Kevin L. O'Brien

Eldritch Blue is a publication of Lindisfarne press. It is a POD book. Unfortunately, Lindisfarne ran into intractable financial difficulties a efw years ago and has basically given up the ghost. You can still order their books POD from Lulu.com but I gave up hoping they will ever achieve their ambitious original agenda. My overall impression of the book is quite favorable. The production qualities are very high. It is a good quality trade paperback, that should be very durable and provide many years of rereading pleasure. It is somewhat pricier than a comparable Chaosium anthology, currenty at $21.00, but then it has more good stories than the typical Chaosium offering.

In some respects, it is a better concept than the Chaosium series, as there is no attempt made to offer a comprehensive picture of the development of a particular aspect of the Cthulhu mythos (Robert Price take note). This leads to the inclusion of really poorly written stories in the Chaosium anthologies, just because they may be hypothetically important in getting a picture of the larger concept (The dreadful goat leg stories in the Shub Niggurath Cycle spring to mind). Eldritch Blue is more concerned with gathering together a selection of stories exploring the issues of love and sex in Lovecraftian fiction. I can't recall the page number in Eldritch Blue but for the money it was a generous sampling of stories. The other thing to note, is the overall quality of the stories was better than a typical Chaosium anthology, if not as high as Dead But Dreaming or Cthulhu 2000.

The artwork was by Susan McAdam. The cover was a very striking work, and I think very mch emphasized the theme of sex and horror quite well. The interior artwork was enjoyable, although not all as successful. I particularly liked the illustrations for Mail Order Bride, Seduced and The Obsession of Percival Carstairs. Overall the art matched the mood of the story and enhanced the experience, adding to the enjoyability of the book.

For the most part the editing was good, with only a few annoying typos. One was partcularly glaring to the rheumatologist in me, in Stacked Actors, but I don't know if it was the editor or the author responsible for misspelling Raynaud's disease. And mislabeling it, when what was meant was Raynaud's phenomenon. Oh, well, no one else would notice.

Do I have several gripes? You bet! First of all, Bob Price always finds a way to drive me crazy! The silly title of his introduction did not sit well with me. I also found the editor's notes after each story to be near excruciating. They show what I think is a basic wrong-headed view of what Lovecraftian fiction is all about. I'll give an example later, as best as my memory allows. On the other hand, they appear after each work so they are not spoilers, and you can easily skip them. The biographical notes at the end were good. And as usual, some of these stories are in other anthologies in my collection and some I have read online, leading to duplication. This will always be an issue for the dedicated HPL mythos fan.

Moving on to individual stories (****spoilers may follow****):

Promethes: Where Walks Istasha, by James Ambuehl - well, I'm not a big fan of mythos poetry....

The Tale of Toad Loop, by Stanley C. Sargent - An OK mythos fiction work. Nothing special but not out of place and worth the read, if not a reread. If you like this Sargent has a few collections devoted to his best mythos stories.

Goat-Mother, by Pierre Comtois - I found this story to be one of the jewels of the anthology. It was well written, tightly plotted, refreshingly different and had excellent horror elements. I look forward to more stories by Mr. Comtois! Now this is where I had some heartburn with the editor's notes. First of all, I would rate this story as one of the three best centering around the Tcho Tcho people I have ever read. The other two were Black Man With A Horn by TED Klein, and a novella by Arinn Dembo in the Delta Green: Dark Theaters anthology. All three are marveous stories. All three works have completely different takes on the Tcho Tcho. And that's OK! Nothing about Yog-Sothothery has to be internally consistent. I guess I use the term Mythos out of convenience because it is shorter to type, but it is not really a unified mythos cycle, where there are rigid rules of interpretation. Vagueness, lack of precision, whatever you call it, allows enormous room for creative authors to develop new ideas on familiar themes for us fans. And for pity's sake, Lovecraftian fiction has no need whatever to correspond with the scientific strictures of our natural world. Who cares about the details of reproduction of these noxious creatures that Pierre Comtois created, and where they fit in with earth biology phylogenetically? The scenes were delightfully creepy and allowed the reader's imagination to run wild. My only word of caution to Mr. Comtois is that there was no need for an italicized ending. The horror was self evident and did not need the emphasis. Bravo!

Beast of Love, by Tracy and James Ambuehl - Now if anyone knows how to dispose of a mythos protagonist it is James Ambuehl! This was a typically fun Ambuehl read, and I always look forward to his new stories.

The Spawn of Y'lagh, by Randall Larson - This didn't do much for me. It was a very conventional mythos tale, not particularly well written. On the other hand it wasn't dreadfully bad, and it did not detract from the anthology.

Mail Order Bride, by Ann K. Schwader - This is a brilliant story, about intermarriage with the Deep Ones from an entirely original angle. The prose and characterizations were acute. Any gripe? Well this story is already in Strange Stars and Alien Shadows, so it commits the sin of duplication, but in a tale this fine, we'll consider it venial instead of mortal. I wish Ms. Schwader would hurry up and write some more new mythos stories

Family Recipe, by Charles Garofalo - A tightly written story, again about the Deep Ones intermingling with humans, with another original twist. It was a very fun read, although I like other stories here better. I would like to read more by Mr. Garofalo.

Cat's-Paw, by E. P. Berglund - An excellent Shub Niggurath story, with well-drawn characters and enjoyable prose. It held up the high standards of the anthology.

The Faces at Pine Dunes, by Ramsey Campbell - Ramsay Campbell - what can I say- it was a wonderful story. I just wish Mr. Campbell would write some new mythos stuff. Also, it is reprinted from other anthologies.

Dagon's Mistress, by Neil Riebe - This story was only fair, with a conventional mythos plot that had an unusually upbeat turn. Mainly the prose didn't grab me, and the ending didn't ring true for a mythos collection.

The Thing on the Doorstep, by H. P. Lovecraft - Of course, one of HPL's best, so marvelous. However, I counted and I have 6.23 zillion other copies in collections I already own. Reduplicate duplication doubled.

The Prodigies of Monkfield Cabot, by Michael Minnis - An interesting take on The Thing on the Doorstep, being a prequel rather than a sequel. It was good, although the plot twists and prose did not sparkle as much as the best stories in here. Nonetheless, not out of place, and better than many stories in Chaosium anthologies. I will certainly get all the collections Lindisfarne publishes of Mr. Minnis' work.

Seduced, by Ronald Shiflet - Brilliant. Just brilliant. Plot, prose, characterization, all superb. One of the very best Shub Niggurath stories I have ever read. Bravo, Mr. Shiflet. I will run, not walk, to buy his collections on this label.

Stacked Actors, by Peter A. Worthy - Now this story gave me a bit of heartburn. I am a fan of Stross and of Delta Green, so I like the subgenre, but this just didn't do it for me. Per the author summaries I know Mr. Worthy is living in Scotland, but I don't know where he is originally from. However, there was no reason to believe this as a story occurring in England. None of the idiom rang true for me; it all seemed very American. Furthermore, the story was way too in medias res. It seemed over half the story was filling us in on background, instead of giving us exposition of the current plot. It also had a very lifted-from-an RPG-scenario feel in a way the best Delta Green does not. Maybe there was too much risk of DG overlap if set in the US? At any rate, if we visit these characters again I hope the emphasis is on the current story, with more attention to plotting and characterization than to setting the stage.

Have You Found Him, by Jean Ann Donnel - A well-written fragment, but too short to really grab me.

The Violet Princess, by Stephen Mark Rainey - A wonderful story by Mr. Rainey, as we all expect. The prose just captured the isolation and frustrated longing of the protagonist beautifully, and I loved the ending.

What Sort of Man, by Walter C. DeBill, Jr. - Another excellent story in an excellent collection, about a man whose family trades with aliens from Carcosa to acquire unusual antiques for their business. Anything I write might give away the plot, so I'll just say I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The Obsession of Percival Cairstairs, by Charles Black - OK conventional mythos story, predictable but not unenjoyable. Commits the sin of the italicized ending trying to add punch where better prose would have helped more. Not a bad story, certainly would have found a place in a Chaosium anthology.

A Mate For the Mutilator, by Robert M. Price - Price's fiction doesn't really grab me. I liked the plot idea, but the characters were not well developed, and the prose didn't match the best in the anthology. OK, not bad, just not the best I have ever read.

To Cast Out Fear, C. J. Henderson - An OK Anton Zardak story; not my favorite subgenre, but written about the level of Lin Carter, so a plus for fans.

The Surrogate, by Kevin L. O'Brien - Well, I wished I liked it better. Mr. O'Brien knows how to compile an anthology but his writing does not move me. First of all the prose wasn't that great. For example, would any prostitute, even in the Mile High City, ever refer to herself as a doxy? The characters were bland and undeveloped, so it was hard to care what happened to them. I also could not for the life of me figure out why the mother or the prostitute liked her son at all. There was no patina of horror to shade the whole story as is usually required for good mythos fiction, and there was nothing stated or implied that would show if the creature was controlling their minds to make them do its bidding. The prostitute at least should have been utterly numb with fear. And, frankly, Jim Ambuehl would have had her get eaten in a respectable mythos story ending creepfest.

So, I had a highly favorable impression of Eldritch Blue. It is a handsome production packed with new stories, for the most part extremely well written, with the best soaring to the highest heights of mythos fiction. Any fan would be well advised to spend their hard earned Cthulhu bucks on it.… (altro)