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erebus53's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
The narration from this YouTube video is really quite good, and throughout the production there is a moody, low volume sound that seems to sigh coldly, like wind blowing through icy caves.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2t0Dg4qhnsk
As a novella published in 1931, this story has a lot of floral prose and references to Classical myth and literature. It is a heavily descriptive book and recounts an Antarctic exploration and the surprising things that are discovered.
Although this book is sold as a horror novella, I found its slow pace a little difficult to stick with and the preamble and circumloction doesn't hold tension well. It ambles where it feels like it ought to loom, and hints where it out to explain. Although I get the idea that leaving things to the imagination of the reader can sometimes be a lot more suspenseful and horrifying, I just don't feel like this was horrific.
I think this story could easily be used as a party game where one has to do something any time you hear a specific word (may I nominate "cyclopean" or possibly "blasphemous"?).
Readers of Lovecraft's other works may recognise a lot of call-backs. Some of the repetitive lines and the frenetic form of the story, especially near the end, bring to mind the works of Edgar Allan Poe (a similarity that does not seem lost on the author, whether it was deliberate or not).
Clearly, the lands described in the story are imaginative, but as someone raised on science fiction and anime, none of it seemed very challenging to me, and certain scenes reminded me of Antarctic parts of the anime series Neon Genesis : Evangelion. If this story inspired that anime it might explain the presence of a particular side-kick.
I'm glad this finally comes off my TBR list as it has been floating about in my cultural background for decades and I never bothered to pick it up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2t0Dg4qhnsk
As a novella published in 1931, this story has a lot of floral prose and references to Classical myth and literature. It is a heavily descriptive book and recounts an Antarctic exploration and the surprising things that are discovered.
Although this book is sold as a horror novella, I found its slow pace a little difficult to stick with and the preamble and circumloction doesn't hold tension well. It ambles where it feels like it ought to loom, and hints where it out to explain. Although I get the idea that leaving things to the imagination of the reader can sometimes be a lot more suspenseful and horrifying, I just don't feel like this was horrific.
I think this story could easily be used as a party game where one has to do something any time you hear a specific word (may I nominate "cyclopean" or possibly "blasphemous"?).
Readers of Lovecraft's other works may recognise a lot of call-backs. Some of the repetitive lines and the frenetic form of the story, especially near the end, bring to mind the works of Edgar Allan Poe (a similarity that does not seem lost on the author, whether it was deliberate or not).
Clearly, the lands described in the story are imaginative, but as someone raised on science fiction and anime, none of it seemed very challenging to me, and certain scenes reminded me of Antarctic parts of the anime series Neon Genesis : Evangelion. If this story inspired that anime it might explain the presence of a particular side-kick.
I'm glad this finally comes off my TBR list as it has been floating about in my cultural background for decades and I never bothered to pick it up.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Death, Animal death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gore, and Blood
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