Published by: Elder Signs Press, $6.00
Reviewed by: Jonathan Oliver

You cannot fault the look of the Book of Dark Wisdom, this is just about the finest independently produced horror fiction magazine I have ever seen. The cover is attractive, the binding is excellent and the paper quality is very high indeed. This quality, however, does not extend to the fiction. Book of Dark Wisdom used to be a gaming magazine, publishing scenarios and material for the classic horror RPG Call of Cthulhu. It is now entirely a fiction magazine but promises to cover some gaming material in the reviews section. This move seems unwise to me, gaming material for Call of Cthulhu is always welcome whereas second rate Lovecraftian pastiche is two-a-penny in the genre market and can be very tedious indeed.

Out of the ten short stories here there are only two that are of great note. Variations on the Vile by D.F. Lewis and Richard Gavin is okay but I have read far better from the pen of Lewis. Vanishing Curves by David Conyers is truly excellent and after all the tedious pseudo-Lovecraft tripe I had to wade through, it was very welcome indeed. Conyers story is a take on the reality and time distorting properties of the god Yog-Sothoth. This is really what Lovecraftian fiction should be about these days. Showing Lovecraft's ideas in a new light, finding a new element to “cosmic” horror. Thankfully William Jones also achieves this effect in his gangster story involving a Yithian, A Change of Life. Here a member of the Great Race begins to feel for a human being. Excellently written and a very clever idea. Unfortunately the rest of the fiction here is lazy and pretty badly written. Just taking one of Lovecraft’s deities/creatures and writing a generic horror tale around it should not constitute Lovecraftian fiction. These people are missing the point. Lovecraft wasn’t all about slimy creatures from the stars, rather his horror works because of its overwhelmingly nihilistic viewpoint and its ability to depict the utter otherness of the universe. So Parting Shot by Don D’Amassa does little more than put Shub-Niggurath in a mouldy basement, Last Light is a predictable futuristic vampire tale and the prose clanks along, Plague of Fire doesn’t involve a deity created by Lovecraft himself but the story is dull and predictable, The Terror at Woodruff involves the Deep Ones on an Indian reservation and misses the opportunity to mix Lovecraftian and Navaho myth, Taniwha is a boring adventure story set at the end of the 19th century and Prey by Stephen Leclerc is insubstantial and unsatisfying.

Overall then, not very good. A few things save this from sinking into awfulness; the three stories I mentioned above, an intriguing comic strip and a rather interesting article on mirages. However, Book of Dark Wisdom really is going to have to work bloody hard if it’s going to pull itself out of the sea of generic and poorly written Lovecraftian fiction and shamble threateningly up the shore.

Subscription: $18.00 for 3 issues (US), $22.00 (Canada), Overseas, $27.00.

Address: Elder Signs Press, P.O. Box 389, Lake Orion, MI 48361-0389, USA.

Website: www.darkwisdom.com