Lately I’ve been almost completely taken by reading. Back in the day, when I was very young, I’ve been buried in the books, reading whatever I could lay my hands on. From the famous Western books of Karl May through whatever sci-fi and a little fantasy there was in my local library, I’ve tried to read as much as possible. And because my memory was still great at that time, I was dubbed a “walking encyclopedia”. Oh, the great times of the pre-Internet era, haha…
However, Brian Lumley’s works were not ones I’ve read, because many of them haven’t been written yet, but even of those already published, they were not ones approved by the then-ruling Communist regime….and then someone wonders why I don’t like commies. Well, that’s one of the reasons why. Fuck commies.
But I digress.
For some time I was thinking about delving deep once again into the vast literature of Howard Phillips Lovecraft and the writers contributing to the so-called Cthulhu Mythos. Apart from an introduction to Lovecraft back in the early 1990s through one of the first Czech translations (if I am not mistaken) of Lovecraft’s works (those were magazine-format publications from the now defunct publishing house called Zlatý Kůň), I’ve crossed paths with the great Man of Providence now and then, but not in any way by design.
And I even have the Delphi Classics edition of his works!
However, the human mind is an interesting thing, the way it works, the mental points it connects… and it’s happened (once again, yes) that for some strange reason I’d thought of Ctulhu Mythos canon…
Why not to get acquainted with Brian Lumley now, right? I’ve remembered his Necroscope series being released in Czech translation back in 1990 too, but those were a bit over my meager budget, therefore I’ve never read them.
This series is outside Cthulhu canon, though. However, Titus Crow series is!
The Compleat Crow is the collection of short stories, 11 to be precise, originating from the period 1970 to 1987, offering various stories in the life of Titus Crow, the English occultist/archeologist, from before his birth (paradoxically, “Inception” story, descripting events before his baptism, is the latest story in this collection, from 1987).
But what stories are those! Admittedly, there a few weaker ones – I, for one, was not very impressed by “Billy’s Oak” (1970) and “Name and Number” (1982) hasn’t impressed me either, however, that being said doesn’t mean these are bad stories. They are not, but compared to the superb “Lord of the Worms” (1983) or “The Caller of the Black” (1971)…well, you can really see why such ranking of mine for these.
Although in the Cthulhu Mythos canon, these are not the usual Lovecraftian stories, where humankind has simply no chance, and are a bit more to the adventurous side, which I am not impartial to, to be honest.
The warming effect of mentioning various grimoires of Lovecraftian lore – from Necronomicon to Cultes des Goules and the like – is really welcoming, like meeting an old friend and, sucking the readers in medias res into the stories.
Would I recommend them? Absolutely yes. I have a long way to go to get familiar with various authors contributing to the Mythos cycle, but Brian Lumley is definitely not the author to be missed.
The book is currently out-of-print, but the e-book version is available through Amazon.
