Review: Worlds Long Lost, edited by Sean CW Korsgaard

Ancient alien relics can hold magnificent secrets – or mind-destroying horrors….

Space, the Final Frontier – or so we have been told. It is a frontier to us, but what of those races or species which probed the stars first? What about those bizarre lines caves that look like structures, or the temples obviously made by rational beings in the far reaches of space?

Then there are the questions left here on Earth. The Egyptian pyramids – why did they build them? What about those odd monoliths that appear and then vanish? Or the old whispers of gods long forgotten or utterly lost?

Not every question can be answered satisfactorily. And in some cases, curiosity kills more than the cat!

The Story

The tales in Worlds Long Lost range from the macabre milieus first explored by H.P. Lovecraft to the tantalizing other worlds of Robert E. Howard and Edgar Rice Burroughs, with some homages to later works in between. Join M.A. Rothman and D.J. Butler in their tale The Rise of the Administrator. A hive-mind intelligence that evolved beyond space and time, this creature learned to ply the paths of space before entering the multiverse itself. But when threats to that infinite multiverse arise, the self-named Administrator is faced with a dilemma of how to avoid similar issues in the future.

Les Johnson takes a more laidback approach to interplanetary archaeology in Mere Passersby, where the crew of the USSS Alligator makes the jump out of Earth’s solar system. Recently entangled in a war with the alien Kurofune, the crew is on edge and does not take kindly to a warning being triggered by the navigator for being two units of space off course. But when they learn why they ended up slightly off-course, things become very interesting – and extremely mysterious.

The Sleepers of Tartarus, by David J. West, follows a man with nothing left to lose as he tries to make history. Having lost his wife and son before being diagnosed with bone cancer, Cormac’s options were retirement or to become a shuttle pilot for an archaeological dig in Antarctica. Going to space on what amounts to a suicide mission to travel to an iron asteroid named Cruithne seemed like the better option. Just as he is about to land on the asteroid, though, his ship’s systems die. Cormac seems to be headed for a collision course with Cruithne, but finds himself caught in its magnetic field and circling it instead. The spinning gets so bad he eventually loses consciousness, only to wake in time to find that Cruithne is headed back to Earth – and his ship is attached to it!

When he lands, Cormac finds himself in a primitive world of giants, slaves, gods, and monsters. Up to his neck in mysteries and with no way home, he must figure out what can be done to stop the giants before they take what is not theirs to hold.

Griffin Barber’s Retrospective rounds out the collection with a tale of a commando in a firefight for his life. His team under assault, Boatwright encounters a strange artifact. When the rest of his unit is killed by the enemy, he touches it, and something strange occurs. Something for which there is no satisfactory scientific explanation….

Worlds Long Lost aren’t always safe. Some questions are better left unanswered, while others will never be answered. Yet the rewards for the discoveries that are made will be beyond priceless – or more horrible than anything mankind can imagine.

The Characters

While the characters vary in each narrative, the heroes tend not to be of the same mold. There are soldiers who get caught up in mysteries beyond their comprehension, and then there are amateur archaeologists who know more than the experts but cannot say it because the experts will stridently shout them down. Other expert archaeologists feature in their own tales as well, and the less open-minded they are, the more likely they are to receive a harsh comeuppance.

Seeing some of these protagonists receive their just reward is satisfying but for others, a certain amount of pity must be felt. After all, not everyone deserves to be the meal for a Lovecraftian monster – and if they do, that might be a touch extreme even for them.

The World

Every world is sketched out neatly for the type of tale it is telling. The horror tales have enough atmosphere to butter toast, while the adventurous escapades reverberate with pulse-pounding action. Several stories delve into the whys and wherefores of archaeology and science, making them a little slower than others but still fun to read, not to mention rather relaxing. Nothing like a little scientific debate to give one time to think about matters normally not considered, after all!

Politics

None whatsoever.

Content Warning

Roughly half of the tales in Worlds Long Lost are horror, so expect lots of body horror, psychological terror, and bad language. Some of the non-horror entries have cursing and swearing as well. Mature teens and adults will not be put off by this but for readers with different sensibilities, this might be a bit much.

Who is it for?

Those who love horror and horror homages of various kinds will definitely find many of the stories here scratch that particular itch. From nods to The Thing to reverent hat tips to H.P. Lovecraft, Worlds Long Lost will more than deliver. Anyone who wants a good adventure romp such as that found in Robert E. Howard and E.R. Burroughs’ stories will find a story or two to fit their desires, and those who just want to see the heroes run into something they cannot explain will be satisfied as well. It is a good collection for those who want something to curl up with in the afternoon – or to keep them up at night. 😉 

Why buy it?

Worlds Long Lost delivers on its promise to take you out of this world. These days, who doesn’t want to get off Earth, at least for a little while? It can’t hurt to take a reading vacation now, can it?