Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos: Stories

One of the best collections of Lovecraft inspired fiction I've ever read. I bought it for Robert Bloch's "Notebook Found In A Deserted House" which terrified me as a preteen and remains to this day one of my favorite horror stories. Some other great stuff in here as well-I'm looking at you, Fritz Leiber-so I highly recommend this book.

FYI, this review has some minor spoilers (very, very minor). I personally don't care about spoilers because I feel like I can enjoy the story either way, but if they bother you, just watch for the brackets.A brief glance at the other reviews tells me that my opinion is slightly different than most.I think it's a very good book and I really enjoyed it, but at the same time, I feel like it's not a great introduction to the Cthulhu mythos, primarily because it's missing a good chunk of the introductory material. And I actually get that from the book itself: Several stories make reference to "The Outsider and Others," which is a collection of Lovecraft stories that seems to be the canon on which all other Cthulhu stories are based. That particular collection has been out of print for some time, but all of the stories within the collection are public domain. I realize now that I should have read all of those stories (which are free online) *before* reading this. That's probably the best introduction to the Cthulhu mythos, and *this* book should come next.But that's not to say by a longshot that I regret reading this book, hence my four-star rating. I felt that it would be appropriate to give it four stars instead of five because there were only a handful that I thought were fantastic. A lot were only moderately interesting, and a few were simply terrible. [**spoilers** For instance, "Notebook Found in a Deserted House" went absolutely nowhere and seemed to have a plot on par with a bad Hollywood movie, and "Cold Print," which for some reason is highly praised, was strictly about sexual deviance and had absolutely no redeeming qualities. **end spoilers**]But some were great. I really have no interest in horror or macabre stories, and sometimes the stories can be fairly gruesome [*spoilers* One story involves a pretty vivid description of human sacrifice that was fairly disturbing **end spoilers**], but I love a good developing sci-fi/fantasy mythos. I've enjoyed Star Trek, Stargate, Doctor Who, etc., and I was interested in getting involved in a well-developed mythos that wasn't hyper-controlled by Hollywood (or BBC, in Doctor Who's case).What I found is that the good stories in this book blow Hollywood's plot lines out of the water. They're just amazing."The Call of Cthulhu" itself is the best story in the entire book by a longshot. In some ways, it's kind of disappointing to start with the best and have it go downhill from there, but it obviously needs to be first, since it introduces the character Cthulhu.But that's not to say it's the only good story. Besides that one, "The Dweller in Darkness," "The Haunter of the Dark," "The Terror from the Depths," "The Return of the Lloiger," "Sticks," "Jerusalem's Lot," and "Discovery of the Ghooric Zone" are my favorites. Not all actually contribute directly to the story of Cthulhu, but they do take place in the Cthulhu universe.[**spoilers** "Discovery of the Ghooric Zone" is kind of a weird one. It has some pretty weird, fairly explicit sexual stuff. You can call me a prude if you want -- I don't care -- but I feel like that was very inappropriate and hardly contributed to the story. Still, if you can get past that, it was absolutely fascinating, and a perfect end to a book about the Cthulhu mythos. **end spoilers**]In short, very good book that I'd highly recommend. But I do suggest reading at least "The Call of Cthulhu" online first-- it's free and you can find it easily on an internet search. I also suggest reading the rest of "The Outsider and Others" (you can find the listing on Wikipedia and the individual stories at hplovecraft.com). It won't be a big mistake or anything to start with this, but I feel that since these stories mostly build on "The Outsider and Others," it'd probably be best to start with that.

This book is a good reminder that H.P. Lovecraft was more than just a creator of cool monsters; he was a great writer."Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos" collects two Lovecraft stories and twenty non-Lovecraft Mythos-inspired yarns. The stories range from 1931 when Lovecraft was still alive and writers were in direct contact with him, to 1977 when his work was just re-emerging into the popular state. Many of the earlier stories were actually published in "Weird Tales" magazines when Lovecraft was still alive. The various authors try to imitate his particular style of cosmic horror if not his obscure use of vocabulary. Some of the stories are good, some are not good at all. But none of them hold a candle to Lovecraft himself.Many of the names are going to be familiar to readers of weird fiction; there are two Clark Ashton Smith stories. A Robert E. Howard yarn. Two Frank Belknap Long stories. Two August Derleth and three Robert Bloch contributions. Some classic science fiction authors contribute a tale; Fritz Leiber, Ramsey Campbell, and Philip Jose Farmer each have a story. Representing more modern horror are Brian Lumley, Karl Edward Wagner, and Stephen King with a story a piece. Some authors I hadn't heard of; Henry Kuttner, Colin Wilson, Joanna Russ, and Richard A. Lupoff.The stories vary wildly in quality. Robert Bloch (author of  Psycho ) is the best, without a doubt. I didn't realize he had written a sequel to Lovecraft's "The Haunter in the Dark." Bloch was in correspondence with Lovecraft and "gets" that style of writing more than anyone else. Poor August Derleth's contributions are some of the worst. Readers owe a huge debt to Derleth for his championing and publishing of Lovecraft, even if his own skills as a writer were mediocre at best. I especially enjoyed reading Karl Edward Wagner's "Sticks," as I have been a fan of the  radio play adaptation  from the ZBS Foundation for decades without have ever read the original story. It's interesting that the further away in time the stories get, the worse they get. I'm not even sure why Joanna Russ' "My Boat" is in here. The Mythos connections are tenuous and it is just a bad story. Stephen King's story is typical King. Not bad, but not Lovecraft. The later stories' writing style just isn't suited to Lovecraft's world.To anyone that plays the  Call of Cthulhu  roleplaying game, "Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos" is a great resource. Here we have the original "Hounds of Tindalos" and "The Return of the Lloiger," both of which feature prominently in the game."Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos" shouldn't be anyone's first Mythos collection. After you have worked your way through everything Lovecraft wrote, then this is a nice companion and tribute.

Many different short stories. Some classics which are phenomenal, some new stories which are surprising and excellent, and a few (very few) new but really predictable tales.Mostly the book manages to expand on the Cthulhu Mythos in an innovative manner, avoiding the mere immitation of Lovecraft's style.Four stars since there are one or two stories within which I personally found disappointing (and 5 stars means a book is trully 100%). But I'll definitely look for more stories by the vast majority of the new authors.In my comment I focus mostly on the quality of the new authors because the classics (Mythos-inspired authors who were contemporaries of Lovecraft or mostly) like Clark A. Smith Derleth, Robert E. Howard, Bloch (and the two stories by Lovecraft, stories I had already read many times but which are always a delight to re-read) included in the beggining of the book, are trully masters of the Mythos and high quality fiction is always to be found in their writing. If you don't know these authors, give this book a go and soon enough you'll be ordering their other works.

Had me gripped from start to finish - eac and every tale was excellent. An absolutely fabulous purchase; well worth it

If you have yet to read anything by H.P. Lovecraft then this is a great place to start. You get some of his most iconic stories as well as a collection of works inspired by his stories and are related to the universe that he has created. Great book, I highly recommend it.

Livraison très rapide ! Vraiment rien à dire !

Bellissimo, un must have per gli appassionati dei miti di Cthulhu. Ovviamente in lingua inglese, contiene una spettacolare collezione dei racconti più famosi che hanno ispirato il gioco di ruolo di Cthulhu, così come il manuale delle Dreamlands. Da avere!

Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos is one of the best lovecraftian anthologies I've ever read .