good read on its own, or as part of a Lovecraft-Mythos library.