Your Summer Reading List: 10 Lovecraft / Cthulhu Mythos books

Since getting a Kobo ereader, I’ve been doing a lot more reading on my train ride to work (as opposed to staring creepily at cute boys or practising German, which probably isn’t a good thing) and I’ve been happily delving into the world of short fiction anthologies. I can read a story in one train ride, giving me a nice rounded narrative to start the day off right. Not surprisingly, many stories by Lovecraft, his contemporaries, and his followers have found their way into my Kobo library. Here are some of my earnest reading recommendations.

Frontier Cthulhu anthology

1. HP Lovecraft

Various collections abound. I started with “At the Mountains of Madness and other Tales”, and I own an edition of “Crawling Chaos”, given to me by an incredible friend. I can’t tell you which edition to buy, because I haven’t read them all, but I can tell you some of my favorite stories: “At the Mountains of Madness” (which is a novella and the basis for the upcoming Del Toro film), “Call of Cthulhu” (a must-read for metalheads), “The Shadow over Innsmouth”, “The Dunwich Horror”, “The Shadow Out of Time”, “The Colour Out of Space”, “Dreams in the Witch-House”, “Dagon”, “ibid”, “The Hound” and “The Picture in the House”. I could keep going.

Read it: You can find Lovecraft at your local library, in most bookshops, and online. You can read all of Lovecraft’s stories for free.

2. Mysteries of the Worm, by Robert Bloch

One of Lovecraft’s correspondents and an avid contributor to the shared Cthulhu mythos, Bloch is perhaps most famous for creating the novel Psycho, one of the first urban horror tales to rely on realism (rather than supernatural nasties). Lovecraft mentored Bloch, but his writing is still easier on the eye (and the dictionary. The title of this collection is the english translation of De Vernis Mysteriis, Bloch’s own invented grimoire of dark spells and demon chantings. It contains the “Shambler on the Shore,” Bloch’s most famous story, where a character reminiscent of Lovecraft himself meets an unfortunate end. Another great story is “Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper” which reimagines the Ripper in a more modern Chicago. Bloch’s first love was comedy, and you can see how he structures many of his stories as though they were jokes, building on the premise until he hits you with the punchline.

Read it: You can buy Mysteries of the Worm at most decent bookshops. Robert Bloch’s works are not yet public domain, so if they’re online for free, they shouldn’t be.

3. The Quest for Cthulhu – August Derleth

One of Lovecraft’s most ardent collaborators, August took “responsibility” for the mythos after Lovecraft’s death and reshaped it as an epic judeo-Christian battle between good and evil. His stories are entertained, light, fun, pulpy and well-crafted – to me, they lack the supreme horror of Lovecraft, but don’t let that put you off.

I recommend this collection, which is divided into two parts. The first contains several stories basically rewritten from Lovecraft’s “canon” – “The Seal of R’lyeh” is “The Shadow over Innsmouth”, and so on. They’re a little “fanboyish” but nevertheless, quite well done. The second half, the “Trail of Cthulhu” deals with interlocking short stories – first person accounts of involvement with Dr. Shrewsbury, who is helping Hastur fight Cthulhu. One reviewer describes it as “clinical”, and I’d agree – but it’s still worth a read. A piece of mythos history, as it were.

Read it: You can find Derleth at most bookshops and libraries. Don’t ask die-hard Lovecraft fans about him, however, because they’ll knock you over the head with their esoteric grimoire. Read his short story McIlvaine’s Star on Project Gutenburg.

4. Robert E. Howard

The last of Lovecraft’s more notable contemporaries, you might recognise Howard as the author of Conan the Barbarian. And who’s more metal than Conan? That’s right – NO ONE.

Many people don’t know that the earlier Conan tales published in Weird Tales were heavily influenced by the ideas and shared worlds being handed between the circle of writers – ideas largely stemming from the imagination of one Howard Philips Lovecraft. Many later editors reworked these early stories, diluting the Lovecraftian aspects, but nevertheless, stories such as “Phoenix on the Sword”, “The Vale of Lost Women” and “The Tower of the Elephant” contain decidedly cthulhu-ian elements.

Read it: You can read most of Howard’s early Conan stories on project Gutenburg.

5. The Midnight Eye Files, by William Melkie

Pulp fiction at it’s best – satirical, biting, and brutal. The protagonist, a polyglot PI in Glasgow, is rather down on his luck, when a beautiful women walks into his office. She has a case for him – someone’s stolen her wedding present – a strange amulet depicing a half feline/half squid with hideous tentacles. Rugose tentacles, one might say. Fans of pulp fiction and cross-genre nonsense – this one’s a keeper.

Read it: You’ll have to buy this one from your favorite bookstore. You can, however, read the first chapter of the Midnight Eye Files: The Amulet online at goodreads.

6. I, Cthulhu, by Neil Gaiman

I’m going to take a wild stab in the dark here and guess you’re all probably aware of who Neil Gaiman is? Right? Good. Now, unless you happen to spent vast periods of worthwhile time stalking author’s websites online (like some of us. Sob!) you might NOT be aware of I, Cthulhu, a sweet little ditty of a story archived on Neil’s extensive website. In the story, Cthulhu dictates his autobiography to a human slave, Whately. It’s a cracker of a read and a good length for those of us who don’t have good book smarts.

Read it: Read I, Cthulhu on Neil’s website.

7. A Colder War, by Charles Stross

Written in 1997 by Charles Stross, this haunting novelette imagines a follow-up mission to that undertaken in At the Mountains of Madness, my favorite Lovecraft story. Set during the Cold War, Stross has the Soviet’s develop a superweapon called Project Koschei, based on captured Nazi Germany research into an underwater city in the Baltic Sea. Project Koschei is in direct violation of the Dresdon Agreement, a secret treaty signed in 1931 after a certain expedition to an eldritch Atlantic plateau … a plateau that can not be located on any map. The treaty forbids the use of the alien entities for use in war, and keeps their presence secret from the public. But those wacky Soviets …

Read it: You can read A Colder War online at Infinity Plus

The Iron Throne, Caitlin Kittredge

8. Iron Codex 1: The Iron Throne, by Caitlin Kittredge

I’m a huge fan of modern urban fantasy (ever since reading Emma Bull’s War for the Oaks) and I discovered Caitlin Kittredge through her Nocturne City series. So when I heard she’d sold a young adult steampunk series set in a city ruled by Lovecraft. Yes, that’s right. There’s eldritch beings walking the streets, and the protagonist, Aoife Grayson, is desperately trying to avoid her family legacy of going mental on her 16th birthday. Sounds like one of those books I wish I’d written.

Read it: I’m a bastard, because The Iron Throne won’t be out till Feb 2011. But I can already tell I’m gonna love it. Keep up with the news on Caitlin’s website.

9. Shadows over Baker Street, edited by Michael Reaves

The macabre tales of H. P. Lovecraft have haunted readers with their nightmarish glimpses into realms of cosmic chaos and undying evil. But what would happen if Conan Doyle’s peerless detective and his allies were to find themselves faced with mysteries whose solutions lay not only beyond the grasp of logic, but of sanity itself.

Like their idols before them, many writers prefer to honor the mythos by writing in the story form for which is was created – the short story. Hence the plethora of Lovecraftian anthologies around. Most of them are blah, derivative or outright terrible. This one is good – authors such as Neil Gaiman, Brian Stableford, Poppy Z. Brite, David Ferguson and TIm Lebbon imagining Sherlock Holmes battling the Great Old Ones.

Read it: you’ll probably need to order Shadows over Baker Street online.

10. Frontier Cthulhu: Ancient Horrors in the New World, edited by William Jones

As explorers conquered the frontiers of North America, they disturbed sleeping terrors and things long forgotten by humanity. Journey into the undiscovered country where fierce Vikings struggle against monstrous abominations. Travel with European colonists as they learn of buried secrets and the creatures guarding ancient knowledge. Go west across the plains, into the territories were sorcerers dwell in demon-haunted lands, and cowboys confront cosmic horrors.

I also haven’t read this anthology, but it sound awesome (especially the Vikings). It’s a Chaosium anthology, which usually doesn’t bode well, but one I might be putting on my e-reader for the weekend. We shall see.

Read it: You’ll have to get this online, perhaps from Chaosium.

And, your special bonus book, for those with little horrors of their own, check out Where the Deep Ones Are. My nephew is SO getting a copy of this for Christmas.

“The Deep Ones croaked their terrible croaks
and smacked their terrible lips
and rolled their terrible eyes
and waved their terrible flippers”

To find all these mythos books, and more, I suggest you pop along to Mythos Books – an old-school mail-order, one-stop shop for all books Cthulhuoid.

Super snuggles and shoggoth kisses