Black Wings II: New Tales of Lovecraftian Horror
Edited by S. T. Joshi. Cover art by Jason Van Hollander.
This second instalment of S. T. Joshi’s critically acclaimed Black Wings series contains eighteen stories by leading contemporary writers, all drawing upon themes, images, and ideas from the life and work of H. P. Lovecraft. Caitlín R. Kiernan has written a poetic reinterpretation of “The Hound,” while Nicholas Royle plays a fascinating riff on the existential horror of “The Outsider.” Three separate tales, by Jason C. Eckhardt, Brian Evenson, and Jonathan Thomas, ring changes on Lovecraft’s seminal story, “The Call of Cthulhu.” Nick Mamatas writes an ingenious elaboration of “The Whisperer in Darkness.”
The cosmic indifferentism that is the core of Lovecraft’s fiction is treated in various ways by John Langan, Melanie Tem, Tom Fletcher, Darrell Schweitzer, and Richard Gavin. The archaeological horror that we find in some of Lovecraft’s most powerful tales is revivified by Donald Tyson, while Lovecraft’s media presence is made the subject of half-comic, half-horrific tales by Don Webb and Chet Williamson. John Shirley, Rick Dakan, and Jason V Brock use Lovecraft’s life and outlook as springboards for imaginative tales of psychological and supernatural horror.
All in all, Black Wings II affords a rich feast of terror inspired by the twentieth century’s greatest writer of the supernatural.
Contents:
- When Death Wakes Me to Myself - John Shirley
- View - Tom Fletcher
- Houndwife - Caitlín R. Kiernan
- King of Cat Swamp - Jonathan Thomas
- Dead Media - Nick Mamatas
- The Abject - Richard Gavin
- Dahlias - Melanie Tem
- Bloom - John Langan
- And the Sea Gave Up the Dead - Jason C. Eckhardt
- Casting Call - Don Webb
- The Clockwork King, the Queen of Glass, and the Man with the Hundred Knives - Darrell Schweitzer
- The Other Man - Nicholas Royle
- Waiting at the Crossroads Motel - Steve Rasnic Tem
- The Wilcox Remainder - Brian Evenson
- Correlated Discontents - Rick Dakan
- The Skinless Face - Donald Tyson
- The History of a Letter - Jason V?Brock
- Appointed - Chet Williamson
S. T. Joshi
S. T. Joshi is a leading authority on H. P. Lovecraft and the author of The Weird Tale (1990), The Modern Weird Tale (2001), The Rise and Fall of the Cthulhu Mythos (2008), and other critical and biographical studies. His biography, H. P. Lovecraft: A Life (1996), won the British Fantasy Award and the Horror Writers Association award; it has now been published in an unabridged edition as I Am Providence: The Life and Times of H. P. Lovecraft (2010). Joshi has prepared corrected editions of Lovecraft's fiction, poetry, and essays, and is working on a long-range project to publish Lovecraft's collected letters. He has also done work on Ambrose Bierce, H. L. Mencken, Lord Dunsany, and other writers. He has received the World Fantasy Award, the International Horror Guild Award, and the Distinguished Scholarship Award from the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts. He lives in Seattle, Washington, with his wife, Leslie, and numerous cats.
Black Wings
Black Wings consists of six primary books, and includes one additional book that complement the series but is not considered mandatory reads. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.
