Books of the Week: Carter & Lovecraft and After The End of the World.

Both by Jonathan Forward: Carter & Lovecraft is Mythos-tinged horror, and After The End of the World is its alternate-universe horror sequel*.  There has been a bit of an under-the-radar** controversy in the last few years in the horror community over old HP Lovecraft; which is complicated by the fact that it’s virtually impossible to write intelligent horror fiction that is neither positively nor negatively defined by the stylistic and conceptional tropes that Lovecraft instituted. Many, many, many reactionary*** critiques-in-fiction-form of Lovecraft’s views and literary style have been written; what distinguishes Forward’s two books here is that he can write.  I suspect that he also likes HPL a bit more than can be safely admitted among his set, but that’s just me. Anyway, fun books.

And so, adieu to The Dragons of Dorcastle oh my God that was such a good series I just chain-read it all.

 

Moe Lane

*Specifically, ‘Nazis win WW2’ alternate history where the Nazis more or less share Lovecraft’s own racial prejudices.  It’s a subtle trick that I missed on the first reading.

**It’s not under-the-radar because people don’t want to talk about it, often at the top of their voices; it’s under-the-radar because most people outside of the horror community don’t really care.

***You might say that that adjective was absolutely picked with malice aforethought, but I couldn’t possibly comment.