Current mood:

pleased

Review of my first non-FFG published fiction
Arkham Tales
Edited by William Jones

Someone will have to fill me in on the authors' reimbursement but I
think it was peanuts plus 2 copies of the book, so truly these stories
are labors of love. What I really like is there was a solicitation of
stories and a culling process by the highly respected William Jones,
from Elder Signs Press. This means the stories are notches above the
cycle books. List price is $15.95 but it is discounted on Amazon to
$10.37, and available for free shipping if you buy $25 worth of stuff
(like Hardboiled Cthulhu!). There is no discount at Chaosium, plus
shipping charges attach. I could not find it listed at Shocklines.
The book itself is a good quality trade paperback, like all the cycle
books. Page count is 288, not counting the editor's note, so very
generous! The editor's note by William Jones is quite useful and
details the setting for the anthology in Chaosium's world.
Unfortunately there are no bios on the authors. Cover art is by Steven
Gilberts. It shows a grizzled one eyed grounds keeper at Miskatonic
University, shadowed by various critters. I am not sure, but I believe
this is very appropriate because Mr. Gilberts did the artwork for some
CoC game scenarios. This brings me to the biggest flaw in the book:
there were at least a half dozen careless typos. I did not jot them
down as I was reading but, for example, p160 "fowl odors." Unless
everything was supposed to smell like chickens. I think someone relied
too much on a spell checker. Also in the story Burnt Tea by Michael
Dziesinski busted was used as a descriptive adjective, "busted
body." OK, I'll accept that a woman has a bust, or a narc conducts
a bust, or you sculpt a bust. I'll buy that if you are writing
colloquially in dialogue, or representing someone's thoughts, to say
something was busted is appropriate, but in removed narrative it reads
like the mistake of an ignoramus. Why not broken body? I saw this
same mistaken usage twice in another story somewhere recently, maybe a
chapbook, and I was equally put off by it. I won't say it killed the
story, but goodness gracious it peeved me. I'll admit to having
greatly enjoyed Eats, Shoots, & Leaves by Lynne Truss, so consider this
my panda paw print.

Here are the contents (not otherwise listed elsewhere that I could
find, so I typed the dang thing myself):

Mysterious Dan's Legacy - Matthew Baugh
Vaughn's Diary - Robert Vaughn
The Orb - Tony Campbell
The Nether Collection - Cody Goodfellow
Worms - Pat Harrigan
They Thrive in Darkness - Ron Shiflet
What Sorrows May Come - Lee Clark Zumpe
Arkham Pets - James Ambuehl
Small Ghost - Michael Minnis
Burnt Tea - Michael Dziesinski
Arkham Rain - John Goodrich
Regrowth - David Conyers
The Idea of Fear - CJ Henderson
Disconnected - Brian Sammons
The Lady in the Grove - Scott Lette
On Leave in Arkham - Bill Bilstad
Geometry of the Soul - Jason Andrew

Spoilers may follow so stop now if that bothers you *********

Mysterious Dan's Legacy - Matthew Baugh - This is a new author to
me. In 1873 a Kansas cowboy (that was frontier territory right after
the Civil War) comes to Arkham to collect an inheritance, which brings
unwelcome knowledge, responsibilities and enemies. This was a very
likeable story; I wonder if the protagonist, Daniel Hawkins, will
become a regular character in Mr. Baugh's stories.

Vaughn's Diary - Robert Vaughn - Here is one story where my
knowledge of the source material wasn't up to scratch and I
couldn't remember if there was an antecedent story but HPL or someone
else, so I don't recognize the name Timothy Erasmus Vaughn. Never
ever read the diary of a deceased relative who was an occultist in
Arkham. Never! I hadn't read anything by Mr. Vaughn before, but
this was a good read and I hope he is writing more mythos fiction.

The Orb - Tony Campbell - Tony Campbell wrote After the War which
appeared in Horrors Beyond. I liked that story well enough but it
didn't knock my socks off. That impression is confirmed in The Orb,
which is also OK but doesn't stand up to the best in this anthology.
A Miskatonic Unversity librarian's father has to match wits with the
Hounds of Tindalos and Nyalathotep.

The Nether Collection - Cody Goodfellow - After the absorbing
Cahokia in Horrors Beyond and the unreasonably entertaining To Skin a
Dead Man in Hardboiled Cthulhu, and his sensational novels Radiant Dawn
and Ravenous Dusk, Mr. Goodfellow can basically do no wrong. This was
a change of pace, being a story of Harry Houdini and Lovecraftian
ghouls. What can I say, I really liked it.

Worms - Pat Harrigan - This was a fascinating story by an author I
never encountered before. It chronicles the rise of a man from office
drone to fanatical rabble rouser, with terrific Lovecraftian touches
scattered throughout. I loved that more subtle touches were used as
opposed to the usual rub your face in the fact that there's a mythos
out there.

They Thrive in Darkness - Ron Shiflet - With Unfinished Business in
Hardboiled Cthulhu Mr. Shiflet now has two tales of Pickman and his
ghouls in print. While I enjoyed the story, I confess to liking
Unfinished Business better.

What Sorrows May Come - Lee Clark Zumpe - Mr. Zumpe wrote The
Breach, a terrific story in Horrors Beyond, and has a few stories in
mythos magazines. This effort was OK, sort of a reanimation tale with
a protective ghost thrown in. I liked the prose but the story left me
flat; I didn't dislike it, there was just better stuff here.

Arkham Pets - James Ambuehl - This very brief story by the
ubiquitous Mr. Ambuehl concerned a boy who finds some crawly things in
an Arkham swamp and decides to bring them home. Complications ensue.
I found this amusing and diverting.

Small Ghost - Michael Minnis - Mr. Minnis is very productive.
Recently we've had A Little Color in Your Cheeks in Horrors Beyond
(mostly good) The Prodigies of Monkfield Cabot in Eldritch Blue (OK),
Salt Air (superb) in Dead But Dreaming and The Butcher of Vyones
(great) Lost Worlds of Space and Time #1. Small Ghost was terrific,
maybe the highlight of ArkhamTales. It was about Brown Jenkin, the rat
like witch's familiar and someone with the health department.

Burnt Tea - Michael Dziesinski- I already mentioned my problem with the
typos. Otherwise this was a very nifty work by an author I never
encountered before, about the Hounds of Tindalos and Japanese tea
ceremonies in the 1920s.

Arkham Rain - John Goodrich - Mr. Goodrich is active on the mythos
scene but I don't recall seeing his work before. I'll have to
remedy that! Arkham Rain was a terrific story about the Innsmouth
taint visiting an unwitting family. An old mythos trope? You bet!
But this was a wonderfully original take.

Regrowth - David Conyers - I'm a big David Conyers fan. He is
becoming well published in almost all the newer mythos anthologies.
This story has some thematic similarity to False Containment in Horrors
Beyond, and deals with unnatural melding of disparate species. Being a
Conyers yarn it was a good read, although I've liked other stories by
him better.

The Idea of Fear - CJ Henderson - We, of course, did need a hard
boiled PI story in this book! Who better to do it than the masterful
CJ Henderson? But this story was refreshingly different; the ending
will catch you by surprise, as a PI and a medium try to find a ghost.

Disconnected - Brian Sammons - Mr. Sammons can also do no wrong,
especially after One Way Conversation in Horrors Beyond. This is
another winner. I(t is about the Mi-Go and Yuggoth, and a PI tracking
down a missing relative. But like everything else by Brian Sammons, do
not expect the usual mythos conventions or story format.

The Lady in the Grove - Scott Lette - Yet another new author to me
and yet another auspicious introduction! An Irish enforcer is sent to
Arkham to provide a little muscle for an MU professor.

On Leave in Arkham - Bill Bilstad - Ditto the above. This story
has a complex construction with rapidly switching time frames and
viewpoints, about WWI veteran/murderer. Very worthwhile read.

Geometry of the Soul - Jason Andrew - Also a new author to me, Mr.
Andrew's story was only OK, about a MU expedition that goes horribly
awry. The initial few pages in the Arkham sanitarium were much better
for me than the last few pages.

So in summary, this is a terrific book of all brand new fiction. Even
the stories that weren't the best were pretty good, and the best
stories were first rate. The price is low and the page count is
generous. Don't try to choose between it and Hard Boiled Cthulhu;
order both of them discounted from Amazon! Together they are still
less than Weird Shadows Over Innsmouth. Mythos fans should not
hesitate.