“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.”

The classic American horror author H. P. Lovecraft coined the term ‘weird fiction’ in the 1920s. Even today, in our rational world of wonder, his legacy of cosmic horror slumbers on. Deep in the recesses of our unconscious minds, we suspect it to be the truth – that we begin to glance the shape of true reality, and it is not to our liking. Not at all.

Modern science, with its experts and specialities, is a fragmentary thing. In this, it reflects the human mind. We keep our thoughts in boxes, broken into digestible shards. It is safer. Cosmic horror warns us that what we fondly imagine to be reality is just a thin skin of light and substance over endless gulfs of insanity. Gather too much knowledge, make the wrong connections, and the truth can no longer be denied.

The amazing tales lovingly collected in Cthulhu Lies Dreaming are fragments of that truth. Treat them with the caution that they deserve. Each will offer you glimpses behind the skin of the world, leading you closer and closer to the edge of the abyss. Knowledge may bring wisdom, but it also offers far darker gifts to the curious.

The truth is indeed out there – and it hungers.

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Praise

“Impudent, profane, pure and dark”

Dennis Detwiller

creator of Delta Green

"A marvelous and unnerving anthology. Each author offers a meditation on the transforming power of Cthulhu’s dreaming on the waking world; for the characters in the story and for me the distinction between reality and nightmare became blurred. Dark delights await the readers of these 23 vividly descriptive Lovecraftian stories. Urgently recommended."

Matthew Carpenter

Editor of A Lonely and Curious Country

About the Authors

Book details

genre
anthology, cosmic horror, dark fantasy, weird fiction
Number of pages
388
ISBN
978-0-9576271-7-8
Notes
Cover credits, with our thanks to everyone. Design: Gábor Csigás. Sculpture: Key of Cthulhu by Lee Joyner (Joynerstudio.com; photo by Lee Joyner) Textures by mercurycode and Sirius-sdz Fonts used for the cover: "Selfish" by Eduardo Recife "Baron Neue" by Frank Hemmekam "Metalista" by Tomáš Brousil "Duerers Minuskeln" by Manfred Klein.