H.P. Lovecraft: The Complete Omnibus Collection, Volume I: 1917-1926

By: H. P. Lovecraft, Finn J.D. John

Narrated by: Finn J.D. John

Length: 23 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

This is volume one of a two-volume omnibus set comprising the complete fictional works of Howard Phillips Lovecraft. Every story written for publication under his own name is included in this set, from 1917 through 1935. (Poems, ghostwritten material, and stories written in collaboration with other writers are not included.)

A full ebook copy of this book in interactive PDF format is included and can be downloaded by clicking the "PDF" link in your Audible library (it's in the "Title" column). This PDF includes the audiobook chapter numbers, to make navigation easier.

Highlights of this volume include:

• "Dagon"
• "The Doom That Came to Sarnath"
• "The Music of Erich Zann"
• "Herbert West, Reanimator"
• "The Hound"
• "The Lurking Fear"
• "The Rats in the Walls"
• The Shunned House
• "The Horror at Red Hook"
• "In the Vault"
• "The Call of Cthulhu"
• "The Strange High House in the Mist"
• The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2016 Finn J.D. John (P)2016 Finn J.D. John

The only way to experience Lovecraft.

Finn J.D. John does Lovecraft justice. He reads the works as I imagine Lovecraft heard them in his own head. His cadence and emphases allow a listener to easily follow the flowing and complex sentences that other readers have not been able to achieve. In fairness, I have not heard any other audio versions of Lovecraft and I refer to readers of other works altogether.

The narrator is awful!

I am only a third of a way through this book and if it wasn't for the fact I want to hear these stories (in one volume and at a good price) I would return it. I am going to try to finish it; though, I may still return this and the next volume in the end. I know the narrator is doing what he thinks is a fabulous performance, but I just do not think it reflects the voice of the stories very well. Maybe not so soft and monotonous without personality. Maybe if he performed it like he did in Wrath of the Fallen, by Kristopher Jerome, it would definitely have given the stories more depth. At this point, I would be hesitant to listen to anymore stories narrated by John.

Listen to the snippet before you buy it. It may be worth paying more money to buy several different books, than to buy this volume and the next to save money and to have all the stories consolidated in two places. You may not save money doing it that way, but you will save your sanity.

Enjoyable for the most part but...

The story concepts are quite good in most cases. Lovecraft does well with narrative description but does a figurative face plant on dialogue, in my opinion. But to be fair, I knew that coming into this. Still, these are worth listening to.

The biggest room for improvement is one the part of the reader. This would have benefited significantly from a professional reader. Finn's reading is professionally satisfactory but is fairly monotone for my taste. All the stories started blending together with this low up and down voice range and too steady cadence. Worth listening to once but I'm quite sure I won't come back to it for a second visit.

A Wonderful Collection!

This collection was my first introduction into Lovecraft's actually writing and loved it. The collection not only covers a massive array of stories culminating in the introduction of his Cthulhu mythos (though the bulk of this mythos I believe is in the next volume). The inclusion of personal life segments about Lovecraft were a great addition as it helps to paint the picture of what is influencing his writing. I personally enjoyed the narration thoroughly as he brings a bit more life to some characters. would certainly recommend to anyone interesting in getting a taste of Lovecraft's Early works.

Extremely hard to read aloud.

The narrator do struggle and does not succeed. Overall Lovecraft works are extremely hard to read aloud with its long sentences that almost never ends. The narrator tried to solve this trying interesting molodies at the same time he tries to do the sentences in one breath. The melodies are quite smart but it seems he does not have much experience with it because you here them almost copy pasted through the book. Maybe Martin Luther King could have given Lovecrafts work the reading the deserv. Nice try narrators, but it is a nightmare to read.

Hard to follow

I like Lovecraft’s works and the other media they’ve inspired. However, I found the narration here makes made it difficult to follow. Something about the calm, generally monotone performance made stories blend together, making it easy to tune out the book and get distracted.

Can't disagree

I have to say that many of the other reviewers are correct, the narrator is terrible. I was hoping that I would find a nice compilation of stories that I have enjoyed reading over the years. However, the narrator is just too difficult and really kills the enjoyment of the works. Lovecraft loves the words hideous and ancient, and I've never heard anyone pronounce hideous as hih-jus nor ancient as ain-see-ant. It's painful and almost comes across like the Flinn JD John's is somehow trolling Lovecraft fans. I love the history added and the perspective, but the narrators cheesy choice and pronunciations are just destroying the enjoyment.

Surprisingly good...

Reading all the negative reviews regarding Finn J. D. John performance I hesitated with purchase. I gave a listen to sample and decided to give this collection a try. I must say that I really enjoyed J. D. Johns narration! Highly recommended! Looking forward to second volume :-)

Interesting stuff but...

English isn't my first or even second language, so i guess that has at least some effect on my opinion.

The stories are short stories and many of them are interesting, sure, but they all end suddenly.
After listening to the stories I've had to read a plot summary for many of them on Wikipedia afterwards
because the story was suddenly over and either I missed some important part of it, or it didn't have such a part.

Also, the stories are "weird", which is to be expected,and that makes it easy to miss the important parts i mentioned.
However, i really liked the "less weird" stories which had a plot that was easier to follow

I love H.P.

This is a great collection of H.P.'s work. The Arthur does read faster thanks I'm used to hearing, but you get use to it quickly. I look forward to the rest of the collection.