Blair Reynolds (1) (–2021)

Note: mild spoilers are included.

Not to keep anyone in suspense (not that anyone was in suspense), I really liked this story collection. It may be hard to come by so if you really want this title (and you should!) just be diligent.

By now the spy/noir/governement conspiracy mythos subgenre is pretty well established, what with novels by Charlei Stross and Cody Goodfellow, and stories in The Spialing Worm. It's easy to forget how ground breaking Delta Green was. For me it was revelatory, but I had never played Call of Cthulhu or Delata Green before reading the ficiton. I found The Rules of Engagement and the first few stories of Dark Theaters to be superior to those in Alien Intelligence, but this book is just great on its own merits. I have not read the original source book but it did not lessen my enjoyment of the stories.

John Tynes - The Dark Above: There were certain things about this story I thought were too over the top, particularly the lead man going ballistic when he smelled a fish-like odor from a woman. Also I don't know if Forrest was a character from the source book, because you just had to accept his hardened attitude toward the deep ones half breeds. What I mean was this emotional aspect of character development wasn't as well realized as the rest of the story. Too bad, because the actual substance of the story and its imagery were terrific. I wish Mr. Tynes would retturn to Delta Green for a few more stories.

Dennis Detwiller - Drowning in Sand”: A great read!

Ray Winniger - Pnomus: Another great read!! Both of these stories epitomize the best of modern, creative mythos fiction.

Bruce Baugh - Climbing the South Mountain: An OK conventional brain robbing mythos type story in poem form. I'm not too into mythos poetry. The very end of the narrators's poem and the memo from Delta Green were the best parts for me.

Greg Stolze - Potential Recruit: Yet another great read, this time about trying to infiltrate cult with darker connections than suspected.

Adam Scott Glancy - An Item of Mutual Interest: Perhaps
the most coventional type mythos story in the book. Enjoyable but nothing special.

Bob Kruger - Identity Crisis: Did not knock my socks off. Maybe it tried to cover a little too much ground and would have worked better as a short novel. Still a very agreeable read.

Blair Reynolds - Operation Looking Glass: A fast paced roller coaster ride to ice the cake of this nifty anthology.

My complaints are perhaps too cantankerous. This collections beats out any of the Chaosium collections (except maybe The Hastur Cycle) for consistent overall quality. Those anthologies have too much chaff with the wheat. It tops most of the Fedogan and Bremer collections too (except Cthulhu 2000, the first place I saw Black Man With A Horn). Essential reading for the modern Cthulhu mythos reader.… (mer)