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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
Fans of sci-fi, horror, and fantasy are probably already familiar with Lovecraft & the Cthulhu Mythos, but this is a great collection. Some interesting endnotes give insight into how Lovecraft's stories are interconnected to each other, and also how Lovecraft's real life influenced the creation of the stories, the settings, and the characters. I'd really recommend this. If anything, I'd say the only thing that's lacking is the influence Lovecraft has had elsewhere, but I'm sure I can find another book out there that talks about that. (I mean, come on, "Old One's" even appear in Buffy!)
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
My first experience with H.P. Lovecraft and it was a mixed bag of really love and kind of forgettable.
My favourite stories in this collection were The Rats in the Walls, The Call of Cthulhu, The Whisperer in Darkness and The Shadow Over Innsmouth. I felt these stories had all the aspects I wanted and expected from Lovecraft. Monstrous and otherworldly creatures, twists and a deep fear of the unknown. I won't go into details of these because I would highly recommend those stories.
There was one aspect of his writing style that didn't sit well with me and that was the way he handled accents. Certain stories like The Shadow Over Innsmouth and The Dunwich Horror and a few others have certain characters with an accent. He writes them out in a way that is very jarring to read and it makes those stories very difficult to follow. I felt the example in The Shadow Over Innsmouth read better because of the nature of the character speaking. But it really ruined stories of The Dunwich Horror for me personally.
The other short stories I felt were largely either average or forgettable. And in the case of At the Mountains of Madness, I felt like there was too much over-explanation that took some of the unknown out of the story.
Overall I thought this was a pretty good collection and I would ne interested in reading more of his work at some point.
My favourite stories in this collection were The Rats in the Walls, The Call of Cthulhu, The Whisperer in Darkness and The Shadow Over Innsmouth. I felt these stories had all the aspects I wanted and expected from Lovecraft. Monstrous and otherworldly creatures, twists and a deep fear of the unknown. I won't go into details of these because I would highly recommend those stories.
There was one aspect of his writing style that didn't sit well with me and that was the way he handled accents. Certain stories like The Shadow Over Innsmouth and The Dunwich Horror and a few others have certain characters with an accent. He writes them out in a way that is very jarring to read and it makes those stories very difficult to follow. I felt the example in The Shadow Over Innsmouth read better because of the nature of the character speaking. But it really ruined stories of The Dunwich Horror for me personally.
The other short stories I felt were largely either average or forgettable. And in the case of At the Mountains of Madness, I felt like there was too much over-explanation that took some of the unknown out of the story.
Overall I thought this was a pretty good collection and I would ne interested in reading more of his work at some point.
Kinda just bleh, like... very um... abstract and overly written. On and on about how how totally and utterly unfathomable and unspeakably horrific things are. It felt like there were so many words to describe so little. I dunno, not for me.
Audio book HP Lovecraft is awesome, reminds me of old radio plAYS
The Diary of Alonzo Typer: Hombre va a casa donde pasan cosas malas, y luego se sorprende cuando pasan cosas malas
The Dunwich Horror: Juego de gemelas, pero algo salio mal
The Horror in the Museum: Hombre ignora todas las red flags de un viejo que tiene figuras de cera en su sotano
The Mound: Panfilo tenia razon
The Call of Cthulhu: Una secta? En Estados Unidos? Que raro...
At the Mountain of Madness: La Sociedad de la Nieve + Alien
The Doom that Came to Sarnath: Que les parece si ignoramos las advertencias y hacemos una joda?
The Festival: Lovecraft: Edicion Navidad
The Shadow over Innsmouth: Yo no recuerdo que la sirenita sea asi...
The Shadow out of Time: Episodio de Doctor Who
The Haunter of the Dark: Como es esta la primera vez que se mete la iglesia en el medio de todo
The Dreams in the Witch House: ¿Por que es este lugar paranormal? La mujer que vivia aca sabia mucha matematica
The Dunwich Horror: Juego de gemelas, pero algo salio mal
The Horror in the Museum: Hombre ignora todas las red flags de un viejo que tiene figuras de cera en su sotano
The Mound: Panfilo tenia razon
The Call of Cthulhu: Una secta? En Estados Unidos? Que raro...
At the Mountain of Madness: La Sociedad de la Nieve + Alien
The Doom that Came to Sarnath: Que les parece si ignoramos las advertencias y hacemos una joda?
The Festival: Lovecraft: Edicion Navidad
The Shadow over Innsmouth: Yo no recuerdo que la sirenita sea asi...
The Shadow out of Time: Episodio de Doctor Who
The Haunter of the Dark: Como es esta la primera vez que se mete la iglesia en el medio de todo
The Dreams in the Witch House: ¿Por que es este lugar paranormal? La mujer que vivia aca sabia mucha matematica
3.75 out of 5
Though marred by Lovecraft's racist worldview, these stories are nonetheless highly entertaining and descriptively gothic pieces of cosmic horror.
Favourite stories: The Shadow Over Innsmouth / The Whisperer in Darkness / The Colour Out of Space / The Call of Cthulhu / Celephaïs / The Rats in the Walls
Least favourite story: The Late Arthur Jermyn & His Family
Though marred by Lovecraft's racist worldview, these stories are nonetheless highly entertaining and descriptively gothic pieces of cosmic horror.
Favourite stories: The Shadow Over Innsmouth / The Whisperer in Darkness / The Colour Out of Space / The Call of Cthulhu / Celephaïs / The Rats in the Walls
Least favourite story: The Late Arthur Jermyn & His Family
Although I enjoyed this collection, I wasn't blown away by it. I think reading so much Lovecraft in quick succession reveals how repetitive and formulaic many of his stories are.
The standard Lovecraft tale goes like this: "Have you heard about that crazy shit that happened in [New England town]? Well I was there. And I'll tell you, it's even crazier than you think. When I went there, at first I didn't think there was any crazy shit going on. And then I heard from this guy everyone thinks is crazy that crazy shit was going on. I was skeptical at first. But then I sort of kind of saw the eldritch/noisome/Cyclopean horror for myself, and although it was super-crazy, I can't describe it in too much detail because the very sight of it drove me insane. So here I am, pretty insane."
Although it was enjoyable to read the many variations on a theme, and I did particularly like a few of the tales ("The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" was my favorite), overall I was unimpressed with Lovecraft's storytelling abilities and particularly his writing style. I understand the outsized influence he's had on horror, and he had a lot of great ideas, but I don't find his stories nearly as entertaining as others apparently do.
The standard Lovecraft tale goes like this: "Have you heard about that crazy shit that happened in [New England town]? Well I was there. And I'll tell you, it's even crazier than you think. When I went there, at first I didn't think there was any crazy shit going on. And then I heard from this guy everyone thinks is crazy that crazy shit was going on. I was skeptical at first. But then I sort of kind of saw the eldritch/noisome/Cyclopean horror for myself, and although it was super-crazy, I can't describe it in too much detail because the very sight of it drove me insane. So here I am, pretty insane."
Although it was enjoyable to read the many variations on a theme, and I did particularly like a few of the tales ("The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" was my favorite), overall I was unimpressed with Lovecraft's storytelling abilities and particularly his writing style. I understand the outsized influence he's had on horror, and he had a lot of great ideas, but I don't find his stories nearly as entertaining as others apparently do.
found it difficult to read maybe I'll try again later
Okay technically I didn't finish this so I shouldn't rate and review, but it's been sitting on my "currently reading" for so long now. I decided to give one more story a chance before giving a 2 star review and I may yet try to get through the most famous few, out of remaining ones.
It's well known that lovecraft was a racist prick, but wow I didn't expect it to be so blatant and visible in the writing. It's bad even if you try to force on the flimsy "it was a different time" excuse.
Even looking past the racist shit at the rest of the writing, it's just not well written in my opinion. If you took a drink every time something was described as indescribable or a sentence lasted more than 35 words, you wouldn't make it through a single story.
I wanted to give 2 stars, because there's some good ideas and dark tones that inspired so many other things in popular culture. There are brief moments where you get a sense of what these stories could have been. Some specific stories within this might deserve 3 or even 4 stars, but they're the exception not the norm. Once you've read one story, you've got the gist of most of them. The average quality of the compilation as a whole just doesn't deserve shit.
This is a version with some explanatory notes. The notes are sometimes useful, clarifying names and places and details of lovecraft's life, but they offer no particular analysis beyond that and in a several page introduction about the life and impact of his work, you'd think they'd have had the space to mention the bad side of him too.
It's well known that lovecraft was a racist prick, but wow I didn't expect it to be so blatant and visible in the writing. It's bad even if you try to force on the flimsy "it was a different time" excuse.
Even looking past the racist shit at the rest of the writing, it's just not well written in my opinion. If you took a drink every time something was described as indescribable or a sentence lasted more than 35 words, you wouldn't make it through a single story.
I wanted to give 2 stars, because there's some good ideas and dark tones that inspired so many other things in popular culture. There are brief moments where you get a sense of what these stories could have been. Some specific stories within this might deserve 3 or even 4 stars, but they're the exception not the norm. Once you've read one story, you've got the gist of most of them. The average quality of the compilation as a whole just doesn't deserve shit.
This is a version with some explanatory notes. The notes are sometimes useful, clarifying names and places and details of lovecraft's life, but they offer no particular analysis beyond that and in a several page introduction about the life and impact of his work, you'd think they'd have had the space to mention the bad side of him too.