Review: The House of the Worm

 

English, Gary Myers, The House of the Worm, Arkham House, Sauk City, WI, USA, 1975

Octavo; hardcover with gilt spine-titling; 77pp., with 10 monochrome illustrated plates by Allan Servoss. Mild softening of the spine head; faint toning to to head of the text block. Dustjacket is sunned along the spine and showing light shelfwear. Else, near fine.

 

This is the first Arkham House publication I have ever owned and it is a very pleasing little number. Set almost entirely in Earth’s Dreamlands it is redolent of the fantasy tales of Fritz Leiber and of Jack Vance and would definitely appeal to fans of those writers. However, it is a Mythos beast, first and foremost.

I always enjoy a work of writing which obeys the rules of the setting in which it is placed but which also finds its own way along those well-documented paths. Gary Myers knows the Dreamlands like the back of his hand, dropping casual references to elements of HPL’s writings which never seem forced or calculated. Here we find Ulthar’s cats, the Zoogs of the Enchanted Wood, the black-sailed ships of Dylath-Leen, and even King Kuranes. These Mythos touchstones are seamlessly woven into Myers’ stories and they ground them perfectly.

Myers kick-starts the book with an introduction in which he declares that the volume is a work of “heresy”. I was a little confused about this until, reading further, he seems to be saying that the ‘blasphemous views’ that he espouses are anathema to the dogma of Arkham House, under the auspices of August Derleth, rather than to the Mythos itself. This is no bad thing: Derleth’s massaging of the Mythos – the so-called “Elemental Theory” of the Great Old Ones, the elevation of the Elder Gods – has been roundly criticised as being too great a rationalisation of the indifferent chaos espoused by HPL. Myers’ sly admission of heretical scribbling is actually an effort to return the Mythos to something more closely tied to Lovecraft’s vision.

Myers’ vision of the Dreamlands is literally a vista of darkness. Each evening, Night – a sentient, spawning agency of threat – emerges from its distant vale and spreads across the lands to feed. Gypsy wanderers and terrified citizens mutter incantations and burn incense to ward off its attentions; other, less-wise, adventurers seek it out and are never heard from again. Every temple in this Dreamlands is staffed by evilly-indifferent priests whose vengeance is swift and deadly; every smug thief or self-satisfied dabbler in the dark arts is sure to find horrible come-uppance.

In glory-conscious thieves such as Snid, hell-bent on unearthing the loot of Golthoth in the tale of the same name, we can see faint glimpses of Leiber’s Gray Mouser and Vance’s Cugel, and the smirking protagonist in “Yohk the Necromancer” would be right at home in the realms of Lyonnesse. There is too, a cachet of Robert E. Howard’s fantasy stories here in the references to ancient, decayed cultures and the atavistic re-emergence of Things Best Left Undiscovered.

The tone of Myers’ writing is light and playful, redolent of some Scheherazade outlining a tantalising tale; this also lends the writing an archaic and dark tone, as of some old legend. His oblique referencing of horrible demises and terrible sights helps to elevate the creepiness of his stories – as we know, it is what is unsaid that best lets our imaginations run amok. Phrases such as “they took him away and did with him that which is better left unwritten” are pithier and more allusive than a simple “the priests executed him for his crime” and the last two sentences of “The Four Sealed Jars”,

“That same morning, four sealed jars from the shop of Getech came into the possession of a prominent merchant of Celephais who fancied himself a connoisseur of old wines and hoped by this purchase to add something diverting to his cellars. There was some unpleasantness when his servants effected an opening of one of the jars.”

are far more effective in creating a frisson-filled culmination to the preceding drama than any finely-drawn description would have been.

A complaint I have about the work is of no concern or issue to the ability of the writer; rather, it concerns the publishing house at the head of this production. This book is one of only four-thousand issued by Arkham House and, bewilderingly for such a small print-run and such a relatively miniscule work, it is replete with typographic errors, misspellings and other distractions which, for my part at least, always serve to ruin the efforts of the author to create a thrilling mood. It’s a shame to see such a strong writer poorly-served by their publisher...although maybe it’s punishment for that heretical confession?

The artwork provided by Allan Servoss is not wholly convincing – the illustrator’s style is a bit too divergent from the intention of the writer and these images do not serve the material as well as they ought. This too, hearkens back to the publishing house and speaks of either, an unwillingness on their part to seek out an artist who could work well with the material, or an indifference to it. That being said, these images are easily passed over.

Another confounding sideline to this work, is the fact that Chaosium has milked it dry for inspiration for their own compilations. Every being, creature, wizard, thief and deity has been replicated with statistics and associated information in their own Dreamlands’ publications. I’m not sure that this is a good thing, overall: occasionally, a singular entity should remain just that – singular – and not be converted into a variant, or type, within a gaming system. Many readers will remember the “demi-lich” at the heart of TSR’s "Tomb of Horrors" and some, like myself, would have been disappointed to discover in later lists of fiendish beings, that it had become a type of monster, rather than being left as a unique creature as the writer no doubt intended. The most bizarre instance of this is the “god” Yop, created and solely worshipped by the idol-maker Yah-Vho in the story “The Maker of Gods”: why Chaosium would provide stats and attributes to this concept is beyond me, but it smacks of an attempt to pin everything down under copyright before someone else gets to it.

However these issues are a sideshow to Gary Myers’ main event. These are delightful – and deliciously dark – whimsical stories of the Mythos - great for idling away a quiet moment and savouring afterwards. Mythos fans should seek out a copy and add it to their collections – it will definitely repay your efforts at locating it.

Four-and-a-half tentacled horrors from me!