Call of Cthulhu - H. P. Lovecraft.

[sobrique]

I'm not quite sure what I was expecting when I picked this book up (Free title from ManyBooks.Net). I mean, H. P. Lovecraft is one of those authors that has been phenomenally influential on the Sci-Fi and Fantasy genre.
So I sort of ... well, was expecting great things, and came away a little disappointed. Thing is, I think it's been so influential, that it's no longer one that stands out from the crowd. The notion that mankind might be really quite trivial in the grand scheme of things, and that there are "Things that Man was Not Meant to Know" ... just doesn't seem all that exotic a concept any more.

*shrug*. So it goes I guess. It's a fairly short book (this, like the Holmes books clock in at ~100 pages) and ... well, it _is_ one of the classics. Just be sure you set the book in it's context - it was written in 1928, so it was one of the first to start to explore the concepts.

Comments

[fearmeforiampink]

I've read At The Mountains of Madness, and from that, and from chatting with people, the impression that I got was that HP Lovecraft came up with a wonderfully evocative setting, but didn't actually write particularly compelling stories within it.

[sobrique.livejournal.com]

That would make sense. As it stands, I don't mind a free book not really inspiring me. I might have been more disappointed if I'd paid for it.

[mrbear.livejournal.com]

Personally I was disappointed with "Call of Cthulhu".

Anyway, all his stuff is out of copyright and is available free on the intarwub here.

Personally I'd recommend "The Music of Erich Zann" and "The Shadow Out of Time", but there's plenty of others there worth reading.

[jorune.livejournal.com]

I believe that Lovecraft felt that the The Colour Out of Space was his favourite short story.

For myself I've always been more interested in the rpg and its scenarios than the writer.

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