Subject: Review: Shadows Over Innsmouth, ed. by Stephen Jones

From: [email-masked] (Fungi from Berkeley)
Date: Fri, 12 May 1995 20:09:22 GMT

Shadows Over Innsmouth
		       Edited by  Stephen Jones
			   Illustrated by
			    Dave Carson
			  Martin McKenna
			     Jim Pitts
			Fedogan & Bremer, 1994
	
		             A review by
			     J. D. Jacob

	"Howard Phillips Lovecraft is probably the most important and
influential author of modern supernatural fiction." This is how Stephen
Jones opens his introduction to _Shadows Over Innsmouth_, a compilation of
short stories styled after HPL's 1931 tale "The Shadows Over Innsmouth". He
loses no points with me here. As a devoted HPL fan(atic), new (and more
importantly, good) stories set in one of the genres of Lovecraft are
treasures. This compilation is no exception.

	The first story is the original HPL 26,000 word tale. This tale, to
me at least, forms one of the cornerstones of modern horror. Man is not
pitted versus the forces of nature, but the servants of it. And it is all
too obvious who will win in the end. This story holds up well when faced
with its descendents. It is one of HPL's more tightly woven tales, even if
it is one of his longer works.

	The stories herein range from straight HPL pastiche (that is *not*
by definition a bad thing) to Chandleresque styled gum-shoe mysteries to
stories only vaguely connected to the mythos. The best stories tend to be
those that go their own way and do their own thing, using the original
tale's atmosphere and premise, not building directly from it.

	The stories seem to be arranged in chronological order of the events
within them, but as most of the stories are set in modern times, this is
hard to distinguish. Basil Copper's "Beyond the Reef" takes place only a few
years after the original events in TSOI and tends to follow it rather
faithfully. It falls flat for me due to this, but it is nicely followed by
Jack Yeovil's "The Big Fish", a "Big Sleep" set in the slime underworld of
Bay City, Ca. This story is truly a gem, even if it is laid on a bit thick
at times. Other highlights include Nicholas Royle's "The Homecoming" and
Adrian Cole's "The Crossing".  HPL regulars Brian Lumley and Ramsey Campbell
are also here, though at least the latter's offering is another collection
("The Church in High Street" appears in _Cold Print_).

	The short prose pieces tend to stand out among the longer,
traditional stories. Guy N. Smith's "Return to Innsmouth", D. F.  Lewis'
"Down to the Boots", and Kim Newman's "A Quarter to Three" are good examples
of this, and David Langford's "Deepnet" will make you think differently
about your computer from now on. Neil Gaiman (yes, *that* Neil Gaiman) has a
nice entry as well.

	I usually find it very difficulty to read a book of short stories on
one subject, but the renderings here are so varied that I found I was eager
to read the next story, instead of put off. Besides the previous mention,
there really isn't a poor story in the lot. I won't name them all, but
including HPL's original TSOI, there are a total of 17 tales in just under
330 pages. One odd detail is that all of the authors are British. Why the
editor chose this to honor a story about a Massachusetts town written by a
New England resident who never left the continent is confusing, but it
doesn't detract from the compilation.

	I can't review this book without commenting on the illustrations.
Wonderful. Three artists truly collaborated on this work, including four
full-page drawings, the three styles interweaving to give only a vagueness
of disparate minds. This is a perfect case of when illustrations add to the
mood of the prose, even though the drawings are not directly related to the
works they are embellishing.

	All in all, a good read. For HPL fans, a must. For everyone else,
the price is a bit steep, but I would recommend borrowing it and reading the
pieces that appear interesting.

%B	Shadows Over Innsmouth
%E     	Stephen Jones 
%C     	Minneapolis 
%D      1994
%I     	Fedogan and Bremer 
%O      clothbound, US$27.00
%G      ISBN 1-878252-18-6 
%P      339pp

 Common human laws and interests     I have looked into the abyss,
 and emotions have no validity           and the abyss has
 or significance in the vast             looked into me.
 cosmos-at-large...                  Neither liked what we saw.
                   -HP Lovecraft                 -Brother Theodore

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