THE ASSAULTS OF CHAOS
A Novel about H. P. Lovecraft
by S. T. Joshi
Hippocampus Press 2013

[from ye front jacket flap]: In the summer of 1914, H. P. Lovecraft, a few months before his twenty-fourth birthday, receives a strange letter from his father, Winfield Scott Lovecraft--a father he thought had died sixteen years before--speaking cryptically of an urgent task that must be performed to save the world from a nameless fate. Meeting his father in Quinsnicket Park, Lovecraft is engulfed in an adventure that takes him across the water to his beloved England, where he encounters some of the titans of weird fiction. With this unusual but stalwart band of comrades, Lovecraft does indeed find himself facing a cosmic menace too horrible to contemplate . . .

In this supernatural novel by leading Lovecraft scholar S. T. Joshi, the young Lovecraft is brought vividly to life. The shy, retiring, inward-looking recluse is brought out of his shell and brought into contact with such of his literary idols as Arthur Machen, Lord Dunsany, and Algernon Blackwood. Together, they must deal with a horror from beyond the stars with the only weapons at their disposal--their minds and their imagination.

[from ye back of ye jacket, above a STUNNING image of H. P. Lovecraft (looking every inch ye weird author)]: "With this fantastic novel, S. T. Joshi incorporates his thorough understanding of H. P. Lovecraft's life and times, couples it with an evocative imagination and superb writing style, and gives us one of the most astonishing novels that I have ever read. Lovecraft lives within these pages. The book is a commanding celebration of a man--and a genre!" --W. H. Pugmire

Ye dust jacket is simply awesome. As soon as I get permission from ye publisher, I will shew ye jacket on Facebook.

"I'm a little girl."
--H. P. Lovecraft, Esq.

Sounds intriguing. Forgive my ignorance, but is this ST's first foray into fiction?

The English Assassin Wrote:
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> Sounds intriguing. Forgive my ignorance, but is
> this ST's first foray into fiction?


No, he has written some pretty good hard boiled detective fiction, and one of his early horror stories is in Acolytes of Cthulhu.

The idea of using Lovecraft or members of the Lovecraft Circle has a long reputation. It is an idea that I reject as an author--I feel that I don't want to place E'ch-Pi-El into his fictive universe--but I confess that I am delighted when it is effectively accomplished. I haven't read many novels in which Lovecraft is a main character. I remember trying to read a bloody awful thing called SHADOW'S BEND wherein HPL, Clark Ashton Smith and Robert E. Howard go on some Kerouacian road trip with a prostitute and fight the Outer Gawds of some such thing--had to toss ye thing in ye garbage when I was less than one-half into it. I did really enjoy LOVECRAFT'S BOOK by Lupoff when I read its initial Arkham House edition. There must be other such novels using HPL as a character that I have forgotten. It surprised me when S. T. told me that he was writing such a book, but then as I thought about it it made perfect sense--who better to write such a novel than the man who understand so intimately the subject? I was astonished at how supernatural the novel is, and yet it works absolutely and is a perfect delight. I am deeply honour'd that my wee quote was used on ye back cover--but that was more of a necessity than anything else, as I was one of the very few people to whom S. T. loan'd his MS of the work.

"I'm a little girl."
--H. P. Lovecraft, Esq.

British comic 2000ad had a story a few years ago featuring HP and others. I can't remember much about it now, although the artwork was brilliant.

[en.wikipedia.org]

Wilum, you must read Pulptime and The Lovecraft Chronicles by Peter Cannon if you haven't done so already.

Yes, I have, and Peter's work is brilliant. His newest book from Hippocampus Press, FOREVER AZATHOTH, is absolutely delightful and engrossing. I also really love his H. P. LOVECRAFT from Twayne's United States Authors Series, which seems to be a neglected book critically. Even Peter seems to dismiss it is his review at Publishers Weekly of the new Oxford edition of Lovecraft.

"I'm a little girl."
--H. P. Lovecraft, Esq.

wilum pugmire Wrote:
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> I did really enjoy LOVECRAFT'S BOOK by
> Lupoff when I read its initial Arkham House
> edition.

That book really confused me as a teenager; since its packaging is dead-serious in saying it "really" happened. I bought it thinking it was a new HPL biography. But when you read it, you realize it's complete fiction....



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 31 May 13 | 02:17PM by Gavin Callaghan.

I'm ambivalent about reading this, not because Joshi is not a good writer, but because I've hit the stage where my youthful gluttony of weird literature has ossified into devotion to a small handful of authors, with most of my reading time devoted to either poetry or research for my poetry.

devotion to a small handful of authors, with most of my reading time devoted to either poetry or research for my poetry.





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Well, my problem is I already own piles of books that I've yet to read, so I'm only buying stuff that I really want to read ASAP (the last Robert Aickman by Tartarus) or interesting bits and bobs I see in second hand bookshops.