The Doom That Came to Sarnath

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Summary: HPL Rules!
Review: Any horror fan is crazy not to buy anything from Lovecraft!

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Summary: Thrilling read.
Review: H.P lovecraft writes great horror stories and this is no exception he's probably one of the great horror story writers along with the likes of Poe. This book is made up of creative writing and conjours up distorted images in your head from the suspense that builds up to the climax toward the end. H.P Lovecraft's books tend to focus on the Horror/Fantasy genre and is the kind of horror material that involves creatures of a new breed and not so much a typical thriller story for example. The doom that came to sarnath definatley wipes the floor with alot of the modern horror stories that you see around and is an intense, shaded, wonderful, gripping book.

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Summary: HORROR AND FANTASY
Review: I find it funny that there's a unicorn logo on the front cover of my copy of this book, saying that this work is Adult Fantasy. About the only thing Adult about H.P. Lovecraft is that he uses big words like "cacodaemoniacal". Although most of the works in this collection are fantasy, that doesn't mean that there isn't any horror to be had, either. Some of the stories in this excellent collection will give you more chills than the Sixth Sense ever did. Here's a brief synopsis of some of the stories in this book: THE OTHER GODS--One of my favorite fantasy pieces. It deals with mankind driving the gods up mountains. BEYOND THE WALL OF SLEEP--A primitive man from the mountains is put in an institution, where the main character discovers something extraordinary about the fellow. EX OBLIVIONE--Travel to a wonderful dream-world with a bronze gate that leads somewhere seemingly special. FROM BEYOND--This story reminded me much of The Sixth Sense. Lovecraft was never one for dialogue, but he did really well in this story. THE CATS OF ULTHAR--An elderly couple is suspected of cat-killing, but a boy passing through has thoughts of revenge. HONORABLE MENTIONS: The Tree, The Tomb, Polaris, What the Moon Brings, Hypnos, Nathicana, The Festival, The Nameless City, The Quest of Iranon, The Crawling Chaos, and In the Walls of Eryx. As you can see, you get lots of bang for your buck, so to speak. The stories are categorized, but they do not appear in chronological order--a partial chronology is included at the back. This is probably the best Lovecraft book I've read since The Best of H.P. Lovecraft. Both books are worth getting.

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Summary: Excellent "Lovecraftian" primer
Review: I read my first Lovecraft about fifteen years ago, and never looked back. This book is the one I recommend to my friends who have never read any of his work before. The book is laid out like none of the others I have seen, in that it is divided into separate sections, depending on the type of story, the time period it was written in, or the style Lovecraft was emulating at that time in his career. Also included are snippets of various letters Lovecraft wrote to friends and colleagues which shed an interesting light on where some of the stories came from. I read this book straight through from beginning to end, which is unusual for a collection of Lovecraft's, but in this case found it a very rewarding experience, because the layout is such that the reader gets a real feel for how Lovecraft's talent developed. If someone is looking for a good jumping-on point into the Lovecraft experience, this is an excellent one.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent "Lovecraftian" primer
Review: I read my first Lovecraft about fifteen years ago, and never looked back. This book is the one I recommend to my friends who have never read any of his work before. The book is laid out like none of the others I have seen, in that it is divided into separate sections, depending on the type of story, the time period it was written in, or the style Lovecraft was emulating at that time in his career. Also included are snippets of various letters Lovecraft wrote to friends and colleagues which shed an interesting light on where some of the stories came from. I read this book straight through from beginning to end, which is unusual for a collection of Lovecraft's, but in this case found it a very rewarding experience, because the layout is such that the reader gets a real feel for how Lovecraft's talent developed. If someone is looking for a good jumping-on point into the Lovecraft experience, this is an excellent one.

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Summary: Not so much horror as it is fantasy...
Review: I thought Stephen King was a scary writer. I also thought Dean Koontz was. Then I finally got to reading some Lovecraft, and BOY I GOT SCARED! His particularly dark and disturbing tales of grue and the macabre are far surpassing the aeformentioned authors.

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Summary: After Reading This, Who is Stephen King?
Review: I thought Stephen King was a scary writer. I also thought Dean Koontz was. Then I finally got to reading some Lovecraft, and BOY I GOT SCARED! His particularly dark and disturbing tales of grue and the macabre are far surpassing the aeformentioned authors.

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Summary: This is what horror should be.
Review: Lovecraft piles on the adjectives with a trowel, and his stories are often overwrought. But they are also creative, unique, genuinely creepy, and a whole lot of fun. He invented a history of the world in which humans are only the most recent (and least frightening) of earth's inhabitants. Some of his stories are tales of these ancient times, and in them he demonstrates a gift for high fantasy, with a decidedly morbid streak. Most of his other stories are present-day tales in which some unlucky or unwise person encounters the malignant relics of those forgotten eras, and these stories put the horror back in the horror genre. Sixty years later, Lovecraft's highly original work is still inspiring new authors to write more tales about his gods and monsters. This collection of his short stories is a nice sampler, an introduction to Lovecrafts work, and includes two absolute gems of micro-short stories. "Memory" and "What the Moon Brings" take only minutes to read, but provide more genuine chills and food for thought than any dozen modern horror movies with their one-dimensional graphic violence. Like it or hate it, at least you won't have read anything quite like it before. (And please! Never confuse Lovecraft's marvellous writing with the abysmal movies that bear the names of some of his stories! The movies are just travesties, and their names are just about all that they carried over from Lovecraft's originals.)

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Summary: A wonderful set of short horror stories from the Master
Review: These are some of the tales from Lovecraft's early period, when he was still very influenced by the fantasies of Lord Dunsany. The title tale is a neat little story of genocide, vengeance, and a doomed city, replete with eldritch touches.

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Summary: A wonderful set of short horror stories from the Master
Review: These are some of the tales from Lovecraft's early period, when he was still very influenced by the fantasies of Lord Dunsany. The title tale is a neat little story of genocide, vengeance, and a doomed city, replete with eldritch touches.