Straight to Darkness (Lairs of the Hidden Gods)

The galling mistreatment of HPL's gift to horror continues unabated. I have yet, with the exception of the fine Chthulu 2000 collection, found an author or a compilation that does justice to the possibilities of the mythos. For all the outsize praise this series seems to receive, I'd had enough after the fourth or fifth story in this collection: unimaginative, rote, poorly written and with no shudders, no scares whatsoever. Perhaps the collection gets better, but I won't bother.

I'd heard good things about Kurodahan Press's Lairs of the Hidden Gods, a four-volume original anthology series marrying the talents of many of Japan's hottest horror writers and H. P. Lovecraft's oft-pastiched, oft-parodied, but only rarely equaled Cthulhu Mythos. Straight to Darkness, the third book of the cycle, makes a compelling argument for the series as a whole. Sandwiched in between an introductory essay by Robert Price that compares Lovecraft's elder gods with the rampaging daikaiju of Toho's Godzilla films and a closing essay examining Lovecraft's influence on heavy metal music are seven tales of terror, each one translating Lovecraft's themes of alienation, mysticism, and cosmic horror to a uniquely Japanese perspective. Standouts are Sano Shiro's "Horror Special," an ambiguous tale of strange happenings on the set of a television adaptation of "The Dunwich Horror"; Kobayashi Yasumi's "C-City," in which the world's top scientists attempt to battle the machinations of the Great Old Ones; Aramata Hiroshi's "The Road," a chilling story following a young Japanese businessman (and Lovecraft fan) as he walks the streets of Providence, hoping to place himself in the footsteps of the master, but finding himself, through the perverse peculiarities of time and space, somewhere else entirely; and, of course, the title story, Tomono Sho's "Straight to Darkness," an action-packed splatterpunk showcase featuring a Deep One, a Ghoul, and more Mythos cameos than you could safely shake a shoggoth at. For fans or J-Horror and Lovecraft's legacy, Straight to Darkness: Lairs of the Hidden Gods, Volume Three not only illuminates a previously-unexplored corner of the Cthulhu Mythos, but does so with style, panache, and aplomb. I, for one, plan to investigate the remaining three volumes.

Mythos fans everywhere should rejoice at the release of Straight to Darkness, the third volume in the landmark series of modern Lovecraftian fiction from Japan. This book shares all of the strengths of the previous two volumes. The cover art by Yamada Akihiro is phenomenally gorgeous, showing a demon statue concealed in autumnal woods...or is it a statue? I thought there was no way the painting gracing the cover of Inverted Kingdom could be bettered but I stand corrected. The book is POD and production qualities are good; there were no obvious editorial gaffes. Translations were seamless with no awkwardness coming between the reader and the story (unlike Inverted Kingdom where a few things fell jarringly on the ear (or eye)). Page count is about 330. This includes the introductions, cover sheets for the stories, individual story introductions, nonfiction essay and author and translator minbios, but still allowed a generous page number for each story. The introduction by Asamatsu Ken was just perfect at setting the mood. The introduction by Robert Price (yes, he's back, and no, he's not going away) was an amusing comparison of the Cthulhu mythos and the Godzilla mythos. I would avoid reading the individual introductions until you finish the actual story as they can contain spoilers. For the most part they were useful. The nonfiction essay was about the Cthulhu mythos in rock and roll, and was a very diverting read but didn't seem to have much to do with Japan. Price was $20, not discounted but available for free shipping on Amazon if you buy $25 worth of stuff. Here are the contents:ASAMATSU Ken - Foreword: "Quivering Brainstems" translated by Edward LIPSETTTANAKA Hirofumi - "The Secret Memoir of the Missionary - Prologue" translated by Daniel DAYKIDA Jun'ichiro - "A Keepsake of Grandfather" translated by K. Bird LINCOLNSANO Shiro - "Horror Special" translated by Daniel DAYARAMATA Hiroshi - "The Road" translated by Kathleen TAJITAKEUCHI Yoshikazu - "She Flows" translated by Nora Stevens HEATHKOBAYASHI Yasumi - "C-City" translated by Kathleen TAJITOMONO Sho - "Straight to Darkness" translated by Toshiya A. KAMEISHIMOTSUKI Aoi - "Sounds Out of Space, or, Cthulhu Metal" translated by Jerome WOODS***Spoilers may follow - you have been warned***I found this book mesmerizing. Once I dipped into it I could not put it down and had to read it through a sleepless night. The writing was of uniform high quality. To be fair, however, there were no brilliant gems like Terror Rate or A Night at Yuan-su from Inverted Kingdom. On the other hand there were no stories like The Horror in the Kabuki Theater that rubbed me the wrong way.Tanaka Hirofumi - "The Secret Memoir of the Missionary - Prologue" - For this story it would be worthwhile to read a brief history of the early introduction of Christianity into Japan. I, of course, did not need to do this because I had read Shogun (um, er...). This was a very inventive use of that time in history, using actual figures from the period, substituting the worship of a Great Old One for God, after the missionaries are waylaid and converted (as it were) en route to Japan. Tanaka san may write a sequel or continuation for us some time in the future and I can only hope we will ever see a translation of it.Kida Jun'ichiro - "A Keepsake of Grandfather" - To best appreciate A Keepsake of Grandfather you have to reread Out of the Aeons by Hazel Heald (actually by HPL, ghost written for Hazel Heald (how come no famous authors want to ghost write some stories for me?)). This story is a worthy successor to Out of the Aeons and more or less carries on with the history of T'yog.Sano Shiro - "Horror Special" - This is the story of a Japanese film company making a movie of The Dunwich Horror some years after their movie of The Shadow Over Innsmouth was clouded by mysterious goings on. The entire crew is reassembled including the unusual special effects guy. Although the mythos breathes throughout the production it is never clear if it is real or just a bunch of stories, which adds to the effectiveness. You can decide what really happened.Aramata Hiroshi - "The Road" - This was clearly my favorite story in the book. A big HPL fan from Japan on a train ride from NYC to Boston takes a not so spontaneous detour into the streets of Providence to walk in the Old Gent's footsteps. It turns out he's more successful than he expected, and that time and space are more malleable than is comfortable.Takeuchi Yoshikazu - "She Flows" - This story gives us a glimpse into a dialogue between two young people who have had very difficult childhoods. While I liked it I couldn't really place it in the mythos, unless you think alienation as a theme merits inclusion. Oh, well, I was happy to read it.Kobayashi Yasumi - "C-City" - After The Road, this was my next favorite tale. The world is trying to prevent the rising of R'lyeh and has gathered its top scientists into a remote village to come up with the best means to deal with this threat. As might be expected, there is no consensus and the machinations of the Great Old Ones pervade even this bastion.Tomono Sho - "Straight to Darkness" - Another winner! In the future it is a winner takes all battle for dominance of the planet among all the alien forms and races that have ever inhabited earth. Maybe the Great Race did not plan carefully enough...this one actually would make a good video game!That's about it! I was completely captivated. I feel compelled to say that I got a free reviewer's copy from Kurodahan Press (only the second time this has ever happened to me), but that did not influence my opinion. I would have bought a copy anyway. Urgently recommended!

After the mostly disappointing first two volumes in this series I thought that I would find at least one or two good stories in this, the third book. No such luck. There is not a single tale that would redeem this volume and make me think it was worth buying. Each story is traditionally preceded by the usual pretentious commentary from Robert Price and his gushing praise for the authors' literary accomplishments, but all it did was make me think again that he must have read different versions.The book opens with "The Secret Memoir of the Missionary" which right from the start underlines the point I've been making in my reviews of this series: Japanese writers completely misunderstand what the Great Old Ones stand for. Here, we have Cthulhu himself and several other Mythos beings attack a Jesuit missionary's ship off the coast of 16th century Japan. All of the crew are murdered in horrific and bloody ways and replaced with creatures impersonating humans whose purpose is to start a Cthulhu-worshipping cult in the guise of Christianity. Furthermore, everyone in Japan seems to know that there is an underwater city off the Japanese coast with terrible gods living in it. Add the usual blood and gore for shock value and you have to wonder what kind of literature is considered bad in Japan, if this sort of tripe is supposed to be good. 1/5After that we get "A Keepsake of the Grandfather" which is a follow-up to HPL's "Out of the Aeons" and it tries so very hard to be a spin-off that it completely lacks any identity of its own. The horror feels forced (though I will admit it is well-written), there is too much exposition, and the ending is abrupt. 1/5The "Horror Special" is yet another ridiculous story that focuses on completely immaterial details to pad the page count. This time, we follow the mishaps of a TV crew filming adaptations of Lovecraft's stories which inadvertently result in mysterious accidents, deaths, and accidental summonings. Just like in that story about kabuki in volume two, here, too, there are pages dedicated to explaining to the reader how Japanese show-business works. The plot, when it actually happens, is shallow, predictable, and trite. 1/5In "The Road" we follow a Japanese tourist who steps off the train in Providence to stretch his legs and absorb the atmosphere of Lovecraft's hometown only to get abandoned when the train leaves without him. Since this is the eve of the 9/11 tragedy, the mystical paths are open and the past mixes with the present, which allows the protagonist to tour the town with a creepy guide, and learn some facts about Lovecraft's private life from his contemporaries. The story honestly feels more like an attempt at presenting Lovecraft's biography to the reader rather than trying to scare him. 1/5"She Flows" is a story that shouldn't even be included in this collection, because there is nothing Lovecraftian about it, no matter how much Robert Price tries to tell you that you need to dig really deep to find it. What we have here is a student talking to her friend in a sort of stream of consciousness type of pretentious narration (though I have a niggling suspicion that the girl has split personality disorder and is just conversing with herself). There is no plot, no sense, and no moral to be had here. 1/5I had a pretty high hopes for "C-City" because it begins quite interestingly. Because of strange happenings around the world humanity believes that Cthulhu has come (even though no one has actually seen him) and a research complex is established to find a way of defeating him. Midway through, however, the story starts dipping towards anime tropes, with evolving superweapons that quickly become smarter than its creators. The plot twist, when it happens, is predictable and ridiculous. 2/5The titular "Straight to Darkness" reads like a scenario of another anime. A boy and a girl are trapped in a subway car following a terrible earthquake and without any explanation begin to transform into a deep one and a ghoul respectively. Characterisation is limited to the old tropes of the boy being a bumbling, spineless idiot in the vein of all harem anime, while the girl turns out to be a typical tsundere, being interchangeably abrasive and tender. The author absolutely tried to cram as much of Mythos lore into this story as possible, which results in a complete mess, with visceral, pages-long descriptions of hand to hand combat where none were necessary. Somehow, within an hour of their transformation beginning, they defeat creatures that are older and stronger than the two of them, and then they ascend to godhood, becoming so powerful that even the Great Old Ones become wary. This is fanfic-level writing one would expect of a teenage boy trying to put to paper some adolescent power fantasy. Maybe it would have worked as a scenario for a horror anime, but as a short story it fails spectacularly. 1/5Avoid like the plague.