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20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent yet Flawed, November 25, 2010
This review is from: The Yith Cycle: Lovecraftian Tales of the Great Race and Time Travel (Call of Cthulhu Fiction) (Paperback)
THE YITH CYCLE is the newest anthology of Cthuhlu Mythos fiction from Chaosium, and it is in many ways a wonderful book. With 507 pages of weird fiction, it is enormous, and much of the material is now difficult if not impossible to find. Here's a wee run down of ye contents: "The Purple Sapphire," by John Taine. This is a short novel that takes up about one-third of the book, beginning on page 14 and ending on page 196. I've read but a few pages of it, yet it seems interesting. Editor Price feels that H. P. Lovecraft must have read the novel and "saluted" it with his writing of "The Shadow out of Time." I look forward to reading it once I have a leisure hour. "Dreams of Yith," Duane W. Rimel. This is a sonnet sequence by a young man who was fascinated with Lovecraft's writing and in correspondence with Lovecraft. Lovecraft may indeed have had a hand in revising some of the sonnets in this sequence, and he encouraged Rimel to change the title (it was originally to be called "Dreams of Yid"). The work is fascinating in that it reads like pure Cthulhu Mythos, yet was written before the Mythos was formed into its present entity by Derleth. I love these sonnets, and am glad to have them in this fine edition. "The Jewels of Charlotte," by Duane R. Rimel. This short story features Rimel's occult investigator, Constantine Theunis, who figured in another story ("The Tree on the Hill") that was revised by Lovecraft. "The Sealed Casket," by Richard F. Searight. Searight invented the Mythos device known as "the Eltdown Shards," which Lovecraft mentions in "The Shadow out of Time" and his revision story "The Diary of Alonzo Typer." Searight writes very well, and I enjoyed this fine wee tale. "The Warder of Knowledge," Richard F. Searight. This tale never saw print in Searight's lifetime, seeing its first publication in TALES OF THE LOVECRAFT MYTHOS, a splendid hardcover anthology edited by Robert M. Price for Fedogan & Bremer. It contains another tantalizing mention of the Eltdown Shards, as well as the Necronomicon, the Book of Eibon, Cthulhu and other entities. "The Shadow out of Time," by H. P. Lovecraft. Alas, a huge error happened in the editing or proofing of this book. In his Introduction to the story Bob writes: "We are mighty pleased to be able to bring you the best version of Lovecraft's text ever published. In 1995 Nelson Shreve discovered Lovecraft's original holograph manuscript of the tale among his late sister-in-law's papers. Robert Barlow, her friend and onetime instructor had given her the manuscript some forty-five years earlier. The corrected version restores HPL's paragraphing as well as over two dozen word changes, and six lines of omitted text." But for some reason that corrected text is NOT then published in this book -- instead we have the corrupted earlier text! This is most unfortunate. If you want to read the corrected text, it may be found in the Penguin Classics edition, THE DREAMS IN THE WITCH HOUSE AND OTHER WEIRD STORIES, edited by S. T. Joshi. "The Challenge from Beyond," H. P. Lovecraft. This is Lovecraft's chapter of a round robin story that had different segments penned by different authors, in this case HPL, Catherine L. Moore, Abraham Merritt, Robert E. Howard and Frank Belknap Long. Only Lovecraft's chapter is included here, and it's GREAT! I've recently written a chapter in a Lovecraftian round robin myself (and Robert M. Price also write a chapter), which will be published by FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION here in the States. "The Shadow out of Space," August W. Derleth. One of editor Bob's fine decisions is to publish these "posthumous collaborations" with only Derleth's name as byline, since Derleth was their sole author. Usually these tales are published as "by H. P. Lovecraft and August Derleth." They are stories that Derleth wrote, based on ideas that he found among Lovecraft's notes or commonplace book. Derleth tried to write these stories in the prose style and "voice" of H. P. Lovecraft -- but at this he was not successful. Still, although none of them are anywhere as brilliant as Lovecraft's originals, some of them are entertaining tales. Their huge problem is that they too often steal actual plots from Lovecraft and merely ripoff his ideas, adding nothing new, and thus are a form of plagiarism. This is one of the very worst of them, a complete ripoff of Lovecraft's "The Shadow out of Time." Shameful. "The Dark Brotherhood," August W. Derleth. This is another of the fake posthumous collaborations, and yet this delightful tale is quite original and effective. It is set in Lovecraft's beloved Providence and concerns the eidolon of Edgar A. Poe. It's way cool and I love it. A portion of its success is that the story is genuinely Lovecraftian without dragging in any of the Mythos cliches with which Augie was so obsessed. "The Horror from Yith," Alan D. Gullette, Walter C. deBill Jr., and Ted C. Pons. Another round robin, and a very rare tale that was originally published in what was the finest Lovecraftian magazine of all time, NYCTALOPS. It's a brilliant tale, superbly penned and genuinely Lovecraftian, original and imaginative. Three cheers to Bob for reprinting it in this book and making it available to a wider audience! "The Changeling," Walter C. deBill Jr. What is the correct way to spell this writer's name? In this book it is spelled "deBill," DeBill," "de Bill," &c &c. The author was one of the new Lovecraftians discovered by August Derleth, who published de Bill's early Lovecraftian fiction in The Arkham Collector, and Gerald W. Page included one of DeBill's fine Lovecraftian weird tales in the Arkham House anthology, NAMELESS PLACES. A collection of the author's excellent fiction, THE BLACK SUTRA, was published by Mythos Books and is available here at Amazon. This newer tale first saw print in an e-book, THE MLANDOTH MYTH CYCLE AND OTHERS, in 2002. Walter is another of the authors who penned a chapter for the round robin story that we sold to FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION. He's very good. "The Sands of Time," P Schuyler Miller. This is an entertaining science fiction tale that has as part of its theme time travel. I'm not certain that it actually deserves to be in this anthology, but it's a good tale, and it discusses a theme that was partial to Lovecraft's imagination. "Countdown for Kalara," Richard L. Tierney. Tierney is one of the weird genre's finest writers of prose and poetry -- his verse is really wonderful and has been collected by Arkham House and others. This delightful tale is more science fiction than Lovecraftian horror, but it is quite Lovecraftian and tied to "The Shadow out of Time." Excellent! "The Winds of Yith," Wilum Hopfrog Pugmire. I didn't even remember that this story saw print, in a wee fanzine called CHRONICLES OF THE CTHULHU CODEX, where it was published in 1987. When Bob told me he wanted to include it in this book I at first begged him not to, because it is an early story that I have since disowned and I didn't want it published anew. "Let me write you something good!" I begged. But then I got apathetic and decided, "Oh, whatever. Let people see how poor my early fiction was." I've tried to read the story in this book, but after the first page I got so sick to my stomach that I gave up. The story is simple-minded and awfully twee. The interesting thing about it, for me now, is that it shews the heavy influence of August Derleth, or so I imagine. The one good thing about having the story published now is that it shews how much I have improved and matured as a Lovecraftian weird artist. poftscriptum: Since writing this review I read THE SURVIVOR AND OTHERS and did a video commentary on each tale -- & it was a revelation. For example, I rather enjoyed Derleth's "The Shadow out of Space" and found it far more original than I remembered it being. I think I have been a victim of Derleth-bashing that, in the past, convinced me that these fake collaborations were very poor, and I initially read them in that mindset. But reading them again with a clearer, more mature mind, I find them rather enjoyable as weird tales. I still insist that it was a huge deceit of Derleth's to add HP's name to the byline, but that is not reason to condemn the actual stories.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Discovering Lovecraft and Weird Fiction, July 14, 2011
This review is from: The Yith Cycle: Lovecraftian Tales of the Great Race and Time Travel (Call of Cthulhu Fiction) (Paperback)
Full disclosure: The last time I read horror fiction was back when Stephen King wrote stories as Richard Bachman. I picked up The Yith Cycle because I know one of its authors. To my friend's credit, he never asked me to review the book. I'm reviewing it because The Yith Cycle is a milestone for me as a reader. It is my introduction to "weird fiction," which I found to be surprisingly fun. This book, edited by Robert M. Price, is an anthology of works of 10 authors. As the book's title suggests, it is a tribute to H.P. Lovecraft, whose novella, "The Shadow Out of Time," as well as his part in "The Challenge from Beyond," are among the featured stories. There are 14 stories in all, most of which are probably familiar to the typical horror-fiction fan. A three-part round robin, "The Horror from Yith," is worth noting. It utilizes Lovecraftian elements from "The Shadow Out of Time," such as The Great Race, the flying polyps, and the Great Race's practice of transferring their minds to human bodies. The stories in this round robin were first published in Nyctalops between 1973 and 1975. The first part, "The Shadow from Yith," by Alan D. Gullette, introduces Christopher Evans-Douglas, a math professor plagued by a recurring dream about strange, winged creatures. He retreats to a cabin in the wilderness of Idaho, where, one night, he dreams about the planet Yith. A member of the Great Race has transferred its mind to Evans-Douglas. As a result, he gets to see the city of Czymra, where he encounters glasslike spheres; visits the Great Race's library; and learns that members of the Great Race have been jumping from planet to planet because of their mortal fear of something pursuing them. Evans-Douglas grows terrified, and he flees. In the second part, "The Horror from Yith," by Walter C. DeBill Jr., Evans-Douglas has disappeared. DeBill introduces new characters--Laszlo, Aldecoa, and Dunaway--who are looking for Evans-Douglas. In the wilderness, they find the body of a 10-foot creature, neither animal nor man. This inauspicious beginning of their search leads to an encounter with the creatures, and ultimately, to Dunaway's death. The men, however, find Evans-Douglas in the cabin. He is unconscious, his body still controlled by the Great Race. This reinforces the men's belief that the Great Race is active on Earth, and they mention someone named LaRue, who is in search of the ruins of the Great Race's city in Australia, the same ruins mentioned by Lovecraft in his novella. The last part of the round robin, "Beneath the Dunes," by Ted Pons, introduces Kasimerz Grodek, the man who hired Laszlo's team to retrace the route taken by LaRue -- the same route taken by Lovecraft's Peaslee expedition. Grodek learns that Laszlo and Aldecoa have disappeared in Australia. The rest of the story unfolds in the form of log entries written by Laszlo for Grodek. The log reveals that the missing pair did locate the ruins and that they descended to the sand dunes beneath. Laszlo found LaRue, but he also found his partner, Aldecoa, in a similarly shocking state as LaRue. I found this book abundantly strange to satisfy my curiosity about the genre, but less scary than I had expected. To fans of Lovecraft, this book is a "must read." To first-time readers like me, it is a good introduction to a whole new and wonderful world of weird fiction.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Flawed and not excellent, September 21, 2011
This review is from: The Yith Cycle: Lovecraftian Tales of the Great Race and Time Travel (Call of Cthulhu Fiction) (Paperback)
After this I may have finally reached my limit. I will probably still collect the Cycle books but I honestly do not know if I will continue my attempts to read them as they come out. The release date was, what, a year ago? Of course I had pre-ordered it ages before and it only came out eight years (!!) after it was compiled for Chaosium. I think Chaosium went through a rocky patch a while back and their entire fiction publishing schedule is off kilter. Anyway, I was trying to think what things in Cthulhu mythos fiction have me most aggrieved (not that I have anyone to blame but myself). I came up with an author/editor who will remain nameless who owes me $150 I paid for a limited edition of The Cthulhian Singularity, a book which will never be published. I came up with Edward Lee who keeps attaching HPL as a character in his terrible, tedious and tawdry rape porn, forcing me as an inveterate collector to buy such dross. And I keep coming back to Robert Price's editing tenure at the Chaosium cycle series. My objection is not the editing or typographic errors or use of a less than definitive edition of The Shadow out of Time. Honestly, I don't read that assiduously. I sort of mentally fix any minor typos, word substitutions or punctuation changes and promptly forget about them. My problem is the fiction in this book mostly stinks or is irrelevant to a mythos fiction fan. I think Mr. Price has a very different view of what a compiler of such an anthology should do than what I think he should do. He was one of the purveyors of fan fiction way back before the mythos boom, and now he views it as his duty (or maybe as his great pleasure) to present stories that are essentially lousy fan fiction as though they are historical artifacts, or to present stories that may have influenced HPL in the writing of a specific tale, regardless of whether there is any concrete evidence for this. Now recently we have had Dead But Dreaming 2, Cthulhu Unbound 1 and 2, Cthulhurotica, Historical Lovecraft, Cthulhu's Reign and The Book of Cthulhu where the editors tried their very best to serve up high quality fiction for Lovecraft and mythos fans. Compared to this, The Yith Cycle is an albatross. I swear it took me more than 10 months to slog through it. Great books have been released and grace my shelves unread because I have been struggling with this. The book is a very handsome trade paperback with 512 pages, although of course there is space for Price's introduction, his introduction to each story and some advertising. The cover is a masterful depiction of a member of the Great Race by Stephen Gilberts. It may be one of my favorite covers by Mr. Gilberts. For the size, the $16.95 list seems very reasonable, especially if you consider Amazon's discount. Here are the contents a few brief impressions. Emanations from Yith by Robert Price. Mr. Price sure can write an introduction. In fact he waxes on about the substance behind the stories in a way that can become tedious. I would consider reading his introductions to the individual stories after you have read them to avoid spoilers. The Purple Sapphire by John Taine. Well. We start off with a thud. Why this was included I have no idea. It has nothing to do with Yith or Lovecraft, and Mr. Price's assertions to the contrary strike me as completely bogus. It is a decent loooooonnnngggg pulp novella, with the usual overtones of how white people are so much more competent than the people native to Asia. I kept wondering what it was doing in this book. Dreams of Yith by Duane W. Rimel. These sonnets are pleasant reading but the only reason they are here is because they share the name Yith with HPL's story, not because they are particularly memorable or have any bearing on the Great Race. The Jewels of Charlotte by Duane R. Rimel. This story is boring, has nothing to do with the mythos and could have been omitted. I'd have been happy to never know it existed. The Sealed Casket by Richard F. Searight. This story is the first one that mentions the Eltdown Shards, a volume in the Eldritch Library that HPL was pleased to adopt. It was not a bad story of a reclusive antiquarian meeting a now stereotypical end but it certainly did not knock my socks off. The Warder of Knowledge by Richard F. Searight. I guess it is of interest to mythos completists but all the tropes in it seem tired by today's standards. The Shadow out of Time by H. P. Lovecraft. Mr. Pugmire goes on about how the edition here is a bit of a misstep by the editor. I'd go further to say that this story spans 60 pages that could have been put to other use. I mean, I can't even count how many copies of The Shadow Out of Time I have in my library. Needless duplication because I sincerely doubt anyone will use this book to introduce themselves to Lovecraft. The Challenge from Beyond by H. P. Lovecraft. This is a chapter in a round robin story; in this book we do not get to see the other writers' contributions. Of the entire contents so far, about 300 pages, this is the first thing I enjoyed reading, mainly because I had never seen it before. The Shadow out of Space by August W. Derleth. Price immediately reverts to type by including a Derleth pastiche that completely apes The Shadow Out of Time. Years ago in my early mythos phase I would have lapped it up. Now I was wondering why I was subjecting myself to such drudgery. The Dark Brotherhood by August W. Derleth. This was a better effort by Derleth, where aliens attempt to infiltrate human society by nefarious means. It's not GOOD, mind you, just better than most of the rest of this book. The Horror from Yith by Alan D. Gullette, Walter C. deBill Jr., and Ted C. Pons. These authors wrote a round robin pastiche using HPL's themes from The Shadow Out of Time and at this point I found it nearly unendurable, being derivative and not especially well written. The Changeling by Walter deBill. Mr. deBill has had a sizeable collection of his mythos fiction see print in The Black Sutra. Mostly I was disenchanted with it as being derivative Lovecraft pastiches but I have to say while reading that book you could tell he was constantly improving. In fact his later stories have been quite good. The Changeling is not bad, using mind transfer and deep time themes from The Shadow out of Time, although I may be saying that because at this point in the book I was pretty beaten down. The Sands of Time by P Schuyler Miller. Mr. Miller wrote this story of time travel and created the idea of time existing in coils to explain time travel. Otherwise there is no Great Race, no Yith, no mythos and nothing else relevant. It wasn't bad but it sure didn't knock my socks off. Countdown for Kalara by Richard L. Tierney. Of all the stories in the book this was of greatest interest to me because it featured the introduction of one of Tierney's major characters, John Taggart, who will later be featured in The Drums of Chaos. I have had great difficulty finding the Taggart stories, and Price says some of the rarer ones will be included in the upcoming Yog Sothoth Cycle (oh, joy). Even after looking for years I have not found an affordable copy of The Winds of Zarr. Anyway, here we meet Taggart and find out about Tierney's take on the war between the Elder Gods and the Great Old Ones. For fun, he ties together the previous story, The Sands of Time with The Shadow Out of Time. Very neat. Alas Tierney is a great poet but most of his prose is pedestrian. While this story was absorbing to me, I think a reader with no particular interest in the world Tierney is developing would be bored to tears. The Winds of Yith by Wilum Hopfrog Pugmire. Well, read what Mr. Pugmire says about his own story in a previous review. I always like dancing in the moonlight beneath Mount Selta but over the years Mr. Pugmire's protagonists tend to have a much more ambiguous fate. So...if I sound bitter it's probably because I am a little. Mostly reading this was arduous, unenjoyable and not enlightening. Fans new to the mythos should give it a wide berth. Collectors can buy a copy and promptly keep it at the bottom of their to-be-read stack. A select group of readers who like old fashioned mythos pastiches will be happy with it as well as fans of Robert Price's historical take on the mythos. I am relieved to be done with The Yith Cycle and can finally turn to something better.
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