Houses under the sea Mythos tales

Kiernan (Black Helicopters, 2018) takes inspiration from the atmospheric mood and geologic timescales of the Cthulhu Mythos, creating characters enmeshed in events well outside most human experience, whether by their own intention or not. She also brings her background in paleontology to tales of scholars finding unique even impossible fossils, whether in a coastal cliff face or a dusty museum cabinet. Some of the stories are set in the foggy New England coast that is so intimately associated with the Mythos; there is a brief appearance by someone who may have been Sherlock Holmes; one never-before-published story goes as far afield as the Martian frontier. What Kiernan has retained from the Cthulhu Mythos is a sense of vast, geologic time, transformations, and unknowable mysteries; what she has added to it are deftly drawn characters, a pleasing prose style, and a fantastic collection of settings. This will be a satisfying collection both for fans of Kiernan's haunted prose and for readers interested in Lovecraftian updates.--Regina Schroeder Copyright 2010 Booklist

The thirty stories in this superior collection are remarkable for showing how harmoniously Kiernan's own visionary weird fiction resonates with the best cosmic horror tales of H.P. Lovecraft. Some selections, such as "Pickman's Other Model (1929)," are ingenious extensions of well-known Lovecraft works. Others, including "From Cabinet 34, Drawer 6" and "The Drowned Geologist (1898)," riff on the cosmic conspiracies rampant in Lovecraft's mythos fiction. In a clutch of tales that includes "So Runs the World Away" and "Love Is Forbidden, We Croak & Howl," Kiernan goes full gothic, elaborating a dark fantasy world populated by ghouls, vampires, and other eldritch beings. No matter how strange or outré the phenomena, Kiernan meticulously builds details into her stories that ground them in a believable reality, such as the paleontological data that evokes vast expanses of time in "A Mountain Walked" and the scientifically credible rendering of an extraterrestrial colony in the book's one new story, "M Is for Mars." This is a must-have for fans of Kiernan's work or the Cthulhu Mythos. Agent: Merrilee Heifetz, Writers House. (Oct.)