The Colour Out of Space
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About this ebook
H.P. Lovecraft
Renowned as one of the great horror-writers of all time, H.P. Lovecraft was born in 1890 and lived most of his life in Providence, Rhode Island. Among his many classic horror stories, many of which were published in book form only after his death in 1937, are ‘At the Mountains of Madness and Other Novels of Terror’ (1964), ‘Dagon and Other Macabre Tales’ (1965), and ‘The Horror in the Museum and Other Revisions’ (1970).
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Reviews for The Colour Out of Space
166 ratings10 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The “blasted heath” near Arkham and the “strange days”. ?!?!?That little piece of land, described above, is creepy from start to finish in this tale. Something happens to that land, and all the organic life around it is highly affected - and changed. And whether or not the mystery is ever solved, that land will soon be underwater when the reservoir is built, and “nothing could bribe me to drink the new city water of Arkham.” - creepy, right?And how about these quotes, from the ending...“Something terrible came to the hills and valleys... and something terrible - - though I know not in what proportion - - still remains.”“I shall be glad to see the water come.”Lovecraft has "crafted" one spooky story here, and a great tale to read around Halloween!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This collection of seven stories includes such legendary Lovecraft gems as "The Call of Cthulhu", "The Whisperer in Darkness", "Cool Air", and of course, "The Colour out of Space." Interspersed among these are two shorter—yet no less eerie—spine tinglers "The Picture in the House" and "The Terrible Old Man." The final tale, "The Shadow out of Time," deserves its place in this collection. It's a novella that should have been reduced to a short story, sparing the reader from repetitive and monotonous descriptions. We begin with one of H.P. Lovecraft’s most popular stories in which a glowing green meteorite crashes into a field of crops and proceeds to poison both soil and water, driving the farmer and his family insane. As local scientists attempt to study fragments of the bizarre rock, it is soon discovered that the vile, luminous substance that infected the land around the crash site might be intelligent. How will the locals rid themselves of “The Colour Out of Space”?In "The Picture in the House," a young cyclist takes shelter from a torrential downpour in what he thinks is an abandoned house, only to find it occupied by a jovial old man with a sinister taste in reading material.After the suspicious death of an elderly anthropologist named Professor Angell, his nephew Francis inherits all of his notes detailing a bizarre series of events involving a primitive, savage cult who worship a grotesque creature named Cthulhu, a member of the Great Old Ones who will someday return to dominate the Earth. Angell's notes and collection of newspaper clippings detail shared visions and dreams around the world that coincided with an earthquake in the seas of the South Pacific—during which an island of unearthly design surfaced from the depths bearing an ancient evil. Could it be that these events are all related to "The Call of Cthulhu"?After suffering a mild heart attack in his flat, a destitute man seeks treatment from an elderly eccentric physician living directly above him. Upon entering the frigid apartment of Doctor Muñoz, the man observes that one of the bedrooms has been converted into a laboratory complete with machinery to maintain the temperature below fifty degrees. While administering treatment, Muñoz reveals that he has been experimenting with methods for prolonging life. When our hero finally discovers the true subject of Muñoz’s experiments, he develops a mortal fear of “Cool Air.”Following a flood in the remote mountains of Vermont, the corpses of several grotesque creatures are observed floating in the surging rivers. This inspires the locals to resurrect tales of ancient evils living in the dense and menacing woods. When such legends are printed in the local papers, Albert Wilmarth, a professor of literature at Miskatonic University in Massachusetts and an expert on folklore, responds to the editors with skepticism. Wilmarth cites fables and myths dating back generations as the source of these ludicrous superstitions—until he begins corresponding with an elderly Vermont farmer named Henry Akeley whose terrifying encounters with strange creatures escalate with each letter and finally convince Wilmarth to travel to Akeley’s home and witness these creatures for himself. What he finds, however, is merely “A Whisperer in Darkness.”When three burglers decide to target the seaside home of a recluse, they swiftly learn why the locals consider him "The Terrible Old Man."A professor of economics at Miskatonic University in Arkham, Massachusetts suffers a five-year long amnesia during which he was possessed by a different personality. Afterward, he recalls scraps of the experience that lead him to believe that his consciousness was exchanged with that of a superior being from Earth's prehistoric past. After publishing an account of his experiences, he is contacted by a mining engineer in Australia who sends pictures of ruins unearthed in the desert—oddly constructed stone blocks bearing hieroglyphs that correspond precisely to the professor's memories. Accompanied by a group of scholars, the professor leads an expedition to Australia in a search for answers, but while exploring the ruins alone one night, he finds the shocking truth in the form of "A Shadow out of Time."
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Another masterful tale of understates horror.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Enjoyed these short stories, although I generally like longer more in depth character development... A couple times I'd get a bit freaked out by what happened in the stories though!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Facsimile printing of the story as it originally appeared in Amazing Stories, 1927. Lovecraft's finest work. Conducting a survey for a new dam west of Arkham, the narrator interviews Ammi Pierce about the 'blasted heath' in the valley to be inundated, and what events occurred there to leave such a wasteland. What unfolds is a masterpiece of modern horror.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cool Air (Guy's body is dead, to preserve it he keeps his room cold and soaks himself in chemical baths. He's living through force of will. Then his body starts to deteriorate.)-The Call of Cthulhu (Awesome writing. Great famous lines, "Only poetry or madness could describe...", "Then the Old Ones would teach them new ways to shout and kill and revel and all the earth would flame with a halocaust of exstacy and freedom.")-The Colour Out of Space ()-The Picture in the House (Would have been better but the accent was annoying.)-The Shadow Out of Time ()-The Terrible Old Man (Good but too short, not scary enough)-The Whisperer in Darkness (Kind of long for what you get. I read it before but didn't realize. Mi Go trick main character into coming to a farm in the hils. Then he finds face and hands of friend in chair.)
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5These days I am trying to read more of the authors that have influenced so many others, and Lovecraft is one of them. The high priest of `weird', his short stories are dark Gothic fantasies, horror with some fairy tale elements or science fiction thrown in. These are the first I've read, and if the three in this little volume are anything to go by, I'll enjoy reading more and think I'll need to acquire the full anthologies available. The Colour Out of Space written in 1927 - is a classic Sci-Fi horror tale of a meteorite that falls in a farming valley and gradually poisons everything around it. The dread engendered by this tale's narrator is palpable and terrible - pure evil poisoning and sucking the life out of all living things within its grasp. The Outsider is more of a fantasy, and strangely brought to mind a miniature reversal of Mark Z Danielewski's magnificent modern horror novel House Of Leaves, in which a door in a house is found with a never-ending world going down, down, down. In this short story a twisted creature discovers a door leading up, up from his dark subterranean castle. Lastly, in The Hound, a grave-robber takes one amulet too many and is driven mad by a curse. Less `weird' than the preceding two tales, but still highly atmospheric and charged with dark energy. I loved the `weirdness' of these tales - that word is perfect for them. They were fantastical, bleakly pessimistic, dark in tone as well as lacking sunshine, and rich in descriptive language. Lovecraft is a hit.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I listened to this story on The Classic Tales Podcast and had lots of fun with it. This one almost got 5 stars but it has its lengths towards the end with some repetitions that diminished the sublime horror it built up before.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I'm going to throw out my first five-star rating for Lovecraft. I don't think he ever does better than he does in this short story. While he does tend to slip back into his old ways here and there, the writing that actually opens this story is gorgeous, and I don't think he ever attains the same level of creeping horror in any other story.
This story was a standout the first time I read it, and it remains so, as I work my way through this illustrated series. - Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5So lacking in character development that it's difficult for me to appreciate. Despite how short this is I only got their l through it because I gave up and switched to audiobook version so I could clean my kitchen and not be so bored