Necronomicon

De: H. P. Lovecraft

Narrado por: Richard Powers, Bronson Pinchot, Stephen R. Thorne, Keith Szarabajka, Adam Verner, Tom Weiner, Patrick Cullen

The only audio edition of Necronomicon authorized by the H. P. Lovecraft Estate

Originally written for the pulp magazines of the 1920s and ’30s, H. P. Lovecraft’s astonishing tales blend elements of horror, science fiction, and cosmic terror that are as powerful today as they were when first published. This tome brings together all of Lovecraft’s harrowing stories, including the complete Cthulhu Mythos cycle, just the way they were when first released. It will introduce a whole new generation of readers to Lovecraft’s fiction, as well as attract those fans who want all his work in a single, definitive volume.

Stories include:

“Dagon”
“Herbert West – Reanimator”
“The Lurking Fear”
“The Rats in the Walls”
“The Whisperer in the Darkness”
“Cool Air”
“In the Vault”
“The Call of Cthulu”
“The Color Out of Space”
“The Horror at Red Hook”
“The Music of Erich Zann”
“The Shadow Out of Time”
“The Dunwich Horror”
“The Haunter of the Dark”
“The Outsider”
“The Shunned House”
“The Unnameable”
“The Thing on the Doorstep”
“Under the Pyramids”

©2014 H. P. Lovecraft (P)2014 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

This has bugged me for a while...

Sometimes you just want to listen to a specific story. For the life of me, I can't understand why anthologies like his aren't broken into chapters or at least labeled in the descriptions. This should help with that. The numbers might be off by a second or two, but will get you to the beginning of each story.

00:00:17 Dagon
00:16:55 Herbert West, Reanimator
01:33:13 The Lurking Fear
02:25:06 The Rats in the Walls
03:16:06 The Whisperer in the Darkness
06:18:21 Cool Air
06:43:23 In the Vault
07:06:48 The Call of Cthulhu
08:33:03 The Color Out of Space
09:48:10 The Horror at Red Hook
10:44:15 The Music of Eric Zahn
11:06:38 The Shadow Out of Time
13:44:15 The Dunwich Horror
15:47:02 The Haunter of the Dark
16:46:49 The Outsider
17:05:02 The Shunned House
18:16:39 The Unnameable
18:38:16 The Thing on the Doorstep
19:52:54 Under the Pyramids

Good Collection, Confusing Title

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

First things first: I'm reviewing the Audiobook listed above, with the black cover featuring blue tentacles and the title "Necronomicon" in bold white caps. Why do I specify? Because there are evidently several different books out there with the same title. Very confusing to a potential buyer, and the reviews I read before purchasing this audiobook were misleading. Regardless of the publisher's summary, it does not contain all of Lovecraft's "harrowing stories" and it doesn't include all of the Cthulhu mythos stories.

I'm not sorry I bought the book, but it simply wasn't what it was represented to be. Another issue: another reviewer listed the stories included in this volume. Well, they're not the stories in the audiobook I bought. By the way, a Table of Contents would be nice, maybe even a downloadable information sheet. In order to learn what my audiobook had in it, I had to go through all 63 chapters and deduce which stories they were associated with. For example, the second selection in the audiobook, "Herbert West..." takes up six chapters. Also, unless you can recognize a reader's voice, there's no way to tell who is narrating each story.

This volume contains:
DAGON; HERBERT WEST-REANIMATOR; THE LURKING FEAR; THE RATS IN THE WALLS; THE WHISPERER IN DARKNESS; COOL AIR; IN THE VAULT; THE CALL OF CTHULHU; THE COLOUR OUT OF SPACE; THE HORROR AT REDHOOK; THE MUSIC OF ERICH ZANN; THE SHADOW OUT OF TIME; THE DUNWICH HORROR; THE HAUNTER IN THE DARK; THE OUTSIDER; THE SHUNNED HOUSE; THE UNNAMABLE; THE THING ON THE DOORSTEP; UNDER THE PYRAMIDS

Who was your favorite character and why?

I began with my favorite Lovecraft story, "The Shadow Out of Time." I happened to recognize the narrator's voice, Keith Szarabajka, and he was excellent. A lot of Lovecraft's stories are first person narratives, making an audiobook like this one an outstanding way to experience Lovecraft. I'm looking forward to working my way through every story in the volume.

What about the narrators’s performance did you like?

Keith Szarabajka did a commendable job on "The Shadow Out of Time." I'd also like to commend the narrators of "The Call of Cthulhu" and "Herbert West", but I have no idea who they were.

Did Necronomicon inspire you to do anything?

Sleep with a light on.

Any additional comments?

This is a good audiobook with great stories and well-done narration, but it suffers somewhat by a poorly chosen, all too common title, and an evident publisher's disregard for the little things that might have greatly improved the buyer's experience.

Grandfather of Scifi Horror, but elitist racist

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Mmm... not really. If someone is interested in Scifi Horror, this is practically the source of modern otherworldly horror format. However, just listen to this for about 2 minutes, and you'll realize how horribly H.P. Lovecraft idealized high society and loathed anyone of "lesser breeding." It literally is an aspect of maybe a third of his work, this degeneration concept. His story that takes place in New York will likely make anyone scream, "What a fricken racist!" Even the elaborate and meticulous way he writes just screams he wants to associate only with high society and "good breeding." I cannot overstate this. Raaaaaaciiiiiist.However, and I don't want to but or excuse this, but if you want to look at the source material for so much scifi horror out there today, then you should probably listen to this book. Just.. be warned. It's soooooo racist.

What does the narrators bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

They managed to make these overwritten works to sound more emotional and lively than they read. They're quite skilled, because the stories really slathers on unnecessary mechanical descriptiveness.

Did Necronomicon inspire you to do anything?

Makes me feel dirty for listening to his work, and makes me want to atone in some way for america's racist past.

My only complaint is that now I want more!

Any additional comments?

I dont think Ive ever left a book review before, but these stories were too fantastic not to. Its strange how concepts from the early 1900s can still be so intense now, with all the tales of horror and scifi that people have become so used to.

I listen while Im at work and there were a few points that a coworker touched my arm to get my attention and I actually was really startled.

At first I found the change in narrators odd, but almost ever time within a few minutes I barely remembered the shift. While some narrators were better than others it was still very neat how Id grow to picture the characters differently with the different voices

.Now its time for me to go find as many more of his stories that I can!

it's not the book I originally bought..

sometime recently audible removed all the original versions and some stories this is not what I paid for or want.