Cthulhu Lies Dreaming: Twenty-three Tales of the Weird and Cosmic
Edited by Salomé Jones
Ghostwoods Books
February 20, 2016
Reviewed by David Goudsward
In the opening of his “The Call of Cthulhu,” Lovecraft famously observed that “The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.” Editor Jones takes this quote and skews it. The collected authors are asked to explore the ramifications of the human mind dealing with fragments of a great cosmic truth buried in its subconscious; still beyond the mortal mind but prone to manifestation in dreams that rapidly turn into nightmares in the waking hours.
The stories in this book explore the effect of these somnolent shards intruding into the conscious mind. Madness? Artistic temperament? Subliminal connections to the dreams from sunken R’lyeh? In Cthulhu Lies Dreaming, the answer is the reader’s choice. There are examples of each, and other causes among the 23 tales, with dreams as both a common theme and the catalyst for a widening gyre of horror and madness.
The variety of stories is truly impressive, ranging from a new twist on the old debate between atheists and believers in “The Myth of Proof” by Greg Stolze to Cthulhian version of actual biological terrors on “Cymothoa Cthulhii” by Gethin A. Lynes. Pete Rawlik’s “Notes for a Life of Nightmares” starts with the artist Wilcox, whose dream-inspired clay bas-relief began the original Lovecraft story, but as Rawlik is wont to do, he then throws sly nods to every other Lovecraft story he can casually have Wilcox passingly encounter. “Bleak Mathematics” by Brian Fatah Steele similarly introduced the mythos to the world of indie music – neither the mythos nor the art will ever be the same.
As with any good anthology, this is not to be read in one sitting. It should be stretched out over time, to savor and to avoid adding your own nightmares to the disquieting dreams within.
