If you take your Cthulhu mythos really, really seriously, this book isn't for you. But if mixing the Great Old Ones with cheeky humor and a heaping helping of scorn for August Derleth appeals to you, stop reading this review and just buy this accursed PDF. (I mean "accursed" in a good way.) Kenneth Hite, undisputed master of all things Lovecraftian, takes readers on a rollicking good tour through the Cthulhu mythos and other corners of Lovecraft's eldritch universe. The book has more nuggets of actual good information than your average scoop of chocolate chip cookie dough has chocolate chips, and the tone is anything but tenebrous. Where else, I ask you, can you find half a dozen different "canonical" pronunciations of "Cthulhu," fourteen misspellings of the blasphemous name, and a top 40 countdown of Cthulhu-related music, not to mention Drew Pocza's whimsical drawings? Hite writes with amazing verve, zest, and foetid humor (or is that "fetid humour"?). In the time it's taken you to read this far in the review, you could have already covered the first four or five pages of the book, and had a lot more fun. On the negative side, I must admit that, despite my enjoyment of this book, I could find no reasonable way to work the words "rugose" or "squamous" into this review without making up libelous and completely unfounded statements about the author's physical appearance. So just buy this book already, and read it at once. Or Cthulhu will eat you.
Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!] |