What do you think?
Rate this book
Culbard's Lovecraft
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath is a novella by H. P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) published by Arkham House posthumously in 1943 in the collection Beyond the Wall of Sleep. Begun probably in the autumn of 1926, it was completed on January 22, 1927 and was unpublished in his lifetime. It is both the longest of the stories that make up his Dream Cycle and the longest Lovecraft work to feature protagonist Randolph Carter. Along with his 1927 novel The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, it can be considered one of the significant achievements of that period of Lovecraft's writing. The Dream-Quest combines elements of horror and fantasy into an epic tale that illustrates the scope and wonder of humankind's ability to dream.
The dream-quest of unknown Kadath --
Celephais --
The silver key --
Through the gates of the silver key --
The white ship --
The strange high house in the mist
The dream-quest of unknown Kadath --
Celephais --
The silver key --
Through the gates of the silver key --
The white ship --
The strange high house in the mist
144 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1943
About the author
H.P. Lovecraft
4,439 books17.8k followersHoward Phillips Lovecraft, of Providence, Rhode Island, was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction.
Lovecraft's major inspiration and invention was cosmic horror: life is incomprehensible to human minds and the universe is fundamentally alien. Those who genuinely reason, like his protagonists, gamble with sanity. Lovecraft has developed a cult following for his Cthulhu Mythos, a series of loosely interconnected fictions featuring a pantheon of human-nullifying entities, as well as the Necronomicon, a fictional grimoire of magical rites and forbidden lore. His works were deeply pessimistic and cynical, challenging the values of the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Christianity. Lovecraft's protagonists usually achieve the mirror-opposite of traditional gnosis and mysticism by momentarily glimpsing the horror of ultimate reality.
Although Lovecraft's readership was limited during his life, his reputation has grown over the decades. He is now commonly regarded as one of the most influential horror writers of the 20th Century, exerting widespread and indirect influence, and frequently compared to Edgar Allan Poe.
— Wikipedia
Lovecraft's major inspiration and invention was cosmic horror: life is incomprehensible to human minds and the universe is fundamentally alien. Those who genuinely reason, like his protagonists, gamble with sanity. Lovecraft has developed a cult following for his Cthulhu Mythos, a series of loosely interconnected fictions featuring a pantheon of human-nullifying entities, as well as the Necronomicon, a fictional grimoire of magical rites and forbidden lore. His works were deeply pessimistic and cynical, challenging the values of the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Christianity. Lovecraft's protagonists usually achieve the mirror-opposite of traditional gnosis and mysticism by momentarily glimpsing the horror of ultimate reality.
Although Lovecraft's readership was limited during his life, his reputation has grown over the decades. He is now commonly regarded as one of the most influential horror writers of the 20th Century, exerting widespread and indirect influence, and frequently compared to Edgar Allan Poe.
— Wikipedia
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 665 reviews
June 7, 2019
The Dream Quest may not be Lovecraft's best effort, but it is undeniably one of his most significant. It is a bridge—and a key—to his two greatest periods. Paradoxically, it is also both his most far-flung fantasy and his most revealing personal work.
Before The Dream Quest came the short stories influenced primarily by Poe and organized around a single effect (“The Outsider” to “Pickman's Model,” 1921–1926) and after came the Cthluhlu-mythos novellas set in haunted, particularized landscapes (“The Colour Out of Space” to “The Haunter in the Dark,” 1927–1935). In between, though, there is this rambling dream-fantasy--stretching over valleys, seas, and caverns, all the way to the titanic black sculptures of the farthest North—which begins on the model of Vathek, in Dunsanian style, boasts an Edgar Rice Burroughs' Mars-style plot, and ends with a “Wizard of Oz” moral: “Dorothy, there's no place like home.”
H.P.'s life was in transition too. After his beloved mother's death, he married Sonia Greene, seven years his senior, and the thirty-year-old Howard and his “take-charge” bride moved to Manhattan to seek their fortune. But her business failed, his stories fizzled: after a couple of years, she relocated to Chicago, and he returned to Providence.
The Dream Quest was written not long after H.P.'s return to Rhode Island, and it is filled not only with an enthusiasm for finely detailed landscapes and the flora and fauna which inhabit them, but also with a nostalgia for his own New England landscapes and the characters and spectres of his previous work, to which he frequently alludes. (For example, the eponymous “hero” of “Pickman's Model” appears here, under the name of “the ghoul who once was 'Pickman.'")
Around the time that H.P. was writing The Dream Quest, he remarked, in a letter to Clark Asthon Smith: “Like Antaeus of old, my strength depends on repeated contact with the soil of the Mother Earth that bore me.” This elaborate dream fantasy, in an odd way, brought him even closer to this insight. Lovecraft's next major work was the short novel The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. It is set in the city of Providence, Rhode Island, realized with particular descriptive detail, and its hero—whatever his origins--looks a lot like H.P. Lovecraft himself.
April 30, 2019
Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath craft beer commercial take 17:
Randolph Carter: Hi, I’m Randolph Carter, star of Lovecraft’s Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath -
Cthulhu: And I’m Cthulhu and need no introduction.
CUT!
Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath craft beer commercial take 26:
Cthulhu: I drink Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath craft beer because it tastes great.
RC: and I drink it ‘cause it’s less filling. It’s the Dream Cycle side of Lovecraft’s canon, while referencing the darker Cthulhu stories, it is more fantasy than horror –
Cthulhu: that’s right Nancy –
CUT!
Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath craft beer commercial take 42:
RC: Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath craft beer, clean and refreshing, harkening back to a more whimsical, fantastic time of Edgar Rice Burroughs and L. Frank Baum –
Cthulhu: Yep, it is to my mythos as lemonade is to Jack Daniels – as to my Old Ones as Air Supply is to Black Sabbath –
CUT!
Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath craft beer commercial take 61:
Cthulhu: I don’t always drink craft beer, but when I do, I like to drink Arrogant Bastard Ale –
CUT!
Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath craft beer commercial take 77:
RC: Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath craft beer takes you back to dreamy, fantastic yarns of an older, more innocent time, inspiring later writers like Jack Vance and John Varley –
Cthulhu: And the Care Bears and Smurfs. So drink Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath craft beer, if you like your fantasy hoppy as an IPA and not too boozy – or horrific.
Randolph Carter: Hi, I’m Randolph Carter, star of Lovecraft’s Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath -
Cthulhu: And I’m Cthulhu and need no introduction.
CUT!
Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath craft beer commercial take 26:
Cthulhu: I drink Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath craft beer because it tastes great.
RC: and I drink it ‘cause it’s less filling. It’s the Dream Cycle side of Lovecraft’s canon, while referencing the darker Cthulhu stories, it is more fantasy than horror –
Cthulhu: that’s right Nancy –
CUT!
Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath craft beer commercial take 42:
RC: Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath craft beer, clean and refreshing, harkening back to a more whimsical, fantastic time of Edgar Rice Burroughs and L. Frank Baum –
Cthulhu: Yep, it is to my mythos as lemonade is to Jack Daniels – as to my Old Ones as Air Supply is to Black Sabbath –
CUT!
Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath craft beer commercial take 61:
Cthulhu: I don’t always drink craft beer, but when I do, I like to drink Arrogant Bastard Ale –
CUT!
Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath craft beer commercial take 77:
RC: Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath craft beer takes you back to dreamy, fantastic yarns of an older, more innocent time, inspiring later writers like Jack Vance and John Varley –
Cthulhu: And the Care Bears and Smurfs. So drink Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath craft beer, if you like your fantasy hoppy as an IPA and not too boozy – or horrific.
June 10, 2018
*Opens the door*
My friend, The Dreamlands of Dylath-Leen, Ulthar, Oriab, Celephaïs, even the accursed Plateau of Leng and the unknown golden city of Kadath awaits your pre...
I love Lovecraft's tales from Cthulhu cycle, but his Dream cycle tales and I have a rocky relationship. And Dream-quest of Unknown Kadath is THE Dream cycle tale. It tells the odyssey of Carter through the vast dreamlands to find the mysterious unknown city, Kadath. As Carter progresses through his quest, he gets kidnapped and gets taken to the moon, makes allies with cats, gets kidnapped by flying monsters, makes allies with ghouls, gets kidna... Okay, I'm going to stop now.
Lovecraft wrote this novella in the 1920s, and just like his novel The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, Lovecraft never published the story in his life because he thought it was crap. Now, I disagree with Lovecraft about the quality of Charles Dexter Ward, but his instinct about Kadath is quite accurate.
It's crap.
Okay, that's a bit harsh. It's a vast, imaginative story filled with diverse creatures, gods, civilization, and worlds. But ultimately it's pointless and even unreadable at times.
Nevertheless, Dream-quest is an important tale as Lovecraft weaves characters and stories from his previous works to this gigantic dream. He brings our protagonist from The Statement of Randolph Carter (1919), supporting characters from Pickman's Model (1926), Celephaïs (1920), The Cats of Ulthar (1920), The other gods (1921) and probably more that I missed. Lovecraft has never connected so many short stories together like this in any of his other works. I just wish he had a better story to tell.
The cats are cool though.
There are also five short stories included in this collection, all from dream cycle. The Silver Key and Through the gates of Silver Key is soft sequels to Randolph Carter's Journey, and while The Silver Key is fun-ish, the latter is a cosmic mess with a decent ending.
The White Ship and The Strange High House in the Mist are the two decent short stories in this collection, and it tells the stories of men who brushed with the wonders and gods of other worlds.
Verdict: When it comes to Lovecraft's Dream cycles, the shorter the stories are, the better.
My friend, The Dreamlands of Dylath-Leen, Ulthar, Oriab, Celephaïs, even the accursed Plateau of Leng and the unknown golden city of Kadath awaits your pre...
I love Lovecraft's tales from Cthulhu cycle, but his Dream cycle tales and I have a rocky relationship. And Dream-quest of Unknown Kadath is THE Dream cycle tale. It tells the odyssey of Carter through the vast dreamlands to find the mysterious unknown city, Kadath. As Carter progresses through his quest, he gets kidnapped and gets taken to the moon, makes allies with cats, gets kidnapped by flying monsters, makes allies with ghouls, gets kidna... Okay, I'm going to stop now.
Lovecraft wrote this novella in the 1920s, and just like his novel The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, Lovecraft never published the story in his life because he thought it was crap. Now, I disagree with Lovecraft about the quality of Charles Dexter Ward, but his instinct about Kadath is quite accurate.
It's crap.
Okay, that's a bit harsh. It's a vast, imaginative story filled with diverse creatures, gods, civilization, and worlds. But ultimately it's pointless and even unreadable at times.
Nevertheless, Dream-quest is an important tale as Lovecraft weaves characters and stories from his previous works to this gigantic dream. He brings our protagonist from The Statement of Randolph Carter (1919), supporting characters from Pickman's Model (1926), Celephaïs (1920), The Cats of Ulthar (1920), The other gods (1921) and probably more that I missed. Lovecraft has never connected so many short stories together like this in any of his other works. I just wish he had a better story to tell.
The cats are cool though.
There are also five short stories included in this collection, all from dream cycle. The Silver Key and Through the gates of Silver Key is soft sequels to Randolph Carter's Journey, and while The Silver Key is fun-ish, the latter is a cosmic mess with a decent ending.
The White Ship and The Strange High House in the Mist are the two decent short stories in this collection, and it tells the stories of men who brushed with the wonders and gods of other worlds.
Verdict: When it comes to Lovecraft's Dream cycles, the shorter the stories are, the better.
June 30, 2015
Randolph Carter wanders the dreamlands in search of Kadath, home of the gods, in order to find a path to the sunset city of his dreams.
First off, I'm going to say something that may get me eaten alive by a swarm of zoogs but I've never held the writing of H.P. Lovecraft in high regard despite loving a lot of his concepts. Untold aeons ago, I read the prose version of The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath. When I saw the graphic novel version, I decided it was time to revisit it.
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath works fairly well as a graphic novel. The adaptation has a somewhat disjointed feel, which I think fits the tale since it is a dream, after all. Unlike a lot of Lovecraft tales, it's a quest story rather than a race toward insanity. Randolph Carter encounters all manner of Lovecraftian beasties on his journey and I.N.J. Culbard depicts them rather well. Much like the pacing, the art contributes to the dreamlike feel of the story.
Even though I only have vague recollections of reading the prose version of this story, I felt like something was missing at times. The transitions from scene to scene were a little rough in places. Overall, though, I felt this was a worthwhile adaptation. Three out of five stars.
First off, I'm going to say something that may get me eaten alive by a swarm of zoogs but I've never held the writing of H.P. Lovecraft in high regard despite loving a lot of his concepts. Untold aeons ago, I read the prose version of The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath. When I saw the graphic novel version, I decided it was time to revisit it.
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath works fairly well as a graphic novel. The adaptation has a somewhat disjointed feel, which I think fits the tale since it is a dream, after all. Unlike a lot of Lovecraft tales, it's a quest story rather than a race toward insanity. Randolph Carter encounters all manner of Lovecraftian beasties on his journey and I.N.J. Culbard depicts them rather well. Much like the pacing, the art contributes to the dreamlike feel of the story.
Even though I only have vague recollections of reading the prose version of this story, I felt like something was missing at times. The transitions from scene to scene were a little rough in places. Overall, though, I felt this was a worthwhile adaptation. Three out of five stars.
May 6, 2022
This is the closest HP Lovecraft ever got to a high fantasy novel, and boy oh boy it doesn’t disappoint. Flying cats, goblins and ghouls, Egyptian-like gods. This story pulls no punches. It’s like Tolkien and Lewis Carroll and Edgar Allan Poe all morphed into the same writer and took a ton of hallucinogens. One of my all time favorite Lovecraft works.
July 12, 2021
The narration mimics the churning of dreams to a fault, in their ceaseless wheeling, reeling, spinning, unraveling, halting, scooting,...
In the living maze of events there is no lack of dead-ends, u-turns, desire-paths, unforeseen developments, and yet the story remains invested with some selfsame and tangible presence throughout.
Not to mention the series of apexes in the course of the plot.
As a result, this ranks as a top-tier brand of sheer, unfettered fantasy!
Osmotic Soundtrack :
Azathoth 1 - Cryo Chamber
Azathoth 2 - Cryo Chamber
In the living maze of events there is no lack of dead-ends, u-turns, desire-paths, unforeseen developments, and yet the story remains invested with some selfsame and tangible presence throughout.
Not to mention the series of apexes in the course of the plot.
As a result, this ranks as a top-tier brand of sheer, unfettered fantasy!
Osmotic Soundtrack :
Azathoth 1 - Cryo Chamber
Azathoth 2 - Cryo Chamber
June 20, 2020
Note: The edition to which I attached this review isn't the one I read. Because this novella is short (141 p.), it's hard to find free-standing printings of it. I actually read it in the Bluefield College library's 1970 Ballantine Books printing, with a worthwhile introduction by Lin Carter,
, which has the same title but binds the novella with five other works by Lovecraft. However, I didn't read the other five at this time. Though it wasn't published until after his death, the author wrote this, according to his letters, primarily in 1926-27, making it one of his earlier works..
Dreams played an important part in HPL's writing. By his own statement, a lot of his story ideas came to him in dreams, as did fictional elements and motifs like the scary "night-gaunts" who inhabit some of his tales (and who play a significant role here). Quite a few of his stories posit the idea that dreams are a vehicle of communication between humans and... other entities, or that they can be windows to realities unseen by waking eyes. ("The Dreams in the Witch House" comes to mind, for example.) So it isn't surprising that, as the title implies, it's in vivid dreams that his protagonist here first beholds the mysterious, ethereally beautiful city he feels compelled to search out, and that his quest plays out in a deep dream. That protagonist is Randolph Carter, who appears also in several other Lovecraft tales ("The Silver Key," "The Unnameable," and "The Statement of Randolph Carter," just to list the ones I've read), and who's thought by many to be an alter ego for the author himself.
Lovecraft is primarily known as an author of naturalistically-explained, but dark and horrific, speculative fiction that imagines sinister entities beyond the realm of normal experience, some but not all of which is directly connected with what has come to be called his "Cthulhu Mythos" (the first work of that corpus proper, "The Call of Cthulhu," was published in 1927, the year this book was finished) with its concept of the Elder Gods or Great Old Ones, powerful malevolent entities that ruled the primeval Earth and remain dangerous. Much of his fiction outside of the Mythos proper have features that relate to or adumbrate it. The same could truthfully be said of this novella, to a significant degree. There are evocations of the characteristic Lovecraft idea of "cosmic horror," "mindless" and unwholesome "Outer Gods" who rule the void of space, headed up by the demonic Azathoth, and whose messenger is the "crawling chaos" Nyarlathotep (both names are echoed in the Mythos stories). We also have references to the "Pnakotic Manuscripts," and many allusions to ideas of ancient, pre-human races, unholy cults with grisly rites, horrible places and beings in the bowels of the Earth as well as space. An earlier Lovecraft story, "Pickman's Model," is directly referenced here as well; the sinister creatures from there are also here, where they're identified as "ghouls," and a prior acquaintance between Carter and Richard Upton Pickman is posited. (Unlike at least one Goodreader, I didn't find the treatment of Pickman and the ghouls irreconcilably inconsistent in tone or details with the earlier story --though let's say that there were some "developments" between the two....)
For all that, though I've classified most of Lovecraft's work as science fiction, I've classified this as fantasy, to suggest a distinction in content and tone. One could argue that his whole body of fiction has a great deal of basic commonality, and he didn't necessarily divide it up in his own mind the way some later readers do (he didn't coin the term "Cthulhu Myhos" --August Derleth did-- and those stories don't actually have an entirely consistent or compatible body of exact details). And this novella doesn't feature "magic" as such, which we usually consider a key aspect of fantasy. But the world of dreams here is an objective place, though intangible to the waking world; normal cats here can jump from Earth to the dark side of the moon on a nightly basis, and much of the world-building has the characteristic tropes of a fantasy world. Many readers familiar with classic fantasist Lord Dunsany --whose work Lovecraft read and highly praised-- have detected a Dunsany influence here and in several other early Lovecraft works, though I haven't read enough of Dunsany's writing to claim that myself. (And I haven't read much of this strand of HPL's work to be very familiar with it, either, though arguably "The Doom That Came to Sarnath" is in that vein.) But be that as it may, it's difficult to see the literary vision here as strictly explainable in naturalistic terms. The tone is also different from the Lovecraft writings I've called science fiction; we have less emphasis on existential pessimism, more description of beauty and grandeur as well as horror, a kind of storytelling that's more positive and upbeat than is his wont elsewhere. (Of course, the quest narrative itself that structures the book is a traditional fantasy motif.) This is a markedly different side of Lovecraft's creativity compared to most of my prior reading.
Stylistically, this is a tour de force (Lovecraft, of course, is one of the writers I most admire just as an English-language stylist); his command of vocabulary, language and diction is impeccable, and he perfectly adapts his style to his purpose. Some of his most effective passages are here. (He did send me to the dictionary a few times, but that's not a bad thing!) As in most of his work, he concentrates solely on male characters, and prefers to rely on straight narration, usually summarizing dialogue rather than delivering it verbatim (except where the latter kind of delivery has an essential dramatic effect). He also chose, as he said in a Dec. 1926 letter to Derleth, to write it "continuously... without any subdivision into chapters" (an idea he apparently got from William Beckford's Vathek). But these characteristics do not make it at all tedious to read. The level of originality in the imagination is amazing; the pace is steady and the plot eventful and suspenseful. (It's a quick read, not solely because it's relatively short.) It's also unpredictable, especially in the denouement and ending --and yet (without stating any spoiler) I realized that the ending was perfect for the story. My only regret now is that I waited so long to read this!
, which has the same title but binds the novella with five other works by Lovecraft. However, I didn't read the other five at this time. Though it wasn't published until after his death, the author wrote this, according to his letters, primarily in 1926-27, making it one of his earlier works..Dreams played an important part in HPL's writing. By his own statement, a lot of his story ideas came to him in dreams, as did fictional elements and motifs like the scary "night-gaunts" who inhabit some of his tales (and who play a significant role here). Quite a few of his stories posit the idea that dreams are a vehicle of communication between humans and... other entities, or that they can be windows to realities unseen by waking eyes. ("The Dreams in the Witch House" comes to mind, for example.) So it isn't surprising that, as the title implies, it's in vivid dreams that his protagonist here first beholds the mysterious, ethereally beautiful city he feels compelled to search out, and that his quest plays out in a deep dream. That protagonist is Randolph Carter, who appears also in several other Lovecraft tales ("The Silver Key," "The Unnameable," and "The Statement of Randolph Carter," just to list the ones I've read), and who's thought by many to be an alter ego for the author himself.
Lovecraft is primarily known as an author of naturalistically-explained, but dark and horrific, speculative fiction that imagines sinister entities beyond the realm of normal experience, some but not all of which is directly connected with what has come to be called his "Cthulhu Mythos" (the first work of that corpus proper, "The Call of Cthulhu," was published in 1927, the year this book was finished) with its concept of the Elder Gods or Great Old Ones, powerful malevolent entities that ruled the primeval Earth and remain dangerous. Much of his fiction outside of the Mythos proper have features that relate to or adumbrate it. The same could truthfully be said of this novella, to a significant degree. There are evocations of the characteristic Lovecraft idea of "cosmic horror," "mindless" and unwholesome "Outer Gods" who rule the void of space, headed up by the demonic Azathoth, and whose messenger is the "crawling chaos" Nyarlathotep (both names are echoed in the Mythos stories). We also have references to the "Pnakotic Manuscripts," and many allusions to ideas of ancient, pre-human races, unholy cults with grisly rites, horrible places and beings in the bowels of the Earth as well as space. An earlier Lovecraft story, "Pickman's Model," is directly referenced here as well; the sinister creatures from there are also here, where they're identified as "ghouls," and a prior acquaintance between Carter and Richard Upton Pickman is posited. (Unlike at least one Goodreader, I didn't find the treatment of Pickman and the ghouls irreconcilably inconsistent in tone or details with the earlier story --though let's say that there were some "developments" between the two....)
For all that, though I've classified most of Lovecraft's work as science fiction, I've classified this as fantasy, to suggest a distinction in content and tone. One could argue that his whole body of fiction has a great deal of basic commonality, and he didn't necessarily divide it up in his own mind the way some later readers do (he didn't coin the term "Cthulhu Myhos" --August Derleth did-- and those stories don't actually have an entirely consistent or compatible body of exact details). And this novella doesn't feature "magic" as such, which we usually consider a key aspect of fantasy. But the world of dreams here is an objective place, though intangible to the waking world; normal cats here can jump from Earth to the dark side of the moon on a nightly basis, and much of the world-building has the characteristic tropes of a fantasy world. Many readers familiar with classic fantasist Lord Dunsany --whose work Lovecraft read and highly praised-- have detected a Dunsany influence here and in several other early Lovecraft works, though I haven't read enough of Dunsany's writing to claim that myself. (And I haven't read much of this strand of HPL's work to be very familiar with it, either, though arguably "The Doom That Came to Sarnath" is in that vein.) But be that as it may, it's difficult to see the literary vision here as strictly explainable in naturalistic terms. The tone is also different from the Lovecraft writings I've called science fiction; we have less emphasis on existential pessimism, more description of beauty and grandeur as well as horror, a kind of storytelling that's more positive and upbeat than is his wont elsewhere. (Of course, the quest narrative itself that structures the book is a traditional fantasy motif.) This is a markedly different side of Lovecraft's creativity compared to most of my prior reading.
Stylistically, this is a tour de force (Lovecraft, of course, is one of the writers I most admire just as an English-language stylist); his command of vocabulary, language and diction is impeccable, and he perfectly adapts his style to his purpose. Some of his most effective passages are here. (He did send me to the dictionary a few times, but that's not a bad thing!) As in most of his work, he concentrates solely on male characters, and prefers to rely on straight narration, usually summarizing dialogue rather than delivering it verbatim (except where the latter kind of delivery has an essential dramatic effect). He also chose, as he said in a Dec. 1926 letter to Derleth, to write it "continuously... without any subdivision into chapters" (an idea he apparently got from William Beckford's Vathek). But these characteristics do not make it at all tedious to read. The level of originality in the imagination is amazing; the pace is steady and the plot eventful and suspenseful. (It's a quick read, not solely because it's relatively short.) It's also unpredictable, especially in the denouement and ending --and yet (without stating any spoiler) I realized that the ending was perfect for the story. My only regret now is that I waited so long to read this!
August 30, 2016
I remember thinking Lovecraft is not really my cup-of-tea when I first tried to read some of his stories. To a twelve years old curious about science and about voyages of discovery, the mystical and obscure master of horror could not compete with the likes of Jules Verne, Karl May or Alexandre Dumas. So it took almost 40 years (and a homage novella written this year by Kij Johnson) to make me come back to these nightmares realms ruled by malefic gods.
At the start of the quest, Randolph Carter looks to me like a scion of John Carter of Mars : he goes to sleep and wakes up in an alternate world, where he is carving out a kingdom for himself with daring sword and unflinching courage. Lovecraft may share the starting point with Burroughs, but the focus of the story is not pulpy planetary romance (alas! no scantily clad princess of Barsoom awaits Randolph in the Dreamland) but an indepth exploration of the hidden and often scary depths of our subconscious mind.
Carter resolved to go with bold entreaty whither no man had gone before, and dare the icy deserts through the dark to where unknown Kadath, veiled in cloud and crowned with unimagined stars, holds secret and nocturnal the onyx castle of the Great Ones.
While John Carter lies down in the desert and dreams of distant stars, Randolph Carter goes in his sleep to a magical city of indescribable beauty, a twilight wonder of marble halls, slender columns and twisting alleys by a topaz sea, a city that is locked against him by the hands of invisible Great Ones.
It was a fever of the gods, a fanfare of supernatural trumpets and a clash of immortal cymbals. Mystery hung about it as clouds about a fabulous unvisited mountain. [...] Vaguely it called up glimpses of a far forgotten first youth, when wonder and pleasure lay in all the mystery of days, and dawn and dusk alike strode forth prophetic to the eager sound of lutes and song, unclosing fiery gates towards further and surprising marvels.
Is Randolph on a quest to rediscover his youthful enthusiasm for the world, his thirst for adventure and for distant shores? How did the world of adults betrayed him, disappointed him? What made him reject the present day and take refuge in fantasy? A brief foray into the biography of the author, a sensitive man, alternatively passionate and depressive, tormented by life in the metropolis and yearning for a return to his home in Providence, Rhode Island, may offer an answer to these questions, but it is not a prerequisite for enjoying the journey Randolph Carter embarks on.
So to Celephais he must go, far distant from the isle of Oriab, and in such parts as would take him back to Dylath-Teen and up the Skai to the bridge by Nir, and again into the enchanted wood of the Zoogs, whence the way would bend northward through the garden lands by Oukranos to the gilded spires of Thran, where he might find a galleon bound over the Cerenarian Sea.
These names are resonant with promise of adventure and marvels, but right from the start the quest is threatened by the true rulers of the Dreamland, lesser and higher gods that dance to unknown tunes and bicker among themselves while turning a blind eye to the pityful affairs of human ants. To unlock the gate of the sunset city, Randolph must address his plea to the highest supernatural authority in the universe. Problem is, the higher you climb up the god's ladder, the more fickle and irrational the gods become. I am not truly familiar with the Cthulhu Mythos, but I believe there exists in the Lovecraft oeuvre a coherent vision of the things that lurk in the shadows of the waking world. The present novella is a prime example of this vision.
Always upward led the terrible plunge in darkness, and never a sound, touch or glimpse broke the dense pall of mystery.
A quick browse of the florid prose favoured by Lovecraft in describing these 'superior' beings can partly explain his lasting influence on readers and writers interested in the study of the supernatural:
unearthly immanence
tyrannous gods
elder witchery
cryptical
sinister
Cyclopean
gargantuan
prodigious void
gigantic, blind, voiceless, mindless
crawling chaos
grotesque
Makes you wonder what kind of nightmares haunted the dreams of Lovecraft, what existential dread sent him into despair and made him imagine that there is no ultimate answer to the question of life, nothing but a last amorphous blast of nethermost confusion which blasphemes and bubbles at the centre of all infinity
I didn't much like this bombardment of lurid images, this insistence that we are doomed by invisible chaos, not when I was twelve, and honestly not so much now in my fifties. But I can at least appreciate the monumental struggle of the individual against the darkness waiting to engulf him every night, the heavy price paid by the artist, by the dreamer who dared to descend into Hell and bring back to us a clarion call of warning and an entreaty not to loose sight of our private sunset city, this symbol and relic of your days of wonder
Lovecraft, like Randolph Carter, was constantly plagued by night-gaunts, ghouls, gugs, ghasts, zoogs, moon-beasts, shantak-birds and evil priests, but parts of the Dreamland are still reminiscent of his youthful days of wonder. The author's utopia bears witness to the less savoury things I heard about the author : a W.A.S.P. exclusive resort, male only, darkies to be used as slaves or servants or cannon-fodder. Cats are allowed favored-nation status, but that's about it as far as Lovecraft is concerned. Most of the racial insensivity is not particular to Lovecraft, but a mirror of the larger views held by his anturage and by a lot of philosophers and political leaders of the period the story was written. Same can be said about the purple prose, something most of the readership expected in their Weird Tales. I would never recommend banning an author for his private views, especially since his contribution and influence on the genre is undeniable.
Since October with its Halloween themed reads is just a month away, I plan to further explore the universe of Lovecraft. I am sure there are more haunting gems to be discovered among his stories:
Perched on that ledge night found the seeker; and in the blackness he might neither go down nor go up, but only stand and cling and shiver in that narrow place till the day came, praying to keep awake less sleep loose his hold and send him down the dizzy miles of air to the crags and sharp rocks of the accursed valley. The stars came out, but save from them there was only black nothingness in his eyes; nothingness leagued with death, against whose beckoning he might do no more than cling to the rocks and lean back away from an unseen brink.
November 12, 2020
Prodigious, phosphorescent, hideous, terrible, eldritch, sinister, lightless, mad, incalculable, gibbering, twisted, detestable, blasphemous, grotesque, swarming, splendid.
That's just the first page.
Even if you've never read Lovecraft, you've probably heard about his purple prose and overwrought descriptions. Well, this is Lovecraft at his purplest and wroughtest. And longest. How long was it actually? I don't even know (I read it in an annotated collection) but it felt like it went on forever, ironically kind of like some dreams that seem to last for months of subjective time. Added to the stylistic issue was the fact that this novella is mostly descriptive. Carter is journeying, trying to find a way back to the city of his dreams. And most of the page time is him describing what he sees, most of which he doesn't like. Oh, and there's minor racism, but you know to expect that from HP, right?
When there was action or conversations this wasn't bad. I liked the parts with the cats, and the ghouls, and the scene were he finally gets to talk to an old one. And it was interesting how the depictions of and attitudes to different imaginary creatures shifted over the course of the story, which added to the dream-like feel. There was just way too much travelogue for my taste. I should have known I wouldn't love this because although I really like the *idea* of the Dreamlands the prose in those stories is my least-favorite of HPL's. I recommend trying an earlier, shorter Dreamlands story before jumping into this (that makes sense chronologically, anyway).
Now I can read The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe and all I can say is, you better be worth it.
December 18, 2019
I.N.J. Culbard has for some time taken up the task of adapter/illustrator of H. P. Lovecraft's works. I picked up his huge, four-novel omnibus collection recently but saw that I had already read one or two, so decided to review them separately. This is the first one in the collection, and is the least horror-oriented of his works I have read. But let me add a caveat here, that I don't recall reading the original Lovecraft tale; I am sure I must have, in my teens, but I only have a vague memory of his prose, which some find lush and atmospheric and creepy, but I tend to find a bit turgid.
Dream-Quest reads more along the lines of an Edgar Rice Burroughs fantasy/adventure than the chilling horror of another of Lovecraft's influences, Edgar Allen Poe. It's a dream quest, fair enough! So it is perfect for a comics adaptation, less narrative than a tone or mood piece, a collection of effects. I like the color and dream logic of it well enough, but I have already essentially forgotten what happens in it. I might have given it 4 stars for embodying the dream state and paring down the actual words to its essence, but I have experienced other illustrators visually capturing the Lovecraft vibe for me with greater detail (Culbard fills in very few backgrounds) such as Gabriel Rodriguez in Locke and Key: Welcome to Lovecraft, or (especially!) Jacen Burrows working with Alan Moore in Providence.
Dream-Quest reads more along the lines of an Edgar Rice Burroughs fantasy/adventure than the chilling horror of another of Lovecraft's influences, Edgar Allen Poe. It's a dream quest, fair enough! So it is perfect for a comics adaptation, less narrative than a tone or mood piece, a collection of effects. I like the color and dream logic of it well enough, but I have already essentially forgotten what happens in it. I might have given it 4 stars for embodying the dream state and paring down the actual words to its essence, but I have experienced other illustrators visually capturing the Lovecraft vibe for me with greater detail (Culbard fills in very few backgrounds) such as Gabriel Rodriguez in Locke and Key: Welcome to Lovecraft, or (especially!) Jacen Burrows working with Alan Moore in Providence.
Want to read
February 7, 2018Lovecraft Illustrated Volume 1
Contents:
ix - Introduction by S.T. Joshi
003 - "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath" by H.P. Lovecraft
141 - HPL and PVS by Pete Von Sholly
Contents:
ix - Introduction by S.T. Joshi
003 - "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath" by H.P. Lovecraft
141 - HPL and PVS by Pete Von Sholly
July 3, 2015
A worthy effort by I.N.J. Culbard. This is a good, though not great adaption, of H.P. Lovecraft's quest-adventure. There are some outstanding cinematic moments, but this work is not nearly as compelling at Jason Thompson's version of the same. Completists will want the Culbard version, but if you're looking for "bang for the buck," I would definitely go with Thompson's incredible work.
Special thanks to the always wonderful Dan Schwent for turning me on to this version and generously sharing an e-peek at it.
Special thanks to the always wonderful Dan Schwent for turning me on to this version and generously sharing an e-peek at it.
February 15, 2016
Better on audiobook. Not an entry level volume. Dream-quest is a strange first choice since it was a Lovecraft first draft. This advanced mythos touches on several stories not present here. This volume would be better if it contained the, Cats of Ulthar and other tales. No doubt this has to do with some publishing brouhaha. A better collection can be had for free online. Beware, Dream-quest has subject matter repugnant to many.
The Silver Key and Through the Gates of the Silver Key, are my two favorite mythos stories. As for you, find a better collection.
Celephais, White Ship, and the Strange High House in the Mist, are reviewed under their titles.
Here is my preferred order, assuming you read all of the Dreamlands: Hypnos as best introduction-- then chronological, Doom that Came to Sarnath, Quest of Iranon, the Other Gods, Hypnos, Cats of Ulthar, Celephais, Strange High House, Dreamquest, Silver Key, Through the Gates, The White Ship.
The Silver Key and Through the Gates of the Silver Key, are my two favorite mythos stories. As for you, find a better collection.
Celephais, White Ship, and the Strange High House in the Mist, are reviewed under their titles.
Here is my preferred order, assuming you read all of the Dreamlands: Hypnos as best introduction-- then chronological, Doom that Came to Sarnath, Quest of Iranon, the Other Gods, Hypnos, Cats of Ulthar, Celephais, Strange High House, Dreamquest, Silver Key, Through the Gates, The White Ship.
October 13, 2023
In this novella Lovecraft successfully set about capturing the unreality of dreaming. Less horrific and more trippy than most of his other material, The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath doesn’t so much have a plot as it does a palpable feeling. Here, Lovecraft’s infamous purple prose actually adds to the tale rather than distracting from it. As I listened to it on audiobook, I fell under the spell of the music of his relentless barrage of baroque prosody. Somehow it seemed oh so familiar. With a start, I realized that listening to it felt very much like listening to Dr. Seuss!
Once thought, I couldn’t unthink it. So here, for your consideration, is —
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath
(as written by Dr. Seuss)
In Upper Dreamland where the fetid fungi grows
And the voonith howl
On the blasphemous plateaus,
Where weird eyed Zoogs ferment
their curious wine
And the Cats of Uthar purr
(in three quarters time!)
Came a doomed and desperate dreamer —
Randolph Carter, they say
He was off to see strange place,
Yes, he was off and away!
He walked up and down steep steps
‘neath the fabled Peaks of Throk
Where the gibbering ghouls romp,
and the red-footed Whomps cavort.
He prowled labyrinthine caves
and the unhallowed vaults of Zin,
He braved the Outermost Abyss
(And that’s just where he began!)
As a daemon trumpet blew its hideous, tinny blast
And the heedless Great Ones howled
and the heedless Great Ones danced,
While the nightgaunts sailed
through the Elder Dark
and the toadlike moonbeasts
threatened to eat his very heart,
Carter rode the monstrous Shantak
O’er the gilded spires of Thran
In search of Unknown Kadath
(Which he dreamed and dreamed again)
He prayed to the hidden gods of Dreaming,
Even as he slept,
Yet always was he haunted by that crawling chaos,
Nyarlathotep!
Once thought, I couldn’t unthink it. So here, for your consideration, is —
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath
(as written by Dr. Seuss)
In Upper Dreamland where the fetid fungi grows
And the voonith howl
On the blasphemous plateaus,
Where weird eyed Zoogs ferment
their curious wine
And the Cats of Uthar purr
(in three quarters time!)
Came a doomed and desperate dreamer —
Randolph Carter, they say
He was off to see strange place,
Yes, he was off and away!
He walked up and down steep steps
‘neath the fabled Peaks of Throk
Where the gibbering ghouls romp,
and the red-footed Whomps cavort.
He prowled labyrinthine caves
and the unhallowed vaults of Zin,
He braved the Outermost Abyss
(And that’s just where he began!)
As a daemon trumpet blew its hideous, tinny blast
And the heedless Great Ones howled
and the heedless Great Ones danced,
While the nightgaunts sailed
through the Elder Dark
and the toadlike moonbeasts
threatened to eat his very heart,
Carter rode the monstrous Shantak
O’er the gilded spires of Thran
In search of Unknown Kadath
(Which he dreamed and dreamed again)
He prayed to the hidden gods of Dreaming,
Even as he slept,
Yet always was he haunted by that crawling chaos,
Nyarlathotep!
November 30, 2016
Well, that was painful!! At least I can say this book didn’t beat me - I read the whole damn thing *pats self on back*.
I used to think back in the first half of the last century that authors were paid by the word. If you read some of the old stuff you’ll see how they tend to ramble a lot. However, I think in this case he was paid by the adjective and adverb. Seriously, you couldn’t fit another one in this story if you were using size 8 font and a crowbar. Does everything have to be described so intensely? I think not. You could probably cut 50 pages out just by stopping the over-descriptiveness.
To give you some idea of Lovecraft’s writing, at least in this story, imagine Neil Gaiman and his most fantastical story ever. Now pump him full of LSD and magic mushrooms et voila, Lovecraft.
So, the story…as descriptive as it was, and as weird as it was, was overwhelmingly boring. The protagonist, Carter, has discovered a city in his dreams that he can see but cannot get to but he really, really wants to go there. This is the story of his travels through dreamland in search of this city. My dreamland is better than his. Really, everyone’s dreamland is better than his. It was dark and full of monsters, and cats – apparently Lovecraft had a fondness for cats.
Would I recommend this? Hell no. Not to the average reader anyhow. Only people who’ve previously read Lovecraft should look at it. The rest of you, step away from the book.
I used to think back in the first half of the last century that authors were paid by the word. If you read some of the old stuff you’ll see how they tend to ramble a lot. However, I think in this case he was paid by the adjective and adverb. Seriously, you couldn’t fit another one in this story if you were using size 8 font and a crowbar. Does everything have to be described so intensely? I think not. You could probably cut 50 pages out just by stopping the over-descriptiveness.
To give you some idea of Lovecraft’s writing, at least in this story, imagine Neil Gaiman and his most fantastical story ever. Now pump him full of LSD and magic mushrooms et voila, Lovecraft.
So, the story…as descriptive as it was, and as weird as it was, was overwhelmingly boring. The protagonist, Carter, has discovered a city in his dreams that he can see but cannot get to but he really, really wants to go there. This is the story of his travels through dreamland in search of this city. My dreamland is better than his. Really, everyone’s dreamland is better than his. It was dark and full of monsters, and cats – apparently Lovecraft had a fondness for cats.
Would I recommend this? Hell no. Not to the average reader anyhow. Only people who’ve previously read Lovecraft should look at it. The rest of you, step away from the book.
October 14, 2022
Buena novela de Lovecraft, muy imaginativa pero escrita de manera terrible, repetitiva, lo que me hace bajarle la calificación.
Acá conocemos a Randolph Carter, uno de los personajes recurrentes de Lovecraft que muchos señalan como su alter ego, que viaja al mundo onírico en busca de la ciudad de Kadath, la morada de los dioses, lo que lo llevara a múltiples aventuras por este mundo que incluira unas criaturas roedores llamadas zoogs, una ciudad de gatos, un viaje a la isla de Oriab, un paseo por el Pnath, el inframundo... entre otras aventuras que harán que Carter nos muestre de cerca está misteriosa tierra.
Novela que escuche por audiolibro y que pese a qué es muy imaginativa y está llena de aventuras para la mitad se vuelve repetitiva, Carter va de un lado a otro salvándose por los pelos; embarcándose, caminando, montando criaturas aladas... que muchas veces entran y salen de escena casi como deus ex machina y que por momentos parecieran solo ocurrencias sobre la marcha del autor al escribir su novela, pues aparte de la búsqueda poco más es lo que ofrece de trama. La mayoría solo dificultades en el camino que alejan o acercan a nuestro protagonista a su objetivo, y esto precisamente es lo que termina cansando. Los motivos de Carter por llegar a Kadath nunca llegan a ser del todo claros, y aunque te involucras con la busqueda hasta cierto punto jamás llegamos a sentir que Carter esté ralmente en verdadero peligro, pues sabemos que en cualquier momento puede despertar para escapar de la muerte.
La pluma de lovecraft, por otra parte, en esta novela recuerda mucho a "Las mil y unas noches" contando todo como si fuese un cuento más de dicho libro, sin entregarnos detalles excesivos de la travesía o implicandonos demasiado lo que a mi parecer tampoco le ayuda mucho a la historia.
En fin, una buena aventura, entetenida, pero lamentablemente escrita de manera muy básica y poco prolija. Aunque bueno, hasta donde sé Lovecraft nunca llegó a publicar esto en vida, por algo habrá sido.
Si eres fan de Lovecraft sin duda te la recomiendo. Si no eres fan de este autor es mejor que comiences por sus cuentos primero, hay varias referencias a ellos en esta novela.
Acá conocemos a Randolph Carter, uno de los personajes recurrentes de Lovecraft que muchos señalan como su alter ego, que viaja al mundo onírico en busca de la ciudad de Kadath, la morada de los dioses, lo que lo llevara a múltiples aventuras por este mundo que incluira unas criaturas roedores llamadas zoogs, una ciudad de gatos, un viaje a la isla de Oriab, un paseo por el Pnath, el inframundo... entre otras aventuras que harán que Carter nos muestre de cerca está misteriosa tierra.
Novela que escuche por audiolibro y que pese a qué es muy imaginativa y está llena de aventuras para la mitad se vuelve repetitiva, Carter va de un lado a otro salvándose por los pelos; embarcándose, caminando, montando criaturas aladas... que muchas veces entran y salen de escena casi como deus ex machina y que por momentos parecieran solo ocurrencias sobre la marcha del autor al escribir su novela, pues aparte de la búsqueda poco más es lo que ofrece de trama. La mayoría solo dificultades en el camino que alejan o acercan a nuestro protagonista a su objetivo, y esto precisamente es lo que termina cansando. Los motivos de Carter por llegar a Kadath nunca llegan a ser del todo claros, y aunque te involucras con la busqueda hasta cierto punto jamás llegamos a sentir que Carter esté ralmente en verdadero peligro, pues sabemos que en cualquier momento puede despertar para escapar de la muerte.
La pluma de lovecraft, por otra parte, en esta novela recuerda mucho a "Las mil y unas noches" contando todo como si fuese un cuento más de dicho libro, sin entregarnos detalles excesivos de la travesía o implicandonos demasiado lo que a mi parecer tampoco le ayuda mucho a la historia.
En fin, una buena aventura, entetenida, pero lamentablemente escrita de manera muy básica y poco prolija. Aunque bueno, hasta donde sé Lovecraft nunca llegó a publicar esto en vida, por algo habrá sido.
Si eres fan de Lovecraft sin duda te la recomiendo. Si no eres fan de este autor es mejor que comiences por sus cuentos primero, hay varias referencias a ellos en esta novela.
Read
December 21, 2017Ovo apsolutno i definitivno nije knjiga od koje treba početi s čitanjem Lavkrafta, utoliko pre što su neke njegove stvari zapravo sasvim okej.
To na stranu... šta reći, ovde Lavkraftove mane u pogledu jezika i stila dolaze do punog izražaja. Sve je užasno, stravično, jezivo i čudovišno. I smrdljivo. Ali, varijacije radi, sa mnogo sinonima i to uglavnom latinizama da bi lepše zvučalo. Samo da su izbačeni izlišni epiteti (jer zaista nema potrebe da se svaki put kad se pomene biće koje se hrani lešinama istovremeno pomene i da je neprijatnog mirisa, imajte malo poverenja u čitaoce aman) knjiga bi bila solidno kraća.
Pravde radi treba reći da je Lavkraft solidno maštovit i da ume da izazove pravu horor jezu iako (opet) ova knjiga ni na tom planu nije najbolji primer. Zemlja snova kojom Lavkraftov junak ovde cunja ne bi li našao Kadat a potom i bezimeni grad za kojim zapravo traga - nema u sebi gotovo ničeg oniričnog, sve je nepomerljivo i trajno, nema pretapanja i alogičnosti karakterističnih za snove kakve možemo naći kod (recimo) Kafke ili Kortasara - fantastični svet koji nam se predstavlja ima mnogo više zajedničkog sa pričama lorda Dansejnija. Ima, dakle, upečatljivih slika, ali one potonu pod teretom neumereno kitnjastog jezika.
I konačno ključni i zaključni problem: Monstruozno, fabulozno, neizrecivo i neopisivo sam se razočarala.
To na stranu... šta reći, ovde Lavkraftove mane u pogledu jezika i stila dolaze do punog izražaja. Sve je užasno, stravično, jezivo i čudovišno. I smrdljivo. Ali, varijacije radi, sa mnogo sinonima i to uglavnom latinizama da bi lepše zvučalo. Samo da su izbačeni izlišni epiteti (jer zaista nema potrebe da se svaki put kad se pomene biće koje se hrani lešinama istovremeno pomene i da je neprijatnog mirisa, imajte malo poverenja u čitaoce aman) knjiga bi bila solidno kraća.
Pravde radi treba reći da je Lavkraft solidno maštovit i da ume da izazove pravu horor jezu iako (opet) ova knjiga ni na tom planu nije najbolji primer. Zemlja snova kojom Lavkraftov junak ovde cunja ne bi li našao Kadat a potom i bezimeni grad za kojim zapravo traga - nema u sebi gotovo ničeg oniričnog, sve je nepomerljivo i trajno, nema pretapanja i alogičnosti karakterističnih za snove kakve možemo naći kod (recimo) Kafke ili Kortasara - fantastični svet koji nam se predstavlja ima mnogo više zajedničkog sa pričama lorda Dansejnija. Ima, dakle, upečatljivih slika, ali one potonu pod teretom neumereno kitnjastog jezika.
I konačno ključni i zaključni problem: Monstruozno, fabulozno, neizrecivo i neopisivo sam se razočarala.
July 14, 2023
I read this one years ago and decided to re-read it after having recently finished Kij Johnson's excellent The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe. I found that I didn't really remember it well at all, and it was a bit of a slog to get through. There's no dialog, just a seemingly endless list of made-up exotic place and character names in a dream world travelogue. It reminded me of works from an earlier time, William Morris or William Hope Hodgson's The Night Land perhaps. Lovecraft's mastery of language is quite effective (your vocabulary always increases with him!), and his ability to create disquieting and atmospheric settings is wonderful, but there's not much of a story connection. This edition also includes four short stories and a novella that was written in collaboration with E. Hoffman Price, Through the Gates of the Silver Key, all of which I did enjoy. My favorite was The Strange High House in the Mist.
March 18, 2015
4.5
The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath is a wonderfully creepy horror story of one man's quest to find and reach a forbidden place with an unexpected and great ending. The lack of dialogue shouldn't be a surprise to any Lovecraft lover, but the imaginative way this story is told and filled with unearthly creatures while the protagonist is searching for a way to get to his destination should be enough to overlook that.
The main character is Randolph Carter who meets many strange and terrifying beings on his journey; beings like zoogs, ghasts, gugs, nightgaunts and so on.
Whatever Randolph Carter encounters, whatever happens to him on his journey, he never stops going forward. There isn't a single place or a tavern where people don't try to warn him off his quest to get to Kadath. He never wavers. One of the beautiful things is that he gets help from unlikely sources.
There are so many references to other Lovecraft's stories here, I am certain I missed a few. Some of well-known characters play an even greater role than you might expect. Here you'll find out what happened to Kuranes and where exactly Pickman ended up after he had disappeared. The cats of Ulthar don't just make an appearance, but rather give this story a fairy tale touch. Even Nyarlathotep has a role to play.
Now, you can choose to read this story partly as a commentary on society. I'll simply read it as fantasy.
The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath is a wonderfully creepy horror story of one man's quest to find and reach a forbidden place with an unexpected and great ending. The lack of dialogue shouldn't be a surprise to any Lovecraft lover, but the imaginative way this story is told and filled with unearthly creatures while the protagonist is searching for a way to get to his destination should be enough to overlook that.
The main character is Randolph Carter who meets many strange and terrifying beings on his journey; beings like zoogs, ghasts, gugs, nightgaunts and so on.
Whatever Randolph Carter encounters, whatever happens to him on his journey, he never stops going forward. There isn't a single place or a tavern where people don't try to warn him off his quest to get to Kadath. He never wavers. One of the beautiful things is that he gets help from unlikely sources.
There are so many references to other Lovecraft's stories here, I am certain I missed a few. Some of well-known characters play an even greater role than you might expect. Here you'll find out what happened to Kuranes and where exactly Pickman ended up after he had disappeared. The cats of Ulthar don't just make an appearance, but rather give this story a fairy tale touch. Even Nyarlathotep has a role to play.
Now, you can choose to read this story partly as a commentary on society. I'll simply read it as fantasy.
August 6, 2015
Randolph Carter dreams of a sunset city and decides to go looking for it(?!). His nutty friend tells him to pray to the dream gods or something and they’ll let him find it again (!?). Bonkers bullshit ensues!
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath is plotted using dream logic, ie. anything goes! Carter rocks up in a forest of giant mushrooms with talking rodents. He sets sail on flying ships full of humanoid monsters, meets the Cats of Ulthar (who, of course, also talk) all so he can travel to a mountain with a face on the side.
Like a dream, you can’t really make sense of the story, you can only let it wash over you. And that’s why it leaves so slight an impression. It’s a quest story where the end goal is never very clear and the resolution is puzzling. Everything that happens along the way is similarly confusing and random so it’s hard to care about any of it.
This is HP Lovecraft at his most free-flowing and least horrific, and yet completely uninteresting too. It’s wholly unengaging as nothing in the story feels like it matters. Sure, INJ Culbard’s art is great, especially as he’s given more range with this story to cut loose and draw big, exotic, fantastical landscapes and creatures, but Lovecraft’s rambling, barely coherent story is totally forgettable.
Lovecraft wasn’t just a shaky writer but quite often he was a weak storyteller too as shown by Dream-Quest. His strengths lay in the horrific visions he conjured up that leapt off the page. A few panels are like that here but not nearly enough to call this anywhere near compelling or worth seeking out.
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath is the weakest in the Culbard/Lovecraft adaptations. Maybe this has connections to Lovecraft’s Great Old Ones mythos but I’m not that big a fan to say. Kadath, what/whoever it is, remains unknown!
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath is plotted using dream logic, ie. anything goes! Carter rocks up in a forest of giant mushrooms with talking rodents. He sets sail on flying ships full of humanoid monsters, meets the Cats of Ulthar (who, of course, also talk) all so he can travel to a mountain with a face on the side.
Like a dream, you can’t really make sense of the story, you can only let it wash over you. And that’s why it leaves so slight an impression. It’s a quest story where the end goal is never very clear and the resolution is puzzling. Everything that happens along the way is similarly confusing and random so it’s hard to care about any of it.
This is HP Lovecraft at his most free-flowing and least horrific, and yet completely uninteresting too. It’s wholly unengaging as nothing in the story feels like it matters. Sure, INJ Culbard’s art is great, especially as he’s given more range with this story to cut loose and draw big, exotic, fantastical landscapes and creatures, but Lovecraft’s rambling, barely coherent story is totally forgettable.
Lovecraft wasn’t just a shaky writer but quite often he was a weak storyteller too as shown by Dream-Quest. His strengths lay in the horrific visions he conjured up that leapt off the page. A few panels are like that here but not nearly enough to call this anywhere near compelling or worth seeking out.
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath is the weakest in the Culbard/Lovecraft adaptations. Maybe this has connections to Lovecraft’s Great Old Ones mythos but I’m not that big a fan to say. Kadath, what/whoever it is, remains unknown!
December 22, 2017
So on to the next of my catch up titles.
This is another of the H P Lovecraft titles - however its rather different in that its from his Dream Cycle of stories and is in fact probably the longest of the series.
Here we have the challenges of the famous dreamer Randolph Carter on his quest - for yes you guessed it Unknown Kadath. Okay you know me by now with my no spoilers policy so you will need to read the book (or at least the story) to find out if he finds it or not but like many of these stories there is more often than not more going on while trying to complete the quest than the actual goal at the end of it.
The thing that I think most impresses me with this story is that even though the lands and people are pretty fantastic even for Lovecraft (after all anything goes in the Dreamlands) the artists are still able to capture and convey that sense of wonder and otherness to the page. You actually do feel you are feeling through the underground caverns or charging across the grass covered plans.
for me I think this is probably the most enjoyable of the books (although I have still yet 2 more to collect and read) and I think the artists at least probably had the most fun with it too (it sort of shows). Another great title in the series and I cannot wait to read more.
This is another of the H P Lovecraft titles - however its rather different in that its from his Dream Cycle of stories and is in fact probably the longest of the series.
Here we have the challenges of the famous dreamer Randolph Carter on his quest - for yes you guessed it Unknown Kadath. Okay you know me by now with my no spoilers policy so you will need to read the book (or at least the story) to find out if he finds it or not but like many of these stories there is more often than not more going on while trying to complete the quest than the actual goal at the end of it.
The thing that I think most impresses me with this story is that even though the lands and people are pretty fantastic even for Lovecraft (after all anything goes in the Dreamlands) the artists are still able to capture and convey that sense of wonder and otherness to the page. You actually do feel you are feeling through the underground caverns or charging across the grass covered plans.
for me I think this is probably the most enjoyable of the books (although I have still yet 2 more to collect and read) and I think the artists at least probably had the most fun with it too (it sort of shows). Another great title in the series and I cannot wait to read more.
September 28, 2012
I think Lovecraft often gets a bad rap. People read that he influenced the modern greats, everyone form authors like Stephen King and Clive Barker, to movie makers like John Carpenter and Wes Craven, and then dive into his books expecting the same fare. He wrote for a different era. His mind-bending, first person surrealistic approach to a creeping, nameless horror stunned and fascinated huge segments of early century America. The America that read, that is, which wasn't nearly what it is today. I enjoy his approach, even if some of it is a bit florid, but his ideas are dauntless. They broke conventions and rearranged the way a future breed of horror authors would look at the world. Even today, I find them stunningly original, and well worth the read. If any sound familiar, it is only because they have been copied, usually far less efficiently, by later day authors.
January 2, 2019
Izgleda da imamo više unosa za jednu te istu knjigu, pa vas kao e-bibliotekar u ovoj virtuelnoj avliji ovim putem molim da ne duplirate već unete knjige. Baza podataka na Goodreadsu bi trebala da nam svima bude od pomoći da lakše nađemo ono što nam treba, bilo da je u pitanju neko sasvim određeno izdanje za kojim tragamo, utisci drugih čitalaca o delu ili makar unošenje knjige u listu koja je nama lično od nekog značaja.
Hvala na razumevanju.
Hvala na razumevanju.
July 11, 2017
Αν το παραλληλίσεις με την "αρχέγονη αναζήτηση του άγνωστου εαυτού", είναι ακόμα πιο τρομακτικό και συγκλονιστικό. Αξεπέραστος Λάβκραφτ. Ήμουν συνοδοιπόρος του Κάρτερ κάθε στιγμή. Ήμουν κι εγώ εκεί.
Read
March 18, 2023Back in college, I worked for a few semesters shelving books in the sub-basements of the library, which for some reason set its 3rd floor at ground level. Two floors below that was a largely-ignored fiction section, dimly lit by flickering lights that turned off automatically when no one was around (or if you just stood still thumbing through some dusty tome or another for too long). The farther corners never really got direct light, giving the whole space a perfect kind of eerie-cozy twilight feel, and in retrospect, it was a pretty amazing place to work. Not least because I usually kept up with my shelving pretty well and found time to browse the more esoteric sections when no one was around (almost always). Naturally, this was the perfect place for reading Lovecraft for the first time. Most people tend to be less than thrilled with the oneiric fairy tale that is Dreamquest, I think, but in that context those strange winding mythologies were just about right.
What I'd managed to forget, however (revisiting this as an audiobook while working later on), is just how much of Lovecraft's racism is directly on display here in the descriptions of the peoples of far ends of his dreamscapes. The residents of any particular place are invariably lumped into one racial character, and while "evil" races is a horrible trope of far more recent fantasies than Lovecraft's, Lovecraft didn't have to invent something like an orc to serve as the locus of his loathing, instead there seem to be entire reviled human nations. In Kadath, flesh-eating ghouls are more humanized than the residents of his recurring plateau of Leng. Lovecraft's become more notorious for this over the years since I first read this, his failings more broadly recognized, but I was still surprised to realize just how visibly on the surface his biases lie.
What I'd managed to forget, however (revisiting this as an audiobook while working later on), is just how much of Lovecraft's racism is directly on display here in the descriptions of the peoples of far ends of his dreamscapes. The residents of any particular place are invariably lumped into one racial character, and while "evil" races is a horrible trope of far more recent fantasies than Lovecraft's, Lovecraft didn't have to invent something like an orc to serve as the locus of his loathing, instead there seem to be entire reviled human nations. In Kadath, flesh-eating ghouls are more humanized than the residents of his recurring plateau of Leng. Lovecraft's become more notorious for this over the years since I first read this, his failings more broadly recognized, but I was still surprised to realize just how visibly on the surface his biases lie.
April 20, 2008
H. P. Lovecraft’s The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath is one of his fantasy, rather than horror, stories. Lovecraft was very much influenced by the great British fantasist Lord Dunsany. It’s exactly what the title says it is – it’s a dream quest, wherein the great dreamer Randolph Carter dreams a dream to find the fabulous sunset city which he has so far never quite been able to reach in his dreams, because the gods (possibly the gods of Earth, or the more mysterious outer gods) have prevented him. It’s a book which really has no right to work. There isn’t much of a plot, and Lovecraft’s prose is even more impossibly overblown and overelaborated and generally overdone than normal. But somehow it does work. The prose is unbelievably purple, but it suits the dreamworld perfectly, and captures the right mood of impossibleness. The dreamworld Lovecraft creates is bizarre and grotesque, but sometimes beautiful and often glorious. The army of cats is absolutely fabulous! And the idea of the cats who, at night, climb to the highest rooftops and then leap to the dark side of the moon – it’s just a marvellous idea and it works beautifully. There are whimsical moments such as this, and there’s humour (and Lovecraft’s humour is often underestimated). If you’ve only read his horror his fantasy will come as a surprise, and a very pleasant surprise. I liked this one very much.
November 17, 2009
the most boring lovecraft i have ever read. a lot of mythology here but not really much story. more of a travelogue -- it's back on the shelf. not sure when i will finish it.
*******
i did go back and finish it but i must say it was excruciating. again, this is the disappointment i felt when i began to read lord dunsany who had been cited as influential by so many, and found that there really wasn't much of a story but rather a beautiful picture of strange places and people. so sadly, i will not be able to recommend this lovecraft. it's useful to read as a bestiary and atlas of his worlds, but i'd rather be given the opportunity to skip all the dry text and look at illustrations and maps instead.
and yes, i did like that army of cats. where do you think the two stars came from?
*******
i did go back and finish it but i must say it was excruciating. again, this is the disappointment i felt when i began to read lord dunsany who had been cited as influential by so many, and found that there really wasn't much of a story but rather a beautiful picture of strange places and people. so sadly, i will not be able to recommend this lovecraft. it's useful to read as a bestiary and atlas of his worlds, but i'd rather be given the opportunity to skip all the dry text and look at illustrations and maps instead.
and yes, i did like that army of cats. where do you think the two stars came from?
March 18, 2019
Carter non perse i sensi né si mise a urlare, perché era soltanto un sognatore...
Le mie sensazioni rispetto a questo breve romanzo di Lovecraft sono abbastanza contrastanti: da un lato, uno stile coinvolgente e una grande capacità di creare mondi immaginari, dall’altro la fatica di seguire una narrazione fatta quasi del tutto di descrizioni, con pochi personaggi e ancora meno dialoghi.
Soltanto alla fine sono riuscita a entrare pienamente nell’ottica dall’autore e a dare un senso (abbastanza evidente una volta capita la chiave di lettura) alle sue scelte stilistiche. Una lettura che probabilmente va fatta tutta d’un fiato per poterla apprezzare al meglio: leggere poche pagine al giorno non facilita l’immersione nell’atmosfera onirica che è il mezzo per riuscire a identificarsi con il protagonista e rimanere, come lui, del tutto spiazzati davanti all’ovvietà del percorso da seguire per raggiungere la meravigliosa Città del Tramonto (oppure capire tutto molto prima che ce lo spieghi Nyarlathotep, il Caos Strisciante).
October 6, 2015
Bullet Review:
This was...good. I don't think I was nearly as excited about this as The Shadow Out of Time, but it was interesting and unique. Really bizarre, as you would expect from a graphic novel about a dream. I can only imagine how challenging it might have been for Lovecraft to intricately detail this world, given he had only words to use - the graphic artist has an arsenal of tools so that you can see what the narrator is seeing. The author can only use words.
Anyway, it was a good read, and I'm glad I chose the graphic route to read Lovecraft.
This was...good. I don't think I was nearly as excited about this as The Shadow Out of Time, but it was interesting and unique. Really bizarre, as you would expect from a graphic novel about a dream. I can only imagine how challenging it might have been for Lovecraft to intricately detail this world, given he had only words to use - the graphic artist has an arsenal of tools so that you can see what the narrator is seeing. The author can only use words.
Anyway, it was a good read, and I'm glad I chose the graphic route to read Lovecraft.
October 31, 2020
The art is a bit sketchy at times, especially with the ghouls and their rictus-grins, but on the whole this is an excellent adaptation of an already great story.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 665 reviews