What You'll Get: Miskatonic Dreams

What You Get: Miskatonic Dreams

Alban Lake’s Miskatonic Dreams is a mixed bag not in terms of quality, but in the variety of the stories. A common theme that runs throughout is how reality might adapt to Lovecraft’s themes and creatures. Indeed, despite several “world-changing” paradigms, mankind has either in the large part adjusted or ignored. It is no stretch then, that Lovecraft’s world would keep spending in spite of indifferent alien “gods,” mind-eating texts or commerce between aquatic races. All of the tales are high-quality, though not all are necessarily "horror." I think placing them together creates a more holistic idea of a universe, and a great way to take Lovecraft's baton and run with it.

To this end, Miskatonic Dreams assumes much of the horrors of academia and all of the drudgery and dread that this entails. We have romances in the forms of “Bridges of Arkham County,” by Guy Riessen and “How I Died,” by Jill Hand. We have what I might call “routine occurrences of horror” (unique to the Miskatonic Campus) in the stories “Residue,” by Gregory L. Norris and “Authorised Libraries Only” by DJ Tyer and “Your Special Advocate” by Chad Eagleton. These stories do a lot to emphasize how reality might adjust on a day-to-day basis in Lovecraft’s world, how mankind might move forward from knowing it is nothing but a cosmic speck. Then we have the “what happens after dark” stories such as “If these Shadows Could Talk,” by James C. Simpson and “Those were the Days” by Robert J. Krong. We have two truly terrifying tales that seem to invert Lovecraft’s themes in “They Come Crawling,” by Logan Noble and “The Accursed Lineage” by Aaron Vlek. Then there is a fun ghost story by Eric Taranago, “One Last Death.” And finally we have some unique correspondences such as “Dear Mother and Father” by Dave Schroeder and “Miskatonic University Updates” by Lyssa Wilhelm.

My meager contribution, “The Darkness Makes Us Whole,” is not as genre challenging as the others. But should you enjoy it, I will be very pleased.

Overall, this anthologies demonstrates that Lovecraft’s shadow across horror is as much a playground as a place of confinement. It is rewarding to step inside its outline, to build things up, and to watch other writers do so as well.

You can find a more extensive post about Miskatonic Dreams on Gregory L. Norris’s blog here: http://gregorylnorris.blogspot.com/2016/11/behold-miskatonic-dreams.htmlYou can also buy Miskatonic Dreams on the Amazon link here: 

https://www.amazon.com/Miskatonic-Dreams-H-David-Blalock-ebook/dp/B01N3UXBZ3/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481047976&sr=8-1&keywords=miskatonic+dreams

Or, directly through Alban Lake: http://store.albanlake.com/product/miskatonic-dreams/

-S. >