News, Reviews, and Commentary on all forms of science fiction, fantasy, and horror audio. Audiobooks, audio drama, podcasts; we discuss all of it here. Mystery, crime, and noir audio are also fair game.
First published in Tryout, November 1920, The Cats Of Ulthar is an unusual tale by H.P. Lovecraft. It reads more like an old fashioned fairy tale than any other I’ve read. The story features a young boy named Menes who loves cats. Lovecraft probably took that name from the writings of a Greek historian named Diodorus Siculus who related a tale of a legendary Egyptian pharaoh named Menes that he heard from some crocodile-god priests. Menes it was said fled from his own dogs, who attacked him, while hinting. His escape was assisted by a crocodile. But no dogs or crocodiles are mentioned in The Cats Of Ulthar.
The Cats Of Ulthar
By H.P. Lovecraft; Read by James Pontolillo
1 |MP3| – Approx. 9 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: October 19, 2008
|ETEXT|
First published in Tryout, November 1920.
And here’s a |PDF| made from the publication in Fantastic Novels, January 1951.
Dark Adventure Radio Theatre: H.P. Lovecraft’s The Shadow Out Of Time
Adapted from the novella by H.P. Lovecraft; Performed by a full cast
1 CD – Approx. 77 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: HPLHS
Published: October 27, 2009
Themes: / Horror / Science Fiction / Aliens / Consciousness Swapping /
It their line of faux Old Time Radio shows the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society has also adapted the old master’s The Shadow out of Time. After the slightly disappointing At the Mountains of Madness and the great Dunwich Horror we now look the The Shadow Out Of Time – not quite what I would have expected for an audio drama treatment.
As usual you can get the audio both as a download and in the physical CD form, the latter is enhanced with certain goodies. The HPLHS started off as a supplier of props for Lovecraftian role-playing games (both pen-and-paper, and live action). This CD is no exception and so you can find a cutout from the fictitious Arkham Advertiser printed on real newspaper paper, a sealed Marconigram (a telegram), torn pages from a psychological journal detailing the case of Nathaniel Peaslee, and finally a very well made faux facsimile page from the infamous “Von Unaussprechlichen Kulten“. The latter being in absolutely perfect German. Not that you will actually need any of these things but they are fun to look add and just add to the impression that this is a quality product.
But what about the audio?
The story tells of Nathaniel Peaslee, Professor of Political Economics whose mind gets exchanged by an alien entity from the Great Rave of Yith who are time travelers from earth’s distant past. The strange behavior of the entity in his body alienates Peaslee from his family and friends, and he becomes a celebrity patient among psychologists.
When the real Peaslee is being sent back into his body with no memories of his experience he is shocked to find his life in shambles and is soon confronted with nightmarish visions of his life as a captive of the Yithians. Eventually he becomes involved in an archeological dig in Australia that is about to uncover the remnants of the ancient pre-human city along with the Yithian arch-enemies that still dwell there.
Lovecraft’s usual topic, of showing the insignificance of human kind in light of some alien being or race who could eradicate it in the blink of an eye, is emphasized by the fact that even these powerful beings can be overcome by some more powerful than they are.
Let’s face it, you don’t read an individual Lovecraft story for the action or suspense. It’s more the joy of unveiling the cosmology that connects most of his literary works. The Shadow Out Of Time is no exception, if anything it is an even more than typical example. I mean it starts with an alien hijacking a professor of *Political Economics* of all things! (Dear students of Economics, this is nothing personal but you must admit that the discipline does not quite come to mind as the starter for a horror story of cosmic dimensions) A sizable part of the story consists one massive infodump detailing the culture and society of the Great Race of Yith. In it Lovecraft even goes so far as to classify the economic and political system (I can see a pattern evolving) of the Yithians, which he dubs some form of “socialist fascism”. All of this is delivered in the form of a letter to Peaslee’s son and the world at large.
Not an easy thing to turn into an audio drama.
However, the HPLHS managed surprisingly well to create a more dynamic form of presentation. First of all, when the story starts on the ship bringing Peaslee home from Australia the audio drama introduces the ship’s doctor as a counterfoil so that Peaslee can actually tell his story to someone. Peaslee’s research into the lost years of his amnesia during which his hijacker traveled the world in search of arcane knowledge is made more vivid through a conversation with a Swedish librarian, and so are the flashbacks into his incarceration in Earth’s distant past together with fellow prisoners from other ages and places. These diversions from the original story all serve to liven up the dramaturgy without changing the essence of Lovecraft’s Shadow Out Of Time.
As usual, the production and voice acting are great, especially considering that this is not an entirely professional production. The HPLHS are hobbyists who, in spite of the love and attention to detail they pour into their products, have not lost their sense of humour. Thus, The Shadow Out Of Time is the first Lovecraft adaptation to my knowledge which features product placement (Fleurs de Lys anyone?). It is not least this tongue-in-cheek humour that helps to turn an slightly stuffy tale of pre-historical kidnapping with cosmic, nay, titanic dimensions into an enjoyable audio drama. Highly recommended.
One of the poems, The Window, in my recently acquired H.P. Lovecraft collection from Gollancz (Eldritch Tales: A Miscellany Of The Macabre) struck me as the perfect jumping off point for a thousand more Lovecraftian adventures. The book is really terrific. It features many wonderful illustrations by Les Edwards.
The poem itself is on page 324 unfortunately isn’t illustrated, but the text is available via Wikisource, and here it is from its publication in Weird Tales:
And here are a couple of readings found on YouTube:
The poem was also adapted to comics. It appeared in the Marvel Max series H.P. Lovecraft’s Haunt Of Horror (#3) – with art by Richard Corben:
I don’t know about you, but I almost never go into the iTunes store anymore. The podcast section deeply buried, and the category I usually look at, “Arts: Literature”, is full podfaded shows. And when the podcasts listed are up-to-date they are often podcasts about TV shows, or if they are book based they are dominated by a long parade of sparkly vampire, boy wizard, or starving-teenager-in-dystopia book series based podcasts.
So like I said I’ve nearly given up on iTunes as a source of podcast discovery.
But, late last year I started following a blog that does weekly podcast reviews, The Onion’s AV Club Podmass.
The way the site works, it’s basically a weekly roundup of review of about a dozen podcasts with sassy descriptions of new episodes.
I think we need a lot more blogs like this.
Here’s how The Onion AV Club’s Podmass describes itself:
Since the iPod debuted in 2001, it has gone from portable music player to a medium in itself: Podcasts, like blogs, have indelibly shaped the media landscape in less than a decade. The A.V. Club listens to a lot of them, so this week we introduce Podmass, our weekly round-up of the podcasts we follow.
Here’s how it will work: Each week, we’ll recommend the best of those we listened to, as well as quick write-ups of everything else. Because of the deadlines required to post on Friday, our coverage week goes Thursday through Wednesday. Every few weeks we’ll visit a fringe podcast, get a recommendation from a podcaster we like, as well as listen to something completely new to us. (If you have podcast suggestions, e-mail us at [email protected].)
The only thing missing from the reviews are links to the MP3s themselves. I would HuffDuff a lot more of the shows I’ve spotted there if they were deep linking.
I haven’t posted about Podmass previously because their focus is almost entirely on comedic podcasts. Most weeks see a review of about ten standup comic personality podcasts. There’s also a a sprinkling of history, or non-fiction subjected shows thrown in as well – but they’re not ones I usually love.
The good news is that their |LATEST POST| includes a familiar program. Check it out:
OUTLIERS
19 Nocturne Boulevard
Julie Hoverson is a writer and producer who lets her dark side show in this anthology audio-drama series. Many episodes of 19 Nocturne Boulevard are horror stories, including some quality adaptations of H.P. Lovecraft, but the show can include comedy, sci-fi, romance or whatever genre Hoverson feels like producing that month. The writing and the sound effects shine brightest in these productions, but the voice acting is made up of a mix of professionals and brand-new talent, which can produce a mixed result. The episode “Little Boxes” is a creepy tale of some store clerks who agree to sell a new product that could save their business, with disastrous results. The story is elegant in its simplicity and a good example of how music and sound effects can set a gloomy and foreboding mood. This is the perfect show for anyone who needs a good scare to motivate their morning jog. [AJ]
And if you go digging you’ll see Julie Davis’ Forgotten Classics was reviewed back in September!
Here is H.P. Lovecraft’s novelette The Horror At Red Hook. The story was first published in the January 1927 issue of Weird Tales and later in the March 1952 issue (which is where I found the terrific Jon Arfstrom at the bottom of the post).
Red Hook is a mysterious slum in New York City, full of gangs, crime, and just perhaps a terrible cult. Detective Malone had a case that had tendrils extending into Red Hook. It seems that one Robert Suydam, a corpulent and scruffy recluse, has been looking younger, more radiant and prosperous. What does that have to do with the recent spate of kidnappings?
Lovecraft described his inspiration for the story in a letter written to Clark Ashton Smith:
“The idea that black magic exists in secret today, or that hellish antique rites still exist in obscurity, is one that I have used and shall use again. When you see my new tale “The Horror at Red Hook”, you will see what use I make of the idea in connexion with the gangs of young loafers & herds of evil-looking foreigners that one sees everywhere in New York.”
The incomparably awesome-voiced narrator, Wayne June, has completed a terrific sounding narration of William Hope Hodgson‘s The House On The Borderland. This is the famous supernatural horror novel, from 1908, that H.P. Lovecraft described as “A classic of the first water” – I looked that phrase up – “of the first water” means means “of the highest quality.”
When you combine the wonder of Wayne June’s narrative powers with a classic of this magnitude you’re bound to get something special.
The book comes in five MP3s. But, and this is a pretty interesting experiment, Wayne June is also giving away the entire novel there, on the site, in a streaming format!
Yup, if you want to listen to the novel streaming you can hear the whole thing FREE!
The Cats Of Ulthar
Dark Adventure Radio Theatre: H.P. Lovecraft’s The Shadow Out Of Time
