Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not your father's Cthulhu mythos collection, May 13, 2009
Honesty compels me to say that I received a free reviewer copy from Permuted Press, at the behest of John Goodrich. I would have bought one anyway and it did not affect what I thought of the book.
Cthulhu Unbound is a new anthology from Permuted Press. Permuted Press is a small press specializing in zombie apocalyptic fiction. I can only hope that this foray into Cthulhu mythos fiction portends the start of some serious Lovecraftian publishing by this enterprising small press. CU is a high quality trade paperback with 264 pages of text; list price is $14.95 with a discount by Amazon; I think with this page count it is good value for the money. Production qualities and editing were both excellent. I didn't note any typos to speak of. The lovely cover art is by Cyril van der Haegen; I saw some other fantastic images of his with a quick image search online. Editing duties were shared by Thomas Brannan (a new name to me) and John Sunseri (well known to mythos fans). Here is where I have my major complaint with this book: there is no editor's note explaining the philosophy behind it, or how the stories were chosen, and no authors' notes or biographies. Another opportunity squandered! All stories are copyright 2008, but CJ Henderson's Locked Room saw print before in The Tales of Inspector Legrasse from 2005.
The premise of this book is that there are no preconceived genre boundaries that should limit the imagination of Lovecraftians. Anything was on the table. Of course it means I was predisposed to like CU before I ever opened it! On the other hand maybe I'm not as flexible as I would like to think. Minor spoilers may follow, so you are forewarned.
Noir-lathotep by Linda Donahue - I am familiar with Ms. Donahue from The Star of Istanbul in High Seas Cthulhu, a story which gave me some heartburn. The basis of Noir-lathotep is pretty clever. One of the aspects of the Crawling Chaos has been murdered and it is up to the Crawling Chaos to figure out what happened in fine gumshoe fashion. I liked it well enough although it did not knock my socks off.
The Invasion Out of Time by Trent Roman - Mr. Roman is new to me. This story was outstanding, The flying polyps who were once enemies of the Great Race are engaged in a war against a desperate humanity; the major resistance is coming from China, the setting of this work. Like I said, this is a gem.
James and the Dark Grimoire by Kevin Lauderdale - This author is also new to me. This story is told with tongue firmly in cheek. Imagine if a British upper-class nitwit gentleman and his competent manservant need to save the world. I usually am not fond of mythos humor but this was a very engaging story. Mythos meets Gosford Park?
Hellstone and Brimfire by Doug Goodman - Mr. Goodman gave us the highly enjoyable The Orion Man from Horrors Beyond. This story has similarly highly crafted prose. A Texas ranger type is tracking the Mi-Go. I really liked it.
Star Crossed by Bennet Reilly - Another new author for me. This story was a romance between Shub Niggurath and Hastur. As usual, trying to express the viewpoint of an incomprehensible, immensely powerful alien makes them seem....mundane. The romance was conducted at a level familiar to fans of Twilight. Not a winner for me.
The Covenant by Kim Paffenroth - Lots of authors I am unfamiliar with here, which is a good thing. This story is a rewrite of Chapter 23 of Moby Dick. What gods did Ahab really make compacts with? This was a very enjoyable read, and I hope Mr. Paffenroth gives us more mythos in the future.
The Hindenburg Manifesto by Lee Clark Zumpe - Early on in the story, we find out Solditas Invictus and the Sentinels were eliminated from the world years ago. Woohoo! Finally! Now Mr. Zumpe can get back to writing stories like The Breach, a fine effort in Horrors Beyond....not so fast. It turns out this story is all about the resurrection of Solditas Invictus during the late 1930s. I was not won over by the stories in High Seas Cthulhu or Frontier Cthulhu and I was similarly disaffected here. The history of this secret organization takes precedence for Mr. Zumpe over the story itself, and he misses an opportunity to let us see what really happened during the flight of the Hindenburg. I hate it when the major action takes place offstage, as it were. Then later we also don't get to see when one of the bad guys gets their comeuppance.
In Our Darkest Hour by Steven Graham - Another new author. This was a good example of what Cthulhu Unbound was striving for. Some superheroes and a wizard battle some evil doers who want to open dimensional gates after 9/11...and it is strongly implied one of the heroes is a Deep One. I was pleasantly entertained.
Blood Bags and Tentacles by DL Snell - DL Snell has edited some books for Permuted Press. This is not a Cthulhu mythos story strictly speaking but it has Lovecraftian cosmic elements. Someone opened our world to trandimensional horrors and humans are trying to survive in the aftermath. The characters were good, the action scenes were tautly written and the monsters were very creepy. All in all I was very impressed with this story.
Bubba Cthulhu's Last Stand by Lisa Hilton - Yet another new author. This story was pretty humorous and also had some nice dark undercurrents. The Cthulhu family is like a bunch of hick mobsters corrupting everything around them. Can a good unicorn stand up to their machinations? This was a grandly entertaining read, and also genre bending. Maybe the closest thing to it is Eldritch Fellas by Tim Curran.
Turf by Rick Moore - I never read anything by Mr. Moore before. Too bad! This was a fine creepy yarn about a mobster in the UK fighting for turf with a new and difficult to fathom rival. I can't pick a favorite in this anthology, but Turf came close.
The Menagerie by Ben Thomas - also new to me. In this story a prince, perhaps from renaissance Italy gives his keeper leave to use a book by John Dee to obtain new and strange creatures for his bestiary. I was mostly engaged but in the end when the Great Old Ones get miffed and decide to end the proceedings the story fell a bit flat. I liked it well enough if not as much as some other stories here.
The Patriot by John Goodrich - Mr. Goodrich has a story in the upcoming Cthulhu's Dark Cults from Chaosium but otherwise I am uncertain about his publication history. This is a ghoulish yarn set in WWI, reminding me a little bit of Curran's The Chattering of Tiny Teeth from the book Warfear. On its own merits this was a very creepy and well written piece that I enjoyed until the end...and the denouement just blew me away, it was so good!
The Shadow over Las Vegas by John Claude Smith - Another new face to me. This piece was somewhat over the top and absurdist, more like so-called bizarre fiction than anything else. I am not well read enough to know if it was in imitation of Hunter Thompson or someone else I should know. It was pretty engaging on its own merits although I had the feeling I was missing something.
Locked Room by CJ Henderson - CJ Henderson is arguably the most famous author represented here. Mostly I really enjoy his Cthulhu mythos work. I must say I was disappointed that he submitted a reprint to this anthology, which worked a bit better in context in The Tales of Inspector Legrasse.
This book is self recommending to Cthulhu mythos fans. It offers a generous sampling of stories, mostly by new authors, mostly brand new and mostly pretty good. As promised, the content runs the gamut of genres and styles, and mostly the stories are very successful. The best content here stands up to the best content in any mythos anthology. I am quite happy to add this book to my library and I am very eager to see what Cthulhu Unbound volume 2 holds in store for us.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fabulous!, May 13, 2009
For fans of Cthulhu and the Old Ones of Lovecraftian horror, this short story collection is a must have. It is definitely a must read.
I had a few personal favorites.
"Noir_Lathotep" was funny, sexy, scary and twisted. What a great take on the Old Ones with a film noir twist. I loved it from the first lines.
"James and the Dark Grimoire" was fabulously funny. I adored it.
And my absolute favorite was "Blood Bags and Tentacles" by D.L. Snell. I had the honor of appearing in another anthology with him, "Zombology," and both of his contributions blew me away. His post-apocalyptic take on the Old Ones was horrific, suspenseful, and gut-wrenching. Some of the images he painted in my mind will definitely be haunting my nightmares.
The only reason it is not getting five stars from me is because I had to force myself through two of the short stories and I felt there was a lack of diversity in the tales. It felt incomplete somehow. But overall, it was pretty amazing.
If you love Lovecraft, the tales of the Old Ones and Cthulhu himself, you have to check out this book. Your favorites may be different from mine, but you'll love it.
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2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A gem, April 17, 2009
Great. There is little more to say than the stories ranged from fascinating to at worse very good. This book is clearly in the running for the best Cthulhu mythos collection in years. I'm looking for forward to volumes #2 and a long run of follow up collections.
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by David Conyers
by Ellen Datlow
by Ryan C. Thomas
by Seamus Cooper
by Tim Curran
