Lovecraft Archives - The Y Logs

Yzabel / April 3, 2018

Review: After the End of the World

After the End of the World by Jonathan L. Howard

My rating: [rating=4]

Blurb:

The Unfolded World is a bitter and unfriendly place for Daniel Carter and Emily Lovecraft. In this world, the Cold War never happened because the Soviet Union ceased to exist in 1941. In this world the Nazi Großdeutschland is the premier superpower, and is not merely tolerated but indulged because, in this world, the Holocaust happened behind the ruins of the Iron Curtain and consumed only Bolsheviks, Communists, and others the West was glad to see gone. In this world, there are monsters, and not all of them are human.

But even in the Unfolded World, there are still bills to pay and jobs to do. Carter finds himself working for the German secret security service to uncover the truth behind a major scientific joint project that is going suspiciously well. The trail takes Lovecraft and him to a distant, abandoned island, and a conspiracy that threatens everything. To fight it, Lovecraft must walk a perilously narrow path between forbidden knowledge and soul-destroying insanity.

Fortunately, she also has a shotgun.

Review:

[I received a copy of this book through Netgalley.]

This novel picks up where the previous one left (if you haven’t read it yet, stop here), or roughly, after Emily Lovecraft and Daniel Carter, alogn with Detective Harrelson, have been stranded in the Unfolded world for a few months, slowly adjusting to their lives in Arkham-instead-of-Providence.

And it’s not easy, because even though the Unfolded world is fairly similar when it comes to daily life (and better, in some ways, as in when Emily realises she own a nice house here instead of renting a flat), in many other ways, it is tremendously different. For starters, World War II ended much sooner, when the Third Reich dropped an A-bomb on Moscow in 1941, obliterating its whole leadership; and the Reich is now one of the world’s superwpoers, having been accepted because, well, the Holocaust didn’t concerned Jews but Communists, and for some reason this was much more acceptable to the West who turned a blind eye and ha-hemmed in a corner while it happened. Which infuriates Dan and Emily just as much, a different kind of evil still being evil after all; also, the Nazis are welcome in the USA and racism much more prevalent, so the Unfolded world isn’t so peachy for Emily herself.

(On a side note, I wish we had seen more of that. I don’t enjoy racist slurs in the least, but in terms of ‘show, don’t tell’, it never felt like Emily was really ostracised, apart from a couple of instances when some Gestapo guy said ‘who’s that black down there’ or something to that extent. In turn, the ‘lessons in political correctness’ given at times didn’t have the impact they could’ve had.)

The world is definitely not right by our heroes’ standards, who want nothing more than bring back its Folded version, but have no clues where to start… until Emily finds out she has the Necronomicon in her safe, Henry Weston is at his shenanigans again, and Daniel gets hired to spy on a joint German-US project in Miskatonic University. Weird stuff ensues, veering into spy-thriller-weird more than HPL-weird at first, but no worries, the latter is never too far behind.

Although I was hesitant at first about the spy thriller part, probably because of its apparent simplistic aspects (US vs Communists or US vs Nazis, it’s kind of the same… also Nazis make easy enemies: Instant Evil! Just add water!), the way it was handled was all in all interesting, in part because, let’s be honest, it makes for contrived enemies… but it also makes for entertaining scenarii. In fact, it reminded me of the Call of Cthulhu/Adventure! Crossover RPG I had played a few years ago, as well as of Indiana Jones movies, and I soon found my bearings again in that kind of plot and setting. We get typical but useful ingredients: scientists working on a secret project infiltrated left and right by Gestapo, Abwehr and probably a few others (Daniel even manages to throw the CIA in all that, and it blends in perfectly); research influenced by esoterism; evil cultists who’re all the more evil because they treat sacrifice as if it was a mere bureaucratic matter; a secret research facility on a remote island in the Pacific Ocean; not exactly human beings; and this mix works fairly well here.

Another thing I liked was that the focus shifted slightly in this book from Dan to Emily. We already know by now of Dan’s ancestor and the abilities he’s inherited, and there was a solid risk of Emily remaining more of a sidekick (a badass one, but a sidekick nonetheless) when it came to the weird/non-Euclidian parts. Well, let’s just say that reading can indeed empower people. (I bet you can already tell where this is going.)

Conclusion: 4 stars, it was an enjoyable read in spite of the few peeves I had about it, and I breezed through it, and now I want the next instalment.

Yzabel / January 26, 2015

Review: Billy Lovecraft Saves the WorldBilly Lovecraft Saves the World

Billy Lovecraft Saves the World by Billy Lovecraft

My rating: [rating=2]

Summary:

The last thing Billy Lovecraft’s parents sent him before the crash was a photo of something on the wing of their plane.

Now he’s stuck with a horrible and heart-breaking mystery: What was that awful creature, and why were his parents targeted?

It’s up to Billy to gather a team of like-minded kids and lead them through a dark new reality where the monsters are real, not everyone is who they seem to be, and an ancient alien wants to devour the world.

Review:

(I got a copy through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)

It’s kind of difficult forme to rate this book higher, though I hoped (and wanted) to. In general, it was a light, fun read, and I did enjoy it. The style was a bit too juvenile to my liking, but for a middle-grade audience, this would be quite all right. And, anyway, Lovecraftian mythos for the win. Especially if you have played the Call of Cthulhu pen and paper RPG, you just can’t help remember those sanity rolls, those poor Investigators ending up mad, dead, digested into some eldritch ceature’s stomach, not necessarily in that order, mind you. There’s something deeply enjoyable in such a setting for me. Also, eldritch cuteness factor as far as Cthulittle was concerned: talk about a weird combination.

This novel has an inherent flaw, though, in that its protagonists and tone seem at odds with its potential target audience. The characters were between 10 and 12, basically either at the end of elementary school or at the very beginning of middle school (depending on one’s perception of the schooling system in their own country, that is). Their actions and reactions are often those of kids, yet at times they display features that I’d expect to crop up in older teenagers, not in pre-teens.

The other problem is the very mythos the story is based on. I remember discovering and reading Lovecraft’s works when I was 15-17, not before (and I used to read horror stories before that). I’m really not sure a 12-year-old reader would be familiar with all the references, and unfortunately, once you remove those, the story remains nice, but… nothing extraordinary either.

I think it would be more interesting, and reach a wider audience, if the tone had been more YA and the protagonists a wee bit older. (But maybe that’s just me.)

Yzabel / September 28, 2013

Review: The Fear Institute

The Fear Institute by Jonathan L. Howard

My rating: [rating=4]

Summary:

Johannes Cabal and his rather inexact powers of necromancy are back once more. This time, his talents are purchased by The Fear Institute as they hunt for the Phobic Animus – the embodiment of fear. The three Institute members, led by Cabal and his Silver Key, enter the Dreamlands and find themselves pursued by walking trees plagued with giant ticks, stone men that patrol the ruins of their castles, cats that feed on human flesh and phobias which torment and devastate. The intrepid explorers are killed off one by one as they traipse through this obfuscating and frustrating world, where history itself appears to alter. Cabal, annoyed that the quest is becoming increasingly heroic, finds himself alone with the Institute’s only remaining survivor, and after a shockingly violent experiment, begins to suspect that not everything is quite as it seems…

Review:

(I got an ARC of this book from NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)

I’ve only read the first novel in the “Johannes Cabal” series, and hope I haven’t missed on too much by tackling #3 without knowledge of the events in #2. But from what I saw, “The Institute of Fear” does well enough as a standalone book, with the occasional hints at Cabal’s past adventure(s) being easy enough to understand.

The crossover with H.P. Lovecraft’s worlds and creations was nicely done in my opinion—here, too, prior knowledge isn’t absolutely necessary, although the regular winks are, of course, best enjoyed when you know what they’re about. It is also a cause for a lot of deadpan humour, which is something I like. Johannes Cabal is the voice of cold, unfazed logics in a place (the Dreamlands) that is all but rational, and where everything is shaped according to people’s deeply rooted unconscious beliefs. For instance, cats. If enough people believe that cats are intelligent, cunning creatures, then cats in the Dreamlands are exactly that, and have to be treaded around carefully. Well, this is what happens at several moments, and the hapless three travellers who’ve come to seek Cabal as their guide are reminded of such facts on a regular basis.

The necromancer’s point of view is definitely one of sarcasm and dark humour: a protection for his charges, but also his own way of keeping fear at bay, for Fear (or rather, its physical incarnation) is what the adventurers are seeking here, in order to destroy it. Their journey is impeded by the strange, changing geography, monsters, dead beings, and various other elements pertaining either concepts of dreams or the lovecraftian corpus. It’s full of interesting ideas (the dreffs, the Moon slavers), and it seems there’s always something new to discover… and dread.

If anything, I’d say the pacing was a little unequal in places. But the tone of the narrative definitely made up for this in my opinion.

Yzabel / September 27, 2013

Review: Shakespeare v. Lovecraft

Shakespeare vs. Lovecraft: A Horror Comedy Mash-Up featuring Shakespeare’s Characters and Lovecraft’s Creatures by D.R. O’Brien

My rating: [rating=2]

Summary:

“We are such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep.” — William Shakespeare

“In his house at R’lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.” —Howard Phillips Lovecraft.

In the same putrid vein as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Shakespeare v. Lovecraft slithers hideously onto the literary mash-up scene, whispering of cosmic horrors and eldritch tales whilst espousing sweet soliloquys and profoundly contemplating mankind’s place in the universe.

Prospero, driven dangerously insane by prolonged exposure to the dread Necronomicon, makes a terrible pact with the titanic alien beast known only as Cthulhu. Now only his enchantress daughter Miranda and a handful of history’s greatest heroes are all that stand between humanity and blasphemous eternal subjugation.

It’s a bloodbath of Shakespearean proportions as Cthulhu and his eldritch companions come at our protagonists from all manner of strange geometric angles in a hideous and savage battle for supremacy.

This horror-comedy novella of 36,000 words will seize you in its clammy grip and not release you until you have gone positively mad with delight! Witness all this and more:

Histrionic Heroes vs. Tentacled Terrors!!! Endless Soliloquys vs. Unnatural Silences!!!
Romeo vs. Mi-Go!!! England’s Royal Beasts vs. A Shoggoth!!!
The Author vs. Iambic Pentameter!!!

Review:

(I received an e-copy of this book through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)

2.5 stars. I liked some parts better than others.

Overall, this book was a quick and nice read that made me smile, although I can’t say it made me actually laugh.

I appreciated the numerous winks to and quotes to Shakespeare, of course. The latter may be both a strength and a weakness: just knowing a couple of lines from the Bard isn’t enough to get them, since they cross-reference several plays (The Tempest first, but also Macbeth, Hamlet, King Lear, Henry V, Henry IV, A Midsummer’s Night Dream… and others). If one knows these works well enough, the inserts are likely to look awesome (personnally, I loved Henry V’s “Gods, stand up for mankind!”, alluding to Edmund’s soliloquy in King Lear); otherwise, they may fall flat. The same goes with Lovecraft—and I’m positive I missed a few things regarding those parts, since I haven’t read his works in the past eight years or so. I suppose that such mash-ups don’t appeal to people who don’t like the original novels they’re inspired from, so it’s not that much of a problem; but it could be for readers who know only a little.

The writing style attempts at emulating both Shakespeare’s and HPL’s. In my opinion, sometimes it manages, and sometimes it fails, making reading somewhat fastidious; I’m thinking about the heavy use of adverbs stacked almost one upon the other, among other things, which made a lot of sentences and paragraphs look weird. This is somewhat paradoxical, considering how short the book is (86 pages or so).

Also, the narrative itself regularly seemed more of a pretext than a real story. Again, this may not be the aim of a mash-up (I admit I haven’t read a lot of those, so perhaps I’m just a poor judge), but I still expected events to be stringed in a more streamlined way. As it is, I couldn’t care about the characters like I would have for Shakespeare’s, nor did I get the feeling of human life easily discarded as I would in Lovecraft’s works.

All in all, it wasn’t a bad read, though. Only I was expecting more, and therefore ended up disappointed.