The Mask of Cthulhu

Rating:
Summary: More decent imitation
Review: Maybe Derleth is the best Lovecraft imitator, but he is still far from perfect. The stories in this book are a bit too repetitive or something like that that HPL. could have written such, but none of them are really bad (truth be told, HPL wrote several much worse ones), and they have rather much the same style and everything. But there are a few inappropriate-seeming elements to my mind: Derleth constantly emphasizes the elemental nature of the... whatever Ancient Horrorgods they were called, I cannot remember exactly right at the moment, something which was barely hinted at by Lovecraft; the aforementioned make too much personal appearances (Cthulhu Himself is lurking beneath every old house); Cthulhu is so busy fighting Hastur to concentrate on terrorising people; and there are these representatives of Cosmic Good, which certainly sound inappropriate, and to make matters more complicated, they make the same kind of noise as those barrel-critters from At the Mountains of Madness. Nevertheless, this is a decent read for Cthulhu-fans.

Rating:
Summary: Lovecraft is THE Cthulhu writer, others fall short of him.
Review: This is a really good book. All the stories are terrific. However, remember, Derleth is only a substitue for his master, H.P. Lovecraft.

Rating:
Summary: Derleth's love for material and HPL saves book.
Review: When it came to soul chilling tales of Dark Fantasy August Derleth could not come anywhere close to H.P. Lovecraft, the writer Derleth saved from vanishing into pulp literary history. But Derleth's love for the stories and mythos that Lovecraft created in his short life clearly shows in this collection of overly similiar short stories (they all tell the tale of someone moving into an old, isolated house and coming under the influence of the Elder Gods) and it is this love that makes the book a delight to read. It will satisfy the itch for Lovecraft inspired fiction but won't leave a lasting impression. Recommended for die hards only.