Well this was an unexpected find: I was picking up some books relating to a research paper I am about to start work on, and unexpectedly discovered Karl Stone's The Star of Hastur. I think this is supposed to be a talismanic book of sorts, even though it is a small paperback. At least I'm presuming that is the case given that I spent THIRTY THREE of your finest (but rapidly devaluing) British pounds on it! I'll just repeat that to give you time to take that in: a small, 160 page paperback about the size of the typical pulp novel you'd find in the late 1970s for £33.00 (well, £32.99 to be precise, but lets not quibble). But being a sucker for this kind of thing, I picked it up regardless (in any case, as this is actually for work purposes, it should be covered by my research fund...)
A brief perusal indicates that this a fairly standard Typhonian Left- Hand Path take on Lovecraftian occultism, replete with lots of Grantian language - as well as illustrations by the author somewhat reminiscent of Michael Bertiaux's art. The early chapters outline Stone's 'sexo-magical' initiation into the mysteries of the Yellow Mist (whatever that might be), along with his explorations into 'Hyperchemistry' (again utilising alluded-to-but-never-described sexo-magical means), leading to the discovery of a constantly capitalised SUBSTANCE (I shudder to think), which in functions as a medium of communication with/manifestation of praeter-human intelligences and the like (cue more Grantianisms...).
Oddly, Stone works from a primarily Derletho-Lovecraftian (see what I did there) interpretation of Hastur, the King in Yellow, and so on; but whilst Robert W. Chambers is included in the bibliography, there is no mention of either Lovecraft or Derleth. In addition to which, Stone treats the Mi-Go as servants of Hastur and the Yellow Sign, even though this is contradicted in The Whisperer in Darkness (and here I am being rather picky).
In fairness, though, I haven't read the book in its entirety, and parts of the text have piqued my interest - so there may be more here than I'm currently giving credit for.
A more indepth exploration of hyperchemistry (or typhonian sex magick) is found in the authours previous book, Moonchild of Yesod, which is written with the same degree of lucidity as found in the works of mr Grant.
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