Lumley fans will welcome this collection of seven longer Cthulhu Mythos tales from the prolific British author (Necroscope
), on whom H.P. Lovecraft was an important influence. One of the earlier selections, “The Horror at Oakdeene,” set in an insane asylum full of inmates familiar with the Mythos, amounts to apprentice work highly derivative of Lovecraft. Another early effort, “Born of the Winds,” shows more originality by mixing the usual Lovecraftian imagery (e.g., “cyclopean submarine cities of mad angles and proportions”) with the Wendigo and Ithaqua, “wind-walkers” who first appeared respectively in tales by Algernon Blackwood and August Derleth. Perhaps most memorable is the 2005 title story, which, despite being set in Lovecraft’s haunted seaport of Innsmouth, avoids Mythos clichés and comes across as distinctly the author’s own. (Oct.)
