Literature / Books Of Cthulhu

Tales of Two-Fisted Terror.

The Books of Cthulhu series is an anthology book collection based on H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos by a variety of Neo-Lovecraftian authors like David Niall Wilson, David Hambling, Matthew Davenport, and C.T. Phipps.

The book series are generally Lighter and Softer than typical HP Lovecraft Cosmic Horror Story fiction with the protagonists being on the Pulpier heroic side of things versus Lovecraft Lite versions of the Mythos. They sometimes tie into pre-existing series like the Andrew Doran, Harry Stubbs, Dechance Chronicles, and Cthulhu Armageddon. Despite this, a number of more traditional Downer Ending stories are interspersed between them as well.

Each book has a framing device that justifies the inclusion of the various tales within the story ranging from Abdul Al-Hazred reminescing, a undead sorcerer trying to destroy the world, a time traveler observing various events, and Nyarlathotep relating tales to a selfish priest.

• Tales of the Al-Azif
• Tales of Yog-Sothoth
• The Book of Yig
• Tales of Nyarlathotep
• Time Loopers

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This series contains the following tropes:

• Action Horror: The series contain tie-ins to multiple action series (Cthulhu Armageddon, Andrea Doran, Harry Stubbs, Porter Rockwell) as well as stories of individuals trying (with varying degrees of success) to stop the Mythos with guns, swords, or magic.
• Adventurer Archaeologist: Andrew Doran is a classic one as he works as a two-fisted pulp hero as well as professor of antiquities for Miskatonic University.
• After the End: The Cthulhu Armageddon stories take place in a world destroyed by the Great Old Ones where humanity is surviving in scattered towns as well as tribes.
• All for Nothing: "The Siege of New Ulthar" has the protagonists up against an entire army of undead horrors led by what seems to be Nyarlathotep himself. Booth is prepared to give his life to buy the people some time to evacuate. Mercury ends up making a Human Sacrifice of the survivors to save Booth's life.
• Artifact of Doom:
  • The Al-Azif in Tales of the Al-Azif is a book that contains the entire history of an alien race before communicating part of that knowledge to Abdul Al-Hazred.
  • The Windlass ap in Time Loopers allows humans to be able to reset days within their timelines but slowly undermines reality.
    • The Tillinghast Device is less this than a Magitech Weapon of Mass Destruction. It unleashes the Flying Polyps on the Yithian civilization.
• Asshole Victim:
  • Tales of the Al-Azif's Abdul Al-Hazred goes mad with power as soon as he discovers the Al-Azif. So, you don't feel too sorry for him when he is torn apart by an invisible monster. That's not the end of him, though.
  • Apophis Zul is a Evil Chancellor and Evil Sorcerer in the waning days of the Hyborian Age. The fact Nyarlathotep causes him to die of old age listening to his stories leaves the reader with very little sympathy.
  • The Yithians in "Academic Legacies" are subject to the Tillinghast Device bringing down the Flying Polyps on them that ultimately destroyed their race. This is only after we find about their kidnapping spree across time and use of the Time War.
• The Cameo: Titus Crow from the Brian Lumley Cthulhu Mythos series, Titus Crow, shows up in the story, "All The Way Up."
• Badass Normal:
  • Captain Cross and Harry Stubbs are somewhat unique in they're perfectly normal 1920s human beings able to survive their occult investigations.
  • Cletus Diggs is also a perfectly normal human being (albeit an enormous redneck) who treats the Mythos with surprising levity.
• Canon Welding:
  • The books share coherent, if loosely, collected narratives between multiple series like Porter Rockwell, Andrew Doran, and Cthulhu Armageddon. This despite all of the leads having their own series set in their own worlds, effectively making them one single timeline in the Book of Cthulhu series.
  • The books take the premise that the Hyborian Age of Robert E. Howard is the past of the Cthulhu Mythos, making the Two-Fisted Tales setting and Lovecraft Lite a bit more palatable.
  • The Dechance Chronicles story "All the Way Up", with the permission of Brian Lumley, includes a short appearance by Titus Crow.
• Horde of Alien Locusts: The aliens of Callisto are one of these, being a Hive Mind race that intends to escape with the Al-Azif onto Earth at the climax of the Tales of Al-Azif book.
• Occult Detective:
  • Harry Stubbs is a ex-boxer and WW1 veteran who investigates the occult in 1920s London.
    • Captain Cross is an Ascended Extra from the same series who does his own investigations.
• Downer Ending: Most of the stories end more on the Bittersweet Ending side of things but others fall upon this.
  • The Skull on the Desk" ends with Abdul Al-Hazred consigned to a Fate Worse than Death as his spirit is tied to a skull.
  • "Cockroad Suckers" ends with The infection of the insect mind spreading with no one to stop it.
  • "Cinderella's Outer Godfather" is a Fractured Fairy Tale that ends in the destruction of Earth.
  • "Cookies for the Gentleman" has the protagonist insane and sacrificing his neighbors to Nyarlathotep.
  • "The Siege of New Ulthar" results in the destruction of the city and the death of all of its inhabitants but Booth, Mercury, and their daughter.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: The stories are generally told in chronological order and end with some small measure of hope.
  • "The Last Page" The Al-Azif is destroyed along with the race of the Callisto insects attempting to destroy the last of humanity.
  • "The Final Gate" ends with the destruction of Rebecca, the 1000 year old Yog-Sothoth priestess.
  • "Andrew Doran and the Journey to the Serpent Temple" has Yig himself intervene with Andrew Doran preventing the renegade Yithians from destroying humanity.
• For Science!: Abdul Al-Hazred in "The Skull on the Desk" is obsessed with learning natural philosophy and the secrets of the world beyond the religion of the High Muslim Empire.
• Fractured Fairy Tale:
  • "Cinderella and Her Outer Godfather" is a retelling of Cinderella with Nyarlathotep playing the role of the fairy godmother.
  • "Cookies for the Gentleman" is a story about Nyarlathotep taking a Slenderman-esque role of stalking a man seemingly at random while said individual turns to stories of the Fair Folk to see if he can placate him.
• Genre Anthology: The Books of Cthulhu series is about action filled pulp horror stories.
• Hillbilly Horrors:
  • "Cockroach Suckers" is about how the Al-Azif corrupts a small 20th century rural American town and turns everyone into bug worshipers.
  • The Cletus Digs stories usually amount to something horrifying happening in rural Lovecraft Country.
  • "The Blackwood Relic" is about a rural country family getting corrupted by the ghost of their Nyarlathotep worshiping ancestor.
• Lovecraft Lite: There's a better than even odds that the protagonists will emerge with their sanity mostly intact and the monster banished or destroyed in these short stories. Usually with significant cost, however.
• Nay-Theist: Abdul Al-Hazred believes in the Great Old Ones and other spirits but finds the idea of religion as well as placating them to be ridiculous.
• Precursors: The Yithians are a race that existed far before humanity and still continue to influence life on Earth via time travel.
  • Time Loopers has a far less forgiving treatment of them and considers them to be Abusive Precursors who manipulate humanity as cannon fodder against the Shoggoths while possessing individuals without regard to their autonomy.
• Our Vampires Are Different: "The True Name of God" has the Jews of Crusades-era Acre being preyed upon by a creature that steals their hearts from their body and eats them. The Hashishan hired to deal with them directly compare them to Eastern European strigoi.
• Retgone: The fate of anyone eaten by a Hound of Tindalos in "Academic Legacies" is to be removed from time so that even people who knew you can only vaguely recall something is missing.
• Tome of Eldritch Lore: The Al-Azif in the titular tales is both this and an Artifact of Doom as it not only contains the collected wisdom of the Callisto aliens but can serve as a temporal portal to when their species was about to go extinct. It is also what inspired Abdul Al-Hazred to create the Necronomicon.
• Two-Fisted Tales: The books take a very Pulp hero version of Lovecraft's tales with protagonists that are unafraid to oppose the various cultists as well as forces threatening the world. Occassionally subverted where the protagonists Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu.
• Villain Protagonist: Abdul Al-Hazred and Apophis Zul are both particularly nasty characters devoted to the Mythos.
• Weird West:
  • The Porter Rockwell series are about the historical cowboy and his various encounters with the Mythos.
  • The Cthulhu Armageddon stories take place in a post-apocalypse eldritch version of this with cowboys, gunslingers, frontier towns, magic, and ghouls in a giant Wasteland.

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