“And before he died, Taran-Ish had scrawled upon the altar of chrysolite with coarse shaky strokes the sign of DOOM.” – The Doom That Came to Sarnath by H.P. Lovecraft.
Warning, major spoilers up ahead because this story made me cranky.
Wil huddled on his cot, his eyes peering through a crack in the wall that admitted rooftops and starlight.
The mattress’s straw stuffing didn’t cushion him from the hard wood underneath. Tonight, Father had hit him again. Wil had rolled with each blow, but he still stung.
When I finished this short story, I looked around in the reader, wondering where the rest of it was.
For its weight class, Dagon is a strong contender. It packs good tension, a solid narrative structure, and a close lensing that allows us to get solidly behind the protagonist. No spoilers ahead, but still providing a break.
Here’s some wonderful work done on my behalf (you can click on either for the bigger version).
Thanks to Lauren Hambacher for the original concept and artwork shown here.
A pretty short story, but still, spoilers may exist as I plow forward.
I’m really not sure what to make of this story. Oh, right, spoiler alert, although there’s not that much to spoil.
Surgeon General’s Warning: Certain Colours can drive you MAD. Most colors, however, are safe. Except Agent Orange, which can cause cancer.
“OGTHROD AI’F
GEB’L-EE’H
YOG-SOTHOTH
‘NGAH’NG AI’Y
ZHRO!”
-Mystical Psychobabble from the story.
Thanks for the word-salad, Lovecraft. In all seriousness, read that aloud, in a dark room, it’s wholly chilling.
This was a very long, but very rewarding read. Here’s your obligatory spoiler warning:
“That is not dead which can eternal lie,
And with strange aeons even death may die.”
- H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu
The Call of Cthulhu, perhaps the most iconic and recognizable of H.P. Lovecraft’s Cosmic Horror stories, is also at once a let down and a wonder of literature.
“Radiates, vegetables, monstrosities, star spawn – whatever they had been, they were men!” – H.P. Lovecraft, At The Mountains of Madness
Warning, possible spoilers ahead. I do my best not to ruin the stories I review too much, but some discussion of plot is necessary.