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[Cthulhu]

Now, I've read me some Lovecraft, but I have never heard the word "Xothian" before now.

Is this something some later writer made up?  I got irritated when people like Derleth started giving the Great Old Ones and outer gods familial relationships.

Too human, not scary anymore.

[Davion]

I've never heard of Xothian before, either

Edit: Looks like Xoth (which is apparently the binary star where Cthulhu came from) was featured in the following stories, "The Thing in the Pit" Carter; "Zoth-Ommog", Carter; "The Transition of Titus Crow" Lumley; "The Family Tree of the Gods" Smith.

So yeah, I guess from other writers.

[ChairmanPoo]

  I got irritated when people like Derleth started giving the Great Old Ones and outer gods familial relationships.

you're not alone in that.

Derleth's notions of "good gods vs evil gods" were rather boring, as well.

[Chutney]

I erred in referring to them as Xothians. I thought the name would be vaguely more alien but then I realized that Starspawn is cooler on every level .

Also the only Cthulhu Mythos I will ever read is Lovecraft's stuff. Screw later authors!!

[DJ]

I hate it when writers try to continue series written by other writers. It's just glorified fanfiction, and it tends to be about as good as your average fanfiction available on internet.

[ChairmanPoo]

I hate it when writers try to continue series written by other writers. It's just glorified fanfiction, and it tends to be about as good as your average fanfiction available on internet.

Yeah, I hated Kevin J Anderson's Dune books as well.

[Vester]

And I can't help but wonder what Eoin Colfer will do to the Hitchhiker series. (Heard he's continuing it.)

[qwertyuiopas]

Probably start off good but veer away from the One True PAth That Doug Would Have Chosen.

Like this:

Code: [Select]

book5
|-|
|-|
|-|
|--\
|---\
|-|\-\
|-| \-\_     death and failure
|-|  \_-\____/-/
|-|    \______/
|-|
|-|
What book 6 should be like
|-|
VV to book 7

[Chutney]

Correct me if I'm wrong:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Everybody died except for Zaphod? The Vogons, along with the Guide 2.0 or whatever finally accomplished their task.

How can there be more Hitchhiker's books? How can it be a Hitchhiker story without the characters...

[ChairmanPoo]

Probably start off good but veer away from the One True PAth That Doug Would Have Chosen.

Like this:

Code: [Select]

book5
|-|
|-|
|-|
|--\
|---\
|-|\-\
|-| \-\_     death and failure
|-|  \_-\____/-/
|-|    \______/
|-|
|-|
What book 6 should be like
|-|
VV to book 7

Obviously, the time continuum has been disrupted creating this new temporal event sequence resulting in this alternate reality.

[Vester]

Correct me if I'm wrong:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Everybody died except for Zaphod? The Vogons, along with the Guide 2.0 or whatever finally accomplished their task.

How can there be more Hitchhiker's books? How can it be a Hitchhiker story without the characters...

Speaking of the Guide 2.0, I got serious chills down my spine when I realized that the thing was basically God.

I always thought that whatever Douglas Adams would have done (he did plan to 'fix' what he did in book six, after all) would involve an asspull of tremendous, universal proportions, which Eoin Colfer might not be able to do.

Or mucking around in the plural sectors again?

[shadow_archmagi]

I hate it when writers try to continue series written by other writers. It's just glorified fanfiction, and it tends to be about as good as your average fanfiction available on internet.

Yeah, I hated Kevin J Anderson's Dune books as well.

Wasn't he working with the younger Herbert in a dual-authoring? As in "I knew the original author better than anyone else and I have access to all his notes"??

[ChairmanPoo]

sure he was. And they claim to have some magical notes from Herbert too. More than that, they claim that they KEEP FINDING notes around in secret safeboxes in banks, and stuff.
Look, I can't say whether they are writing this junk together or only one of them is doing so. Nor does it matter too much. As for those supposed secret notes that they had found... let's just say that I am skeptical about the claim, and I am hardly alone in this.
All we can say for sure is that the "new" Dune books are not at all like the old ones. They don't just read like fanfiction, but like BAD fanfiction.

[corvvs]

All I know about Cthulhu comes from memes and Wikipedia.

all Lovecraft's stories are old enough to be public domain, so read up!
http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft

Well-known:
At the Mountains of Madness
The Shadow Over Innsmouth
Dagon
The Call of Cthulhu
The Dunwich Horror
The Shadow Out of Time
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (man, this one is long)

Dream-Cycle stories (or at least stories which seem to take place in the same alternate dimension - probably not an exhaustive list):
The Silver Key
The Cats of Ulthar
The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath
The Quest of Iranon
Ex Oblivione (very short, probably the nascence of the Dream Cycle works; a prelude)

Recommended Miscellaneous:
The Colour Out of Space
The Whisperer in Darkness
Pickman's Model
The Nameless City
The Rats in the Walls

Some of them are varying quality, but mostly decent stuff. He did a few short essays early in his career that don't really tell any sort of story, they just set a mood - those can be cool if you can get your mind to appreciate the scene and stop waiting for the plot. His writing style is pretty distinct, making it easy to tell when somebody's making a parody of him.