Best Lovecraft tribute story/book you've read?

Please be gentle with me, this is my first new thread in this forum.

I’m a big Lovecraft fan, I collect pulp books and some of them are so old that they are yellow and falling apart. I can bore a speed freak to sleep whilst discussing the influence that Lovecraft had and has on fiction.

Today, I got a Tim Curran book…The Hive and holy cow!!! Its even better than that Stephen King story. The Hive has everything, a Dr. West leading the expedition, talk about the Mountains of Madness, the Miscotonic (spelling might be bad there…but Lovecraft fans know what I’m trying to say), and its just wonderful. I’m going to buy a dead-tree copy to put in my collection.

What say you folks? What else should I add to my permanent collection?

I’m fond of Neil Gaiman’s A Study In Emerald and Alan Moore’s What Ho, Gods of the Abyss.

“The Litany of Earth” by Ruthanna Emrys, which I read at Tor’s website (link). I’m not a big Lovecraft fan but this story is poignant and haunting.

I was going to suggest “Litany of Earth” a well. It’s an interesting take on the aftermath of the events in “The Shadow Over Innsmouth.” Litany’s narrator is ambiguous enough to make you sympathize with her while at the same time asking yourself “Yeah, but what about…?” from the original story.

You might enjoy Charles Stross’ Laundry Files series. I’ve only read the first two, but they’re a playful take on Lovecraftian themes.

Thank you everyone! This is so important that I’m actually taking notes with pen and paper. Electronics can die un-expectantly, the stars might be right tomorrow night, but paper lasts forever.

I know you asked for books, but you can not go wrong if you visit Lovecraft is Missing. That webcomic has had me on the edge of my seat since 2008 (admittedly, the author has gone on hiatus a couple of times. He’s back now though, and better than ever).

Oh, another popped into my head: 14 by Peter Clines. Another decent read.

The final story in Michael Chabon’s first collection of short stories, “In the Black Mills” in Werewolves in Their Youth, is the best Lovecraft-homage story I’ve read, though I’ll admit I’m not a collector. It’s brillance to my mind comes from both its superb channeling of Lovecraft and the recognition that this is Michael Chabon writing–one of the most inventive writers writing today, I think.

Let me echo the suggestion of Stross’s Laundry series. I think “Jennifer Morgue” was the most obvopisly Lovecraftian but they all have such features. There are links to a couple of his short stories free on his web site, so you can sample for free. Although I don’t know how you might react if you’ve not mer Bob before.

For a slightly different tone than the Laundry books, there’s also Stross’ Colder War

Thank you so much for this. I am going to keep my eye on this writer.

Oh, I love Mr. X by the wonderful Peter Straub. It is a modern retelling of The Dunwich Horror.

I loved it and have read both novels more than once in alternate fashion for the sheer pleasure of his writing, plot and subtle inversion of the story.“Discerning readers will recognize this surprise-filled tale of tortuous family relationships as a modern variation on Lovecraft’s classic shocker “The Dunwich Horror.” But Straub turns his pulp model inside out, transforming its vast cosmic mystery into an ingrown odyssey of self-discovery and a probing study of human nature.” from http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-679-40138-4.

Alan Moore’s The Courtyard and Neonomicon. Details here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neonomicon.

Genuinely disturbing stuff - and for all the right reasons.

Baby’s First Mythos

I gave one as a Xmas present.

There have been no end of collections of Lovecraft pastiches – Shadows over Innsmouth and its sequel, Cthulhu 2000, Shadows over Baker Street (Sherlock Holmes/Lovecraft crossovers). There are quite a few good stories in the Shadows over Innsmouth and Cthulhu 200 books (I think mixing Holmes and Cthulhu is pushing it, gaiman’s “A Study in Emerald” notwiothstanding)
The things I’ve liked have been the books that more fully inform. I highly recommend S.T. Joshi’s Annotated Lovecraft and I]More Annotated Lovecraft*, as well as the separately-published-by-a-small-press Annotated Shadow over Innsmouth. I also see that Leslie S. Klinger, the reigning revised of annotated editions*, has just published The New Anotated LOvecraft, a hefty hardcover volume running $40. I’ll undoubtedly get it, anyway.
*He released The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, updating William S. Baring-Gould’s Annotated Sherlock Holmes, and The New Annotated Dracula, updating Leonard Wolf’s Annotated Dracula and Essential Dracula.

I’ll second A Study In Emerald, and not just because it’s about the only tribute I’m familiar with. The story really is engrossing, and the old-time newspaper format creates an imersion effect that enhances the story.
A clever, creeepy tale in its own right, and a successful merging of the two worlds of Lovecraft’s monsters and Shelock Holmes.

Another vote for “Study in Emerald” (and for the Charles Stross works mentioned downthread)

As long as people are heaping praise upon the Gaiman work cited, I’m going to say that while they’re not wrong, the Wodehouse pastiche by Moore is an even more enjoyable read, at least for me.

Thank you again, everyone. If you are wondering why I haven’t been back to this thread…its because was busy reading kaylasdad99’s link. Dude, you need to warn people that they will be totally hooked before sharing that. 'specially when that person is planning on spending a week with a bunch of little old ladies at a needlework convention. (I did meet another cultist which was fun. She hobbled over to ask me where I had gotten my Cluthlu fish shirt.)