Hastur Cycle
from:
http://www.bass.org/~cthulhu/hc.htm
Robert M. Price, ed. The Hastur Cycle. Oakland CA: Chaosium, 1993. (paper) $9.95.
Rating: 3 tentacles out of 5
Should interest: Someone who has already been introduced to the Mythos.
Overlap: Medium; several stories are printed in other popular collections.
Contents:
* "Haita the Shepherd," Ambrose Bierce
* "An Inhabitant of Carcosa," Ambrose Bierce
* "The Repairer of Reputations," Robert W. Chambers
* "The Yellow Sign," Robert W. Chambers
* "The River of Night's Dreaming," Karl Edward Wagner
* "More Light," James Blish
* "The Novel of the Black Seal," Arthur Machen
* "The Whisperer in Darkness," H.P. Lovecraft
* "Documents in the Case of Elizabeth Akeley," Richard A. Lupoff
* "The Mine on Yuggoth," Ramsey Campbell
* "Planetfall on Yuggoth," James Wade
* "The Return of Hastur," August Derleth
* "Tatters of the King," Lin Carter
The publication of this book marked something important in the field of publishing Cthulhiana. When Chaosium decided to publish their Cycle books, it meant the reappearance of some long-out-of-print stories; when Robert Price became the editor of the series, it meant a commitment to the highest-quality stories and the introduction to readers of some scholarly perspectives.
The series is novel because it ties Lovecraft into his models and his successors; Price sets Lovecraft's stories, the heart of the Mythos, into a wider cycle. What Lovecraft wrote was only one part of a broader story. This is precisely what Lovecraft wanted. He admitted, too, that parts of the cycle were contradictory. This made it even more myth-like, and it is from their mythic, primordial quality that Cthulhoid stories draw their power.
Price sets the stage very well in his introduction and in notes before each story. The book is organized along two streams of Hastur stories, streams which started with Chambers and Bierce on one side and Machen on the other. These streams converged in Lovecraft's "The Whisperer in Darkness." This thematic organization, instead of a chronological one, gives the stories more power, more life. An evolution can be seen, but other links are established just as strongly between stories.
This anthology reprints some hard-to-find stories, including Chambers'. Despite the jewels of the book, however, the reader is left feeling somehow unsatisfied. Some of the stories simply aren't compelling. Despite this, the book is worth reading, because it brings to light a facet of the Mythos that does not get seen anywhere else in print.