Rating: 
Summary: right stuff, wrong publisher
Review: I haven't had this specific volume in hand, but I happen to own a set of pocket size paperbacks of Lovecraft's works
also published by Del Rey (and still available). These were poorly edited, and ill printed on crummy paper. A
publisher who gives this kind of treatment to a writer, and puts this kind of low quality product for sale doesn't deserve your money.If you like HPL, or just want to discover his works, do yourself and the publishing industry a favor, get your book
somewhere else, there are some better collections and omnibuses around waiting for you to pick them.
Rating: 
Summary: A Thrilling Introduction to Lovecraftian fantasy
Review: I must admit I was really amazed when I read this book. My interest in Lovecraft began three years ago when an online player introduced me to the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game. Ever since I bought the book and played using his concepts, I was hooked. You don't have to be a roleplaying game fan to like Lovecraft, though a lot of what his stories talk about is easier to read if you have the benefit of some knowledge of Lovecraft's ideas.
Basically, the premise of his stories is that man is fortunate to be born ignorant, because if he knew the truth it would either destroy him or lead him into corruption and madness. As far as dark fantasy goes, good stories based on the Cthulhu Mythos (August Derleth's term for Lovecraft-inspired stories) rank among the best.
By far my favourite stories are "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath" a surreal short novel of epic fantasy (a short epic? I never thought it possible!), "The Silver Key" a short story but intriguing nonetheless, and "Through the Gates of the Silver Key", which in my opinion is almost as good as the Dream-Quest. While it elaborates on the events after the Silver Key, it really isn't necessary to read one story to appreciate the other. Both stories are good enough to be read on their own.
What's been noted on Lovecraft's style is that he seldom produces dialogue and character development. While some of this is practiced in Through the Gates, it is largely true that Lovecraft's style is mostly poetic and not intended to be read like "normal" stories. I would also point out that Mythos tales after Lovecraft do not necessarily follow the strictly "poetic" style the author chose for his works. I'm told Ramsey Campbell does the Mythos particularly well, and he is an example of the more traditional horror novelist.
All in all, The Dream Cycle of H.P. Lovecraft is a selection of some of Lovecraft's greatest flights of imaginative fantasy. Very dark and chilling fantasy, but it has the "feel" of fantasy nonetheless.
Rating: 
Summary: Decent
Review: If you are not a fan of poetic or desrciptive writing you probably will not enjoy this book. There is almost no dialogue and can be draining at times. Quite a few stories were deeply entertaining but others were slow and when they finally reached their climax I was left with, "oh, thats it?" Overall it is easy to see how much influence Lovecraft had on other writers. Though I wasnt thrilled with each story I was definetely brought into the atmoshphere Lovecraft created.
Rating:
Summary: BRILLIANT AS ALWAYS!
Review: Lovecraft does it one more time, I guess. Being a great fan of his, I feel this is a masterpiece. The stuff dreams are made of, I should call it. Or maybe nightmares, huh? Great work.
Rating:
Summary: Phenomenal writer at his best
Review: Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, Bram Stoker's Dracula and Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are commonly seen as the cornerstones of modern horror. In my opinion Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890-1937) must to be added to this list, because horror wouldn't be the same without the influence of this phenomenal writer. One can say that Lovecraft brought the "Dark Monsters" into the genre, take for example the H.R.Gigger creature used in the movie Alien, but this simplification neglects his true talent: composing great atmospheric horror stories. Although the common threads in this collection are clearly relating to dreams, there is one maybe even more important aspect that returns in all the stories: every main character is obsessively engaged in a personal or even scientific quest that brings him face to face with the most unreal dangers. The eagerness to see the invisible is what links these stories all together. Even if the worst is about to happen to the main character, he just takes that last step because he must know what is crawling behind that wall... If you love fantasizing about more dimensions and time travel, than this collection is certainly an enticing dip into these mathematical riddles. In addition the stories all weave together, so you get the urge to reread them again after finishing. Don't hesitate to do this because you will get absorbed even more into the surreal mythos of Lovecraft.
Rating:
Summary: A Vision Unparalleled
Review: Of the 3 DelRey books (Best of, Dream Cycle, and Transition) this one is the best one. A truly frightening vision of a world in dreaming - the only created world that compares is Tolkien's. Whoever edited these stories together is a genius - don't read any of the stories out of sequence. The cumulative effect is like reading a strange novel into Lovecraft's mind. Terrific.
Rating:
Summary: WAY overrated
Review: so this is 'atmospheric horror?' (excuse my pop reference.) first of all, the cover insults your intelligence. Lovecraft flatters Borges in the highest form, and his language is even worse than Poe's - awkward, verbose, ultimately annoying. the 'atmosphere' is arid, boring. writers (esp. horror and British) need to understand sometimes less is more: flowery & 'understatement' (for most Brits it's unnecessary adverbs and double negatives) only make you sound snobbish. (Lovecraft's pastiche aesthetic & snobbishness actually distract you from his racism.) his 'philosophies' are St. Olafian as well. I had to do a line of coke just to get through the first three pages. the real horror here is any possible amusement. so far I haven't found any horror writer in English worthy of mention. The early Ann Rice, William Blatty and Robert Aickman come close, though.
Rating:
Summary: Dreams of Occultism and Magick
Review: some... knowledgeable Lovecraft collectors might not like these Del Rey collections (the other two are The Best Of H.P. Lovecraft and The Transition of H.P. Lovecraft). These collections are still good for the beginning or intermediate HPL fan, plus they feature excellent cover art by John Jude Palencar. But these volumes are rather messily compiled, and I highly doubt that Del Rey truly understands the supposed dream cycle of related stories that HPL constructed over the years, which is the attempted focus of this book. Meanwhile, the trite subtitle "Dreams of Terror and Death" indicates the weak stereotype of HPL as a horror author. On the contrary, he was a student of occult mysticism and ancient philosophy, and the haunting aspects of his stories can be seen as an indirect bonus. Many of HPL's recurring figures like Nyarlathotep and Azathoth, and places like Ulthar and Sarnath, are not figments of his imagination but aspects of ancient occult texts. HPL also makes repeated references to the Elder Ones and the Necronomicon, signs of a very learned occultist. So don't expect stereotypical horror, and let yourself be drawn into HPL's deep world of the occult. Note that some aspects of his writing require a lot of patience. His well-known bigotry and Anglophilia can reach ridiculous proportions; while some the tales here are maddeningly predictable ("The Statement of Randolph Carter") or ponderous ("The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath"). HPL's prose is very dense, obscure, and slow moving, but ultimately fascinating when you let it sink in. The biggest surprises in this book include "Celephais" which is pure fantasy, "The Dreams in the Witch-House" which includes elements of highly intellectual science fiction, and "Ex Oblivione" in which the character essentially embarks on a permanent drug trip. The pinnacles of this collection are the nearly overwhelming cosmology and philosophy of "Through the Gates of the Silver Key," which I suspect was inspired by Einstein's Theory of Relativity; and the brilliant novella "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" which is arguably HPL's most fully realized and well-constructed tale.
Rating:
Summary: and you thought you had bad dreams
Review: This is a definite must-have for the serious Lovecraft collector, including the unparalleled 'The Dreamquest of Unknown Kadath'. This novella, and many of the stories included in this volume, stray from straight horror, touching upon it almost tangentially. Most of the stories have an air of a fairy-tale, almost -- dreamlike.
Rating:
Summary: Must...get...more...Lovecraft!
Review: This is the second Lovecraft collection I've read, the first being the Best Of collection Del Rey put out before this one, and this one is even better. Who knew that it was possible? Despite the bits of racism and other ugly ideas(which you forget about in the midst of his towering talent), he still put together the most amazing dark fiction ever produced. How could he lay down an even more fascinatingly thick atmosphere than the stuff in that first collection? Who knows, but it's beautiful. In addition, the stories all weave together, producing one of the most realized worlds in all of sci-fi, fantasy, and horror put together. I want to go past the Gate of Deeper Dreams! Just read this collection and sit in awe.
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