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Title: Nameless Cults (Call of Cthulhu Fiction) by Robert E. Howard ISBN: 1-56882-130-1 Publisher: Chaosium Pub. Date: 01 June, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.4 (5 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Buy This Book. Even My Wife Likes It!
Comment: Finally, non-Conan tales of Robert E. Howard are in print in a modestly priced paperback format; part of an ongoing series of Mythos fiction. With this volume Chaosium just may generate a new breed of Howard fans. Take my wife, for example. No matter how much I talked up Conan or REH she refused to read "a stupid Conan book" or anything by "that Conan guy". But when she just happened to come across my copy of Nameless Cults and read the excerpt from "The Black Stone" on the back cover - suddenly my wife had laid down her Ellis Peters novel and was thoroughly engrossed in a Robert E. Howard book!
This is a great book! I highly recommend it, even if you already own the Baen edition of Howard's Cthulhu Mythos tales. Unlike the Baen book, this collection contains tremendous introduction material by Mythos expert Robert M. Price. Price's introductions to each story are invaluable, and often shed new light on many aspects of these tales. Price's introductions avoid the psycho babble that David Drake's intro to the Baen book peddled, and focus directly on the tales themselves. For the serious Howard enthusiast, the book is worth the price for Price's comments alone.
As for the stories themselves - they are tremendous. All of Howard's Lovecraftian tales are included: "The Black Stone", "The Thing on the Roof", "The Fire of Asshurbanipal", "Dig Me No Grave" and "The Hoofed Thing". The rarely published "Little People" (a story not included in the Baen book) is also included; as well as tales which touch on Mythos or Lovecraftian themes: Tales such as "The Worms of the Earth" (considered to be one of Howard's best), "The Children of the Night" (one of my personal favorites), "The Shadow Kingdom" (a Kull Tale), and others. A rather pleasing highlight is the inclusion of "The Challenge From Beyond", a round-robin tale with portions written by C.L. Moore, A. Merritt, H.P. Lovecraft, Frank Belknap Long, as well as Howard.
Purists will probably scoff at the inclusion of a number of Howard fragments which have been completed by other writers. I too find this practice rather revolting, and originally would have preferred the publishers to have presented the fragments as just that - uncompleted fragments. As I had anticipated, two of the tales created from Howard's fragments are pretty dull and forgettable: "The Abbey" completed by C.J. Henderson and "The Door to the World" completed by Joseph S. Pulver. However, I must admit that I found two of the four quite enjoyable - even excellent. "The House in the Oaks" completed by August Derleth is an intriguing tale in a Lovecraftian vain. Faithful to the practice of Howard, Lovecraft, and Clark Ashton Smith, Derleth brings into the tale such dark tomes as the Necronomicon and Nameless Cults. He even uses The Shadow Kingdom as the title of an occultist book. One of the greatest highlights of Derleth's part of the story is his inclusion of snippets of Howard's poetry throughout. "Black Eons" completed by Robert M. Price is an excellent tale. I would have to say that Price has done the best job of emulating Howard's style. Price's portion of the tale is fast paced and filled with scenes of gory combat. One of the highlights here is Howard's attempt to bring the Hyborian age into the present via an archaeologist's discovery. "Black Eons" is a page turner and I highly recommend it.
Over-all this book is a must. It is well worth the cover price to have all of these fantastic Howard tales in one place. And as I said before, even if you already have these stories in your library Price's introductory comments are well worth it. If you have never read any of Howard's Mythos tales - buy this book! You won't be disappointed - I promise. Even my wife has enjoyed it!
Rating: 3
Summary: worth a read, but disappointing
Comment: this is a good collection, consisting of many of howard's stories (some don't belong here). howard is always great at combat descriptions and describing man's instinct. the stories here are mostly inspired by things Howard has read. howard can't manage to create the stories as well as usually, also being very uninventive and unoriginal at times. some of the stories were only vaguely interesting. beyond the borders was a better collection
Rating: 5
Summary: Lovecraftian tales
Comment: These REH Lovecraftian tales are very good. The collabs with toehrs are average, but REH tales liek HOOVED THING or BLACK STONE are classics. THe atmosphere, the prose etc, all tight and true to his great style.
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