Call of Cthulhu and Other Stories

By: H. P. Lovecraft

Narrated by: William Roberts

Length: 4 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

At the heart of these stories, as with all the best of Lovecraft’s work, is the belief that the Earth was once inhabited by powerful and evil gods, just waiting for the chance to recolonise their planet. Cthulhu is one such god, lurking deep beneath the sea until called into being by cult followers who – like all humans – know not what they do. It is because of these dark, mythic tales with their terrified awareness of the limits of Man’s knowledge, that H.P. Lovecraft is one of the most influential American writers.

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©2010 Naxos AudioBooks (P)2010 Naxos AudioBooks

Critic reviews

"Reading Lovecraft is challenge enough, but listening to his work can be fraught with peril - unless William Roberts is at the mike. Readers and listeners either love or hate Lovecraft, most commonly because of his complex language and near overwhelming sentence structure. Roberts takes on this challenge and delivers these short stories beautifully. He seems to have wrangled the leviathan that is Lovecraft's style and bullied it into submission. His delivery is engaging and dramatic. It shows that he has spent time with the text and understands the author's sometimes dizzying style. Best of all, he is able to communicate that understanding to the listener. Roberts's narration provides a perfect introduction for newcomers who are interested in Lovecraft’s work but who are intimidated by his reputation." (AudioFile magazine)

Monotonous, but still intriguing

Would you try another book from H. P. Lovecraft and/or William Roberts?

I probably won't be reading/listening to anything else by H.P. Lovecraft. It was fun to finally figure out what all the Cthulu business was all about, but it's still very old school and monotonous. This audiobook was only just over 4 hours long, but I listened to the first two hours... paused for a month, and then listened to the rest.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

I thought the ending was appropriate and I'll leave it at that.

Would you listen to another book narrated by William Roberts?

Yeah, his voice was fine. I found the parts where he was reading the native tongue of the Cthulu worshippers to be ridiculous, but that's just how it was written, so good for him.

Could you see Call of Cthulhu and Other Stories being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

I could see it being a bad sci-fi series along the lines of The X-files.

Any additional comments?

Again, not my highest recommendation, but worth it just so I could say "Oh, now I get all the pictures of that elephant headed, man bodied, octopus thing." Yup.

Original and well read

This is my first venture into HP Lovecraft and I definitely enjoyed it. The narrator was expressive and managed to keep the long descriptions and old-timey language interesting.

The only frustrating thing is that there was no table of contents at any point, so I never knew how many stories there would be or how far into each one I was. I resorted to listening for the story titles and looking them up on Wikipedia so I could get my bearings a little bit. If you're interested, the stories in this book are:
-the call of Cthulhu
-the hound
-the dunwich horror
-Dagon

Great intro

My first exposure to Lovecraft’s stories, though I’ve known of Lovecraftian horror for a good while. I like it!

The performance in this is great, so perfect for the content. It would be a challenge to read aloud the unpronounceable words of the ancients, but it sounds like the narrator had fun doing it.

I’d definitely recommend if you’re like me: new to Lovecraft, wanting more than one story, but not wanting ALL the Lovecraft. As another reviewer said, Cthulhu may have all the fame, but the Dunwich Horror is the real must-listen.

A good introduction to Lovecraft

I wanted to read about this author and this is a good selection of interesting stories!

Love this audiobook

I’ll never get tired of listening to this narrator re-read Lovecraft to me whenever I’m in the mood.

Boo!

Have you listened to any of William Roberts’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

My first time listening to William Roberts's reading. I think he was perfect for this tittle.

Any additional comments?

The stars must have right because this was near perfect!

Probably My Last Lovecraft book

My thoughts on this are pretty in line with what I've heard of HP Lovecraft. Loved the lore and cosmic horror elements, didn't particularly like his writing style and prose (there must be a synonym for cyclopean that he could have thrown in there), and did not like the blatant racism and xenophobia.

Lovecraft first listen

My grandson told me to get this book. I have listened to only the first book but it has made me wonder what else is in store. Fun book and superbly written. Narrator does a fantastic job 👁

Wonderfully Horrifying

H.P. Lovecraft is the absolute master of horror and fright ! A must read !

Call of Cthulhu

This book was recommended to me by someone, and I really could not get into the stories. The narrator was fine, but this was not my kind of book. I kept waiting for something to happen and it did not.