Cthulhu's Reign

As with most anthologies, there are mixed levels of quality and enjoyment to be gotten from these short stories. This anthology's particular theme caught my attention, having started reading Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos.

I must say that the first story, by Ian Watson, gave the wrong impression of the rest of the book. I found Ian's story to be the best of the bunch, having succinctly caught the feeling of dread, despair, and horror. The majority of the other stories didn't really manage to hit the right notes. Most were well-written enough, if looked at from a horror point of view. But that Lovecraftian feeling of dread is missing from a few of them.

Granted, I suppose the primary draw of the Cthulhu mythos lies in the horrible unknown. Once exposed, it sort of loses a bit of that which made it alluring. Another short story I found myself particularly liking was the one by Brian Stableford. It was sufficiently weird enough to be quite interesting.

Here's how I found each of the short stories, your mileage may vary of course:

The Walker in the Cemetery - Ian Watson - 4/5
Sanctuary - Don Webb - 2/5
Her Acres of Pastoral Playground - Mike Allen - 3/5
Spherical Trigonometry - Ken Asamatsu - 2/5
What Brings the Void - Will Murray - 3/5
The New Pauline Corpus - Matt Cardin - 1/5
Ghost Dancing - Darrell Schweitzer - 3/5
This is How the World Ends - John R. Fultz - 3/5
The Shallows - John Langan - 3/5
Such Bright and Risen Madness in Our Names - Jay Lake - 3/5
The Seals of New R'lyeh - Gregory Frost - 3/5
The Holocaust of Ecstasy - Brian Stableford - 4/5
Vastation - Laird Baird - 1/5
Nothing Personal - Richard A. Lupoff - 2/5
Remnants - Fred Chappell - 3/5

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I didn't expect an anthology about the victory of Cthulhu to be particularly uplifting, but this collection is worse than grim. Worse, the stories are often incoherent and mostly inconclusive. I had this anthology before and while a few stories were memorable, most were easily forgotten.

The Walker in Cemetery by Ian Watson - This is a decently written story about survivors who are picked off one by one. The ending is grisly. This is one I remembered. A collection of stories like this one would be a tough pill to swallow but would definitely deserve a higher rating.

Sanctuary by Don Webb - Another good but nihilistic story set in the American Southwest.

Her Acres of Pastoral Playground by Mike Allen - I didn't follow this one. It was too obscure and too much effort for the pay-off. Obviously, some kind of pocket universe with apparitions. It wasn't poorly written but I just didn't care.

Spherical Trigonometry by Ken Asamatsu - This one may be memorable, but maybe not. Cthulhu rises and a rich person and his architect and friends head to a safe house. Things happen. The end. It wasn't bad, but not really worth the effort.

What Brings The Void by Will Murray - Strangely, this one was the most memorable of the stories I read the first time, perhaps because of the final image of a soul catching entity. The story involves a paranormal agent attempting to flee the takeover of the world by the Elder Gods and his miscalculations. I liked it. Your mileage may vary.

The New Pauline Corpus by Matt Cardin - Stream of consciousness writing that is incoherent. Christ and Cthulhu are hierophanies sounds interesting but this is not.

Ghost Dancing by Darrell Schweitzer - A cultist regrets his role in releasing the Elder Gods but realizes that all that's left is to teach other cultists that they will not benefit from their betrayal of humanity. Not badly written but it's an awful lot of effort for a small return.

This Is How The World Ends by John R Fultz - People running away from the Elder Gods and their minions. Incoherent ending.

The Shallows by John Langan - This may be the worst story of the collection as we get another stream of consciousness narration of things I couldn't be bothered to sort out.

Such Bright and Risen Madness In Our Lives by Jay Lake - There could have been an interesting story as we see a member of the resistance learn that there is a toxin that kills the cultists who are serving the Elder Gods. OK, cool...hope in nihilism. An author is entitled to end the story when he thinks he's done, but the ending on this one seemed premature or, perhaps, the story seemed like too much of a build-up to a conclusion that didn't happen.

The Seals of New R'lyeh by Gregory Frost - In this one we see the cultists who bring about the end and two of them who may be able to reverse the disaster if they weren't such idiots. This is another one that I think ended prematurely. I understand that the ending was supposed to leave us in suspense, but my unhappiness with the story suggests that it didn't make the sale it was supposed to make.

The Holocaust of Ecstasy by Brian Stableford - Man is resurrected as a fruit on a tree. All of humanity is resurrected as fruit on trees. There is a call-out to the Lovecraft story, “The Shadow Out of Time” and a member of the Great Race who shouldn't be there. This story is weird and unexplained. I think I liked it, but maybe as a palate cleanser in a different anthology.

Vastation by Laird Barron - Stream of consciousness and incoherent.

Nothing Personal by Richard A. Lupoff. Matter and Anti-Matter. A nihilistic but strangely happy ending. Again, the story seemed to drag for not much of a pay-off.

Remnant by Fred Chappell. This seems to be the only hopeful story in the bundle as a handful of humans are rescued by other victims of the Elder God.

I found getting through this anthology to be a bit of a chore. It probably isn't fair to blame the difficulty of reading an anthology of nihilistic stories on their nihilism but that was a factor. Also, as I said, a lot of stories seemed underdeveloped or slight in their pay-off.

Your mileage may differ.