The Gods of H. P. Lovecraft

De: Rachel Caine, Seanan McGuire, Laird Barron, Jonathan Maberry, James A Moore, Christopher Golden, Erin J French, David Liss

Narrado por: David Stifel, uncredited

The Gods of H.P. Lovecraft: a brand new anthology that collects the 12 principal deities of the Lovecraftian Mythos and sets them loose. Featuring the biggest names in horror and dark fantasy, including many New York Times best sellers; full of original fiction; and individual commentary on each of the deities by Donald Tyson.

Lovecraft's bestiary of gods has had a major influence on the horror scene from the time these sacred names were first evoked. Cthulhu, Azathoth, Nyarlathotep, Yog-Sothoth - this pantheon of the horrific calls to mind the very worst of cosmic nightmares and the very darkest signs of human nature. The Gods of H.P. Lovecraft brings together 12 all-new Mythos tales from: Cthulhu (Adam Nevill) , Yog-Sothoth (Martha Wells), Azathoth (Laird Barron) , Nyarlathotep (Bentley Little), Shub-Niggurath (David Liss), Tsathoggua (Brett Talley), The Mi-Go (Christopher Golden and James A. Moore); Night-gaunts (Jonathan Maberry); Elder Things (Joe Lansdale); Great Race (Rachel Caine); Yig (Douglas Wynne); and The Deep Ones (Seanan McGuire).

©2015 Journalstone Publishing (P)2016 Journalstone Publishing

Quite good for a collection of fan novels.

The narration is really good. The stories are varied and interresting. Very good for fan fiction. They cover some more known gods and critters from the lore.

Authors Help Make Lovecraft Accessible

What made the experience of listening to The Gods of H. P. Lovecraft the most enjoyable?

The stories are remarkable enough on their own merit that you could probably have a parrot read them and I wouldn't care.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The various gods in these stories are a lot of fun.

Have you listened to any of David Stifel’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Stife was fine. There are many occasions where a reader can bring a mediocre novel into good. I like that the performance came across as understated since I found the stories remarkable on their own merit. Sometimes the reader just needs to stay out of the stories way and Stifel does that.

Who was the most memorable character of The Gods of H. P. Lovecraft and why?

All the gods in these stories are great.

great stories!

Filled with great stories to keep you in that creepy feeling. If you love horror and love a creepy and scary atmosphere then this book will get you there.

Hits all the right Lovecraftian notes!

Excellent book! The compiled authors all have a wonderfully solid grasp of what makes Lovecraft such a macabre joy.

Narrator is soulless bored and undeserving.

Narrator is horrid
Should have tried harder, SHAME.
Great authors misrepresented by undeserving under skilled voice actor.

Excellent stories. Read by Hank Hill

Some of the tales were better than others but none were what I would call bad.
Only thing that made it a chore, was the reader. He managed to sound bored in places or like Hank Hill in others. Sometimes with the pronunciation of Lovecrafts creators names it sounded like speaking strong a mouthful of marbles.

One Unique Caveat, Only For Fans Of Bob & Ray

Any additional comments?

Buyer beware, if you happen to be a Bob & Ray fan (and a fan of Lovecraft) - listen to the audio sample before purchasing. (I didn't. Heh.) As it happens, the narrator sounds a heck of a lot like Bob Goulding, when doing his "straight" characters (those without a lot of accent or heavy inflection). I noticed it immediately when I started the book. And later when he does do various character voices, it's even more noticeable. Kinda makes it hard to take the dark stories very seriously... for me, anyway. Some of them are very good, though, in spite of this.

A Worthy Anthology

After listening to a few horrendous compilations whose authors apparently think the Cthulhu Mythos is a place meant for light hearted heroism, comedy and protagonists with the personalities of cartoon characters, this book was a welcome relief. These are (except for a couple) proper Lovecraftian tales.

The narrator does a very poor job, but luckily the writing is good enough that the book is still worth listening to.

So so, every other story is enjoyable.

Since this is an anthology the authors' skill levels and styles were all over the board. I enjoyed 2 out of the dozen or so actual stories. The in-between descriptions of the Gods were my favorite part. If the whole book had just been more descriptions of Lovecraftian Gods, written in such a way, I'd have been much happier with this book. Not to mention the narration is a bit off. He puts a strange emphasis on certain words and his pronunciation in several parts is just very strange, this, coupled with a monotonous tone that doesn't do the "unspeakable horrors" within justice. When he says R'lyeh, it comes out almost as a gag, and it made me laugh with how sudden and awkward the to the ear it was. I appreciate him being creative with the pronunciation of these strange, alien words, unspeakable to human tongue, but I wish he'd gone with something that didn't sound quite so silly. All in all, I think there are better Lovecraftian adaptations, but if you're trying to read everything and absorb anything on the market, this isn't necessarily the worst. I will say the description of Shub-Niggurath is probably my favorite, she's not very well fleshed out in the original works of H.P but whomever wrote the description did her justice.

From a Discerning Lovecraft Fan.

This is definitely an above average Cthulhu mythos collection. Most importantly, it's not just within the mythos but Lovecraftian as well, that is to say you won't be seeing Cthulhu playing the part of a grizzled detective on the streets of New York getting up to all kinds of Scooby-Dooesque adventures (not in most of the stories at least). These are legitimate mythos stories but what made this volume special was the follow-up analysis of each entity. If you're an information vampire, you're going to love these sections. Narration wasn't particularly good.

1. Call the Name (Adam Nevill) (Cthulhu): Great in concept but overall it was far too slow paced and underwhelming. Did they put this one first because it was Cthulhu themed? This was a rough start to the collection.

2. The Dark Gates: This was a poor choice for second story. It does a great job of setting a tone for the collection, but that tone is a bit wonky and incompatible with most of the rest of the stories here. It appears to be an excerpt from the author's own series which results in an uncomfortable familiarity with its characters. To its credit, it is a full story but not a particularly good one and its more in the category of action than Lovecraftian.

3. We Smoke the Northern Lights (Azathoth): Was this another excerpt? This one was considerably more interesting than the first two but confusing and goes in two directions, corporate dystopia and Lovecraftian science fiction. This makes me suspect that this is some kind of side adventure for another series, which really doesn't belong in a short story collection. What's worse is that it's not even a proper mythos story, the entity involved just reminds the protagonist of Azathoth because he read H.P. Lovecraft. I have to give this a thumbs down despite its interesting elements.

4. Tetotalrayne? (Bentley Little) (Nyarlethotep): After the first three, this was a major spike in quality. It is an exceptional tale of Nyarlathotep written in true Lovecraftian fashion that directly expands upon the mythos. You may want to skip the first three and start here.

5. The Doors that Never Close and the Doors that Are Always Open (David Liss) (Shub-Niggorath): This one was good, the author managed to keep me entertained despite the lack of excitement in the events of the story, a credit to good writing.

6. The Apotheosis of a Rodeo Clown (Tsathoggua) (Brett Talley): Great atmosphere and very entertaining but the issue of morality is frustrating. As far as I'm concerned the protagonist is the most malign individual in a story of murderous cultists and man-eating monsters. This is despite the clown's insinuation that he is a hero, whether or not the author failed to fully evaluate the character's actions or intended his champion to be misaligned, is unknown to me. Also, I can't call this a true mythos story because the god behaves like one of traditional mythology, appearing and speaking directly to (and coherently with) the protagonist.

7. Rattled (Douglas Wayne) (Yig): Another great mythos story. Like most (all?) good mythos stories the deity does not make a direct appearance but is felt through his influence on humanity.

8. In Their Presence (James A Moore, Christopher Golden) (Migo): Very good but I don't have anything to say about it that I haven't said earlier.

9. Dream a Little Dream of Me (Jonathan Maberry) (Night Gaunts): This story is misplaced in this collection. I enjoyed it well enough. Well written and entertaining, it is an excerpt from a series featuring a werewolf detective. It is set firmly in the Cthulhu mythos but not Lovecraftian. I understand why the editor went for it. The story prominently features the night gaunt species and is written by a famous author, real shiny bait.

10. In the Mad Mountains (Joe Landsdale) (Elder Things): Probably my favorite of the lot. Not only is this one exciting and fascinating but it successfully expands upon the original while maintaining quality and continuity. Author probably could have come up with a better title though...

11. A Dying of the Light (Rachel Caine) (The Great Race): This one slightly recasts the Great Race from their mostly neutral morality into that of either benign or malign (I won't tell you which because that may be a spoiler) but is otherwise a true quality mythos story.

12. Down, Deep Down, Below the Waves (Seanan McGuire) (Dagon): McGuire perfectly captures the essence of Insmouth and expands upon it in a unique and intriguing storyline. I'm always worried about a story featuring Insmouth, the millennials have a habit of perverting the Deep Ones into innocent victims to spite Lovecraft's xenophobia – To them: A misunderstood victimized people is great subject matter – write your own mythos.