Category Archives: New books

New book: Providence Blue

28 Tuesday Sep 2021

Posted by in Lovecraft as character, Lovecraftian arts, New books

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Providence Blue is a new ‘Lovecraft as character’ fantasy novel. Warning: general ‘structure-of-the-novel’ spoilers below.

In Rhode Island mysterious creatures were…

encountered by renegade preacher Roger Williams on his historical journey that ended with the founding of Providence, Rhode Island. [Later in Providence] Lovecraft is an accomplished and impish ‘Magus'”.

He investigates these historical encounters, as these seem to have foreshadowed his own monsters and to have links with a real Cthulhu cult. Even later in Providence…

An anxiety-filled former punk-rocker [Wilum Pugmire?], a drifting Athenaeum employee, and an entire cast of unique and well-developed characters find themselves thrown into a puzzling and some harrowing ride around Providence [and beyond]

Catholic World Report newspaper has an interview with the author (with some detailed spoilers, and also a horrid pop-up page-blocking overlay and nags)…

Pinault is a Professor of Religous Studies at Santa Clara University, and a native of Providence. … The author’s Catholic faith is evident throughout the story, as each character seeks redemption and an ultimate answer to the myriad sufferings of mankind.

Sounds fun but there’s no ebook or audiobook version, sadly, just a paperback. Might make for a good chunky graphic novel, by the sound of it, it you were looking for such a book to adapt.

Weird Tails

22 Wednesday Sep 2021

Posted by in Lovecraftian arts, New books

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I stumbled on the blog of John Houlihan. He has news of several Lovecraftian items from the last year or so, such as the Mythos anthologies which (though not covered by Tentaclii) are continuing to thump down onto doormats.

Specifically Weird Tails… “Mythos fiction inspired by both H.P. Lovecraft and horror fiction’s ongoing fascination with all things feline.” And another devoted to Nyarlathotep tales, N: A Stygian Fox Anthology Concerning the Outer God Nyarlathotep. Glancing at both, I’m reminded that such anthologies could usefully offer aspiring artists / designers a chance at making a decent cover and thus add to their appeal. Or even retired artists such as the superb and still-prolific Bob May.

Weird Tails also has “LOVECRAFT AND CATS” in the TOCs, toward the end, which I’m guessing may perhaps be an essay rather than a story?

Houlihan appears to be involved with the new Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 RPG, which he discusses at length in a recent Innsmouth Book Club podcast…

a chat which encompasses books, Achtung! Cthulhu, computer games, the revenge of the nerds and the inexorable rise of interest in HPL and the Mythos.

Elsewhere, news of Chroniques Oubliees: Cthulhu, a French Lovecraftian 1920s tabletop RPG of 2018—. Seemingly not a translation of an English RPG. It had super-slick character art by Aurore Folny, some of which is now newly online at ArtStation.

New graphic-novel of Dream-Quest

21 Tuesday Sep 2021

Posted by in Kittee Tuesday, Lovecraftian arts, New books

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A new Lovecraft graphic novel of Dream-Quest, albeit currently only in Spanish. H.P. Lovecraft: Kadath is by screenwriter Florentino Florez, with Guillermo Sanna and Jacques Salomon. It’s been available for a couple of months now and several Amazon reviewers seem pleased with the large BD sized hardback, but neither Amazon or the publisher gives the page count. A little digging puts it at 210 pages.

Looks good, and good enough to get a paid-for English translation.

New book: Io Sono Providence, vol. 3

19 Sunday Sep 2021

Posted by in New books, Scholarly works

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Io Sono Providence: la biografia di H.P. Lovecraft. The third and final volume of the translation of Joshi’s I Am Providence biography into Italian. Congratulations to all concerned.

I see the same publisher has a new edition of the Italian journal Providence Tales No. 8, containing two translations of and an article on Mearle Prout. So far as I’m aware he’s still unidentified with certainty. One wonders if the Italian Lovecraftians have had any success with getting more biographical details? So far as the open Web is concerned the best that can be said is that in 1937 he wrote to Weird Tales from Oklahoma, and that in 2015 I identified a Texan of the right name and age who was living in Oklahoma at the 1940 census.

Old World Footprints

12 Sunday Sep 2021

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Deep Cuts peruses the relatively new edition of Old World Footprints (1928) by Cassie Symmes, Belknap Long’s aunt. She had been very impressed by Cook’s printing and binding for her nephew’s slim volume of poetry. So much so that she commissioned Cook to publish 300 copies of her own account of a tour of Europe. I see the book can now be had as a budget Kindle ebook, Old World Footprints [Print Replica], in the new edited and annotated edition.

The attraction for (very dedicated) Lovecraftians is that Lovecraft was ghosting for Long on the Introduction…

actually ghostwritten by H. P. Lovecraft. Lovecraft proofread the book for Cook, and may have edited it as well.

Cthulhu Libria #2

11 Saturday Sep 2021

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Cthulhu Libria Nr. 2 is a ‘horror on the railways’ themed issue. Lovecraft, a long-time reader of rail-roader magazines in his youth, would surely have approved. Sadly the magazine is in German, but one review indicates a number of non-fiction articles among the stories. If you’re in need of a Lovecraft Mythos + railways article, I’m guessing there may be one here to be translated.

Appears to be a ‘new series’ for the title, which (judging by a quick search) had more of a newsletter appearance for its first series.

Junji Ito’s Sensor (2021)

07 Tuesday Sep 2021

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Manga master Junji Ito has a new Lovecraftian 240-page graphic novel called Sensor. Difficult to find mentions that are not just parroting the press-release (“Sensor does Lovecraft better than Lovecraft” and similar gushing), but according to Kole Ross at Smiling Politely… “it’s real Lovecraft-y, but there’s some Borges”. The Daily Crate looked it over and decided it had “some of the best artwork to date” from Ito. IAPT praised the character design and body-language, but found the ambitious story to be anime-level confusing and felt that it fizzled out a bit in the second half.

According to Amazon UK, the English translation — titled Sensor (Junji Ito) — thumps onto the doormat in the UK in hardcover on 30th September 2021. It’s already available here in the UK as a Kindle ebook.

Pulpster #30

30 Monday Aug 2021

Posted by in Historical context, New books, Scholarly works

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The Pulp Super-Fan takes a look at the new The Pulpster #30. Mostly the non-fiction articles are concerned with The Shadow and the Love Stories pulp, to align it with this year’s PulpFest convention themes. But turns out it’s also a tail-ender for a ‘history of Weird Tales’ pile, when I get the cash to order such reading. Because it has an…

article by Tony Davis looks at pulp editor Dorothy McIlwraith, who handled Short Stories and Weird Tales for several years. She had been the editor of Short Stories and took over editorship of Weird Tales when the magazine was sold to Short Stories. As well as a good intro to this editor, we also learn a lot about both magazines under her editorship.

MonsterTalk podcast: Malleus Monstrorum

28 Saturday Aug 2021

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The latest MonsterTalk podcast is on Chaosium and the Malleus Monstrorum…

Mike Mason of the roleplaying company Chaosium discusses their new two-volume book of Lovecraftian monsters: The Malleus Monstrorum

I blogged on this re-vamped and re-published book back in April 2021.

Incidentally, as the students begin to return to the cities I noticed there are two big Lovecraftian RPG festivals coming soon in Germany (“lockRUF 2021”) and Madrid.

Lovecraft Annual No. 15, 2021

20 Friday Aug 2021

Posted by in New books, Scholarly works

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Announced for Lovecraft’s birthday, the scholarly Lovecraft Annual No. 15, 2021. 270 pages including, among others, at least four topographical pieces…

* The Acolyte of the Abyss: or, In the Long Shadow of the House at 454 Angell Street.

* Following The Ancient Track.

* The Promise of Cosmic Revelations: How the Landscape of Vermont Transforms “The Whisperer in Darkness”.

* The Church That Inspired “The Horror at Red Hook” and the Fall of the House of Suydam.

On Lovecraft’s 131st birthday – an index for his poetry

20 Friday Aug 2021

Posted by in New books, Scholarly works

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On H.P Lovecraft’s 131st birthday, I’m pleased to present my offering to the Master. An Index for the book The Ancient Track: The Complete Poetical Works of H.P. Lovecraft (second revised edition). I had often felt the lack of a ‘topic, imagery, place and name’ index for this 600-page volume, so I made one.

Download (PDF). Version 1.1, August 2021.

It’s 3,000 words as a 32-page PDF file, and as such it should be feasible to print as a little imposition-software booklet and slip between card covers. Or upload it to a POD booklet printer. Note that it’s not under Creative Commons and is not for re-sale, please.

I suspect that the Guild of Indexers will not be sending me a gilt-edged invitation card to their annual Christmas Ball, on seeing this. I did it my way, without poring over weighty manuals on indexing, but it should be perfectly serviceable for Lovecraftian look-ups. There are no line-numbers though, as that would have added far too much extra work. Thus you will need to skim down the page to find the item being searched for.