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Brilliant	Customer Rating:
This is absolutely amazing, "From Beyond" got into my head and I was kinda spooked of the air for a while after I read it. I've never been one for being able to truly visualize while reading but Lovecraft is one of the few authors that have been able to hook me in so deep that I can visualize what is going on.

Another Great Lovecraft Collection

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There must be something very special about H.P. Lovecraft to have an entire genre devoted to his works. As you read through his writings it's clear that he has had a profound and lasting impact on entertainment that resonates to this day. This is my third Lovecraft book from Del Ray and I'd be lying if I said it wasn't my least favorite. A lot of the stories in this book are very flowery and artsy and I found myself completely losing track of what was going on as my mind wandered away. Fortunately these more esoteric stories tend to be very short while the book is dominated by two extremely long and more traditional tales including `The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath' and `The Case of Charles Dexter Ward'. Unknown Kadath is interesting in that it features something very rare in Lovecraft's world, a recurring character. Williams Randolph Carter appears in no less than four stories in this book. He's an explorer of dreams who appears to have enough experience in the Lovcraftian world to face its nightmares head on and retain his sanity. Lovecraft's style has always been to nibble at the edge of horror, hinting at something far worse just below the murky surface. By contrast in Kadath, Carter openly challenges the worst nightmares and even interacts with one of the "Other Gods" Nyarlathotep in a rather disappointing meeting. The story has a rather non-Lovecraftian feel to it and even H.P. himself admitted that, `it isn't much good'. The previous story called `Pickman's Model' featured a Boston painter who disappears after apparently using an actual flesh eating ghoul as a model for his disturbing paintings. Well, Pickman makes a return appearance in Kadath but drawing back the curtain on his fate diminishes the impact of `Pickman's Model'. Kadath was described as a Lovecraftian Alice in Wonderland but that's not really what Lovecraft is supposed to be about. I actually enjoyed the story but it felt out of place in a Lovecraft book. Charles Dexter Ward is a good story but I hold Lovecraft to very high standards and my one complaint would be that it's overlong. Lovecraft tends to work better and hits harder with shorter stories. At some point the story seemed a bit padded as if Lovecraft were being paid by the word. The quadrilogy of William Randolph Carter appears throughout the book including the final story and this one finishes big with a spectacular finale. Personally, I'd give Carter the award for the most amazing and memorable character to spring from Lovecrafts imaginative mind. I have never read a bad book by Lovecraft so to say this is the weakest of the three I've read in no way makes it mediocre. It's just that there were some short stories that I looked forward to being done. There is more than enough great stuff in this book to make it worth the time and effort.

Not Free SF Reader

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A collection of Lovecraft's stories chosen with the dream as a theme of them. A natural for an introduction to such a bunch of stories is therefore Neil Gaiman, the Dream King. He tells why he has been influenced by Lovecraft, and of others, and mentions a few Mythos stories he has done, as well as the fact it is likely to happen again. So, if you are a Randolph Carter fan, this is a pretty good one. Dreams of Terror and Death : Azathoth - H. P. Lovecraft Dreams of Terror and Death : The Descendant - H. P. Lovecraft Dreams of Terror and Death : The Thing in the Moonlight - H. P. Lovecraft Dreams of Terror and Death : Polaris - H. P. Lovecraft Dreams of Terror and Death : Beyond the Wall of Sleep - H. P. Lovecraft Dreams of Terror and Death : The Doom That Came to Sarnath - H. P. Lovecraft Dreams of Terror and Death : The Statement of Randolph Carter - H. P. Lovecraft Dreams of Terror and Death : The Cats of Ulthar - H. P. Lovecraft Dreams of Terror and Death : Celephais - H. P. Lovecraft Dreams of Terror and Death : From Beyond - H. P. Lovecraft Dreams of Terror and Death : Nyarlathotep - H. P. Lovecraft Dreams of Terror and Death : The Nameless City - H. P. Lovecraft Dreams of Terror and Death : The Other Gods - H. P. Lovecraft Dreams of Terror and Death : Ex Oblivione - H. P. Lovecraft Dreams of Terror and Death : The Quest of Iranon - H. P. Lovecraft Dreams of Terror and Death : The Hound - H. P. Lovecraft Dreams of Terror and Death : Hypnos - H. P. Lovecraft Dreams of Terror and Death : What the Moon Brings - H. P. Lovecraft Dreams of Terror and Death : Pickman's Model - H. P. Lovecraft Dreams of Terror and Death : The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath - H. P. Lovecraft Dreams of Terror and Death : The Silver Key - H. P. Lovecraft Dreams of Terror and Death : The Strange High House in the Mist - H. P. Lovecraft Dreams of Terror and Death : The Case of Charles Dexter Ward - H. P. Lovecraft Dreams of Terror and Death : The Dreams in the Witch-House - H. P. Lovecraft Dreams of Terror and Death : Through the Gates of the Silver Key - H. P. Lovecraft Star naming. 3 out of 5 Necronomicon purchase leaves death as something that is not too scary afterwards. 3.5 out of 5 Night car wolves. 3.5 out of 5 Starry wanderings. 3.5 out of 5 White trash dream space journey death discovery. 4 out of 5 Monster mash, idol's revenge on old city destroyers. 4 out of 5 Investigating legions of monsters equals fair chance someone dies. 4 out of 5 Kitty killers meet their self-imposed feline fate. 3.5 out of 5 Childhood visions visitation. 3.5 out of 5 If you look for space monsters, they just might get you. 4 out of 5 Egyptian Old One visit. 4 out of 5 A traveller finds a city under the sand, and exploring, a doorway into it. He explores for a time, but strange noises start coming close: "I fell babbling over and over that unexplainable couplet of the mad Arab Alhazred, who dreamed of the nameless city: That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange aeons even death may die." He eventually makes it out. 4 out of 5 Belay well if climbing before checking these guys out. 3.5 out of 5 Sleep search. 3.5 out of 5 City finding. 3 out of 5 Winged dog amulet cult symbol. 3 out of 5 Sleep a bit draining. 3 out of 5 Lunar light, beach bad thing. 3 out of 5 Creepy paintings have too real subjects. 4 out of 5 Your average tourist generally knows where he is going and doesn't seek out Great Old Ones and consider encountering the Crawling Chaos Nyarlathotep. Randy is an adventurer that is not even close to easily scared. 5 out of 5 After opening the iron box and finding what was in it, no one can find Randolph Carter anymore. 4 out of 5 Old man's Elder Ones undersea tales. 4 out of 5 Lengthy investigations of Yog-Sothoth are bad for your mental health. 3.5 out of 5 Talented broke mathematics students should choose other places to study than in a house in Arkham with space-time continuum conduits, witches, and vampire rats. 4.5 out of 5 Randolph, in disguise tells of space, time, Necronomicons and Ancient Ones. One hell of a trip. 4.5 out of 5 4.5 out of 5

Weird fiction

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In Neil Gaiman's Introduction to the collection Dreams of Terror and Death - The Dream Cycle of H.P. Lovecraft, Fantasy and Horror are described as two cities divided by a river and Lovecraft is the road between the two. I go a little further and state that it is really a sparsely populated town called Weird, of which Lovecraft is founder and mayor (other, younger residents include Clive Barker). You won't find the genre of weird fiction in any book store, but it exists nonetheless, part horror, part fantasy and part something unique in itself. Dreams of Terror and Death collects a series of short stories and novellas by Lovecraft that are loosely joined together as his Dream Cycle. In most of these stories, there is a second reality beyond our own, one that can usually only be reached when a person sleeps and enters into another state of consciousness. Not everyone can do this, only a gifted (or is it cursed?) few. Those who enter this Dream World often want to stay there, but it isn't easy, and the price is often great. By many standards of judging fiction, Lovecraft comes short. He isn't much for plot. Most of the stories seem to share the same basic framework: a man driven by obsession seeks knowledge (or a place) that is not meant for mortals to know (or see), and when he attains his goal, it is not what he expects. Similarly, there isn't much in the way of characterization; the few characters have little in way of personality beyond their obsessions. The variety of characters are minimal, with only adult males having any significant role; women and children rarely appear, and when they do, they contribute almost nothing to the story. Outweighing these seeming deficiencies, however, are Lovecraft's powers of description, which fashion worlds that are bizarre and utterly alien, populated by strange creatures and distant, even stranger gods. The novella The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath is really the centerpiece of this cycle, with protagonist Randolph Carter (who also appears in other stories) searching for a lost, forbidden city in the Dream World. For a modern reader, Lovecraft's style of writing can be a bit of a chore, at least at first. With a huge emphasis on description and much less in the way of action or dialogue, Lovecraft tends more towards an older, maybe 19th Century form of narrative. This makes the reading slow, but it is ultimately rewarding, not only for itself but for its historical value; Lovecraft is hugely influential on modern horror writers. So if you're a fan of horror or fantasy, this hybrid is a must-read.

First Time Lovecraft Reader is Hooked

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So I was roaming around the bookstore one day, and lazily thinking of names of stories and authors that I had heard good things about, and at one point it fell on Lovecraft. I was looking for a "complete works" edition and found that there is no such book. So which collection to try? This is the one that had "a perfect introduction to his work" plastered right across it so it's the one I bought. I found these stories, for the most part, not to be horrifying, but interesting all the same. Then I catch on that hey, these short stories are all connected. That added to my interest, as I would flip back and find a name I remembered hearing before that at the time seemed to matter not a whole lot. The longer stories are what make me want to find more Lovecraft. "The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath", "The Dreams in the Witch House" (spooky), and "Through the gates of the Silver key." (Which felt like one of those old Twilight Zone Shows). The other stories were passable, but more importantly, contain background data that the later better stories stand on. So yes, this is a good intro to Mr Lovecraft. If you are reading for the first time, take your time to wade though the "so-so" stuff to the "good" stuff. Also, when I was done I noted that the cover picture had nothing to do with the inside of the book. It was just some random (?) Horror art that was pasted on. It was slightly annoying. People would walk by and say "my gosh what *are* you reading?" "Well, you see it's this story about people that are mean to cats and..." "Whatevers..."