Customer Reviews

Song of Cthulhu: Tales of the Spheres Beyond Sound (Call of Cthulhu Fiction)

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This is one of the best of the Chaosium Books of Cthulhu Mythos stories. The "hook" is thatthese tales are connected with either music or sond. The anthology leads off with a basc Lovecraft's story, namely "The Music of Erich Zann." It then proceedd to cover 19 tales of usually good to very good quality. The ones that are among the best are: "The Plain of Sound" by Ramsey Campbell, "The Last Show at Verdi's Supper Club" by Stephen Mark Rainey, "Mud" by Brian McNaughton, "The Enchanting of Lala Woods" by E. A. Lustig and the very atmospheric "Flautists" by Edward P. Berglund. Some anthologies are hit or miss. Well this one is almost all hits. Since the millenium, Lovecraft literature and criticism has fared very well in print. In additon to this volume, there is the wonderful "Children of Cthulhu" edited by John Pean and Benjamin Adams, the essential "Complete H. P. Lovecraft Filmography" by Charles P.Mitchell and "Shards of Darkness" by E. P. Berglund. They all are worth reading by dedicated Lovecraft enthusists.

Stephen Mark Rainey has edited a very pleasant collection of stories for the Cthulhu enthusiast. While most are either familiar or non-memorable, one newer story is particularly eerie: "In the Rue dAuseil" by Fred Chappell has exactly the frisson and dark laughter that characterize HPL. The collector of automata focuses on musicians, and composes for them. In his searches he finds out what Erich Zann really was... Good reading for Hallowe'en!

his didn't cut it. some of the stories were of the kind where the military are challenged by pulpish creatures. i hate those stories. there is a story by Smith here, not really good horror, but had suspence. in addition there is a good story by Rainey. but the rest, no. Some, like Piccirrilli, get almost interesting, but in the end, you wonder why you read them.