Customer Reviews

Necronomicon: The Wanderings of Alhazred (Necronomicon Series)

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Necronomicon: The Wanderings of Alhazred is author Donald Tyson's attempt to recreate H. P. Lovecraft's fictional tome of cosmic horrors which form the basis of his Cthulhu Mythos. There have been other attempts to recreate mythical tomes that form the basis of Lovecraft's world, from James Blish notable attempt to recreate The King in Yellow in his short story, More Light to Chaosium Press' absolutely total artistic failure to recreate The Book of Eibon.

The reason Tyson's attempt works is simply because he has done his homework, he has an obvious love for the work of Lovecraft and his circle, and unlike Simon's execrable Necronomicon published by Avon, Tyson writes a work of fiction the Old Gentleman From Providence would have eagerly blessed.

The story starts with a young Abdul Alhazred telling his story of being thrown into the Great Desert in the Arabian Peninsula to die and his wanderings through the sand and dunes and its horrors as he learns the arcane, forbidden secrets of the Cthulhu Mythos. He wanders the labyrinth beneath the lost city of Irem, travels along the Nile where he visits monasteries and ancient tombs, the evil alleys and oubliettes of ancient Thebes, Memphis, and Alexandria and steals arcane secrets from the Monastery of the Magi and the horror they have entrapped there. Eventually Alhazred settles in Damascus to pursue his evil studies where through obvious supernatural means he dies horribly one day in the presence of its citizens.

Throughout, Lovecraft's quotes from the Necronomicon are seamlessly interwoven into the story line adding a spirit of "legitimacy" to the work.

It's a delightful read. It works. It isn't an insult to the intelligence.

Word of warning. There are some very strange people out there who believe the Necronomicon is real and actually base their world view on Lovecraft's fictional work. Don't let those who have never seen the world outside of mommy's basement ruin your enjoyment of a great work of horror fiction.

Tysons "Necronomicon" is the best, nay the only Nec a fan of lovecraft should even think about reading. A well researched, well planned, and well exicuted Tribute to Lovecraft's most infamos creation. Tyson touches on almost everything the Lovecraft alludes to being in the maligned text in his fiction. Fans who wish to search for the passage from "Dunwitch Horror" will find it. The famos couplet? it's in there!

Tyson also does a terific job of keeping the tone of the book in line with the style and attetude of Lovecraft. The stories are great and even, in parts, quite disturbing.

As for the old "Shame on the Hoaxer" thing, i must reffer readers to the back cover. ""..i have spent my life writing about the arcane and my sense of kinship with the mad Arab has lead me to offer my own rendition of his teachings..." one does not have to be a scholar to figure this one out. The author of the book is DONALD TYSON not Abdul Alhazred. It does not proport to be anything other than a peice of entertainment. Is it writen with a perverbial 'straight face'? yes, that's what make this so much fun. Why would any one want to read a Nec that had "THISIS NOT REAL" plastered in big red letters across every page? Who needs to be told this over and over again? There are no magic spells or incanations that will bring about the end of days anywhere in the book. Is does not even resemble a book of magic or even magic therory.

This is a fine book for fans of the mythos, and of H.P. Lovecraft and it is even enjoyable to people totally unfamilliar with them. it's well written, engaging and fun. Those in the know will get a kick out of the fine little inside jokes and obscure references to the Mythos in H.P.'s fiction.

the only small complaits I had with it was the total lack of cool pictures of monsters and Tyson flubs the couplet a bit. Otherwise, it's appocolyptic fun for the whole family!

of one the most infamous and mysterious characters in the Mythos. Great read, both in reference to Lovecraft's stories and an independent story in an of itself. Alhazred's narration is told in a present tense, second person voice. Once you get used to this unusual style, the necromancer becomes three dimensional, with his own wisdom, madness, and occasional humor portrayed wonderfully by the author.  The forward by Theodorus and Wormius should defintely be read to set up the backstory, as Abdul begins his tale with his exile to the desert. This is not a spellbook or a hard and fast examination of every technicality of the Mythos, though it covers many of them great detail--this is a work of fiction. "Hoax" or not, it's an interesting and often morbidly fascinating portrait of a complex character. For fans of Lovecraft and his themes (death, decay, those terrible things between the stars that will consume us pale prideful foolish men...etc, etc) , this is a must--though those who are unfamiliar with his stories might have a difficult time with it.

This is a book that more or less only devoted fans of H.P. Lovecraft, his creation Necronomicon, the Cthulhu Mythos and so on will appreciate. In other words, unless you've read (and liked) the stories penned down by the Gentleman from Providence you won't find much pleasure in reading Tyson's Necronomicon.

Because in this book you'll follow in the footsteps of Alhazred (one of Lovecraft's characters who wrote the dreaded Necronomicon) and visit some of the strange places and their even stranger inhabitants he came across throughout his life.

And, well, that's that. End of book.

To be quite honest (and I always am in my reviews, regardless of whether I like the book or not), this one turned out to be pretty boring. It deals exclusively with creatures such as Cthulhu, Nyarlathotep, Yog-Sothoth, and others; and locations such as Atlantis, the sunken city of R'lyeh, Alexandria, and so on. So you see, if you know your Lovecraft you know what I'm talking about, and if you don't, well, then this book isn't really for you.

It's true that it's filled to the brim with useful information. But only for the ones already initiated.

And I'm sad to report that it's never a very exciting read, since the text throughout the book is descriptive only (except for a very short passage at the end of the book, on pages 264-265 where Alhazred battles a group of murderous ghouls at a cemetery outside Damascus).

Sure, I'm a sucker for Alhazred, The Old Ones, The Elder Things, and everything else related to master Lovecraft, just like any other devoted fan. And thus I appreciated the book for the tons of information it gave me.

So don't get me wrong, Tyson's Necronomicon is well-written and at times extremely fascinating, but despite of all the useful data and beautifully crafted sentences it eventually did - and unfortunately, I must say - transform into a boring read.

I wish it didn't. But it did.

I enjoyed the whole format and formula behind Tyson's concept of the Mythos. The inclusions in the texts are what would be readily formulated in the mind of Lovecraft and Smith readers as well as those who peruse the modern Mythos movement. It is strangely similar to other unpublished efforts I've seen and has some similarities with a certain Arabic and Greek manuscript which I keep well hidden.
That aside, it is a seriously good effort at filling the pie. With a good Elder sign and pious heart you should be safe reading it. I hope others enjoy the adventures within as well as I have. I think it is a wonderful addition to any Miskatonic University student's library.

Before a long overnight flight I bought the book "Necronomicon; The
Wanderings of Alhazred" by Donald Tyson and read it non-stop without sleep
(do this with caution).

It came out in 2004 and is written as the words of the Mad Arab himself.

The style is much like reading "The Black Pullet"; a escriptive narrative told in the second person with his only referance to himself as "a wanderer".

The chapters, being short, make it very suitable for bed times stories about the Old Ones giving rich details of the Abdul Alhazred history of his wanderings. This includes all the standard Old ones, Cthulhu, Azathoth, Yig, Yog-Sothoth, Shub-Niggurath and Dagon plus rich descriptions of Alhazed
journeys that will, given the proper intent, insight dreams so be prepared.

He tells also of his encounters with those secretative cults that worship the Old Ones and how through gile, glamours and guzzeling boozes he earns their trust and takes their secrets.

For the Chaotician, the blessings of the book (IMO) is that it's light on ritual and rich on mythos, leaving the magician to develop ritual according to their liking. And there are a LOT of things to conjure and invoke.

An interesting note, the sigils of The Old Ones appear to be a combination of Their names drawn on the appropriate magic square. I can rationalize that as trying to fit these unholy names into some Qabalistic format.

On a personal note, about half way through the book I began to feel a affinity to the Old Ones. Their existence and purpose began to make sense as did my meaningless placement in this world.

I can hear them laughing at my mere existence amid the mad chattering of insects.

Iä! Iä! Cthulhu F'tang!!

First off, let me point out that the necronomicon was a fictional book used in stories by H.P Lovecraft and his successors. And let me point out that there have been many 'Necronomicons'published that claim to be the real necronomicons, all being terrible written books trying to make up magic rituals involving beings that bear resemblance to the beings in the mythos made by lovecraft but often having changed names and portfolios as to mislead a reader into thinking this is the origin of the beings in the mythos, not the other way around, or to just differentiate itself from the stories all together by putting it in some pseadomythology based on reall ones and the beings of the mythos (see Simon Necronomicon). Ultimately they have been, in my opinion, terrible failures.

That being said, this book does not fall into those categories I stated above. It uses the real names of the mythos creatures, and it contains little about magic so that a casual reader just wanting to read for its entertainment value (which i have to say is quite high) is not bombarded with ritual and ceromonie and formulae while only getting a fraction of actual entertainment and lore. In addition, unlike its predeccessors it uses quotes lovecrafts stories, the ones that are passages from the necronomicon in the stories, seamlessly integrated into the chapters to further connect to the real necronomicon.

Now, those of you who practice chaos magic who want a way to work with these beings, there are sigils attributed to each old one, but no real rituals other then the creation of the sigil themselves, leaving you to be able to create your own rituals, which is why this one is so great from a chaos magickal point of view too. And for those of you who didnt notice, this version was written by an actual occultist.

I recommend that, if you want a necronomicon, you buy this one and that you dont waste your money or time on other ones, especially the Simon Necronomicon and its spellbook.

Tyson's Necronomicon is an exception to a rule I usually respect: that books bought on impulse, based on reading a few pages in a bookstore, are usually unworthy.

From the prefaces by Wormius and Filetas (each striking a different, although ominous, note) to the drawings of signs and stelae, to the maps, the book is a joy. It tells the story of Alhazred's enlightenment (or should be endarkening?), from fair-haired Yemenian boy-poet, to his horrible mutilation at the hands of a jealous king, to his first inklings of the powers of darkness in Arabia's Empty Quarter, to his wanderings throughout the middle East, to his final days in Damascus, prior to his mysterious death at the hands of an invisible enemy. His retelling of the Greek myths from the perspective of Lovecraftian lore is masterly, and his description of subterranean monsters and inter-dimensional strife are worthy of H.P. himself. And above everything is Alkhazred's mocking tone: as a master sorcerer and champion cheater he is unsurpassed. He is actually the anti-Prometeus, in that he steals not the fire of the gods, but rather the demons' darkness.

The book is in fact so amusing, so well written, so thoroughly consistent, that I wouldn't be surprised if some bone-headed cult doesn't spring around its teachings.

Though knowledge of H.P. Lovecraft's "Cthulhu Mythos" enhances the enjoyment of this brilliant work, it isn't necessary. Tyson's Necronomicon traces the detailed path of the Mad Arab from his expulsion from Yemen into the desert to his final mind-shattering demise in Damascus. This text would also make a great sourcebook for the popular Call Of Cthulhu role-playing game from Chaosium. Lovcraft would have been delighted!

I have only recently delved into H.P. Lovecraft's intriguing mythos about man's inevitable downfall and fate to beings and consequences far larger than himself and, like probably everyone else who starts reading his stories, was instantly curious about what his fictional "Necronomicon" might hold. Of course I came to Amazon.com to read reviews on all the "Necronomicons" out there and eventually settled to the one being reviewed now, and I do not regret my decision one bit.
The entire book has the feeling of analysis, an analysis of fake gods, fake locations, fake magics, fake fates. But the details, background, and lore that the author has researched and described so perfectly within the pages ultimately beg you to wonder: "Is all this fake after all?"
After having read this, I now feel like I am more prepared to take on other Lovecraftian works with a bit more understanding of the mythos and a stronger appreciation for what his tales tell.
Upon completion, three of my friends have already asked to borrow it, not even knowing a scratch about Lovecraft. I told them all that if they liked the bizarre atmosphere of this tome, I would eagerly let them borrow my other collection I purchased from here, "Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos" by H.P. Lovecraft and Others.
This is certainly a great purchase. Next I need that 12" Plush Cthulhu!