A monster on the verge of eating an adventurer.

#moorcock

A Carcosa Reading List

by Ramanan Sivaranjan on December 17, 2014

Tagged: carcosa lotfp reading lovecraft moorcock howard

Carcosa is not Tolkien, high fantasy, or mainstream fantasy. It is equal parts horror, science-fiction, and swords & sorcery. It is H. P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness, Robert E. Howard’s “Worms of the Earth” and “A Witch Shall Be Born,” Lin Carter’s “Carcosa Story about Hali,” and Michael Moorcock’s “While the Gods Laugh.” — Carcosa, pg 3

I have read almost none of the source material that inspired Carcosa. As I am now in the middle of running a campaign set in that world, I thought I should try and remedy that—if only so I can better understand what a Cyclopean City might look like or what the hell a Primordial One is all about. Since we live in an age where you can basically ask anyone anything, I thought I’d go right to the source and ask the author what specific books he recommends one read to get in a Carcosa frame of mind:

Of the pure Lovecraft stories, read these:

  • The Call of Cthulhu
  • The Whisperer in Darkness
  • At the Mountains of Madness
  • The Shadow over Innsmouth
  • The Shadow out of Time

Of Lovecraft’s revisions, read these:

  • The Mound
  • Out of the Aeons

Read the original five Elric stories by Moorcock:

  • The Dreaming City
  • While the Gods Laugh
  • The Stealer of Souls
  • Kings in Darkness
  • The Flamebringers (later retitled The Caravan of Forgotten Dreams)

Read R. E. Howard’s:

  • Worms of the Earth (a Bran Mak Morn story)
  • The Shadow Kingdom (a Kull story)
  • A Witch Shall Be Born (a Conan story)

If you can find Cthulhu Mythos stories by Lin Carter, read those.

Hopefully someone else will find this list handy. It seems like a good fantasy reading list even if you aren’t interested in Carcosa.

Comments