Customer Reviews

The Lovecraft Necronomicon Primer: A Guide to the Cthulhu Mythos

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T. Allan Bilstad would have us believe that he is certifiably NOT insane. Yet one gets the impression that the author has done more than just read Lovecraft..."The Lovecraft Necronomicon Primer" is just that, a primer; nothing is said to give away the discoveries the reader might derive from future excursions into Dreamland (except maybe the constant gnawing feeling that the book is as much a warning as it is a primer). Each creature/God of the Mythos is fully described to the smallest detail so that you will at least have a heads up before something happens... oops! I mean, nothing will happen; it's just a story, right? Anyway the book will be very helpful as you read or consider reading on the subject of the Necronomicon... it was for me.

The Necronomicon Primer by T. Allan Bilstad was published by Llewelyn Publications in 2009. It is a handsome little pocketbook with 262 pages of text. There is no cover art to speak of but the interior illustrations by Kevin Brown and Patrick McEvoy are OK enough. Note the dimensions of 5.9 x 5.1". With the font and borders, it is a very quick read. Llewelyn Publications has givens us The Necronomicon and Alhazred by Donald Tyson. I have both of these books but I freely admit I have not gotten around to reading them, for a couple of reasons. First, they seem rather lengthy and the prose seems a bit overblown, as far as I have picked them up. Second, I begin to wonder how much Mr. Tyson believes this is all true. The publishers produces a lot of new age products, an actual Necronomicon grimoire for use in magic by Mr. Tyson and various other similar items. I have little patience for those who think HPL's fiction was anything other than, well, fiction. Even Lovecraft himself was bewildered by this crowd.

Anyway, The Necronomicon Primer is one of a recent spate of books designed to give a synopsis of the Cthulhu mythos, its beasties or the major stories to readers who apparently have not yet read any of HPL's works or Cthulhu mythos fiction. Mostly I don't get it. Why not read the stories? That's where the real entertainment value is. In context, other similar books are Cthulhu 101 by Kenneth Hite, a humorous romp through all things mythos, The Malleus Monstrorum by Scott David Aniolowski, which describes all these monsters for use in playing Call of Cthulhu, and the definitive scholarly work, The Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia 3rd edition by Daniel Harms.

Mr. Bilstad's main expertise, as far as I can tell, is that besides being a long time HPL fan, he edited Mr. Tyson's books. After a brief introduction and discussion of the importance of Lovecraft, we are given a few pages on some major mythos entities, such as Cthulhu, the Deep Ones, Shoggoths, and a few other entries like the Necronomicon and Arkham. There is a thread of humor running through the entire book that is all to the good. Mostly, however, I found the writing verbose and bland. It is an OK enough reference, I suppose, if you really don't actually want to read The Call of Cthulhu or The Colour Out of Space or The Dunwich Horror. But if not, why do you need this book? To pique your interest sufficiently that you will actually pick up the originals? To understand some references to HPL in popular culture, and you find the Wikipedia entries too dry? If that's what you want, well here you go.

I think Cthulhu 101 is wittier and breezier. HP Lovecraft in Popular Culture by Don Smith lists some mythos references in film and other media, and may be useful. The best scholarly discussion of the influence of HPL and the Cthulhu mythos in American fiction is The Rise and Fall of the Cthulhu Mythos by ST Joshi. If you want a much more comprehensive and nuanced description of mythos entities, try Harms' Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia. At least The Necronomicon Primer is not too expensive.

This book is tiny! Around 5"x5"x1". That said, it packs a pretty fair amount of info into a small space. Enough to get you acclimated to HP Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos. Its people, places, gods and things. Perhaps a few of the odd events that go down there.

Other books are probably more comprehensive, but as a primer or small, dense introduction for people not familiar with Lovecraft and his Mythos, this isn't terrible...

Worth a read if you just want the bare bones basics. If you're an aficionado, you'll probably want to read some other tomes of eldritch forgotten lore like: The Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia, The Lovecraft Lexicon, An H.P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia and for those philologists or laymen who want to come to grips with Lovecraft's eldritch vocabulary: Weird Words: A Lovecraftian Lexicon.

just terrible, filled with bad puns, stupid jokes, and utterly failing at everything it sets out to accomplish. the 'descriptions' of lovecraft's monsters are mostly contrived from the authors imagination, with very little relation to the literature. the writing style is pitiful, as it it was written by a juvenile. also, using a poor anagram of your own name for an 'editor' is not cute or imaginative, nor is the 20+ "i swear im not insane" references. no, you are not insane, you're an idiot.

If your interested in Lovecrafts monsters, get Donald Tysons Necronomicon, its far more accurate and interesting.

(For the record, this is my moms account since I'm only 17, I don't have an account. My name's Nick) Ok, I'm a tad new to the whole Cthulhu Mythos and I have already read through "The Call of Cthulhu" and I barely understood it due to how complex H.P. Lovecraft's word structure was. I am almost 18 years old and I can justifiably say I have a decent vocabulary. But It was very hard for me to grasp the story because of how Lovecraft worded his sentences. I sought out a guide, hoping that it would "prime" me, if you will for Lovecraft's amazing Dreamworld....and sentences. While this guide did an excellent job of describing in detail a nice variety of the creatures who dwell in the Dreamlands, sometimes the author babbles about information that is...well, stupid. Yes, thank you for telling me what a Ghast is; No, I do not care about your paranoid "sightings" of Ghasts. The author either believes in the Dreamlands created by a mentally disturbed man in the 1920's to his heart's content or he is trying to make us believe in a world he sets out to be real, but in the end makes a joke of it being real. And in my opinion, that was not entertaining. It has helped me understand the Cthulhu Mythos though, I will give him that. I really liked the book though. If you are just beginning to adventure in Lovecraft's wonderful, dreary world called the Dreamlands but can't fully grasp what is what due to Lovecraft's complex form of writing, then this is a great book for you. Besides, I payed 10 bucks for it and that sure beats the overly expensive Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia's I see roaming around on the Internet.