Old Howard has been in the news a lot of late. Everything from his ugly representation as the World Fantasy Award to the bizarre devotion that he seems to inspire in the people who run the World Fantasy Convention has been picked apart. It is kind of like if the Hugo was a bust of Heinlein, and 25% of programming at all Worldcons was about Heinlein, and Heinlein was someone whose work was only tangentially regarded as SF. Weird, one might say. But neither gibbous nor squamous.

Various attempts have been made to re-assess Lovecraft and his legacy in fiction. Jonathan L. Howard’s Carter & Lovecraft is one such. So is The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle, which I have sat on my Kindle waiting to be read. The other well known one is Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff, which I have read recently and can therefore review.

It isn’t a book that is easy to review if you happen to be white and British, because you are a fair way away from the things Matt is writing about. But I did enjoy the book, and there are enough positive reviews about by more knowledgeable people whose opinions I trust to suggest that Matt has once again delivered a fine novel. If you are interested in my verdict, you can find it here.