Bookstooge's Reviews On the Road: Brian Sammons

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Friday, August 04, 2023

Through a Mythos Darkly (Cthulhu Anthology #11) 2.5Stars

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Title: Through a Mythos Darkly
Series: Cthulhu Anthology #11
Editor: Glynn Barrass & Brian Sammons
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Cosmic Horror
Pages: 257
Words: 98K

The title of this anthology is a rip off of the Bible verse from 1^st Corinthians, Chapter 13, verse 12 which starts out “For now we see in a mirror, darkly;” so I knew going in that this might very well be quite blasphemous. Thankfully, it wasn’t.

But it wasn’t that good either. I have built up my expectations about Glynn Barrass as an editor and he really let me down this time. I think a large part of that was the inclusion of a bunch of woke buzz words and ideas that shaped the stories into more political screeds than actual good story telling. Plus, several of them were using very modern terms (health care practitioner in the 1920’s, I don’t think so!) in stories where said words weren’t used that way. It just threw me out of the story every time it happened and damped down my enjoyment.

Plus, several of the stories had that “man is evil, man is a monster, man should just destroy himself to make the world a better place” mentality which has nothing to do with cosmic horror and more to do with the author’s thoughts and feelings about humanity. Which if they really believed that, they would put a gun in their mouth and blow their brains out. And we would all be better off not having to put up with their stupidity. But what they MEAN is that everyone ELSE is a monster and should destroy themselves, obviously not them!

The short story “Fate of the World” had a tie in with the King in Yellow in that Carcosa is a real place on Earth and is at war with the rest of world who are under the sway of various elder gods. But that was it and was barely there. The King doesn’t even appear. So it wasn’t what I expected or wanted.

Overall, I was pretty disappointed with this collection. While not egregiously bad like The Black Wings of Cthulhu, I am actually rating this lower because there wasn’t even one story that really rose above the rest. Everything was grey, mediocre pablum. That is the very antithesis of Cosmic Horror.

★★✬☆☆

Publisher’s Blurb & Table of Contents:

In this Cthulhu Mythos inspired anthology, editors Glynn Owen Barrass & Brian M. Sammons invited their authors to Take a steampunk world, fill it with giant steam powered robots, and have them herding shoggoths for the betterment of mankind. Have them rebel, and have do-gooders set about trying to free them. Fill a world with Deep Ones or Ghouls, or create a world where magic is a part of everyday life, or where America was never discovered because something kept eating the ships, or the Nazis won WWII thanks to outside influences. Perhaps the Chinese built the Great Wall to keep something out other than Mongol hordes. So, how did they do? Fantastically of course.

TOC:

Introduction (Through a Mythos Darkly) • essay by Glynn Owen Barrass and Brian M. Sammons

The Roadrunners • short fiction by Cody Goodfellow

Scrimshaw • short fiction by Jeffrey Thomas

Sweet Angie Tailor in: Subterranean Showdown • short story by John Langan

An Old and Secret Cult • short fiction by Robert M. Price

Stewert Behr—Deanimator • short fiction by Peter Rawlik [as by Pete Rawlik]

To Kill a King • short fiction by Don Webb

The Last Quest • short story by William Meikle

Fate of the World • short fiction by Christine Morgan

Red in the Water, Salt on the Earth • short fiction by Konstantine Paradias

The Night They Drove Cro Magnon Down • short fiction by D. A. Madigan

Sacrifice • short fiction by Sam Stone

Get Off Your Knees, I’m Not Your God • short fiction by Edward R. Morris

Excerpts from the Diaries of Henry P. Linklatter • short fiction by Stephen Mark Rainey

Plague Doctor • short fiction by Tim Waggoner

Amidst the Blighted Swathes of Grey Desolation • short fiction by Lee Clark Zumpe

Cognac, Communism, and Cocaine • short fiction by Nick Mamatas and Molly Tanzer

Kai Monstrai Ateik (When the Monsters Come) • short fiction by Damien Angelica Walters

All of My “Cthulhu Anthology” Reviews

Tuesday, June 13, 2023

Atomic Age Cthulhu (Cthulhu Anthology #10) ★★★★☆

Title: Atomic Age Cthulhu
Series: Cthulhu Anthology #10
Editor: Glynn Barrass & Brian Sammons
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Cosmic Horror
Pages: 287
Words: 106K

Table of Contents:

Introduction

Bad Reception by Jeffrey Thomas

Unamerican by Cody Goodfellow

Fallout by Sam Stone

Eldritch Lunch by Adam Bolivar

Little Curly by Neil Baker

The Day the Music Died by Charles Christian

The Terror That Came to Dounreay by William Meikle

The Romero Transference by Josh Reynolds

It Came to Modesto by Ed Erdelac

Within the Image of the Divine by Bear Weiter

Yellow is the Color of the Future by Jason Andrew

Fears Realized by Tom Lynch

Professor Patriot and the Doom that Came to Niceville by Christine Morgan

Rose-Colored Glasses by Michael Szymanski

The Preserved Ones by Christopher M. Geeson

Putnam’s Monster by Scott T. Goudsward

Operation Switch by Pete Rawlik

Names on the Black List by Robert M. Price

The End of the Golden Age by Brian M. Sammons & Glynn Owen Barrass

This was a great collection of Cthulhu mythos stories set during the 1950’s and ranged from the commies being Eldrich Horrors to the Eldrich Horrors taking over America so THEY could fight the commies. In most of the stories any commies got what was coming to them.

This was on track for being a 4.5star rating, but I ran into 2 stories that made that impossible.

The first one, Eldrich Lunch, almost made me quit the book. It was vile, and brought to mind my reaction to Lapvona last month. It really made me question if I was being hypocritical or not. I don’t think so for two reasons. First, the story was meant to be vile. Cosmic Horror is meant to have that edge. Second, it was just that one story and not the entire book. Quantity does matter. But it made me want to be much more careful about how I judge others for the books they read in the future. I’m still going to judge the heck out of the books and possibly the authors, but the people reading and praising them, I can at least keep my mouth shut.

The second story, Yellow is the Color of the Future, was obviously a King in Yellow story. My hopes skyrocketed. Sadly, they were dashed even before my real reasons for disliking the story came into play. Some sad sack of a movie producer finds the play The King in Yellow and a friend reads it and they decide to film it. The character playing the King gets possessed and is preparing to use the movie to enter our world and rule it. The sad sack producer figures out how to stop him and destroys the film. Happily Ever After. No. There are NO happily ever after’s in a good KiY story. Because even when you win against the King, you still end up losing. That’s what I appreciated so much about The Yellow Sign, that author understood that conundrum and wrote it well. And a movie producer? Come on, those guys don’t have a working brain cell, much less a whole brain, to be able to fight against the Horror of the King. That would be like Petunia Pig taking down a Gundam, bare handed. Inconceivable!

Fallout, on the other hand, was an excellent story. It follows a teen boy who’s about to turn 16 who is living in an American Dream. His family, no, the whole town is well off and doing well beyond imagination. Sure, his dad built a bunker in the backyard that gives the teen the heeby jeebies, but you gotta be prepared right? Turns out, the town has made a pact to offer their first borns on their 16^th birthday for wealth and prosperity. It ends well too, with the boy being sacrificed and one of the people who threw him into the fallout shelter saying something like “next month is my Suzie’s 16^th”. Cosmic Horror for the win!

To polish things off, I’d just like to take a second and talk about the editors, Glynn Barrass and Brian Sammons. So far, I have had very good luck for books edited by Barrass. Unlike Joshi, he doesn’t seem to have his head stuck up his fundament and instead focuses on telling stories that fans want to read. I like that attitude and I am beginning to recognize his name. If I see his name on a cover, chances are good I’m going to eventually pick up that book. More importantly, I’m probably going to enjoy it. Sammons, I don’t know. I’ll see if he shows up in other books that I end up enjoying.

★★★★☆

All of My “Cthulhu Anthology” Reviews

Thursday, May 04, 2023

World War Cthulhu (Cthulhu Anthology #9) ★★★★☆

Title: World War Cthulhu
Series: Cthulhu Anthology #9
Editor: Glynn Barrass
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Cosmic Horror
Pages: 365
Words: 137K

From the Publisher & Table of Contents:

The world is at war against things that slink and gibber in the darkness, and titans that stride from world to world, sewing madness and death. War has existed in one form or another since the dawn of human civilization, and before then, Elder terrors battled it out across this planet and this known universe in ways unimaginable.

It has always been a losing battle for our side since time began. Incidents like the Innsmouth raid, chronicled by H.P. Lovecraft, mere blips of victory against an insurmountable foe. Still we fight, against these incredible odds, in an unending nightmare, we fight, and why? For victory, for land, for a political ideal? No, mankind fights for survival.

Our authors, John Shirley, Mark Rainey, Wilum Pugmire, William Meikle, Tim Curran, Jeffrey Thomas and many others have gathered here to share war stories from the eternal struggle against the darkness. This book chronicles these desperate battles from across the ages, including Roman Britain, The American Civil War, World War Two, The Vietnam Conflict, and even into the far future.

Table of Contents

Loyalty by John Shirley

The Game Changers by Stephen Mark Rainey

White Feather by T.E. Grau

To Hold Ye White Husk by W.H. Pugmire

Sea Nymph’s Son by Robert M. Price

The Boonieman by Edward M. Erdelac

The Turtle by Neil Baker

The Bullet and the Flesh by David Conyers & David Kernot

Broadsword by William Meikle

The Ithiliad by Christine Morgan

The Sinking City by Konstantine Paradias

Shape of a Snake by Cody Goodfellow

Mysterious Ways by C.J. Henderson

Magna Mater by Edward Morris

Dark Cell by Brian M. Sammons and Glynn Owen Barrass

Cold War, Yellow Fever by Pete Rawlik

Stragglers from Carrhae by Darrell Schweitzer

The Procyon Project by Tim Curran

Wunderwaffe by Jeffrey Thomas

A Feast of Death by Lee Clark Zumpe

Long Island Weird by Charles Christian

The Yoth Protocols by Josh Reynolds

Much, MUCH better than that stupid Black Wings of Cthulhu I read previously. This was proper cosmic horror with eldrich elder gods being summoned to our world. Of course, most of the stories end with the main characters being able to fight off the intrusions, but it came down more to the eldrich power simply not caring enough to make the effort to overcome the main characters. But the stories where the eldrich horrors do break through, oooooooh yeah, it gets baaaaaaad. And that is goooood!

One of the stories is a King in Yellow story, Cold War, Yellow Fever, and that is what elevated this from a pretty good 3 ½ star read to a darn good 4 star read. It was about what an extrusion of Carcosa into Cuba would look like during the 1960’s. While the King himself doesn’t make an appearance, his domain of madness is enough and I loved every second of it.

Even outside of that, the stories were pretty good. No fancy pants pretentious wankers writing balderdash but instead we had authors writing cracking entertaining stories about the madness hiding in the darkness, just waiting to devour us. THAT is what Cosmic Horror is about.

Glynn Barrass was one of the editors and so far, he’s done excellent work in the stories he’s chosen. Well done sir, well done. Now let’s have a cage match between him and that pustulent excrescence ST Joshi.

★★★★☆

All of My “Cthulhu Anthology” Reviews