Book of Eibon: Histories of the Elder Magi, Episodes of Eibon of Mhu Thulan, the Papyrus of the Dark Wisdom, Psalms of the Silent and the Eibonic Rituals (Call of Cthulhu Fiction) [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

In the Cthulhu Mythos, Clark Ashton Smith's The Book of Eibon ranks up there with Lovecraft's Necronomicon and Derleth's De Vermis Mysteriis; imaginary works of such soul-searing occult horror that readers put their own sanity and salvation at risk to peruse them. They form the basis of several story cycles and Mythos writers "quote" from them regularly. Chaosium's newest book in their Mythos series is an attempt to recreate The Book of Eibon using stories and poems written by Clark Ashton Smith, Lin Carter, Richard L. Tierney and others. At the bottom line, the attempt is courageous, but sadly, a failure for several reasons:

First, trying to create a legendary work of cosmic horror is impossible. Though many of the stories in the book are worthy of the Mythos label, reality cannot compete with the imagination. I wanted a good read to keep me up at night, not just a few hours of amusement.

Second, there is too much of Lin Carter in the book. Like Derleth, Carter was a rabid Mythos fan in love more with the idea than the atmosphere and thought it sufficient to make a story unearthly through simply listing a long litany of Mythos terms and names. Though some of Carter's stories are worth reading, such as From The Archives of the Moon, most are quickly forgettable.

Third, Price, who has edited most of the Chaosium works stumbles terribly as an editor. His introductions to the stories give too much away, the worst example being his introduction to Lin Carter's In the Vale of Pnath where he reveals the ending, ruining what is probably one of the few actually disturbing stories in the collection. Also unnecessary to the point of distraction are the innumerable comparisons of the literary creation of The Book of Eibon to the formation of the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. Yes, Price is a seminary professor, but not every reader is interested in lectures in the questionable science of Biblical Higher Criticism.

Readers who are collecting the Chaosium Mythos series will want to purchase The Book of Eibon and there are a few gems between its covers,...

"The Book of Eibon" is a creation of Clark Ashton Smith, a member of the Lovecraft mythos circle. Smith is probably one of THE best writers in this group; certainly, if you like Lovecraft then Smith will be a joy. I wouldn't call him a Lovecraft devotee - he has his own style, for sure - but the two wrote stories that meshed well together. Eibon was a wizard of an ancient continent, and his great and terrible magics have been handed down through the centuries via ... the Book of Eibon. Naturally. Well, Smith didn't develop this idea too far; his writing encompassed many fabulous periods, from ancient Hyperborea to medieval Averoigne, to dim and future Zothique. All stories worth reading time and again.

As I said, Clark Ashton Smith did not develop the idea of Eibon and his black book very far. Which brings us to Lin Carter (who did). Now Lin Carter is not the absolute nadir of Lovecraftian prose. Having studied the masters (and their voluminous written exchanges) he comes up with the occasional plot gem or turn of phrase. But he is just so unbearably formulaic, adopting the atmosphere and elements of a Lovecraft or Smith but with no original spark. It's like a well-oiled machine cranking out pastiche. Carter is really not that bad, but a whole book of his work imitating someone else is wearying. Probably his "collaborations" are the best, such as "The Light From the pole" and "The Stairs in the Crypt". Also, to be as fair as possible, I believe that many of these stories originate in Carter's attempt to write and publish his own "Book of Eibon", which being intended for fans may have been intended as somewhat tongue in cheek.

Laurence Cornford has definitely written some of the better stories on this volume, particularly "The Demon of the Ring". Cornford has his own style, which comes across as more authentic, with the subject material simply falling within the purview of this book.

Then there is the part of these books that I always dread - Robert Price's editorial comments. Price happens to teach Biblical higher criticism and he works that fact into almost every editorial comment that he makes in every book that he edits. I have been struggling to understand why this bothers me so much - finally I decided that it is because Price makes every editorial introduction about himself rather than the author or the material because everything is about Biblical higher criticism. Normally, I would just say that I should skip reading the intro (especially since Price has a bad habit of discussing the ending of a story before you read it), but in this case I can't ignore it.

You see, THE BOOK OF EIBON is setup like a scripture. There is a testament by the disciples of Eibon that the chapters to come are true. There is a chapter of stories "by Eibon" on wizards before him. There is a chapter of stories that deal with the doings of Eibon. There are dark psalms (Richard Tierney seems to especially enjoy adapting Christian prayers into these), magic spells, liturgies to demons and gods, and some proverbs by Eibon. There are some "epistles of Eibon" and even a section where Price "higher criticizes" an imaginary Eibonic text. And all the way through, Price is doing his higher criticism thing. Leaving out either Price or the "Bible" paradigm and THE BOOK OF EIBON could have been good. As it is, it reads like self-conscious narcississtic glurge. Which is sad, because clearly Robert Price is a great writer; I just don't understand why everything has to be forced through this lens of his own academic studies. The editor should really let the text speak for itself.

I am rating THE BOOK OF EIBON higher than I expected (3 stars) based solely on volume; there are over 30 short stories (plus other assorted "stuff") where a Chaosium book is usually 10. So if some are not so great, you have more chances to get some good stories. Laurence Cornford was good, in my estimation, and "The Door to Saturn" by Clark Ashton Smith is included.

Alright, lets be straight from the start. If you are just looking for a good collecton of horror stories you will be disappointed with this. BUT, if you are a big fan of the H.P. Lovecraft mythos I think this is one of the best out of all of the choasm books. I enjoyed the book, except for the bad attempt of adding poems that are supposed to be spells in the second half, but all in all I enjoyed reading this book. One tip, if you want to be surprised by the stories don't read the into of each one until after you have read it.