Ride the Star Wind edited by Caroline Dombrowski and Scott Gable.

Tor's Great Lovecraft Reread is a valuable resource. I don't necessarily always agree with their conclusions, that's life. But given the vast amount of mythos material published, it is handy to have someone identify the most noteworthy collections and anthologies. I often track down the stories they feature, both old and new. 

It was there I found the wonderful anthology Ride the Star Wind: Cthulhu, Space Opera, and the Cosmic Weird edited by Caroline Dombrowski and Scott Gable. It sports a lovely cover by Nick Gucker. The title is based on the quote below which appears in the book

"Madness rides the star-wind . . . claws and teeth sharpened on centuries of corpses . . . dripping death astride a Bacchanale of bats from night-black ruins of buried temples of Belial . . . —HP Lovecraft, “The Hound” 

One thing I am finding interesting is the different threads that have emerged from Lovecraft work and that of the other writers of weird tales/new weird style stories. We still see many faithful pastiches with writers revisiting many of the iconic locations, both real and fictional, including Providence, Innsmouth, Arkham etc. There are also occult detectives with elements from Sherlock Holmes, Blackwood's John Silence, William Hope Hodgson's Carnacki, and Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe etc. However we are also seeing a more inclusive literature which features more women and minorities both as writers and characters. One trend I am especially interested in is the increasing use of science fiction elements in these stories. Two of Lovecraft's last works "The Mountains of Madness" and "The Shadow Out of Time" and "The Color Out of Space" considered by many his greatest story all owe more to science fiction than the supernatural. I have read three stories from this anthology so far and enjoyed all of them 


Lucy Snyder's “Blossoms Blackened Like Dead Stars” was covered by the reread
at the link below. Since they have provided a great synopsis my comments will be brief.

https://www.tor.com/2019/05/29/kudzu-from-beyond-lucy-snyders-blossoms-blackened-like-dead-stars/

Beatrice Munoz is a Special Space Operations recruit aboard the warship Apocalypse Treader. Beatrice was a botanist following in the footsteps of her father Giacomo Rappaccini Munoza, She was working on the International Lunar Research Station studying plant alkaloids when the spawn of Azathoth attacked both the Moon and Earth. The only other recruit we are introduced to is Joe Jorgensen a huge white supremacist whose family was killed in the attack on San Angelo, Texas. Joe has since has realized that all humans must stand together regardless of race. Joe and Beatrice will be part of a force intended to attack the spawn using captured technology and some innate abilities that their training is designed to bring out. Snyder's story openly includes elements from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Rappaccini’s Daughter”. Whether this makes it a pastiche, a tribute, a nod to I am not sure. I do not think it matters, since we are firmly in pastiche territory with the reread, this site and the anthology itself. What it is is effective. I loved it, I agree with Ruthanna's comment that it is important that the story remains that of Beatrice. Joe is an interesting addition, and plays a useful role in providing background and later, collaboration for Beatric'e experiences, but Beatrice is the star. I have not read Hawthorne's story, I have read about it, and on a trip to Gallegos Islands a young girl told my wife and I her version, which I recognized from my background reading. (She was sharing the Pringles we had bought to use the containers to transport my poster of Darwin's finches.) I have always remembered that. I really enjoyed this story, Snyder has merged the works of two classic weird author's into a compelling story. She has also provided a science fiction twist I loved and a female protagonist I really enjoyed. 

Hawthorne's story was covered by the reread here.

https://www.tor.com/2016/09/07/juggling-allegories-nathaniel-hawthornes-rappaccinis-daughter/

Illustration by Yves Tourigny

I found this Hawthrone collection the other day so I will be reading his story shortly. The cover is unattributed. 

The Children of Leng  by  Remy Nakamura

"My children are on their way to the surface of Leng. I send them only because the risk of staying is greater than the risk of venturing forth. You cast us adrift in a deadly universe against such terrible odds. If you receive this, I strongly advise against future missions, speaking as one parent to another."

Illustration by Mike Dubisch

This story is told from the point of view of nine year old Mirai one of a lineage of clones aboard the generation starship Amankawa. The ship was launched from Earth many years ago three ships were launched but contact with the other two has ceased. There are two other living clones of her lineage, Yukiko who is part of the advance party to the moon Leng, a mars analog where they hope to settle, and Grandma who is 80 years old. Another clone referred to as Auntie Kiyomi has died of burns and is currently held in a cylinder in the Ancestral Grove before being recycled into the habitat. The living clones indulgent in a form of ancestor worship and visit the grove to pray and provide offering. The Amakawa is divided into three habitats each with a controlling AI. Mirai lives in Hab Three which is run by Momma Calliope. The clones in the other habits maintained by the AI's Thalia and Urania are all dead or brain damaged so the clones of Hab 1 are all that are left and Leng appears to be their only chance. More diverse voices writing within the somewhat flimsy boundaries of the mythos means more diverse stories. Here we have a engrossing story of space travel with an Asian or Oriental flavour very different from the conventional tropes New England of Lovecraft's preferred landscape. Nakamura's story is also interesting in that the society is a matriarchy. He has blended the many elements together seamlessly. And it feels very much like a mythos despite the many tropes of science fiction that inform it. I was also interested in the fact that there were three ships and three habitants perhaps a nod to Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama? I was reminded of the works of writers like like Aliette de Bodard and Yoon Ha Lee who are offering us a very different view of mankind's exploration of outer space and the far future.

Sense of Wonder by Richard Lee Byers

Illustration by Michael Bukowski

The protagonist of Byers story Pablo Valdez is basically the engine of a ship exploring the universe for habitual planets that can be used by Earth colonists. But there is no FTL here instead Valdez has a patron. This patron enables Valdez to transport the ship to a number of preselected destinations. And it all is perfectly safe as he explains while discussing his abilities with another crew member,

“But not how the physics work, or what Yog . . . the consciousness truly is, or even why it’s willing to help us. You’re the one who communes with it. Do you have any idea?” I shrug. “It’s everywhere and everywhen. So vast and powerful that obliging us is no more difficult than not obliging us. It grants our petitions in the same sense that you grant permission to the bacteria in your intestines to go on doing what they do.”

Another great story. I really enjoyed how Byers enlivened the staid space exploration story with a little Yog-Sothoth gate action, wouldn't Wilbur Whateley be jealous. But despite the fact Yog-Sothoth is a mechanism and not the baddie the universe is a scary place.

As quick look at three stories I really enjoyed in one of my favourite anthologies. I am a bit rushed today so I apologize for any typos, omissions or oversights etc. Sorry about the spacing Yog-Sothoth did it.