Future Lovecraft

H.P. Lovecraft’s tales of cosmic horror often skirt the edge of science fiction, and several of the 38 stories and poems in this homage anthology manage a similar splice of the horrific and the scientific. Ada Hoffman’s “Harmony Amid the Stars” relates with mounting dread the alienating effect of the cosmic void on a crew of interstellar travelers. in “The Comet Called Ithaqua,” Don Webb captures the wonder and terror of the narrator’s metamorphosis into an alien being under the duress of his outer-space experiences. Nelly Geraldine García-Rosas “Tloque Nahuaque” expertly juxtaposes science and superstition in its account of a technological mishap that fosters the emergence of mythical monsters. Though most of the stories evoke only the superficial aspects of Lovecraft’s fiction, poems by Ann K. Schwader (“In This Brief Interval”) and Mari Ness (“Do Not Imagine”) capture some of the awesomeness of his horrors in their dark, fragmented imagery. The anthology will give Lovecraft and SF fans a good introduction to one another’s worlds. (Aug.)