Today I picked up the hardcopy of S.Petersen's Field Guide to Lovecaftian Horrors: a completely revised and redone (all of the art s entirely new) compilation of the two illustrated field guides to Lovecraftian monstrosities which featured in a previous post, and which Chaosium published in the early days of the Call of Cthulhu game. I must say that this is an absolutely beautiful full-colour, high-quality art book which, in many cases, does a truely outstanding job of capturing the alien quality of Lovecraft's monsters; there are a few misteps - to my mind neither the ghoul nor the Mi-Go illustrations really measure up to Lovecraft's descriptions - but these are the exceptions rather than the rule. Presented with a degree of (sometimes amusing) verisimilitude as something between a bestiary and scientific typology of Lovecraftian horrors, this something of a 'fluff' book for the Call of Cthulhu game; that being said, knowledge of or interest in the game is not required for enjoyment of the book (there are no rules or game references within), so this is something that collectors of weird art - as well as of stuff that drifts towards the more unusual end of the spectrum of Lovecraftiana - might want to add to their collection.
No comments:
Post a Comment