Geologist William Dyer of
Miskaotnic University led a group of academics on an expedition to Antarctica. The
story is both his account of the team’s experiences, as well as his plea to
stop another scientific expedition to the same area.
Dyer’s account includes
finding ancient ruins bearing terrible secrets, in mountains taller than the
Himalayas. During a time when the party is divided, the majority of the men and
dogs left at the camp are slaughtered, while one has disappeared. Bodies are
found nearby, as is evidence of dissection experiments.
Eventually, the group
discovers the walls of an abandoned stone city, with what seems to be alien
architecture. Interpreting hieroglyphs in comparison to myths from the Necronomicon,
the builders of this ancient city are called “The Elder Things.” Their discoveries
continue to point toward alien involvement in Earth’s development. The surviving
members of the crew manage to escape, but one makes the tragic mistake of
looking back to the mountains.
Lovecraft does a nice job of
slowly building the tension. This is truly a story of “mounting terror,” as the
group slowly discovers secrets that are increasingly disconcerting. The sense
of dread escalates at regular intervals throughout the story.
It is hard to overstate the
impact that this novel has had on succeeding generations of fiction. The
Necronomicon and Elder Gods have become tropes of horror and RPG scenarios. And
the argument can be made that the “Ancient Astronaut” theory – which some
people believe to be true – began in this short novel.
The common style of
storytelling has changed very much since the 1930s. Compared to modern works,
this seems to move slowly. But in the right mindset, the languid pace actually adds
to the sense of suspense.
Source: The Classic TalesPodcast. B.J. Harrison does an excellent job narrating the story.
