Demiurge: The Complete Cthulhu Mythos Tales of Michael Shea

While remaining true to the Lovecraft Mythos and its pantheon of the Great Old Ones, Michael Shea provides his own more modern unique and entertaining twist on the Mythos in this anthology. Shea moves the focus of the majority of the Lovecraftian horror from the New England east coast to the west coast San Francisco Bay area, although he does return to Antarctica in couple of the stories where HPL set his story “At the Mountains of Madness.” There is a running theme throughout the anthology of the Great Old Ones, with the help of their minions, beginning to establish a beachhead on Earth where they seek to reveal themselves to various individuals and either recruit them or physically absorb and merge them into themselves. A quote from the end of the short story “Dagoniad” points this out. ““But I've been hearing things. Before all this I mean. I've been hearing about shoggoths. I've been hearing about Cthulhu himself. “ What are you telling me?” “That somehow, this is a focus. That the Great Old Ones are...at the gates. Are picking the locks.”” These stories are full of skin-crawling horror that should satisfy fans of H. P. Lovecraft.