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1 internautes sur 1 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
4.0étoiles sur 5
Cthulhu Mythos as 1930's Pulp, Mai 8 2002
Concerning the Cthulhu Mythos, Brian Lumley is a writer of the August Derleth school. While Lovecraft and others had the total meaninglessness of the universe as their cosmological base, Derleth wrote the Mythos as a battle between good and evil between ultimate forces. Lumley takes this further, stripping the Mythos of its supernatural aspects and putting it solidly into the realm of science fiction. What were supernatural aspects of the mythos stories are now an alien science as the forces of good personified in the Elder Gods struggle with mankind to keep the evil beings of the Cthulhu Mythos trapped within their eternal prisons and foil the attempts of those who would release them.Lumley's style is also reminiscent of the pulp genre popular in the 1930's with morally black-and-white heroic protagonists aided by beautiful heroines in a story of non-stop, bigger-than-life struggles and battles. So, if your taste goes toward the more amoral, often pornographic splatterpunk tales that pass for Mythos stories today, you're going to be disappointed. In the first book, The Burrowers Beneath introduces Titus Crow and his sidekick Henri-Laurent dr Marigny as well as the Wilmarth Foundation, an organization of Miskatonic University dedicated to study and destroy the deities of the Cthulhu Mythos. Told through fragments of diaries and letters, the Burrowers are the spawn of Shudde-M'ell involved in an intricate plot to take over earth and release Cthulhu from his prison in sunken R'lyeh. Lumley's craft at writing shines through in many places, but special interest should be paid to Chapter 9, The Night Sea-Maid Went Down, a short story embedded within the novella that would have even satisfied the Old Gentleman of Providence himself. In its delivery, The Transition of Titus Crow is sheer pulp taken from the 1930's in style and plot with Crow as the protagonist as he wanders the universe seeking Elysia, the heavenly home of the Elder Gods and then seeking a way to return back to Earth. Though not as good as The Burrowers Beneath, the reader is introduced to some familiar members of the Cthulhu Mythos such as Ithaqua, Cthulhu, Cthulhu's daughter, and we're given a logical, scientific interpretation of Yog Sothoth's other name, the Lurker at the Threshold that is quite creative.
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1.0étoiles sur 5
Egad, NO!, Oct. 24 2002
Lumley has written good fiction, when he stays away from Lovecraft pastiches. The problem with these two "novels" isn't just thet they're pulpy (though they are) or that Lumley doesn't handle Lovecraft's ideas very well (though he doesn't). The problem is that they're poorly-constructed, ridiculous examples of the worst kind of pulp pastiche; think Lin Carter, only worse. Yes, if you think that long lists of horrible cosmic monsters from outside, ancient forbidden tomes of ghastly magical lore, and various other Lovecraftian arcana represent some kind of accomplishment(and apparently many HPL fans do), then you may find something to enjoy here, because that represents the bulk of both stories. "Burrowers" is two of Lumley's (weak) early short stories, with pages (and pages, and pages) of Titus Crow and his buddy De Marigny making lists of Lovecraft deities and books (endlessly) and theorizing about the "Mythos." Then they try to kill a "Cthonian." Then their house gets blown away. End of book 1. "Transition" is even worse, much of it made up of fragmentary notes (supposedly Crow's taped or recorded comments about his cosmic journeys) none of which actually adds up to anything (just more Lovecraft name-dropping). It also introduces us to such "brilliant" concepts as a "good" Cthulhu who's a big chief of the "Elder Gods" (complete with shimmering white-light aura around his blobby tentacled bod, if I recall correctly) and Cthulhu's daughter (fortunately, Lumley never got around to giving us "Bride of Cthulhu" or "Son of Cthulhu"). Look for Lumley's non-Lovecraftian short fiction, and you'll find a supernatural horror author with real talent. Unless you're just starving for anything with the words "Cthulhu" and "Necronomicon" in it, do yourself a favor and pass on the Crow books (especially this one).
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2.0étoiles sur 5
Taking the good with the (very) bad, Mars 26 2002
Collecting the first two Titus Crow, this volume finds the reader confronted with a good idea in the first novel (Good Lovecraft pastiche), and a bad idea in the second one (bad H.G.Wells). The Burrowers Beneath introduces us to Titus Crow and his Watson de Marigny as they combat underground creatures from Lovecraft's Cthulu mythos. This is a taut thriller that gives the reader a much more active hero than any of Lovecraft's hapless victims. Lumley greatly improves upon Lovecraft, a man of great imagination with almost unreadable prose. Lumley does a fine job keeping the reader guessing to the bitter end how it would turn out for his protagonists.
Book 2: The Transition of Titus Crow is a drastic drop in quality. Crow travels in time, is transformed by a rather hackneyed old school science fiction method, and ends up in a place akin to paradise. It is all told in one long journey that has very little dramatic purpose and disappoints as horror, suspense, or science fiction. By making the journey too fantastic, Lumley loses sight of the very human characters so well used in the first book. For me, the collection was worth the purchase to discover this interesting character,
but I can't wholeheartedly recommend this collection to anyone who doesn't already have an interest in Lovecraft's work.
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