Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.

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.

The stories in this book capture the feel of the old pulp wirting from the 1930s. Even the tales collected here that were written after that period have the same flavor mood of that lost era. For anyone interested in weird/horror fiction this is a superb book. It will, of course, prove of special interest to devotee of the Cthulhu Mythos. The copious notes supplied by Robert Price are themselves worth the price of addmission.

Grab this book!

I am glad to see that the other reviews are positive, because I found the writing in this book rather awful. I hate saying that, because Kuttner became such a great writer, and I LOVE LOVE LOVE these Cycle fiction books edited by Bob Price. Perhaps I find these tales so poor because I have grown weary with much of the Cthulhu Mythos stuff. I like good writing. The other reviewers seem to like these tales for their pulpish flavor, and that is something I am not attracted to -- but I don't dismiss it. Mythos fiction may be celebrated for a number of reasons and enjoyed for myriad reasons. Since mine is the lone negative review, that may shew more about myself than the value of these stories. These stories are the work of a very young writer -- and I know from personal experience that the stories we write in our youth are not our best, unless we are Poppy Z. Brite or Thomas Ligotti. If you want a fun, light collection of Cthulhu Mythos fiction, this will serve as well as anything else. The contents are:
Introduction by Robert M. Price
The Secret of Kralitz
The Eater of Souls
The Salem Horror
The Black Kiss (written with Robert Bloch)
The Jest of Droom-Avista
Spawn of Dagon
The Invaders
The Frog
Hydra
Bells of Horror
The Hunt
Beneath the Tombstone, by Robert M. Price
Dead of Night, by Lin Carter

For they who can afford it, Centipede Press has just published an amazing hardcover, illustrated omnibus of Kuttner's horror fiction in their Masters of the Weird Tale series. The book has color reproductions of many of the covers of Weird Tales in which Kuttner's tales were first published, and there is a long and fascinating Introduction.

this book contains 3 great stories and a cuple of good ones. some are more fantasy than horror. kuttner can be a little bit obvious, a little bit simplistic, but the suspence, and he knows when to focus - when he should move forward and when he should stop and describe more vividly (his writing style focus concerning timing is excellent), his descriptions are good when they should be, and he knows how to hold our interest and how to avoid being boring.

I thought this book was excellent! Most books have stories with happy little endings, but never a few unhappy endings. This book provided a mix of both. simply the best book of short stories ive read