BRIAN LUMLEY's HERO OF DREAMS 1st HARD COVER ed. (S&S in Lovecraft's Dreamworld)

Description: HERO OF DREAMSthe FIRST "Dreams" cycle novel by BRIAN LUMLEY first edition hardcover book (1000 copy print-run) profusely illustrated byJEAN CORBIN W. PAUL GANLEY: PUBLISHER (1986) To try to put it in one succinct sentence, the Lumley "Dreams" books can be described as delicious, thrilling, shuddersome (and often humorous), Swords and Sorcery adventures, in which the "sorcery" is based on the works of H. P. Lovecraft. About the book: David Hero is an Edinburgh artist who has odd snatches of memory that seem to come from another world--- the world of dreams. But DREAMLAND is real, located in a parallel dimension of the multiverse, created by the dreams of mankind... and by the dreams of others, including Cthulhu. When he met his friend Eldin the Wanderer in Dreamland, and then encountered him again in Edinburgh, there was a crisis... and both ended up in Dreamland together as adventurers, with only vague memories of the waking world. Dreamland was invented by H P Lovecraft, and most extensively utilized in his short novel, "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath," which is as close as HPL could get to a sword-and-sorcery story (his hero, Randolph Carter, did carry a sword at one point but it didn't do him much good). When I looked back at HPL's story after reading Lumley's, I was vastly impressed by Lumley's detailed knowledge of the "Dream-Quest!" Lumley's "dreams" novels are swords-and-sorcery stories too, with some nasty horrors encountered on the way. But whereas HPL wrote in the style of the 19th century (which he naturally inbibed as a child from reading the old books in his grandfather's library), Lumley is a modern storyteller. Let me repeat my comment on these Dreams novels... These novels are not intended to be taken too seriously (which does NOT mean that there are no moments of sheer horror through these novels). Elsewhere, Brian Lumley tells us that what he had in mind while writing them was Bing Crosby and Bob Hope in their old "Road" movies. So just enjoy them as they are! (And anyway, how serious was H P Lovecraft when he took Randolph Carter back from Dreamland's moon in a "great leap of cats.") In any case, I enjoyed these books so much that I just had to publish them. In HERO OF DREAMS we meet night-gaunts, Thinistor Udd and Yibb-Tstll, the Great Tree, the Eidolon Lathi and her noxious hive, Thalarion, the First Ones who settled in Theem'hdra, and the Mad First One who worshipped Cthulhu and sought to release him from his age-old imprisonment in R'lyeh. Warning from me: If you hate S&S and fantasy adventure, and you want horror stories like CALL OF CTHULHU and the other noir tales of H P L and his followers... you won't like this. If you like Leiber's tales of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser (as an example) then you are likely to enjoy this novel. If you like swords & sorcery AND you like Lovecraft, you almost certainly will want to read them. (Of course Lumley wrote darker horror tales as well!) Thus on Goodreads, this book averaged about 4 asterisks even though a few folks hated it.Brian Lumley was awarded the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award in 2010. Some reviews from Goodreads: ••• While there are Lovecraftian horrors in a few places and some back & forth into the real world, the majority of it occurs in the Dreamlands so it plays out like a Conan/Elric/Grey Mouser tale with familiar and more difficult to pronounce place names. If you're looking for Lovecraft or Mythos writing style, forget it. This is mostly Sword & Sorcery writing style, occasionally delving into some of Lovecraft's writing that's more Lord Dunsany, not much. But, if you enjoy that era of Sword & Sorcery books and like the Lovecraft references, it's worth reading and is short. ••• The whole Dreamland Series by Brian Lumley is super creative, intelligent, and fun. I would recommend it for anyone age 8 and up, and I think these are some of the most wonderful stories along the lines of fantasy and fairy-tale I've ever read. ˆˆˆ While there are Lovecraftian horrors in a few places and some back & forth into the real world, the majority of it occurs in the Dreamlands so it plays out like a Conan/Elric/Grey Mouser tale with familiar and more difficult to pronounce place names. If you're looking for Lovecraft or Mythos writing style, forget it. This is mostly Sword & Sorcery writing style, occasionally delving into some of Lovecraft's writing that's more Lord Dunsany, not much. But, if you enjoy that era of Sword & Sorcery books and like the Lovecraft references, it's worth reading and is short...••• A swashbuckling adventure set in Lovecraft's dreamlands. Some of the subtlety will be lost without having read H. P. Lovecraft's Dreamquest of Unknown Kadath, so read that first. First edition (first printing) book published at $21.00 by W. Paul Ganley: Publisher in 1986. It features excellent artwork including the dust jacket and lots of interior art (a dozen or so full-pagers). (Several examples can be seen in the photographs.) Even if you have read one or more of these in the Tor mass market paperback editions, or others, you might well want my first editions also — if only for the artwork! They are "as new" — right out of the original box sent from the printer — and would certainly be suitable as gifts, too. And they are the original printing. These titles (HERO OF DREAMS, SHIP OF DREAMS, MAD MOON OF DREAMS) are now in my store individually (both hard cover and trade paper editions)... as well as the hard cover ICED ON ARAN — which features short stories about Hero and Eldin. A complete set is also listed separately at a discounted price. ______________ WOW! I wrote a book!!! — Want to take a look??? ———just go here:http://www.ebay.com/itm/CTHULHU'S-COUSINS-and-Other-Weirdnesses-W-Paul-Ganley-Wildside-Press-2016-/255154711891?hash=item3ace43fc32 Want to look at my other first-edition Lumley books? CLICK HERE For all "buy it now" items, you may wish to use ADD TO CART if you plan to order more than one item at the same time.

Price: 20 USD

Location: Buffalo, New York

End Time: 2024-09-17T22:08:39.000Z

Shipping Cost: 4.5 USD