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sralgee's review
5.0
New takes on the old tales!
Mark McLaughlin and Michael Sheehan, Jr. have done it again with this latest collection of Cthulhu Mythos stories.
The title tale, THE HORROR IN THE WATER TOWER--don't be fooled into thinking this is entirely tongue in cheek! An explorer's acquisition of a curious larva in the Amazon leads to tragic death, curious newshounds, and the most original take on "Rapunzel" I've ever encountered.
THE LAST WITCH-HOUSE: Timothy had the nightmare twice. The third time's been less than a charm, because he has yet to wake up--and all the things he can't remember are about to come rushing back with a vengeance...
THE HUNGRY ONE MUST FEED: Don't take in stray cats. Really. You never know just what they'll actually turn out to be. (Gat reminded me a great deal of the Garf in the "Weapon Brown" comics, and the story's ending is a great callback to Octavia Butler's "Bloodchild".) My one moment of doubt came when I started wondering if Sonia and her unnamed companion were avatars of Sonia Greene and H. P. Lovecraft....
THE SLIMY ONES takes the idea of Dagon worship from Innsmouth to the Mississippi River. Michael is a regular caller to a local talk show, holding forth about a race of malevolent humanoid catfish who want to enslave humanity--but maybe he's ignored the evidence right in front of him for too long... A good nod to "A Shadow over Innsmouth" and a long overdue shift away from the coast!
UNCLE CAESAR is a Mason--yes, related to *that* Mason, and he's in the business of 'longevity management'. Just don't ask what that means, or why his pet rat has such a strange face, or what he does to the narrator's father. Delves a bit into bizarro territory, but is genuinely creepy.
COINS FROM Y’HA-NTHLEI: Arabella Gladstone is a live-in housekeeper for a surgeon-cum-author, and nanny to the doctor's motherless son. All is well until a visitor from Innsmouth brings a chest of coins from Y'ha-nthlei...at first only the doctor's metalworking hobby is involved, but when his son is severely injured in an accident, the coins become a live-saving instrument--until the consequences start showing!
All in all, a solid little collection. (And may I just add, "The Black Sarcophagus of Nyarlathotep" would be an excellent future title!)
Mark McLaughlin and Michael Sheehan, Jr. have done it again with this latest collection of Cthulhu Mythos stories.
The title tale, THE HORROR IN THE WATER TOWER--don't be fooled into thinking this is entirely tongue in cheek! An explorer's acquisition of a curious larva in the Amazon leads to tragic death, curious newshounds, and the most original take on "Rapunzel" I've ever encountered.
THE LAST WITCH-HOUSE: Timothy had the nightmare twice. The third time's been less than a charm, because he has yet to wake up--and all the things he can't remember are about to come rushing back with a vengeance...
THE HUNGRY ONE MUST FEED: Don't take in stray cats. Really. You never know just what they'll actually turn out to be. (Gat reminded me a great deal of the Garf in the "Weapon Brown" comics, and the story's ending is a great callback to Octavia Butler's "Bloodchild".) My one moment of doubt came when I started wondering if Sonia and her unnamed companion were avatars of Sonia Greene and H. P. Lovecraft....
THE SLIMY ONES takes the idea of Dagon worship from Innsmouth to the Mississippi River. Michael is a regular caller to a local talk show, holding forth about a race of malevolent humanoid catfish who want to enslave humanity--but maybe he's ignored the evidence right in front of him for too long... A good nod to "A Shadow over Innsmouth" and a long overdue shift away from the coast!
UNCLE CAESAR is a Mason--yes, related to *that* Mason, and he's in the business of 'longevity management'. Just don't ask what that means, or why his pet rat has such a strange face, or what he does to the narrator's father. Delves a bit into bizarro territory, but is genuinely creepy.
COINS FROM Y’HA-NTHLEI: Arabella Gladstone is a live-in housekeeper for a surgeon-cum-author, and nanny to the doctor's motherless son. All is well until a visitor from Innsmouth brings a chest of coins from Y'ha-nthlei...at first only the doctor's metalworking hobby is involved, but when his son is severely injured in an accident, the coins become a live-saving instrument--until the consequences start showing!
All in all, a solid little collection. (And may I just add, "The Black Sarcophagus of Nyarlathotep" would be an excellent future title!)
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