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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Decent Read But Totally Unlovecraftian, August 8, 2004
This review is from: The Riddle of Cthulhu (Paperback)
The author's style doesn't bother me much, the plot made sense and even involved me a little, and the romance was amusing, bordering on titillating. However, as usual, the author has adopted the Derlethian heresy of good vs. evil, meaning that the story cannot be lovecraftian in any way.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Abysmal beyond description, October 25, 2008
This review is from: The Riddle of Cthulhu (Paperback)
I was warned away from this book by several Cthulhu mythos fans I respect but I then picked up Ultimate WMD, started it and realized it was a sequel to The Riddle of Cthulhu. I broke down and got a copy. The Riddle of Cthulhu is by Ray Emerson, published in 2003 by Llumina Press. For such a dog, the list price is an extravagant $18.95, discounted currently to $14.78 by Amazon. Page count is 232, although there is a several page introduction not counted in the total. There is no cover art to speak of. The author was evidently given little editorial help as there were quite a few scattered typographical errors, letter deletions and word substitutions, for example do for due. Mr. Emerson had retired as a physicist when he decided to write a science fiction novel, I guess. Well if Jacqueline Susann can write a bunch of bestsellers I guess anyone can give it a try. And Cthulhu is in the public domain so anyone is allowed to use the name.
This book was mind numbingly bad. I read the previous reviews with a surreal sort of disbelief. There was nothing to like here. Where to start?
The dialogue was incredibly amateurish. Here is a passage where an apparently ancient and wise man is speaking to the heroine. She says: "I don't believe you! You're just a dried up old fart!" His reply: "Thou hast much spunk, Siren!" Lots of exclamation points! Exclamation points are a prop authors tend to use to try to give punch to prose that has none on its own. The sex (and there was a lot of it) was not just leering, it was puerile. "Kiss my nipples! Pinch them! Yes - - but not that hard!" There were pages of this drivel. The Cthulhu mythos parts are really confined to Mr. Emerson lifting Lovecraft's place names and creature names, with no apparent understanding of Lovecraft's cosmic vision. Instead of alien immensities, incomprehensible and utterly foreign, the Mother gave birth/created Yahweh and his brother, Cthulhu, who is also known as Satan. This is just plain bad mythos fiction. So what does Cthulhu say, seeing as he is shackled under a giant stone on a mountaintop on the planet R'lyeh circling the star Aldebaran? "Tell me the answer to my riddle! Tell me now or I will commence my erotic experiments on your lush body!" We get further butchery where Miskatonic University is moved from Arkham to Mystic, Connecticut and renamed Arkham University, for no good reason. We get tedious physics lectures that have no place in the narrative, poorly researched genetics and an inexplicable insertion of names and characters from Homer's poems.
Do yourself a favor and avoid this like the plague. I feel obligated to try to wade through Ultimate WMD as I already bought it, but I am not happy about the prospect.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Time, the Forth Dimension, February 6, 2005
This review is from: The Riddle of Cthulhu (Paperback)
I don't generally dwell on typos in a vanity press book. Accidents happen, and when you are doing most of the work yourself, they seem to happen more often. But in this case the misspelling of 'fourth' turns out to be one of the highlights of the book. And it does make a peculiar kind of sense.
Ray Emerson's freshman novel is and adaption of Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos into the context of an attack in the genetic structure of the human race. Somewhere out in space, the Elder Gods (also known as 'good old squid-face') have devised a plan to take over the earth by using a comet to sprinkle us with alien DNA. Now, faced with the sudden appearance of beautiful blond vampires who eat sailors, the secret agencies of the free world unite to stave of this horrific invasion.
It's up to Detective Ulysses Martini and beautiful psychic Cybele Sikorsky to solve a string of ugly murders and chase the cause into the dark caverns and oceans beneath New Hampshire. Or rather, that's what their doing when they're not in the bedroom. Lovecraft, who I believe was something of a prude, will be turning over in his grave.
What is interesting about this book is Emerson's efforts to develop scientific explanations for Lovecraft's evil creations. He also tries to fit Cthulhu into Judeo-Christian mythology. In neither case does he succeed well, since Lovecraft intended his creations to be just what they were - mysterious and terrifying denizens of a world gone dark. Explanations will always ring false because they are never more than one person's opinion. That Emerson has to modify Lovecraft a bit to make everything work doesn't help.
The book is a little too roughly written, a little too focused on sex, and a little too prone to overblown language to be a success. On the other hand, Emerson demonstrates a unique ability to explain the scientific complexities behind his story making. There is potential here and the book does have it's moments. My feeling is that, if Emerson were to learn how to flesh out his characters and build up his narrative, he could very easily be an entertaining writer.
Be warned that the more you like Lovecraft, the more you are likely to be irritated by some of Emerson's reinterpretations. The book lacks what we like best about Lovecraft, the brooding sense of doom that inhabits his horror stories. If on the other hand you are looking for a breezy bit of heroic sci-fi you might very well like this story.
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