My library of Lovecraftian tomes has expanded over the last month. One of the most eagerly awaited was a preorder from Subterranean Press Beneath an Oil-Dark Sea The Best of Caitlin R. Kieran Vol. 2. How could I resist adding a book with such a stunning dust jacket by such a talented author to my library. I first learned of Kiernan while watching the documentary Lovecraft: Fear of the Unknown on YouTube. I felt her comments were particularly relevant and I soon looked up her work. As someone who has worked in archaeology and has also had a life long interest in vertebrate palaeontology, I was particularly interested to learn that she had published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. I have read and enjoyed a number of her mythos tales, especially the whimsical and "romantic" “Love Is Forbidden, We Croak and Howl” in Lovecraft's Monsters edited by Ellen Datlow. I was really impressed by another Subterranean Press offering, her novella entitled The Dry Salvages. A SF work rather than a typical mythos tale it combines her love of palaeontology with the rather enigmatic tale of a doomed expedition investigating the remains of an extraterrestrial mining colony on the moon of the gas giant Cecrops. It has a subtle, haunting flavour I often associate with European SF and I recommend it.
