by LE Francis
I will always recommend reading cosmic or “Lovecraftian” horror by authors that are not Lovecraft. It’s not just that Lovecraft was an excitable, unpleasant old hog1 with a writing style that conjures cocaine-dusted newsprint — but it admittedly plays a part.
Still the mythos are expansive, the universe infinite, & dread dreams deepen as we edge closer to oblivion in our day-to-day lives. & in this spirit, contemporary authors have brought forth a new yield of weird gold from the god-brain dreaming in the abyss, & Jeffrey Thomas’ “The Coming of the Old Ones” is a particularly engrossing example. The chapbook includes three stories: “Around the corner,” “After the Fall,” and “Scrimshaw.”
“Around the corner” is a strong start & my favorite of the collection. The weirdness of the main character’s telling of his experience is heightened by the knowledge that he has escaped a cult & perhaps has lingering psychological traumas that inform & color his perception. There is something entirely fascinating to me about the use of corners & liminal space, the physical change of the building as it is spiritually assailed by the cultist tenants. Additionally, the author takes care to provide a diverse cast but doesn’t get caught in the weeds of exploiting identity or indulging in the ugly gaze of otherness, keeping the focus respectfully on the story.
The second story, “After the Fall,” is draped in a pall of probable realism — the unease of a society, of individuals trying to reconcile their place in it, as something otherworldly and terrible looms on the literal horizon. The more mundane conflict between the characters was familiar & fed the chaotic atmosphere of the story. There’s a sense of not knowing how to reconcile the comfortable routines of life with an unstable new normal that is particularly poignant as we move through the second year of a global pandemic.
The collection wraps with “Scrimshaw,” which took a stab at a more classically Lovecraftian setting — a nineteenth century whaling ship. The main character is positioned between his captain & the commander’s young wife who nursed him through a serious illness during a recent excursion. While I got Ahab vibes from the vengeful captain, the story is more “Lord Johnnie” than “Moby Dick”2 but — come on — I’d read a weird version of either with extreme glee. The ending is one of those calamities that, while being entirely obvious, makes you ask “what in the fuck just happened?” & that seems like a sensible way to wrap a cosmic horror collection.
The book is succinct, well thought out, & hits the right notes, balancing the vastness of the space against the mundane tension of human connections. Like many contemporary cosmic horror stories I’ve read, Thomas carefully curated the useful elements of the mythos before including them in his stories. Honestly, I can’t help but savor cosmic horror that champions diverse characters — proving again that the genre is a versatile & vital medium entirely capable of being weird & edgy without shitting on human beings for simply existing.
So, horror fans, if you’ve got a few minutes, pick this one up; if you’ve got a few hours, read this & then read the “Dreams from the Witch House” collection. I mean read Lovecraft too if you want, I’d recommend a critical eye & a willingness to mutter “fuck off” several times under your breath as you go. Just remember, while the universe is infinite, our lives aren’t. So, if you want to get into cosmic horror but would rather skip the critical time suck & resulting headache, “The Coming of the Great Ones” is a fantastic starting point.
Footnotes:
- I am using the word “hog” in the Hasan Piker sense here. I’ve read Lovecraft extensively & have written & run “Call of Cthulhu” tabletop games but would yeet that bitch into the sun if I had a time machine. If you don’t agree, we are probably not going to be friends & I’m entirely cool with that.
- Lord Johnnie is a 1945 historical swashbuckler by Leslie Turner White & Moby Dick is the classic novel by Herman Melville. I thrifted the former because of a funny cover & read it for the hell of it & had a damn good time. & I’ve written Melville-adjacent fanfic, so do with that fact what you may.
LE Francis (she/her) is not a serious person, but on her better days functions as Sage Cigarettes’ fiction editor & a sometime host/editor of the Ghost in the Magazine podcast. She does other things too & is a solid advocate for our boy, the pleasantly dry grandpa of peace, harmony & boner-flattering slacks, Brick Bardo Highcock. You can find her on Twitter @nocturnical, on Instagram @n0cturnical, or at nocturnical.com
