New Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos by Ramsey Campbell

New Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos Reviews

• 
  ¶Montse~

  Buenísimo para leer de noche.
  Te duermes en minutos 👍
• 
  Peter

  Absolutely disturbing collection of Lovecraft orientated short fiction. Highly recommended are Crouch End by Stephen King, The Second Wish by Brian Lumley, Black Man with a Horn by T.E.D. Klein or The Faces at Pine Dunes by Ramsey Campbell. What an eerie selection. If you love Lovecraft and his fascinating lore about The Old Ones this is the right stuff for you. I couldn't stop reading the stories presented here. Every single one of them had new aspects of terror and horror. An extremely uncanny anthology! Reading those stories is like being on a trip with Lovecraft drugs. Timeless classic!
• 
  Ana Cristina Lee

  Cuentos de terror cósmico 'a la Lovecraft', con los dioses ancestrales que aparecen en entornos nuevos de manera insospechada, proporcionando momentos clásicos que recuerdan al maestro - de hecho uno de los cuentos es suyo.
  
  Hay una buena variedad de aproximaciones al tema y esta diversidad de estilos tiene su encanto, aunque la calidad sea desigual.
  
  A destacar la contribución de Stephen King y la de Ramsey Campbell, que es además el compilador de la antología. Yo me lo he pasado genial!
• 
  Oscar

  Publicada originalmente en 1980, ‘Nuevos cuentos de los Mitos de Cthulhu’ es una antología que reúne una serie de autores de una segunda generación, cuyos cuentos se ambientan en el desconocido universo creado que H.P. Lovecraft. Lo que buscaba Ramsey Campbell, el encargado de la edición, eran relatos que se alejaran un tanto de la mediocridad en la que había caído el género en los últimos años. Como suele pasar en este tipo de trabajos, la calidad es bastante irregular. La gran mayoría son interesantes, pero no llegan a las cotas de calidad del Maestro ni de sus discípulos.
  
  Estos son los nueve relatos incluidos en ‘Nuevos cuentos de los Mitos de Cthulhu’:
  
  Crouch End, de Stephen King (****). King te atrapa desde el principio, con una mujer americana, aterrorizada, que denuncia la desaparición de su marido. Uno de los mejores relatos del libro, que recuerda a los horrores de Dunwich, pero esta vez en Londres.
  
  La charca de las estrellas, de A.A. Attanasio (***). Mezcla curiosa la que el autor realiza en este cuento, en el que se dan cita la venganza, el tráfico de drogas y Haití. Un relato que va ganando durante su desarrollo, hasta llegar a un muy buen final.
  
  El segundo deseo, de Brian Lumley (***). Una pareja de turistas que se encuentra de viaje por Hungría, se empeña en hacer una visita a una vieja iglesia. Buen relato de Lumley, que utiliza sabiamente los Mitos para su relato de terror.
  
  Oscuro despertar, de Frank Belknap Long (***). Este cuento es el único incluido en el libro de uno de los discípulos de Lovecraft, y en él se nos relata el paseo de pesadilla por una playa del protagonista. Estupendo relato.
  
  La sección 247, de Basil Copper (***). Interesante cuento, ambientado en una estación espacial, un espacio cerrado y agobiante.
  
  Un negro con un saxofón, de T.E.D. Klein (***). Un viejo escritor que viaja en avión, entra en contacto durante su vuelo con un misionero que le narra una extraña historia. El relato empieza de manera titubeante, y casi parece que le sobran páginas. Pero de mitad en adelante, se pone bastante interesante.
  
  El libro negro de Alsophocus, de H.P. Lovecraft y Martin S. Warnes (*****). Se trata del único relato escrito por Warnes, que se basa a su vez en un fragmento de Lovecraft, The Book. El protagonista da por casualidad con el Libro Negro, lo que le lleva a intentar buscar otras dimensiones. Es el más lovecraftiano de los relatos de la antología, y en él son claramente reconocibles las formas del Maestro, con una atmósfera cargada de descripciones.
  
  Maldita sea la oscuridad, de David Drake (**). Ambientado en el Congo Belga, dominio del rey Leopoldo (este sí que fue un verdadero monstruo, y no los de los Mitos), nos encontramos con un grupo de depravados soldados, que han de acompañar a una estudiosa de las religiones y de la mitología de Cthulhu en particular. Sin llegar a ser un mal relato, no he logrado entrar en él en ningún momento.
  
  Las caras de Pines Dunes, de Ramsey Campbell (**). Un joven que vive y viaja en una caravana con sus padres, descubre poco a poco el secreto de los mismos. El relato más flojo de la antología.
  
• 
  Vicente Ribes

  Buen libro de relatos inspirados en el universo literario que creó el maestro de Providence.
  Como toda recopilación de esta índole el libro contiene relatos muy buenos y otros mas flojos.
  Solo por el relato Crouch end de Stephen King ya vale la pena. Uno de los mejores relatos de los mitos de Cthulhu que he leido y también uno de los relatos que mas escalofrios me produjo.
  King usa las herramientas de Lovecraft y construye un cuento original y terrorífico que me puso los pelos de punta, tal y como hizo La sombra sobre Insmouth de Lovecraft en su dia.
  Del resto de relatos cabe destacar los de Ted Klein y Ramsey Campbell, dos de los mejores y más reconocidos herederos de Lovecraft y que después de su muerte propagaron los mitos y les dieron una existencia eterna.
• 
  Ignacio Senao f

  Buenos autores escribiendo basándose en la creación de Lovecraft. El resultado es estupendo.
  
  Cierto que es irregular, pero es normal que suceda en una recopilación donde King pone su granito, pues pone el listón de un Rey.
  
• 
  Majo's Library.

  Un genero que personalmente tenia un poco dejado de lado.
  Obras como ésta, me hacen pensar que vale la pena ahondar en el "Terror Cósmico".
• 
  Wade Johnston

  I enjoyed this anthology very much. while having its ups and downs i found the majority of these stories easily staying with me several days or more after finishing them. A longer breakdown will update this review in a few days or so. but my take is you cant go wrong with this collection if youre in the mood for some genuine "weird fiction".
• 
  Israel

  Interesante, aunque algo desigual, compilación de relatos continuadores, o basados de alguna forma, en los Mitos de Cthulhu desarrollados por HP Lovecraft.
• 
  Raechel

  This book is an anthology of Lovecraftian-inspired short stories. I was originally loaned it because one of the featured writers is Stephen King. Some of these stories are awkward, some are kinda racist, some are weird, some drag in a few places, and some are creepy. These are all qualities that can be found in some Lovecraft stories.
  
  I read the hardcover of this book and it's very good quality! The art on the cover is interesting and kind of creepy. The paper is surprisingly sturdy, almost like cardstock. There are 9 stories written by a total of 10 authors.
  
  Crouch End is by Stephen King, which was kind of creepy but with familiar King tropes--ie, you get a backstory on a lot of the characters. A vacationing American couple go on holiday to London and get lost in the titular Crouch End.
  
  I liked the second half of The Star Pools by A. A. Attanasio, which I thought was very Lovecraftian, but the first half just seems to start out of nowhere, drags on and on, and honestly almost made me quit the book. Gangsters, drugs, and racist caricatures.
  
  The Second Wish by Brian Lumley was very Lumley...he wants to write like Lovecraft very badly, and can do a good surface imitation. I really liked this story though, it's about a playboy and the older woman he's totally not using for money on vacation in Old Europe and visit a creepy monk in a creepy castle. Wishes ensue.
  
  Dark Awakening by Frank Belknap Long, who actually knew Lovecraft in life! This story is pretty short and kind of confusing. A man spots a single mother on a New England beach and becomes smitten at once. He tries to weasel his way into her life and assume a father role with her children. Kind of a weird one.
  
  Shaft Number 247 is by Basil Copper and I really enjoyed it. There is a distopian/Lovecraftian/1984 feel to this story which I thought was a really cool genre blend. You learn more about the world it's set in as you read the story, but basically people live underground in a Big Brother-esque setting and there's something creepy happening!
  
  Black Man with a Horn by T.E.D. Klein is not the most Lovecraftian story in this anthology, but it is near the top. It's told in a I'm-leaving-this-journal-for-you-to-find-near-my-mangled-corpse fashion. The narrator described meeting a strange missionary on a plane, and getting sucked into the sinister cult that's after him. The narrator is also an elderly writer, which made it kind of cute.
  
  The Black Tome of Alsophocus is the most Lovecraftian story in this book, which is no surprise since it's written by H.P. Lovecraft and Martin S. Warnes. If you know Lovecraft I think it's easy to spot who added what details to the story. Books of forbidden knowledge, time/space travel, Old Ones.
  
  Than Curse the Darkness by David Drake seemed more like a ghost story with Lovecraftian elements tagged in, but the protagonist is a learned, aging woman--not your typical Lovecraft character. There's a heavy theme of racism, with plenty of n-words sprinkled in which made me wince a lot, but it's still a cool read. And Sparrow was awesome, I wish I knew more about him.
  
  Finally, we have The Faces at Pine Dunes written by the editor himself, Ramsey Campbell. At first I was not into this one. But as I read more it became apparent it was a more modern-day Lovecraftian story about a Romani or traveler family who seems to have finally settled down at Pine Dunes. By the end of the story I could see why it had been included.
  
  If you like Lovecraftian stories I would recommend this book. It's really nice quality and the mix of times and locations in the anthology will hopefully let you find something you like in it.
• 
  Terry Clague

  A collection of short stories centred around H.P. Lovecraft - a sort of festschrift I guess. I read only one. The reason for my purchase - Stephen King's "Crouch End." Apparently spooked on a visit to the area (though he didn't get lost looking for Dave Stewart or refused a drink in Banners), perhaps he saw the disused railway line or anticipated the number of artisanal coffee shops customed by automaton guardianistas.
• 
  Malum

  A good collection of Cthulhu Mythos tales. Most of the authors here understand the right tone for writing a mythos story: the things you don't see are scarier than the things you do, and death isn't the worst thing that can happen to you.
• 
  Laini

  The Cthulu Mythos is a universe created by H.P. Lovecraft and which has been used in many novels, films and even computer games. The main idea in this universe is that there were once a race of deities known as The Old Ones who ruled over the world, however they have been asleep for a long long time. Some of these Gods are still worshipped by cults on Earth, and some don't even dwell on our planet. The theory is that these Old Ones will one day awaken from their sleep and destroy humanity.
  
  With this in mind, this collection of short stories is written by some well-known horror fiction authors. Stephen King is the first author in this collection and anyone who knows me will know that I adore King, mostly his older work. As this book was first published in 1980, I am glad to say I was very happy with his contribution. In my opinion, King's great strength is his creation of atmosphere, he can also be very gruesome in his descriptions, but what always impacts me the most in his works is the not knowing, the fear of what is around the corner and when a writer can drag you so far into his world that you start to wonder what is real and what is imaginary, they have done their job well.
  
  Crouch End, King's story which opens this collection does exactly this. A frightened American woman arrives at a police station in a small English town, with a horrible story to tell. The police listen to her story, and after her statement is taken, the youngest of them recalls it with disbelief. However the older one reassures him that this won't be the last story of this type he will hear. She tells of her husband's disappearance, and how she became lost in what seemed to be a strange world unlike our own, we never truly discover the why's and where's of her husband's disappearance and again, this is what makes this story truly chilling to the bone.
  
  There are many other stories contained within, one which describe an Old One taking over someone's body in an attempt to call himself forth and another where a man uses dark magic to try to attain a level close to an old one.
  
  My favourites though are the ones like Crouch End, where you, the reader is left to wonder about the hidden depths of our world, and if all is really as it seems.
• 
  Emily

  3.5 stars. As with most short story anthologies, this was a mixed bag. One thing reading it did for me was to remind me that I adore Brian Lumley's writing. And apparently forests in England are just bloody terrifying - as I learned many years ago from reading Robert Holdstock. One thing that really bothered me about many of the stories was the racism. Bloody hell. Lovecraft was obviously racist, and the stories are all supposed to be in the style of Lovecraft and homages to him, and the stories in this book were written at least 37 years ago, but damn...
• 
  Karen

  Some of these stories were much better than others. As an average I'm giving them 3 stars, but note I'd give some a higher and some a much lower value.
  I did individual reviews of each story in updates. Overall favourites were Stephen King's Crouch End, Brian Lumley's The Second Wish & Lovecraft & Martin Warnes' The Black Tome of Alsophocus.
• 
  Juan Manuel Echeverri Yepes

  Selecta antología de intranquilizadores relatos, inspirados en los Mitos de Cthulhu y la eterna obra del maestro del terror cósmico: H. P. Lovecraft.
• 
  Mascha

  Le livre noir est une anthologie inégale, où l'excellent côtoie le mauvais.
  
  Tout d'abord, ce recueil de nouvelles lovecraftiennes s'ouvre sur Crouch End, une histoire de Stephen King, qui doit être la raison principale pour laquelle bien des gens se sont procurés l'ouvrage. Allons droit au but : cette nouvelle est la meilleure du livre. King a compris le but de l'exercice : mélanger l'univers de Lovecraft avec son style personnel, ici très reconnaissable. À certains moment, on ne sait plus si on lit du King ou du Lovecraft. Cette histoire est parfaite.
  
  Puis, arrive la seconde nouvelle, et ça dégénère... Les étangs des étoiles de A.A. Attanasio. La pire du livre selon moi. Oh, elle respecte l'univers de Lovecraft, là n'est pas le problème. Mais ce récit de gangsters est si ennuyeux que j'ai mis plusieurs mois à la lire d'un bout à l'autre, et j'ai lu un bon nombre de pages en diagonale. Une fois ma lecture terminée, cela m'a pris presqu'un an et demi pour me convaincre de reprendre la lecture du livre! Oui oui. J'étais enceinte lorsque je lisais cette anthologie sur mon balcon, l'automne arrivant en ville. Lorsque j'ai lu la troisième nouvelle, mon fils avait treize mois!
  
  Le second souhait de Brian Lumley, la fameuse troisième nouvelle. Une bonne tentative, mais qui s'est soldé en échec. En effet, ici, je ne ressentais pas le style lovecraftien. J'ai plutôt eu l'impression que l'auteur s'amusait à écrire le plus de références possible à Lovecraft, mais sans en retranscrire l'essence. J'avais plutôt l'impression de lire une histoire de Théophile Gautier à vrai dire. Gautier qui citerait des noms de personnages de Lovecraft. J'aime Théophile Gautier, mais je voulais lire du Lovecraft. Donc, échec.
  
  La quatrième nouvelle, Sombre éveil de Frank Belknap Long, est une bonne nouvelle, bien écrite, respectant l'exercice, dont le seul défaut est d'être trop courte! J'aurais bien voulu mieux connaître ces personnages. ;)
  
  La cinquième nouvelle, Le puits numéro 247 de Basil Copper est aussi intéressante à lire. Elle m'a fait penser aux romans inspirés de la série Doctor Who. De la science-fiction post-apocalyptique Lovecraftienne. Un brin cliché, surtout la trame principale, mais si cool à lire. Un bon moment.
  
  La sixième histoire se nomme L'homme noir à la trompe par T.E.D. Klein. Une bonne histoire, mystérieuse et intelligente, avec un brin de mise en abîme puisque le personnage principal écrit des nouvelles dans des recueils lovecraftiens. À noter que le racisme de l'histoire m'a un peu dérangé cela dit.
  
  En septième position, nous retrouvons Le livre noir de H.P. Lovecraft et complété par Martin S. Warnes. Ici, une histoire 100% Lovecraftienne, mais dont seuls les deux/trois dernières pages en valent vraiment la lecture. Le reste est ennuyant.
  
  Huit : Plutôt que de maudire les ténèbres de David Drake. Ouhlala... l'horreur humaine de cette histoire est si poussée que je vais penser à ce récit durant des mois. Viols, meurtres, esclavage, mutilation, massacre, colonisation... Ici, les méchants sont considérés comme les gentils et vice-versa, ce qui cimente l'horreur pour de bon dans cette histoire sans dilemme moral. Difficile à lire, mais on sent la dénonciation derrière chaque geste affreux commis par les protagonistes, des humains sans empathie. L'histoire est toutefois trop longue. Je l'aurais emputé du tiers. J'ai tout de même dû prendre une pause de lecture après cette histoire à cause des émotions difficiles.
  
  Pour finir, Les visages de Pine Dunes de Ramsey Campbell, le présentateur du recueil. Ici, nous avons une excellente histoire de romanichels, dont la conclusion lovecraftienne apporte frissons et horreur. L'art de mélanger bar disco, caravanes et monstres géants. Une petite perle.
  
  En conclusion, je ne relirais pas cet ouvrage, sauf la nouvelle de King que je vais relire un jour à coup sûr. Je ne suis pas déçu de ma lecture pour autant, mais j'avais souvent hâte de terminer l'ouvrage. C'est à vous de choisir si la lecture en vaut la peine ou non. ;)
• 
  Tarl

  There are some pretty big names in this anthology, so I was hoping for some amazing works from them. Instead, I was left with some pretty mild mythos fiction. King does a good job in his story, as does Campbell and a couple others. But the rest left me fighting my way through them just so I could get onto the next story, something I don't normally do when it comes to anthologies. All in all, I found this collection to be only average, hence the three star rating that I gave it. There are better collections out there, containing some of these stories alongside better ones that you should be able to get your paws on.
  
  But, if you are like me, and a Lovecraft fan, then you will probably pick this up anyway, much like I did.
• 
  Aaron Meyer

  A really enjoyable set of tales. A few of them I shook my head about but they were not so bad that I outright disliked them. I think the weakest of them was perhaps Shaft Number 247 by Basil Copper, to me at least, sorry Mr. Copper. The best tales though definitely go to The Second Wish by Brian Lumley and Black Man with a Horn by T.E.D. Klein, with Klein at the top. His humor and just the whole way of telling the story just put it at the top for me. David Drake's Than Curse the Darkness and A.A. Attanasio's Star Pools run close seconds. Overall a great read and one that I would highly recommend.
• 
  David Aybar Allca

  Yo le pondria un 3.5. Es una antología de 9 relatos de terror, muchos me parecieron muy interesantes, guardan esta sensación de lo desconocido, intentándote describir un horror irónicamente “indescriptible”, además me gusta que en estos te ponen de escenarios lugares del mundo distintos como pueden ser Haiti, Africa o Europa del Este, a comparación de los relatos lovecraftianos más clásicos. En algunos casos se nutren de la mitología lovecraftiana de forma muy buena sabiendo meter temas, como los primigenios Cthulhu o Nyarlathotep. En otros, pareciese que quisiesen hacer guiños o cosas así, de una forma un poco forzada. Aun así, ninguna historia me pareció mala o aburrida por así decirlo. Es un libro recomendable
  
• 
  Erik

  In the foreword the editor tell us that he wanted to collect a bunch of truly original and unique Lovecraftian tales. What follows is a string of mostly unbelievably generic stories.
  Stephen King's story, Crouch End, is perhaps the worst offender of them all, it's only remotely original feature is the fact that it does not take place in New England. The one story that stand out is Shaft Number 247 by
  Basil Cooper, which does not resemble anything I've ever read within the Cthulhu Mythos.
• 
  Carlos

  The authors in this collection try to expand the meaning of Lovecraftian stories. They focus on Lovecraft’s ability to explicitly tell only part of a story and insinuate the rest of the story in a way that increases the tension and horror. In this way these authors take the reader to new settings and character types that seem both novel but congruent with Lovecraft’s great works. While not every single story was a hit, just as some Lovecraft stories are better than others, most of them were so that I have no problem recommending the book to any Lovecraft fan.
• 
  Giuliana Unlibropersognaregiuly

  Una raccolta di racconti dedicati al maestro indiscusso del macabro, H.P. Lovercraft. Un omaggio a lui da scrittori famosi e blasonati che tanto spesso ha ispirato con i suoi racconti, soprattutto con il ciclo di Ctulhu. Da presenze soprannaturali a ombre mostruose, a cose indefinibili e senza nome. Davvero un'ottima selezione di racconti brevi per gli amanti del gotico, dell'horror e del macabro.
• 
  Edward Taylor

  Very good anthology, adaptation and expansion of the mythos by Campbell and others. Many of the tales remind me of Lumley's (included) "Titus Crow" series in that they weave in and out of both the old (Lovecraft) and the "new" (Derleth) throughout while breaking new ground in the dark cemetery that is all things chthonic.
• 
  Alfonso Junquera perez

  Como en toda colección de relatos hay algunos que nos llenan más que otros. El nivel en general no está mal pero en mi caso me han gustado especialmente Crouch End de Stephen King, El Pozo 247 de Basil Copper y Que Maldecir la oscuridad de David Drake. Misterio y terror a la vuelta de la esquina en el primero, ciencia ficción y opresión en el segundo, y aventura y moraleja en el tercero.
• 
  Hugh

  Picked this up in late 80s, when I had no idea who HPL was. Having really enjoyed these (or most of them, pretty consistent quality overall), I went to check him out, and... oh... that's it?! Sorry, much prefer these, probably paradoxically!
• 
  Carlos Santiago

  Una recopilación sorprendentemente sólida, más si tenemos en cuenta que es de varios autores. Aunque algunos son mejores que otros, a destacar el maravilloso Crouch End, todos son verdadero horror lovecraftiano con tintes personales de cada autor. Pequeñas maravillas que uno se encuentra por ahí.
• 
  Lecturas Impías

  Antología de relatos Lovecraftianos seleccionados por el famoso Ramsey Campbell.
  Como en todos estos libros hay relatos mejores y peores pero puedo confirmar que el nivel medio es alto, por lo que la lectura del libro es más que agradable.
  ¡Disfrutadlo!