Customer Reviews

Nameless Cults: The Cthulhu Mythos Fiction of Robert E. Howard (Call of Cthulhu Fiction)

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Finally, non-Conan tales of Robert E. Howard are in print in a modestly priced paperback format; part of an ongoing series of Mythos fiction. With this volume Chaosium just may generate a new breed of Howard fans. Take my wife, for example. No matter how much I talked up Conan or REH she refused to read "a stupid Conan book" or anything by "that Conan guy". But when she just happened to come across my copy of Nameless Cults and read the excerpt from "The Black Stone" on the back cover - suddenly my wife had laid down her Ellis Peters novel and was thoroughly engrossed in a Robert E. Howard book!

This is a great book! I highly recommend it, even if you already own the Baen edition of Howard's Cthulhu Mythos tales. Unlike the Baen book, this collection contains tremendous introduction material by Mythos expert Robert M. Price. Price's introductions to each story are invaluable, and often shed new light on many aspects of these tales. Price's introductions avoid the psycho babble that David Drake's intro to the Baen book peddled, and focus directly on the tales themselves. For the serious Howard enthusiast, the book is worth the price for Price's comments alone.

As for the stories themselves - they are tremendous. All of Howard's Lovecraftian tales are included: "The Black Stone", "The Thing on the Roof", "The Fire of Asshurbanipal", "Dig Me No Grave" and "The Hoofed Thing". The rarely published "Little People" (a story not included in the Baen book) is also included; as well as tales which touch on Mythos or Lovecraftian themes: Tales such as "The Worms of the Earth" (considered to be one of Howard's best), "The Children of the Night" (one of my personal favorites), "The Shadow Kingdom" (a Kull Tale), and others. A rather pleasing highlight is the inclusion of "The Challenge From Beyond", a round-robin tale with portions written by C.L. Moore, A. Merritt, H.P. Lovecraft, Frank Belknap Long, as well as Howard.

Purists will probably scoff at the inclusion of a number of Howard fragments which have been completed by other writers. I too find this practice rather revolting, and originally would have preferred the publishers to have presented the fragments as just that - uncompleted fragments. As I had anticipated, two of the tales created from Howard's fragments are pretty dull and forgettable: "The Abbey" completed by C.J. Henderson and "The Door to the World" completed by Joseph S. Pulver. However, I must admit that I found two of the four quite enjoyable - even excellent. "The House in the Oaks" completed by August Derleth is an intriguing tale in a Lovecraftian vain. Faithful to the practice of Howard, Lovecraft, and Clark Ashton Smith, Derleth brings into the tale such dark tomes as the Necronomicon and Nameless Cults. He even uses The Shadow Kingdom as the title of an occultist book. One of the greatest highlights of Derleth's part of the story is his inclusion of snippets of Howard's poetry throughout. "Black Eons" completed by Robert M. Price is an excellent tale. I would have to say that Price has done the best job of emulating Howard's style. Price's portion of the tale is fast paced and filled with scenes of gory combat. One of the highlights here is Howard's attempt to bring the Hyborian age into the present via an archaeologist's discovery. "Black Eons" is a page turner and I highly recommend it.

Over-all this book is a must. It is well worth the cover price to have all of these fantastic Howard tales in one place. And as I said before, even if you already have these stories in your library Price's introductory comments are well worth it. If you have never read any of Howard's Mythos tales - buy this book! You won't be disappointed - I promise. Even my wife has enjoyed it!

For all of you loyal Robert E. Howard fans out there this is the ultimate Howardian collection. It gives you an excellent reference point for all of his fiction and how it all ties together. From Kull to Conan to James Allison and all the other beloved characters inbetween. For me it answered a lot of questions and opened up new vistas of REH's brillance. I highly recommend this collection. For all of you loyal H.P. Lovecraft fans out there this adds lots of spice to the mythos. I don't have enough good things to say about this book.

If you love either Lovecraft or Robert E. Howard or even if you are a fantasy adventure or science fiction fan you cannot afford to miss this collection. READ IT!!!!!

Robert Howard has a distinctly different worldview than Lovecraft, and his stories show it. Courage, purity, and strength are sufficient to overcome evil in most of Howard's tales. Very pulpy, but some stories I will read over again.

The best:
"The Shadow Kingdom": this is one of the best fantasy tales ever written, in my opinion. The mythic historicity, the barbarian strength and honor, the horror of the serpent people, the opposing magic, it all just came together and clicked for me. You will probably find this in other Howard or Weird tales anthologies, but I cannot recommend this highly enough.

"Worms of the Earth": opens with the leader of an oppressed people watching the torture and execution of one of his subjects. He then goes on to seek his revenge through truly awful methods. I found this story to be written in a very original style.

"Dig Me No Grave": a genuinely Lovecraftian tale. More Mythos!
Well written, very creepy.

"The Fire of Ashurbanipal" and "Skull-face" both deal with a typical Howardian protagonist confronting an evil from prehistoric times. Both are well-written and differ from most of the stories that Chaosium issues (no moldy towns, 17th century houses, or bizarre tomes).

I didn't care for the finished fragments; the quality clearly dropped off where Howard ended and another author began (these were "The Abbey", "The Door to the World", "The House in the Oaks", "Black Eons", and "The Challenge From Beyond". To my amusement, by the time I had finished Nameless Cults, I knew EXACTLY where Howard did the writing in "Challenge").

Overall, a good collection. It is worth picking up for "The Shadow Kingdom" alone, or if you like the Howardian protagonist.

Horror was clearly not a strong point with Robert E. Howard. Proper horror requires a certain frailty of hero, someone who is confronted with something far beyond their powers, beyond their ability to come to terms with. Howard's heroes, however, are all rough-and-tumble fighters, quick to swing and axe or fire a pistol, and never giving into such weak emotions as fear or terror. Not exactly a viable protagonist for a horror story.

However, in "Nameless Cults," Howard showed himself a capable blender of Lovecraft's otherworldly Mythos and his own brand of barbarian triumph. Much of the mythos connections are quite dubious, being only a word or two. A man shouting "yog sothoth" as he dies is enough to add it to the collection.

Stories such as "Worms of the Earth," with Howard's Pictish king Bran Mak Morn, "The Shadow Kingdom" with Kull, and "The Gods of Bal-Soggoth" featuring the Irish adventurer Turlogh Dubh O'Brien, showcase the best of Howard's style, pitting his rugged sluggers against achievable and defeatable cosmic horrors. These stories work very well, and they are clearly Howard stories, not an attempt to mimic a Lovecraft story.

Other stories, such as "Dig Me No Grave," "The Black Bear Bites" and "The Fire of Asshurbanipal," are rousing adventure stories with a supernatural flair, in tune with an Indian Jones movie. This is true pulp fiction. The bayou-set "Skull Face," is on of the best Howard stories I have read, and it is a shame that it gets bogged down in it's own racism, detailing the attempt of a black men to join together and overthrow white men in a global insurrection.

Less successful are Howard's attempts at Lovecraftian-style fiction. He doesn't have what it takes to tell a viable story of book-learned fellows sitting around the fire. Stories like "The Thing on the Roof" and "The Hoofed Thing" are less successful, mediocre works at best.

Worth noting, the cover is terrible, and I am not sure why they picked this image. It has nothing to do with the contents, not even in tone. I put off buying "Nameless Cults" for sometime, based on this silly screaming mouth. I am glad to know that it is the cover that is bad, not the book.

While not on par with his Conan stories, where Howard was an inspired writer, "Nameless Cults" is still an excellent book with enough good stories in it to outweigh the bad. While the Bran Mak Morn and Kull stories are available elsewhere, the book is worth getting for "Skull Face" alone, if you can stomach the racism.

Most readers are aware of Robert E. Howard as the creator of Conan The Cimmerian
and possibly even Solomon Kane or King Kull, but this collection features some really amazing rarely collected weird fantasy all in the fairly thin veneer of "Cthulhu Mythos stories" the most likely genuine one in the collection being "The Black Stone" from which the collections tittle is derived. Don't get me wrong These are all Howard at his best, But there's no way you're going to tell me "Skull Face' is a "Mythos" story!
Still Lovecraftian or not this is probably the single best REH collection on the market for sheer variety and value. Highly recommened.

this is a good collection, consisting of many of howard's stories (some don't belong here). howard is always great at combat descriptions and describing man's instinct. the stories here are mostly inspired by things Howard has read. howard can't manage to create the stories as well as usually, also being very uninventive and unoriginal at times. some of the stories were only vaguely interesting. beyond the borders was a better collection

These REH Lovecraftian tales are very good. The collabs with toehrs are average, but REH tales liek HOOVED THING or BLACK STONE are classics. THe atmosphere, the prose etc, all tight and true to his great style.