Eighteen horror stories written by F. Paul Wilson, Harlan Ellison, Michael Sh Kim Newman, Joanna Russ, Bruce Sterling, Gene Wolfe, Ramsey Campbell, and Ro Zelazny, take their inspiration from the fiction of H.P. Lovecraft.Editor Jim Turner has compiled a real page-turner in Cthulhu 2000. His anthology of short stories based on the works of horror writer HP Lovecraft is a dark gem and of superior stuff. Although they all have the coppery tang of the eldritch, the tales aren't strictly in the horror mien. Some of them are an alloy of horror with a sci-fi, humour, detective, vampire or even romance slant.

The very best are truly horrible, in the most complimentary sense of the word. "His Mouth Will Taste of Wormwood" (Poppy Z. Brite), "The Adder"(Fred Chappell), "Fat Face" (Michael Shea), "The Unthinkable" (Bruce Sterling), "Love's Eldritch Ichor" (Esther M. Friesner) and "On the Slab"(Harlan Ellison) are the keen standouts, but most of the rest are of almost equal quality. However, there are a couple of tales that do not deserve to be amongst this company, and the tome would have been better and tighter by their absence. Certainly, at 398 pages, there's no lack of material.

In "His Mouth Will Taste of Wormwood," Poppy Z. Brite deftly invokes a vampiric flavour to themes of decay and the forbidden, his writing style as ornate and refined as rococo and in the real spirit of the master. Fred Chappell's "The Adder" draws the dangerous and inimical from the ordinary in a tale delightful for its originality. Bruce Sterling also slings some fresh ideas around in "The Unthinkable, melding modernity and necromancy in a brief and effective story.

Horror gourmands will find a good meal here, but Cthulhu 2000 should have a bit of life outside its traditional genre, for the writing is strong, imaginative and entertaining. --Tamara Hladik