Herald of Chernobog: Cthulhu's Yuggoth

By: D. C. Lozar

Narrated by: Alexander Doddy

Modeled after Robert E. Howard's The Servants of Bit-Yakin and H. P. Lovecraft's At the Mountain of Madness, the short story Herald of Chernobog was first published CyberWeird Stories in June 2017. This is the origin story for a new type of hero: a warrior spaceman imbued with dark powers who searches for his lost masters in hopes of making them stop the needless suffering of mortal souls. It opens the door to a re-imagined world of H. P. Lovecraft's monsters, ethics, and the dark mysteries of the universe.

©2017 D. C. Lozar (P)2017 D. C. Lozar

'A Grade' weird cosmic fantasy

I was provided with a copy of this short story by the author, in exchange for a review.

I'm a fan of pulp writing and weird fiction. If it overlaps into the Cthulhu Mythos, it's going to get my attention. There are many authors contributing enthusiastically to this shared fictional universe. Some of these offerings take liberally from the bestiary while giving back little more than vapid genre mishmash. Don't get me wrong, I keep reading the material and the pages keep turning. But I don't read them again.

'Herald of Chernobog' was my first experience of author D.C. Lozar's work. I listened to the audiobook twice and have revisited parts a third time while writing this review.

There is a lot here to interest and engage the reader. First there is the other-wordly setting of the Chernobog asteroid belt, adroitly described. Told we're possibly about to access Cthulhu's Yuggoth, we're already half out of our minds, and any characters in such a setting have to arouse pretty intense curiosity. Viktor is a vagabond, disgraced physician who is banned from Earth. He has the technical skills to be acing it in his new career as an interstellar treasure hunter, teamed with some generally badass connections to dark magic and/or the Slavic mythos. He is companioned/served by an AI personality program in his forged staff. Except in this case the AI is the soul of a dying witch, trapped by Viktor in the moment of dying. What a setup! Ten minutes in to this 58 min audiobook and I was totally hooked!

Narrator Alexander Doddy has done a splendid job with the performance of the story. Slavic accents were well done. He even managed to render the series of syllables, normally unpronounceable in human speech, indicated by the letters Cthulhu.

Thanks for a great read! Now following this author and considering a purchase of more of his work.

Interesting take on the Cthulu - Hope for more

Herald of Chernobog is a short story set in the relative future of the world that HP Lovecraft created. Our protagonist is a "disgraced" medical doctor, warrior and treasure hunter from Earth, in search of the Herald. Even though Earth shunned him, he still seeks to better humanity.

Stumbling upon a black hole in an asteroid belt, our hero and his weaponized sidekick set off to a city of the ancients to find what they hope will be the salvation of humanity. Then, of course, things get interesting. I won't ruin it, but if you're a fan of Lovecraft's world and stories set in it (like those of Peter Clines), you'll enjoy this.

When done right, I love modern takes on the world that HP Lovecraft built. Herald of Chernobog is done right, and opens the door for loads of interesting new adventures. I'm excited to see where the author takes it.

The narration was my only sticking point with this listen. Doddy has an absolutely pleasant voice and accent, however he reads with an odd lilt to his voice and sometimes alters his tone several times per sentence. There are also odd pauses midway through sentences that made it hard to take in its meaning. Overall it was very distracting and I found myself rewinding far more than usual to catch what was said.

That said, he does some interesting accents, and as I said, has a fairly pleasant voice.

This audiobook was provided to me for free in exchange for my honest review.

Lovecraft Universe expanded a bit

It is always a treasure when a short story can fit into an old universe without disturbing the known and accepted and yet give you a character that is well fleshed out. This book did all of that.

Great short story with rich detail

It's hard to pack a lot of visual clarity within such a short story, but this book pulled it off. If you like sci fi world building this is a good example!

(I was given this book for free in exchange for this unbiased review.)

cool horror story

for an hour of listen it was a great listen to have .. i liked it and did enjoy it.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review."

Original Lovecraftian sci-fi horror

A theme of many of Lovecraft's stories is ancient beings from space. Naturally, this story takes place in outer space. Such a blindingly obvious direction to take the mythos, and yet I've never before seen it done. I love it.

It's also original to go to the source of these creatures. Considering how much of a threat one of these beasts is to humans, the idea of finding its home planet is superlatively stomach dropping.

I enjoyed the understated but fun inclusion of classic sci-fi/horror tropes including the underused modern mad scientist.

The narration is mostly good except for the side kick. I can't understand enough through that character through the accent.

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.

An acquired taste, but ultimately a good story

There was a point when I was thinking of returning this short story - the sudden strangeness of Yuggoth on top of the strangeness of Victor's far-future culture and tech were almost too much to get a grip on, and I felt alienated. It got better, though, and once I had a better hold on Victor's character, it got really interesting. There are some neat Lovecraftian concepts and vivid imagery to recommend this one, and I like the chemistry between Victor and his AI. A warning: some people may find the end unsatisfying - I had to think about it for a second before I realized it ends right where it should.