Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos

Lovecraft is of course the master of his own storytelling framework, but some of the other authors have an interesting take on his work. Others are a bit derivative and didn't hold my attention. I love the genre though.

tofcm was a awsome book. I enjoyed all of the authers different stories that were still under one over all subject. at times this book bored me in to a sleeping stuper but lucky most of the it scared me back into awakenes. At times in could not put down the book. then when that story was over and a new one came i got loney for the old story. over all some of the authers can wright and some of them can't.

It's hard to fault a "best of" collection - each story is, after all, there because it is the best in some way, or represents a vital contribution. There is no point to my going through the listing and mentioning which stories are my favorites; they are all excellent (or at least important). Collecting the out-of-print books that contain these stories individually would cost hundreds, even when searching for the most recent reprint, so this is quite a valuable addition to your library (although you may wish later to read more by the anthologized authors). The authors below are representative of the pool of literature that Lovecraft drew from for his own stories, his contemporaries who collaborated with him, his post-humous successors, and people like Stephen King who were motivated to begin a career from reading HPL's work.

"The Return of the Sorceror" and "Ubbo-Sathla" by Clark Ashton Smith
"The Hounds of Tindalos" and "The Space-Eaters" by Frank Belknap Long
"The Black Stone" by Robert Howard
"The Call of Cthulhu" and "The Haunter of the Dark" by Lovecraft
"The Dweller in Darkness" and "Beyond the Threshold" by August Derleth
"The Shambler from the Stars", "The Shadow from the Steeple", and "Notebook found in a Deserted House" by Robert Bloch
"The Salem Horror" by Henry Kuttner
"The Terror from the Depths" by Fritz Leiber
"Rising with Surtsey" by Brian Lumley
"Cold Print" by Ramsey Campbell
"The Return of the Lloigor" by Colin Wilson

The last 5 are farther removed from Lovecraft; probably the best is Stephen Kings' "Jerusalem's Lot"

More interesting than my opinion on the stories included is those left out; nothing is said of those authors wholly predating Lovecraft but who significantly influenced him. There is no Lord Dunsany, no Arthur Machen, and most signifcantly no Robert Chambers (and his King in Yellow, which seems to have been the archetype for Lovecraft's Necronomicon). I mention this merely for completeness' sake; this is a superb collection.

If you've ever wondered what the phrase "Lovecraftian horror" meant, read this book. Here you'll find a fantastic collection of works inspired by the mythos created by H.P. Lovecraft. Full of pyschological terrors, alien horrors, and mind-twisting frights, this book proves that Lovecraft's legacy lives on as he intended.

I have only read the Call of Cthulhu but it is an awesome story. It is creepy and cool at the same time. It is about a guy who finds out about Cthulhu and the Ancient Ones, and he is telling the story of how he found out. At the end he says that the Cthulhu Cult will kill him. Read it. It is awesome.