Showing posts with label Pyrate Press. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pyrate Press. Show all posts

Saturday, September 24, 2022

Pyrate Cthulhu Vol. 2 (Cthulhu Anthology #5) ★★★☆☆

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Pyrate Cthulhu Vol. 2
Series: Cthulhu Anthology #5
Editor: Pyrate Press
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Weird Fiction
Pages: 194
Words: 74K





Synopsis:


Table of Contents



Out of the Jar by Charles R. Tunner (1941)

Bothon by Henry S. Whitehead & H.P. Lovecraft (1946)

Something From Out There by August Derleth (1951)

Confession in Darkness by Gerald W. Page (1979)

Jendick’s Swamp by Joseph Payne Brennan (1987)

The Big Fish by Kim Newman (1993)

The Vicar of R'lyeh by Marc Laidlaw (2007)

Dark Blue by Alan Dean Foster (2007)

Copping Squid by Michael Sea (2009)

Crawlin’ Chaos Blues by Edward M. Erdelac (2010)

The Nyarlathotep Event by Jonathan Wood (2011)



My Thoughts:


After the success I had with Vol. 1 of Pyrate Cthulhu, my expectations were pretty high. You might say I had Great Expectations for this second volume. Sadly, just like Pip, my expectations were completely dashed and oblivionated (that's what happens in Cthulhu-land).


Nothing was actually bad, but the magic I felt in the first volume was completely lacking. It was like Pyrate Press took all of the best stories and released them in Vol 1 and then all the leftovers they made a cash grab with a second volume.


None of these stories really grabbed me. They kept me entertained, but so does Spongebob. Oh man, wouldn't a cosmic horror version of Spongebob be awesome? And the franchise already has Squidward too! Sigh, I'm just chockful of good ideas sometimes. So there was a lack of “something” to these stories. I can't really describe it, but when I read a story with “it”, I know it. It's like eating a pizza without oregano. The lack of it, once you've had it, is more powerful than having it. That's what I felt like these stories were, a pizza without oregano.


I tried to find out some more about Pyrate Press, but apparently they only edited these 2 collections and that was it. No website, no twitter, no nothing, that I could find in 10minutes of searching on the internet. Even “I'm” easier to find than them (not that I'm trying to hide myself, but you get the idea).


★★★☆☆




Tuesday, July 12, 2022

Pyrate Cthulhu Vol. 1 (Cthulhu Anthology #4) ★★★★✬

 


This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Pyrate Cthulhu Vol. 1
Series: Cthulhu Anthology #4
Editor: Pyrate Press
Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Cosmic Horror
Pages: 221
Words: 77K





Synopsis:


Table of Contents



The Swelling by David Conyers

The Disciple by David Barr Kirtley

A Colder War by Charles Stross

The Ghoulish Wife by Kevin L. O’Brien

The Last Horror Out of Arkham by Darrel Schweitzer

Harold’s Blues by Glen Singer

Documents in the Case of Elizabeth Akeley by Richard A. Lupoff

The Plague Jar by Allen Mackey

The Dead Man’s Hand by Jason Andrew

A Little Job in Arkham by John Sunseri

In His Daughter’s Darkling Womb by Tina L. Jens




My Thoughts:


Where the last volume edited by ST Joshi was in the Weird Fiction, Pyrate Press returns us full speed back into the Cosmic Horror and it was good.


The first story, The Swelling, was a King in Yellow tale and it set the tone for the whole book. This book covered the whole gamut of Cosmic Horror entities, not just Cthulhu. The Disciple was a wonderfully delicious twisted tale where evil feeds on evil and it just made me chortle with unholy glee. The Colder War was a bit longer but reimagined the Cold War with Elder Entities being involved and the destruction of Earth. It was interesting while being gloomy and bit by bit you could tell the main character was losing hope.


This was a really good collection of stories. They were all interesting and they were well written. I tried to find out about Pyrate Press, but beyond there being a Vol 2 in this series (which I have on tap), I couldn't find anything on them. Even this book I had a devil of a time trying to find any concrete info. Well, maybe if Vol 2 is as good as this I'll try to do some serious digging but right now I'll just have to rest on my laurels.



★★★★✬