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3.48 AVERAGE
3.48 AVERAGE
Didn’t enjoy the horror aspect of the book, found it too obvious what was happening and couldn’t relate/picture the imagery.
DNF - I've been in a reading slump and it's very unfortunate that I found this book which only made it worse. It think the point of this book is world building and lore for other Lovecraft stories but I couldnt struggle through it any longer. Maybe I'll return when I have more context for it.
I’m so surprised that my rating for this book turned out to be so low. The narrator’s voice is great! The story started off strong for me too. Honestly thought I was going to give a 4 star rating. So what happened to change that? I hit chapter 5 in the audiobook... Chapter 5 has to be the most boring part of the entire book. Sadly it was about 31 minutes long and the book lost its magic for me. Talking about rock formations and striations along with petrified wood just wasn’t interesting for that long a time. I get that these two are geologists and this mattered to them and the information shows how much Lovecraft gave to his story. Sadly, I never fully regained my interest in this story. I pretty much slogged my way through the story for the narrator but I found myself zoning out near the middle and near the end because the emotion behind the voice seemed to remain the same. (I'm sorry Edward Herrmann! I love you and always will but I have to be honest.)
Narrator: 3.5 stars
Story: 2 stars
Overall: 2.75 stars
Narrator: 3.5 stars
Story: 2 stars
Overall: 2.75 stars
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Conceptually I find lovecraftian fiction cool in a pulpy way and certainly appreciate the impact it’s made on the sci-fi and horror genres, however I find its execution here somewhat lacking.
Lovecraft essentially writes in adjectives and for someone who constantly alludes to “indescribable horrors” in his story seems to somehow incessantly try to describe them.
From a plot perspective, the actual expedition to Antarctica is mostly glossed over and character development more or less completely omitted.
Towards the end of the novella, we get more or less a grand exposition regarding the mythos which is definitely the most interesting part. Even here, it doesn’t really make sense how the narrator is able to extrapolate the history of the eldritch beings he encounters from hieroglyphs given that this is supposedly the first time these beings are encountered in thousands of years.
Lovecraft essentially writes in adjectives and for someone who constantly alludes to “indescribable horrors” in his story seems to somehow incessantly try to describe them.
From a plot perspective, the actual expedition to Antarctica is mostly glossed over and character development more or less completely omitted.
Towards the end of the novella, we get more or less a grand exposition regarding the mythos which is definitely the most interesting part. Even here, it doesn’t really make sense how the narrator is able to extrapolate the history of the eldritch beings he encounters from hieroglyphs given that this is supposedly the first time these beings are encountered in thousands of years.
dark
slow-paced
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
If I'm in the mood for H.P. Lovecraft and his ponderous prose (which I sometimes am), this is a five-star book. If I'm not, it's a three.
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Do you know those short videos in which the person talks about something but doesn’t include said thing in the video? When you have to do the hard work of clicking onto the person’s profile, scroll down and search for the second part? This is how this book felt like at times. Many times.
The protagonist talks about some thing that changed the objective of his mission, but falls right back into elaborately describing murals and buildings for three chapters straight, repeating the words 'decadent' and 'primal' I don’t know how many times. Oh, and yes, he does mention that thing that changed the objective once or twice throughout those pages, but only to repeat once more that it was of such incredible significance that it, you guessed it, changed the objective of the mission.
Over all, I don’t think that this was the right book to start with Lovecraft’s work, because there are a lot of words and places and species thrown into the story that require prior knowledge of his literary universe, which I didn’t have. But from what I read, I can tell that this just isn’t for me. The prose was overcomplicated and filled with repetitions, the story too long for how little was said. I do admire his geographical and geological knowledge, seeing as Lovecraft was self-educated and lived in the same place his whole life. It’s fascinating how much knowledge he has taught himself with how little opportunity there was in that time for the distribution of such. That’s why I didn’t give it a whole 1 star.
All I can say is that I too would have descended into madness if not for that freeing page number 123, thank you very much.
The protagonist talks about some thing that changed the objective of his mission, but falls right back into elaborately describing murals and buildings for three chapters straight, repeating the words 'decadent' and 'primal' I don’t know how many times. Oh, and yes, he does mention that thing that changed the objective once or twice throughout those pages, but only to repeat once more that it was of such incredible significance that it, you guessed it, changed the objective of the mission.
Over all, I don’t think that this was the right book to start with Lovecraft’s work, because there are a lot of words and places and species thrown into the story that require prior knowledge of his literary universe, which I didn’t have. But from what I read, I can tell that this just isn’t for me. The prose was overcomplicated and filled with repetitions, the story too long for how little was said. I do admire his geographical and geological knowledge, seeing as Lovecraft was self-educated and lived in the same place his whole life. It’s fascinating how much knowledge he has taught himself with how little opportunity there was in that time for the distribution of such. That’s why I didn’t give it a whole 1 star.
All I can say is that I too would have descended into madness if not for that freeing page number 123, thank you very much.
3.75 stars
This was so interesting to read. I like watching conspiracy theories for fun, and this book reminded me of those. Just like the story of Cthulhu, this feels like it inspired a whole new way of thinking for a lot of people. Very cool story!
This was so interesting to read. I like watching conspiracy theories for fun, and this book reminded me of those. Just like the story of Cthulhu, this feels like it inspired a whole new way of thinking for a lot of people. Very cool story!