Where history's mysteries lay gaping open, there 'Historical Lovecraft' goes, seeing to fill in the holes in time and human knowledge with eldritch horror and terrors from beyond the stars. At least that's what a good portion of the short stories contained within the book admit to using as their inspiration, which is fine by me. As someone who enjoys history and the unexplained, as well as someone who digs H.P. Lovecraft I was very happy with the answers the stories in this anthology had to offe...

This book is a collection of (ostensibly) Lovecraft-influenced stories set throughout the ages. Ranging from ancient Mesopotamia to the modern world, it is divided into three sections: Ancient History, Middle Ages, and the Modern Era. The stories often incorprate the hisotry of legends of the time periods and cultures in question, something Lovecraft himself was fond of doing. With some of the stories, the connetion to the Cthulhu mythos is fairly blatant, with others marginal at best (more in s...

I'm really grateful I read Swords v Cthulhu before this (as it happens, I picked it up looking for more like SvC) because otherwise I might have written off the whole idea. These stories are almost universally too short, amateurish, constrained by either narrowly literal or absurdly off-base notions of what makes fiction "Lovecraftian," or all of the above. More than that, many of the stories indulge one or both of two habits I find quite annoying. At least half of them just give Cthulhu the Anc...

I am a huge fan of theme anthologies, but this one felt a little forced to me. There were some great historical stories in their own right, but it seemed that some of the horror elements were shoehorned into the story, as well as the Lovecraft themes, reducing their effectiveness. Some of the stories appeared to have been written at another time, then reworked to fit the theme of the anthology as the horror and Lovecraft elements felt superfluous and even confusing.

The Innsmouth Free Press is a Canadian micro-publisher of dark/supernatural fiction and horror, with a focus (as their name implies) on the Cthulhu Mythos of H.P. Lovecraft. The submissions page for this particular anthology called for "Historical fiction with a Lovecraftian twist" (up to 1937, the year of Lovecraft's death) with an emphasis on multiculturalism. That last part especially caught my interest. His ideas may have been original, but Lovecraft was mired in deep racism that was excessi...

This is a spectaular mix of historical fiction and Lovecraft lore. If you're Lovecraft fan, you won't be disappointed. I found the pieces set in ancient history the most appealing, but the tales span a broad range of time and many unique takes on Lovecraft's mythology. A must read for Lovecraft fans.

The promise of this anthology is great; perhaps that is why I judge so strongly. Some of the stories are great - Sarah Hans' tale of wandering monks is easily my favorite in this anthology - but others seem stuck in a Lovecraftian pastiche. Perhaps that was the point, but I was hoping for more stories where both the setting and storytelling style changed more from HPL's own work. Worth picking up, mind you, but not a must-buy.

I always find anthologies difficult to review, since there are going to be stories that work for each reader and stories that didn't. There's also the question of theme anthologies, since you if you read multiple anthologies on a theme, you're going to see stories repeated. In the case of this anthology, only one story was one I had previously read.Historical Lovecraft takes on the Lovecraft mythos (although there was one story that I still don't see as being very Lovecraftian at all), and sets

An excellent collection of Lovecraftian tales from the folks at Innsmouth Free Press. The stories, set throughout history and around the globe, work the mythos into settings from Paleolithic Mesopotamia to the U.S. oil rush. Excellent, scary stuff.

Historical Lovecraft is a clever gathering of stories of good and evil, magic and reality from the dawn of time to present day. It is organized by era--antiquity, Middle Ages, etc. therefore the reader can, like me, pick first to read their era of interest. I did--antiquity. As it is with all collections of stories such as this, there are favorites, and the pick of a favorite is purely subjective. My favorite, because of its well formed character, the imaginative use of the historical setting an...

This book includes a number of Lovecraft inspired stories starting from the stone age until XIX century. As in any multi-autor story compilation, some tales are really good, some are just ok and some are -in my humble opinion- better forgotten as soon as possible (plus there is one unrelated to Lovecraft that has been freely included for no apparent reason other that to point out that there's a whole series by the author with the same characters; really, dudes?). Still, if one is a Lovecraft fan...

Outstanding anthology of Lovecraftian fiction. The historical fiction theme piqued my interest. Lots of authors were previously unknown to me, so I was hesitant to pick this one up - but, I'm glad I did. I will be seeking out more work by many of the authors. Highlights for me were 'Shadows of the Darkest Jade' by Sarah Hans, 'The Saga of Hilde Ansgardotti' by Jesse Bullington, 'The Far Deep' by Joshua Reynolds, 'The Infernal History of the Ivybridge Twins' by Molly Tanzer, and 'Black Hill' by O...

Full disclosure: I'm in this book. And while it might be poor form to review a book you're in, and while I certainly wouldn't do it for any kind of pro site or anything, my goal with Goodreads is to record everything I read, which includes stuff I'm in, and besides, there's a lot of other good stuff in here that's worth talking about.First off, Historical Lovecraft is a different kind of Lovecraft anthology than usual, in my opinion. It's at least as focused on the history part of the title as i...

Ok, should be an interesting theme, right? Stories featuring Lovecraft's stuff or at least a general feeling of it. You know what? There are stories in here that deserve a flat out 5/5 rating, and this book would and should have gotten higher. The problem is, there were stories in this book that I finished and was left wondering just what, if anything, was Lovecraftian in it. I mean, there were stories that didn't even have a Lovecraftian feel to it.If it was just one, I could let it go. But it

I love the concept of this collection. Ever since Lovecraft encouraged others to play with his mythos, that open door has lead almost everyone to crash the party. Stories set in the mythos throughout history is a valid idea, I am little underwhelmed with the execution. Certainly different periods of history are all there, but I found the stories to be a little ho-hum. A great indication of that was that by the time I finished the collection I had to thumb back through the book to even remember t...

I received this book for free from Goodreads First Reads. Let me start out by stating that I have never read anything by Lovecraft which might be why I just couldn't get into the book. Some of the stories were pretty good and I'd rate 3 or more stars, but some I didn't like at all. The writing was bad and the storylines were confusing in some stories. They just weren't very fleshed out. Others were good and read like mythology from various cultures. These were enjoyable. I think if I was a fan o...

Haven't started yet, but it looks like an interesting collection.

A fabulous anthology that adds to - and engages with - the Lovecraftian mythos. I particularly enjoyed the stories set in ancient time periods, which were so far up my alley that they might as well have been written for me specifically.

Historical Lovecraft"The addition of tentacles does not a Lovecraftian story make", would Yoda say if he ever would read this collection of short stories thatshould encompass tales of Lovecraftian-influenced mystery and horror set in different periods of Terra's history. The concept - while intriguing in itself - barely holds water here as the vast majority of stories included in this collection have absolutely nothing to do with Lovecraftian fiction in neither verse, themes nor style. What's mo...