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I found the introductions and comments by someone named Wrzos fairly annoying. Because he doesn't write in complete sentences. Like this. Makes the reader breathless. You know?
This final Derlethian netful of pre-Golden-Age science fiction certainly merited publication and I read it in one sitting.
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For real Lovecraftian horror read, "Call of Cthullu," "The Shadow over Innsmouth," "Dagon," "The Thing on the Doorstep," "The Picture in the House," "The Outsider" and you will be rewarded will true chills down your spine... not this insipid drivel.
The first section, which is told in third person narrative isn't too bad, and sets up the story nicely. It is actually a fair representation of Lovecraft, however, there is not a word of dialogue uttered for 39 pages!! Now once the dialogue starts, the story starts to move, and that familiar Lovecraftian "buildup" starts.
However...just when things are getting interesting, Derleth moves to the next section which is told from Dewart's cousin first person narrative. I found the change in narrative styles in mid story a little disconcerting, but I managed to adjust, and found it interesting, but I was still waiting for the pay off.
Then Derleth ineptly moves to the third section, which is first person again, but told from the perspective of assistant Winfield Phillips. The previous narrator(Dewart's cousin Steven Bates) is summarily dispatched via a NOTE in one paragraph. Derleth obviously wrote himself into a trap with his narrative, and couldn't figure out how to bring about Bates death in a suitably gruesome and terrifying way as the story was currently being told from the wrong perspective. How could the narrator know of Bates horrible fate as he wasn't present at the scene. Thus the death of a major character has little impact or horror that it should in a story such as this.
The biggest issue I had with this third section was it
seemed "dumbed down." the narrator goes into a long tirade of Mythology, and explanation, which if the reader was paying attention, would have already figured most of it out from the previous two narratives! Then, Dewart is summarily shot, and buried, and the "horror" comes to an end. The third section was a complete let down from the build up of the previous two. There was no payoff in the end, and absolutely no shock value at all as the narrator took great pains to over explain everything.
The best I can say about this is that there is some reasonable "Mythos" background, albeit slightly contradictory that might interest the Lovecraftian enthusiast.
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