18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very good modern collection of Cthulhu short stories, July 29, 2004
This review is from: Cthulhu 2000 (Paperback)
_Cthulhu 2000_ is (as one might guess from the title) a collection of recently written short stories set in the universe created by H.P. Lovecraft, none by Lovecraft himself but rather by a variety of different authors. Editor Jim Turner provides a nice introduction to the Lovecraft's writings, drawing attention to two themes in the Cthulhu mythos. One theme is that though Lovecraft is in many ways a horror writer, he did not see the universe in terms of some epic, Biblical struggle between good and evil. Turner writes that a conventional horror writer "presupposes an actively malicious universe;" Lovecraft saw the universe in his stories instead as profoundly indifferent, that the interaction of the laws of physics, chemistry, and biology are so universal and eternal a phenomenon that they are far beyond any meaningful relationship with any species so transient as man, located as he is on such an insignificant planet. Man is a speck, nothing at all, against the horrors in a true piece of Cthulhian fiction. The best he can hope for from the universe is profound indifference. Lovecraft's monsters aren't evil, they just exist, they are almost elemental forces.
A second theme, in many related to the first theme, is that the universe is vast and probably unknowable by man. Some of the horror from Lovecraft's writings comes from the "finite mind grappling with infinite reality," the results of which are often insanity and/or death. Lovecraft himself said humans live on a "placid island of ignorance" amidst "black seas of infinity," and that mankind was not mentioned to voyage far. Man is better off not knowing the true horrors that lurk in the shadows.
So how well do the eighteen short stories in this volume realize these themes? Pretty well overall I think. Many of the stories depart from Lovecraft's typical mode of writing; most of his short stories were tales (memoirs really) told by men after the fact - sometimes dead or insane at the end of the story - rather than actually accounting events as they happened, often lacking dialogue. Though a few of the stories are in Lovecraft's traditional style, most are not. To me this is quite refreshing.
Several stories to me were exemplary, centering on a seemingly normal person, perhaps an investigator, perhaps not, in what looks like a normal, mundane, mortal world, one that is revealed to be hiding untold horrors unknown to most of humanity. _Black Man with a Horn_ by T.E.D. Klein was an excellent page-turner (I wished it was longer though it was already almost a novella in length), an intriguing tale that wove together elements of Malaysian folklore, a retiring missionary, an elderly horror writer, and some mysterious disappearances in Florida. It had a wonderful atmosphere and the author did a great job of slowly, very slowly, revealing what the horror of the piece was. _The Last Feast of the Harlequin_ by Thomas Ligotti was similarly excellent, the protagonist an anthropological researcher (who specialized in studying the role of the clown in various cultures) traveling to the town of Mirocaw to research a Winter Solstice celebration that was rumored to involve a clown figure. The main character finds more than he bargained for, discovering that there was a great deal more to the festival that initially met the eye. _The Barrens_ by F. Paul Wilson focused on a researcher and his ex-girlfriend, the former obsessed with the phenomenon of pine lights (eerie will o'wisp like globules of light said to haunt the New Jersey Pine Barrens), an obsession that leads the main characters to view the world in an entirely different light.
Several stories were a bit more unusual and I am not sure I understood them. _Shaft Number 247_ by Basil Cooper appeared to be set in the far future, underground, in a highly mechanized and regimented society that either could not survive on the surface of the earth or was afraid to. The Cthulhic element was subtle, almost slight. _The Shadow on the Doorstep_ by James P. Blaylock was well-written, almost poetic, describing the author's encounters with mysterious aquarium shops in various places in California as well as what might or might not have been some horrid apparition on his doorstep late one evening, but the horror and mystery in this piece was very subtle, maybe too subtle.
A couple of stories were humorous, playing with the Cthulhu mythos but not much in the style of Lovecraft, not that they weren't enjoyable. _Pickman's Modem_ by Lawrence Watt-Evans dealt with as one might guess a demonic modem and its effects on its user and _Love's Eldritch Ichor_ by Esther M. Friesner was almost slapstick, the subject a budding young romance writer (!) with some rather unusual friends.
I enjoyed this book a lot, I find it a fairly quick read and a good continuation of Lovecraft's writings. I would love to see a sequel volume.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Cthulhu Meets Computers, August 11, 2002
This review is from: Cthulhu 2000 (Paperback)
To my intense surprise and delight, Cthulhu 2000 proved to be a pretty good collection of highly diverse tales, a fair number of them good-humored send-ups that I was almost embarrassed to admit I found myself laughing with - my favorite being "Love's Eldritch Ichor," a very funny piece about a descendant of the Old Ones and a book editor falling in love in a Lovecraftian mansion a la The Addams Family, which, believe it or not, is a lot better than it sounds.
But I was even more surprised at the collection of legitimate horror stories, some as genuinely creepy as anything Lovecraft ever penned himself. Not all the stories are strictly Lovecraftian by connection, but most are essentially true to his overriding theme of cosmic terror. Don't expect straight Lovecraft, and you might find yourself really loving this book. I did.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Ever Hear Tell of a ~Shoggoth~?, July 8, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Cthulhu 2000 (Paperback)
I highly recommend this collection to all fans of H.P. Lovecraft and the Cthulhu Mythos. This is quality stuff -- some of the best Mythos stories I've ever read, and I've read many.
I have not yet read all of the stories in this collection, but standouts thus far are "His Mouth Will Taste of Wormwood," "Fat Face," "Black Man with a Horn," and "The Barrens." The latter tale has the nice feature of adding the New Jersey pine barrens and the Jersey Devil to the Cthulhu Mythos! This is a welcome bit of local color for Philadelphians like me, who have driven through the pine barrens year after year on the way to the South Jersey shore points. Now you don't have to go to New England to be in Cthulhu country! "Fat Face" has a ~very~ frightening look at what the ~shoggoths~ have been up to lately.
The book includes some stories I'd read before in other collections, like "Black Man With a Horn," and "Shaft Number 247," but since they are excellent tales it is nice to have them all together.
This book would make excellent beach reading for the Jersey shore... but you may not want to drive through the pine barrens on your way back.
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