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The Book of Cthulhu  By  cover art

The Book of Cthulhu

By: Ross E. Lockhart - editor
Narrated by: Fleet Cooper, Teresa DeBerry
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Editorial reviews

Fans of H. P. Lovecraft's famously malevolent tentacle monster, Cthulu, will love this collection of 27 stories inspired by the influential fantasy creature. Weird, modern, and alien, these tales are among the best examples of the Cthulu Mythos story cycle. Meticulously compiled by Ross E. Lockhart, stories in this volume include contributions from Kage Baker, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Ramsey Campbell, and many more. Somber and menacing performances from Teresa DeBerry and screen and voice actor Fleet Cooper add to the air of mystery and foreboding.

Publisher's summary

The Cthulhu Mythos is one of the 20th century's most singularly recognizable literary creations. Initially created by H. P. Lovecraft and a group of his amorphous contemporaries (the so-called "Lovecraft Circle"), The Cthulhu Mythos story cycle has taken on a convoluted, cyclopean life of its own. Some of the most prodigious writers of the 20th century, and some of the most astounding writers of the 21st century have planted their seeds in this fertile soil. The Book of Cthulhu harvests the weirdest and most corpulent crop of these modern mythos tales. From weird fiction masters to enigmatic rising stars, The Book of Cthulhu demonstrates how mythos fiction has been a major cultural meme throughout the 20th century, and how this type of story is still salient, and terribly powerful today.

©2011 Ross E. Lockhart (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about The Book of Cthulhu

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Fantastic performance!

The last story, "The men of Porlock" was my favorite! The performance by the reader was flawless. Must hear. Spooky!

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Not for Everyone

Fans of Lovecraft will be for the most part pleased. Expect canon typical gore/ violence/sanity bending/sexism and racism. The last two, for those familiar with the original stories, are actually very mild and underplayed.

The performances were Good to Excellent with only one chapter being ultimately unsatisfactory ( it dragged. I skipped it).

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great mix

Great mix of stories for someone trying to get a feel for the Cthulu mythos.

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Heavy rotation

Long time HPL reader, I bought this book as an attempt at a distraction from my day to day life. What I discovered has blown me away like I never suspected. These stories are as true to the mythos as any others I'd ever read, or even derivative works within the "universe". The difference, for me, is that several of these stories are of such high quality that I rank them among the best I've ever read and a few are 'insta-classic' with me. And so I believe that one thing that sets this compilation apart (out of many), is the level of professional effort brought to the writing and editing of this volume. Which is something I have frequently found absent with so many other works along the same skein. Here, within this audiobook, the authors rarely seemed compelled to force HPL's works or materials into the body of their stories. They pretty much came off as a natural evolution and expansion of the existing infrastructure. Or untold tales in some cases. So I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in HPL but also good storytelling and strong narrative.

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Lots of Monster Fun

Incredible anthology of short (and somewhat longer) stories that mostly are great listens, some really make your skin crawl

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a mix of good ones and bad ones

some are really good, some are bad, and others are terrible. overall not bad though.

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A decent collection worth a listen

This collection has some decent stuff in it. It has several stories that are not worth listening to. But overall, the majority of them are relatively decent. Unlike the second volume of this series, this volume actually has original and inspired works by authors who want to actually write their own eldritch horror stories. The second volume is pretty much just eldritch smut - written by fan boys/girls who just produce fan service. Not this volume, though. This one's worth listening to if you're a fan of eldritch fiction.

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Fantastic, Creepy and Unsettling

From the start these stories delve into fantastic regions of the imagination. With themes that reach beyond the simple existential horror laid out in words, each story only serves to represent the genre strongly. Alternate histories, strange apocalypses, cultural nightmares, this is a great collection, with great readers, truly following in the footsteps of H.P. Lovecraft.

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True to the genre

Explores a number of aspects of the Cthulhu mythos in well-written, homage-esque stories. Ftaghn!

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Not Bad

It's a bit disjointed. A book of stories held together by a common theme, but the nature of Cathulu changes story to story. Overall not a bad book with good narration.

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