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Title: Titus Crow: The Burrowers Beneath the Transition of Titus Crow by Brian Lumley ISBN: 0-312-86867-7 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: 01 February, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.23 (13 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A valuable expansion to the mythos
Comment: Oh, this was nice. This was *very* nice. One *ought* to be a Lovecraft fan before reading this happy work, but--as I am an example--it isn't a requirement for enjoying the heck out of it. I have read some small amount of Lovecraft, but my interest in the mythos stems primarily from a vast fascination with squid and other squamous beings.
Then was lent this book by a friend, on the premise that it might do well toward broadening my appreciation of the Cthulhoid. It was immediately engrossing, written in the grand old vocabulary-expanding style. Readers of H.P. will find that the tone rings perfectly true, complete with the lapses into rhapsodic description (of, say, a prehistoric pear's flavor). Titus does, in classic form, lapse at intervals into raving insensibility. Oddly comforting, that. While The Burrowers Beneath deals with Cthulhu himself, and his creatures, and is gloriously well-written, I shall direct most of my comments toward The Transition of Titus Crow. The Burrowers Beneath is a fine Cthulhu yarn, but I found 'Transition' to be a more fascinating read. The world, and the metaphysical realms it resides in, are still undoubtedly Lovecraftian. The territory explored, however, is utterly new and it s a joy to see how well and freshly the science-fiction-flavored material can be treated with the old master's pen.
Rating: 4
Summary: Cthulhu Mythos as 1930's Pulp
Comment: Concerning the Cthulhu Mythos, Brian Lumley is a writer of the August Derleth school. While Lovecraft and others had the total meaninglessness of the universe as their cosmological base, Derleth wrote the Mythos as a battle between good and evil between ultimate forces. Lumley takes this further, stripping the Mythos of its supernatural aspects and putting it solidly into the realm of science fiction. What were supernatural aspects of the mythos stories are now an alien science as the forces of good personified in the Elder Gods struggle with mankind to keep the evil beings of the Cthulhu Mythos trapped within their eternal prisons and foil the attempts of those who would release them.
Lumley's style is also reminiscent of the pulp genre popular in the 1930's with morally black-and-white heroic protagonists aided by beautiful heroines in a story of non-stop, bigger-than-life struggles and battles. So, if your taste goes toward the more amoral, often pornographic splatterpunk tales that pass for Mythos stories today, you're going to be disappointed.
In the first book, The Burrowers Beneath introduces Titus Crow and his sidekick Henri-Laurent dr Marigny as well as the Wilmarth Foundation, an organization of Miskatonic University dedicated to study and destroy the deities of the Cthulhu Mythos. Told through fragments of diaries and letters, the Burrowers are the spawn of Shudde-M'ell involved in an intricate plot to take over earth and release Cthulhu from his prison in sunken R'lyeh. Lumley's craft at writing shines through in many places, but special interest should be paid to Chapter 9, The Night Sea-Maid Went Down, a short story embedded within the novella that would have even satisfied the Old Gentleman of Providence himself.
In its delivery, The Transition of Titus Crow is sheer pulp taken from the 1930's in style and plot with Crow as the protagonist as he wanders the universe seeking Elysia, the heavenly home of the Elder Gods and then seeking a way to return back to Earth. Though not as good as The Burrowers Beneath, the reader is introduced to some familiar members of the Cthulhu Mythos such as Ithaqua, Cthulhu, Cthulhu's daughter, and we're given a logical, scientific interpretation of Yog Sothoth's other name, the Lurker at the Threshold that is quite creative.
Rating: 1
Summary: Egad, NO!
Comment: Lumley has written good fiction, when he stays away from Lovecraft pastiches. The problem with these two "novels" isn't just thet they're pulpy (though they are) or that Lumley doesn't handle Lovecraft's ideas very well (though he doesn't). The problem is that they're poorly-constructed, ridiculous examples of the worst kind of pulp pastiche; think Lin Carter, only worse. Yes, if you think that long lists of horrible cosmic monsters from outside, ancient forbidden tomes of ghastly magical lore, and various other Lovecraftian arcana represent some kind of accomplishment(and apparently many HPL fans do), then you may find something to enjoy here, because that represents the bulk of both stories. "Burrowers" is two of Lumley's (weak) early short stories, with pages (and pages, and pages) of Titus Crow and his buddy De Marigny making lists of Lovecraft deities and books (endlessly) and theorizing about the "Mythos." Then they try to kill a "Cthonian." Then their house gets blown away. End of book 1. "Transition" is even worse, much of it made up of fragmentary notes (supposedly Crow's taped or recorded comments about his cosmic journeys) none of which actually adds up to anything (just more Lovecraft name-dropping). It also introduces us to such "brilliant" concepts as a "good" Cthulhu who's a big chief of the "Elder Gods" (complete with shimmering white-light aura around his blobby tentacled bod, if I recall correctly) and Cthulhu's daughter (fortunately, Lumley never got around to giving us "Bride of Cthulhu" or "Son of Cthulhu"). Look for Lumley's non-Lovecraftian short fiction, and you'll find a supernatural horror author with real talent. Unless you're just starving for anything with the words "Cthulhu" and "Necronomicon" in it, do yourself a favor and pass on the Crow books (especially this one).
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Title: Titus Crow: In the Moons of Borea & Elysia : The Coming of Cthulhu by Brian Lumley ISBN: 0312868669 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: 01 October, 2000 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: The Whisperer and Other Voices by Brian Lumley ISBN: 0312878028 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: 01 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Hero of Dreams by Brian Lumley ISBN: 0812524195 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: 01 December, 1993 List Price(USD): $4.99 |
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Title: Beneath the Moors and Darker Places by Brian Lumley ISBN: 0312876947 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: 01 February, 2002 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Ship of Dreams by Brian Lumley ISBN: 0812524209 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: 01 January, 1994 List Price(USD): $4.99 |
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