Cthulhu Lies Dreaming

Book excerpt: "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 its truth - that as we puzzle out the shape of true reality, we'll find it is not to our liking. Not one bit. Modern science, with its experts and specialties, 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. Contributors include: Kenneth Hite Matthew Hockey Ayobami Leeman Kessler Greg Stolze Lynnea Glasser Lucy Brady Yma Johnson M. S. Swift Thord D. Hedengren Marc Reichardt Lynne Hardy Brian Fatah Steele Matthew Chabin Samuel Morningstar Daniel Marc Chant Morris Kenyon Saul Quint William Couper Peter Rawlik Evey Brett E. Dane Anderson Mike Davis G. K. Lomax Gethin A. Lynes