Customer Reviews

The Sand Dwellers

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Although one should commend Adam Niswander for continuing the expansion of the works of H.P. Lovecraft (of which I am a huge aficionado), the Sand Dwellers falls woefully short of a good novel, let alone one that evokes the same feelings of cosmic dread of the master himself. The characters are poorly fleshed out, and seem like cardboard cutouts of movie characters. The hardboiled detective, the strong-willed female physician, even the irascible but yet likable hermit Clem are all characters that ultimately readers will not connect with or care about. I won't mention any potential spoilers here, but let me just say that the scenes involving the Mythos entities are among the most inane in the book. Niswander reduces the awe-inspiring, omnipotent Mythos powers that be to Batman's nemesis the Joker. They become some kind of cosmic foil to the "good guys". Yes, Sand Dwellers is better than most pastiches, but not by much. If you are a true Lovecraft fan, you wil likely be disappointed by this entry into the next miliennium of the Mythos!!!

The author weaves together a very interesting psychological and occult thriller solidly rooted in its Southwestern setting. The inspiration behind the plotting comes from the so called 'Cthulhu Mythos' first developed by H. P. Lovecraft. The author deftly guides the reader between four main protagonists through whose eyes we see the story rapidly develop. The plot concerns deadly events in Arizona's Superstition Mountains where monstrous forces, responsible horrific events in the past, have now bent their attention to a secret U.S. military base capable of causing a nuclear apocalypse. The suspense builds as the author keeps us guessing whether an old hermit, a deformed child, a private investigator, and the base commander can somehow come together to avert the end of the world. The only letdown is a perfunctory incorporation of ideas and terminology from earlier mythos writers (largely Brian Lumley [ author of the various Titus Crowe and other Mythos stories] and Fritz Lieber ['To Arkham and the Stars']) about a monster hunting organization based at Lovecraft's Miskatonic University. All in all a very enjoyable read by an author well-versed in his craft and a master of the Southwestern landscape.