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A review by actualconman
At the Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft
2.0
Wikipedia defines Lovecraftian horror as 'a subgenre of horror fiction that emphasizes the horror of the unknowable and incomprehensible'. I'm afraid this definition is innaccurate and must be discarded. The new definition is 'a subgenre of horror fiction that emphasizes the horror of something very well known now that you know about the origin, history, culture, mythology and exact downfall of the thing that was unknown at some point'
I'm honestly kinda baffled by it. Even if unexpected I was on board for the more sci-fi angle brought on by the infodumping, but when it swapped right back to straight horror the two clashed so bad. Shoggoths aren't very scary when I was introduced to them as mindless slaves whose existence was pitied, at least not without a lot of leg work that isn't done here.
Surprise surprise, the scariest thing come the end of the book is the mountain range beyond Leng, which is the thing that had the least amount of concrete information shared about it, not to mention the buildup of the Elder Ones actually fearing it too. But that's like three pages versus the gods know how many leading up to the far worse Shoggoth.
I'm honestly kinda baffled by it. Even if unexpected I was on board for the more sci-fi angle brought on by the infodumping, but when it swapped right back to straight horror the two clashed so bad. Shoggoths aren't very scary when I was introduced to them as mindless slaves whose existence was pitied, at least not without a lot of leg work that isn't done here.
Surprise surprise, the scariest thing come the end of the book is the mountain range beyond Leng, which is the thing that had the least amount of concrete information shared about it, not to mention the buildup of the Elder Ones actually fearing it too. But that's like three pages versus the gods know how many leading up to the far worse Shoggoth.