Lovecraft Fans Out There?

[Maximius]

Any fans of Lovecrafts horror/sci-fi out there? I hope to work some of that slimy goodness into my first mission, in which the Thief encounters some elder gods and their acoloytes intent on reawakening some horrible evil. I actually own copy of the Necronomicon, which will doubtless come in handy. Its the paperback edition, not the human skin one.

 

Ai Shub Niggurath!

[John D.]

I've read some of his stuff, the guy could sure tell a creepy story. I like Mountians of Madness myself.

[Vadrosaul]

I'm loosely a fan, read some good stories like At the Mountains of Madness and Shadow over Innsmouth.

 

My gf is a lovecraft uber fan. She hangs out as a regular in the Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth forums.

 

Ia Ia Cthulhu ftagn!!

[Macsen]

I'm a Lovecraft fan, though his stories get a bit samey after a while.

 

Woo fish things from Yuggoth shall insidiously ape thee, etc...

[oDDity]

Never read a single word he wrote. THe only reason I know of Call of Cuthulu iis because it was the title of a Metallica tune on their second album, way back when I used ot liten to that sort of thing)

Which are his best books?

[Maximius]

Odd, he only wrote stories, I dont know that he ever even released any books but of course his stories are now collected in anthologies. I honestly cannot recommend one over another, they are all damned good in my opinion.

 

Mac, its true that the stories had a sameishness about them, but if you loved the stories as much as I did that sameishness lent itself to building a world that could envelop you. heck, lovecraft was not even a great writer, his use of adjectives runs at about three a sentence, but again in his hands those deficiencies fall away and the pure product shines forth. At least to me. For some reason his style worked, clunky as it was upon critical examination.

[Macsen]

To be honest one of my fave stories was the one when he let the adjectives run free to the point of hilarity... The Hound!

 

In my tortured ears there sounds unceasingly a nightmare whirring and flapping, and a faint distant baying as of some gigantic hound. It is not dream - it is not, I fear, even madness - for too much has already happened to give me these merciful doubts.

 

St John is a mangled corpse; I alone know why, and such is my knowledge that I am about to blow out my brains for fear I shall be mangled in the same way. Down unlit and illimitable corridors of eldrith phantasy sweeps the black, shapeless Nemesis that drives me to self-annihilation.

 

And so on...

[Maximius]

To be honest one of my fave stories was the one when he let the adjectives run free to the point of hilarity... The Hound!

And so on...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I think Lovecraft is the only writer in existence who overused the adjective "cyclopean." Meaning the rough, irregular block built walls of the Myceanean civilization or more to Lovecrafts usage, ancient irregular and threatening masonry. Every damned thing was cyclopean, but man when he said it you felt it!

 

I think what really worked for me with Lovecrafts stuff was the fact that it was all alien. No elves and dwarves, no demons or devils, just these bizarre alien gods, bizarre alien creatures, and bizarre human worshipers of the above gods. There was no prayers or spells to save you, if you lived it was through sheer luck and you spent the rest of your life jumping at every shadow.

 

Probably my favorite story is The Haunted WOods or something like that, about a being who doesnt realize that it is a ghost/ghoul until the end of the story. I cant remember the exact title but its a good one.

[Macsen]

I think that's The Outsider. He touches some smooth surafce at the end and sees a beastly monster staring back at him, only to find that the smooth surface is... a mirror! Dun dun dun!

 

That's a twist of cyclopean proportions!

[sparhawk]

I'm waiting for the Call of Chtuhulu game. And I liked to play the roleplaying desktop game, but I have nobody to play it with here. It was really fun.

[Maximius]

yes, thats the title, its a goody! I had a collection of his somewhere, I should dig it up.

 

Spar, I used to have the role playing game (book form) and I too could find noone to play with. I have a collection of metal figurines of the major monsters somewhere too.

 

I'd make up these cool characters and call my buds for a game. Everyone would sound enthused on the phone. Saturday afternoon, dude!

 

They would blow me off and Id try to hi-jack my kid sister into playing, which usually resulted in a fight. I was a lonely, weird kid.

[Ishtvan]

On a related note, I just realise that it's really fun to use g_dragentity 1 and make ragdoll corpses breakdance. Break, break, break!

[Loa4ever]

I'm new in this topic but interested in Lovecraft books, so I'll ask this: should I read all his books or do you guys recommended some?

[Xarg]

Shadow over Innsmouth. If you're into games based on the mythos, I heartily recommend Call of Cthulhu - Dark Corners of The Earth. Though be warned, it does have an issue with graphics on one of the later levels (namely, that progress dependent NPC's on a distant shoreline don't render, but there are ways around that)

[Melan]

From his horror stories, my favourites are The Haunter of the Dark, The Rats in the Walls, The Whisperer in Darkness and The Hound. My absolute favourite, though, is The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath, which is less horror and more surreal fantasy in the land of dreams. It is heavily influenced by Lord Dunsany, Beckford's Vathek and the 1001 Nights, and has a lot of vivid, offbeat imagery. You can find most of Lovecraft's stories, including all the aforementioned for free here.

 

From computer adaptations, I liked the first Shadow of the Comet (point and click adventure), Alone in the Dark (3d action-adventure) and Prisoner of Ice (rendered 3d adventure). All of them are fairly old (Prisoner is the most recent, and was made around 1995), so no idea how well they have aged. But they were all faithful to his works, if not in letter, but spirit.

Edited August 29, 2012 by Melan

[Sotha]

The shunned house, At the mountains of madness & The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. They are rather short and will entertain you a few nights.

[elwing]

on an other note I found demagogue's "Patently Dangerous" really gets the same feeling as lot of Lovecraft novels... I found it quite frightening.