Encyclopedia Cthulhiana (Call of Cthulhu Novel) [Paperback]

Daniel Harms (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 282 pages
• Publisher: Chaosium; First Edition edition (December 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568820399
• ISBN-13: 978-1568820392
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,139,946 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Suffers from delusions of Carterdom..., May 2, 2004

By 

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

This review is from: Encyclopedia Cthulhiana (Call of Cthulhu Novel) (Paperback)

I am rating this book so highly because of its exhaustive nature and usefulness as a resource. There were many terms that I had been confused about and was glad to find a reference for. The MOST useful aspect, though, was to discover which stories included settings or characters that I wanted to read more about (the Severn Valley comes to mind). The Cthulhiana has been excellent in that respect, as I now know which authors and stories to pursue further. My biggest problem with this book is the ridiculous mythologization of Lovecraft's deities (I think this is primarily due to Lin Carter). There's a an awful lot of "and so great Cthulhu mated with Asdfgh to produce the hideous offspring Qwer'ty-Zxc'vb, who did reside under Mt. Nyctalopolis until 1953..." The combination of endless run-on names ("I'd like to buy a vowel"...) and unnecessary family relations, like some sort of Jerry Springer show from the Xothian system, induces humor rather than horror in me. Perhaps Chaosium would print an expurgated version, without Carter's mythology crap (it seems there's an expurgated version of every OTHER text floating around) ...