They can't all be winners. Eldritch Blue is a 2004 trade paperback put out by Lindsfarne Press, under the Carnsford Tome imprint, neither of which I have ever heard of. I bought it new at the used book store, which probably should have been a sign, for $10 plus tax. The presentation of the book is like stepping into a time-warp: every illustration, including the cover, is a badly rendered 3D model, like black-and-white screenshots of a poorly-made mid-90s computer game. The text is very readable, except for chapter titles and the like where the editor decided to go with something that would make typography-fetishists curl into a corner and cry, asking why they didn't just use Papyrus instead.
The book begins properly with a prologue by editor Kevin L. O'Brien, proclaiming this the first in a series of Mythos-anthologies and pimping the other books put out by the company, the most interesting of which was The Mlandoth Myth Cycle and Others: The Complete Cthulhu Mythos Tales of Walter C. DeBill Jr. - which, while I am unfamiliar with Mr. DeBill and Mlandoth, sounds like it would at least blend in with the Chaosium "cycle" collections. Following this is a very brief introduction by Robert M. Price, an opening poem, and then the rest of the anthology proper.
The Tale of Toad Loop (Stanley C. Sargent) starts off rather well, with a dedication to Robert Bloch. The story was originally published in Ancient Exhumations, and is set in an unknown country backwater, dealing with a Mythos-human offspring, probably of Tsathoggua.
I should mention that following each story is a one-page blurb, in italics, analyzing the story and some general aspect of it as it relates to the Mythos and sexuality. These aren't terribly bad, though the overuse of the phrase "Outré Beings" starts to grind on the nerves a tad.
Goat-Mother (Pierre Comtois) has a more interesting central idea, marred mostly by the execution. It concerns the Tcho-tchos and an aspect of their worship of Shub-Niggurath. Like most of the stories here, it's one where a touch more explicitness would have worked better; as it stands the story reads like it's been expurgated.
The Spawn of the Y'lagh (Randall D. Larson) is really a stereotypical second-generation Mythos tale, with a few interesting additions - Phillips' Study of the R'leyh Text and the Sixth Volume of the T'sman Manuscript are good titles to throw in somewhere. The best part of it deals with the Y'lagh, which may in context be identical with the Star-Spawn of Cthulhu, or closely related.
Mail Order Bride (Ann K. Schwader) is a Mythos tale in a modern setting, and straddles the line between horror and a failing romance. The focus in this story is again focused on breeding, but not on the sex act itself, but the product and the effect on the relationships involved. The actual Mythos material involved is minimal, which is probably the most damning thing from the standpoint of this being a Mythos anthology.
Family Recipe (Charles Garofalo) shares similar flaws to the previous story. Minimal Mythos material, and again we have the focus on the production of Mythos hybrids. More damning is that it's bland, barely PG. The previous story at least had some blood and teeth to it, this one reads like one of the more forgettable episodes in an old E.C. comic.
Cat's Paw (E.P. Berglund) is first person narrative which turns out to be the narrator talking to the police, probably in an interrogation room. This is not an obvious Mythos tale - there are no outright references, only an intimation to the Black Goat with a Thousand Young - but is part of a series of tales Berglund has set in the fiction O'Khymer, Oregon.
Beast of Love (Tracy & James Ambuehl) is kind of interesting, as the approach is more fantastic than next-gen Mythos authors take. It is set in Black Bay, Massachusetts, a new Lovecraft Country locale where "No God of our world reigns". The protagonist is a horny young gentleman who stops in after hearing about a sex-cult and ends up in trouble; it's almost a pastiche of The Shadow Over Innsmouth in some respects, if the focus was less on the hybrids and more on the miscegenation. It was originally published in Cthulhu Cultus #3.
The Faces at Palm Dunes (Ramsey Campbell) was originally published in Cold Print.
Dagon's Mistress (Niel Riebe) is a very distant sequel to The Shadow Over Innsmouth, following a reporter with a lead on an ancient story connected with those events who falls head over heels - in love and in trouble. Like the Titus Crow books, the characters are generally a bit to blase about the Mythos and magic in general.
The Thing on the Doorstep (H.P. Lovecraft) - I know why they didn't start with this. It sticks out a bit sore in the middle of the book, but it's a setup for the next story.
The Prodigies of Monkfield Cabot (Michael Minnis) is actually a...I dunno, prequel, interqual, something...of The Thing on the Doorstep. For a mythos expansion, it's okay, well-written but not spectacular. This story was previously published in Mythos Online and the Al Azif magazine.
Seduced (Ron Shiftlet) - Basic Shub-Niggurath backwoods story.
Stacked Actors (Peter A. Worthy) begins with a Delta Green-esque dossier, and the story goes on to develop a secretive U.K. Government agency called G13 with oblique Mythos ties - Group 13 as DG fans may recognize. The antagonists - I don't feel bad about spoiling this - are the Shan.
Have You Found Him (Jean Ann Donnel) Thankfully brief glimpse of Nyarlathotep cultists using the techniques of Jehovah's Witnesses.
The Violet Princess (Stephen Mark Rainey) is not properly a Mythos story, but it has certain plot elements reminiscent of, say, The Great God Pan so that's no reason to pan it immediately. Again, it's a story that deals with the results of human women birthing Mythos hybrids.
What Sort of Man (Walter C. DeBill Jr.) was printed in the Mlandoth Myth Cycle mentioned above, and is a solid story - one of the few I've read dealing much with Carcosa or the Lake of Hali, which are generally eschewed by next-gen writers for the more recognizable settings.
The Obsession of Percival Carstairs (Charles Black) deals with the Mythos in terms of Gardnerian witchcraft, and works hard to try for a pseudo-Lovecraftian ending reveal - including full italics.
A Mate for the Mutilator (Robert M. Price) is probably the most amusing original story of the anthology, or at least the one most dedicated to puerile humor. It has - as the editor notes - some very slight ties to The Thing on the Doorstep as the whole of its real Mythos material.
To Cast Out Fear (C.J. Henderson) is an Anton Zarnak story, with guest appearances by Inspector Legrasse. As measured against other Zarnak stories, particularly the Lin Carter ones, it ranks very well.
The Surrogate (Kevin L. O'Brien) is the editor's own contribution, and is a Mythos story only by context of ideas, rather than material. I appreciate the daring of the story (hey, a prostitute) compared to the others, but it lacks a real "climax" to the piece, and has a long run-up.
The book ends with a lengthy essay by O'Brien, revisiting all the points he's been making so far in-between stories and going on about them at greater length, as well as some brush-up material on how we understand and approach the psychology of sex today. Passable, if only because to really understand it you'd have to have read the entire book first.
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Originally Posted by AncientHistory
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