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arthurbdd's review
3.0
Price is not that discerning as an editor, and the idea that all these stories serve a common theme rather falls apart when you look closely, so inevitably this collection is a bit hit and miss.
Admittedly, it has a better batting average than many of Price's Cthulhu Mythos anthologies, and it includes a brace of stories which have rarely been reprinted elsewhere, so that's a plus. On the other hand, it also incorporates too much material which is likely redundant; is anyone getting this deep into Cthulhu Mythos fiction really likely to not already own a copy of The Whisperer In Darkness, for instance? Finally, some of the lesser stories here are just doggerel - low-grade pastiche which could have happily been cut.
Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/2017/10/27/hastur-be-seen-to-be-believed/
Admittedly, it has a better batting average than many of Price's Cthulhu Mythos anthologies, and it includes a brace of stories which have rarely been reprinted elsewhere, so that's a plus. On the other hand, it also incorporates too much material which is likely redundant; is anyone getting this deep into Cthulhu Mythos fiction really likely to not already own a copy of The Whisperer In Darkness, for instance? Finally, some of the lesser stories here are just doggerel - low-grade pastiche which could have happily been cut.
Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/2017/10/27/hastur-be-seen-to-be-believed/
eclark93's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
swekster's review
4.0
The overarching concept behind this collection is to show that there's more to Hastur than Lovecraft, maybe even to bring him to a "one of..." designation.
The goal (which was met and exceeded) was to give the history and the chronology of the development of, for lack of a better word, mythos, behind the concept. So while Lovecraft's The Whisperer in darkness is one of the best stories in the collection, it's just that, "one of..."
The ones that pop up, aside from the Whisperer, are The Repairer of Reputation and The Yellow Sign by Robert W. Chambers, The River of Night's Dreaming by Karl Edward Wagner, The Novel of the Black Sea by Arthur Machen and The Feaster From Afar by Joseph Payne Brennan
The goal (which was met and exceeded) was to give the history and the chronology of the development of, for lack of a better word, mythos, behind the concept. So while Lovecraft's The Whisperer in darkness is one of the best stories in the collection, it's just that, "one of..."
The ones that pop up, aside from the Whisperer, are The Repairer of Reputation and The Yellow Sign by Robert W. Chambers, The River of Night's Dreaming by Karl Edward Wagner, The Novel of the Black Sea by Arthur Machen and The Feaster From Afar by Joseph Payne Brennan
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