Nice little collection of horror stories. Derleth attempted to capture HPL's master touch. Attempt not successful, but still an enjoyable read.

This is a collection of stories inspired....really, derived....from Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos. The re are numerous references to the Old Gods, Ancient Ones, Cthulhu, Hasture, Azathoth, etc. the Neconronomicon salso mentioned several times. But the stories in the first half all follow a similar sort of line, with the big reveal kn the italicized last paragraph(which Lovecraft used to great effect in The Outsider, e.g.). But it wears a bit thin after a while. The latter stories don't rely kn this...

Not amazing, but not horrible.

Here's the issue with this. It's God H.P. Lovecraft's name in big letters on the front cover, and August Derleth in a much smaller font. Even in the Goodreads page, Lovecraft is listed and Derleth not. But this is one of the deceits that comes withthis book. Lovecraft did not write the stories, or at least, not much of them. One of the stories runs to 50000 words, but only 1200 of them were written by Lovecraft. In other places, it's a single line of a plot from Lovecraft's "Commonplace Book" wh...

Derleth gets props for his work as a publisher and editor, and people mumble vaguely about his 'regional fiction' having its merits. But his Lovecraftian fiction is, not to mince words, shite. Lovecraft was a philosophical writer; there was a worldview at the heart of his fiction, a personal and strongly-felt perspective on this universe of ours. His earlier Dunsany-influenced fiction may not have reflected the fully-formed Lovecraftian conception of Cosmic Horror, but they had many wonderful tu...

I read this years ago, and hated it. Not even particularly sure why it got my dander up *that* much, but it did. A friend recently got it for me as a birthday gift, this newer edition, and so I started re-reading it. It's not that bad. A weird mix of new ideas, "sequels" to Lovecraft stories that did not need sequels, ret-conning of Lovecraft's mythos, and fanfic. Still, there is as much to like as to hate, here, and a couple of the stories are quite interesting on their own. I liked the "Dunwic...

I read this as a part of a project I've been working on for years. You can see an in depth analysis if you want on my Blog www.seanmmcbride.com. There are some fun short stories in here, but nothing like what Lovecraft had in his. These stories are all fairly derivative except for Witches' Hollow, which was fun and unique.

This took me forever to read, simply because most of the stories were exactly the same. “A young man inherits a mysterious house and discovers that supernatural forces are at play.” It was written well enough, but I was expecting “soul-chilling tales” and was extremely disappointed. As someone who scares easily, this surprisingly did nothing to me. Also, the title is a paper version of click bait. I got it because it had Lovecraft emblazoned on the cover, and found out while reading that it was

So now I'm praying for the watchers out of timeto hurry up and arrivecuz if I have to spend another minute with CthulhuI don't think that I could really survive...I'll never break my promiseor forget my vowetc etc etcIt never felt so good, it never felt so rightwe were sleeping in Rl'yeh till the stars were rightetc etc etcReally, Meatloaf (Nyarlathoaf) has nothing to do with this book.

The true title of this anthology should be "Tales written by August Derleth based on ideas thrown away by H.P. Lovecraft" - Similar to Phil's works to advance other writers for his own monetary (and egotistical) gain, Derleth (who at the time owned most of Lovecraft's works based upon contracts with Arkham House publishing) took old ideas that never bore fruit for HPL and wrapped his own words around them and published them as a collaboration between the two. Nevermind that the first of these ta...

As many people probably did, I bought this book because I love the work of H.P. Lovecraft, and I was interested to see what another author would do with his legacy. As I have said of other authors I absolutely love, if you're going to throw Lovecraft in my face, you better be prepared to back it up. I was looking for the eerie, weird vibe that I love about Lovecraft, and the stories fell flat too often. I am glad that I finished each of the tales, because I found one at the beginning, and one at...

I read the paperback version that does not include the short novel "The Lurker at the Threshold" which I read years ago. The remaining short stories amply demonstrate the problematic talents of Derleth. These stories are purported to be posthumous collaborations with Lovecraft, but the majority are entirely the work of Derleth who twisted Lovecraft's Mythos towards Christian tradition with the Old Ones standing in for demons and devils. Some stories are slightly more Lovecraftian in that very al...

First and foremost, this collection of short stories is mostly Derleth's work. That's not meant as a lash at the author, for he and Lovecraft were both dead by the time this was published and labeled as "HP Lovecraft." Derleth's name appears in small font on the cover, while Lovecraft's blares from it.Derleth and Lovecraft had been friends, and when Lovecraft passed away, Derleth finished Lovecraft's unfinished sentences/ideas that Lovecraft had jotted down.To be honest and fair, I don't think t...

1.5 stars. Wanted to like it, but couldn't overcome my frustration at lack of action, rapid denouement, and repetition of story lines.BUT - there are many new words you can learn by reading this book, including: batrachian (used about 37 times), mountebank, eldritch (used about 15 times), lissome, icthyic, squamously (yes, that's an adverb), and armigerous.These stories were not written by H.P. Lovecraft, as the title suggests. Rather, they were written by August Derleth, a friend of Lovecraft's...

Granted,I was not feeling too warm and fuzzy about Derth from the start by the insulting introduction about Lovecraft and then to find out Lovecraft had very little to do with the writing of these stories and then the Christianization of the stories...Well,I was not pleased.This book goes back to the library not completed.Back to Lovecraft and his friends at Cthulu 2000.

This book is sort of "Meh" made incarnate. Suggestively, horribly "Meh", I should say. These stories were fleshed out by August Derleth from notes and fragments left by Lovecraft. These days, we'd call it Fan-Fic, and like the modern thing, it seeks to add to what the original creates. Unfortunately, like a lot of Fan-fic, it just isn't up to the standard set by the creator. Derleth just isn't the sort of Master of unrolling paranoia and exploring psychology that Lovecraft is -- he depends on st...

I admit the marketing for this book is insanely misleading, and I remember when I bought it in the 9th grade I kind of knew Lovecraft had never written the stores that I saw were in the table of contents, and I did get the idea when reading it that these weren't even collaborations, they were 95 percent of more just August Derleth. I don't know, maybe the titles were created by Lovecraft and the stories written by Derleth. But I don't agree at all with the universal panning of this book. It's tr...

The Watchers Out of Time was originally an Arkham House publication consisting of redacted interpretations of a share of Lovecraft's fragmented spinnings. Largely written by friend and author August Derleth, though marketed, much to the chagrin of Lovecraft admirers, as a genuine Lovecraft, the stories run the gamut of classical weird fiction, pressing similar boundaries as the like of Derleth's predecessor, to suspenseful mysteries of the alien sublime. Derleth's writing is unmistakably Lovecra...

Derleth is a good writer but somewhat misses the forest for the trees in his Lovecraftian work. By formally arranging the hierarchy of Lovecraftian gods, he somewhat diminishes their terror. He seems more interested in alluding to HPL’s work than developing his own stories. The result is a collection of well-written, but repetitive gothic stories rather than true Lovecraftian fiction. Still worth a read if you’re a fan.

I wasn't feeling this one and when I found out from Goodreads that Lovecraft didn't even write it, I threw in the towel. I guess I was fooled by the giant H.P. LOVECRAFT across the cover! I got through three stories and they were all basically the same. Maybe I'll come back to this one day, but probably not.