"The Winds of Yith"

by W.H. Pugmire
originally published Chronicles of the Cthulhu Codex #3, 1987

Nathan is an old former Dunwich-er who's settled in Sesqua Valley (wherever that is), bringing with him Wilbur Whateley's own copy of The Necronomicon. On this particular night, he uses it to summon The Winds of Yith.

Amber, a woman who apparently likes him, shows up and shames him for this summoning.  It seems no one really knows what The Winds of Yith are, or what they'll do.  But Nathan was feeling nihilistic tonight.

They wander off into the night.  The winds howl about them, but nothing happens.  It seems Sesqua Valley, a magical place, has chosen to protect Nathan.

Odd, evocatively written, dreamlike stuff.  I rather liked it!

"Dreams from R'lyeh"

by Lin Carter
originally published Dreams From R'lyeh, Arkham House, 1975

A series of 31 sonnets, starting with a narrator's memories of going to live with a mysterious uncle who is apparently part of a Cthulhoid cult, then taking various Cthulhu-related subjects - mostly places such as R'lyeh, Kadath, etc.

 As sonnets, these aren't bad. Nor are they outstandingly good.  I actually think a good story could be built around these, by a creative sort.  But Carter's limited and derivative imagination, and the fact that he just plain didn't have the chops, keep these from being really memorable.  Fun though.

"Inelastic Collisions"

by Elizabeth Bear
originally published Inferno, 2009

Gretchen and Tamara are a pair of "fallen" hounds of Tindalos, stranded here on earth in human form (or disguised as humans).  Appearing as a pair of hot party chicks, they hang out in bars playing pool and using their wiles and their pool-playing mastery to find human prey.

An overweight man in a wheelchair comes to them one night.  He plays them and astounds them by winning.  He invites them back to his apartment.  He, too, is a fallen outer creature.  He tells them they need to get used to being human.

I confess that the point of this well-written story, and any connection to the F.B. Long original, escapes me.  

"Strange Manuscript Found in the Vermont Woods"

by Lin Carter
originally published Crypt of Cthulhu #54, Eastertide 1988

Winthrop Hoag inherits a remote cabin in the woods in Vermont from a little-known cousin who disappeared a number of years ago. There's not much there - but there is a stack of very old and rare books (dun-dun-dun-DUN!!!!)

Winthrop's brilliant plan is to live in the cabin all winter while he works on his master's thesis.  Never mind that he'll be snowed in, has no running water, only a stove for fire, and will be isolated from town.  In any case, he ignores all practical advice and does so.  Bored, he starts going through his cousin's notebooks.  References to weird chanting sounds in the woods at night, and finding enormous footprints of no known animal, a "dead place" in the woods, and a "great stone" found there.  There are also references to the events of "The Lurker at the Threshold".

Things go badly fast.  Soon Winthrop is hearing the chants.  He finds the dead place in the woods, the great stone (some kind of altar), and evidence of a gigantic, bat-winged toad creature.  He even sees its shadow one night in the moonlight.  Soon, he too disappears....

The abbreviated length of this story keeps its worst tendencies (here we go with quotes from the old tomes again....) at bay, and it manages to be relatively evocative if completely derivative of any number of previous Lovecraft pastiches, particularly Derleth's tales.  Enjoyable enough though.

"The Lamp of Alhazred"

by August Derleth
originally published The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, October 1957

Ward Phillips, a reclusive, sickly pulp writer, lives off the dwindling remains of his family's lost fortune.  From his long-disappeared grandfather, Whipple, he's inherited a host of old books and an antique lamp, decorated with figures.  When lit, the lamp produces visions of exotic, fantastic worlds.  These so inspire Phillips that composes a host of stories about them.

Years go by.  Phillips' health is failing.  One night, he burns the lamp again.  This time he sees visions of the Rhode Island of his childhood.  

A correspondent comes to visit Phillips, but finds him gone.  Phillips has vanished, never to be seen again...

This is a major departure among the Derleth "collaborations", and its excellent in part because of that.  Rather than ape HPL (poorly), Derleth has written a rather gentle fairy tale in tribute to his late friend.  And provided him an exit more in keeping with Lovecraft's tastes.  All in all, this is a moving little oddity.

 

"The Horror in the Gallery" aka "Zoth-Ommog"

by Lin Carter

originally published The Disciples of Cthulhu, DAW, 1976

And so we come to Arthur Wilcox Hodgkins, assistant to Dr. Stephenson Blaine at the Sanbourne Institute.  Dr. Blaine was last seen raving on the beach late at night in Carter's tale "Out Of The Ages".  Here's where we get Part II.

Hodgkins has been handed all of Blaine's papers - basically, the entire "Out Of The Ages" story, plus the infamous figurine of Zoth-Ommog, preparatory to an upcoming gallery showing which may feature the figurine and some other related artifacts.  There are sensational stories making the press about the figurine being cursed, and Hodgkins is put off by this.  Even more by the looney-tunes content of Blaine's later notes.  Even more by the looney-tunes Blaine himself, who he visits in the hospital, and who begs him to never let the figurine be put on display, but rather to destroy it.   All of this Hodgkins considers to be merely Blaine's insanity talking.  But he has to admit there is something creepy, even menacing, about the figurine that bothers even him.

Hodgkins begins going through Blaine's papers, including the Copeland papers - basically the story begins rehashing "Out Of The Ages" as Hodgkins learns of Copeland and Blaine's interest, then obsession, with tracing the worship of the GOO in the Pacific.  Like Blaine, Hodgkins begins to have disturbing dreams involving the figurine.  Not only that - it seems to be moving.

Much tiresome scholarship ensues in which the usual Cthulhu Claptrap is rehashed in an assortment of quotes`n'notes from the usual titles.  A couple things of interest - a quote from Cultes des Goules suggesting that the GOO can manifest themselves through idols or statues, and a reference to a page and paragraph in the Necronomicon perhaps explaining how to destroy the figurine.  Hodgkins follows that clue all the way to Miskatonic U., where he's met by Henry Armitage and host of other Lovecraft characters, all anxious to help him with his prob.  Unfortunately, after much corny debating and a trip back to Cali loaded with tiresome quotes from  Unaussprechlichen Kulten, Hodgkins still has little or no idea how to proceed.  But they did give him a star-shaped Elder Sign as a souvenir!

Hodgkins arrives in Santiago late that night and hoofs it straight for the institute, hoping to somehow prevent the figurine from being put on display.  He arrives to find the night watchman dead in a pool of blood and a fish-faced dude doing something nasty in front of the figurine, which seems to be coming to life.  

Fish-face pulls a gun, so Hodgkins does the logical thing of course - throw his star-stone at both of them!

This causes the figurine to vanish in a flash of light that breaks the windows, and a bolt of lightning conveniently strike Fish-face, taking care of him.

Coppers arrive to find Hodgkins raving and no trace of Fish-face, who's dissolved into a pool of glop, leaving only his clothes behind (those disintegrate soon after).  The cops assuming he killed the watchman, and finding his story hard to swallow, Hodgkins ends up in an asylum.

What we have here is competent Lovecraft pastiche.  Again, like its predecessor, "Out of the Ages", Carter is largely aping "Call of Cthulhu".  And again, he doesn't have the chops to make all this documentary data add up to something genuinely spooky.  Working against this tale, moreso, is length. It's twice as long as "Out of the Ages" but adds no new incident or potent moment to make its endless genealogy lists of the GOO any more interesting. The ending is silly and how much of a menace can Z-O be when all you have to do is throw a star-shaped rock at him and he disappears?

"Out of the Ages"

by Lin Carter
originally published Nameless Places, Arkham House, 1975

Poor Dr. Stephenson Blaine, Curator of the Manuscripts Collection at the Sanbourne Institute of Pacific Antiquities in Santiago, CA.   His job is to catalog the papers of Harold Hadley Copeland, last seen running out into the snow in "The Dweller in the Tomb".  This is a drag since he considers Copeland to have once been brilliant, even though he died babbling in an asylum.

The papers seem to bear this out, as most of them deal with evidence of an ancient cult in the Pacific devoted to worship of a thing called Zatamaga/Z'mog/Zmog-Yahh/etc.  This entity is apparently properly named Zoth-Ommog, and there's an especially unusual jade image of it among the papers and artifacts...

Copeland seems to have been pursuing the worship of this deity, and of various related (Cthulhu, Ghatanathoa etc) he has bundled together as the "Xothic Legend Cycle".  Much name-dropping of deities, beasties, and forbidden books ensues.  Also include are newspaper clippings about bizarre, related events - including a reference to the events of "The Call of Cthulhu".

All of this shit starts to get to Blaine, and he has nightmares about sunken cities, and the jade idol, and finally, of Zoth-Ommog in da flesh!   Next thing you know, the cops find him standing by the ocean in his jammies, burning a piece of paper which he tosses into the crashing surf.  As they haul him off, they catch a glimpse of something gross and wormy and huge moving in the waters...

As it was Carter's wont to simply re-write stories he admired, here he has simply re-written "The Call of Cthulhu", using the same structure: a scholar receives a packet of information regarding an ancient cult.  Digging deeper, he learns that this is more than simply a myth, and that the cults bizarre objects of worship are real and alive. Unfortunately, Carter did not have HPL's gifts, and there's nothing here approaching the unsettling feel of the best moments of that original tale.  Nor does he have HPL's sense of structure - fully 2/3 of this story are simply recitations of information from Copeland's notes, all pointing in the same obvious direction.   And Carter is even worse than Derleth about rolling off long lists of Cthuloid shtuff to no particular purpose.

That being said, in the last third, the dream sequences are somewhat effective, as is the wrap-up, and the hinted-at glimpse of a Yug actually carries a touch of the chill.  This makes it all the more frustrating - one is left with the feeling that, if Carter had ever actually gotten down to it, he might have created an effective story that echoed, but didn't merely ape, the master.

"The Sister City"

by Brian Lumley

originally published Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, Arkham House 1969

Paul Krug - war orphan, independently wealthy - and hairless with webbed fingers and toes.  No wonder he has no friends!  So he goes travelling, indulging his fascination with archaeology, and goes in search of the lost and mythical cities of Sarnath and Ib.

He finds the remains of the lost city of Lh-Yib, in the Yorkshire moors.  He realizes that he is some kind of reincarnation of the god-thing Bokrug, worshiped by the creatures of Ib. 

This early Lumley story has a fair amount of atmosphere, but is ultimately all sizzle and no steak.  

"The Red Offering"

by Lin Carter
originally published Crypt of Cthulhu #7, Lammas, 1982

Zanthu, priest of Ythogtha, rival of the priesthood of Ghatanathoa, completes his apprenticeship and heads off with his brother, Kuth, in search of the tomb of the wizard Iraan, for there he will find the Black Seal, which will allow him to summon Ythogtha and certify his high priesthood.

After no particular adventures, he and Kuth find the tomb.  The mummified body of Iraan still has some life in it, and it kills Kuth.  Since Zanthu never liked Kuth anyway, this is advantageous.  Now he has the priesthood and he can snag Kuth's ex-girlfriend.

Awfully minor stuff.  I suspect Carter dashed it off as a freebie for Crypt, which was a fanzine and probably didn't pay.  Carter's psuedo-Smith prose is amusing, though.

"The Sorcerer's Dream"

by Brian Lumley

originally published Whispers 13/14, 1979

The sorcerer Teh Atht dreams of Cthulhu.  He knows that Cthulhu is now aware of him.

Yeah, okay....

"Elysia"

by Brian Lumley
Originally published 1989

DeMarigny and Moreen have returned to Borea after three years.  Their quest for Elysia has been a bust, but DM's managed to earn himself a nickname ("The Searcher") throughout the universe for his fruitless quest.

Meanwhile, in Elysia, the Elder Gods summon Crow to a meeting.  Apparently bored with watching DM look around for them aimlessly, they want to use him for something, and want Crow's help.  Why Crow would be hesitant, given that he's been willing to let DM bop hopelessly around the universe for three years, but what the hell... meanwhile, the Elders dispatch four messengers to do something unclear.  Oh, and did I mention that The Stars Are Right?

Armandra contacts the winds, hoping to help DM find his way (why didn't she try this before???).  She becomes aware of a gaseous, sentient entity named "Ssssssss" floating around the universe, calling to the Elder Gods.  Maybe it knows directions?  DM and Moreen fly off to meet with it.

Crow sends a holographic image of his wonderful self into the Time Clock to meet with DM.  First he explains he's strapped for time, then rambles into a long and pointless bit of theorizing about Great Thoughts.  And he manages to say hi to Moreen.  He suggests that DM:
          Try looking in the Dreamlands for directions
          Talk to Ssssssss
          Look for Exior K'mool, a sorceror of Theem'dra (in the Primal Lands).  But, oops, Crow doesn't know how to find him. 

Then he mercifully leaves.

DM and Moreen find Ssssss beyond the "Red Medusa" nebula, where he/she/it is being eaten by Hounds of Tindalos (they can eat gas?).  DM drives them off.   

DM heads off to Ulthar and a meeting with Atal.  During dinner, a bird arrives with a message - David Hero and Eldin the Wanderer are being held prisoner by Gudge the Pirate,

a non-human gloop-monster in a cloak, who has David and Eldin tied to crosses over a volcanic pit. 

DM rushes off to meet with Zura of Zura (yes I said "Zura of Zura") and Lath the Termite Queen to help him rescue David and Eldin.  They arrive just in time to drive off Nyarlathotep.  The pirates are wiped out, and DM, David, Eldin and Moreen go to visit a tree.  The tree points them to The Curator, a robotic museum guide, who directs them to Exior K'mool.  Off they go, just in time to rescue Exior from Nyarlathotep, who has taken the form of a slime monster.

Exior, having informed DM that he is actually his ancestor, hooks him up with Ardatha Ell.  They lead him to Andromeda, where a Child of Azathoth lies waiting.  The Child detonates, and the blast sends DM to Elysia.

Showdown time! All the Cthulhu baddies have been following DM all along, hoping he would lead them to Elysia. Crow faces off with Tentacle-Face, then detonates another Child of Azathoth which he just happened to have around.   The Cthulhu baddies are banished from the universe (or some such) for a billion years.  The Elder Gods will make a new Elysia on a distant star, and everyone will live happily ever after (for a billion years, at least!)

Well, it's over at least.

Look, what can I say about a story as goofy as this?  It's coherent, but never involving.  At times it's flat-out comical.  Mostly, there's a sense of "let's-wrap-this-up" going on.  One gets the sense that Lumley was tired of the game - he'd already moved on to the Necroscope books years earlier - and just wanted to put paid to it.  No surprise that he's said he has no plans to revisit these characters.

"The Dweller in the Tomb"

by Lin Carter

originally published Dark Things, Arkham House, 1971

Harold Hadley Copeland scribbles (at great length) in his journal of the last days of an ill-fated journey into a frozen Asian plateau of Tsang, there in search of the tomb of Zanthu, following clues from the Ponape Scripture (among other such works).  His colleagues have died off and his bearers are in rebellion.  Lack of food and clean water (they're drinking polluted snow - bleeeuchh!!!) are taking their toll.  And then they're attacked by faceless monsters.  It turns out they can drink the blood of these things (double bleeeeuchh!!).  But soon Copeland is all by hisself.  Weirdly enough, the faceless monsters are unafraid of his gun, but run in fear at the sight of his face.  And the terrain is beginning to look strangely familiar to him.

Copeland finds the tomb of Zanthu, and some tablets therein, but grabs the tablets and runs out to die in the snow rather than in the tomb, cuz it seems Zanthu looks just like Copeland!

This is as pulpy as it gets and written in such over-the-top Lovecraftian that it borders on parody - Copeland is scribbling these notes in his journal under the worst circumstances, but still finds the time to discourse on the history of the Ponape Scripture.

Still, there is a certain evocativeness in Carter's writing, even if he does pour it on way too thick, with the howling sounds in the mountains and the freezing cold closing in.  Illogical, over the top, and silly - but still an amusing read.

"The Green Decay"

by Robert M. Price

originally published Nightscapes, June 1997

Nabulus, a solitary wizard, has a prob.  He never gets laid.  So he creates a bronze statue of the perfect woman, and summons a life-force to inhabit it. Now he has a girlfriend.

 Aimoth, an acolyte and student of Nabulus, takes a fancy to her and puts the moves on her.  Since Aimoth actually has some experience with chicks and is a better lay, she comes to prefer him.

Nabulus finds out, and puts a horrible curse on them both, called The Green Decay, which is just what it sounds like.  But he himself is found dead.

An amusing but ultimately forgettable Smith pastiche.

"The Thing in the Pit"

by Lin Carter
originally published Lost Worlds, DAW 1980

Zanthu, high priest of the cult of Ythogtha, hope to revive his fading religion by overcoming the rival cult of Ghatanathoa once and for all.  This has been tried once before - and failed.

His researches lead him to a ritual called "The Key That Openeth The Door To Yhe", a highly dangerous ceremony, but one he feels he must undertake.  

He journeys to a secret temple deep in the bowels of the earth, and there summons Father Ubb, a big drooling worm-thing.  There he learns the last bit of secrets, and thus sets out to perform a ritual to summon Ythogtha.  That turns out to be a big mistake, as Ythogtha is pretty gross, and he ends up sinking the continent of Mu, though Zanthu and some acolytes escape.

I would call this a pretty minor Clark Ashton Smith pastiche - and that it is, with prose so purple even CAS would blush.  But it does almost have that Smith-ian smirk to it.  I mean, it's not really a good story, but it is fun to read.

"The Mirror of Nitocris"

by Brian Lumley
originally published The Caller of the Black, 1972

Henri Laurent de-Marigny - occutlist, collector, and doormat, has found himself an odd, ancient mirror.  He acquires it at an auction of the possessions of explorer Bannister Brown-Farley's estate.  Along with a diary explaining its nature.

DeMarigny sits up all night reading Brown-Farley's diary, in which BBF explains how he bought the mirror, how he plied the old arab who sold it to him with brandy and opium to tell its story, and its relation to the legend of Nitocris, an Egyptian queen prone to cruel revenge, and of the mirror's alleged tendency to release horrible things out of its depths at midnight!

And, sure enough, at midnight, a gloopy thing comes crawling out of the mirror.  DeMarigny drives it off with silver bullets.  And then faints - the big pussy!

An amusing, Weird Tales-ish little vignette. 

"Countdown for Kalara"

by Richard L. Tierney

originally published Space and Time # 56, 1980

John Taggart is a student with a crap job, no money, and a hard-on against the human race.  One night he finds what appears to be a shotgun in the snow.  No ordinary shotgun - when you look through the site, you find not our world, but the world of the Jurassic era.  Not only that, if you pull the trigger, you shoot what you targeted in the site - in the Jurassic era.  Lucky John brings down a pterodactyl.

Moments later, a smokin' hot space chick appears in the basement of his apartment and picks him up and carries him off to her spaceship.

Not long after, John's former schoolmate, Jeremy Pitts, another intellectual and nihilist, and five weird-ass aliens materialize nearby and start searching for John.

 Meanwhile, John finds himself interrogated about the gun, something called "The Alliance", and discovers the ship has left earth - or rather, has left the present.  It, and he, are back in the Jurassic.  And he sees the hot chick (whose name, it tuns out, is Ylandra) and her male cohort handing the gun back to members of The Great Race.  John escapes from the ship and runs smack into his ol' buddy Pitts and his alien buddies.

Pitts informs him that he left the gun for him (John) to find, cuz he wanted John to join him on his quest to rid the prehistoric galaxy of the Kalarans, a race of basically humans who are nominally under the protection of The Great Race.  With the burgeoning war between the cone-bods and the flying polyps, Pitts figures The Great Race will be distracted while he blow up Kalara.  Oh, and by the way - Ylandra and her buddy are Kalarans.

Much space-opera action ensues, including daring escapes and the wackiest assortment of aliens this side of the cantina scene in "Star Wars".  John sides with Ylandra, but they cannot save Kalara.  Stealing a ship that can move through time, Ylandra drops John off back in the 20th century, while she flies off to some unknowable future.  John realizes that the asteroids and debris around Jupiter are the remains of Kalara, destroyed millions of years ago.

This is a wild space-opera, pure "Star Wars" stuff. It is, in fact, a sequel to P. Schuyler Miller's "The Sands of Time", a 1937 short story about time travel (this story, as well as "Countdown for Kalara", can be found in Chaosium's The Yith Cycle collection), and its Lovecraft connection is limited to a cameo appearance and an extended discussion of their history.  The story's probably more of interest to Miller fans than Lovecraft fans.  But it is a fun ride.

"The Taint"

by Brian Lumley
originally published Weird Shadows Over Innsmouth, 2005

James Jamieson, former American physician, has come to a remote seaside community to retire.  He makes a few friends, including the snobby Tremains, and the strange, spacy Jilly White and her withdrawn daughter, Anne.  And then there's Geoff, the "village idiot", a hulking, fish-like teen boy who says little, frightens the locals, and apparently herds fish for his guardian.  And Anne's strange fondness for him.

As James hangs around, and gets to know people, much is revealed.  About Jilly's dreams of undersea cities.  About Geoff's ichtoid afflictions.  About Anne and Geoff's shared parentage.  And connections to Innsmouth.  And finally the revelation of Dr. Jamieson's true nature, of Anne's, and of what the Deep Ones have been up to since the raids of 1928...

This is a well-above-average Lumley piece; quite well-written and thought out, and it shows how greatly Lumley has matured, compared to, say, his 70's-era stuff.  The payoff isn't quite what I'd hoped for, but the buildup is solid.  One of his best.

 

"The Tree"

by H.P. Lovecraft
published in The Tryout, 7, No. 7 October 1921


Somewhere on Mount Maenalus, in Arcadia, Greece, is an olive grove which was once a "chosen haunt" for the god Pan.  In this grove grows a humanoid-looking tree.

Once there were two famous Greek sculptors, Kalos and Musides.  They were invited to compete in creating a wonder of the world.  Kalos fell ill and died.  Musides created a marble tomb for him, and, at Kalos' request, planted olive twigs near the head.

A humanoid tree grew from the tomb.  During a storm, a branch fell, crushing Musides and the statue he had made.
  Lovecraft himself dismissed "The Tree" - "if typed on good stock make excellent shelf-paper, but little else."  I'd have to agree.

"The Return of the Deep Ones"

by Brian Lumley

originally published Fantasy Book March-June-September 1984

John Vollister is a respected marine biologist, independently wealthy, living in an English coastal village.  One day he received a gift in the mail from a man named Marsh in America - a conch shell of a kind he has never seen before.  He begins to dream of storms, ones that aren't actually happening.

Soon after, he gets a call from a man named Semple who has information on the conch.  And he meets a hot American chick named Sarah on the beach.

Semple turns out to be an occultist and a bit of a creep.  He links the conch shell to certain occult titles (guess which ones!?!?), of which he has copies back at the club on the coast where he's staying.

John visits the club for lunch, where he is put off by the "fishy" appearance of the members, including Sarah's aged dad.  They are building models of mythical cities, such as R'lyeh and Y'ha'nthlei.  He has a seafood lunch that causes him to pass out.

He finds himself back at home, with Sarah taking care of him.  Sarah proceeds to take care of him in other ways as well.

John makes his way back one night to retrieve his conch shell, when he encounters what he later learns is a shoggoth watchdog!  He finds himself in a subterranean tank, held prisoner by the odd club-dwellers, who begin a series of medical treatments to turn him "deep".

Soon, another prisoner shows up in the next tank.  He turns out to be Jeremy Belton, a journalist, and proceeds to relate Lumley's previously-published tale, "Haggopian".  He is eventually murdered.

Finally, John escapes.  He manages to make it back into the town, but local friends and the police are in cahoots with the Deep Ones.  He, too, is becoming more "deep".  He barricades himself in his house.  The club lays siege, attempting to capture him.  He writes this story and hides it under the boards of the house.  He is taken.  Unbeknownst to him, the manuscript is found as well.

This is an above-average Lumley story, but far from his best.  There's some nice build-up and paranoid action at the end, but the long middle-section with John as a prisoner drags, and its embarassing that as late as `84 Lumley is still padding his stories with older works.  

A cut above his worst, a cut or two below his best.

 

"Jerusalem's Lot"

by Stephen King
originally published Night Shift, Doubleday 1978

Charles Boone is the new owner of Chapelwaite, a creepy family mansion formerly owned by his estranged, and now deceased, cousin.  He moves in with his servant, Calvin, and starts firing off letters to his friends about his new digs and what he finds there.

Aside from ol' cuz having some very Charles Addams-y taste in decor, there are mysterious noises in the walls which Charles at first takes for rats, but soon determines must be something else.  And the townsfolk of nearby Preacher's Corners ain't too friendly to any Boones.  Especially Boones living in that there creepy old house.  He learns from a housekeeper that, while she thinks the Boones to be good people, she has always considered the house to be evil.

Calvin finds a map of a nearby village called Jerusalem's Lot.  He and Charles find it to be a long-deserted Puritan settlement.  Strangely, it appears to be untouched by men or beasts, as if no living thing had set foot there since the inhabitants bailed.  

Worse, there's a blasphemous church with an unholy painting, and inverted cross, and copy of De Vermis Mysteriis lying arounf on the pulpit.  When Charles examines the books, he feels as if something under the earth beneath his is moving.  Now understandably a bit spooked, he and Calvin get the heck outta Jerusalem's Lot. 

Meanwhile, the townsfolk are getting even less friendly.  Charles learns from the housekeeper that the family rift ensued when Charles' grandpappy, Robert Boone, tried to steal De Vermis from his brother Philip, apparently intending to destroy it.  It seems Philip was a fallen preacher, sucked into dark occult beliefs.  Philip, and all the rest of the folks of Jerusalem's Lot disappeared on Halloween, 1789.....

Calvin finds a diary written in cipher, and he and Charles explore the cellar, intending to find rats.  Instead of rats, they find two of his ancestors in a decidedly nasty and undead state.  They run away and deal the undeads in the cellar, but inexplicably remain in the house.


Calvin cracks the cypher, and gets the whole story on Jerusalem's Lot, founded by long-ago predecessor James Boon, leader of an inbred witch-cult.  Later, Phillip Boon joined the by then very ancient James in summoning a critter they called "The Worm", using ceremonies from De Vermis Mysteriis.


They return to Jersusalem's Lot, finding evidence of recent activity.  When Charles tries to destroy the copy of De Vermis, the undead cult members rise up to protect it.  The Worm is summoned.  It kills Calvin, while Charles sets the book on fire, which causes it to take off.

Charles knocks out a final letter to his buddy, Bones, stating that he will kill himself in order to put an end to the cursed Boone family line.   A final note tells us that the line in fact survived, and a new Boone has moved into Chapelwaite....

Something of an oddity - King writing in the style of H.P. Lovecraft.  Or maybe H.P.L. and August Derleth.  That latter is more accurate, for this tale recalls nothing so much as the posthumous collaborations I've been critiqueing the past few months.  All the checkboxes are certainly there:  protagonist inherits creepy old house once owned by creepy relative he barely knew, locals are unfriendly, creepy stuff happens, Incriminating Cthuloid Evidence found, big denouement with lots of italics ala Da Master himself.  In some ways, it improves on the adorementioned "collaborations".  There's more intelligence and logic behind said checkboxes - some explanation provided for exactly why the relatives had little contact with one another, for example.   At other times, it falls victim to the same lapses as Derelthocraft did - I dunno about you, but if I found a couple undead in my cellar, I sure wouldn't stick around in that house!  The Worm is a bit too literal a monster for my tastes, and I think King may have had his tongue slightly in his cheek when he wrote this.

 It is effectively written - King apes the Lovecraft/Derleth style well (the story often reminds me of The Lurker At The Threshold, the best of the Derleth tomb-raids).  The EC-ish zombies, bits of blatant gore, and some sexual and scatological references are obviously in King territory, however.  There's a certain sense of fun here, a sense that the story is intended simultaneously as homage and admiring parody, with a dash of "it'd be fun to write a Lovecraft-type story, and do it Lovecraft style".  Like Lurker and several other Cthulhu stories I've read, the first half of the story is a potent build-up, and the second half a bit of a letdown, but this is still a genuinely fun read.

 


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