Cthulhu 2000
Edited by Jim Turner
A Del Rey Book
Published by Ballantine Publishing Group, New York
ISBN: 0-345-42203-1
Price: $12.95
Cthulhu 2000Edited by Jim Turner |
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It is a brave thing to do these days to so bravely post a title on a new book that not only contains the word Cthulhu in one and a half inch letters. To plaster the name H.P. Lovecraft across the top of the front cover and the top third of the spine takes cast iron guts. Such is the first impression you get when you pick up Cthulhu 2000, published by Del Rey and edited by Jim Turner, editor of Arkham House (as of the publication of the book). Filled with stories inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft, the volume is a half truth, but up front I’ll say is pretty much worth the $12.95 you’ll fork over to get it. More on that in a moment.
There’s another, more subtle impression you won’t notice, not until you set the book down by another publication by Del Rey, Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre, one of the best soft back collections of Lovecraft stories on the market. It didn’t strike me until I set both books down on the table the other day to work on this article and the Lexicon. Where one would expect a book such as this to ride on the content of its stories, the art department has pulled a quickie on us. Both volumes have H.P. Lovecraft plastered across the top of the book, both have an eerie picture of death and mayhem across a banner through the middle that is almost exactly the same size, and both have the title along the bottom in the same font. The ad guys will tell you this is to show continuity. As a publisher, I’ll tell you I call this subconscious association. If you own Bloodcurdling Tales and you see Cthulhu 2000, your subconscious says these books are the same. Naughty, naughty…especially when they aren’t.
To tell the truth, that same little ploy caught me. I ordered mine through Amazon.de, If you’ve done any ordering through Amazon, you know you get a write-up on the book and a little picture of the cover. I saw what the ad guys wanted me to see, H.P. Lovecraft across the top and the title. The blurb was self-descriptive as a collection of Mythos stories, but who believes those, anyway? What I didn’t see was the tiny print above Lovecraft’s name that held those two key words — inspired by.
Inspired by...
Oh damn, here we go again. Anyone who’s been trying to buy Mythos books for more than a week knows full well what those two words mean. If you don’t, let me forewarn you. Inspired by really translates into "here is a bunch of horror stories, not necessarily bad, but not necessarily Mythos, either. There is probably a squid monster in one, or a dark book in another, or someone dreams about a lost island and then is murdered. But real Mythos? Not likely."
Still…
When you open the book to the foreword, you suddenly take heart. Here is a book that carries those two words of death, yet is edited by the editor of Arkham House. Yes Virginia, there is a Nyarlathotep. But reading down a little further, your hopes take a slump as Jim Turner begins to justify the 18 stories in the book as Mythos fiction. He goes on with an invitation:
"Each reader is invited to determine for himself the Lovecraftian influences in the pages that follows; sometimes these will be immediately apparent, at other times quite subtle."
Okay, wait a minute here. I wanted a book that had good, hardcore Mythos in it. Is it wrong of me to expect that when I see the cover so littered with referrals to Lovecraft and Cthulhu it practically oozes slime and sea water in my hands? What is this about me having to guess how much influence is there?
Still…
To give the book credit, there are some really good stories in there, and among them really good Mythos stories. The only thing that I can fault the volume with is those other stories. Again, not because they’re bad, but because they were published under the cloak of being Lovecraft inspired when they really weren’t, at least not in my opinion.
Because of the quality of the material presented in Cthulhu 2000, it would be an insult to the authors to do anything but talk about both types of stories—those which fit the rigid structure of Mythos fiction, and those that didn’t quite make the cut.
Two stories share the best of the Mythos for me—Fat Face by Michael Shea and The Big Fish by Kim Newman. Fat Face centers on the brief life of a prostitute named Patti who finds comfort in the smiling, albeit overly obese, face of the man in the building across the street from her hotel. I won’t spoil the story, but will state that I like the way Michael Shea portrays the Shoggoths and their views on the world at large. The Big Fish is a detective story, a la Sam Spade, set at the beginning of WWII and chock full of twists and turns. Very well done, indeed.
Others rank up there, too, such treats as T.E.D. Klein's Black Man with a Horn, a reminiscent look back on Klein's tutorship by Lovecraft and a modern-day horror that suggests H.P. wasn't just a fiction writer after all. Gahan Wilson's H.P.L. explores this avenue, too (as most do), with a story about Lovecraft actually using the Mythos to his benefit, and inheriting longetivity—for a price. Love's Eldritch Ichor by Esther M. Friesner is a humorous look at a young romance novel writer from Innsmouth with some very peculiar friends supporting her budding career.
Unfortunately, the blurbs on the back cover of the book only refer to non-Mythos stories, and at least for me, the Mythos stories all follow the non-purist Mythos line. But all in all, a good book, those stories not of the Mythos are still worthy reading.
My recommendation: Go ahead and buy the book, but don't let Lovecraft's name set in big print fool you. Maybe someday someone will finally get it right.