Brian Lumley - The Second Wish

[andydecker]

Brian Lumley – The Second Wish and other Exhalations (NEL, 1995, 350 p.)

(Cover Les Edwards)

This may be The Second Wish, but it's the third witch's dozen of nerve-rending stories of the macabre from the man who gave you the international bestselling Necroscope and Vampire World series. Brian Lumley's The Second Wish maintains the nightmarish tradition established by his Fruiting Bodies and Other Fungi and Dagon's Bell and Other Discords to complete a trilogy of terror.

From Lovecraftian tales such as The House of the Temple, rising with Surtsey and the title story, to such contemporary horror as The Sun, the Sea and the Silent Scream and The Luststone, this new collection has been culled from ther writings of a true Master of Nightmares.

Remember: in the field of no-holds-barred terror fiction, there's Brian Lumley – and then there's the rest …

Content:
Introduction Brian Lumley
The Second Wish (1980)
The Sun, the Sea, and the Silent Scream (1988)
De Marigny's Clock (1971)
The Luststone (1991)
Mother Love (1971)
What Dark God? (1975)
The Thief Immortal (1990)
The House of the Temple (1980)
Back Row (1988)
Name and Number (1982)
Snarker's Son (1980)
Rising with Surtsey (1971)
David's Worm (1971)

Some Mythos tales, some not. Always with a nice introduction. The stories are typical Lumley. Broad strokes and lots of italics and ! Still sometimes entertaining.

[bluetomb]

I had this edition, but no more. Remembering generally liking it a lot, hopefully may come across it again some day. Lumley lost me on longer work midway through the Titus Crow sextet when it seemed to be getting too heavy on the fantasy and what by then was just Lumley mythos, but his shorts did the trick. Good mix of the eldritch and outright nasty. The Sun, The Sea and the Silent Scream I recall being a highlight here. I actually put it off 'till last, I think it was the longest in the book but it ended up being one of my favourites. I got spiked by a weaver fish on a family holiday at a young age so I've always appreciated a bit of good bloody beach monster horror.