Customer Reviews

The Burrowers Beneath

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I have always enjoyed reading Lovecraft and was very sad when I had read all of his published works. Having discovered Brian Lumley, I find that I continue to get that same feeling with each of his stories. In The Burrowers Beneath, Brian Lumley moves from a Lovecraft imitator to a successor to Lovecraft. Having written many stories which invoke the Lovecraftian feelings of cosmic horror and ineffectiveness of man to combat evil, in this novel Lumley takes the "Cthulhu Mythos" in his own direction. For the first time we see mankind fighting back in an organized and effective manner. There is more of a science fiction feel introduced in The Burrowers Beneath, which continues in the next book in the series, The Transition of Titus Crow. If you like Lovecraft, you'll like The Burrowers Beneath.

Titus Crow is your old style scientific adventurer, and no spring chicken, either is his friend Marigny. They have been fighting supernatural elements here and there for some time, but have realised they are coming into heavy contact with the CCD. Or, Cthulhu Cycle Deities.

They are men of letters, so some of this novel is communicated in letters, communiques, etc.

A report from a miner leads Crow to suspect some of the CCD are coming for some of their eggs, to hatch them! The aforementioned miner had some, as does Crow.

Crow has a significant library of the occult, a partially translated Necronomicon, among other things, and works out neither he nor his friend are safe where they are, so they repair to a houseboat he has access to.

A Shoggoth attacks, and luckily they have defenses enough, with the aid of some new arrivals, who it appears are from the Wilmarth Foundation, from Miskatonic University.

They, in an organised fashion, do what Crow and Marigny dabble in, and invite them to take part. They are pretty much completely focused on the Cthulhu deities, vast alien intelligences, and their underlings.

This is quite short, and a set up for more, but explains how some of the Old Ones, like Azathoth, are actually terms for the nuclear force, or communication, as opposed to actual physical beings like Cthulhu, which is an interesting twist.

Some adventuring and endeavouring to limit the Cthulhu presence in the UK ensues, and it is not without casualties.

After a time, they grow ambivalent, and less watchful, and Cthulhu gets sneakier, so at the end, we find Crow and de Marigny under siege, trying to find a desperate escape via an ancient travel device.