Black Wings III: New Tales of Lovecraftian Horror
Edited by S. T. Joshi. Cover art by Jason Van Hollander.
This third installment of S. T. Joshi’s critically acclaimed Black Wings series contains seventeen stories by some of the foremost writers in contemporary weird fiction, using the ideas, imagery, and atmosphere of H. P. Lovecraft’s tales as springboards. Jonathan Thomas opens the book with a chilling tale of biological horror set in Lovecraft’s native Providence, Rhode Island. Caitlín R. Kiernan melds brooding melancholy with Lovecraftian cosmicism in her tale, while Simon Strantzas weaves an ingenious variant on Lovecraft’s concept of the ghoul. Darrell Schweitzer and Donald Tyson probe the notion of alternate worlds in their tales.
This volume takes the reader on imaginative journeys around the world. Don Webb finds Lovecraftian horror in the wilds of Texas; Peter Cannon’s characters encounter the denizens of Innsmouth on a trip to China; Mollie L. Burleson enlivens the American Southwest with terrors out of history. Joseph S. Pulver, Sr., revivifies Lovecraft’s ancient New England seaport of Kingsport, Massachusetts, while in their collaborative tale W. H. Pugmire and Jessica Amanda Salmonson do the same with Lovecraft’s iconic Arkham. The volume concludes with a searching rumination on Lovecraft’s early tale “From Beyond” by Brian Stableford.
Black Wings III demonstrates how H. P. Lovecraft’s work continues to inspire some of the best in contemporary weird writing.
Contents:
- Introduction by S. T. Joshi
- Houdini Fish by Jonathan Thomas
- Dimply Dolly Doofy by Donald R. Burleson
- The Hag Stone by Richard Gavin
- Underneath an Arkham Moon by Jessica Amanda Salmonson & W. H. Pugmire
- Spiderwebs in the Dark by Darrell Schweitzer
- One Tree Hill (The World as Catalysm) by Caitlín R. Kiernan
- The Man with the Horn by Jason V. Brock
- Hotel del Lago by Mollie L. Burleson
- Waller by Donald Tyson
- The Megalith Plague by Don Webb
- Down Black Staircases by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr
- China Holiday by Peter Cannon
- Necrotic Cove by Lois Gresh
- The Turn of the Tide by Mark Howard Jones
- Weltschmerz by Sam Gafford
- Thistle’s Find by Simon Strantzas
- Further Beyond by Brian Stableford
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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.
