Product Description
Necroscope: Deadspawn, volume five of the landmark Necroscope series, was published as a mass market original more than a decade ago. Tor Books is pleased to republish this spine-tingling novel in hardcover for the Lumley collector market. The Necroscope's bargain with Faethor Ferenczy, father of vampires, has left a vampire seed growing in Harry Keogh's soul, and even the powerful Necroscope may not be able to resist the vampire taint. When the dead victims of a foul necromancer beg Harry to find their killer, he begins the hunt, though bringing justice to the dead may cost Harry his humanity and his life. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Necroscope Series
These series of book are by far the BEST vampire thriller books available. I seldom read a book twice, let alone a series, but I have read this series several times. the character development and descriptive prose paint an indelible picture in ones mind. Get the series and your only regret will be the end of the series. Reminds you that good guys can make a difference.

one of the best, if not the top in the series
The good news is that Necroscope Harry Keogh has begun recovering his abilities to deadspeak and to enter the Mobius Continuum; the bad news is that an evil seed is taking root inside of him.His friends notice that Harry is changing into what he has always fought against Wamphyri vampire.Harry tries to keep on living as he always has, but obviously the growth inside is becoming more powerful by the moment.Finally his former allies decree the solo Necroscope is a menace that they feel must be eliminated as an enemy combatant.

Harry goes on the lam planning to depart this realm for the source world of the vampires.However, he feels he must finish his current task to destroy-the maniac who possesses deadspeak even while his former allies want to destroy him before the vampire inside him takes control.

This reprint of Book V of the Necroscope series is one of the best, if not the top novel in the long running series (thirteen books I believe).The story line cleverly ties up the opening quintet leaving few loose ends and enabling a fresh start with the next trilogy (see The Blood Brothers).Of the first five tales, the last of the quintet DEADSPAWN is the only one that seems to stand alone as well as completing the story arc.Harry is at his best as he struggles with himself and battles with his friends and a deadly enemy in a tale that showcases Brian Lumley at his greatest.

Harriet Klausner

Deadspeak
I have read Necroscope, Vamphyri, The Lost Years Vol. 1, Resurgence: The Lost Years Vol. 2, The Source, and I am just finishing Deadspeak.This is the best series on Vampires I have read, in my life.These books are so much better than the Anne Rice series.There is none of the "woe is me, I am a lonely creature of the night" B. S.Lumley's Vampires would stake an Anne Rice vamp, chop off its head, pour gasoline all over it, light a match and [...] on the remaining embers.Finally, we have some blood-sucking, evil creatures of the night that would put most trial lawyers to shame.The mixture of Ludlum-esque espionage and Stephen King vamps on PCP and LSD is great. ... Read more

Product Description
The Titus Crow novels are adventure horror, full of acts of nobility and heroism, featuring travel to exotic locations and alternate planes of existence as Titus Crow and his faithful companion and record-keeper fight the gathering forces of darkness wherever they arise.The menaces are the infamous and deadly Elder Gods of the work of H.P. Lovecraft.Chthulu and his dark minions are bent on ruling the earth--or destroying it.A few puny humans cannot possibly stand against these otherworldly evil gods, yet time after time, Titus Crow defeats the monsters and drives them back into the dark from whence they came. Volume One contains two full novels, The Burrowers Beneath and The Transition of Titus Crow.
Amazon.com Review
The two novels contained in the first volume of TitusCrow--"The Burrowers Beneath" and "The Transition of Titus Crow"(originally published in 1974 and 1975)--are a matched set marking theintroduction of Brian Lumley's Sherlockian paranormal investigator,Titus Crow, and Crow's Watsonesque partner, Henri-Laurent deMarginy. Both tales are grounded in the Cthulu mythos originated byH.P. Lovecraft, but Lumley offers an effortless introduction to Cthulufor newcomers.

While Lumley is perhaps best known now for Necroscope, the Crownovels (which also include those collected in Titus Crow, VolumeTwo and TitusCrow, Volume Three) offer an early glimpse at the creativetalents of a contemporary horror master. Crow is a fascinatingcharacter--an obsessed genius uncovering ancient gods in alate-20th-century world that is blind to its imminent destruction. Atthe same time, de Marginy, writing through epistles and journals,brings a naive immediacy to the narratives. Lumley's prose has abaroque feel that lends an antique patina to Crow's world (supposedlyin the 1960s and '70s), and his blend of horror à la Lovecraft,adventure reminiscent of Edgar Rice Burroughs, and techno-sciencefiction with shades of Asimov is always pleasantlysurprising. Titus Crow makes for solid and enjoyable readingthat deftly crosses genres. It's a pleasure to have these novels in areadily available form again. --Patrick O'Kelley ... Read more

Customer Reviews (19)

Forget the CCD, fear the ellipses
Titus Crow's adventures are a lot like the role-playing game exploits of player characters: they start out believable enough, but as the power creep and leveling sets in, the character's achievements and enemies seem to grow exponentially.

There are a few things that modern Cthulhu fans should be wary of when reading Lumley's foray into the Cthulhu Mythos.According to Lumley:

* Mythos beings can be repelled quite handily with "star stones."These are made with tiny chips of the original soap stone elder signs.That's right, they're mass-produced "extract of Elder Sign." And they work against shoggoths.

* The Tikkoun Elixir is actually holy water, which also works against the Mythos.

* There is a globe-spanning organization of psychics known as the Wilmarth Foundation.This Foundation has men in every level of government and business, and marshals their resources in times of great need, like when battling the Mythos.They also keep the Mythos hidden to prevent worldwide panic.

All of this is told to the reader after the fact in The Burrowers Beneath.In the tradition of Lovecraft, the stories are all from journals and letters of those who were there, shifting from character to character to build a story around giant psychic killer worms known as Chthonians.Mind you, they're just minions of the larger Cthulhu Cycle Deities (who are, irritatingly, referred to as the CCD).

Lumley seems intent on explaining everything in Lovecraft's fiction and providing a logical framework behind it all.This is great for a role-playing game but makes for boring reading. But when Lumley writes an action scene, such as when DeMarginy (the Watson to Crow's Holmes) is attacked directly by a Chthonian, it's absorbing.Unfortunately, there's so little action that the rest of the tale becomes a dry retelling, sometimes bordering on parody.

Did you know that there are dinosaurs swimming in Loch Ness?Lumley drops that and other nuggets matter-of-factly throughout the narrative - and it has absolutely nothing to do with anything other than to perhaps explain that the Wilmarth Foundation, with its uber-psychics, knows everything there is to know about the world.

By the time we get to the second part of the book, The Transition of Titus Crow, Lumley just gives up.Crow experiences every pulp trope, from the love of a green-haired "girl-goddess" to riding a lisping dragon, to replacing his shattered body with cybernetics manufactured by robots, to time traveling in an extradimensional clock.Crow, it turns out, is both the descendant of the Elder Gods and a cyborg.It's like a Rifts game in prose.

But the most unforgivable of all is that Transition is told in fragments.A terrible attack on the Wilmarth Foundation means its records have been lost, so we are left with a story that has been pieced together.Where the pieces are missing, Lumley uses ellipses.A lot. Reading the book becomes painful... whenever Lumley doesn't feel like filling in the blanks...he uses ellipses...until you get just fragments like...ENERGY RAY...INTERDIMENSIONAL TRAVEL...OH MY GOD MY EYES ARE BLEEDING...

There's a particular standout scene where Crow, confused and lost in a prehistoric era, engages in a battle of survival with a pterosaur and a giant crab. It's good stuff, but doesn't make up for the sheer insanity of what can only be described as lazy writing. We get it: the fragments of what happened to Crow are hard to piece together. But since this is, ya know, a WORK OF FICTION, it would be nice if the narrator made a token effort to craft a full story for the reader rather than transcribe the bits and pieces literally.And for that only Lumley can be held accountable.

In terms of characterization, Crow is a bit of a cipher.De Marigny has most of the personality, and even he tends to bluster through the book with very British exclamations of surprise and horror.The characters are rarely in actual danger and their stiff upper lip attitude becomes so overbearing that they begin to feel invincible even in the face of the mind-blasting insanity that is the *cough* CCD.

Worth reading to provide a foundation for Titus Crow and as a template for a role-playing game universe where the player characters actually have a chance against a Lovecraftian menace. If you can stick with it, the next book in the series gets much better.

A well-crafted spell.
I have hearty applause for Lumley. He took the Cthulhu Mythos in the right direction.

As he explained,

"I have trouble relating to people who faint at the hint of a bad smell. A meep or glibber doesn't cut it with me. (I love meeps and glibbers, don't get me wrong, but I go looking for what made them!) That's the main difference between my stories...and HPL's. My guys fight back. Also, they like to have a laugh along the way."

That is exactly what the mythos needed. Lovecraft was a master of atmosphere and suspense. But his characters were shrinking violets and moral wallflowers. Lumley, however, depicts charged characters. They have guts, drive, and the will to fight back, however quixotic the quest.

Yet this book is more than hard-fisted, gut-wrenching action. It comments on other aspects of the broader human experience.

For example, this book has a lot to say about the power of friendship. The Crow/de Marigny relationship is a mixture of Holmes and Watson, but also James West and Artemus Gordon (The Wild Wild West: The Complete Series), David and Jonathan, with Samwise and Frodo lurking beneath. With Crow's dismemberment, and resurrection, it them becomes an Enkidu/Gligamesh relationship.

There is also a love story here, but more about that later.

*

This volume is a twofer:

"THE BURROWERS BENEATH"

Not only is this story a great one in its own right. It is a perfect model for renovating an old franchise. It felt like a Cthulhu Mythos story, but it was also its own distinctive tale. Lumley takes the best of Lovecraft, and then adds to it.

The additions are the Wilmarth Foundation, and the marshaled effort to fight back against the monsters. The odd couple of Crow and de Marigny are quite the pair, giving the series an obvious Sherlockian feel. This is not a liability, since it has been "smouched" (Milton) by the produces of "House, MD." There is a lot to be said about male camaraderie.

Having this story as fragmented journals adds to the Lovecraftian feel. We are dealing with forbidden facts, even Fortean Facts that THEY do not want us to know.

The jarring ending left me wanting more.

"THE TRANSITION OF TITUS CROW"

After such a strong freshman novel, this one threw me off. There is really no plot to speak of. Then again, Homer's Odyssey plot is likewise weak. So brush up on your Joseph Campbell (The Hero with a Thousand Faces (Bollingen Series))--this story is a Magic Flight, similar to A Voyage to Arcturus.

But the runabout action hearkens back to A Princess of Mars (Penguin Classics). Tiania is really Deja Thoris, and Crow transitions from a supernatural sleuth to a supra-cosmic swashbuckler. But we knew he had it in him.

The deep-future segments, with R2-D2 (I mean T3RE), seemed to be an echo for me. I had recently read the majestic The Time Ships, and the two elements seemed similar. But keep in mind the chronology: Lumley's came twenty years earlier.Either way, both books are worth the read. They are both literature at their best--motivating me to go beyond what normally do, and crystallizing a sense of hope for the future.

Speaking of these segments, one of my favorite literary themes is Dismemberment and Resurrection. Bravo for having this happen to Crow. This prepares him for the nest theme, Apotheosis. He meets the goddess Tiania, and the sublime Kthanid.

So any flaws in the flighty story (such as "thmelly" on page 313) are mended with the setting and themes, and, again, a surprise ending.

*

So I am ready for the next two twofers. The only problem is that there is collection of short stores--The Compleat Crow--which should have been part of this omnibus reprinting. I know it is not part of the full series, but for Crow fans, we need it.

The Burrowerseneath
I was first introduced to Lovecraft when I was 9 years old. The story was the Dunwich Horror. I was hooked. The characters the landscapes and the Ancient Ones came alive and stayed alive. I read all of Lovecraft's stories. I found August Derleth, Clark Ashton Smith. All great writers.
I would suggest reading at least Lovecraft before reading Lumley. He refers to all the Elder Gods and Ancient Ones as if everyone knows about them. Crow is the Indiana Jones of the Cthulu mythos. I don't feel the same horror as Lovecraft was able to inspire. Crow's stories are more adventures. Well written,but not Lovecraft by any stretch of the imagination.

One of the greatest in his Cthulhu origins
While there are some areas of this compilation that are slow and even tedious, overall it is a wonderfully original expansion of the Cthulhu cycle.Titus Crow is an out of bounds character that is made more believable through the recordings of his 'assistant' de Marigny.This collection begins the expansion of Lovecraft's Cthulhu universe.You might be turned off by the 'fleshing out' of the undescribable, however, it is a very entertaining take on what has long been an obsession of many.While I enjoy his short stories more, this is an unmistakably wonderful delving into the universe as we are afraid to see it.In the end we will all fall to the evil, but until then let us dream of the universe held by good.

Great Book
"Lumley's Titus Crow books are excellent fantasy stories mixed with a good sampling of horror from the Cthulhu mythos.Highly recommended for any fantasy or Mythos fan."
-- Glenn G. Thater, Author of 'Harbinger of Doom' ... Read more

Product Description
Something vital is missing from David Hero's comfortable, ordinary existence. one day is much like the next, simple, predictable...boring.

But the nights! Each night David Hero finds himself transported to a marvelous world where brave men and women battle terrible creatures possessed of cruel, dark powers.

Despite his fears, the Dreamworlds tempt David, drawing him farther and farther from the waking world. Here he finds noble warriors; beautiful, loving women; and challenges almost greater than he can imagine.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Book
Product was in good condtition. I did not read it, it was purchased as a gift for someone else.

Not Lovecraft, but a fun read
Lumley has the wonderful talent to make Lovecraft more commercial.This series is no different.It's about two ne'er do wells in our world who die and now live in Lovecraft's Dreamland.There, when they are not drinking or wenching, they help the people in Dreamland fight off the denizens of the Cthulhu mythos, up to and including Cthulhu him or her self.It's fun, but if you are REAL Lovecraft scholar you probably won't like it. I really love Lovecraft's writing and his concepts of horror, but these are just so much fun to read that I think even HPL would love it.

Offspring of Lovecraft and Edgar Rice Burroughs
If you were to cross H.P. Lovecraft' with Edgar Rice Burroughs the end result would probably be Brian Lumley's HERO OF DREAMS. Add a dash of Conan the Barbarian and you get the picture. The story takes place in the Dreams of the two main characters, David Hero and Professor Dingle, known as Hero and Eldin in the Dreamlands. The dreamlands are the same ones described and created by H.P. Lovecraft in his novel The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath and the monsters encountered by Hero and Eldin are from the same cloth.This is where the resemblence to Lovecraft ends and the pulpish sword & sorcery reminicent of Howard or Burroughs begins.The protagonists of this story are your typical good-hearted rouges who do the right thing in the end although their motives are not always pure.

Altogether an enjoyable tale if you are into sword & sorcery and pulp fiction type adventures.

Pulp Adventure set in HPL's Dreamlands
This novel is a series of action-oriented stories set in H.P. Lovecraft's Dreamlands (which themselves are largely inspired by the work of Dunsany).

The characters, adventures and pacing are very reminiscent of the sort of thing you'll find in Burroughs novels, Leiber's Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser stories, or some of the less gloomy fantasy books by Moorcock.The protaganists are out of the "loveable rogue" mold, guys who are selfish and a bit shifty, but with good hearts, who wind up doing the right thing when their backs are to the wall.

Lovecraft's Dreamlands provide an interesting setting for all the action.HPL's own stories in the setting are usually more about exploration, with nary a fight scene to be found.However, the setting suits an action story well.

So, overall, it's entertaining in the same sort of fun mindless way that a Sinbad movie is.Fans of the kinds of fantasy stories I mentioned above will enjoy the novel, and may find the setting interesting enough to interest them in HPL's dreamlands stories.Or, if you're an open-minded Lovecraft fanatic, you'll be fascinated by the little extensions and additions to the original Lovecraft setting.

Yes, it's self-indulgent; yes, it's not terribly original; yes, it's somewhat shallow.But, if you're willing to accept all that, it's great fun.

Where Dreams Begin
This is the first book from Brian Lumleys Dreamworld series ( based on H.P.Lovecrafts Cthulhu mythos ). Following closely in the footsteps of Titus Crow ( an earlier Lumley hero ), David Hero and Eldin the wanderermust save our dreamworld in order to save the waking world from the terrorof Cthulhu and his minions.Journeying throughout the dreamworld , they mustfind the three wands of power stolen by the tenth crazed First One andreturn them to there rightful place. A wonderful tale of fantasy ,including insane wizards, talking trees, beautiful worlds and some of thestrangest creatures ever imagined. This is yet another Lumley fantasyadventure classic and I for one cant wait to read "ship ofdreams" ( the second book in the series ). If you are a Lumley fanthen this is definately a book you will want to get your hands on. It isprobably worth mentioning , for those of you not familiar with BrianLumleys work , that this is not some gory horror story, but in fact a bookthat manages to stay true toLovecraft and his ideas. In fact, I thinkthis is much better written ! ... Read more

Product Description
Trapped in the Dreamlands and cut off from the waking world, David Hero becomes the latest model for a mad sculptor and suddenly finds himself frozen in ice. Original. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Mixed bag of short stories
Lumley's series of Dreamlands books concludes with an assortment of short stories involving David Hero and Eldin the Wanderer.

The first two stories have, aside from the boisterous characters,a Lovecraftian feel to them.The stories have a slower pace than is usual for the rest of the Dreamlands series, but more than anything else in the series I thought they conveyed a sense of awe and horror. Some will be bored with those stories since there's so little action, others will revel in the horrible weirdness.

The third and final story (aside from some interstitial pieces) was a major disappointment, I thought.The villian does all those silly things that the bad guys in James Bond movies do.He reveals all the details of his evil plan before attempting (unsuccessfully) to kill David Hero and his girlfriend in a silly way.Big surprise, Hero and girl manage to survive, meet back upwith sidekick and other girl, and win the day.Ho hum, a cliche that we've all grown very tired of.

The climax unfolds in a predictible fashion, and the conclusion is not very satisfying.I also found the use of acronyms to be extremely silly and annoying - the "Seer with the invisible eyes"is refered to as SWIE or somesuch throughout the last story.Blah.

If I were able to rate the stories individually, the first two stories would get 5 stars, and this last awful story would get one or two stars.

For the Lovecraft nut, the second story provides a whole new aspect of the Dreamlands underworld; the remainder of the book doesn't really add much new in terms of exploring or adding to Lovecraft's settings.

A so so ending to the Dreamlands Saga
The concluding novel to Lumley's Dreamlands series. Hero and Eldin are now in the service of the King and are 'official' heroes in the Dreamlands. After the action packed Mad Moon of Dreams, this one falls a little short Ithought. Still an okay read. ... Read more

Product Description
Once David Hero was an ordinary man living in the real world. Now he is trapped in the Dreamlands, cut off from the waking world. David Hero's dreams and nightmares have become his own reality.

Swollen, glowing oddly in the gloom of night, the moon hangs lower and lower over the Dreamlands. Its weird, unearthly light transforms beautiful landscapes into twisted nightmares and imperils the sanity of any who walk abroad after sunset.

Beams of terrible power stab the unsuspecting earth, destroying the land, shattering buildings, and dragging people into the shrieking sky, straight toward the hellish moon!

David Hero, once a man of the waking world, finds himself fighting side by side with his worst enemies--Zura and her zombie armies, the Eidolon Lathi and her termite men--against the slimy, many-tentacled moon monsters.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

An epic, ambitious adventure
In my opinion, this book gets off to a shaky start.Hero and Eldin are to do battle with a conspiracy of the Dreamland's most evil forces.But rather than set up the situation with a gradual unfolding of events, Lumley shoves his characters right into it, explaining the full background of the conspiracy in a long letter from Randolph Carter.I found this to be somewhat forced and awkward, it was as if Lumley couldn't be bothered to set up the story in a more natural way.

Still, I can forgive him that, because once the weak setup is done, Hero and Eldin are launched into their most sweeping adventure yet.

But it's also the corniest adventure yet.All of the old villians are back and united - it reminds me of a silly Batman plot, with the arch-villians banding together to fight the caped crusader, but spend as much time fighting with themselves.Still, it works, as long as you don't take it too seriously.

This is the first of the Dreamlands books that introduces some Great Old Ones into the action.As usual with Lumley, he shows them as being far more interested in and susceptible to the affairs of men than Lovecraft ever would have.The HPL purists out there will probably be disappointed or offended.I'm not a purist myself, but I did have problems with some of the Nightgaunts starting to act heroic, on their own, being even a little bit human.

Once the action gets started, this is the most ambitious of Lumley's Dreamlands books, with harrowing escapes, battles between large fleets of sky-ships, all the way up to the incredible fate of our heroes at the end of the story.If you're willing to tolerate the absurdity of some of it, and can deal with the liberties Lumley takes with some of HPL's creations, it's a fun ride.

Reunion!
Our heroes are back for more adventures! In Mad Moon of Dreams everyone is back. The Hive Queen, Zura, almost every evil and good character we have ever met in this series so far. It leads to a fun reunion. Hero and Eldinhowever, still have their duties. An ancient god residing on the moonwishes to take over dreamlands. It is up to them to stop it. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Lovecraftian story with a twist
Titus Crow isn't in this sequel to both THE CLOCK OF DREAMS, and SPAWN OF THE WINDS, although it's set in that cosmos. To appreciate this book, you'll need to judge it on its own merit.

Silberhutte, formerly of the Wilmarth foundation as related in SPAWN OF THE WINDS, still leads the endless war against Ithaqua, the Wind-Walker - the great hope of the Old Ones, the only one who is somewhat free of his bondage. Ithaqua is alone as few creatures have ever been - Silberhutte is his great enemy partly for wedding Armandra, Ithaqua's only living child, which forever dashed Ithaqua's hopes of gaining her companionship in the void between the worlds.

Enter Henri-Laurent de Marigny, whose time clock has been captured by Ithaqua. Silberhutte joins forces with him to retrieve the clock from its hiding place on one of Borea's moons, those tiny worlds where Ithaqua is nonetheless a force of terror. Since Ithaqua's goal in seizing the clock was to lure Armandra into a confrontation, she refuses the gambit and stays out of the main flow of the action in this volume.

We finally meet some people whose reaction to the CCD isn't an automatic "aiee!" or "command me, Cthulhu" or "let's raise some demons here", although there are some, of course. What would a Lovecraftian novel be without a debased priesthood or two?

CCD = Cthulhu Cycle Deities (Wilmarth Foundation terminology), who include Hastur, Nyarlathotep, etc. in addition to the big C.

Lumley provides the most complex characterization of one of the great Old Ones that I've seen to date. What - an Old One who gets *lonely* and *jealous*, and maybe thinks about a few things besides spreading evil throughout the cosmos? Whoa, the CCD may take his union card away. :)

Let me hasten to add that Ithaqua has no dialogue in this story; that would be too violent a break with the traditional "unspeakable, indescribable horror" characteristic of tales of the CCD. Ithaqua's character is revealed through his actions and behavior. Ithaqua is not held up as a typical member of the CCD, by the way; he is noted as an anomaly among the Old Ones.

The writing style resembles that of SPAWN OF THE WINDS, except that MOONS is written in 3rd person. The lighthearted banter of the Dreamlands series is absent (it would be out of character here), as is the truckload of correspondence characteristic of THE BURROWERS BENEATH. MOONS is a good read, more fantasy than horror, providing an interesting view of the civilizations on Borea itself and its moons. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

OUT OF PRINT
I am the publisher of this book and would like to inform you that it is out of print in the slipcased edition.The regular hard cover edition is still available (0932445438).Paul Ganley

Terra Khash, Yet Another Great Lumley Hero.
This Paul Ganley edition of The Compleat Khash Volume One - Never A Backward Glance is to my knowledge, the only edition ever published in North America.

The stories in it are apparently the combined shortadventures of Lumley's Conanish character Tarra Khash, which were writtenfor Wierdbook and possibly other publications. Don't let this fool youthough, it reads like a novel.

Similar to his Hero and Eldin adventuresin Lumley's Dreamworlds saga, Khash adventures throughout the ancientcontinent of Theem'hdra (when all the continents were one..the Pangea).

He finds both friends and foes. Various gods and different races maketheir appearances as well.

Overall a good read. It is an early novel ofLumley's and since I am trying to be a Lumley completist I got this one. Iam not disappointed. There is also a volume 2 of collected Khash stories aswell. ... Read more