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Lovecraft Unbound 2nd Edition Kindle Edition

by Ellen Datlow (Author, Editor), William Browning Spencer (Illustrator) Format: Kindle Edition

4.0 149 ratings

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The stories are legendary, the characters unforgettable, the world horrible and disturbing. Howard Phillips Lovecraft may have been a writer for only a short time, but the creations he left behind after his death in 1937 have shaped modern horror more than any other author in the last two centuries: the shambling god Cthulhu, and the other deities of the Elder Things, the Outer Gods, and the Great Old Ones, and Herbert West, Reanimator, a doctor who unlocked the secrets of life and death at a terrible cost. In Lovecraft Unbound, more than twenty of today's most prominent writers of literature and dark fantasy tell stories set in or inspired by the works of H. P. Lovecraft.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. The 16 new and four reprint stories Datlow (Poe) assembles for this outstanding tribute anthology all capture what Dale Bailey praises as horror master H.P. Lovecraft's gift for depicting the universe as inconceivably more vast, strange, and terrifying than mere human beings can possibly imagine. Bailey and Nathan Ballingrud, in The Crevasse, evoke this alien sensibility through an Antarctic expedition's glimpses of an astonishingly ancient prehuman civilization preserved in the polar ice. Laird Barron's Catch Hell depicts a Lovecraft-type backwoods community in the grip of a profoundly creepy occult mythology. Selections range in tone from the darkly humorous to the sublimely horrific, and all show the contributors to be perceptive interpreters of Lovecraft's work. Readers who know Lovecraft's legacy mostly through turgid and tentacled Cthulhu Mythos pastiches will find this book a treasure trove of literary terrors. (Oct.)
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Review

The 16 new and four reprint stories Datlow (Poe) assembles for this outstanding tribute anthology all capture what Dale Bailey praises as horror master H.P. Lovecraft's gift for depicting the universe as inconceivably more vast, strange, and terrifying than mere human beings can possibly imagine. Bailey and Nathan Ballingrud, in The Crevasse, evoke this alien sensibility through an Antarctic expedition s glimpses of an astonishingly ancient prehuman civilization preserved in the polar ice. Laird Barron's Catch Hell depicts a Lovecraft-type backwoods community in the grip of a profoundly creepy occult mythology. Selections range in tone from the darkly humorous to the sublimely horrific, and all show the contributors to be perceptive interpreters of Lovecraft's work. Readers who know Lovecraft s legacy mostly through turgid and tentacled Cthulhu Mythos pastiches will find this book a treasure trove of literary terrors. (Starred Review - Oct.) --Publishers Weekly

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B013F8P3CS
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Dark Horse Books (August 19, 2015)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 19, 2015
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 3605 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 416 pages

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4.0 149 ratings

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Ellen Datlow
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I've been a short story editor for over forty years, starting with OMNI Magazine and webzine for 17 years, then EVENT HORIZON, a webzine, and SCIFICTION, the fiction area of SCIFI.COM. I currently acquire and edit short fiction and novellas for Tor.com and I edit original and reprint anthologies. I've lived in NYC most of my life, although I travel a lot.
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Anna Tambour
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Aron Biro

Nice content, weak product

Reviewed in the United States on September 8, 2010

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Too bad this comprehensive anthology didnt get a nicer design, with a hardcover treatment, like ST Joshi's latest Lovecraftian antho had (Black Wings, from Uk's PS).

Being a tribute anthology, the reader has to be familiar with the lovecraftian motiffs in order to appreciate correctly what happens here - the stories are pastiches, parodies but also more serious prose referring HPL's favourite themes. Worst case scenario, reading Lovecraft's and Cthulhu's wikipedia pages provides enough background even for those who've never read HPL.

Favourite stories are:

Marc Laidlaw - Leng (culturally rich and fascinating, with very well dosed horror scenes from an ex-cyberpunker and video game designer - see the Halflife series)

Laird Barron - Catch Hell (darkly erotic, influenced by Machen and irish/celtic proto-horror; Barron is one of the top horror writers of the last decade, and he keeps growing, watch out for his debut novel)

Brian Evenson - The Din of Celestial Birds (another writer that was a recent relevation of mine, check out his short story collections, an effective mix of Palahniuk and Kafka; his story here is simple but very well written).

Michael Chabon - In the Black Mill (a funny and very stylish HPL pastiche from a cross-genre writer)

Caitlin Kiernan - House Under the Sea (pretty fierce lesbian horror; actually im not sure if the main character is a chandlerian male investigator or an alcoholic cynical lesbian)

William Browning Spencer - Come Lurk with Me and Be My Love (very funny, about a hot chick promoting a Cthulhu creationist bible)

Joel Lane - Sight Unseen (creepy, british and suburban, from a master of industrial gay horror)

Elizabeth Bear&Sarah Monette - Mongoose (very heavy in HPL mythos references, about the hounds of Tindalos in a space opera setting)

These are also the longest, covering almost half of the volume. I could find only 3 weak stories (Richard Bowes's, Anna Tambour's and Nick Mamatas' although the last one seems to be a Raymond Carver parody, who im not familiar with, so i guess it lost all meaning to me).

And there are another 8 mediocre stories, some of them quite good but somehow flawed (Joyce Carol Oates', Gemma Files', Simon Unsworth's, Dale Bailey's)

Concluding, i give it 4 stars, but if you dont care about Lovecraft's relevance in today's culture and you dont intend to read a bit about his mythos and motiffs in order to get the dense references, then it's a 3 stars.

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Matthew T. Carpenter

Worth a look

Reviewed in the United States on November 12, 2009

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Lovecraft Unbound is an anthology produced by Dark Horse Comics and edited by the respected Ellen Datlow. It is a large trade paperback with a generous 336 pages, and costs a reasonable $19.95. The cover is an appropriate if uninspiring photo of Lovecraft. Production qualities were good; I do not recall any typos. One thing I really liked was at the end of each story there was a brief biography of the author and a comment by them about how HPL influenced them or their story. This should be a model for other anthologies. In many ways Lovecraft Unbound is very important because it is the first anthology of Lovecraftian themed stories edited by a woman, at least that I know about. Ann K. Schwader and Denise Dumars have released single author collections with a fair number of Cthulhu mythos stories, and Caitlyn Kiernan has written novels with Lovecraftian themes and concepts. Back in 1997 Joyce Carol Oates edited a collection of Lovecraft tales for Harper. In spite of this, the Cthulhu mythos has, until recently, been a sort of old boys club. Lately, however, more and more women have taken up the pen and added their names to the ever widening Lovecraft circle. Elizabeth Bear just won the Hugo for "Shoggoths in Bloom." In particular, the Cthulhu Unbound series from Permuted Press had a significant number of women authors. I wonder if either editor knew the other was going to use Unbound in their title.

Certainly this book has gotten more hype online than other titles in this vein; I've even seen on the shelves of local bookstores. It's good but I don't know that it's any better than other mythos books I've read lately. The purpose of the editor in compiling this anthology was to allow the authors to take Lovecraft's contributions and influences, and see what they could create, rather than asking for a new bunch of Cthulhu mythos stories. In a way, it is similar to the 1998 Golden Gryphon anthology Eternal Lovecraft (a least the last third of that book), or perhaps the 2005 Horrors Beyond from Elder Signs Press. It is roughly contemporary with Cthulhu Unbound, although in that series the editors wanted the authors stretching the limits of the Cthulhu mythos (The difference between the Cthulhu mythos and something being Lovecraftian is addressed at length by ST Joshi in The Rise and Fall of the Cthulhu mythos. You can think of it as the difference between the monsters being the message vs the place of humanity as a flyspeck in an indifferently hostile cosmos.). more important than any philosophical underpinnings, whether this anthology will be successful depends on the quality of the prose. I mostly liked it, although I had quite a bit of heartburn with it too. When you ask for a Lovecraftian tale, I guess you get what you get and don't throw a fit.

"The Crevasse" by Dale Bailey and Nathan Ballingrud - After WWI, a team of Antarctic explorers accidentally stumble across a crevasse in the ice. Maybe there is evidence of ancient alien life there, maybe not. Maybe they are just losing it. This was a pretty engaging tale.

"The Office of Doom" by Richard Bowes - In flashback we find that as a prank, a librarian ordered an interlibrary loan of the Necronomicon from Miskatonic University. Complications ensue that echo down the years. This wasn't bad prose but for me it committed a major faux pas. In a mythos story if you mention HPL wrote fiction, and then it turns out that fiction was real, I find this plot device to be a major turn off. It destroys the mood/world building. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

"Sincerely, Petrified" by Anna Tambour - Some scientists spread rumors that stealing petrified wood from a national park invokes an ancient curse, trying to warp reality by changing people's expectations. Good enough if not especially original concept, but I found the prose pretty flat.

"The Din of Celestial Birds" by Brian Evenson - A man in some unnamed mountain range comes across an abandoned hit and sees a cape of feathers inside a cage. After that his world starts to crumble (fly?) away. This was a well written story but it wasn't really what I think of as Lovecraftian except in a rather tangential way.

"The Tenderness of Jackals" by Amanda Downum - In this story a modern ghoul is on the hunt. It's not really a Lovecraftian ghoul. It's not really a Lovecraftian tale. Pretty good, but perhaps out of place, like some others here.

"Sight Unseen" by Joel Lane - A young man whose father went off the deep end years ago is required to go through his father's estate to see if there is anything worth keeping. He tries to come to grips with his father's madness and how it affected him. Well written if not my cup of tea. Also the alternate reality that possessed the father seems to have been mundane mental illness instead of anything mythosian.

OK, here I am over 100 pages into the book and I haven't really been blown away by anything yet. It's all just OK.

"Cold Water Survival" by Holly Phillips - And now we get a brilliant tale, also set in Antarctica, as some young people make their home on a melting iceberg and seem to see alien shapes inside the ice. This was wonderful.

"Come Lurk with Me and Be My Love" by William Browning Spencer - Another absolute gem! A young man falls for the charm of a cultist's daughter only to find the cult is the truth. Superbly written and with a nice leavening of humor.

"Houses Under the Sea" by Caitlín R. Kiernan - Goodness me, but Caitlin Kiernan can write. This is a masterpiece, perhaps the jewel of this book. The lover of the leader of a cult tries to sort out what happened after a mass suicide.

"Machines of Concrete Light and Dark" by Michael Cisco - Michael Cisco is another outstanding author. This story uses certain Lovecraftian styles and plot devices without really being Lovecraftian per se. A young woman is lured to her doom by her incomprehensible friend.

"Leng" by Marc Laidlaw - This is a terrific story about a mycologist trying to reach the plateau of Leng, to see if there are any new species of fungus there, at the same time trying to find out what became of a previous expedition. Wonderful stuff with a great ending.

"In the Black Mill" by Michael Chabon - This is the only story in the anthology I have read previously, but heck if I can remember where. HPL names abound here, for example Yuggogheny Hills and Carlotta Brown-Jenkin. Apart from these in jokes, this is a great story of a secret society controlling a small town in the service of an ancient evil.

"One Day, Soon" by Lavie Tidhar - In this pretty good story a man loses himself inside time, inside a book.

"Commencement" by Joyce Carol Oates - Although Ms. Oates is perhaps the most famous author in the book, this story didn't do much for me. As part of a celebration of graduation at an unnamed university, there is a ritual much like Tlacaxipehualiztli. The anonymity of it all weakens the story. It was also predictable.

"Vernon, Driving" by Simon Kurt Unsworth - OK, a decent story about what desperation can lead a man in love to do, but not Lovecraftian or mythos in any sense.

"The Recruiter" by Michael Shea - Good, in the same way all of Mr. Shea's stories are well written, but this is not my favorite of his work. An elderly man is swept up by an entity he doesn't understand.

"Marya Nox" by Gemma Files - What a nifty little story! A temple consecrated to Our Lady of Night is violated, and everyone pays the consequences.

"Mongoose" by Sarah Monette & Elizabeth Bear - This is a space opera short story and actually is about transdimensional rifts and the Hounds of Tindalos. It is pretty darned good.

"Catch Hell" by Laird Barron - I just recently read The Imago Sequence and have become a huge fan of Laird Barron. This is a wonderful story, more about the other, the fantastic, and how it can affect damaged people. Not really mythosian but has a Lovecraftian feel in the same sense as The Wicker Man (not the remake, the novel or the first movie).

"That of Which We Speak When We Speak of the Unspeakable" by Nick Mamatas - This is a post mythos apocalyptic piece, and is a good, if brief, story.

So what is my bottom line? I'm not sure! I was hoping for much more than I got, but maybe I'm just greedy. Some of these stories are as good as any Lovecraftian tales I have read, for example the ones by Kiernan, Spencer and Phillips. Most were well written and highly effective, but a few were more tedious. All such anthologies are a mixed bag, I guess. I think general horror fans would like it and there is much here to please the dedicated Lovecraftian. However, for me the best modern Cthulhu mythos or Lovecraftian anthology remains Dead But Dreaming.

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Dana Rudko

Some good some bad

Reviewed in Canada on August 20, 2023

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It's like the nursery rhyme , when the book is good,it's very very good but when it's bad it's awful.

Mr. S. Lord

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 12, 2015

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nice book

Techno Hippy

Some gems in the rough

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 3, 2016

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Anyone who knows me will confirm that I'm a huge Lovecraft fan and as well as enjoying his work I appreciate those that write in the mythos. This collection is a little different as it's not about stories adding to the mythos, but more being inspired by the themes Lovecraft explored.

In a sense this makes it a more interesting and varied read, but not as immediately interesting for mythos, rather than Lovecraft fans. There is a good selection of stories here, there is a variance of quality from the okay to the superb. None of them are bad stories, but the uneven quality does make for a bit of a bumpy ride.

Some of the stories really stood out for me. The book started out well with an expedition in Antarctica with a powerful sense of desolation and the otherworldly. The tale about the university graduation was a little different. It was fairly obvious where it was heading, but the build-up was so effective that just being carried along for the ride was enough.

My favourite story was set on a space station with an exterminator dealing with inter-dimensional parasites. It's quite a personal tale, but the glimpses of these other beings and the threats they posed. The creatures were the star of the show here and showed some imagination in their creation.

Along with the stories the authors had their usual biographies, but also some insight into what Lovecraft and his writing means to them and that added a little more interest.

I did encounter a serious issue with formatting - there were a large number of missing spaces. The stories just about carried me through, but they did make for a bumpy read. So unfortunately that's two major strikes against this collection - there are some gems here, but a lot of rough to put up with the access them.

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Mr. J. K. Cooksley

Frustrated

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 8, 2011

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I just bought this going by the reviews. First story is good, the rest rubbish. It goes to show, never go by reviews.

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Lovecraft Unbound 2nd Edition Kindle Edition

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