The Gods of H. P. Lovecraft

By: Rachel Caine, Seanan McGuire, Laird Barron, Jonathan Maberry, James A Moore, Christopher Golden, Erin J French, David Liss

Narrated by: David Stifel, uncredited

Length: 15 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

The Gods of H.P. Lovecraft: a brand new anthology that collects the 12 principal deities of the Lovecraftian Mythos and sets them loose. Featuring the biggest names in horror and dark fantasy, including many New York Times best sellers; full of original fiction; and individual commentary on each of the deities by Donald Tyson.

Lovecraft's bestiary of gods has had a major influence on the horror scene from the time these sacred names were first evoked. Cthulhu, Azathoth, Nyarlathotep, Yog-Sothoth - this pantheon of the horrific calls to mind the very worst of cosmic nightmares and the very darkest signs of human nature. The Gods of H.P. Lovecraft brings together 12 all-new Mythos tales from: Cthulhu (Adam Nevill) , Yog-Sothoth (Martha Wells), Azathoth (Laird Barron) , Nyarlathotep (Bentley Little), Shub-Niggurath (David Liss), Tsathoggua (Brett Talley), The Mi-Go (Christopher Golden and James A. Moore); Night-gaunts (Jonathan Maberry); Elder Things (Joe Lansdale); Great Race (Rachel Caine); Yig (Douglas Wynne); and The Deep Ones (Seanan McGuire).

©2015 Journalstone Publishing (P)2016 Journalstone Publishing

Quite good for a collection of fan novels.

The narration is really good. The stories are varied and interresting. Very good for fan fiction. They cover some more known gods and critters from the lore.

Authors Help Make Lovecraft Accessible

What made the experience of listening to The Gods of H. P. Lovecraft the most enjoyable?

The stories are remarkable enough on their own merit that you could probably have a parrot read them and I wouldn't care.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The various gods in these stories are a lot of fun.

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

Stife was fine. There are many occasions where a reader can bring a mediocre novel into good. I like that the performance came across as understated since I found the stories remarkable on their own merit. Sometimes the reader just needs to stay out of the stories way and Stifel does that.

Who was the most memorable character of The Gods of H. P. Lovecraft and why?

All the gods in these stories are great.

great stories!

Filled with great stories to keep you in that creepy feeling. If you love horror and love a creepy and scary atmosphere then this book will get you there.

Hits all the right Lovecraftian notes!

Excellent book! The compiled authors all have a wonderfully solid grasp of what makes Lovecraft such a macabre joy.

Narrator is soulless bored and undeserving.

Narrator is horrid
Should have tried harder, SHAME.
Great authors misrepresented by undeserving under skilled voice actor.

One Unique Caveat, Only For Fans Of Bob & Ray

Any additional comments?

Buyer beware, if you happen to be a Bob & Ray fan (and a fan of Lovecraft) - listen to the audio sample before purchasing. (I didn't. Heh.) As it happens, the narrator sounds a heck of a lot like Bob Goulding, when doing his "straight" characters (those without a lot of accent or heavy inflection). I noticed it immediately when I started the book. And later when he does do various character voices, it's even more noticeable. Kinda makes it hard to take the dark stories very seriously... for me, anyway. Some of them are very good, though, in spite of this.

A Worthy Anthology

After listening to a few horrendous compilations whose authors apparently think the Cthulhu Mythos is a place meant for light hearted heroism, comedy and protagonists with the personalities of cartoon characters, this book was a welcome relief. These are (except for a couple) proper Lovecraftian tales.

The narrator does a very poor job, but luckily the writing is good enough that the book is still worth listening to.

So so, every other story is enjoyable.

Since this is an anthology the authors' skill levels and styles were all over the board. I enjoyed 2 out of the dozen or so actual stories. The in-between descriptions of the Gods were my favorite part. If the whole book had just been more descriptions of Lovecraftian Gods, written in such a way, I'd have been much happier with this book. Not to mention the narration is a bit off. He puts a strange emphasis on certain words and his pronunciation in several parts is just very strange, this, coupled with a monotonous tone that doesn't do the "unspeakable horrors" within justice. When he says R'lyeh, it comes out almost as a gag, and it made me laugh with how sudden and awkward the to the ear it was. I appreciate him being creative with the pronunciation of these strange, alien words, unspeakable to human tongue, but I wish he'd gone with something that didn't sound quite so silly. All in all, I think there are better Lovecraftian adaptations, but if you're trying to read everything and absorb anything on the market, this isn't necessarily the worst. I will say the description of Shub-Niggurath is probably my favorite, she's not very well fleshed out in the original works of H.P but whomever wrote the description did her justice.

I was pulled into each of the stories.

Some of the selections veered pretty wide of normal Mythos stoies, but I liked them all.

Hit or miss, but still pretty enjoyable

There's a lot of weird changes and liberties taken with the various gods and creatures in these stories, and not all of them fit or make much sense if you've read Lovecraft's original works. However, there are enough interesting stories and additions to Lovecraft's original creations that are understandable enough to keep it enjoyable.