Kenneth Hite ([info]princeofcairo) wrote,
@ 2009-07-03 04:55:00
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Entry tags:cthulhu 101, lists, lovecraft

Twenty Tales
Presented for discussion and disputation; the order is approximate, and the titles are not final. But they're damn close.

10 Best Stories About Cthulhu Not By H.P. Lovecraft

“Nethescurial,” by Thomas Ligotti
“Worms of the Earth,” by Robert E. Howard
“The Deep Ones,” by James Wade
“The Terror From the Depths,” by Fritz Leiber
“Recrudescence,” by Leonard Carpenter
Strange Eons, by Robert Bloch
“Only the End of the World Again,” by Neil Gaiman
Move Under Ground, by Nick Mamatas
An Evil Guest, by Gene Wolfe
“Final Draft,” by David Annandale

10 More Best Cthulhu Mythos Stories, Not By H.P. Lovecraft, Not Necessarily Involving Cthulhu

“Sticks,” by Karl Edward Wagner
“Than Curse the Darkness,” by David Drake
“Details,” by China Miéville
“The Franklyn Paragraphs,” by Ramsey Campbell
“Black Man With a Horn,” by T.E.D. Klein
Résumé With Monsters, by William Browning Spencer
“The Seven Geases,” by Clark Ashton Smith
“The Courtyard,” by Alan Moore
“The Perseids,” by Robert Charles Wilson
“The Thing That Walked on the Wind,” by August Derleth


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[info]gbsteve
2009-07-03 10:17 am UTC (link)
Damn. I've probably not read half of these so I'll be turning to Abebooks tonight.

The Courtyard is probably the Mythos story for me. It's like taking Aklo.

No love for A Colder War?

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[info]princeofcairo
2009-07-04 07:59 am UTC (link)
First of all, "not on a list" ≠ "no love."

Second, "A Colder War" is too over the top, even compared with "Atrocity Archive," which I considered putting on the second list.

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[info]eyebeams
2009-07-03 10:18 am UTC (link)
I'm quite fond of Charles Stross' "A Colder War." Keep meaning to read An Evil Guest though I've shied off Wolfe for a bit since not liking The Knight. Plus, I've promised to stop dithering about finishing Gormenghast and have finally started Perdido Street Station, so it'll have to get in line.

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[info]eeuuugh
2009-07-04 04:03 am UTC (link)
Try The Fifth Head of Cerberus, and if you enjoy Faulkner, Peace is also amazing. Wolfe since The Book of the Long Sun has been a little too wrapped up in personal cosmology, but the early stuff is great.

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(no subject) - [info]eyebeams, 2009-07-04 11:23 am UTC

[info]amuchmoreexotic
2009-07-03 10:24 am UTC (link)
I think any list like this has to include A Colder War, not that I have read half the ones you suggest.

Also, for the second category, how about A Study In Emerald by Neil Gaiman?

Incidentally, here is what is apparently the full text of Nethescurial, which I think is published with permission.

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[info]eberg
2009-07-03 12:11 pm UTC (link)
I'd definitely throw in a vote for "A Study in Emerald".

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
(no subject) - [info]princeofcairo, 2009-07-04 08:00 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]rminkoff, 2009-07-20 03:07 pm UTC

[info]reverancepavane
2009-07-03 10:51 am UTC (link)

I have to admit that my favourite Mythos story of all time would probably have to be A Night In The Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny, although it does strike a distinctly different tone than most tales from the canon. [It would be in the second category, since Ol' Calimari-Chops does not make an appearance.]

I wonder if anyone has ever compiled a list of the fiction that contains extensive Mythos elements. Not just the mainstream stuff, but those oddball little pieces, like Nick Pollota's That Damn Squid God (although to be fair He is never mentioned by name), and Wm Mark Simmons' Dead Easy, that have identifiable (or even identified) elements of the Mythos. Sounds like a wiki project to me. <grin> [Of course, I've lost any trace of scholarly repute by even mentioning the later two stories, let alone having enjoyed them.]

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[info]tundra_no_caps
2009-07-03 10:56 am UTC (link)
What do titles in italics denote?

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[info]eyebeams
2009-07-03 11:02 am UTC (link)
Conventionally, novels are formatted in italics and short fiction is in quotes.

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[info]mhacdebhandia
2009-07-03 11:00 am UTC (link)
I can't really recommend too many straight takes on Lovecraftian themes left out of these lists - but I quite liked "The Big Fish" and . . . I think it's "A Quarter To Three", both by Kim Newman (I read them in his collection Famous Monsters).

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[info]princeofcairo
2009-07-04 08:01 am UTC (link)
"Big Fish" was another honorable mention, yes.

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[info]shsilver
2009-07-03 12:05 pm UTC (link)
Two of my favorite mythos stories not involving Cthulhu are:

  • Robert Bloch, "Fane of the Black Pharoah"
  • Randall Garrett, "The Horror Out of Time"

and I'm working on a pastiche of a Cthulhu-Damon Runyon story.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]princeofcairo
2009-07-04 08:02 am UTC (link)
"Fane" is terrific, but it's just a little obvious, and Bloch is better represented either with Strange Eons or "Notebook Found in a Deserted House," which rips off Machen really well.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]badger
2009-07-03 01:58 pm UTC (link)
Category Two, I've always had a fondness for "More Light" by James Blish. “Sticks” “Than Curse the Darkness” and “Black Man With a Horn” are seconded wholeheartedly.

(Reply to this) (Thread)
Twenty Tales, but no Tynes?
[info]jay.dugger.myopenid.com
2009-07-03 08:29 pm UTC (link)
I second the praise for Blish's "More Light," despite my general dislike for his longer works, and for K.E.W.'s "Sticks," which you can find on-line as a recorded radio play.

Nothing from the Delta Green: Alien Intelligence collection nor the novel Delta Green: The Rules of Engagement made either list? I would call Adam Scott Glancy's "An Item of Mutual Interest" or Blair Reynolds' "Operation LOOKING GLASS" at least as good as "A Colder War."

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
Re: Twenty Tales, but no Tynes? - [info]princeofcairo, 2009-07-04 08:04 am UTC

[info]julian_lapis
2009-07-03 02:00 pm UTC (link)
I find the lack of Brian Lumley disturbing.

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[info]gbsteve
2009-07-03 02:11 pm UTC (link)
I never got past Hero of Dreams to discover if he'd written anything good.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
(no subject) - [info]rdansky, 2009-07-03 03:20 pm UTC

(Anonymous)
2009-07-03 02:32 pm UTC (link)
Meredith L. Patterson's "Principles and Parameters" is one of the most innovative takes I have seen on the Ghouls that I have read. It is published in the 'Children of Cthulhu' collection by Del Rey.

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[info]princeofcairo
2009-07-04 08:05 am UTC (link)
I must have read it, because I read that collection, but it rings no bells.

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[info]rdansky
2009-07-03 03:20 pm UTC (link)
Hmm. No "Crouch End"?

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[info]princeofcairo
2009-07-04 08:06 am UTC (link)
I think my favorite King Mythos story is "Granma," although I haven't read "N." (which I understand is more Machen-mythos).

"Crouch End" is pretty great, until you see "Quatermass and the Pit" and realize where he got the great part.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]stevenhoward
2009-07-03 03:48 pm UTC (link)
It's been a while since I read it, but I don't remember "Worms of the Earth" as being about Cthulhu, or even mentioning Cthulhu. Are there different versions (like "The Fire of Ashurbanipal") or am I just not remembering it?

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[info]princeofcairo
2009-07-04 08:07 am UTC (link)
Bran calls on the "dark gods of R'lyeh" to undermine the Tower of Trajan. Ergo, C.

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(no subject) - (Anonymous), 2009-07-04 04:08 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]vyrdolak, 2009-07-09 03:14 am UTC

[info]ratmmjess
2009-07-03 04:37 pm UTC (link)
Your take on Leiber's "To Arkham and the Stars" and PJF's "The Freshman"? My memory may be overrating the latter, but it had a definite impact on me when I read it in F&SF at age 13.

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[info]princeofcairo
2009-07-04 08:08 am UTC (link)
"To Arkham and the Stars" is a great piece, but it's a travelogue mashup, not a story. "The Freshman" was pretty good, but not top-tier, or that's my recollection from reading it mumble years ago.

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[info]robotnik
2009-07-03 05:52 pm UTC (link)
The Octopus, by Frank Norris

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[info]biomekanic
2009-07-03 05:54 pm UTC (link)
I'm a fan of [info]matociquala's Shoggoths in Bloom, mythos related but not featuring His Jiggliness.
Originally pubished in Asimov's in March '08, up on her website for free now.

Edited at 2009-07-03 05:55 pm UTC

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[info]mythusmage
2009-07-03 11:22 pm UTC (link)
I'll second that recommendation. An interesting well told story.

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[info]montecook
2009-07-03 05:59 pm UTC (link)
For the first list, I'd be tempted to want to add Foucault's Pendulum, but I know that's kind of cheating.

For the second, I'd want to add The God of Dark Laughter by Michael Chabon.

The only story of both lists I haven't read is Recrudescence. I'll have to do some Googling.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]princeofcairo
2009-07-04 08:29 am UTC (link)
"Recrudescence" is in The Cthulhu Cycle from Chaosium. I haven't read the Chabon.

(Reply to this) (Parent)
(no subject) - [info]rminkoff, 2009-07-10 11:00 am UTC

[info]nihilistic_kid
2009-07-03 09:42 pm UTC (link)
Thanks for the shout-out!

Didn't you like the Spencer novel about Alcoholics Anonymous as a Lovecraftian cult?

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[info]princeofcairo
2009-07-04 08:31 am UTC (link)
No problem -- Move Under Ground was exactly the kind of Mythos story people should write.

I didn't like Irrational Fears nearly as much as I did Resume, no -- the satire was clumsier, for one thing.

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[info]sinboy
2009-07-03 09:44 pm UTC (link)
Does Caitlin R. Kiernan's "Tales Of Pain And Wonder" count?

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[info]princeofcairo
2009-07-04 08:33 am UTC (link)
Short story collections don't count, and I don't recall any of them as being Cthulhuvian, though I may not have read the whole thing.

Threshold, however, is a terrific novel, and if I were making a list of top ten Lovecraftian novels (not Mythos novels) it would be on there with a bullet.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]mlamprey
2009-07-03 10:05 pm UTC (link)
Nice to see "Terror From the Depths" getting some attention...it is a major but neglected piece.

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[info]sufirjp
2009-07-03 10:44 pm UTC (link)
"The Seven Geases"?

I love CAS, but I could never understand why this overwrought tale gets such acclaim. Perhaps you could be so kind as to justify it's inclusion? In my mind, stories such as "The Werewolf of Averoigne", "The Treader of Dust", or "The Testament of Athammus" are stronger choices by far.

Also, I think Gary Myers deserves inclusion, especially his tale "The Snout in the Alcove", which manages a brilliant synthesis of the "Derlethian Heresy" and Lovecraft's cosmic nilhilism. Likewise, Price deserves some accolades, notably for the stories "The Deprogrammer", "A Thousand Young", and the hilarious "Dope War of the Black Tong".

I do have to applaud the inclusion of Wade and Carpenter, though, as both are stronger storytellers, and "Recrudescence" could easily be overlooked.

On a final and tangentially related note, I recently discovered that S. T. Joshi wrote a review/rebuttal of Tour de Lovecraft in Dead Reckonings #5. As I'm likewise tangentially related to the issue, as I recommended the book to him at the last H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival, I'd better interested to know if you've read the review and what your thoughts on it were.

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[info]princeofcairo
2009-07-04 08:39 am UTC (link)
"The Seven Geases" is a terrific shaggy dog story and a superb showcase for Smith's writing in a way that "Treader" and even "Werewolf" aren't. It's Lovecraftian nihilism as practical joke -- a valuable perspective to have in the list even if it weren't as good as it is.

Myers is pretty good, but I'm not sure I'd put him on the top ten. But I'll re-read "Snout" on your say-so. Price, like Lin Carter, deserves major accolades as an editor and critic. And also like Lin Carter, not so much as a fictioner.

Per Joshi's review, I've seen it, and will correct the one or two errors of fact he points out in the next printing of Tour. Aside from that, though -- well, as the saying goes, "it only amuses the pig."

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(no subject) - [info]sufirjp, 2009-07-04 08:24 pm UTC

[info]charlesks
2009-07-04 01:46 am UTC (link)
I find the lack of Neil Gaiman's "A Study in Emerald" disturbing...

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[info]bbe
2009-07-04 05:08 am UTC (link)
I've only read half the second list, but yeah, definitely Colder War and Night in the Lonesome October.

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[info]tiffleigh
2009-07-05 03:56 am UTC (link)
Awesome list! Several stories by Laird Barron orbit Mythos sensibilities. Notably "The Forest" in Ellen Datlow's "Inferno" anthology and "Hallucigenia," "Bulldozer," and the title story "The Imago Sequence" from his short story collection.

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[info]godofchickens
2009-07-05 06:35 pm UTC (link)
I enjoyed Gaiman's "Shoggoth's Old Peculiar" better than "Only The End of the World Again," but I think it's more obscure. Have you read it?

I'm rather surprised that I have read the vast majority of these stories. Good choices, I think.

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[info]princeofcairo
2009-07-05 08:18 pm UTC (link)
I've read "Shoggoth's Old Peculiar," though not lately. I'll re-read it on your say-so.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]pope_guilty
2009-07-06 03:34 am UTC (link)
What, no "Notebook Found in a Deserted House"?

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