Broken Frontier

The Lovecraftian Elder God Cthulhu has existed for millennia, always threatening humanity. Now comes one who would destroy the god.

Writer Michael Alan Nelson obviously knows the works of H.P. Lovecraft well and with this zero issue he attempts to set the stage for an epic battle. So how well does he manage the set-up?

The story opens in the 8th century as an old man, driven mad by visions of the elder god, has been describing those visions, putting them down on paper. Just how mad is he really, though? There are other forces at work as well – forces who would punish any that dare to publish these secrets and as such, the writer Alhazred becomes their victim. Centuries may pass but death and magic are closely entwined and there is one who fears nothing and will dare anything.

Michael Alan Nelson does a good job here at setting scenes and mood. Although Fall of Cthulhu is a horror title, it relies on eerie atmosphere rather than gore. The book is all about the creepy feeling you get when you feel like someone is in a room with you or when you feel someone is staring at you. The problem is that the book is very much geared toward fans of Lovecraft and/or his style of writing. As a new reader, and one who has never read a single word of H.P. Lovecraft, at several places in the book I was utterly bewildered. There were characters that appeared and readers were obviously expected to know who (or what) they were but no real explanation was given.

The art, by Jean-Jacques Dzialowski is quite good and he shows a chameleon-like ability to alter his style when dealing with monstrous other dimensions. In fact, the look for those sequences may put readers in mind of the amazing work done on many of the old EC Comics horror titles. For the rest of the time, Dzialowski’s work has a bit of a rough inked look that fits with the theme of this title.

If you are a fan of the works of H.P. Lovecraft and his Cthulhu tales in particular then Fall of Cthulhu may well be worth a look. If you are, however, a novice to the world then you may find yourself somewhat lost in the fog.