6.0 stars. As I was experiencing Lovecraft’s supremely awesome, nightmarish masterpiece, At the Mountains of Madness (ATMOM), it really struck me for the first time that he was a tremendously literate writer. I have been a fan of Lovecraft for a long time and have always been gaga for his bizarre imaginative stories. However, what jumped out at me on this reading of ATMOM was how impressively Lovecraft enhances the sense of dread that hangs over his stories through the colorful, melodramatic language he employs. He had a real gift for the written word. To demonstrate HPL's expertise with dramtic language, I have put together a few examples of quotes from ATMOM along with a more straight-forward, less colorful approach that a lesser "non-awesome" writer (NAW) might employ. EXAMPLE 1NAW: "Finally, we arrived at the South Pole." HPL: "At last we were truly entering the white, aeon-dead world of the ultimate south." EXAMPLE 2NAW: "The sunlight reflecting off the ice created some unusual visual effects." HPL:"Distant mountains floated in the sky like enchanted cities, and often the whole white world would dissolve into a gold, silver and scarlet land of Dunsanian dreams and adventurous expectancy under the magic of the low midnight sun." EXAMPLE 3NAW: "The mountain range had an eerie appearance" HPL: “It was as if these stark, nightmare spires marked the pylons of a frightful gateway into forbidden spheres of dream, and complex gulfs of remote time, space, and ultra-dimensionality. I could not help feeling that they were evil things—mountains of madness whose farther slopes looked out over some accursed ultimate abyss. That seething, half-luminous cloud background held ineffable suggestions of a vague, ethereal beyondness far more than terrestrially spatial, and gave appalling reminders of the utter remoteness, separateness, desolation, and aeon-long death of this untrodden and unfathomed austral world.” EXAMPLE 4NAW: “The structures were of an extremely odd nature.” HPL: “There were geometrical forms for which Euclid could scarcely find a name- cones of all degrees of irregularity and truncation; terraces of every sort of provocative disproportion; shafts with odd bulbous enlargements; broken columns in curious groups; and five-pointed or five-ridged arrangements of mad grotesqueness.” ...What can we learn from the above? My takeaway is that Lovecraft was more than just a freakishly twisted genius creator of the superbly bizarre. He was also the king of melodrama who had literary chops to spare and could create atmosphere out of whole cloth even while describing the most mundane of activities. Put simply, HP Lovecraft was the MAN!!! It is also my opinion that the MAN was at his absolute best in ATMOM. I must admit that I say this with some hesitation because I have had a deep and long lasting love affair with both “The Call of Cthulhu” and “The Dunwich Horror.” However, despite an epic battle between story titans, I think that ATMOM wins a narrow victory because of its length and its detailed and comprehensive discussion of the “Cthulhu Mythos” which I thought was superb. PLOT SUMMARY AND THOUGHTSATMOM is the story of a doomed scientific expedition to Antarctica told in the first person by William Dyer, a geologist from Lovecraft’s famous “Miskatonic University.” Dyer explains at the very beginning of the novella that his reason for putting this story to paper is in the hope that that by recounting his extraordinary experiences, he can dissuade any further exploration of the region. He also recognizes the likelihood that the more fantastic elements of his story will not be accepted: Doubt of the real facts, as I must reveal them, is inevitable; yet if I suppressed what will seem extravagant and incredible there would be nothing left.The main expedition group (which does not include our narrator) begins exploration of the surrounding area. They eventually discover 14 specimens of a previously unknown species of life (having both plant and animal qualities) that appear to be close to 50 Million years old. The discovery calls into question all of the current scientific theories regarding the history of life on Earth. Despite their age, 8 of the 14 specimens appear to be in almost pristine condition. One of the group members provides the following description of these Elder Things: Six feet end to end, three and five-tenths feet central diameter, tapering to one foot at each end. Like a barrel with five bulging ridges in place of staves. Lateral breakages, as of thinnish stalks, are at equator in middle of these ridges. In furrows between ridges are curious growths–combs or wings that fold up and spread out like fans which gives almost a seven-foot wing spread. Arrangement reminds one of certain monsters of primal myth, especially fabled Elder Things in the Necronomicon. When Dyer and the remaining members of the party suddenly lose contact with the expedition, they fly to the camp to investigate and what they find is………I am going to stop there so as not to give away any major spoilers. Let me just say that what Dyer and Danforth (another group member) find at the camp and what they encounter during their subsequent investigations are the stuff of glorious, wonderful and terrifying nightmares as only HP can write them. In addition, a portion of the remaining story is a wonderfully detailed back story of many central aspects of Lovecraft’s universe. It has been said that ATMOM was Lovecraft’s way of re-categorizing the Cthulhu mythology from his earlier stories into something with more of a science fiction flavor. Mythology, fantasy or science fiction, whatever flavor you want to call it, it is scrumptiously DELICIOUS. Finally, ATMOM ties together many of Lovecraft’s earlier stories, including: “The Dunwich Horror, “The Call of Cthulhu,” “The Colour Out of Space,” “Haunter in the Dark,” “The Thing on the Doorstep,” “Pickman’s Model,” and “The Shadow over Innsmouth.” Long time readers of Lovecraft will have fun spotting the references and connections to these stories. To sum up, this is an extraordinary story and is now on my list of “All Time Favorites.” While HPL has written so many wonderful stories that it is hard to call any one his masterpiece. However, if you had to select just one story to embody the greatness of Lovecraft’s work, you could do worse than picking this novella. HIGHEST POSSIBLE RECOMMENDATION!! P.S. Here is a bonus quote and accompanying photo that I did not have a good place to include it in the body of the review. Enjoy. “It was the utter, objective embodiment of the fantastic novelist's "thing that should not be"; and its nearest comprehensible analogue is a vast, onrushing subway train as one sees it from a station platform - the great black front looming colossally out of infinite subterraneous distance, constellated with strangely coloured lights and filling the prodigious burrow as a piston fills a cylinder."
”In the whole spectacle there was a persistent, pervasive hint of stupendous secrecy and potential revelation; as if these stark, nightmare spires marked the pylons of a frightful gateway into forbidden spheres of dream, and complex gulfs of remote time, space, and ultra-dimensionality. I could not help feeling that they were evil things—mountains of madness whose farther slopes looked out over some accursed ultimate abyss.”H.P. Lovecraft’s tale of antarctic adventure is widely considered one of his best efforts. This novella contains everything Lovecraft fans could ask for:Creepy Setting: In Madness, our intrepid heroes are a team of scientists headed to the antarctic in order to take soil samples. I’ll admit that this doesn’t sound like the most exciting reading on its face. But Antarctica, with its inhospitable climate, alien landscapes, and sense of isolation is the perfect setting for Lovecraft’s unique brand of horror (along with his over-the-top prose). And before you have time to get really invested in the thrilling world of fossiliferous drilling, somebody’s gone ahead and dug a bit too deep, and things quickly take a turn for the terrifying.Great Pacing: Once things start to go wrong, Lovecraft does a great job in unspooling the story and dragging the reader deeper and deeper into his universe. I won’t spoil the plot here, but I will say that I found this to be one of Lovecraft’s most interesting efforts. Madness is a little bit of a slow burn - a mystery of sorts that turns into an epic dungeon crawl - and I really enjoyed reading it. Very creepy stuff.Memorable Monsters: Lovecraft always brings the goods with unusual, unique monstrosities and this book is no exception. There are multiple “cosmic horrors” on display here, and trust me when I tell you none of them would be fun to run into in a dark alley. The Language: Finally, like all of H.P.’s work this novella is chock full of glorious sentences like this one:“This mood undoubtedly served to aggravate my reaction to the bizarre mirage which burst upon us from the increasingly opalescent zenith as we drew near the mountains and began to make out the cumulative undulations of the foothills.”If you’ve read Lovecraft before, you know the drill. If you haven’t, be prepared for a verbose, unique writing style that you’ll either find incredibly corny or great fun. Personally I’m in the latter group, and Madness (written towards the end of Lovecraft’s career) features H.P. at the height of his game and going whole ham:"The effect was that of a Cyclopean city of no architecture known to man or to human imagination, with vast aggregations of night-black masonry embodying monstrous perversions of geometrical laws and attaining the most grotesque extremes of sinister bizarrerie."C'mon people...that's gold.ConclusionMy favorite Lovecraft is still the superb Call of Cthulhu, and there are a couple of his other short stories I might rank above Madness. But this book is still one of the best Lovecraft stories around and justly famous. Horror buffs will want to check this classic novella out. 4 stars, recommended!
Do You like book At The Mountains Of Madness (2005)?
"At the Mountains of Madness" is a recounted tale. Traveling to a high range of mountains a group of academic researchers find first evidence of elder life forms and then a massive unknown city. Lovecraft layers the suspense as only he can. Time is spent examining each piece of the mystery that is found and anticipating what else could lurk ahead. The full story of these aliens is surmised from architecture and hieroglyphics. The final horror is found under the city itself. It has a name and it
—Carac Allison
This is as close as one will get to an epic adventure quest by H.P. Lovecraft. If you're an old role-playing game geek like me, this will appeal to the dungeoneer in you. Plenty of delving and mystery in this one!If you're a fan of the movie Prometheus, you'd do well to hark back to the origin of many of the movie's tropes. They are similar, at least on the surface: An impossibly old alien race creates life on earth for the purpose of enslaving it, yadda, yadda. If you hated the movie Prometheus, you'd do well to hark back to the origin of many of the movie's tropes . . . need I go on?The story begins with that rarefied sense of heroic antarctic exploration that permeated the accounts of Scott, Amundsen, and Shackleton's expeditions. At that time, such an expedition was fraught with danger, due to drifting ice, unforeseen logistical shortcomings, and, of course, the weather. Since the Antarctic was relatively unknown when Lovecraft wrote the story, it's easy to see why he would set his story in what appeared in that day to be an utterly alien place, though it was right here at home on planet earth.Or was it "home," really? Whose home? And for how long?Now, I'm a big Lovecraft fan. But there was one thing, stylistically, that drove me absolutely nuts about this story. It's a minor thing, but it prevents me from giving an unbridled five-star rating to the story. Frankly, I really disliked the use of shortwave reports between the narrator, William Dyer, and Lake's remote base. The choppiness of the language seemed correct and historically accurate to me, since shortwave radio had been in use for only a decade or so before Lovecraft wrote the story. The characters would, like Lovecraft, have been habituated to using short, choppy phrases because of the telegraph system that preceded the explosion of shortwave radio in the 1920s. But what didn't seem correct, and what threw me out of the rhythm of the story, was the use of flowery words and complex phraseology in the messages themselves. They aren't as blatantly ugly on paper as they are when read aloud. Try it sometime. It feels overwrought and contrived. Not to mention that these info-dumps could have been spread out and integrated into the story itself a little better. But this is a minor complaint. All-in-all, I loved the slow escalation of the horror in the story. It begins with a lot of hyperbole and, indeed, engages in it throughout. Still, Lovecraft manages to build the sense of dread to a fitting crescendo. In several instances, I was surprised by a plot twist that I should have seen coming. Ah, Lovecraft, you trickster! You fooled me again!One thing I really enjoyed was the narrator's ambiguous feelings regarding the Old Ones. Though his primary emotional reaction toward these beings are fear and revulsion, there is also a moment of pity and near-empathy that I found endearing. This is not my favorite Lovecraft story. But it's not one of his lesser works, either. If you haven't had a crack at Lovecraft, it's not a bad place to start. And if you're a Lovecraft fan, as I am, you'll recognize many of the elements, though you'll be surprised by others, such as the narrator's conflicting feelings that I've outlined above. I'm no expert on Lovecraft's evolution as a storyteller, but I have to wonder if these surprises are indicative of a certain maturation in his writing. Someone smarter than me with more resources and time will have to determine that. For my own reading enjoyment, though, At the Mountains of Madness, though flawed, still reflects the writer's genius. Ia, Ia Lovecraft!
—Forrest
“On the barren shore, and on the lofty ice barrier in the background, myriads of grotesque penguins squawked and flapped their fins”.Yep! We are in Lovecraft’s universe where even penguins are grotesque. I mean, whoever heard of an ugly penguin? At the Mountains of Madness is H.P. Lovecraft’s best known novel, not that difficult an accomplishment as he did not write that many (only this one and The Case of Charles Dexter Ward I believe. A wise decision because I find that his style is much more suited to the short story format. There are some amazing, creepy and wildly entertaining tales in the “greatest hits” anthology The Best of H.P. Lovecraft Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre that I reviewed rambled about in detail.At the Mountains of Madness is basically about an expedition to an unexplored part of Antarctica. The intrepid explorers of course run into weird Lovecraftian things and the protagonist lives to tell the tale as a deterrent to other explorers. The main asset of this book is Lovecraft’s painstaking world building, free from the constraint of the short story format he takes his time describing the setup, the landscape and the increasingly strange discoveries. As a result the novel is steeped in creepy atmosphere you can really immerse into.That said I really don’t think this should be anyone’s gateway into Lovecraft’s fiction. The descriptions can seem a little interminable and the pacing can be something of a slog for the impatient readers, especially if they are not familiar with Lovecraft’s idiosyncratic writing style. The readers who have enjoyed some Lovecraft stories, especially the “The Cthulhu Mythos” one will find much to enjoy here. The infamous Necronomicon by the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred (as opposed his totally sane relatives I guess) is often referred to. The Elder Ones, the Shoggoths and some unnamed things even the monsters are sacred of are featured. As usual with Lovecraft there is no dialogue to speak of and characterization is nonexistent. There is also not a lot of action in this book, the climax is a little vague. All the creepy setup does not result in a spectacular payoff. If you just read it for the creep factor you should be well satisfied.In spite of its popularity this is not my favorite of his works but personally I will always have time for more Lovecraft.(3.5 stars)
—Apatt
