The House of the Toad
The House of the Toad is a Cthulhu Mythos horror novel by American writer Richard L. Tierney. It was published by Fedogan & Bremer in 1993 in an edition of 1,050 copies of which 100 were numbered and signed by the author and illustrator.
 Dust-jacket from the first edition | |
| Author | Richard L. Tierney |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Harry O. Morris |
| Cover artist | Harry O. Morris |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Horror |
| Publisher | Fedogan & Bremer |
Publication date | 1993 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 248 |
| ISBN | 1-878252-03-8 |
| OCLC | 28757784 |
| 813/.54 20 | |
| LC Class | PS3570.I332 H68 1993 |
Plot
The novel concerns James Kerrick, an archaeologist and black marketeer who sells artifacts from a lost city in Mexico. He soon discovers himself the focus of a conspiracy of ancient cults. Various of the evil characters are servitors of the Primal Ones, incredibly ancient and powerful entities which sowed life throughout the universe and caused it to evolve both intelligence and the capacity to suffer.
The novel incorporates references to Robert W. Chambers's King in Yellow mythology as well as to H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. The god Ghanta in the story is hinted to be identical to the Ghatanothoa of Lovecraft's story "Out of the Aeons".
S.T. Joshi provides an extensive description of the plot and a criticism of the work in his The Rise and Fall of the Cthulhu Mythos (Mythos Books, 2008), pp. 273–75.
Sources
- Brown, Charles N.; William G. Contento. "The Locus Index to Science Fiction (1984-1998)". Retrieved 2008-03-26.
- Chalker, Jack L.; Mark Owings (1998). The Science-Fantasy Publishers: A Bibliographic History, 1923-1998. Westminster, MD and Baltimore: Mirage Press, Ltd. p. 252.