Customer Reviews

The Tsathoggua Cycle: Terror Tales of the Toad God (Call of Cthulhu Fiction)

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Man oh man it's finally here. The saga of The Tsathoggua Cycle is very familiar to those of us who haunt the Lovecraft usenet groups regularly. This book was compiled in the late 1990s for a 1998 release when certain unfortunate financial realities kicked in for Chaosium. At last things turned around for the small press icon and after a lengthy delay we have the finished product. And it was actually finished back in 1997-1998; this is not an anthology of stories new in the last 5 years.

List price is $14.95 but Amazon's price is $10.17, and eligible for free shipping if you buy $25 worth of stuff. It is a standard trade paperback with 220 pages. This does not include a 6 page introduction by Robert Price but it does include an introduction to each story. Production qualities are reasonable. The cover art however, continues the dreadful, shameful tradition of the Chaosium cycle books, which have notably poor artwork. The picture looks like pitiful claymation of a dinosaur. After stunning artwork in modern mythos books like Hive, Horrors Beyond and Night Voices, Night Journeys this effort by Mark Achilles White leads me to wonder how much he got paid and that maybe I could become an artist too.

The introduction by Robert Price (the workhorse of the Chaosium cycle series) was actually very useful. It laid out the entire history of the creation of Tsathoggua by Clark Ashton Smith and also discussed various pronunciations. Best of all, there was a photo of a sculpture of Tsathoggua by CAS! This would have been a great cover! In fact more CAS artwork throughout the book would have been most welcome. I also think the individual story introductions, also by Price, were mostly good, although not as good as the book introduction. My advice, however, is to read them after each story as the do contain minor to major spoilers. I also get fatigued by Price's constant comparisons and allusions of mythos stories to Biblical authorship. Give it a rest for at least one book!

Here are the contents:

From the Parchment of Pnom (Clark Ashton Smith)
The Seven Geases (Clark Ashton Smith)
The Testament of Athammaus (Clark Ashton Smith)
The Tale of Satampra Zeiros (Clark Ashton Smith)
The Theft of the Thirty-Nine Girdles (Clark Ashton Smith)
Shadow of the Sleeping God (James Ambuehl)
The Curse of the Toad (Loay Hall and Terry Dale)
Dark Swamp (James Anderson)
The Old One (John Glasby)
The Oracle of Sadoqua (Ron Hilger)
The Horror Show (Gary Myers)
The Tale of Toad Loop (Stanley C. Sargent)
The Crawling Kingdom (Rod Heather)
The Resurrection of Kzadool-Ra (Henry J. Vester III)

My comments follow, with possible minor spoilers, so don't read any more if that bothers you.

I will say from the outset that I think CAS was a unique American prose master. I acquired his Hyperborea and Zothique from Ballantine many years ago, edited by Lin Carter. My favorite compilation is A Rendezvous in Averoigne from Arkham House. I urge everyone to get a copy of this title. I am eagerly awaiting the complete stories from Nightshade Books (yes I couldn't help preordering it). Rereading the Smith tales enclosed herein was like encountering old friends after a long separation. CAS had a gift for language, scene painting and shading horror with humor. But I must also voice a complaint. Any HPL collector likely already has A Rendezvous in Averoigne. I can understand the desire to get all the Tsathoggua stories in one volume but this was really needless duplication. On the other hand, except for Sargent's contribution the rest of the stories here were new to me. As for commentary on The Tale of Satampra Zeiros and The Theft of the Thirty-Nine Girdles, I simply must direct you to Dan Clore's brilliant discussion of timeline inconsistencies: search on Google Groups for alt.horror.cthulhu and then search that group for posts by Dan Clore. I will note that The Seven Geases made an indelible impression on me when I was a teen, first discovering CAS and HPL, with the fate of the protagonist giving me quite a shock, after all the happy ending fantasy I had been reading. I sometimes wonder if why I like CAS and HPL so much is I was swept off my feet by them in my formative teen reading years. I've been enamored ever since. Finally, I must also contradict myself. For me From the Parchment of Pnom was just about unreadable. I don't think CAS ever intended it for print. I really can't stand mythos genealogies. They don't ring true for me; at least I don't enjoy them at all.

Shadow of the Sleeping God by James Ambuehl - You may know of James Ambuehl's other story in the Satampra Zeiros canon, In the Court of the Crystal Flame found in Lost Worlds of Space and Time volume one. That story was very enjoyable. Alas I just didn't find this (written earlier?) 1998 effort to be nearly as good. This story is a direct sequel to The Theft of the Thirty-Nine Girdles. I don't like it when the story bludgeons you over the head with the fact that it is mythos, and that there is a mythos, instead of the mythos entities/trappings being props for the story. Also there is no way the avatar of Tsathoggua would not have consumed all the protagonists. In the intervening years Mr. Ambuehl's prose has become much more polished. Check out The Pisces Club, for example.

The Curse of the Toad (Loay Hall and Terry Dale) - The premise of this story was pretty good, with a disdainful great white hunter cursed by a shaman of Gua (Tsathoggua for short...). Unfortunately the execution was not so hot. Writing a sentence in upper case does not give it more weight any more then the old trope of the italicized ending. The prose here was fair at best but I'll admit to enjoying the denouement, nicely concealed by indirection.

Dark Swamp (James Anderson) - In this tale, HPL makes an appearance as himself, at least one of his experiences does; the setting is a place where HPL actually spent an afternoon looking, unsuccessfully perhaps, for Dark Swamp. Price's introduction was particularly useful spelling all this out for those of us unfamiliar with all the details of HPL's life. Years later the protagonist wants to walk in HPL's footsteps and to his chagrin manages to find the swamp. He then wonders if HPL had actually seen the denizens of the swamp and if this inspired his fiction. I really find the appearance of HPL and his fiction inside mythos stories to be a tiresome plot device, particularly when the implication is that his fiction wasn't really fiction. The prose was OK, the denouement was OK, none of it jazzed me. And I'll have to reread beacuse I missed just where Tsathoggua makes an appearance and how the story fits in this anthology...

The Old One (John Glasby) - Oh well, another typical HPL pastiche type introduction about a scientist/archeologist warning us all about the veil of reality and how he wished he never peeked behind it, yadayadayada. In this case the ancient city Yuth is discovered on the ocean floor near Bimini, and so is a temple of Tsathoggua. Some intrepid (or mostly trepid...) scientists investigate, including one who knows the awful truth... You know, this was a perfectly agreeable story with perfectly agreeable writing. I mostly enjoyed it. It just wasn't very original.

The Oracle of Sadoqua (Ron Hilger) - I really like Roman times mythos stories. Others I can think of offhand include the novel The Gardens of Lucullus (used copies available on the internet) and The Golden Keeper by Ian R. MacLeod (available in the collection Eternal Lovecraft from Golden Gryphon). The friend of a Roman lieutenant stationed in Gaul disappears. Suspicions run high against the druids who are the guardians of the Oracle of Sadoqua (I actually enjoyed the use of different names/spellings for Tsathoggua in this book; it nicely dovetails with the uncertainty, blurred distinctions, contradictions, human inability to completely perceive these Lovecraftian type entities. I liked the construction of the story, the setting and the prose. Keep up the good work, Mr. Hilger.

The Horror Show (Gary Myers) - I am unfamiliar with Gary Myers but I have to fix that. The Horror Show was a gem, clearly my favorite in the anthology (of course, not including the CAS stories). Great prose well developed tension, great plot. A chance encounter in a pretentious and contrived Goth club causes a young lady to accept the persuasions of a young man to see a real horror show...

The Tale of Toad Loop (Stanley C. Sargent) - Ancient Exhumations was originally published by Mythos Books in 1999; the new edition, Ancient Exhumations +2 (with a real cool cover!) was published by Elder Signs Press in 2004. This is where The Tale of Toad Loop made its first anthology appearance. The basic plot is very familiar mythos territory. A sorcerer or dabbler in sorcery opens a gate to allow an outré being to impregnate his wife (as usual for very obscure reasons), Toadaggwa in this case. Sargent spins a fine yarn with this common premise, with deft plotting, nifty prose and an unexpected ending.

The Crawling Kingdom (Rod Heather) - Another well written story cleverly plotted. A professor studying toads in the woods inadvertently observes a rite of worship of Tsathoggua. A nosy college reporter uncovers what the consequences were to the professor, and maybe to himself from that unhappy chance.

The Resurrection of Kzadool-Ra (Henry J. Vester III) - More CAS like than HPL like, this story was set in Zothique, where an acolyte inadvertently discovers an alter dedicated to Zathogwa. He decides to resurrect worship to the dread god... A very agreeable read.

So what is the mythos fan to do? As usual in the Chaosium cycle books this was a mixed bag. Some reprints everyone probably has, some stories that were not so hot (although no really complete dogs) some minor gems and one that knocked my socks off. It is inexpensive, compiles almost all the Tsathoggua stories in one place and will keep your cycle book collection complete. Go for it!

The long and the short of it...I loved the book. Ok, that was the short...
here's the long

Here are my opinions on the tales.
From the Parchments of Pnom: Clark Ashton Smith
The first tale is more of a setup for the other Tsathoggua tales, the idea
of how he came to earth, his relatives and other bits of tale that gets
more detail in the stories. Never read this one before now, but I knew all
the data already. Still, nice to read it in CAS's own words.

The Seven Geases: Clark Ashton Smith
First tale that Saint Toad actually shows up in, a hunter is cursed to be a
snack for Tsathoggua, but instead he's sent on a series of weirder and
weirder geas meeting various critters of ancient Hyperborea. Amusing tale.

The Testament of Athammaus: Clark Ashton Smith
How the city of Commorian was rezoned for amorphous beings. Not the best
tale, but still worth the read. Proof that loosing your head over some
things is a bad idea *wink*.

The Tale of Satampra Zeiros: Clark Ashton Smith
First appears of Satampra Zeiros, thief of Hyberborea. Why stealing from
the temple of a nearly forgotten god can really disarm you. ;)

The Theft of the Thirty Nine Girdles: Clark Ashton Smith
Not really a Tsathoggua tale, but staring Satampra Zeiros and set in Hyperborea.
More like one of Fritz Leiber's Gray Mouser tales, but enjoyable.

Shadow of the Sleeping God: James Ambuehl
Third tale of Satampra Zeiros, a wrap of the other two tales, plus with a nice
heart to heart with Tsathoggua.

The Curse of the Toad: Loay Hall and Terry Dale
Basic Mythos tale of why travelling can be bad for you. Not the best of
the stories in the collection, but amusing.

The Dark Swamp: James Anderson
Follow up to a real roadtrip taken by HPL looking for a swamp in
Rhode Island,that he never talked about afterwards. So, the
author filled in the blanks. Not really about Tsathoggua or kin,
other than swamps = toads I guess.

The Old One: John S Glasby
I found this one interesting, since it's framework is about a archaelogist
looking for proof of a prehistorical civilization, like Atlantis, Lemuria or...
Hyperborea ;) Other than that, it's a fairly normal Mythos tale.

The Oracle of Sadoqua: Ron Hilger
This was my favorite tale, set in CAS's Averoigne (France) in Roman times. The
idea is cool, sorta like a demonic Oracle of Delphi. Kind of predictable in the
ending, but it's a Mythos tale...most of the endings are fairly obvious what's
going to go horribly wrong ;)

The Horror Show: Gary Myers
Creepy tale, short, sweet, to the point...and leaves you wondering what happens
to the poor Goth girl ;) For those in Dallas, it would make you wonder about
going to the Church anytime soon ;)

The Tale of Toad Loop: Stanley C. Sargent
Tsathoggua meets Dunwich Horror. While it's a common tale in the Mythos,
Elder God meets Girl, Elder God fathers unspeakable offspring on Girl, Girl
looses mind...but Mr Sargent does it rather well.

The Crawling Kingdom: Rod Heather
You'll never hear the chorus of frogs and toads calling the same way again.
Fairly long build up to the story, but it works fairly well, though the
narrator being fairly insane by the end is a little overdone.

The Resurrection of Kzadool-Ra: Henry J. Vester III
One of CAS's other worlds is Zothique, the last continent on Earth many years
in the future. The author added Tsathoggua into this world, with his one
remaining worshipper, and why when a god gives you some advice on what not
to do, why you should listen.

There wasn't a 'bad' tale in the bunch, some seemed to fit better than
others, but all in all it was one of the better collections from Chaosium in
a while. My favorites were The Oracle of Sadoqua, The Tale of Toad Loop and
Shadow of the Sleeping God. If you like weird fiction, give it a shot.

This is one more (and belated) addition to a series of fantastic fiction titles merchandised by Chaosium as a background for their celebrated role-playing game about the Cthulhu mythos. The books, however, stand on their own and may be considered -- to a certain extent -- "serious" weird literature. The problem, as always, lies with the selection, and while the original Clark Ashton Smith tales about the transuranic toad-god Tsathoggua are still quite enjoyable, not all the contemporary stories that have been added to complete this offering are up to their standards. All in all, a "must have" for Smith completists and players of the game, but not just for everybody's taste.

I love these Cycle books, edited by Robert M. Price for Chaosium. They are a rich and entertaining blend of very polished professional tales and more fannish fiction, and they are a wonderful celebration of that madness known as the Cthulhu Mythos. The book is dedicated to Joe Pulver -- one wishes that Joe had a story in it as well!

Bob's introductions are always extremely rad; they overflow with information and ideas. Oft times, when reading his introductions to these books, I am inspir'd with ideas for my own Mythos fiction. As mention'd elsewhere, within this introduction is a wee photo of Clark Ashton Smith's own sculpture of Tsathoggua! Pretty damn cool.

Each story is introduced by Bob, and his introductions are always informed and entertaining. Gawd, he is a mine of information! The opening story is not a story at all but rather portions of letters that CAS wrote to Barlow. It is followed by an amusing "Genealogical Chart of the Elder Gods." This is followed by a Clark Ashton Smith tale of dark phantasy, "The Seven Geases," in which the dark god Tsathoggua makes an appearance: "...he discerned in a dark recess the formless bulking of a couchant mass. And the mass stirred a little at his approach, and put forth with infinite slothfulness a huge and toad-shaped head. And the head opened its eyes very slightly, as if half-awakened from slumber, so that they were visible as two slits of oozing phosphor in the black, browless face." This story keenly influenced the writing of my own tale of the toad god, "Oh, Baleful Theophany."

My favorite tale in the book is "Dark Swamp," by James Anderson. In his introduction to the story, Price writes: "What follows is James Anderson's ingenious attempt to solve the mystery of Dark Swamp, a legendary Rhode Island miasma Lovecraft and C. M. Eddy sought in vain to visit one day in 1923." This is a superb tale, with a genuine Lovecraftian narrative tone. The Mythos element is subtle yet potent.

"The Old One," by John S. Glasby, is also quite good. Bob Price writes of Glasby, in his introduction to THE NEW LOVECRAFT CIRCLE:
"There was one more writer who had been ordained by Derleth himself to take a seat, like Randolph Carter in 'Through the Gates of the Silver Key," among the ranks of the New Lovecraft Circle. But, again, like Randolph Carter, the throne was denied him. Derleth had promised to bring out an Arkham collection of Mythos stories by English weird fictioneer John Glasby. Glasby had written a huge number of tales for the English paperback magazine Supernatural Stories, some few of them Lovecraft-related.
"The tragic death of the mastermind of Arkham House threw many planned projects into Limbo. Sadly, Glasby's THE BROODING CITY was one of these. I published all the stories in two issues of Crypt of Cthulhu (#s 67 and 71)..."
There have been tentative plans for a book of Glasby's Mythos fiction to be published, but to my knowledge none of these have come to fruition. Happily, Bob has included a number of the author's works in various anthologies. Glasby has a rich imagination and a solid style. He fiction can, at times, be overlong, but it is always worth reading.

I have a special fondness for Rod Heather's "The Crawling Kingdom" because I helped the author to revise it, although I insisted that my name not be included in the byline. It was great fun to feel like I was H. P. Lovecraft revising a tale for one of his Weird Tales clients. Rod himself is a good writer, and much of the prose is his. Bob Price detected my revision hand in the tale, and whimsically renamed one of the characters "Dr. Wilum Von Helmer" as a kind of wink of the eye in acknowledgment. It's a good tale, methinks.

"The Tale of Toad Loop" is one of Stanley C. Sargent's finest stories, and it makes one sad that he has decided to write no more Mythos or Lovecraftian tales. The narrative voice is one with which Stan works very well, as told by a kind of rustic. Yet the prose is so good, and the Mythos elements are deftly handled.

One of the finest tales is "The Resurrection of Kzadool-Ra," by that affirmed Clark Ashton Smith fan, Henry J. Vester III. Interestingly, most of the stories in this volume read more like they were influenced by the fiction of Lovecraft rather than Clark Ashton Smith. Henry's tale is CASian to its core. Henry is himself a poet and a lover of poetry, as was Smith, and his fabulous prose is beautifully expressed.

This is a good collection for all Mythos fans, as are all of the Cycle books edited by the remarkable Robert M. Price.

The Call of Cthulhu series is published by Chaosium Books as a supplement for its Call of Cthulhu RPG game. Each book highlights single entities, concepts or authors significant to the Lovecraft Mythos.

This collection starts off strongly, with five stellar stories from the pen of Clark Ashton Smith. These tales are loosely connected by their setting in Hyperborea, Smith's prehistoric civilization.

The first, From the Parchments of Pnom, is a genealogy of Tsathoggua, telling how he fits into the hierarchy of the Old Ones. I'm not sure why the editor included this; it's not really necessary to know in order to enjoy the rest of the stories. I would have much rather read The Door to Saturn, which feature's Tsathoggua's cosmic origin.

The Seven Geases relates the story of a minor noble of Hyperborea, Ralibar Vooz, who is sent on an underground quest through progressively more dark and bizarre vistas. He encounters several awe-inspiring creatures, including the hideous spider god Atlach-Nacha, the oozing, amorphous Abhoth, and the menacing toad god Tsathoggua.

The Testament of Athammaus tells the story of the abandonment of Commoriom, the capital city of Hyberborea, through the eyes of its last headsman. A bandit by the name of Knygathin Zhaum, distantly related to Tsathoggua, was terrorizing the local populace. Eventually he is captured and executed multiple (yes, multiple!) times, going through ever more hideous transformations each time.

The Tale of Satampra Zeiros is a sequel to the previous story and introduces us to Hyperborea's most infamous thief. While down on his luck, he travels to the now long abandoned city of Commoriom, in the hopes of acquiring some of the riches rumored to be left behind after its hasty desertion. Unfortunately, he enters an abandoned temple dedicated to Tsathoggua and comes face to face with a nameless horror.

The Theft of the Thirty-Nine Girdles presents the further adventures of the lovable bandit, Satampra Zeiros. There is no appearance of Tsathoggua in this tale, but it is very amusing nonetheless.

Two more stories are set in Smith's fictional worlds, but both are written by different authors.

The first is The Shadow of the Sleeping God, written by James Ambuehl. It once again features Satampra Zeiros, who is caught by Ruul-Vash, the high priest of the temple that he raided in The Theft of the Thirty-Nine Girdles. He is sent on a dangerous mission in order to spare his life, during which Satampra has his second encounter with Tsathoggua. Unfortunately, this story is just a shadow of the previous one; the characters just don't have the same vibrancy.

The Resurrection of Kzadool-Ra by Henry J. Vester III is set in the world of Zothique, in the distant future (but similar in culture to Hyperborea). Yat-Shan is a minor priest seeking a higher position when comes upon the temple of the forbidden god Zathogwa. After he gives an offering before the dark altar he is endowed with superhuman powers, but at what price?

The two following tales are lovingly rendered pastiches of Lovecraft's work.

The Old One, by John Glasby, follows a professor who finds an old book about pre-human civilizations and becomes obsessed with finding the lost city of Yuth. Eventually his search brings him to the Caribbean Sea. The story is told in a very scientific manner. The description of the fabulous cityscape is well done. It reminds me of At the Mountains of Madness, which is one of my favorite Lovecraft stories.

The Tale of Toad Loop, by Stanley C. Sargent, is a straight-up retelling of The Dunwich Horror set in a new location. Old Mazrah Mulltree, formerly of Innsmouth, moves to Madlan County and starts to stir up trouble.

The rest of the stories cover the gamut of scenes and settings.

The Curse of the Toad is a short story about two old friends meeting after several years apart. One is much changed by his encounter with an African tribe that worshipped Tsathoggua.

Dark Swamp is about a legendary bog in Rhode Island that Lovecraft once tried to visit. The author retraces his steps and finds out there's a good reason for the swamp's evil aura.

Horror Show features a pair of university students who meet at a Goth club and decide to find more authentic entertainment by attending a theatrical ritual held in Tsathoggua's honor. The tale is presented in a very creepy and realistic manner, which is something most modern Mythos authors have a hard time pulling off. I think this is the best of the non-Smith stories in the collection.

Crawling Kingdom relates the story of a reporter visiting an old professor in the hills of Appalachia who relates a strange encounter in the woods during a thunderstorm and how it has haunted him since.

Rounding out the entries is The Oracle of Sadoqua, by Ron Hilger. It is set in Roman times and revolves around invading Centurions fighting against native druids in the land of Averonia. After a long battle, Horatius discovered that his friend has been captured and vows to find him. He is sent to an oracle of Tsathoggua for help in his search, but stumbles onto a deeper horror than he bargained for.

This is a vastly superior Mythos collection, thanks in large part to the inclusion of Clark Ashton Smith's stories. Tsathoggua seems to offer a lot more variety than other Mythos concepts, as seen by the many different settings and time frames employed by the various authors.