Books!

[Athena]

I signed out "Necronomicon: The Best Weird Tales of H.P. Lovecraft" (basically just a collection of a bunch of his stories) from the school library the other day. So far I've read Dagon and am about 2/3 through The Call Of Cthulhu, and I love it! dark, horrible, and intriguing!

[Purple Wyrm]

I signed out "Necronomicon: The Best Weird Tales of H.P. Lovecraft" (basically just a collection of a bunch of his stories) from the school library the other day. So far I've read Dagon and am about 2/3 through The Call Of Cthulhu, and I love it! dark, horrible, and intriguing!

Mwahahaha! Another disciple for the Old Ones! Iä Subb Niggurath! Iä! Iä Nyarlath.... Uh, I mean, yes! Lovecraft is great!

[Lazy8]

I remember particularly enjoying "In the Vault", "The Outsider", "The Dreams in the Witch-House", and "The Colour Out of Space".

Though I have to admit that Lovecraft and I have a rather severe clash of values. While his dull-as-a-brick and blander-than-Mikkel's-cooking completely clueless protagonist is going on and on and on about how horrible and unnatural something is, I'm thinking "OMG this is fascinating I want to know more about this alien society tell me more because I want to study them so much!" *drool* *drool* *drool*

('Twas definitely the case in "The Shadow Out of Time" and "At the Mountains of Madness", at any rate... )

[Róisín]

Yeah, Lovecraft sometimes has the same problem as Sax Rohmer - the stories are good, but their protagonists are so ditchwater dull and Victorian era gentleman conventional that it makes me sympathetic to the villains.

[Lazy8]

Yeah, that. And I do find it striking that, for all Lovecraft's blatant racism and xenophobia, you do see an occasional moment of empathy, the most memorable being at the end of "Mountains of Madness" - my book is still in storage somewhere back in New York state, so I'm paraphrasing, but I believe the quote went something like "...monsters, star spawn, they were men! What were they but the men of another day and age, and what did they do that we would not have done in their place?"

I also find it fascinating to think about how "Shadow out of Time" would have gone if the body-swapping program had been voluntary rather than coerced (and can you believe I totally would have been jumping out of my seat to volunteer for it?), and part of a larger cultural exchange program between such different cultures and time periods... I really, really, really want to see this story written.

[urbicande]

I just finished The Atrocity Archives, the first book in Charles Stross's Laundry series, which is a combination of espionage, physics and H.P.Lovecraft. I loved the setting, the ideas and the plot, but the writing style just didn't grab me. It came across as sort of bland and monochrome. I'll likely read the rest of the series, but I won't be hurrying to do so (I'll stick to the Dresden Files for the time being).

Each of the first set of books is somewhat different in tone -- that one, for example, is more based on Len Deighton's spy books rather than, say, Ian Fleming's.  They get a little less interesting as time goes on, though.

Yeah, Lovecraft sometimes has the same problem as Sax Rohmer - the stories are good, but their protagonists are so ditchwater dull and Victorian era gentleman conventional that it makes me sympathetic to the villains.

I just read through the complete Conan the Barbarian stories.  The sexism, racism, and anti-semitism was...painful. Good stories, though.  (Unlike some David Drake book I recently read, where the only thing that stopped me from flinging the book across the room in disgust at the misogyny was the fact that I was reading it on my phone)

[DaemonDan]

I just reread the entire Chronicles of Pyrdain. Something about re-reading an old series that's like catching up with an old friend.

And there's even someone making a very good comic adaptation of the first book, The Book of Three!

[thorny]

I really, really, really want to see this story written.

Write it!

-- I never could get into Lovecraft; but that modification sounds fascinating.

Urbicande, I loved the Conan books -- back when I was around twelve. And it was the early 1960's, which were not quite the 1960's yet. And at that point I just plain didn't see anything but the stories.

They're now classed in my head as "things I may be happier if I don't go back and re-read."

[urbicande]

They're now classed in my head as "things I may be happier if I don't go back and re-read."

There's a strong chance that the Suck Fairy will have come to visit them.

[Róisín]

Dan, that was interesting! I had no idea that tale had been made into a comic.

[DaemonDan]

Dan, that was interesting! I had no idea hat tale had been made into a comic.

Yeah the creator is playing it pretty close to the original books, which is both good and bad, I suppose. Faithful retelling vs interpretation, etc.

[Purple Wyrm]

Each of the first set of books is somewhat different in tone -- that one, for example, is more based on Len Deighton's spy books rather than, say, Ian Fleming's.  They get a little less interesting as time goes on, though.

I'll bear that in mind. I have a habit of buying books I want to read, but maybe I'll renew my library card for the rest of Stross's work.

I got into Lovecraft at possibly the best time - as an angsty teenager. Funnily enough the first story I read was Wizard's Hollow which is one of the Derleth "collaborations", but I liked it so much I tracked down the real stuff. I'm one of those strange folk who love Lovecraft's overwrought use of language, which is probably why I programmed this many years back  :'D

My favourites of his works are The Hound, The Lurking Fear and The Festival. I think I can still quote the Necronomicon quote from the latter by heart.

I was just thinking about the Chronicles of Pyrdain the other day. I can see my box-set from where I'm sitting, maybe time for re-read

[Lazy8]

Write it!

-- I never could get into Lovecraft; but that modification sounds fascinating.

Maybe if I ever get a plot or characters I'll do it. Right now all I have is the seed of an idea.

[Róisín]

Wonders about a Lovecraft/SSSS crossover.

[Lazy8]

Wonders about a Lovecraft/SSSS crossover.

I actually want to do a Lovecraft crossover with another fandom entirely. Buuuuuuut, if anyone else got the idea of writing it I certainly wouldn't complain.