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pamwinkler's review against another edition
4.0
Pretty good collection.
Past Reno by Brian Evenson was good.
Only Unity Saves the Damned by Nadia Bulkin was interesting, but wasn't a real favorite.
______ by Paul Tremblay is a very good and extremely frightening story.
Allochthon by Livia Llewellyn was interesting.
Doc's Story by Stephen Graham Jones was painful and good.
The Lonely Wood by Tim Lebbon was interesting and kind of confusing.
Help Me by Cameron Pierce was odd? I don't know that I liked it.
Glimmer in the Darkness by Asamatsu Ken was one I think I kind of skipped. It's kind of unpleasant.
The Order of the Haunted Wood by Angela Slatter was funny.
Only the Dead and the Moonstruck by Angela Slatter was lovely, I liked it.
That Place by Gemma Files was so lovely, just wonderful.
The Horror at Castle of the Cumberland by Chesya Burke was kind of horrible, but I think it's a very well-done story.
Lovecrafting by Orrin Grey was kind of confusing, really.
One Last Meal, Before The End by David Yale Ardanuy was good.
There Has Been a Fire by Kirsten Alene was really confusing.
The Trees by Robin D. Laws was weird, I don't think I liked it much.
Food from the Clouds by Molly Tanzer was very lovely.
The Semi-Finished Basement by Nick Mamatas was kind of weird?
Past Reno by Brian Evenson was good.
Only Unity Saves the Damned by Nadia Bulkin was interesting, but wasn't a real favorite.
______ by Paul Tremblay is a very good and extremely frightening story.
Allochthon by Livia Llewellyn was interesting.
Doc's Story by Stephen Graham Jones was painful and good.
The Lonely Wood by Tim Lebbon was interesting and kind of confusing.
Help Me by Cameron Pierce was odd? I don't know that I liked it.
Glimmer in the Darkness by Asamatsu Ken was one I think I kind of skipped. It's kind of unpleasant.
The Order of the Haunted Wood by Angela Slatter was funny.
Only the Dead and the Moonstruck by Angela Slatter was lovely, I liked it.
That Place by Gemma Files was so lovely, just wonderful.
The Horror at Castle of the Cumberland by Chesya Burke was kind of horrible, but I think it's a very well-done story.
Lovecrafting by Orrin Grey was kind of confusing, really.
One Last Meal, Before The End by David Yale Ardanuy was good.
There Has Been a Fire by Kirsten Alene was really confusing.
The Trees by Robin D. Laws was weird, I don't think I liked it much.
Food from the Clouds by Molly Tanzer was very lovely.
The Semi-Finished Basement by Nick Mamatas was kind of weird?
gatspender's review
3.0
This wasn't exactly what I was expecting, which is my fault because I didn't read the blurb properly. I was expecting some fun modern pastiches of Lovecraft's work, and further tales relating to his 'Cthulhu Mythos'. What I got was a lot of original weird fiction derived from themes in his famous essay on Supernatural Horror in Literature. I think on balance I'd have preferred the pastiche.
There are some decent stories here - the standout for me was 'Glimmer in the Darkness' by Asamatsu Ken (a writer whose work I will seek out in future). This and 'Food From the Clouds' by Molly Tanzer were the only tales that really captured the uncanny feeling of Lovecraft's work. This wasn't a requirement of the anthology but it happens to be what I was looking for, so I rate these two highly. Most of the stories are serviceable but not that memorable, and 'There Has Been a Fire' by Kirsten Alene was just impenetrable.
A good effort overall, but not a must-read for Lovecraft fans.
There are some decent stories here - the standout for me was 'Glimmer in the Darkness' by Asamatsu Ken (a writer whose work I will seek out in future). This and 'Food From the Clouds' by Molly Tanzer were the only tales that really captured the uncanny feeling of Lovecraft's work. This wasn't a requirement of the anthology but it happens to be what I was looking for, so I rate these two highly. Most of the stories are serviceable but not that memorable, and 'There Has Been a Fire' by Kirsten Alene was just impenetrable.
A good effort overall, but not a must-read for Lovecraft fans.
markyon's review
4.0
So the premise is this: Letters to Lovecraft is eighteen tales, from a number of authors in a variety of styles, that approach Howard Phillips Lovecraft’s work through his essay, ‘Supernatural Horror in Literature.’ By doing so, the writers and its editor hope to ‘compile a collection of responses to Lovecraft’s ethos, in the form of original fiction.’ (page 7).
As you might therefore expect, the results are diverse.
Jesse’s Introduction is a great start to the book. It summarises the point of the anthology (quoted above) as well as pointing out for the uninitiated what the attraction of Lovecraft’s writing was, even whilst acknowledging that some aspects of the man’s personality were not what we would like. It manages that tricky job of being both erudite and yet accessible, of being reasoned and balanced when others might descend into outrage or obsequious fawning.
Of the stories, I most liked Tim Lebbon’s The Lonely Wood, which created a lovely ambience of creeping menace in a great setting from the perspective of an atheist in St. Paul’s Cathedral, London whilst reading it. Nadia Bulkin’s tale (Only Unity Saves the Damned) is a contemporary tale of elemental Horror that works well. Livia Llewellyn’s Allochthon was a tale showing the importance of landscape in horror and the always-present land, which I really appreciated. Stephen Graham Jones’ tale (Doc’s Tale) is a werewolf story – it says so in its first line! – which is not entirely part of HPL’s remit. It was also wryly humorous, something Lovecraft’s not usually known for. Reading rather like an episode of The Addams Family, its wry humour lightened the mood of the collection enormously.
I also quite liked Orrin Grey’s and Asamatsu Ken’s efforts, whereby they break the literary wall and use Lovecraft as a character in their stories. As Jesse points out in the Introduction, this could be a recipe for disaster, yet both authors, both authors new to me, seem to have managed it. In particular Asamatu’s Glimmer in the Darkness, a combination of Lovecraft and the UFO phenomenon was an inspired one. Orrin Grey’s Lovecrafting is written mainly in film script format, something that will pretty much have been after ol’ Howard’s time. It made me wonder what HPL would have made of movies, especially those inspired by his written work.
Less successful for me were Paul Tremblay’s enigmatically titled ‘_________’, which looks at a horror that is familial in origin. This starts well and has a lot of aspects that I liked but fell apart a little at the end. Jeffrey Ford’s tale of cult groups, The Order of the Haunted Wood was, as I rather expected, clever, but in the end said little to me. Chesya Burke’s The Horror at the Castle of the Cumberland bravely tackles race issues as an allegory in society for ‘The Other’, but seemed to hammer its valid point home rather inelegantly for me.
Nevertheless, for all my minor gripes, I liked the range of ideas at play here, even when they didn’t all quite work for me. In summary, this is an unusual anthology worthy of your attention. There is a lot of Lovecraftian ephemera out there and sometimes it can be difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff. Letters to Lovecraft strikes me as an intelligent attempt to do something different and as such should be applauded.
It is the first time that I have come across Stone Skin Press, but based on the evidence presented here, it is not going to be my last.
As you might therefore expect, the results are diverse.
Jesse’s Introduction is a great start to the book. It summarises the point of the anthology (quoted above) as well as pointing out for the uninitiated what the attraction of Lovecraft’s writing was, even whilst acknowledging that some aspects of the man’s personality were not what we would like. It manages that tricky job of being both erudite and yet accessible, of being reasoned and balanced when others might descend into outrage or obsequious fawning.
Of the stories, I most liked Tim Lebbon’s The Lonely Wood, which created a lovely ambience of creeping menace in a great setting from the perspective of an atheist in St. Paul’s Cathedral, London whilst reading it. Nadia Bulkin’s tale (Only Unity Saves the Damned) is a contemporary tale of elemental Horror that works well. Livia Llewellyn’s Allochthon was a tale showing the importance of landscape in horror and the always-present land, which I really appreciated. Stephen Graham Jones’ tale (Doc’s Tale) is a werewolf story – it says so in its first line! – which is not entirely part of HPL’s remit. It was also wryly humorous, something Lovecraft’s not usually known for. Reading rather like an episode of The Addams Family, its wry humour lightened the mood of the collection enormously.
I also quite liked Orrin Grey’s and Asamatsu Ken’s efforts, whereby they break the literary wall and use Lovecraft as a character in their stories. As Jesse points out in the Introduction, this could be a recipe for disaster, yet both authors, both authors new to me, seem to have managed it. In particular Asamatu’s Glimmer in the Darkness, a combination of Lovecraft and the UFO phenomenon was an inspired one. Orrin Grey’s Lovecrafting is written mainly in film script format, something that will pretty much have been after ol’ Howard’s time. It made me wonder what HPL would have made of movies, especially those inspired by his written work.
Less successful for me were Paul Tremblay’s enigmatically titled ‘_________’, which looks at a horror that is familial in origin. This starts well and has a lot of aspects that I liked but fell apart a little at the end. Jeffrey Ford’s tale of cult groups, The Order of the Haunted Wood was, as I rather expected, clever, but in the end said little to me. Chesya Burke’s The Horror at the Castle of the Cumberland bravely tackles race issues as an allegory in society for ‘The Other’, but seemed to hammer its valid point home rather inelegantly for me.
Nevertheless, for all my minor gripes, I liked the range of ideas at play here, even when they didn’t all quite work for me. In summary, this is an unusual anthology worthy of your attention. There is a lot of Lovecraftian ephemera out there and sometimes it can be difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff. Letters to Lovecraft strikes me as an intelligent attempt to do something different and as such should be applauded.
It is the first time that I have come across Stone Skin Press, but based on the evidence presented here, it is not going to be my last.
aksel_dadswell's review
4.0
A fantastic “Lovecraftian” anthology that pays its debt to the father of cosmic horror with a really innovative and unexpected premise. Each story is its author's response to a quote of their choosing from Lovecraft's seminal essay "Supernatural Horror in Literature" that speaks to them in some way or sparks an idea or an argument. This makes for some incredible stories that cover a much broader range of ideas and tones than the usual Lovecraft-inspired anthology.
The subtly skin-crawling "Past Reno," "_____" and "The Lonely Wood" by Brian Evenson, Paul Tremblay and Tim Lebbon respectively, are both minor works of genius, crafting terror (and maximum impact) from only the slightest displacement of reality. Uncertainty creeps through every line, building and building to their incredible denouement's of undiluted dread.
Nadia Bulkin's "Only Unity Saves the Damned" is a wonderful ghost story and an even better study of the claustrophobia of small-town life.
"Allochthon" is another example of Livia Llewellyn's sensuous, liquid prose telling a mind-melting story of displacement and horror in a world both alien and scarily familiar.
Stephen Graham Jones tears up a ripping werewolf yarn in "Doc's Story" that throws authentic, no-frills characters in with a beautifully knotted narrative.
Cameron Pierce's "Help Me" is a sharp bite of a story that will stick in your skin long after you've read it. It made me glad that I don't fish.
"Glimmer in the Darkness" by Asamatsu Ken (translated by Raechel Dumas) uses Lovecraft himself in a dialogue-driven story that's tense, unsettling and original.
In "The Order of the Haunted Wood," Jeffrey Ford takes a subversive and hilarious approach to Lovecraft's idea of a centuries-old cult.
Angela Slatter's "Only the Dead and the Moonstruck" feels like a suburban fairytale, balancing mundane domesticity with a glistening, sleek horror element.
"That Place" by Gemma Files reminded me a little of the recent (and excellent) TV series, Stranger Things, although it's less nostalgic and much darker. Her prose is everything; clever, understated, poetic when it needs to be. One of the highlights of the anthology.
Chesya Burke's "The Horror at the Castle of the Cumberland" addresses Lovecraft's issues with race in a story where humanity is the real horror.
Orrin Grey plays with form and self-awareness in his usual rampantly entertaining and innovative way in "Lovecrafting," a story that's as structurally engaging it is unsettling, with an ending all the more effective for its restraint.
"One Last Meal, Before the End" by David Yale Ardanuy is both a bloodthirsty take on the Wendigo myth in colonial America, and a smart response to Lovecraft's white-washed views of Native American myths.
Kirsten Alene's "There Has Been a Fire" is a dreamlike story with very tactile, raw imagery that reads as much like poetry as it does prose.
Don't even try to imagine what to expect in "The Trees" by Robin D Laws, which is utterly weird and quite disturbing and left me feeling like I needed a scalding shower at the end of it.
Molly Tanzer's "Food From the Clouds" is perhaps my favourite of the lot, a typically fizzing Tanzer-esque adventure that's part romp, part immaculate world-building, all pleasure. Her use of the monstrous is brilliant and restrained. Her work here insettles, beguiles, and breaks the heart. She evokes a post-'event' London with so much pleasurable ease that the setting feels like it's bleeding off the page.
Finally, Nick Mamatas pulls the rug out from under us in "The Semi-Finished Basement" in an incredibly clever and lingering way. I found it bleakly funny in a kind of matter-of-fact way that's often hard to pull off, but Mamatas' skill with tone, and his mastery at both character interactions and teasing out the Lovecraft references makes for the perfect gut-punch to round off the anthology.
Jesse Bullington has put together a lingering and versatile bunch of stories here in what is one of the better Lovecraft-inspired anthologies I've ever read. An original premise backed up by a hugely entertaining body of work, and one that I cannot recommend highly enough.
The subtly skin-crawling "Past Reno," "_____" and "The Lonely Wood" by Brian Evenson, Paul Tremblay and Tim Lebbon respectively, are both minor works of genius, crafting terror (and maximum impact) from only the slightest displacement of reality. Uncertainty creeps through every line, building and building to their incredible denouement's of undiluted dread.
Nadia Bulkin's "Only Unity Saves the Damned" is a wonderful ghost story and an even better study of the claustrophobia of small-town life.
"Allochthon" is another example of Livia Llewellyn's sensuous, liquid prose telling a mind-melting story of displacement and horror in a world both alien and scarily familiar.
Stephen Graham Jones tears up a ripping werewolf yarn in "Doc's Story" that throws authentic, no-frills characters in with a beautifully knotted narrative.
Cameron Pierce's "Help Me" is a sharp bite of a story that will stick in your skin long after you've read it. It made me glad that I don't fish.
"Glimmer in the Darkness" by Asamatsu Ken (translated by Raechel Dumas) uses Lovecraft himself in a dialogue-driven story that's tense, unsettling and original.
In "The Order of the Haunted Wood," Jeffrey Ford takes a subversive and hilarious approach to Lovecraft's idea of a centuries-old cult.
Angela Slatter's "Only the Dead and the Moonstruck" feels like a suburban fairytale, balancing mundane domesticity with a glistening, sleek horror element.
"That Place" by Gemma Files reminded me a little of the recent (and excellent) TV series, Stranger Things, although it's less nostalgic and much darker. Her prose is everything; clever, understated, poetic when it needs to be. One of the highlights of the anthology.
Chesya Burke's "The Horror at the Castle of the Cumberland" addresses Lovecraft's issues with race in a story where humanity is the real horror.
Orrin Grey plays with form and self-awareness in his usual rampantly entertaining and innovative way in "Lovecrafting," a story that's as structurally engaging it is unsettling, with an ending all the more effective for its restraint.
"One Last Meal, Before the End" by David Yale Ardanuy is both a bloodthirsty take on the Wendigo myth in colonial America, and a smart response to Lovecraft's white-washed views of Native American myths.
Kirsten Alene's "There Has Been a Fire" is a dreamlike story with very tactile, raw imagery that reads as much like poetry as it does prose.
Don't even try to imagine what to expect in "The Trees" by Robin D Laws, which is utterly weird and quite disturbing and left me feeling like I needed a scalding shower at the end of it.
Molly Tanzer's "Food From the Clouds" is perhaps my favourite of the lot, a typically fizzing Tanzer-esque adventure that's part romp, part immaculate world-building, all pleasure. Her use of the monstrous is brilliant and restrained. Her work here insettles, beguiles, and breaks the heart. She evokes a post-'event' London with so much pleasurable ease that the setting feels like it's bleeding off the page.
Finally, Nick Mamatas pulls the rug out from under us in "The Semi-Finished Basement" in an incredibly clever and lingering way. I found it bleakly funny in a kind of matter-of-fact way that's often hard to pull off, but Mamatas' skill with tone, and his mastery at both character interactions and teasing out the Lovecraft references makes for the perfect gut-punch to round off the anthology.
Jesse Bullington has put together a lingering and versatile bunch of stories here in what is one of the better Lovecraft-inspired anthologies I've ever read. An original premise backed up by a hugely entertaining body of work, and one that I cannot recommend highly enough.
haleynixt's review
3.0
This was a very diverse collection of short stories that I really enjoyed reading. I haven't gotten around to reading Lovecraft yet (he's on my list!), but it was very interesting to seen 18 different authors write 18 very different stories all based on just one essay that Lovecraft wrote, an essay that the editor Jesse Bullington felt summed up the genre well. Gemma Files' "That Place", Robin D. Laws' "The Trees", and Molly Tanzer's "Food from the Clouds" were three pieces that really stuck with me in terms of world-building, and Nadia Bulkin's "Only Unity Saves the Damned" had great character building for such a limited word count. None of the stories are particularly difficult in terms of technicality, and they're all pretty easy reads. Overall, I read the book in about three hours and, while the quality of the stories vary a bit, there were only a handful of stories that I didn't really care for.
jameseckman's review
3.0
It's due back at the library and I guess I'm not in a cosmic horror mood. Read the first few stories and they were very good, not just a collection if hackwork so maybe when I feel like a horror read I will pick it up again.
jennaelf's review
5.0
Excerpted from my blog (jenna-bird.blogspot.com):
Up front, I must say Lovecraft's "Supernatural Horror in Literature" has been a touchstone for me in academic papers and in conversations about the importance and impact of horror literature for many years. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that I was exceedingly excited to get my hands on an Advance Review Copy of this collection. (I pursued it before I came down with what would be a 4 week viral ordeal, with ripple effects I'm still feeling more than 4 months later.)
I cannot say it half so well as Publishers Weekly or SFF World -- but I agree wholeheartedly with them that this collection is something different in the best of ways.
Each author selects a particular passage from Lovecraft's essay and introduces their story with a brief explanation of their relationship with that passage. This made the collection all the more enticing for me, as a reader and student of academia. It is often a valuable insight to hear the author's own voice when engaging with works that are part of a conversation, such as the conversation created between these tales and Lovecraft's essay.
The format also creates a binding thread that runs through the anthology, making every story fit. There isn't a slacker or outlier in the bunch. I was hypnotized and drawn into each story through not only the writer's craft, but the interaction between Lovecraft's essay and the author's view of it.
This anthology is the sweet spot between academic engagement and idolic entertainment.
Of the entire collection, many stories stuck with me; to pick a favorite would be an impossible task. Would I choose Grey's dabbling in using Lovecraft as a character, Jones' lycanthropic romp, or Files' exploration of things hidden in childhood? (I could honestly list EVERY author's name here and give a reason for their story to be a favorite...) But, at the end of the day, one story has stayed with me over the months - even though I've skipped it on re-reads of the collection because it creeped me out so much - and that is Nadia Bulkin's "Only Unity Saves the Damned".
Up front, I must say Lovecraft's "Supernatural Horror in Literature" has been a touchstone for me in academic papers and in conversations about the importance and impact of horror literature for many years. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that I was exceedingly excited to get my hands on an Advance Review Copy of this collection. (I pursued it before I came down with what would be a 4 week viral ordeal, with ripple effects I'm still feeling more than 4 months later.)
I cannot say it half so well as Publishers Weekly or SFF World -- but I agree wholeheartedly with them that this collection is something different in the best of ways.
Each author selects a particular passage from Lovecraft's essay and introduces their story with a brief explanation of their relationship with that passage. This made the collection all the more enticing for me, as a reader and student of academia. It is often a valuable insight to hear the author's own voice when engaging with works that are part of a conversation, such as the conversation created between these tales and Lovecraft's essay.
The format also creates a binding thread that runs through the anthology, making every story fit. There isn't a slacker or outlier in the bunch. I was hypnotized and drawn into each story through not only the writer's craft, but the interaction between Lovecraft's essay and the author's view of it.
This anthology is the sweet spot between academic engagement and idolic entertainment.
Of the entire collection, many stories stuck with me; to pick a favorite would be an impossible task. Would I choose Grey's dabbling in using Lovecraft as a character, Jones' lycanthropic romp, or Files' exploration of things hidden in childhood? (I could honestly list EVERY author's name here and give a reason for their story to be a favorite...) But, at the end of the day, one story has stayed with me over the months - even though I've skipped it on re-reads of the collection because it creeped me out so much - and that is Nadia Bulkin's "Only Unity Saves the Damned".
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