"Dead Giveaway"

by J. Vernon Shea 

originally published Outre #1, May 1976

It is a weird Halloween in this New England town.  Mary Peabody, local kook, gets eaten by her own undead brother.  Charlotte Carmody, local widow, finds her son's corpse on the porch.  Emil Weiskopf, local Nazi war criminal in hiding, is killed by a skeleton.  A gang of thugs, local assholes, come across an underground ritual held by Innsmouthers.

This is a sort-of sequel to Shea's "Haunter of the Graveyard" and, like that earlier tale, its kind of cute, spooky fun.  The writing is plain and unflashy but professional, what I call straight fiction magazine style writing.  Workmanlike, but nothing to complain about.  It's no classic but it is an enjoyable enough read.

"Aliah Warden"

by Roger Johnson
originally published The Count Dracula Fan Club Annual, Vol. 5 No. 1 1985

Our narrator meets Aliah Warden in a solicitor's office in 1902.  Aliah is an old, retiring lawyer with a curious appearance - squat, bow-legged, wide-mouthed.  He lives in a village named Wrabley and shares the narrator's interest in witchcraft and devil worship (academically, of course).

He invites the narrator to come around his place, which is located in a marshy region near Essex.  Aliah has the usual titles in his library.  He reveals himself to be a deep one hybrid.

This story actually has a nice and effective build-up, and its a shame it shorts itself out with an abrupt and unfulfilling ending.

"The Return of the Sorceror"

by Clark Ashton Smith
originally published Strange Tales of Mystery and Terror, September 1931

Mr. Ogden, who's been out of work for awhile and needs money (and a first name), lands a gig helping do some translations from ancient Arabic for John Carnby, an eccentric fruit loop who lives in a dilapidated mansion in Oakland CA (which means it would have to be in the hills, kiddies!).  

Carnby's a creep who lives as a full-on black magician, with pentagrams painted on the floor and stuffed alligators hanging from the ceiling.  What he wants translated is a passage from The Necronomicon itself, one which explains how a dead sorcerer can rise from the dead, and even summon dismembered body parts back together to form a whole.  

Ogden thinks this whole setup is a little weird.  He also thinks the fact that the house is allegedly infested with extra-large rats, which Carnby seems to fear, is a bit off.  When he sees a severed human hand scuttling across the floor, he knows something is a bit off.

Alright, Carnby confesses - he killed his twin brother Helman out of jealousy (Helman was a more successful sorcerer) and cut him into pieces and buried/hid them in different places.  But yeah, now Helman is reassembling himself and coming back for revenge.  Carnby attempts an exorcism spell, but it fails, and the dismembered pieces of Helman converge on the room and take gruesome revenge...

Okay, this tale is completely in EC territory, right down to crawling sever limbs.  But CAS often had his tongue in his cheek, sometimes more firmly than others.  It's a gruesome little bit of black-humored horror and fun to read.

Incidentally, trivia buffs; "Return of the Sorceror" was adapted - quite effectively - for TV's Night Gallery in the early 70's, with Vincent Price as the Carnbys and Bill Bixby as Ogden. 

"The Spheres Beyond Sound (Threnody)"

by Stephen Mark Rainey
originally published Deathrealm No. 2, Summer, 1987

Our narrator decided to spend a vacation visiting his late grandfather's old house, in a remote part of the Appalachian called Copper Peak.  The place is old and run down but liveable, and among the things he finds there is a very old book called The Spheres Beyond Sound by Maurice Zann, which alleges that certain combinations of tunings and tones can open up gateways to other worlds.  The book intrigues him.  Later he finds a recording grandpa made with some local musicians, experiments with Zann's pieces to see if they would indeed open gates.  It seems like nothing happened.

The next day, while exploring a local graveyard, narrator gets spooked and starts to flee.  He sees a growing blackness behind him and hears sounds like things digging out and shuffling after him.  Back at the house, he's confronted by a group of zombies and a giant, shadowy spider-thing looming over the house.  He flees, and escapes, but continues to believe that one day he too will become a zombie in thrall to the creature.

This story actually made something of an impression, in part because it manages to play with Derleth/Lovecraft clichés and make them sorta fresh.  The EC-like ending isn't exactly Lovecraftian, but it is kind of effective.  It's very pulpy but a lot of fun.

"Vastarien"

 by Thomas Ligotti
originally published Crypt of Cthulhu No. 48, St. John's Eve, 1987

Victor Keirion is tormented by dreams of a strange and fabulous city.  He belongs to "that wretched sect of souls who believe that the only value of this world lies in its power -- to suggest another world."

He makes his way to a bookstore where the proprietor and customer act very strange.  They show him a very rare, ornate book, then tell him the cost is out of his range.  Then they tell him there's a mistake and quote him a price he can afford.

His dreams become more and more vivid.  He realizes that in some way, the book is not merely a book but some manifestation of the dream-city.  He returns to the bookstore to learn more about it, but gets little in the way of answers other than that the book was somehow meant for him.

He comes to believe that the other customer is somehow vampirizing his mind/soul in order to experience the dreams himself, which for some reason he is unable to do in any other way.  He tries to think of some way to stop this.

Victor is actually a resident of an insane asylum.  The book is completely blank, yet he sits studying it and becoming violent in the night.  Even though the book is taken away from him, it somehow reappears in his cell every night.

More Alfred Kubin or Kafka than Lovecraft.  As always, Ligotti is interesting and even impressive, but, as always, he leaves me a little cold.

"Lights! Camera! Shub-Niggurath!"

by Richard A, Lupoff 

originally published The New Lovecraft Circle, Fedogan and Bremer, 1996

On a planet-sized space station called Starret, the entertainment industry is #1.  Far future.  They decide to make a film version of "The Dunwich Horror".  They do so.  It's a big hit all over the known universe.

I really had to struggle to get through this one.  It's not funny and it's not fun.

"The Whisperers"

by Richard A. Lupoff
originally published Fantastic, September 1977

Mario Cipolla and Annie Epstein work for the Millbrook High school paper, and have a chance to interview the hottest rock group around, The Whisperers, before their show at San Francisco's Winterland.

The Whisperers are apparently a synth/vocal duo, and all their songs are about the Great Old Ones, etc.  Mario and Annie watch their sound check and Mario starts to feel weird.  During the interview, The Whisperers tell Mario that they are using the concert audience as part of a ritual to unleash The Great Old Ones.

Pretty superficial stuff that mostly shows Lupoff knew the local mainstream rock scene in SF in the 70's.  Somewhat prophetic in imagining a synth/vocal duo, but the idea that such an outfit singing about obscure occultisms would get critical acclaim and hits is a bit much for this rock fan to swallow.  

"The Madness Out Of Space"

by Peter H. Cannon aka Crispin Burnham 

originally published Eldritch Tales No's 8 and 9, 1982, 1983

Our young narrator (E. Phillips Winsor)  is a student at Miskatonic U in 1928, where he befriends an eccentric fellow student named Howard Wentworth Anable, who is basically H.P. Lovecraft under another name.  It seems Anable has vanished, and our narrator knows how.

Anable has become absorbed in eccentric, occult studies, and likes our narrator because he thinks his friendship may help him stay grounded. He asks him to move into some rooms he's rented, next semester.

Winsor goes on vacation and has fun, while Anable writes increasingly weird letters about the discoveries he's making in his studies of old New England cults.  When Winsor returns, Anable takes him to a remote spot called Satan's Ledge, where occult rites were held, and there they meet a local squatter named Jay Harper who claims to have part of the original Old Ones cult that met there.

Anable gets deeper and deeper into it. The cult is revived and begins to meet again on Satan's Ledge.  Winsor interrupts Anable's initiation.  At first Anable is angry, then grateful.  He begins to recuperate, returns to his studies.  But then becomes secretive and strange again.  One night Winsor hears Anable chanting again, and busts down his door, but too late - Anable has been spirited away by something.

As he settles affairs and moves out, the landlady passes on a condescending letter from Anable, stating that Winsor wasn't worthy of transcending the mundane world anyway.

This is a relatively entertaining tale, despite being overloaded with Derleth/Lovecraft clichés.  I can't quite make up my mind if I find the climax underwhelming, or impressive just cause it doesn't close with a shootout with gloopy monsters.  In any case you could do a lot worse.

"The Horror on the Beach"

by Alan Dean Foster
originally published Shroud Publishers, 1978

David Corfu buys himself a ranchero on the California coast:  Caso de Rodrigo de Lima, on the beach in Cabrillo Cove.  Dave is an oil engineer working on a project.  The house is big, old, historic and isolated.  He only has two neighbors - the Birches, and Joshua Whipple, an eccentric old beachcomber.

Things quickly turn weird.  The house has a bad rep.  The locals think its evil ("may god have mercy on your soul," one tells him).  Dave and his wife hear weird drumming sounds coming from the beach at night.  Martin Birch has heard the drums too, and notes they've become more frequent since the Corfus arrived.

Dave learns that de Lima was rumored to have made deals with the devil, and so frightened the local Yani Indians that they stormed the ranchero one night - and somehow de Lima, his wife, kid, and some servants wiped out the entire tribe.  They maintained their bad rep until they finally left the place in 1889 - and its stood empty ever since!

There are problems on the project, leading to an uncontrollable oil spill.  The local cops are aware of the night drumming but seem uninterested.  David's wife tells him it feels like the house moves in rhythm to the music.

David is awakened by a call from Martin, who's in some kind of dire emergency, warning him to grab the wife and kid and clear out ("my god - what an abomination!" he shouts) he hears Martin and his family scream, and the sound of glass shattering and more.  The cops come, and with David, find the Birches house obliterated and no sign of Birch, his wife, or his two kids.  They also don't seem terribly interested.  Josh Whipple tells David he's clearing out and suggests they do the same.  And he mentions some odd things.  Like something called Cthulhu.

Dave goes to see Pedro Armendariz, a Prof. of biochemistry.  When he hears the name Cthulhu dropped, Pedro gets a-larmed.  He knows quite a bit about such things, it seems.  And he urges David to get the wife and kid and come stay with him.  Advice which David, again, ignores.

That night at the house, Cthulhu tears the house down while they hide out in the wine cellar.  And he eats the family's Siamese cat (the bastard!)

The next morning they head out to Pedro's place, and he explains the usual Mythos stuff.  He believes there's a cult trying to loose Cthu on the world (thus the drums at night) and that they must take action.  He's enlisted Major Gomez at the nearby missile base to help.  With an army regiment in tow, they surround the cultists in mid-ritual.  Pedro interrupts their summoning with a counter-spell.  Joshua turns out to be the leader, his body covered in symbols burned or etched into his skin ("it was the very first time Dave had seen Joshua Whipple with his clothes off" - I guess Dave was in the habit of seeing his neighbors naked?).  Cthu arrives, then leaves, taking Whipple with him and wiping out most of the beach.  The cultists are rounded up by the army.

This is a weird story that somehow managed to veer between good and bad writing (it's full on non-sequitors like "it was the very first time Dave had seen Joshua Whipple with his clothes off", and decent and embarrassingly corny plotting.  Plus its weirdly structured, with sudden and abrupt jumps in time that make it initially hard to follow.  The penultimate scene with the family hiding out in the cellar while Cthu slaps his tentacles around is pretty effective, but in the end, Foster has reduced Lovecraft's cosmic god to a 50's B-movie monster, a feeling confirmed when the army saves the day (and since when are civilians able to persuade army regiments to go into action?).  A fun read but kind of stupid.

"The Howler in the Dark"

by Richard L. Tierney
originally published Crypt of Cthulhu No. 24, Lammas, 1984

Irving Hamilton, and American architect and antiquarian (surprise) and his Brit Clyde Mayfield are on foot in the highlands(I think), and come face-to-face with the ruins of Duncaster Abbey ("How delightfully gothic!" sez Irv).  It turns out the Abbey is occupied, by a couple of weird Americans no one likes very much.

At the local bookshop, Hamilton learns the history of the Abbey.  Built by Hugo de Taran in 12 century, with a nasty rep for playing host to pagan rites and human sacrifice. Eventually in the 17th century the church of Scotland descended and burned the witches.

People are going missing in the community, and the two American weirdos are prime suspects.  Irv and Clyde pay a visit to the two oddballs (named John Taggart and "Pitts" - no front name given).  The place is mostly in ruins, and the library contains the usual suspects (gimme an N!).  While visiting, they hear a weird howling, and Taggart `n' Pitts excuse themselves to deal with it.

The next day Hamilton reads of an outbreak of a strange disease called "screaming death" among American visitors to the UK.  

They decide to pay another visit to the Abbey.  They find Taggart/Pitt are out and decide to go exploring.  They find the local Constable in the dungeon in a bad state - a living head somehow kept alive ala Futurama.

This is actually a fun little tale and Tierney builds up some nice atmosphere, but its basically a rehash of Derleth/Lovecraft pastiches with a particularly silly ending which robs it of its punch.

"Saucers From Yaddith"

by Robert M. Price
originally published Etchings and Odysseys No.5, 1984

Narrator is part of a circle of artists and seekers.  He's giving an interview to a reporter from a tabloid, cuz only they are likely to print such a story.  They've tried meditations, occult.  Narrator wants to try hallucinogenics.  Interested in the work of a Dr. Martin Rhadamanthus, and a Dr. Phineas Whitmore.  Decides to dose himself.  He experiences bizarre visual and auditory hallucinations, and encounters a pair or insect-like entities.  He has a strange sense of something having been done to him physically.  When he visits a doctor not long after, he's surprised to learn that his blood type has somehow changed from O to A.

His researches lead him to Rhadamanthus, whose own researches have led him to a 17th century work on "organic transposition", which describes the same kind of hallucinations the narrator experienced uder the influence.  There is mention of another realm called "Yaddith".

He persuades the group to take mescaline with him.  When he comes out of it, he finds his buddies have been dismembered and sewn together into a human lattice structure.  He hacks it to pieces with an axe, then flees … knowing that the Yaddithians are still watching him...

Despite my resistance to Price continually publishing his own stories in his anthologies, I won't deny he's a capable writer.  Here he seems to be channeling Ligotti - which I'm sure a lot of contemporary HPL fans like.  Me, not so much.  It's an interesting tale but nothing special.

"The Keeper of the Flame"

by Gary Myers

originally published The New Lovecraft Circle, Fedogan and Bremer, 1996

On the plain of Shand stands the Temple of Kish.  The high priest is a very old man.  People come to commune with the god Kish, but the priest never lets them.  One day a proud young man named Nod shows up and demands entrance.  After some considerable debate, the priest allows him in.  He vanishes in a glowing cloud of fog.

A typical Myers Smith-Lovecraft Dreamlands vignette.  But Myters writes well and his stories are always evocative.

"The Black Mirror"

by John Glasby
originally published The New Lovecraft Circle, Fedogan and Bremer 1996

Philip Ashmore Smith is dead - burned alive.  He left behind a diary.  PAS was heavily into the occult and supernatural, haunting the bookshops in search of rare occult tomes.  And a Dr. Alexander Morton has taken an ornamental black mirror from Smith's room, without permission of the cops, and tossed it down a mine shaft.    Independently wealthy, world-travelling student of the occult, pursuing the usual suspects.  Collected occult tomes and built himself a little astronomical observatory in an outbuilding on his isolated property.

Mainly he's in pursuit of info from The Zegrembi Manuscript,  a passage of which mentions Cthugha, his minions the jinnee, a black mirror which can be used to summon them, but, if used wrongly, will pull in Cthugha himself, and certain astronomical conditions which will allow Cthugha to return to earth (I guess).

Smith is searching for that black mirror and how to use it.

In Exeter, Smith's investigations lead to an encounter with a mysterious bookshop owner who gives him a parchment that allows him to translate the necessary information.  He is troubled by dreams of dark voids and fiery spheres (effective).

Apparently Zegrembi (wizard) caused the Great Fire of London in 1666 by screwing up use of the black mirror.  Dr. Morton starts to worry about Smith's appearance and well-being.  Smith comes to believe the black mirror is somewhere near his home.  The bookshop owner seems to be stalking him.  Or is that a hallucination?

Surprise! Zegrembi used to live in that farmhouse!  And he caused a lot of trouble (people fleeing screaming across the moors, being pursued by flaming demons, weird sounds from the earth, etc.  Eventually the folks stormed the house and burned all his papers.  But of Zegrembi they found no trace.  Smith finds a drawing of Zegrembi stuck between two pages of a book, and realizes he looks just like the shopkeeper.  In the attic (a well-described scene) he finds to the location of the black mirror.  He finds it buried in the woods.

The poor bastard summons up a jinnee and gets toasted by it.

Very traditional, and very derivative, particularly of the Derleth/Lovecraft collabs.  And still, maybe because it's so traditional and predictable, I enjoyed it.  Glasby manages to echo Lovecraft while still retaining his own cool, British style.  Certainly nothing great, but a fun read all the same.

"The Doom of Yakthoob"

by Lin Carter

originally published The Arkham Collector #10, September 1971

Abdul Alhazred tells us of his youth when he was apprenticed to a Saracen wizard named Yakthoob.  His best bud was a fellow apprentice, Ibn Gazoul.  They complain to Yakthoob because he's not letting them summon the biggest, most powerful demons.  Yakthoob tells them this will require the sacrifice of a soul - or the use of a rare elixir which can be purchased in Babylon.  He sends them there.

Ibn and Abdul return from Babylon with the potion.  Yakthoob summons the demon.  But it eats him.  It seems Ibn spent the money he gave them to buy the potion on booze and whores, and had subbed red wine for the elixir.

A humorous Clark Ashton Smith riff, and a complete throwaway.

"The Kiss of Bugg-Shash"

by Brian Lumley
originally published Cthulhu 3: Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, Spectre Press, 1978

Ray Nuttall and Bart Alan, the protagonists of "Demoniacal", run off to find an occultist to help them get rid of The Black One, which they accidentally conjured up in the earlier story.  They get stuck with Thomas Millwright, and apparently third-rate expert with a questionable rep (mercifully, Titus Crow and Henri Laurent DeDoormat are still MIA since Crow's house got blown away, so we are at least spared Crow's insufferable presence).

Millwright educates da boyz that The Black One is Bugg-Shash, another Great Old One and, needless to say, bad news all around.  And he won't leaver until he gets someone to slobber slime all over and thus kill, an attack known as his "kiss".

Millwright spends some time researching in The Usual Books and then the three flit back to Ray's flat to do an exorcism.  Which apparently works.  But, while leaving, Millwright warns them that the banishment is only "unto death", but fails to explain what that might mean....

Ray and Bart return to their normal lives, until one night, Bart shows up with the news that Millwright has been killed in an accident.  What was that thing about "unto death"?  They soon find out as Millwright, now a zombie under control of Bugg-Shash, shows up, and 
Buggsy finally gets his kiss.

For whatever reason, Lumley's was hugely inspired by Sutton's "Demoniacal" and felt compelled to write this sequel.  "Demoniacal" was an okay story and so is this one, and the ending has an amusing E.C. comics feel to it (which is really Lumley's strong point anyway).  Nothing special here but nothing awful either.

"The Slitherer From The Slime"

by H.P. Lowcraft (aka Lin Carter and David Foley)
originally published Inside SF #3, September 1958

A traveler through Arkham on a dark and stormy night stops off at Castle Drumgool for shelter.  He is served drinks and invited to spend the night.  The owner has a strange library.  Upon being shown to his room, the narrator wigs out.

This is a completely silly but at least amusing little piece, laden with sophomoric but still smile-inducting humor (among the fearsome books owned by the castle's master are Winnie the Pooh and How To Win Friends And Influence People).  On the whole the joke is heavy-handed and even contemptuous.  Surprising since Carter was such a fanboy...

"Demoniacal"

by David Sutton

originally published New Writings in Horror and the Supernatural Vol. 2, Sphere, 1972

Bart Alan and Ray Nuttall are sitting around the pub, having a few pints, and debating a new rock album by prog-rock band Fried Spiders, which happens to include on one of it's tracks an actual invocation of demonic forces, drawn from an actual tome of black sorcery.  Ray thinks this is pretentious shit, which he would know since he seems to be pretentious shit himself.

So, Ray suggests they go back to his place and play the album.  And, back at his place, Ray, being a pretentious shit, produces a copy of the very actual tome of black sorcery the Spiders used on their song.  Except that this invocation is actually complete.  Ray suggests that he and Bart give it a whirl.

The whirl actually works and Ray and Bart end up slimed by a many-tentacled and many-mouthed gloop monster called The Black One, which they manage to get away from - but then Ray realizes that he forgot to draw a pentagram to contain the beastie - meaning its running around loose!

What makes a mythos story?  Well, there's about ten bazillion different opinions about that and all of them are wrong.  That includes mine.  I would say this isn't - yes it's clearly Lovecraft-influenced, but there's nothing particularly linking it to anything Lovecraftian - hate to break this to ya, but the whole concept of dummies fooling around with black magic and accidentally summoning some baddie did not originate with HPL.

One unique aspect of the Mythos as it were is that some stories have become part of it after the fact; that is, some part of a story not originally intended as part of the Lovecraft scene have been incorporated into later stories that most assuredly were - Lovecraft himself did this a bunch - thus, effectively, conscripting (or perhaps press-ganging) them into the Mythos.

So it is with this obscurity, which so impressed Brian Lumley that he wrote a direct sequel - "The Kiss of Bugg-Shash".  And in case any of you are wondering, yes I'll be reviewing "Kiss" forthwith, fifthwith even, so keep yer socks on.

As to "Demoniacal", all I can say is its an amusing, tongue-in-cheekish bit with nothing really for or against it.  Not sure why Lumley found it so inspiring but nonetheless, he did.

"Those Who Wait"

by James Wade

originally published The Dark Brotherhood Journal No.2, 1972

Our unnamed narrator tells us of his time at Miskatonic U, where he was fortunate enough to have a cool roommate named Bill Tracy, and to meet a pair of creeps named Renaunt and Peterson at the library, digging through the rare occult books.  We know their creeps, because they've left a note laying around talking about summoning Ithaqua!

Bill Tracy fills in our narrator on Renaunt and Peterson's creephood.  Despite this, when he runs into them the next day, and is invited to join them in looking at some ruins in the nearby woods, even though "every dormant intuition cried out loud" against going - he goes!

They traipse out to the remains of a tower on an island in a lake and - surprise! - knock him out.  He comes to.  Just as they're about to sacrifice him in order to open the gates for the GOO, and already have summoned up a giant, gaping tentacled mouth, who should come to the rescue but Bill Tracy, star-stones in hand!  Brave Bill gets himself killed in the process, but before exiting manages to tell our narrator not to go to the cops (!) but to Prof. Sterns.  

UN hunts down Sterns who of course believes him instantly, makes him read a bunch of Mythosian quotes, and drags him to a private plane - along with a mysterious figure in a hat, coat, and scarf over his face who never speaks - and heads off to the woods of Maine to stop an All Hallow's Eve ritual.  

After a close brush with Ithaqua, they arrive, and the mysterious silent stranger doffs his clothes, revealing himself to be a pillar of fire.  Together, they spoil the party.

Jeezus.  Author James Wade has confessed that he was all of 16 when he wrote this little stinky puff.  He himself described it as "The Rover Boys at Miskatonic U" and that's close enough.  To give fair credit the writing itself is more than competent, and impressive coming from a 16 year old.  That's not good enough to save it from its own ridiculousness, but if you're up for a laugh it's fun, and I've seen worse come from the pens of far more accomplished authors than the teenage Wade (Derleth, Bloch, Lumley ….)

"The Keeper of Dark Point"

by John Glasby
originally published The New Lovecraft Circle, Fedogan and Bremer, 1996

It's the summer of 1936 and Stephen Delmore Ashton has disappeared.  And Martin, our narrator, has some ideas as to where.

Stephen came from an ancient British family, who owned a crumbling ancestral manor, not far from an abandoned lighthouse on the Cornish coast.   Martin met Ashton in college, where they shared an interest in "pre-human civilizations" (these dudes must have been popular!).  They remained in touch as Martin became a historian/auhor and Stephen traveled the world in search of rare and odd things.

One night Stephen turns up at Martin's place, not looking so well.  He is on the hunt for a certain rare book, and wants Martin to translate it for him.  They head out to the family manor for some spooky atmosphere, some creepy hints about Stephen's family history, and another long-winded explanation of the Cthulhu Mythos.  He also has a bad habit of staring off into the horizon, and Martin notices lights in the night sky, in the vicinity of the abandoned lighthouse.

The family manor is in ruins, having been burned down 10 years ago by neighbors freaked out about the Ashton's occult hobbies.  A trapdoor in the ruins leads to some underground chambers, where they find an ancient book, and a note from Stephen's mom.  It seems Steph's parents weren't mere followers but actual minions of the GOO.  "Do not fear what lives beneath the manor" it admonishes.  The letter points them to two rituals in the book (one is needlessly hidden) which need to be performed under certain celestial conditions.  

They head out to the lighthouse, which is also in bad shape.  Encountering some hideous wailing coming from behind a locked door, they open it, catching a glimpse of "something scaly and of a hideous green" before they haul ass out of there.

Stephen performs the ritual, which closes an extra-dimensional gate.  Many bizarre sights are seen, and Stephen himself is sucked away.  Martin admits that the critter in the lighthouse, which lived in a tunnel connecting the lighthouse to the manor, had the head of Stephen's mother.

Despite its somewhat goofy reveal, this isn't altogether half-bad.  It's a Lovecraft pastiche that heavily apes HPL's structural storytelling - a series of vaguely or un- related facts and incidents slowly coming together to reveal a supernatural terror.  The writing is somewhat Lovecraftian in style, too, though the adjectiveitis is under control, and Glasby doesn't have HPL's feverish passion.  He writes a cool, very British, old-fashioned spook story line.

All in all, hardly a great story but a very decent, traditional Lovecraft pastiche.

"The Statement of One John Gibson"

by Brian Lumley

originally published Crypt of Cthulhu No. 19, Candlemas, 1984

One John Gibson is a dork who lives with his parents, sort of.  His mother's in an insane asylum and his father passes away of "some creeping organic malfunction" whatever that is.  OJG's pops has been an occult researcher, but warned his young'un away from such things, instead forcing him into religious studies and encouraging him to become a priest.   He has kind of a weird history - born on Walpurgis Night, tormented by dreams of being trapped in dark places, of being under some kind of controlling spell, opf waking hallucinations in which there's a tentacle sticking of of his jammies where his arm oughta be.  Just to make life more interesting, the family lawyer calls to inform OJG has inherited the family money and property, but promptly crashes his car on the family front porch - nonetheless, the brave solicitor manages to crawl from the burning wreckage and croak out "glub - glub - the bureau … destroy it" before he kicks over.

Having been warned to destroy the bureau, or something in it, OJG heads straight for the bureau, where he finds papers and a medallion depicting an alien city and various GOOs. Although he does not know their meaning, he feels a sense of recognition upon seeing these figures, as though he should know them.

He also finds a passel of OLD BOOKS (cue Cthulhu Mythos Booklist) (this bunch includes the Ghorl Nigral!) annnnnnnnnnnnd, in an amusing touch, copies of HPL's Selected Letters, back issues of Weird Tales, and a copy of The Horror in the Museum for good measure!

His researches with these reveal some interesting things, including his relation to Alonzo Typer, he of "The Diary of Alonzo Typer", one of Lovecraft's more regrettable paid revisions (which is saying quite a lot!), done for a client named William Lumley (noooooooo relation according to ol' Brian).  It seems "The Diary" may not have been entirely fictional.  He also comes across a letter from his great uncle to pops, in which great-uncle (who, it seems, is the one who retrieved the amulet - from Yian-Ho) warning him to stay away from dark occult forces … then concluding that he'll probably delve into them anyway - "So be it - I would not keep a man from his destiny" signs off unc, rather uselessly.

Apparently, mom and pops headed out to the haunted house in Attica, NY, where Alonzo Typer met his doom, and encountered something there, under the house.  And did something with it, or tried to.  But exactly what is unclear.  But it appears it may have done something to the missus...

OJG heads off to nut-house where his mom lives, and confronts her with the facts of his parentage, before (apparently) murdering her by pouring poison down her throat till it comes out her nostrils, and leaves pools of black slime around the room somehow.  Nonetheless, OJG himself is nowhere to be found.

Except for its appealing sordidness, this is a less-than-great Lumley tale.  The sub-Derleth/Lovecraft tone of the writing strongly suggests that this was an early, rejected tale that Lum had lying around and kindly gave to this zine.  In any case it's rambling, confused, and frankly pretty silly.  Pass.

"The Stone On The Island"

by Ramsey Campbell
originally published Over The Edge, Arkham House, 1964

Michael Nash is a young nerd who works at (apparently) the tax office.  He lives with his dad, a respected medical man who sidelines as an occult researcher.  And it seems Mike's been through dad's library as well.

One night Michael gets home to find pops dead, an apparent suicide.  He also has a letter for Michael, warning him not to pursue these paths of research, especially re: an island off Severnford which holds some sinister secret that's driven him to this self-inflicted exit.  

Michael, of course, defies his dad's dying wishes and immediately jumps into pops' notes on the island, a series of anecdotes going back over 100 years … remains of a Roman temple, mysterious stones, and people who go there reporting seeing fluttering things which shine in the moonlight, and almost all of whom seem to end up dead - mutilated.  

Naturally, Michael rents a boat and heads out there.  He finds the island unsettling, and spots a white, spherical stone which sends a cold shock through him when he touches it.  Disturbed, he leaves.  Arriving home, he spots a face peering at him from between some curtains.  He swings a poker at what he assume will be the body of the intruder, but only succeeds in breaking the window.  The face, which is apparently independent of any body, flutters out the window.  

The face continues to haunt him, floating around windows at his workplace.  Even worse, it brings friends.  Even worse, only he can see the floating faces.  After a few days of this, Michael's getting a little jumpy.  One afternoon while retrieving some forms from a basement room, he sees one of the faces and viciously attacks it, only to find he's actually injured or possibly killed a co-worker.  He flees, wandering around town until he finally confronts the faces, and is later found dead, mutilated, his own face removed.

This is an odd one.  Written just after The Inhabitant of the Lake, it is Campbell attempting to find his own voice and settings, and modeled not on HPL but M.R. James - and structurally it does indeed resemble a James tale.  It's quite minor, but it was an important story for Campbell.

"The Plain of Sound"

by Ramsey Campbell 

originally published The Inhabitant of the Lake and Less Welcome Tenants, Arkham House, 1964

Frank Nuttall, Tony Roles, and yet another Unnamed Narrator, having "nothing particular to do at Brichester University" decide to hike their way down to the village of Severnford, and visit "one of the oldest inns in England".  After the requisite downing of the pints, the gang decides to head home, following some directions from the innkeeper which he alleges are a shortcut.  Soon they're lost.

They begin to hear some strange sounds in the distance, possibly a tractor or some industrial machine.  Hoping to get some better directions, they follow it, finding a small, flat region between four ridges, with a small stone house in the middle of it somewhere.

The sounds become unbearable, but seem to disappear once they reach the stone house.  No one's home and, it seems, no one's been home for some time.  But, there are copies of some books on witchcraft, a diary, and a copy of Revelations of Glaaki.  Oh, and a weird-ass looking machine in one of the rooms.

The diary turns out to be the work of one Prof. Arnold Hird - ex-Brichester U.  Apparently around 1930, Prof. Hird moved out to the isolated stone house in an attempt to study the mysterious noises.  Instead, the Prof. was tortured by odd dreams in which he saw alien cities and even more alien inhabitants, who communicated with him.  The alien vistas and folks existed in alien dimension which overlapped with ours in certain places - the little plain being one of them.  The inhabitants and objects in their world (said world known as S'gluho)  were experienced in ours as sounds, whereas sounds from our world manifest as objects or living things in theirs.  The inhabitants directed Hird to find information in The Necronomicon and Revelations of Glaaki allowing him to build the aforementioned weird-ass machine, which allowed him to see into their world, and them to see us.  

But oh no, that ain't all.  It also allowed them to cross over into our world, in physical form.

And, after awhile, the Prof. began to feel these creatures were less than jake.  Built into the machine is a sounding board, which creates a sound in their world which can be used as a weapon against them, though the effects are apparently nasty (the Prof. does not elaborate).

Well shee-it!  What is their for three sobering-up British college joes to do in such a situation but fire up the blessed machine?  Which they immediately do.

Next thing you know, they're staring the reptilian S'gluhoans in the white-eyed face.  The S'gluhoans pretty quickly start attempting to get their slimy feet in the door.  Quick-thinking Frank uses the sounding board, and the S'gluhoans slam the door.  But Tony, having seen what the weapon did to them (he's unable to tell us exactly what that was) is reduced to a drooling lunatic.

An odd little story that recalls Clark Ashton Smith's weird sci-fi horror more than HPL.  It's certainly not bad, per se, and Campbell's writing is as solid as any other Weird Tales pastiche at this juncture - given that he was 18 or so when he wrote it, that's something.  Nonetheless, this is a very minor tale without much punch,  and its no surprise Campbell left it out of his 1980's Cold Print collection of his best Cthulhu stories.

"Through the Gates of the Silver Key"

by H.P. Lovecraft and E. Hoffman Price
originally published Weird Tales, July 1934

At a gathering to decide the fate of Randolph Carter's estate (which has been held in trust since his disappearance) the mysterious Swami Chandraputra, who wears curious mittens and enveloping robes, tells Carter's acquaintances of his ultimate fate. He explains that the key took Carter to a type of higher dimension. There, Carter, on an ill-defined mission (or out of sheer curiosity), travelled strange sections of the cosmos by first meeting with 'Umr at-Tawil, a dangerous being warned of in the Necronomicon, saying those who deal with it never return. 'Umr at-Tawil offers Carter a chance to plunge deeper into the cosmos; Carter thus perceives the true nature of the universe before passing through the "Ultimate Gate."

After passing through the Ultimate Gate, Carter (now reduced to a disembodied facet of himself) encounters an Entity, implied to be Yog-Sothoth itself. This being explains that all conscious beings are facets of much greater beings, which exist outside the traditional model of three dimensions. Carter himself is a facet of this particular being, the Supreme Archetype, made up of the greatest thinkers of the universe. The Entity, appearing to be proud of Carter's accomplishments, offers to grant him a wish relating to the many facets of which it is a part. Carter explains that he would love to know more about the facets of a particular long-extinct race on a distant planet, Yaddith, which is constantly threatened by the monstrous Dholes. He has been having persistent dreams about Yaddith in the last few months. The Supreme Archetype accomplishes this by transferring Carter's consciousness into the body of one of his facets among that race, that of Zkauba the wizard, though not before warning Carter to have memorized all his symbols and rites. Carter arrogantly believes that the Silver Key alone will accomplish this claim, but it soon transpires Carter's wish was a mistake; he cannot escape, and is trapped in Zkauba's body. The two beings find each other repugnant, but are now trapped in the same body, periodically changing dominance.

After a vast amount of time trapped on Yaddith, Carter finds a means of suppressing the alien mind with drugs, and then uses their technology, along with the Silver Key to return both to the present and to Earth, where Carter can retrieve his manuscript with the symbols he needs to work on regaining his original body. Once there, the Swami reports, Carter did find the manuscript and promptly contacted Swami Chandraputra, instructing him to go to the meeting to say he would soon be along to reclaim his estate and to continue to hold it in trust. After the Swami finishes the tale, one in the party, the lawyer Aspinwall (who is Carter's cousin), accuses Swami Chandraputra of telling a false tale in an attempt to steal the estate, claiming that he is some kind of conman in a disguise. As Aspinwall tears at the Swami's masklike face and beard, it is revealed that the Swami is not human at all, but Carter, still trapped in Zkauba's hideous body. The other witnesses don't see Carter/Zkauba's true face, but Aspinwall suffers a fatal heart attack. The crisis causes Zkauba's mind to reassert itself, and the alien wizard enters a curious, coffin-shaped clock (implied to be Carter/Zkauba's means of transport to Earth) and disappears.

The tale ends with a vague postscript, speculating that the Swami was merely a common criminal who hypnotized the others to escape. However, the postscript notes, some of the story's details seem eerily accurate.

S.T. Joshi (aka He Who Knows All There Is Or Will Ever Be To Know About Lovecraft AND Is Smarter Than You, You Uneducated Peasant!) wrote of Price's draft (published in Crypt of Cthulhu in the 80's) "a textbook example of the follies a pulp hack can perpetrate when dealing with material entirely beyond his limited capacities".   I repeat this not because its necessarily true but because I find it amusing in its nastiness, and its a "textbook example" of why I think Joshi is an insufferable intellectual snob and a nasty little prick.

(As an aside, in the early 80's I discovered E Hoffman Price lived in the same town I grew up in, and had been living there for decades.  I considered looking him up, but, lacking such tools as the Internet and such - and he wasn't listed in the phone book - plus the nerve, I never did.  I'm glad I didn't, as apparently he was known to be hostile to fans, plus he was an unrepentant bigot - as, of course, was HPL.  In any case, I've read few of Price's stories, but the ones I've read were, yes, pulpy.  But not bad for all that.  Anyway, Joshi's still an asshole)

I find it an entertaining tale that rushes by like Edgar Rice Burroughs.  It's major shortcoming to me is that it isn't very memorable and nothing about it particularly sticks.