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arthurbdd's review against another edition
3.0
Marks the point where the hit/miss ratio in the long-running series starts creeping downwards, Joshi's regular stable of authors starting to phone it in. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/2020/10/23/black-wings-the-fourth-flutter/
arthurbdd's review against another edition
3.0
Multi-author anthologies inevitably end up being a bit hit and miss for the reader, since it's unlikely that every author's style will be to your taste. That said, one would think that the brief of "Lovecraftian cosmic horror" would lead to a slightly better hit/miss ratio than this collection achieves. As it stands, it's good, but not brilliant. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/2017/12/08/black-wings-takeoff/
arthurbdd's review against another edition
3.0
Third volume of the series. About as good a hit/miss ratio as the second volume in the series, though the misses are worse than the misses in that one, prefiguring the slip in quality that would turn me off later volumes. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/2018/10/27/black-wings-the-third-flap/
ivan_tw's review against another edition
2.0
Half inspired weird tales, half dull, repetitive drivel. Not one of the better Lovecraft-style collections I've read.
hornmp's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
krstrau's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
krstrau's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
krstrau's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
sarah1984's review against another edition
4.0
SOME SPOILERS AHEAD
30/8 - 200 pages in and I've read about 8 of the stories. So far while none of them have truly horrified me (in fact last night, after reading 4 or 5 of the stories I dreamed about a dessert buffet table where I searched for and found scones with jam and cream), they were differently weird and a bit spooky. The monsters (where applicable) were well described, I could imagine them without difficulty despite the fact that most of them were not humanoid. So far my favourite has been "The Broadsword" by Laird Barron, which was about evil, psychotic aliens hiding in the boiler room of an old apartment building. I found this the most memorable story because of the creepy idea of these psychotic beings whispering to the tenants through the venting system in each apartment. I've never lived in a multiple occupant building, but can imagine being able to hear other tenants through the vents and then one day, suddenly hearing someone talking about eating someones brains versus sweatbreads (thymus or pancreas). I've never been much of a fan of short stories because I've always felt that there's not enough time to fully develop the story, (let alone the characters) or give a rounded out ending, but they are very easy to read. As I'm reading I feel like I'm speeding along because each short story is only 10 or so pages long, so there's no slow parts (in my opinion), and if I find any in the upcoming stories I imagine they won't be very long, as each author doesn't have enough pages to waste on unnecessary writing.
5/9 - Now finished. I originally rated this as 4 stars and now that I'm finished it's still the right rating. I found some of the stories went over my head a bit because they were focused on Lovecraft and some of his characters (I think that's who they were), especially Richard Upton Pickman. So I didn't understand the references to any Lovecrafts characters or his life. Prior to reading this I knew the name but that was it, I didn't even know that he wrote a strange combination of sci-fi/horror/fantasy. In the first part of my review I said that my favourite story was "The Broadsword" by Laird Barron, that's now my second favourite after "Lesser Demons" by Norman Partridge, the 3rd last story in the book. This one was about a dystopian post zombie-esque apocalyptic world where suddenly, out of nowhere a wide range of demons appeared on the planet. The demons would eat people and then spit the person's blood back out at anyone else hanging around. A few hours later anyone who got spat on is infected by the blood and becomes a zombie-esque psycho. They file down their teeth to points and dig up dead bodies for dinner. Another quite good one was An Eldritch Matter by Adam Niswander. It was very short but very interesting, about a guy who morphed into an octopus. Another review that I read asked the question "Is it a good book for people who have never read Lovecraft before?" I would say that some of the stories are easy to follow, while the ones more focused on Lovecraft characters are a bit difficult to understand. It was like watching an episode of a tv show half way through the second season, you have no idea who the characters are or how they relate to eachother, which leaves you feeling unsatisfied with the plot.
30/8 - 200 pages in and I've read about 8 of the stories. So far while none of them have truly horrified me (in fact last night, after reading 4 or 5 of the stories I dreamed about a dessert buffet table where I searched for and found scones with jam and cream), they were differently weird and a bit spooky. The monsters (where applicable) were well described, I could imagine them without difficulty despite the fact that most of them were not humanoid. So far my favourite has been "The Broadsword" by Laird Barron, which was about evil, psychotic aliens hiding in the boiler room of an old apartment building. I found this the most memorable story because of the creepy idea of these psychotic beings whispering to the tenants through the venting system in each apartment. I've never lived in a multiple occupant building, but can imagine being able to hear other tenants through the vents and then one day, suddenly hearing someone talking about eating someones brains versus sweatbreads (thymus or pancreas). I've never been much of a fan of short stories because I've always felt that there's not enough time to fully develop the story, (let alone the characters) or give a rounded out ending, but they are very easy to read. As I'm reading I feel like I'm speeding along because each short story is only 10 or so pages long, so there's no slow parts (in my opinion), and if I find any in the upcoming stories I imagine they won't be very long, as each author doesn't have enough pages to waste on unnecessary writing.
5/9 - Now finished. I originally rated this as 4 stars and now that I'm finished it's still the right rating. I found some of the stories went over my head a bit because they were focused on Lovecraft and some of his characters (I think that's who they were), especially Richard Upton Pickman. So I didn't understand the references to any Lovecrafts characters or his life. Prior to reading this I knew the name but that was it, I didn't even know that he wrote a strange combination of sci-fi/horror/fantasy. In the first part of my review I said that my favourite story was "The Broadsword" by Laird Barron, that's now my second favourite after "Lesser Demons" by Norman Partridge, the 3rd last story in the book. This one was about a dystopian post zombie-esque apocalyptic world where suddenly, out of nowhere a wide range of demons appeared on the planet. The demons would eat people and then spit the person's blood back out at anyone else hanging around. A few hours later anyone who got spat on is infected by the blood and becomes a zombie-esque psycho. They file down their teeth to points and dig up dead bodies for dinner. Another quite good one was An Eldritch Matter by Adam Niswander. It was very short but very interesting, about a guy who morphed into an octopus. Another review that I read asked the question "Is it a good book for people who have never read Lovecraft before?" I would say that some of the stories are easy to follow, while the ones more focused on Lovecraft characters are a bit difficult to understand. It was like watching an episode of a tv show half way through the second season, you have no idea who the characters are or how they relate to eachother, which leaves you feeling unsatisfied with the plot.
theartolater's review against another edition
3.0
As a fan of all things Lovecrafty, a new anthology of Mythos short fiction curated by ST Joshi, the leading Lovecraftian scholar was very exciting.
As someone who doesn't really love short fiction, and has found a lot of the mythos short story collections wanting, I was a little ambivalent about trying yet another one.
The good news, overall, is that Black Wings of Cthulhu is good. It's not superlative by any means, but it's not a disaster like many of the other compilations I've read. It's good, and that's a good thing.
The problem with the book in a nutshell might be the use of the more cosmic aspects as well as the unseen madness. This is partly because of my preferences: my favorite stories in the book included ones where we could actually experience the horror first hand with the protagonists of the story (like in the tales involving the woman who bought meat, or the man who picked up the tentacled coin). The stories I enjoyed the least were much more abstract. This didn't mean that those stories were necessarily failures, but more that they may not have been as interesting as perhaps they could have been. This isn't to say that any of them come close to the eye-rolling tendencies some Mythos stories I've read have had (such as the "Cthulhu is in my computer modem" story I read some time ago), but too many of the stories in this collection ended about as softly as they began, with little to stick with.
Overall, the book is what it is. It's definitely worth picking up if you're a hardcore Mythos fan, because there's enough good (along with the stories up top, Laird Barron's story is predictably superlative, and there are at least 3 or 4 others that are quite solid) to go along with the not-so-good, and the stories are almost all short enough where you won't be making a major investment of time or energy if you dislike a handful.
As someone who doesn't really love short fiction, and has found a lot of the mythos short story collections wanting, I was a little ambivalent about trying yet another one.
The good news, overall, is that Black Wings of Cthulhu is good. It's not superlative by any means, but it's not a disaster like many of the other compilations I've read. It's good, and that's a good thing.
The problem with the book in a nutshell might be the use of the more cosmic aspects as well as the unseen madness. This is partly because of my preferences: my favorite stories in the book included ones where we could actually experience the horror first hand with the protagonists of the story (like in the tales involving the woman who bought meat, or the man who picked up the tentacled coin). The stories I enjoyed the least were much more abstract. This didn't mean that those stories were necessarily failures, but more that they may not have been as interesting as perhaps they could have been. This isn't to say that any of them come close to the eye-rolling tendencies some Mythos stories I've read have had (such as the "Cthulhu is in my computer modem" story I read some time ago), but too many of the stories in this collection ended about as softly as they began, with little to stick with.
Overall, the book is what it is. It's definitely worth picking up if you're a hardcore Mythos fan, because there's enough good (along with the stories up top, Laird Barron's story is predictably superlative, and there are at least 3 or 4 others that are quite solid) to go along with the not-so-good, and the stories are almost all short enough where you won't be making a major investment of time or energy if you dislike a handful.