Monday, May 9, 2016

The New Arrival -- Joshi's Lovecraft Novel (THE ASSAULTS OF CHAOS)

So, just found out about this one within the last few days. When I realized it must be about the only  novel out there which features Lord Dunsany as one of its characters, I knew I had to get it and read it.

So far as I can tell on a first brief glance, it's about Lovecraft and his father teaming up with Dunsany, Machen, Blackwood, Bierce, Hodgson, et al, to go fight the Mythos.  There was a similar, but very very bad book along those lines a few years ago, featuring (so far as I can recall) Conan Doyle, Lovecraft, Houdini, and a Voodoo Queen. There's no Voodoo queen here, so far as I can tell, but there is a potential love-interest for Young Howard named Kathleen. I'm curious to see how Joshi presents these literary men, esp. Dunsany and Hodgson (sad to say I don't think the great M. R. James made the cut).

More when I've had a chance to read on it a bit.

--John R.
current reading: see above.

UPDATE: I was wrong; M. R. James does indeed appear. --JDR

1 comment:

Rat said...

You may be amused to know (if you don’t already) that there was once a Japanese video game company called Sacnoth (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacnoth), named in honour of just what it sounds like, which produced, among various other titles, a game called “Koudelka” which featured a young Edward Plunkett (the game was set in 1898 in Aberystwyth) as one of its three primary protagonists. Also featured were Roger Bacon, Madame Blavatsky, and the magic cauldron from the Mabinogion. A very unusual little piece of work, to say the least. Not to say that it was very good, or that it has aged well, but it’s worth looking up on YouTube, at least.