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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).
