Anyone know any modern takes on the Cthulhu Mythos in book form?

[JJewel]

The search for Cthulhu, they find him in a comedy club doing stand up. The audience is to scared not to laugh

 

[soulsinging]

There's Lovecraft Country, the novel by Matt Ruff that's now an HBO show.

 

[JJewel]

That would depend if the book mirrors the series or is its own man.

 

[Dan Jones]

A lot of the Mythos stuff crops up in Stephen King's novels; It, Needful Things and The Dark Tower come to mind off the top of my head, and there are loads of references to it in A Song Of Ice And Fire, particularly Euron Greyjoy's storyline (the kraken being his sigil is a bit of a giveaway).

The movie Cabin In The Woods, with Chris Hemsworth, also has a very nice twist on the mythos.

 

[JJewel]

Not a big fan of Stephen King, standard horror stories oft bore me. Like the older stuff.

 

[Randy M.]

Then you could read King's "Crouch End" if you haven't already. It's not bad.

Re: Lovecraft Country. The book came first, the show is based on the book and so far deviates to some extent by merging some characters.

Randy M.

 

[soulsinging]

That would depend if the book mirrors the series or is its own man.

I’ve not seen the series, but the book definitely came first and was the basis for the series.

 

[CupofJoe]

I wouldn't say it was modern, but was new to me was The Old Gods Waken by Manly Wade Wellman.
I remember that it felt very Lovecraft-ish while reading. And a sort of out-of time feel to it.

 

[Ursa major]

The Charles Stross Laundry Files series draws on the Cthulhu Mythos (although the books also riff on various other mythoi).

 

[JJewel]

Yeh I have read all the stross books, great stuff and love the sarcastic modern slant

 

[Extollager]

Declare by Tim Powers is amazing, but wont be to everyone's taste.

Interesting to see this as a Mythos story. I love this novel and have read it two or three times, but it hadn't occurred to me to see it as "Mythos" -- though I could see an affinity. I'd probably give up all of Lovecraft and anyone else's Mythos fiction before I'd give up this book.

 

[Extollager]

Like a lot of people who've been entertained by HPL, I've thought about how I would write a Mythos story if I were to give it a try. Basically with a Mythos story you know what's going to happen -- glimpse of/confrontation with the dark forces most people don't know about. So the novelty has to be the angle. Mine would be something like this, that in the 1950s you've got one or more collectors of old 78 rpm records who are "canvassing" and ultimately get into a really bad location. The "canvassers" would go into rural areas and go door to door asking poor people if they had any old records to sell. usually, these collectors were white people asking around in black neighborhoods after old country blues records (they had been sometimes called "race records" by the manufacturers). People who like this music owe an enormous debt to the people who saved the records and the collectors who discovered them and shared them, perhaps as a labor of love on small-scale pressings -- this was before portable tape recorders, I suppose. Anyway, you could have a canvasser in an impoverished neighborhood getting a referral or the first in a series of clues that lead to a very obscure area where, you see, it's said that the people do chants only at certain times of the year, etc. "Maybe they would have some of these old records you want, I don't know." The fun of the story (for the reader) would be the getting there, to the inevitable demise in the very, very bad location. "Live Music."

Something like that.

Here's an article about a guy who bid $37,100 to get a rare 78 blues record.

John Tefteller wins the world's rmost expensive 78!

www.tefteller.com

 

[JJewel]

I cannot remember the story but their was a great Mythos tale about a legendary blues singer who was in fact Nylar... and the story involves first removing a single copy of the record before the local radio station plays it with dire consuequences followed by chasing down the god and the children of it.

Read it on my Kindle a few years back.

In my Mythos story world I have been writing developing I created Reverent Sinnerman who was taught the secrets of the Mythos and utilised them in his delta blues, his teacher a renown painter / artist Lufgren Nemii is used in the book as a reference for the most dangerous occultist of modern times.

Lovecraft himself of course had Erich Zann to a degree .

 

[Randy M.]

Check out Southern Gods by John Jacob Horner. Other's like it more than I did, but it's about the blues. And Nyarlathotep.

Randy M.

 

[JJewel]

I suspect that is one I have read and I loved it, was one of the best modern I had read and yet it felt old, felt classic in its style

 

[Randy M.]

I thought it was a decent first novel, but pretty much standard horror story stuff with a decent overlay of blues history. Not bad, just not enough to make me keep reading him. His latest book, containing two novellas, A Lush and Seething Hell,sounds rather more interesting, though.

Randy M.

 

[JJewel]

I thought it was a decent first novel, but pretty much standard horror story stuff with a decent overlay of blues history. Not bad, just not enough to make me keep reading him. His latest book, containing two novellas, A Lush and Seething Hell,sounds rather more interesting, though.

Randy M.

Now that you have reminded me what the book was I need to look up more of his stuff but heavent been able to read in a while, you either read or you write seems to be my two settings.

Apparently Jack Nicholson used to take X months out per year just to catch up with his reading.

 

[Randy M.]

I can understand that. Although reading something other than the kind of thing I was writing might be another option for me. If I was writing, that is.

Randy M.

 

[JJewel]

It keeps the mood going when I do read, but I am writing three in the series and intend them all done by Xmas, then I have a large Sci-fi series I shelved a while ago, that is the next project.

First is out, second will be out by Tuesday so have 2 months to put together all the pieces for the third then taking a break as said.

I have 1 fan so far and she has requested more of the detective stuff in the mythos theme but since my Sci-Fi offering starts with a mobster fixer then that should keep her happy

 

[BAYLOR]

I cannot remember the story but their was a great Mythos tale about a legendary blues singer who was in fact Nylar... and the story involves first removing a single copy of the record before the local radio station plays it with dire consuequences followed by chasing down the god and the children of it.

Read it on my Kindle a few years back.

In my Mythos story world I have been writing developing I created Reverent Sinnerman who was taught the secrets of the Mythos and utilised them in his delta blues, his teacher a renown painter / artist Lufgren Nemii is used in the book as a reference for the most dangerous occultist of modern times.

Lovecraft himself of course had Erich Zann to a degree .

John The Balladeer by manly Wade Wellman The main character Silver String John his mystical guitar which he uses to do battle with the faces of Darkness in the Appalachian Mountains. Great stuff !