# Best Lovecraft tribute story/book you've read? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 18, 2014, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-lovecraft-tribute-story-book-youve-read/701648 "2014-10-18T02:18:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2014, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-lovecraft-tribute-story-book-youve-read/701648/21 "2014-10-20T05:30:55Z")
Charles Stross: I love the _Laundry_ series (reads like Delta Green novelizations), and “A Colder War” as well. I also love Gaiman’s _Shoggoth’s Old Peculiar_ and Elizabeth Bear’s\*[Shoggoths In Bloom](http://www.asimovs.com/_issue_0803/shoggoths.shtml)\*. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2014, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-lovecraft-tribute-story-book-youve-read/701648/22 "2014-10-20T05:48:58Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > I know you asked for books, but you can not go wrong if you visit [Lovecraft is Missing](http://lovecraftismissing.com). 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). I read through that today. It was really well done. I hope the author does finish it. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2014, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-lovecraft-tribute-story-book-youve-read/701648/23 "2014-10-20T13:29:31Z")
> [@Not\_Carlson](#): > > 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 She[r]lock Holmes. Seconded on all counts. Stephen King’s 1980 short story “Crouch End” is also good. ---
**Author:** ![Osiris\_the\_1st](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9de0a6/32.png) [@Osiris\_the\_1st](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Osiris_the_1st)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2014, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-lovecraft-tribute-story-book-youve-read/701648/24 "2014-10-20T17:52:16Z")
Not a book but, I enjoy [The Unspeakable Vault (of Doom)](http://www.goominet.com/unspeakable-vault/). ---
**Author:** ![flatlined](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb9ed0/32.png) [@flatlined](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flatlined)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2014, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-lovecraft-tribute-story-book-youve-read/701648/25 "2014-10-20T18:23:53Z")
Thanks again for all of the wonderful suggestions. Our local library has quite a few of them, I do like to read something before buying it. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2014, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-lovecraft-tribute-story-book-youve-read/701648/26 "2014-10-20T19:26:12Z")
The best pastiche, and also the most hilarious, is _Resume with Monsters_. Ever wanted to know _why_ your corporate job was soul-sucking? 😃 > **[Resume with Monsters: William Browning Spencer: 9781565049130: Amazon.com: Books](https://www.amazon.com/Resume-Monsters-William-Browning-Spencer/dp/1565049136)** > > Resume with Monsters \[William Browning Spencer\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. Resume with Monsters ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-lovecraft-tribute-story-book-youve-read/701648/27 "2014-10-21T04:54:37Z")
Lots of great Lovecraftian swag here: [http://www.cthulhulives.org/](http://www.cthulhulives.org/) ---
**Author:** ![flatlined](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb9ed0/32.png) [@flatlined](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flatlined)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-lovecraft-tribute-story-book-youve-read/701648/28 "2014-10-21T20:28:27Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Lots of great Lovecraftian swag here: [http://www.cthulhulives.org/](http://www.cthulhulives.org/) Sweet! Thanks 🙂 I realized that I _needed_ a Miskatonic University sticker for my car and got an error message when I tried to order it I got an error message, so now I has a sad face. Funny story…a while back I was summoned for Federal Jury Duty. One of the questions they were asking was what we had on our cars and what they meant. That’s actually pretty thoughtful, if you stop and think about it. I have a license plate cover that says “Houston Public Library, so many books so little time”. No problem there. I also have a Cluthlu fish. So I got to stand up in a federal courtroom and try to explain that little joke to a federal judge. :smack: It was a very surreal moment in my life. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2014, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-lovecraft-tribute-story-book-youve-read/701648/29 "2014-11-11T13:26:33Z")
> [@flatlined](#): > > 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.) It saddens me to report that Larry Latham, the author of _Lovecraft is Missing_ has passed away. This is according to a message that his widow put up on his website. She says that she and some friends of his will be working to try to see the story through to its conclusion. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2014, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-lovecraft-tribute-story-book-youve-read/701648/30 "2014-11-11T13:40:50Z")
While I enjoy the straight Lovecraft knockoffs, I think the main reason Lovecraft’s works **work** is because they’re so weird. When you have yet another betentacled horror from beyond, or eerie light from past the stars, or old gods, it’s kind of old hat, not so creepy. Which is why my recommendation is “Details,” by China Mieville, in his book _Looking for Jake_. It’s clearly a Lovecraftian monster, but it is different from any one that Lovecraft wrote about, an taps into the same eeriness Lovecraft tapped into. And if you want a longer story with Lovecraftian dread, consider anything by Jeff Van der Meer, especially the series beginning with **Annihilation** and moving into **Authority**. It’s dreadful in the best possible way. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Peyote_Coyote)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2014, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-lovecraft-tribute-story-book-youve-read/701648/31 "2014-11-11T21:17:39Z")
Stephen King’s short story “Jerusalem’s Lot” is outstanding, IMO. It’s in his collection \*Night Shift \*which has many other fantastic stories. ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2014, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-lovecraft-tribute-story-book-youve-read/701648/32 "2014-11-11T21:32:11Z")
Mr. Excellent had a good post here, with **[The Marmite Horror](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=534691)**. I like Marmite. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2014, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-lovecraft-tribute-story-book-youve-read/701648/33 "2014-11-12T01:43:28Z")
> [@Slade](#): > > Alan Moore’s The Courtyard and Neonomicon. Details here: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neonomicon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neonomicon). > > Genuinely disturbing stuff - and for all the right reasons. I’ve got a copy of The Courtyard. It’s definitely a good piece. BUT, I don’t count it as Lovecraftian despite the many references to the Mythos. I feel this way largely because . . . . . . . Of the revelation that Aklo is some language from the human collective unconscious. Lovecraft couldn’t be more clear that all the horrors are utterly and totally alien to the human experience. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2014, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-lovecraft-tribute-story-book-youve-read/701648/34 "2014-11-12T02:01:36Z")
Check out [_Necronomicon_](http://www.amazon.com/Necronomicon-Wanderings-Alhazred-Donald-Tyson/dp/0738706272/ref=la_B000AQ052C_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1415757469&sr=1-4) and [_Alhazred_](http://www.amazon.com/Alhazred-Author-Necronomicon-Donald-Tyson/dp/0738708925/ref=la_B000AQ052C_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1415757469&sr=1-7), by [Donald Tyson](http://www.donaldtyson.com/) – not your usual Lovecraftian fare, Tyson is some sort of ceremonial magician. Not fiction, but every Lovecraft aficionado/collector should have a copy of [_The Necronomicon Files_](http://www.amazon.com/Necronomicon-Files-Truth-Behind-Legend/dp/1578632692/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1415757629&sr=1-1&keywords=necronomicon+files), by Daniel Harms and John Wisdom Gonce III – tells the whole story of the Necronomicon in popular culture. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2014, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-lovecraft-tribute-story-book-youve-read/701648/35 "2014-11-12T02:46:25Z")
Here’s a pic of me in my Cultist outfit. [![](https://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a151/doccathode/MeAsCultist.jpg) ](https://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a151/doccathode/MeAsCultist.jpg) He waits and dreams in the deep and the cities of man shall fall before Him! ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2014, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-lovecraft-tribute-story-book-youve-read/701648/36 "2014-11-14T06:33:09Z")
> [@Penfeather](#): > > I’m fond of Neil Gaiman’s [A Study In Emerald](http://www.neilgaiman.com/mediafiles/exclusive/shortstories/emerald.pdf) and Alan Moore’s [What Ho, Gods of the Abyss](http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/447926.html). WRT the Jeeves and Wooster story above, if I were more well-versed in Lovecraft’s writings, would I have any reason to recognize Jeeves’s acquaintances from the British Museum as coming from a specific story, and if so, which one(s)? ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2014, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-lovecraft-tribute-story-book-youve-read/701648/37 "2014-11-14T08:17:37Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > WRT the Jeeves and Wooster story above, if I were more well-versed in Lovecraft’s writings, would I have any reason to recognize Jeeves’s acquaintances from the British Museum as coming from a specific story, and if so, which one(s)? You mean the things they face off against, or the people who help him - they aren’t from any Mythos stories, they’re from other stories (_[Dracula](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mina_Harker)_, [Rider Haggard](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Quatermain), [Virginia Woolf](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orlando:_A_Biography), the [Carnacki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnacki) shorts) via _[The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_League_of_Extraordinary_Gentlemen:_Black_Dossier)_ comics (specifically, the Edwardian iteration of the League) - being versed in Lovecraft won’t help, being versed in Victorian/Edwardian/Interwar fiction would. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2014, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-lovecraft-tribute-story-book-youve-read/701648/38 "2014-11-14T08:48:54Z")
Several people have mentioned the short story “A Study in Emerald”. I just wanted to add that it’s been adapted into a [board game](http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/141517/study-emerald). The basic premise is that the elder gods have taken over the world and the players are people living under their rule and trying to organize underground movements. Complicating the situation is each player is assigned an allegiance - some players are rebels trying to overthrow the elder gods and other players are collaborators trying to defend their regime. And everybody’s allegiance is a secret until the end of the game. ---
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2014, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-lovecraft-tribute-story-book-youve-read/701648/39 "2014-11-14T13:34:33Z")
Came in here to suggest Stephen King’s The Mist and a book by an author whose name I forgot, but the book is called The Darkness on the Outside of Town. Both are kinda the same. That said, after perusing this thread it looks like I have a lot of new stuff to read! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2014, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-lovecraft-tribute-story-book-youve-read/701648/40 "2014-11-14T14:33:54Z")
> [@Penfeather](#): > > I’m fond of Neil Gaiman’s [A Study In Emerald](http://www.neilgaiman.com/mediafiles/exclusive/shortstories/emerald.pdf) . . . Clearly “my friend” is Professor Moriarty, but who isthe narrator, “S\_\_\_\_\_\_ M\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ Major (Ret’d)”? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-lovecraft-tribute-story-book-youve-read/701648.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-lovecraft-tribute-story-book-youve-read/701648.md?page=3)