Erotic Tales of Werewolves?

In the "Editor’s Note" to this short collection of four stories (originally published in 1994), Cecilia Tan says that when she announced that she was editing two anthologies of erotic fiction, one on vampires the other on werewolves, the common response was “Well, I can understand vampires, but why werewolves?”  Why indeed.

In the first story, “The Spirit That Denies” by Jay Michaelson, a male werewolf (in wolf form) has sex with a human female, after both feed on their kill of a deer. In the second story, “The Killing of the Calf” by Linda Hooper, a human female has sex with a female werewolf (in wolf form), just before their pack goes on a hunt. The third story, “Alma Mater” by Robert M. Schroek, a man lost in an Italian snowstorm is saved by a young woman, who changes into a wolf during their subsequent sex. There is an historical reveal in the final sentence that is pointless and dull. Finally, the last story, “Wilderland” by Reina Delacroix, at least tries to be something more than a mere sex scene. In it a young woman in Seattle spends time in a VR program called Wilderland in which she is a wolf, dreaming and masturbating, until she encounters a sympathetic associate in both the VR and real worlds. 

Unless you have an interest in sex between humans and animals (in this case wolves), there is really no point to reading this collection. At its core, this booklet is just boring.

Thrillers 2

Thrillers 2 (2007) is a collection of nine stories, with author notes, by four authors, edited by Robert Morrish. It is a sequel in kind to a previous volume Thrillers (1993), edited by Richard Chizmar. 

It is usual practice for an anthologist to open a book with a very strong first story. This is not the case here. "Pen Umbra," a novella by Gemma Files, is an inchoate mess, often clumsily written to the point of readerly distraction. It contains a few interesting ideas, but they are squandered in this mostly uninteresting tale. One comes to the clean prose of Tim Waggoner with a sense of relief. Waggoner is represented with three stories, the first two of which are straightforward, beginning with almost trite situations that are quickly altered by very unusual and weird plot developments. Waggoner's third tale, "Darker than Winter," is far less interesting. R. Patrick Gates contributed three tales which attempt to mix humor in with horror.  The results are not very good, particularly the bizarre "The Tell-Tale Nose" in which a man's nose comes to life, and gains a voice which then ruins the man's life. This reads like the bad result of a writing-course exercise. Finally, there are two tales by Caitlin R. Kiernan, and they are the outstanding stories in this book.  "The Daughter of the Four Tentacles" is somewhat slow to come together, while "Houses Under the Sea" is an excellent modern Lovecraftian tale, of the cult-worship of an odd undersea creature. Overall a disappointing anthology, with only a few bright spots.

August Derleth's fan-fiction of H.P. Lovecraft

The Mask of Cthulhu (1958) by August Derleth contains six longish stories which are hard to categorize, beyond the obvious remark of their obvious indebtedness to the writings of H.P. Lovecraft.  The earliest story (in terms of composition), "The Return of Hastur," was seen in some form by Lovecraft himself before he died in 1937.  Derleth remarks in his brief introduction that Lovecraft saw the "opening pages and the outline of my proposed development" and made several suggestions that were adopted "enthusiastically" by Derleth.  Yet Derleth has taken Lovecraftian themes and nomenclatures, and extended and regularized them, so much so that the vein of Lovecraft is impure and even debased.  With the latter term I refer to Derleth's adding a sort-of Christian good-vs-evil orthodoxy to Lovecraft's invented pantheon of Elder Gods, all of which diminishes Derleth's stories and makes them so less satisfying than Lovecraft's originals. What Derleth has really done is to write a form of fan-fiction, ticking off certain ideas and invented lore that (Derleth thinks) will thrill the Lovecraft fans who recognize them.  Alas, that's a very low bar, and the resultant stories read like poor pastiches of Lovecraft's originals.