Voodoo Virus

[i***@aol.com]

Not a mythos novel but a zombie story by William Jones. I liked The
Rising well enough, and plan to read World War Z, so I'll preorder
this too.

Man, I wish I know all the projects percolating at Elder Signs Press

Matt

[John Goodrich]

Post by i***@aol.com
Man, I wish I know all the projects percolating at Elder Signs Press

I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

John Goodrich

[Franklin Hummel]

You would probably enjoy the book Eats, Shoots and Leaves. I know
I
did!

Yeah, I know of it, just never got around to reading it. I think I
might find it depressing and not amusing.

BTW, I enjoyed William Jones' book but I also found the idea of
humanity as the soul of the cosmos both ridiculous and off putting.

I finally finished the book and find that towards the end. Hated it.

Thought the PEARSON book was weak overall. It came across as Dr.
Strange vs. The Mythos. I was unimpressed, especially to his drastic
reinterpreting of the Mythos.

(I suspect some people will now post issues of the DR. STRANGE comic
where he does confront the Mythos; however, don't do it for me as I'm
not really that interested.)

Not a mythos novel but a zombie story by William Jones. I liked The
Rising well enough, and plan to read World War Z, so I'll preorder
this too.

This is listed in the two most recent Chaosium books as coming from
them. Has there been a change? If it is jus a zombie story, I hope
it is. Even if it is a "Mythos" novel, I hope Chaosium doesn't
publish it.

Man, I wish I know all the projects percolating at Elder Signs
Press

Man, I don't care anymore. I've read THE HIVE by Tim Curran and
have HIGH SEA CTHULHU Jones from them. And I've read PEARSON also by
Jones.

I also read than now THE HIVE is suddenly the first book in a trilogy
from ESP. I feel that is something that only happened after the
first book was published.

I have no interest in reading anything further dealing with THE HIVE,
given the complete distortion it was of Lovecraft's concept of the
Elder Things -- which is very clear in AtMoM.

Second, I seriously hope the William Jones does writing anything
Mythos-related or at least these stop being published by anyone.

To me Jones is gutting what remains Lovecraftian in the Mythos. I
can only think of one other author besides Jones who I've read who
has as seriously a lack of understanding of what Lovecraft wrote as
Derleth did. And that other author wrote a Christian/Cthulhu Mythos
story.

Well, wait. I forgot to include Brian Lumley. What he turned his
version of the Mythos into was also very bad. The "super-hero"
characters that appear in both Lumley and Jones both are serious
mistakes.

I see Jones doing the same bad stuff to Lovecraft that Derleth did.
He's turning the Mythos into Good vs. Evil. He changing very basic
concept and creation by Lovecraft into things which are not the
slightest Lovecraftian and barely even Mythosian.

I know of a least 5 Mythos-related books. as editor or author, that
Jones has done so far and it looks like, according to what you wrote
Matt, he is doing more. I think that is a terrible thing.

As I said, I have seen an *worse* understanding of Lovecraft or the
Mythos is a long time. And to see Jones getting published so much to
me raises the same problems of what Derleth did to the Mythos and now
his distortion became what many readers through was
Lovecraft/Lovecraftian for decades.

Fortunately Lovecraft and the Mythos is no longer as controlled as it
once was. However, I view Jones as just even more Mythos Goes
Seriously Wrong writing.

There is only *one* author who I have ever seen take the Derleth Good
vs. Evil Mythos concept and turn it into something that *is*
Lovecraftian -- and that is F. Paul Wilson. I cannot recall someone
other than myself mentioning his in a.h.c; maybe they did, but I
don't remember it. I have problems with much of Wilson's philosophy
which shows up in this novels and his characters, but I think is his
taken on the Mythos, a Lovecraftian Derleth one, is very good.

At this point, looking at what I have read from Elder Sign Press and
W. Jones/T. Curran, I'd be very happy if they never published another
book. Whoever its editors are, they are publishing some of the
*worst* Lovecraftian/Mythosian fiction I have read in a years.

I very much doubt I will ever buy anything published by them again.
And if I was recommending to other Lovecraft fans books to buy or
read, I would not recommend anything by them.

It's sad to see so much *bad* Mythos fiction being sold again. To
me, fans of Lovecraftian fiction deserve better.

(I hope this post doesn't turn into a flame war...again. If it
starts going that way, I'll just mark this topic as "Ignored" and not
post again.)

-- Franklin Hummel in Boston, Massachusetts

[Franklin Hummel]

Post by Franklin Hummel
It's sad to see so much *bad* Mythos fiction being sold again. To
me, fans of Lovecraftian fiction deserve better.

Sorry, everyone, for all the typos, words left out, etc., etc. in my
previous post. When I feel strongly about something, my dyslexia
generally shows in full force.

-- Frank Hummel in Boston

[james ambuehl]

Franklin Hummel wrote:

< Thought the PEARSON book was weak overall. It came across as Dr.
Strange vs. The Mythos. I was unimpressed, especially to his drastic
reinterpreting of the Mythos.
(I suspect some people will now post issues of the DR. STRANGE comic
where he does confront the Mythos; however, don't do it for me as I'm
not really that interested.) >

I've not yet read the PEARSON book in question, though it's sitting here
waiting for me along with FRONTIER CTHULHU; HIGH SEAS CTHULHU and THE
SPIRALLING WORM, all of which I finally caught up on getting hold of
(Yay!) -- but for those wanting to know more about Dr. Strange VS the
Mythos, although much of the several series overall contains very slight
Mythosian allusions: Hosts of 'Hoggoth' being reminiscent of
'Shoggoth'; BOOK OF EIBON and NECRONOMICON being mentioned or depicted
now and then; a scene in a BOOK OF THE VISHANTI chapter wherein Baron
Mordo sacrifices a woman he saves from a vampire's clutches to a much
more abhorrent Tentacled Thing looming out of a dimensional portal; Dr.
Strange and Wolverine teaming up in a Chris Claremont-written issue to
fight Claremont's Lovecraftian demons the N'Garai, and Wolverine
mentioning Cthulhu by name (he also does this in the novel X-MEN: SOUL
KILLER by Richard Lee Byers, so Wolverine obviously knows of Ole
Tentacle-Face, at least) . . .

But there are a few more explicit Lovecraftian storylines in Dr. Strange
comics, most notably The Shuma-Gorath Cycle in MARVEL PREMIERE #s 4-10
and 14, which started the good mage's exploits out in shadow-haunted
Starkesboro with the reptilian Children of Sligguth and led him through
encounters with many Lovecraftian (and REHian) agent-avatars of
Shuma-Gorath like Dagoth; N'Gabthoth and L'mur-Kathulos and finally
against cyclopean and cycloptic world-devouring Shuma-Gorath himself!

Strange also went up against Shuma-Gorath again (as did Conan the
Barbarian, in #s 252-260 of his own eponymous title) in the STRANGE
TALES (Vol. 2) mini-series, meeting him directly in issues 14-16 I think
it was, and then Strange fought a Shoggoth straight from 'the Slime-Pits
of R'lyeh' in #19 of that title.

I haven't kept up with Dr. Strange in his recent years though, from his
guest-starring stint in J. Michael Straczynski's AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
series through to a new volume of his own title, I believe, so I'd
appreciate any such further Lovecraftian Dr. Strange details myself, so
I can go haunt my comic shop back issue vaults, but as far as I can
recall, this is the extent of Dr. Strange's Lovecraftian exploits.


-- Jim

"When the Big Sleep ends, the Nightmares begin!" -- HARDBOILED CTHULHU:
TWO-FISTED TALES OF TENTACLED TERROR, edited by James Ambuehl and out
now from Elder Signs Press! Available from Clarkesworld Books,
Shocklines, Amazon, and Elder Signs Press itself!

[Franklin Hummel]

Post by james ambuehl
< Thought the PEARSON book was weak overall. It came across as Dr.
Strange vs. The Mythos. I was unimpressed, especially to his
drastic
reinterpreting of the Mythos.
(I suspect some people will now post issues of the DR. STRANGE
comic
where he does confront the Mythos; however, don't do it for me as I'm
not really that interested.) >
-
I've not yet read the PEARSON book in question, though it's sitting here
waiting for me along with FRONTIER CTHULHU; HIGH SEAS CTHULHU and THE
SPIRALLING WORM, all of which I finally caught up on getting hold of
(Yay!) -- but for those wanting to know more about Dr. Strange VS the
Mythos, although much of the several series overall contains very slight
Mythosian allusions: Hosts of 'Hoggoth' being reminiscent of
'Shoggoth'; BOOK OF EIBON and NECRONOMICON being mentioned or
depicted
now and then; a scene in a BOOK OF THE VISHANTI chapter wherein Baron
Mordo sacrifices a woman he saves from a vampire's clutches to a much
more abhorrent Tentacled Thing looming out of a dimensional portal; Dr.
Strange and Wolverine teaming up in a Chris Claremont-written issue to
fight Claremont's Lovecraftian demons the N'Garai, and Wolverine
mentioning Cthulhu by name (he also does this in the novel X-MEN: SOUL
KILLER by Richard Lee Byers, so Wolverine obviously knows of Ole
Tentacle-Face, at least) . . .

I KNEW IT!

Gees. We are a bunch of fanatics.

-- Franklin Hummel in Boston, Massachusetts

[i***@aol.com]

Hmmm

Maybe your expectations were too high. I was not expecting the prose
of WH Pugmire or the ingenious plotting of Stross. I wanted some
pleasant reading with a mythosian theme and that's what I got. Sort
of like The Tales of Inspector Legrasse by CJ Henderson, this Pearson
book seemed to me to be a homage to the pulp fiction of yore. I liked
the overall plot and the development of the character well enough that
I don't have a hard time recommending it. Jones' prose surpasses many
other authors now active on the mythos scene. Sure I had quibbles but
on the whole it was pretty good!

But you do raise a question that piques my interest, what are the best
stories that the mythos has to offer. I think I'll rummage through my
books over the next few days and come up with a list! It won't be
comprehensive and will only reflect my taste, I would be interested
to see what stories from our modern era others think of the as the
best current Lovecraftian fiction.

As a teaser, near the top of my list are Final Draft by Annadale and A
Colder War by Stross. Stay tuned!

Matt

[Franklin Hummel]

Post by i***@aol.com
Hmmm
Maybe your expectations were too high.

At this point, with any modern Mythos fiction I read, my expectations
are set *low*. The PEARSON book went much lower than even that.

I was not expecting the prose

Post by i***@aol.com
of WH Pugmire or the ingenious plotting of Stross. I wanted some
pleasant reading with a mythosian theme and that's what I got.

I guess I don't find it pleasant when things get so twisted away from
being *Lovecraftian*.

Post by i***@aol.com
Sort
of like The Tales of Inspector Legrasse by CJ Henderson, this
Pearson
book seemed to me to be a homage to the pulp fiction of yore.

See, I would disagree here. I consider Henderson to be one of the
*best* Lovecraftian/Mythos authors alive. He has an understand of
Lovecraft and the Mythos that I think many of the authors in the
genre lack ( for example, Tim Curran and William Jones).

In addition to that, Henderson is much better in his writing and
literary style. I found his INSPECTOR LEGRASSE book to have a depth
to its characters and story; I found the last story to affect me
truly emotionally -- whereas the PEARSON book was just shallow.

I must also say I think C.J. Henderson can do what Lin Carter and
Sprague DeCamp tried but repeatedly failed to do -- write "pastiches"
that are just as good (and sometimes better) and faithful to the
original writers.

I think Henderson is way too often overlooked by Lovecraft fiction
fans.

Post by i***@aol.com
I liked
the overall plot and the development of the character well enough that
I don't have a hard time recommending it. Jones' prose surpasses many
other authors now active on the mythos scene.

His prose was crap. I find it both lacking in any interesting style
and I found it very pretenseous as well.

Post by i***@aol.com
Sure I had quibbles but
on the whole it was pretty good!

On a scale of 1-10 (bad-good), I would give PEARSON 1 1/2.

I've also been reading Jones' anthologies HIGH SEAS CTHULHU and
FRONTIER CTHULHU and I must say I find some of the stories in their
upsetting because they seem to share Jones's trying to turn the
Mythos back into Derleth's stupid Good vs. Evil shit.

And as I said, given how many books he is churning out as an editor,
I am very worried about what affect his Derleth/Jones Mythos is going
to do to new Mythos fiction and what gets published! I strongly
think Jones is becoming a serious disaster for Lovecraft fiction
fans.

I would LOVE to see C.J. Henderson replace Jones' as a major Mythos
fiction editor!

When I log into Amazon.com I get recommendations (as I think everyone
does) of books and DVDs I might like to buy. I was getting a bunch
of Jones's stuff after I bought those 3 books and I made sure to mark
all of them "Not Interested" and then did the same for anything else
Mythos-related of his that I could find.

I will ONLY buy anything by Jones again if it is published by
Chaosium and that is because I am collecting all of their Mythos
fiction line.

Oh, I also said I had my fill of Elder Sign Press books as well. I
ordered a "Yellow Sign" book from Amazon and later realized it was an
ESP book, something I had missed originally due to my Yellow
Sign/Chambers' interest -- so when it showed up I just sent it back
unopened.

Post by i***@aol.com
But you do raise a question that piques my interest, what are the best
stories that the mythos has to offer. I think I'll rummage through my
books over the next few days and come up with a list! It won't be
comprehensive and will only reflect my taste, I would be
interested
to see what stories from our modern era others think of the as the
best current Lovecraftian fiction.

For writers off-hand I would have to say Pugmire and Henderson, along
with much of Will Murray's stories. Personally I wish Murray would
write *more* Mythos fiction.

At the bottom of my list now would be William Jones, Tim Curran, and
of course Brian Lumley.

Post by i***@aol.com
As a teaser, near the top of my list are Final Draft by Annadale and A
Colder War by Stross. Stay tuned!

So, where is your List? Uh? You posted your message on May 25th!
(I haven't been able to get to Usenet again until now. Been a lot of
unpleasant stuff happening in my life.) It's now June 5th!

-- Franklin Hummel in Boston, Massachusetts