Through the Gates of Yog-Sothoth

Like many visionary artists throughout time from Vincent van Gogh to Baudelaire, H.P. Lovecraft did not get the credit he was due when he was alive for his special kind of genius. Dying poor and alone, he may at first appear to be yet another writer who never had a chance to fully blossom. However, with his writing the opposite is true- Instead of vanishing from the popular collective unconscious, Lovecraft even in death accrues more followers each passing year. From musicians to...
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Like many visionary artists throughout time from Vincent van Gogh to Baudelaire, H.P. Lovecraft did not get the credit he was due when he was alive for his special kind of genius. Dying poor and alone, he may at first appear to be yet another writer who never had a chance to fully blossom. However, with his writing the opposite is true- Instead of vanishing from the popular collective unconscious, Lovecraft even in death accrues more followers each passing year. From musicians to writers, to philosophers, academics, and sculptors, Lovecraft's footprint only becomes more defined as time passes. Why does Lovecraft's work still resonate with people almost 100 years later? Part of the reason is Lovecraft did not just scribble, he was a creator of worlds as well. He invented, or maybe was a conduit for, a whole pantheon of gods and myth in his Cthulhu Mythos. And though the many gods within this mythology deserve attention, one stands out for both its nebulousness and its power to entrance- god Yog-Sothoth. A proxy and personification of space time, this god was first introduced to us in Lovecraft's seminal story "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" where a man attempts the forbidden and impossible - to cheat death by resurrecting his ancestor. And later Lovecraft again uses Yog-Sothoth in his brilliant "The Dunwich Horror" story where we see mortals attempting to break the laws of physics in order to open the door to the old gods, architects of chaos which bore our species as an accident when Lavinia Whatley with her magician father's help, bears two hybrid children with Yog-Sothoth and whose main reason for existence is to open that terrible and final door.

Now in Eighth Tower's newest anthology, we see ten before unpublished Yog-Sothoth tales written by some of modern Weird Fiction's best writers. From a tale of a man in a midlife crisis, to a brilliantly clever piece on a French revolutionary, we are overcome by this new Lovecraftian darkness, and in that darkness, we are invited to go deeper into the void. Come and see the collector of magical objects who finds something not expected and then meet the woman in mourning over the death of her twin who quickly discovers that her dead sister had some very occult hobbies. Visit two lovers in crisis haunted by the ghost of an ex-girlfriend or follow a team of paranormal researchers in 1970s Britain who get far, far more than they bargained for. Finally meet the other denizens of this Lovecraftian tome: a denizen of Massachusetts known by his moniker The Nameless One who is hellishly bent on bringing ultimate evil through to this reality. Then try the story of a rock band on the verge of something unexpected. Or if music with a Scottish sound is more your taste, read the tale of a bagpipe player who meets a beautiful creature from his dreams, only to found that dream is in fact a nightmare. And finally enjoy a retelling of the classic Sherlock Holmes tale where Count Dracula makes an appearance. In all these tales, our protagonists are confronted with the unimaginable reality of Yog-Sothoth and are thus driven mad, or worse. Join us in this new collection if you dare where we explore the terrifying and nihilistic, the absurdly and horribly humorous, and where again and again, our protagonists find that death might not be the worst thing waiting for us all.