I'm about a third of the way through The Book of Eibon and on the whole enjoying it. The original works by Laurence J Cornford out shine the Lin Carter posthumous collaborations, which are on a par with the Lovecraft\Derleth collaborations.

Price's introduction pieces give to much of the following work away and would be better moved to the end of the work. Also, his insistence on using a biblical analogy at every opportunity draws a blank stare from this reader. In a predominately secular society I would expects readers of this particular work (and readers of fantasy and Sci-Fi in general) to be only superficial acquainted with the bible and in no way conversant with the scholarly debates Price mentions.

While Price is a good bible scholar and fantasy editor - A separate hat is need for each role.

Boyd.

While I haven't yet seen the Chaosium collection, I can agree that Laurence does a good job on "The House of Haon Dor" and at least one other Smithian effort included in the book. I read these a few years ago when Laurence and I were corresponding quite often.
I can also understand your dissatisfaction with the Biblical analogy approach by Price, it seems quite unappropriate to me as well. Might have to get a copy of this book, just for fun!
-Ron

Finished the rather uninspired The book of Eibon. I use to avidly anticipate the next release in the Chaosium COC fiction series but stopped around book 10. While the short story is its own literary form, not without merit, after reading so many of them, so similarly themed, they tend to blend in to one mass with only the rarest gem remembered as an individual (Poppy Z Brite's 'wormwood' comes to mind (but not its full title) but don't ask me what it was published in).

With that in mind, the most satisfying thing I found about The Book of Eibon was finishing it - so that I could start something else. The Smith pieces of course were great but there were only 2. The Price and Cornford stories were nice and the Carter ones filled a void in my Smith'ian knowledge.

Some of the poetry was nice, the rituals section (53 pages :-O ) made bad Hollywood pastiches look good.

In case I sound too negative let me say I admire all those who actually contributed and know some of them personally but fell my love affair with Chaosium's COC fiction is dead and buried.

Further more to my earlier (post on the 14th) comments on Price's introductions there was a rare gem of unique incite fullness that left me wondering why I had never thought of that.

While the Chaosium Production line rolls on, I'm off to read William Burroughs, Michel Houellebecq, Chuck Palahniuk, Irvine Welsh and Vladimir Nabokov …

Looking forward to other views,
Boyd.

I've read the majority of the book, and have put it aside for now. There's a sameness to the stories that's not surprising, since they're all pastiches. Carter, in particular, was a master of avoiding anything that might appear to be original. Stories like these are best taken a few at a time.

I think that Chaosium has put out some fine stuff lately, like the Robert W. Chambers anthology. "The Book of Eibon" is a nice volume for a CAS completist, and I'm happy that I bought it.

Just wondering if anyone knows where "The Tsathoggua Cycle" fits into Chaosium's publishing schedule. Price was supposed to use an old tale of mine in this book, though I haven't heard from him in years, and he never paid me for it. Still, it would be nice to actually SEE the thing in print.
-Ron

I have enjoyed The Book of Eibon immensely. It is consistent in it's dark antique, black-iron sorcery feel, which I enjoy a lot more (as an insiration, and a vehicle with which to explore the Mythos) than the usual cast of 1920's imperially-conditioned nervous wrecks who'd rather drink tea and argue outdated theories with their fellow scholars than investigate anything truly unusual.
As an occultist, I have found great value in both the stories themselves, and in some of the thought behind the rituals. Sennett's work is encouraging to see, though I do wish more Lovecraftian occultists would make themselves so available. (just realized what a hypocrite I am after typing that.)
I am looking forward to The Tsathoggua Cycle, but I wonder how much real Tsathogguah material by C.A.Smith it is going to include. If anyone here has read it, I would certainly appreciate their take on it.

~Vhoorl

While generally I think that Chaosium are still publishing good collections (R.W. Chmabers and Arthur Machen colections, "The Song of Cthulhu"), "The Eibon of Eibon" in my opinion is kind of flop. A mix of stories, poems, rituals and incantations gets quite tiring...I must admit that I haven't read the whole book to the end. I skipped the ritual section - totally unnecessary, what's the point of publishing over 50 pages of babbling; poems were ok, but nothing special. So I basically concentrated on the stories, where I would say one half were good, and the other so-so. To sum up: a flawed collection with lots of uselless stuff.

It was a fun collection, but Irek is correct that there was a fair amount of dead weight.

Hi! I am a new member to this site and feel that this subject is as good a starting point as any. Well, what do you readers think about the use of ideas from Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith on film? I hold the view that in the Lucio Fulci horror film, "The Beyond", that the infamous Book of Eibon is used out of context. Indeed, perhaps this could also be said of the even more infamous "Necromonicon". Furthermore, H P Lovecraft did not often desribe actual violence in his works. Therefore, is it not wrong that film directors seem to borrow his themes in order to create images of graphic death on screen? Then again, I must confess to being a keen fan of such films myself! I'm looking forward to your replies!


Many Thanks

From Julian


julianuk@37.com