Review: The Return of the Lloigor

 

Wilson, Colin, The Return of the Lloigor, Village Press, London, 1974.

Octavo; paperback; 60pp. Mild toning to the page edges; very light wear to the wrapper edges; small indentation to the front cover. Else, near fine.

There’s something about Mr Wilson that makes me think he’s trying to be too clever by half. I get the sense that he wants to paddle about in HPL’s pool, but that he doesn’t want anyone to point at him and yell “Look at that Lovecraft writer!” He’s like the kid on the block who really wants to ride a bicycle, but the only kid who owns one lives next door; so he prowls around waiting for a turn but is too proud to ask for one.

Like most things in life, you can’t have it both ways.

To begin with, this is a solid Mythos tale. All of the ingredients are here and everything resolves (or not) nicely and in a satisfying manner. We have an earnest Investigator, sensing a palpable trace of Mythos nastiness and following fearfully where it leads him; we have research in sleepy libraries, through ancient musty tomes of forgotten lore. There’s violence; and creepiness. The whole box of dice.

But I’m kind of annoyed.

Maybe Wilson’s philosophical past informs his writing, but he always seems to try and build connexions between things, possibly in the hope of building up some greater picture of the universe. As a horror writer, he should know that the more you explain, the greater the rationale that you provide, the less scary something becomes. Even in HPL, the links and junctures lead only so far before they seem to fray and break down – at a certain point, the nature of Reality is too incomprehensible for the rational mind to understand.

But that’s not how Mr Wilson wants it. Everything spelt out; pinned down: no loose ends.

So suddenly, the Necronomicon is actually the Voynich Manuscript. My question is, why can’t we have both? The academic world is still largely undecided as to whether the ‘Manuscript is even anything at all other than an aberration, so I question the logic behind making this leap: if it is the Necronomicon, then all the histories and stories about it that many other people have worked upon and published in the past, become invalid; if it isn’t, then what’s all this waffling about?

I imagine Colin Wilson’s school report card: “Does not play well with others”.

I’m also left wondering, did he look about at any of the other material written about the Necronomicon? The scope of his writing seems to certainly suggest that he did. So what? Did he just ignore all that and say “nope, I’m doing it my way; you other guys can just sod off”?

So the community of HPL fans and writers is revealed as the neighbourhood; the Mythos is the bike that that Lovecraft kid next door owns; and little green-eyed Colin wants to sulk about it.

Envy, tinged with petulance: it’s not a good look.

But enough theorising; this is a good book and deserves your attention if you’re a dedicated Mythos follower. The set-up is good, the narrative unravelling of the mystery is well-structured and it has nice pacing. The characters are plausible and the scenes are rich and deftly-sketched. It’s a tidy little novella that’s worth your while and you can find it in the Arkham House compendium Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos (1969), or in the limited edition Village Press release which is the version I have. Sadly, neither version is going to be that inexpensive. I’m giving this four tentacled horrors and this closing comment:

The Necronomicon. IS NOT. The Voynich Manuscript.