{"id":1469,"date":"2017-09-10T21:33:43","date_gmt":"2017-09-11T01:33:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?p=1469"},"modified":"2017-09-10T21:33:43","modified_gmt":"2017-09-11T01:33:43","slug":"whispers-from-the-abyss-an-anthology-of-h-p-lovecraft-inspired-short-stories-edited-by-kat-rocha-a-horror-book-review-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2017\/09\/10\/whispers-from-the-abyss-an-anthology-of-h-p-lovecraft-inspired-short-stories-edited-by-kat-rocha-a-horror-book-review-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Whispers from The Abyss \u2013 An Anthology of H. P. Lovecraft Inspired Short Stories \u2013\u00a0 Edited by Kat Rocha \u2013 A Horror Book Review \u2013 Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whispers from The Abyss \u2013 Part 1<\/a><\/p>\n

Taking up where I left off, I\u2019ll discuss some of the longer works in the anthology.\u00a0 I arbitrarily divided the works as those eight or more pages long and those shorter.\u00a0 First up, \u201cSecrets in Storage\u201d by Tim Pratt and Greg Van Eekhout. \u00a0It\u2019s a straightforward tale of a man who looks in a mysterious box.\u00a0 The set-up is up to the minute Americana.\u00a0 A man spends his whole nest egg on the contents of a storage locker.\u00a0 He goes with a hunch and of course exhibits more guts than brains when he reacts to an impossible scenario by literally climbing into the paradox.\u00a0 I like the ending.\u00a0 It reminds me of the ending of Heinlein\u2019s \u201cThe Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag.\u00a0 Only instead of no mirrors, no boxes or pools.\u00a0 It\u2019s a refreshing change of pace.<\/p>\n

Next is \u201cThe Substance in the Sound\u201d by W. B. Stickel.\u201d \u00a0This is also a simple tale but well told and the details of the characters and the harbor environment is interesting.\u00a0 The tie-in to the mythos is not the conventional one and allows some added surprise.\u00a0 As a New England resident it\u2019s always interesting when the stories return to Lovecraft\u2019s old stomping grounds.<\/p>\n

My favorite long story is The Jar of Aten-Hor. By Kat Rocha.\u00a0 It is a story linking back to the Egyptian religious customs surrounding death.\u00a0 The description of the funerary artifact around which the story revolves is very vividly described. As with some of Lovecraft\u2019s best imagery it calls out for a visual representation.\u00a0 But the description is detailed enough to bring it to the mind\u2019s eye.\u00a0 The protagonist at each turn is provided an avenue of escape and each time she believes that she is deciding her own fate but by the end of the story it is evident that she was the one being manipulated.\u00a0 Although Egypt wasn\u2019t the most frequent focus of Lovecraft\u2019s mythic sources he did borrow from it for some of his Old Ones names.\u00a0 I remember reading a description of the pyramids that Lovecraft wrote for some event of Harry Houdini\u2019s.\u00a0 It was entitled \u201cUnder the Pyramids.\u201d \u00a0It was one of the better things Lovecraft ever wrote.\u00a0 It\u2019s nice to see a story that links Lovecraft back to a rich source of highly relevant mythic material.\u00a0 The inexplicable changing images on the jar provide the link to show the change going on in the protagonist.\u00a0 Her fascination with the jar grows past a professional interest until finally it becomes an obsession.\u00a0 The story is well crafted and full of interesting details.\u00a0 If only Lovecraft himself had been as careful with his writing.\u00a0 Then I wouldn\u2019t have to make so much fun of him.<\/p>\n

In my final post I\u2019ll sum up my thoughts on Whispers from the Abyss and I\u2019ll even throw in some more abuse of Lovecraft at no extra charge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whispers from The Abyss \u2013 Part 1 Taking up where I left off, I\u2019ll discuss some of the longer works in the anthology.\u00a0 I arbitrarily<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[241,237,4,242],"tags":[68,200,360,255,354,358,38,265,359,361],"class_list":["post-1469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-reviews","category-sff","category-sff-book-reviews","tag-book-review","tag-fantasy","tag-greg-van-eekhout","tag-h-p-lovecraft","tag-horror","tag-kat-rocha","tag-review","tag-science-fiction","tag-tim-pratt","tag-w-b-stickel"],"yoast_head":"\nWhispers from The Abyss \u2013 An Anthology of H. P. 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