Bastion Drake

Aimless and Banal overall

Revisado: 12-17-24

The first three stories here were exceptionally well written and interesting while promoting a dark and festive atmosphere that this collection targets. Unfortunately, this momentum comes to a shuddering halt with the dull and incongruous scarecrow story. Having nothing to do with any form of solstice theme, a man driving through the South becomes obsessed with a "slow" little girl that hangs out in a field. She says she will build a scarecrow but never gets around to it. The end. The next few hours are full of this nonsense, off-theme plots and boring stories. There's a few decent stories mixed-in but it's mostly a meandering mess until it ends smartly with John Langan's witch story. Not one of his best but still pretty good, though not good enough to raise the average past a 5/10 overall.

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Poorly Genred mixed bag that spikes high and low

Revisado: 07-11-24

The first thing to note is that overall, I'm very happy that I took the time to listen to this collection. That said, it was only for a few exceptionally high quality stories, there are many duds, mostly in the middle, that were a complete waste of time. What's more, all the best stories were 100% science fiction. Not sci-fi/fantasy mind you, legitimate, culturally relevant science fiction. Horrifying yes but not horror or dark fantasy in genre.

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Caution not Condemnation

Revisado: 03-22-24

Just a quick note on the editor (profiteer). It's a real pity that a dreamer's work is so twisted by certain philistines like the editor, Eli Roth. The unthinking anti-science creatures that mistake caution for condemnation of science. He states in particular that we biologists have played god and come to regret it like in the Island of Dr. Moreau and in this he is technically correct, while we haven't created any monstrosities and have in fact pristinely created technology that improves and extends the life of humans we did create him and his ilk by indiscriminately saving lives through medicine and vaccines. There was no way around it. He lives because of the very science he condemns and likewise all the other malignant parts of our society. At least H.G. Wells is dead so he didn't have to see his nightmares come to life.

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From a fanatic of the genre:

Revisado: 09-22-23

This collection hits the sweet spot for the brackish genre of dark, weird fiction. It leans more on the side of fantasy over science fiction but never fully commits to either. While the stories are dark, they're not gruesome or distasteful by any means. They exist solely on the value of their unique and creative concepts. It's not the best collection I've ever read but it's certainly in the top tier. The narrator, I feel, was poorly chosen. He's fine at what he does but he doesn't generate any dread or mystery. It changes the tone of every story to a more mundane level.

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A Must-Read for Anthology Lovers

Revisado: 09-09-23

These are some real top quality science fiction stories with a little fantasy vibe in each. What really makes this set stand out is the nearly unmatched quality of audio performance. The full cast and narration make them completely immersive and entertaining. It is a little difficult to understand the world's at first due primarily to their unique jargon and too original names but you get past it. It was also interesting to listen to the brainstorming sessions that lead to the stories after hearing them. I did however have very little interest in re-listening to the stories in their first drafts.

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Exemplar of Audio Theater

Revisado: 07-21-22

The Dark Adventure adaptations are always excellent but this one was just about perfect. Voices, sound effects, music, atmosphere, all were exemplary. Dark Adventure usually adds on to the ending from the originals, which I like but the extra content here actually detracted from climax.

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Grating

Revisado: 07-20-22

I know it’s not entirely fair to write a review for a book I didn’t finish but this was just awful. I had to quit when it became clear that the content of the book was almost entirely snarky dialogue and bad horror movie cliches, the latter of which, the author puts forth one after another as if reading off a list, including the unforgivable, “It’s like we’re in a horror movie and we’re doing all the dumb things the characters do.” The banter is all annoying boiler plate and does not contribute to the story. There is at best one event for every twenty lines of circular dialogue. The narrator was not bad and mercifully didn’t do the abhorrent male voice that so many female narrators do in books with a lot male dialogue.

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Dracula's Brother

Revisado: 04-20-22

This is truly the ultimate epitome of werewolf media. Maberry was the perfect author for this project. It really couldn't have been better or more iconic. It felt like reading Dracula for the first time.

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Teenage Day-dreams

Revisado: 04-13-22

To be fair, I only got through a third of the book and couldn't go any further. By the way, I only write reviews based on the story in a vacuum, as if it were written yesterday by someone I've never heard of, who wrote it for no reason whatsoever.

The stories had some entertainment value but not enough to offset there banality. If this was advertised as a young adult volume, then I would have abstained from reviewing it. As is, the stories had no artistic, moral, or philosophical value and most notably, painfully simple plots. They were true to form, the exact stories I would make up, day-dreaming in high school and nothing more. Now, if you consider my review pretentious and mean, you may well enjoy and love this book. There is absolutely a place for it with young adults just looking to have fun. It simply fails all of my personal qualifications.

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A great mythos collection.

Revisado: 01-09-22

Overall, I definitely recommend this one to Lovecraft fans. Most collections have a focus on one aspect of the mythos and this is no exception. Lovecraft, In a Time of Madness finds its niche in doom and damnation. It maintains the spirit of the mythos while being entirely independent and unbound by the path of direct sequels.
For me, the biggest detractor of the audiobook is the narrator. The narrator's endogenous voice fits well for several of the stories and there is nothing innately wrong with the narration, however it just doesn't fit with most of the stories, A bit of vocal variety would have been welcome.
The strangest part is that two of the stories are repeated but with full cast dramatization. These are certainly the best part of the audiobook but having already experienced them within the same volume, there placement is poor to say the least.

The King in Binary by Madison (Killeon?): I thought the King in Yellow was lackluster but it did inspire a great deal of exceptional sequels; such is the case here. A fascinating blend of AI existentialism and true Lovecraftian Horror, this is both unique and good. I recommend skipping the first iteration and waiting for the full cast version later in the book.

In the Flat Field by Scotty Milder: This was fine but it was leaning a little more on the gruesome side of horror than I enjoy.

The Azimuth Pilot by C.R. (Tyroke?): The author wrote very elegantly, I honestly could have been convinced that it was written by Lovecraft himself. Still, it bored me a quite a bit.

Kept in Shadow by Mark Wheaton; This is probably my favorite. A story of ghosts and ghost hunters but not the banal kind that America is in love with. These are ghosts of an eldritch and strange nature.

Knights of the Non-Euclidian Table by Mitchell (Newtie?): A Sequel to the legends of King Arthur with Eldritch abominations. Pretty good though this is one that should have been read by a different narrator.

The Gulf Breach by Jack Faircloth: A lonely musician is looking for companionship for the last night on Earth. This one would have been a lot better with a deeper voice narrator.

Zodiac Harvest by Jennifer Jean: One of those friendly hipster alien stories. No good.

Chum by Patrick (Mooley?): A tale of sacrifice and the horrors of the sea. The plot is nothing special but it was certainly entertaining.

The Roof of the World by C. L. Werner: Scientists set forth to find the elusive yeti but find something far more terrifying. This one's very good.

The Obsession of Dr. Pulk by Keneth Bikirk: Now, I would have greatly enjoyed this story if not for the (a)moral at the heart. This idiotic veneration for homeopathy over modern medicine is as damaging as it is baseless. Evil doctors and mad science are great but only when the author conveys that their existence is for entertainment purposes only.

Where Spirits Tread by Thomas Parrot: A tale of memory loss and dark places beneath the tides. This one was dead center, not bad but not great.

The Valley of Kings by Scott Miller: This one is not, strictly speaking, Lovecraftian. Instead it's a character driven fantasy horror. Pretty good.

A Summoning on Saint Ann by Justin Fillmore: A dinner party for the islands elite takes an unexpected turn. Certainly one of the better stories of the collection.

Passing Through by Erick (Handy?): Not even remotely Lovecraftian but it did have some vaguely interesting science fiction concepts.

The Eye of the Sahara by Adam Grey : Extremely formulaic and adds little to the mythos but is nonetheless a fine and entertaining tale.

Savage Road by David F. Grey: Great story but the narrator does attrocious voices for the characters.

Kit and Howard by Andres (Es?): A Fascinating Doctor Who style tale of young Lovecraft.

Down the Drain by Donovan McDowell: A nice bit of character driven sci fi horror.

Old Dogs by Felix Flin: Not at all Lovecraftian but pretty good all the same.

The Key, the Gate, His Peacock Tongue: Unique but stupid, very stupid. Just a bunch of disjointed nonsense meant to come together like a jigsaw puzzle.

Esca by Erica Schaaf: Pretty good, go directly to the theatrical version at the end.

Cthulhu vs. Kaiju - Mitchell Luthi: Another great theatrical presentation. Everyone's thought about it; Cthulhu in a giant monster battle. Gotta love it.

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