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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Madness in a Variety of Motions, September 30, 2002
When I first picked up this book, I was merely going out to replace something I had read long ago and had enjoyed immensely. Still, when I started going through it, I saw some noticeable changes that actually helped it out and are worth noting. See, while this is the second revised edition of this book and many have already checked out the first, there were some changes in the lineup that made it different from the original. First, the stories by Ramsey Campbell and Brain Lumley were slightly revised, making them flow more appropriately. Next, "Zoth-Ommog," by Lin Carter, was dropped and replaced with Robert Price's "Dope War of the Blank Tong," a change that would be upsetting if it weren't for Lin's own set of stories being published and, lastly, "The Feaster from Afar," by Joseph Brennan, was left out and replaced with A.A. Attansio's "Glimpses." In this edition of the continual homage paid to Lovecraftian lore, there are two above average tales and five standout pieces that bring this 258 page edition to life, making it well worth buying. Briefly breaking some of them down and leaving out two well-crafted pieces, ( "Darkness, my name is," by Eddie Bertin, and The Terror from the Depths," by Fritz Leber, which spatial constrains keep me from going into detail about) and one above average tale ("Where Yidhra Walks, "by Walter Debill, Jr.) they are: "The Fairground Horror," by Brain Lumley, deals with the great tentacled one's priests and the mark they bare. It begins by focusing on Hodgson's Funfair and a man named Anderson Tharpe who has recently added a new freak-house frontage called "Tomb Of The Great Old Ones." Within it are the normal oddities that freakshows like to use, the cons that have been sold throughout the ages, but there are also some other things, pieces taken from his younger brother, Hamiliton. Without delving too much into it, this is basically a lesson in why you should try to play with things belonging to the sleeping old one. "The Silence of Erika Zann," by James Wade, plays off of a previously introduced idea by modernizing it, placing Erich Zann's granddaughter in a Rock Band that delves into some odd forums. Any time they play, there is a strange roar that seems to come from nowhere, and it seems to be taking its toll on her. What is it, the main character asks over and over? Well, its an above average tale that is good but loses some ground when compared to the works around it. "All-Eye," by Bob Laerhoven, is an odd mixture of story with a surprise ending. Initially, I wasn't certain I would like it at all because it seemed like the basic forum introduced, the "found a book, it had a map, I went looking and something happened" story design, but that quickly changed when I read all the way through. Its hard to say that much about it without ruining the story, so I'll simply state that the style used pleasantly different. "The Tugging," by Ramsey Campbell, shows exactly how talented this word painter actually is, with his analogies and comparisons actually deserving a bit of acclaim. It focuses on Ingels, a man plagued by dreams that he and his father seem to share. When he sleeps he dreams of a city beneath the waves and that the clouds in the sky are becoming something, but he always awakens before he find out exactly what that is. The dreams provoke a dread for sleep, an insomnia that begins to interrupt reality, and before Ingels knows he sees a correlation between both realms as they mesh together. Again, without giving away too much, this story is well worth you time to read. Glimpse, by A.A. Attansio, is an odd tale involving the Lord of Holes himself, Yog-Sothoth, revolving around an oddly pierced stone that defies description. Sometimes it seems like a simple stone, other times it seems like a strange congammeration of ribbons. Our initial main character, Gene Mirandola, is given it when he goes to meet with his uncle, an oddly eclectic individual that tells him to take it to a Dr. Marc Souvate. Well, he does, and finds out the oddities of the One-in-All and All-in-One, things that deal directly with his uncle and that deal with Souvate's odd history as well. The story takes a strange turn in the center, taking a simple threat to one soul by Yog and his followers to one that threatens the entirety of the world. It's actually really well done. The next, by Robert Price, is entitled "Dope War of the Black Tong," Its a story revolving around the Tcho-Tcho and their worshipping habits, reminding me very much of something Robert E. Howard would have done. It has all the essentials; a storyline, some tentacles, a bit of death, and Asian oddities. Again, this set of stories is well worth checking out because their focus is not uniformed and their styles certainly differ. It is in this variety that you gain something, something wonderfully evil, and evil meshing with all-encompassing madness is always a wonderful thing.
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by David Conyers
by H. P. Lovecraft
by H. P. Lovecraft
by Thomas Brannan
by James Ambuehl
