âReaders who know Lovecraftâs legacy mostly through turgid and tentacled Cthulhu Mythos pastiches will find this book a treasure trove of literary terrors.â âPublishers Weekly (starred review)
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Here are nineteen Lovecraftian storiesâboth new and rediscoveredâthat take their cues from the mythos of the iconic horror writer. Todayâs masters of supernatural thrills celebrate H. P. Lovecraftâs oeuvre with tales of weird fiction and cosmic horror, collected by Hugo and Bram Stoker Awardâwinning editor Ellen Datlow.
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In âCommencementâ by Joyce Carol Oates, a university begins its annual ceremony of renewal with three renowned scholars whose lifetime achievements are fodder for the student body. A couple desperate to have another child turn to the darkest rituals of folklore and mythology in âCatch Hellâ by Laird Barron. And Holly Phillipsâs âCold Water Survivalâ trails a group of Antarctic explorers who encounter vast, unexplainable shapes in the iceâa danger to humanity awakening from its frozen slumber.
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Rounding out the collection are more spinetingling tales from Brian Evenson, CaitlĂn R. Kiernan, Marc Laidlaw, Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear, Dale Bailey and Nathan Ballingrud, Richard Bowes, Anna Tambour, Amanda Downum, Joel Lane, William Browning Spencer, Michael Cisco, Lavie Tidhar, Simon Kurt Unsworth, Michael Shea, Gemma Files, and Nick Mamatas.