Brian Lumley - The Burrowers Beneath

[andydecker]

Brian Lumley's Mythos Omnibus (HarperCollins UK, 1997, 655 pages)

Content:

The Burrowers Beneath            (DAW Books, 1974, 160 pages)  Titus Crow 1

The Transition of Titus Crow     (DAW Books, 1975, 253 pages)   Titus Crow 2

The Clock of Dreams                (Jove HBJ, 1978, 190 pages)      Titus Crow 3

A compilation of Lumley's early Lovecraft pastiches. The Burrowers Beneath is actually his first published novel. S. T. Joshi didn't like it or its sequels. As he wrote in his recommended  The Rise and Fall of the Cthulhu Mythos about the series: 'The Problem with it, aside from the sheer bad writing that riddles them, is that Lumley has attempted to take Lovecraft's cosmic conceptions and make an action-adventure plot out of them. The effort is doomed to failure.'

In this case Joshi has an argument. Lumley de-mythologizes the Mythos to death, the CCD, as they are called in the novels -  (Cthulhu Cycle Deities) - are attacked with nuclear bombs. Basically the Cosmic monsters become Godzilla sleeping in the earth. In the later novels - there are 6 Crow novels in all - Crow travels into Lovecraft's Dreamlands where the narrative finally crashes. No doubt this is colourful in its kitchen-sink approach, but it is also really stupid.

[helrunar]

Thanks for the interesting background on these, Andreas. I bought The Burrowers Beneath when it was published and did read it, and as an alienated teenager who felt completely disconnected from all the stuff my peers were into, thought it was a bit of a thrill. I have no memory at all of the actual plot except for thinking he was trying to continue on from where Derleth had left off with his Mask of Cthulhu and Trail of Cthulhu effusions.  I presume that Joshi also turns thumbs down on those.

H.

[andydecker]

Apr 6, 2022 15:32:40 GMT helrunar said:

Thanks for the interesting background on these, Andreas. I bought The Burrowers Beneath when it was published and did read it, and as an alienated teenager who felt completely disconnected from all the stuff my peers were into, thought it was a bit of a thrill. I have no memory at all of the actual plot except for thinking he was trying to continue on from where Derleth had left off with his Mask of Cthulhu and Trail of Cthulhu effusions.  I presume that Joshi also turns thumbs down on those.

H.

To be honest I also like a lot of Lumley's work, even if it is terrible Myhos stuff. It is sometimes a train-wreck, but it can be very entertaining. Like a dumb blockbuster.

Joshi has his opinions about Derleth, no doubt about that - Look here for more infos about his book I mentioned.

Personally I am torn about Derleth. Nowadays I don't have any doubt that without his efforts Lovecraft would have been forgotten. On the other hand it is hard to forgive that he dumbed Lovecraft's concepts so relentlessly down, transformed it into this thoroughly idiotic good vs evil formula complete with garlic and crucifix. But to be honest, it had the effect to make the Mythos reproducible. And the flood of pastiches kept it alive.

It is interesting and telling that he was not alone in just seeing the stage props of Mythos fiction. If you read the stories of his contemporaries in compilations like the Cthulhu Megapack it is clear that the writers embraced all of the props like the evil books or the fishmen while ignoring the ideas. So condemning Derleth for not being able to see the bigger picture is a bit hypocritical, but you can fault him for his small-minded efforts to remake it into something family-friendly.

[jamesdoig]

Apr 6, 2022 16:54:14 GMT andydecker said:

To be honest I also like a lot of Lumley's work, even if it is terrible Myhos stuff.

I haven't bothered with the giant novels, but I don't mind the short stories. I've only got a few of his books though, acquired mainly because they're interesting editions, like the Ganley editions with Stephen Fabian art:

This one is Arkham House:



The next two are Ganley:





This one's a Grafton paperback:

[helrunar]

James, I think you may have shown us that Arkham House Lumley before. I love that drawing because it makes me think of "The Silurians," which is probably my all time favorite Dr Who serial (because it was the first one I ever saw, in an early 70s US syndication).

They're all quite lovely, though.

Steve

[helrunar]

I just read elsewhere that the next issue of Phantasmagoria magazine is going to be a Brian Lumley special.

cheers, Hel

[Michael Connolly]

Apr 7, 2022 12:55:34 GMT helrunar said:

I just read elsewhere that the next issue of Phantasmagoria magazine is going to be a Brian Lumley special.

cheers, Hel

That doesn't sound very special to me.

[bluetomb]

I remember quite enjoying these many moons ago, but even at the time I could feel that there was too much fantasy and explaining and not enough proper creepy horror. I had this omnibus and the second, but the second defeated me pretty swiftly. Never got around to any more Lumley novels but I thought warmly of his short stories, less far out adventuring, more nicely contained ideas and gore. Think there was one about a holidaying couple battling monsters on a beach that I particularly appreciated.